Hidden Half-Bloods

Chapter Three: Descent

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

"Will you please stop doing that?" It was only fourteen hours into their trip, and Gabi was already annoyed. It was barely dusk, and James had been hitting his head against the side of the van for the past ten minutes.

"I'm bored. What else am I supposed to do?" He complained. James had expected becoming a half-blood to be exciting, or at least time-consuming. His backside ached and the boredom from the long drive was mind-numbing. If they did get into a monster fight, James didn't know if he'd even have the physical functionality to stay alive longer than three seconds.

"If you had chosen a sword, we could be sparring right now." James stuck his tongue out at Redd. He was perfectly fine with his bow and arrows. Not that he'd be much help in a close combat fight, but James liked the security it brought him. Unlike the rest of his friends, he had experience with his weapon prior to the quest. He thought he could shoot pretty well and with the extra draw weight he could shoot farther too.

"I don't have to catch up on my training though." James shot back, Redd sticking his tongue out at him and James wasting no time in reciprocating the childish motion.

"You two are children." Gabi spat as she smacked James on the arm. He pouted, rubbing his bicep.

"Hey Riley, do those look like regular birds to you?" Riley looked up through the windshield to see three larger-than-usual black birds spiraling down towards them out of the sky. As they got nearer, Riley began noticing how their bodies seemed larger than their wings. They were nearly a hundred yards away from the van when Riley realized what they were.

"The Furies are chasing us!" She hissed back to her friends, leaping into the back of the van and grabbing her ukulele.

"The what now?" Megan asked, not knowing what in the world the daughter of Apollo was talking about. The only one who knew what Riley was talking about was Jay, who was already sliding open the van's sunroof.

"The Furies are the lieutenants of Hades—nasty bird-women, basically." He laced his fingers together to make a step and knelt beneath the open window, Riley anticipating his movements and immediately stepping into his hands. She clambered up out of the window and James pulled himself up after her, pulling his bow from his back and nocking an arrow on his string. He hit one of the Furies in the leg, but when they realized that he had a bow they became to fly in circles, making it too difficult for him to aim properly.

"What happened to being the one who's the best at using their weapon?" Riley teased as she started to strum her ukulele. James opened his mouth to retort something along the lines of 'well what good is your ukulele going to do?' When he started to literally see the soundwaves coming off of Riley's combat instrument. The Furies, who were now barely fifty feet away, started screeching and flying erratically to avoid Riley's music.

"If you can get them close enough, I can swipe at them." Redd said as he crouched behind James on the top of the van. James knelt, allowing himself better stability as he took aim at the Fury that he had already pegged in the leg. "Why do the gods hate us so much, again?" Redd grumbled as he watched James try to follow the movements of the bird-woman.

"Because someone hid us for around sixteen years and only now lifted their veil over us." James snapped back as he finally caught onto the Fury's pattern and nailed her in the chest. With a squawk, she went spiraling down into the forest on the side of the road.

"Nice!" Redd clapped James on the shoulder before he slashed over his head at the two remaining Furies. They were nearly within his reach but were smart enough to stay away. With three more arrows James exploded another Fury, her dust spraying them as she died.