DIVINE » l. valdez

part three: xxvi

❝one track mind, one track heart. if i fail, i'll fall apart ❞

Travelling to Greece was anything but smooth sailing. During the third attack, Hina was almost flattened by a boulder. She stood with Hazel by the railing when the alarm bell sounded.

"Hard to port!" Nico yelled from the foremast of the flying ship.

At the helm, Leo juggled with his controllers, the Argo veering to the left, the oars slicing through the clouds.

Hina rushed to the rails, summoning a wall of light to try and protect the ship. 

That was when two boulders decided to jut out from the mountains suddenly. The first rock smashed through the mast, sending Nico falling to the deck. The second rock barreled towards Hina and Hazel. Both girls yelped, ducking just in time to avoid getting hit in the face. 

Hina groaned, her hands flying around her waist, her ribs still too tender to be fighting a herd of angry rock gods. 

"Nico!" Hazel scrambled over to him as Leo brought the ship level.

"I'm fine," Nico muttered, kicking folds of canvas off his legs.

The clouds parted long enough for Hina to stand and peer over the railing. The top of a mountain was just below them, black rock jutting wildly beneath green moss. Standing at the summit was a mountain god— an ourae.

Like the previous two, the ourae wore a simple white tunic over his scaly grey skin. He was around twenty feet tall with muscles to match. Long shaggy hair and a beard framed his face, his eyes manic. He yelled something crude to the ship, but his words got lost in the winds. Then, he began shaping a chunk of rock into a ball, firing it at the Argo II.

The god disappeared in the clouds as the Argo drifted away, but when he bellowed it echoed through the sky, another ourae answering the call.

"Stupid rock gods!" Leo yelled from the helm. "That's the third time I've had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?"

Nico frowned. "Masts are from trees."

"That's not the point!" Leo snatched up one of his controls, rigged from a Nintendo Wii stick, and spun it in a circle. A Celestial cannon rose from a trapdoor. Hina frowned, covering her ears as the cannon shot a dozen metal spheres into the sky, leaving a trail of Greek fire. The spheres grew spikes in midair, like helicopter blades, and hurtled away into the fog.

A moment later, a series of explosions crackled across the mountains, followed by the outraged roars of mountain gods.

"Ha!" Leo yelled.

Like the last attacks, all Leo managed was to enrage the ourae more. 

Another boulder whistled through the air, heading to the starboard side of the ship.

"Can you stop annoying them?" Hina yelled, shielding the warship from the projectile. 

Nico groaned, "Get us out of here!"

Leo muttered some unflattering words about the ourae, and Hina felt sorry for Hazel's ears. The engines hummed. Magical rigging lashed itself tight, and the ship tacked to port. The Argo II picked up speed, retreating northwest, as they'd been doing for the past two days.

Hina didn't relax until they were far from the mountains. The fog cleared away, revealing the beautiful Italian countryside. In the morning sun, green hills and golden fields sparkled.

Nico plucked splinters from his arms while Leo punched buttons on the console. Hina plucked the rock debris from the deck, tossing it overboard. 

"Well, that was sucktastic," Leo said. "Should I wake the others?"