A Sea of Scales Chapter 7: Prophecy: Quest to the end.

Hmmm, now hopefully this chapter will not feel rushed, I do plan to do a bit of jumping from point to point mainly because I do not want to bore you. You will find a lot of these points will be like that, I do wish to cover the books and there adventures yet I do not want to waste time with scenes that are not necessary to the plot, or at least this plot.

These areas of the story however DO require careful planning and consideration, due to the fact that I either have less or more players on the field at any given moment , Percy being a prime example of this. It would be unreasonable to have a Monstrous beast travel with a group of humans would it not?

At least for now…

Like I mentioned last time this is a chapter from the Humans point of view only, the reason being not only does it make more sense but because my plans fall heavy on it. I am aware of some of my readers desires and I will admit I'm sorry but I'm afraid this will make a lot more sense.

Also I made a cover, not as easy as it looks, had to color in each scale separately Otherwise it gets messed up in a horrible way. Also, Hand drawn.

"So let me get this straight… someone put a bounty on Demi-god's," I said staring down at the scrounged up piece of paper that was the sole centre of interest for this meeting. Everyone (Except for M. D) was focusing on the piece of paper that sat in the centre of the Table tennis table. "Can someone please tell me why this is such a big deal?" I asked the rest of the People present at the meeting. Almost instantly everyone's hard stares turned to me, a mix of harsh judgement and annoyed shame. The sudden focus of attentions quickly made me feel small, like a child who did something wrong.

"… I was just asking…" I whispered out once again taking my place as an observer to the meeting.

Almost instantly the Consolers along with Chiron, that eye dude Argus, one of the senior Harpies and a few Nature spirits began to argue and debate about the piece of paper. I groaned to myself as I was forced to sit here and listen to them bicker, I had no idea why I was here, or what my purpose was. I mean, I understand Annabeth's presence, at the age of 11 she was already amongst the senior members and one of the unofficial heads of the camps. Me on the other hand? Amongst the number of leaders, rule followers and enforcers I stuck out like a sore thumb.

It wasn't like I could just leave either, I held enough respect for Chiron that I would listen to him and follow his request even if he was authority, and to just leave when he asked for me by name? I don't think I could do that…

"We have to figure out who did this!"

"But why? Why would someone?"

"This isn't the first time this happened! Anyone recall 1972?"

I leaned back in my chair Groaning. I hated this, the debating, and the yelling. What was the point of it all? This bounty was a problem, we all agreed on that, so why not act upon it? Why do we sit around wasting our time on this nonsenses.

"Why is this such a problem anyway? We got the Boarder and Thalia's tree to protect us."

"Didn't stop the Minotaur…"

"The Beast is dead isn't it? Besides it was probably a once in a lifetime thing."

"I say let them come! We might actually get a proper challenge out of all this."

"Need I remind you, not all of us are fighters."

And yet it all continues!

I looked around the meeting room lazily scanning the faces of all those present. Most of them seemed far too caught up in this argument, yelling and debating so hard a few red faces had formed in the crowd. I however was not the only one present that looked like they were just about sick of it all. Clarisse; who had joined the current Ares counsellor (A very short and stout kid. It was quiet funny watching him bossing around the other much taller and bigger campers of the Hulkish Ares , almost as funny as watching him boil over in anger) at the meeting was lazily sharpening a knife about as long as my arm of to the side, from the look of just how paper-thin sharp the blade was, she has been doing it for quite some time. A Satyr who was sitting further back had fallen asleep much to my amazement, I have heard tales of how Satyrs were capable of sleeping through the loudest of situations. If one could sleep through this… those Tales did not do them justice. And of course there was Mr D. who like usual was flipping through a Wine magazine, an empty Pepsi can next to him (being eyed by one of the Satyrs nearby) completely oblivious of all that goes on around him.

Chiron sat in his Wheelchair form at one end of the Table his gaze unblinking and unyielding as he watched the Debate with a Passive and calm interest, the only movement he made was his eyes moving rapidly around to keep constant track on the talker at any time or to stroke his beard in thought. To his side stood Heron who mirrored him with his own version of the stare, only his did not feel as… powerful as Chiron.

As the debate continued on I found myself rapidly losing whatever interest I had in the Argument and I actually found myself pondering about this… predicament. Who would gain from putting a bounty on Demi-God heads? Come to think of it what type of Monster would be tempted by money? Wouldn't the idea of eating Demi-gods be enough? Come to think of it how many monsters would be tempted by gold? I haven't really met any monsters that would enjoy gold or even understand what the concept of it was… In fact the smartest monster I ever probably met was the Dragon thing that lurks in the woods and that was a stretch.

There was also that troubling info that somehow Bull-snot managed to get into the camp boarders, sure there are a few monsters lurking in those woods but I'm pretty sure that there was no Minotaur in their beforehand… so how did it get in? and Hellhounds as well… wow… Wait, could monsters work together like those seemed to do? The Hellhounds kept Clarisse and Heron busy whilst the Minotaur directly attacked me… did they strategies that… that's a scary thought.

This whole thing didn't make sense, I'm no genius but I think we are really missing something here…

"Tim if you would, could you get the others attention for me." A warm voice said from my side. Turning my head so fast I was surprised to see Chiron right next to me stroking his beard and still watching the argument with a unbreakable interest.

"EEEEEEEPPP!" I cried out in surprise… totally not like a little girl or anything… because that would be REALLY embarrassing…

Within Nano seconds everyone and I mean everyone turned towards me. Their faces were a mix of surprised, shocked and about to breakout into laughs (Mr.D raised a single eye brow) but now all eyes were turned to me in my frozen shocked form.

Ok, so the reason Chiron wanted me was not for my input, but because he want to exploit my jumpy nature... wow, don't I feel special.

"Thank you Tim." Chiron said patting me one the back as he wheeled closer to the ping pong table. Leaving me still frozen in fear and horror at the fact that he snuck up on me so… effortlessly… you would think a man in a wheel chair would be easier to see…

"Now, we are all in agreement that this… Bounty is in fact a problem. One that we will need to face and deal with Immediately. However I did not put this meeting together to Discuss the problem, I Did so in order to solve it. You have all been so focused on trying to dissect this incident that you have forgotten how Important it is that we deal with the problem, may I remind you that there are Demi-Gods out there that do not have a safe haven to resided in and we are not at liberty to keep our current Campers here, after all we are a Summer camp and for all the magical equipment and staff we have we are only capable of supporting a Summer camp." Chiron spoke to the rest of the table who seemed disappointed in how carried away they got. Behind him the hundred-eyed security chief Argus nodded in agreement. His job was hectic enough during Summer having to keep an eye on everyone, I don't think he could manage the Summer number throughout the year. Magical or not every man had a limit.

I alone often pushed his.

"Now that everyone has settled down, who has a suggestion to solve our current predicament?" Chiron asked.

"A quest!" Shouted the Ares councillor resulting in an uproar of agreement at his suggestion. The Councillor seemed rather pleased with himself at the suggestion, out the corner of my eye I could see Heron role his eyes.

"As it appears that we are in favour of the idea of a quest this motion will be carried and a Quest will be prepared. Now, who will go wake the Oracle and receive the Prophecy?" Chiron asked.

The entire room went silent, and I don't blame them. Many agree that the worst part of any Quest was the Prophecy, and dealing with the Oracle. I had personally never been up into the Attic but the vibes of the wacky place was enough to convince me that I should be thankful no one ever picks me for ques-

Crack.

Now I don't know what had caused it, perhaps it was the old chair finally giving up, perhaps it was how I was sitting on it or maybe it was destiny itself but one of the front legs of the chair snapped launching both me and the part of the chair I was leaning on forwards. Like Lightning my reflexes kicked in and I managed to catch myself on the side of the Ping ball table barely managing to avoid smashing my forehead against the table.

"Hmm, it appears Tim has volunteered." I heard Heron say from somewhere out of my view in a very serious voice. I could swear that a whisper of his voice from behind my ear said "Payback a bitch isn't it?"

"It would seem he has…" Chiron said agreeing with the champion of the Athena Cabin.

What.

Chiron grabbed the back of my shirt lifting me back to a standing position with no effort on his part. I was stunned silent as I saw a collection of shocked, amused or even confused gazes of the rest of the campers present. Some looked like they were unsure whether to congratulate me or not, some of the others looked just about ready start digging my grave and the rest were just to shocked to respond.

And I was terrified.

Chiron patted my back in an attempt to comfort me and try and boost my confidence, but really it just made me feel worse.

This was going to be how I died I could see my grave stone now. 'TIMOTHY HOUWANG CHI: ? to 2009. WAS A GREAT FRIEND AND A CONSTANT ANNOYANCE' heck I could see the reception to my death now, Hey! they ignored my request that no one should wear black!…. Didn't they read that Will?

Drawing upon whatever amount of fake confidence I had I looked at all the Campers around the table, their eyes all tracked me like they expected me to do a flip and a split (which I could). I smiled at the campers nervously.

"I always wanted to die in an odd way, Don't think they get much odder then getting killed by a corpse." I said to the table. My little joke lightened the mode for most of the table, there being about 4 or 5 people who did not seem to take a liking to my joke, one of which being Annabeth. But the joke served its purpose, it lightened the mood, made them think i was not bothered by this, that I could make it through laughing and joking like I do the rest of life and would continue to do so.

Which deep down I felt like I didn't have much left.

XXXXXXX

The Attic was cold. That was the first thing that I became aware of upon opening the trapdoor to the Mysterious location. It was dark to, too dark to make out anything of real importance other than a few old trophies of quest most would want to forget.

I think everyone would love to forget about the attic.

Next thing that hit me was the odor, and damn was it horrid. It was the type of smell you would find at an old persons home, that odd strange smell that seems to exist where ever the elderly are, only it was a million times worse. I nearly gagged upon detecting the odor but I held it back with pure will power. The place stank enough as it was without me messing up the floor with vomit.

With shaky steps I moved Deeper into the creepy and mysterious attic unsure on where to go or what to do, until I stumbled across what looked like a flowing green smoke line. Going against every sense of my better judgement; I decided to follow it.

You do not belong here young fool,

You're presence here breaks a sacred rule.

A whispering dead voice echoed throughout the attic scarring my skin pale. The green mist that I had up until now been following began to cover the room, shrouding the room in a green cloud and completely throwing of my sense of direction, along with every other sense I had; smell, sight, hearing, touch, my sense of reason, all of it was confused and muddled without any form of direction or sense. Suddenly the mist began to swirl like a tornado, with me stuck in the eye of its storm.

Massing up whatever confidence I had left I spoke up the swirling gas storm. "I need a prophecy, for a quest… wait what rule?" I asked my fear clouded mind finally processing what the ghostly voice said.

If it's a Prophecy that you seek,

Then a Prophecy I shall speak.

However questions will not be answered here,

But soon it shall become clear.

The green cyclone surrounding me began to spin faster and faster. I watched in horror as a green misty face began to form in the violent storm of green. The face was something out of a mummy horror movie, the detail was vague (Might have been because of the fact it was made of smog) But even so I could somehow make out every horrifying gross detail. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run and hide but the bleak dark lifeless eyes of the smog mummy seemed to hold me captivate. With A single gaze the gas mummy not only trapped me but muted me, a feat no one had ever done before.

To the End of the world you must go,

You must save the one trapped by a hero.

Show him the truth, clear his eyes,

Or the war between the gods will lead to your demise.

But beware who you trust young one,

This conspiracy has only begun.

The voice seemed to echo throughout the area and was far more powerful than the previous voice. It's hard to tell what was greater my confusion or my fear. I was not smart, I wouldn't even try to figure out what most of that Prophecy even meant. I tried to just memorize the verse in my head long enough for me to tell someone else it.

Then without warning the mist began to evaporate, the tornado of green cloud faded into the imaginary wind leaving only the giant floating head of the mist mummy to glare down upon me.

The face remained there for a moment glaring down at me with judging, disgusted eyes before finally evaporating into the air. An ungodly cold chill ran up my spine as I stood still in the dark attic. Suddenly a row of Candles suddenly caught a light. They were normal candles, no special lighting effect of smell, just old Candles that seemed to turn on by themselves, without any one lighting them or anything like that.

Yeah, perfectly normal candles.

I watched silently as, one at a time, a candle lit up making a path of faint light. Then at the very end a large group of candles, far brighter than the ones before lit up an area of the attic. An area I recognized as the trapdoor that led out of the attic.

I didn't hesitate; I bolted for the trapdoor making sure to follow the light path not wanting to touch anything I couldn't see.

It did not take me long to reach the trapdoor but before I could open the door leading to safety a body freezing chill ran down my entire body. I felt a familiar presence glare into the back of my head. Going against every last shred of reason I had left I looked over my shoulder.

In the darkness on the far side of the attic a pair of green glowing eyes staring at me from the darkness.

And with that I fled down the trapdoor praying to any god I knew of that I would never have to come up here again for the rest of my life.

XXXXXXXXX

I was getting worried for Tim now; he had been in the attic for over an hour and there wasn't a single peak out of him.

The time wasn't worrying me; it was the no noise part that put me on nerve.

Luckily Grover had arrived just in time to calm my nerves with tales of his time at Yancy Academy and all the horrors that lurked within. Though I had a feeling a lot of the stories my Satyr friend told me were exaggerated in some way. I had a feeling however that there was quite a bit of truth to my friends story.

Especially when enchiladas were mentioned, Grover never jokes about enchiladas.

Chiron sat nearby listen in to Grover's story, or at least the parts that actually might be of some important. According to Grover he had sensed something there, something he had not sensed before. According to him it was if a shadow of a Demi-god was residing in the school, He could feel that it was powerful… but gone, like it was no longer there. The weird part was according to Grover was that the shadow seemed to move around as if it was an actual student going to class, rooms and even attending excursions and of course detention. Grover had apparently lost track of it when the school year was over and had spent a few days trying to relocate it.

Chiron was more or less intrigued with this development and had asked many questions about this shadow. No doubt He was already making plans to try and attend the school next year in an attempt to uncover what it truly was.

I found myself kind of hoping he did find something there, perhaps It would be one of the big three's children clocked by… some sort of power. Thalia was the last of the big three to be born since 1945, due to the pact the big three made… Which so far only Zeus has broken… Perhaps he had another child… maybe it was Thalia's young brother she had sometimes mentioned… It was not unusual for a God to fall for the same person twice.

But from how Thalia talked about her brother (When she did) it was often in past tense… so I highly doubt he would be the one…

A sudden crash from upstairs alerted us all to movement above us. Within seconds after the crash a scrawny figure came tumbling down the stairs leading to the second floor. Each time his body wildly collided with another step he released another sound of pain and discomfort emerged from the tumbling fool. Eventually the figure landed on his back facing the stairs he had just fallen down.

"I really thought that thing could hold me…" he mumbled before falling over, lying on the ground and dazing up at the roof of the big house first floor.

"Well at least he is not mentally damaged…" Chiron said in a calm, smooth voice. Anyone who might not have known Chiron for that long might have thought he was making an observation, they wouldn't be wrong, but if you had known him as long as I have you would know he was making a joke of the dark subject. Normally he wouldn't, no one would. The potential mental damage the Oracle can induce upon a single person was no laughing matter.

However it was hard to take anything with Tim seriously.

After a few seconds Tim flipped himself up to his feet no signs of any damage from falling down the stairs. He brushed himself of and turned to face us. He walked over to us with only the faintest of a smile on his face.

"I hope your trip has been beneficial Timothy, The Oracle's wisdom would be very beneficial at the current moment." Chiron said trotting a bit closer to the young prankster.

Tim shrugged his shoulders, which with his boney build seemed over exaggerated. "Depends Mister Ed. How would you describe wisdom? Because if you think the Oracles smart than I must be Oxford teacher material." Tim said as he moved his hands behind his back.

Chiron sighed muttering something about 'peanut butter' under his breath before his harden coffee eyes locked with Tim's cheeky golden brown eyes. "Timothy I am serious anything the oracle could have said is valuable, more than anyone truly understand, this could very well solve a lot of problems. Now… What did she say to you?" Chiron said his voice dead serious.

Tim's expression dropped slowly but surely, his arms falling to his side. He told both Chiron, Grover and I the Prophecy he was told, the whole thing. Which surprised me. It was not uncommon for Questers to leave out a verse of a Prophecy because it affected them personally; Tim was unusually open with what the Oracle said to him. However when we were done he had a look on his face, the same one every quester had when they were hiding something about the meeting with the Oracle.

But he told us the Prophecy, all of it… what was he hiding?

Chiron seems to notice the look too, but kept a calm face as he thought about the prophecy.

"War of the gods?... A trapped one? It is as I feared this goes far deeper than I thought…" Chiron muttered aloud as he trotted away obviously in deep though. "But a quest to the End of the world? That is truly worrisome…." He continued looking out the one of the open doors of the big house.

I Began to think about the Prophecy myself but I focused on the other lines… a Hero, and conspiracy? Neither of those sounded good.. the trust part also swirled dread in my gut.

"The end of the world? Like the Apocalypse? Damn, and here I am without my doomsday kit silly me." Tim said snapping his fingers loudly.

"No not that end of the world dumbass, well a war of the Gods would be the End of the World. But the Oracle is most likely referring to the actual End of the Earth, the edge of the known world." I explained to the skinny camper who only gave me a puzzled look.

"But we know the world, and its round, and round things don't have edges unless I missed something in primary Math." Tim said making a ball with his hands to empathies what he meant.

"You are not wrong Tim… the world Is spherical in shape, The end of the world was poorly named, even during the times of ancient Greece. No what the Oracle is most likely –and most hopefully- referring to is better described as the furthest edge of western culture." Chiron explained rubbing his beard in deep thought.

"Well that doesn't sound so-"

"The End of the World is a dark reached place beyond the powers of the gods, where the truly the most dreaded creatures lurk –apart from two specific places-, tribe of cannibals and savages rule and a land in which No Demi-god has returned from alive..." Chiron continued turning a hard glare to Tim and… Me.

"So let me get this straight… I have to go on a Suicide quest to the Edge of the world, a place NO Demi-god before has returned from… to save someone and stop a war of the gods… and I also have to beware of those I trust…" Tim said his voice growing awfully quiet.

"You will be able to bring two others." Chiron said as if that one fact would make everything Tim just mentioned better. I sighed you would think after a few thousand years Chiron would have been better at reassuring nervous people than that.

Tim turned his head to look at both Grover and I, a smile forming on his face.

Grover mumbled something inaudible as he began to chew on the old coach of the big house as he realized what Tim was suggesting. I only smiled back at the troublemaker.

I had been itching to do something along the lines of a quest for ages now. It had been too long since I had last been out there, on the streets, fighting monsters, surviving. True the time had been horrible but back then the only motivation my seven year old self had was to live for another day. On A quest I had a target, motivation other than my own survival, a final goal that is possible to achieve at no matter how many obstacles are in the way or how impossible the task may seem.

More importantly It would give me a chance to get away from that… beast… and keep me distracted from other matters.

I had been waiting for this opportunity for a while now, and I'll be damned If I miss out on it.

Besides someone has to keep that clown alive, and I doubt it was going to be Grover.

XXXXXX

"How did you talk me into this?" I asked aloud as heavy rain drenched my entire body. We were only a few hours into this quest and we were already drenched, cold, hungry and hopefully, utterly lost.

Tim laughed as he jumped from one large branch to another, as agile as a monkey he easily kept up with my goat gallop. Annabeth trailed behind but considering she was carrying the biggest bag she was doing a good job at keeping up with us.

"You're a Satyr you don't get a choice!" Tim yelled through the heavy rain as he swung directly over my head, slighting tapping my head with his hand as he did so. "At least I think you're a Satyr! Still can't feel any horns!" He commented as he climbed higher into the tree. Great, he just had to bring that up…

"TIM!" Annabeth roared over the downpour, "THAT WAS TO FAR!" She yelled again. I felt myself cower, even if I wasn't the focus of her anger she still scared me when she was like this.

Tim stopped in a tree crouching on a branch at least 12 feet in the air. "Just stating a fact… you think we're far enough away yet?" He asked looking past us toward the direction we were running away from.

He waited For Annabeth and I to catch up before leaping down from his perch in the tree. The tree he was sitting in provided enough cover from the rain that we were no longer getting drenched, which I was grateful for.

Annabeth briefly looked over her shoulder for a moment before turning back to us blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "We should be safe now, but that doesn't mean we should stop moving," She said before punching Tim In the arm; hard. "When I told you that the Bus Driver was a monster I was hoping you might have given me a chance to think of a plan to deal with the situation But NOOOO! You just had to act without thinking…" She yelled at the troublemaking Demi-god.

"It's not that big of a deal…"

"The Bus Sank into the RIVER! With half of our supplies!" Annabeth yelled, this was probably not a good start for her dream quest.

Losing all those cans wasn't exactly fun for me either… they looked so delicious too…

"Hey just Look on the bright side! The bus was cramped overpriced and rather dull… Imagine how boring our tale would be if we spent the entire thing on a bus! 'Oh so how did you manage to journey to the most dangerous area known to Demi-god kind and return with a Lost God? Oh you know we took a bus." Tim explained though he hardly seemed to be taking this massive step backward seriously.

"One of the most dangerous." Annabeth corrected.

"Oh really? What's as or even more dangerous than a place no Demigod has returned from alive?" Tim asked with a raised eyebrow.

"There's a few: The Underworld, The Sea of Monsters, San Francisco, The Labyrinth, The land beyond the gods, Boston along with most of eastern Canada, New Jersey, most of Asia and Australia… just to name a few." Annabeth listed off with her fingers. She paused for a moment, the familiar look that all of Athena's children had when they were overthinking something crossed her face… probably pondering something I or Tim wouldn't understand.

"… That's makes for a very narrow selection for holiday location…" Tim said trailing of; obviously noticing that Annabeth was no longer paying attention to him.

It was getting darker as the wind shifted drastically, Branches swayed violently as the heavy rain began to spray us lightly through the thick foliage. If we stayed here any longer we were going to get drenched, not that we were not already completely wet.

But the shift of wind also brought something else, an intense familiar smell.

Food...

And from the looks of the others I wasn't the only one who picked it up. The others had somehow picked up the odd aroma and were sniffing the air like a pack of dogs. I smiled internally at that little comparison, humans often liked to pretend they are so much above other animals that I always found it funny when they began to behave more 'Primal'. Hunger was a good cause for this change in behaviour.

And Annabeth and Tim were really acting like two hungry dogs sniffing out something. I did offer them some cans earlier, if only they weren't so picky.

The two Demi-gods followed the scent with surprising accuracy through the pouring rain and mud. I was kind of glad that I had decided to keep wearing the shoes Luke had gifted up, mud was hard to remove from hooves and could be very unpleasant, kind of like what I would imagine having gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe would be like. The shoes themselves where magical, a pair of Hermes flying shoes that Luke had 'borrowed' from his father during the camps last trip to Olympus. Of course it would have been nice if he had given us the shoes in person…

According to Heron Luke was stuck trying to resolve a dispute between the Hermes cabin and the Ares cabin when it was time for us to go and could not leave the delicate situation in case an all-out war broke loose. It was disappointing that he couldn't make it but I understood, being a Councillor had a lot of responsibilities and sometimes luck just didn't work in your favour.

Annabeth… was not as understanding as I. She was very upset when she heard the news, of course she didn't show it, she had a very good poker face but no poker face could undermine a Satyrs ability to smell emotions… Or Herons ability to read people. He gave Annabeth a Knife that he claimed Luke had wanted to give her, I could smell the lie but I did not voice it because of how Pleased she looked as she examined it before quickly placing it with her other knife. This one was longer then her normal one, long as a Bowie knife and looked a little… serrated… But Annabeth like it.

He also gave Tim the shoes, ones that where a gift from Luke. Tim acted like he liked the gift but I could tell he was not entirely pleased with them. Tim hated shoes, he found them hindering and clumsy and with his oversized feet it often looked like he was wearing clown shoes. If he had to wear any sort of footwear it was sandals or crocs.

I know Crocs.

When Heron left Tim bestowed the gift to me saying that I would make more use of them then he.

Well… I always wanted to fly.

Eventually our little group came across a large roadside building; the source of the smell. It appeared to be a Motel of sorts, the type of run down one that families would stop at for the night and that night alone. It was also in a bad shape to, paint was coming of the walls, some roof tiles where missing from here and there and the pool in the middle of the near empty parking lot had been emptied for what must have been some time considering how many dead leaves that had gathered at the bottom of the drained pool. Attached to the main building (Well what I assumed was the main building) was what appeared to be a large greenhouse, and when I say large, I mean large. It was significantly bigger than any of the other buildings present, and probably in the best state of repair too.

"Ummm… What… Is that?" Tim questioned staring down at the collection of buildings. He rubbed the back of his most likely drenched neck as his eyes squinted. I followed his line of sight to a large billboard like sign with glowing cursive neon words, most likely the name of the place.

"Aunty Em's Garden Emporium and Motel. Open 24 hours," I spoke aloud knowing that the two Demigods would never be able to read the Neon words no matter how hard they tried. "Largest collection of Garden Statues this side of the Mississippi…" I continued reading the rest of the sign to save them the trouble.

"Talk about your odd Hybrid business…" Tim muttered. A sudden flash of light and the roar of thunder making all of us jump. ".. But I'm not complaining! Let's go!" Tim said before stumbling down the grassy hill we stood upon, only to by stopped by the out stretched hand on Annabeth grasping a hold of the back of his collar.

"TIM WAIT! Doesn't this seem a little, oh I dunno Suspicious to you?" Annabeth asked pulling the lanky pre-teen towards us.

"I can't smell anything because of this storm… but it feels kind of off…" I added in. Storms had a nasty habit of masking the scent of monsters or other nasties, a fact that has spelled the doom for many parties beforehand.

"A un-kept Motel in the middle of nowhere, most likely run by shady and creepy individuals, found by us, a small group of unusual young misfits during a dark and spooky storm?" Tim asked slowly putting his hand on his chin, mockingly stroking it in deep thought. "No. Not at all." He finally replied before either Annabeth or I could reply, and much to my horror he didn't sound like he was joking, at all.

"Come on man, haven't you ever seen any horror movies? shows? Books? That place is a slasher flick waiting to happen!" I yelled, my voice cracking slightly when I said Horror movie.

"First of I can't read English in general, second of I'm a Demigod remember! Demigods and Electronics don't mix! Come on back me up here Smarty-pants." Tim Replied gesturing to Annabeth hoping the other Demigod would provide more logic to his argument… Oh Gods Tim is using Logic, the world must be on the verge of ending.

"Though Tim has his points I don't think it's very wise to enter that place… Something feels off about it…" Annabeth said confirming my bad feeling of the place. Another flash of lightening and roar of thunder alerted us all to the presence of the storm still raging above our heads. From the sounds of it that bolt was closer than the last, and considering the last one was terrifyingly close… well; I could almost swear I saw the bolt strike just a few meters away.

"Your both being Paranoid, Just because we live in a world of Magic and Monsters doesn't mean everything is Magic and Monsters. Listen I'm Cold, I'm tired and I'm wet but that doesn't matter because I have Money and that means I can pay for a room, I really don't know about you guys but I'm going to sleep somewhere that isn't in threat of being flooded by this storm." Tim said before marching of down the hill giving neither Annabeth or I the chance to argue against his decision. Annabeth and I turned to each other the rain no doubt ruining out clothes and hair.

"He is quest Leader…" I said allowed in defeat.

Annabeth just muttered a few Choice words before both of us rushed after him.

XXXXX

The inside of the Motels Reception stunk of Air fresheners. The horrid processed factory made smell a mockery of the lush and wonderful smell of pine trees. The stench was so bad I was almost tempted to stand back outside in the cold rain then endure this horrid smell. The room was not exactly warm either, better then outside but not by much, an old busted radiator tried desperately to keep the room warm but just didn't seem to be up to the challenge of keeping the room warm. The room itself was what you expected of a run-down Motel Reception, a small room with a few windows, tacky wallpaper's of flowers complete with an old wool carpet… I cringed slightly as I saw the carpet. A old wooden counter cut the room in half and a somewhat large key wall hung behind the counter. Some sort of song from the forties played softly from an old radio that sat on the counter.

And judging by the Receptionist that sat behind the desk we weren't the only one who's been in the rain.

She was soaked from head to toe; her messy dirty blond hair that reached the young women's chest was dripping from the drenched slightly curled strands. Her worn and old uniform was so wet I could see some of the pale skin through what I assumed to be the dark green employ shirt. The Receptionist herself looked to be in no better shape. She was about 19 in appearance and of a short build, freakishly skinny and her skin was a deathly pale. There where so many bags under her eyes that I could swear she had not slept in a week and her bottom lip quivered slightly as she sat behind the counter, perfectly motionless. Her attention was focused upon a magazine she had on top of the counter and one of her bony hands appeared to be clenched tightly around a smoking mug.

She didn't look up at us when the front door bell rung, or when Tim Pressed down several times of the lobby bell, or when he began smacking it so quick that Annabeth had to restrain him from it. She seemed completely ignorant of our presence no matter what we did.

It wasn't until she tried to take a drink of what I have now guessed to be coffee did she finally notice us. The women jumped slightly, almost as if she did not hear all the noise we had made. She dropped her mug, the cup of coffee breaking on the counter and the drink spilling all over her magazine and the counter. Her tired, pale eyes widened in shock as she saw us.

"There are No rooms available! Go away!" she quickly yelled her eyes jumping from us to the door behind us to another door that was on the other side of the counter.

"But there doesn't look to be a single key missing…"

"Those Rooms are being gassed… For BUGS! Yeah Bugs! Now go away! Leave!" She yelled interrupting Tim mid-sentence. Though her yelling did not seem angry… more frightened, she seemed to be freaking out….

"All of them? Are you sure?" Tim asked obviously not catching on to the womens fear.

"Yes!"

"Oh now, Now Darrrling, I thought we talked about this." Another soother voice spoke out with an exotic Middle Eastern accent. Almost instantly all forms of doubt or suspicion seem to rush out of my body replaced with a soothing warmth. I turned my head to the source of the sound to find a tall women in a long black gown that reached the floor, hiding her feet. Though her voice sound old and rich she had the physique of a women in her early thirties. She stood tall and proud, like she was the ruler of her domain. a black veil -a Shayla I believe they are called- hid most of her head beside her pale circler face revealing an aged but stunning face. A pair of black sunglasses hid her eyes which was kind of odd considering it was nowhere near sunny outside.

"I must Apologies for her behaviour; she simply just doesn't know how to behave sometimes. Of course you three may have a room, after all everyone is welcomed to stay at 'Aunty Em's Garden Emporium and Motel.'" The women said who I am pretty sure is Aunty Em.

"I'm sorry miss… Em Is it? But she told us that all the rooms are being gassed for Bugs…." Annabeth said approaching the tall women an eyebrow raised slightly in a questioning matter.

Aunty Em slowly turned to face Annabeth, she remained silent for a moment looking Annabeth up and down with a slight frown upon her face. The silence was on the verge of becoming awkward when suddenly Aunty Em broke out into a sooth hearty laugh a smile once again donning her face. "She told you we were Gassing!" She laughed turning to face the receptionist. "Darrrling how many times must I tell you? We use Foggers," She once again turned to Annabeth. "And yes we have recently been 'Bombing' the Motel with insecticide, but that was last week, I assure you all that it is perfectly safe and healthy and that we have plenty of open rooms!" She exclaimed heading towards the key wall. The receptionist gave Aunty Em a wide berth as the older lady examined the wall.

"You three can have room 3, Come I will even escort you to it myself," The lady said grabbing a pair of keys from the wall. As she turned around to face us once more her eyes locked with Annabeth, if it was not for the sunglasses I would be sure she was giving her a terrifying evil eye. "And Darrrling Its Aunty Em. Miss Makes me feel old and besides," she open us a section of the desk allowing her to escape to are side of the counter… was that there before? "It gives a more family vibe to the old place, and trust me darrrling Everyone Is family here."

XXXXXXXX

I hate this place.

The room smelled of something that only I seemed to notice, the Carpets made my feet itch, The T.V would only show the fishing channel whenever I even touched the remote, The Water in the shower was either Boiling hot or freezing cold no matter how much I tried to adjust it (And trust me I tried) and the Bed, after last night I could relate with that Princess and the peace story. If you know, the peace was a dozen railroad-sized needles.

And don't even get me started on the spiders….

And of course Tim and Grover didn't notice any of this. In fact they loved the damn place! They slept like rocks throughout the night and well past 10 in the morning and didn't have ANYTHING wrong happen to them.

Tim would claim I'm just being nitpicky but I swear by Zeus bolt that this place was tormenting me.

The motel wouldn't be too bad by itself I guess… If you where someone on the run with little money and very little options. The only thing this place really had going for it was the fact that it was pretty quiet and secluded, it was nowhere near any many roads, or other buildings for that matter… the entire construct was built within the middle of the woods with not a sign of any other civilization other than an old tar road. I really doubt this place has enough money to pay any bills, not that they would ever notice, this place was in the middle of nowhere, and apart from us there appeared to be only one other person staying here. Whoever owned the large red, beaten up pick-up truck that looked like it had been chewed up by a few dozen griffons on the other side of the Motel. My guess? Someone on the run with little money and very little options.

But that's just my opinion.

"Come on lazy bones, up and at em!" I said pushing my two traveling companions out the door of are motel room, fully packed with all our stuff we managed to grab before Tim decided the river was a better place for the bus to be then the road. The two of then groaned, most likely for have been awoken and force to get up in such a rush. "Where burning day light, Quest wait for no one!" I yelled grabbing the already packed bags, which was mostly true. All quest had an expiration date of sorts. Sometimes it was easy to identify, even stated in the prophecy itself… most of the time however it was up to the Questers to figure it out for themselves.

Typically I get stuck with the latter.

The rain had stopped much to my delight, but the effects of last night's downpour could be seen all over the motel. Drive ways were partially flooded, water was dripping from the broken gutter and the leaves and sticks of the forest seemed to have been blown in from the storm, covering the entire parking lot in a layer of mucky forest debris. Everything was soaked and the air still felt moist. I Suppose it was the wiser choice for us to camp the night in the motel rather than outside… But Tim would never catch me admitting that, nor would Grover.

I practically dragged the two into the receptionist office both of them muttering stuff in a dazed state, rolling my eyes as I pushed open the door I was somewhat surprised to see the receptionist still sitting there. The young adult still appeared to be drenched with even bigger bangs under her eyes. The sight of the dirty blonde disturbed me, from the look of things the poor women had been out all night doing something, most likely for that creep 'Aunty Em'.

That woman… She screamed that something was most defiantly wrong with her. From the way she walked to the way she talked there was something… off about her. The way her Receptionist acted only furthered my Reasonable Suspicion about the women. She was defiantly something, be it just a creepy/disturbed old lady or worse a Monster.

The Receptionist seem to jump slightly when she saw us but quickly composed herself once more… well as composed as the young women ever seemed to be. She watched us all carefully with her pale eyes whilst biting the bottom of her lip. I approached her grabbing the small collection of bills I managed to scrounge up from are salvaged supplies (Most of the bills came from the driver's wallet which Tim stole) and placing the collection of money on the counter; just a bit over 150 dollars, not all of our money but a large portion of it.

"We would like to check out please." I said trying to sound as professional and polite as I could, trying to hide my desire to leave this place as quickly as I could.

The young women Stared at the money for a moment then back to me. "Are you sure?" She asked, barely above a whisper as she leaned closer to me. Her hands made no grab for the money which was odd until I noticed her eyes… They seemed to be giving me an unspoken warning. Like what I could say next could be the difference between my life and death… but it wasn't hostile… It was a ligament warning…

I gathered my baring's and stood tall. "Yes." I replied ready to take on any challenge that came my way.

I could see her face drop; she stared at me with remorse for a second before snatching up the money on the table. "Fine…" she whispered moving over to the cash register. She stood at the banged up machine for a moment, for a mere moment she stared at the door on her side of the counter. Her eyes switched between the register and the door a few times before finally settling on the old machine. Slowly she began to work the old device, pressing the buttons with such carefulness that it made it seem she was trying to disarm a bomb more than work out how much of the money we gave her is going to pay for our stay.

Her hand hovered for a moment over a button. She looked at us for a second, her entire body tightening up before she carefully pressed the small button. With a loud clash the drawer at the bottom of the register shot out. The women jumped back, her eyes shot towards the back door. For a moment nothing happened, the young women just kept on staring, her face frozen in pre-horror. She stood like this for an unknown amount of time, but it was long enough for Tim to elbow me getting my attention. I looked at the lanky pre-team who raised an eyebrow in confusion, gesturing with his head in the direction of the frozen receptionist. I shrugged silently before forcing myself to cough in an attempt to get the young women's attention.

The Cough was enough to snap her out of her petrification. We all silently watched as he face changed from fear to confusion to deep thought before finally setting of nervous relief. I'm pretty sure I was not the only one out of the three of us who was confused as we watched the young women wiped her forehead breathing a sigh of relief. Quickly She placed in a few of our bills before placing a larger portion of them on the counter. "There we go… the rest is yours… ahh… you should probably get… going…" she commented, pushing the bills closer to us and slowly turning to look at the back door.

Tim was the first to move, snatching up the bills in his large hands. He scanned them quickly and looked at me with a confused expression before turning to the receptionist. "Ahh… not that I am complaining or anything… but we still got over one hundred dollars here… wouldn't this cost… I dunno more than that?" He asked the young lady, stuffing the cash into his pocket.

The women nervously smiled tapping her fingers on the counter. "Uhhh well… you guys are all… Juniors… Juniors… don't pay as much?" I was pretty sure that was not how it works, but If it meant more mortal money towards the quest then sure. That works for me.

"Well thanks… Ummm, bye."

The three of us moved to the door. I could tell from the look on the others faces that they seemed to now share my eagerness to get out of this motel. It appeared this place was getting to all of us.

I was just about to push open the door to leave when it was forced open with an incredible force, nearly pulling me to the floor. I recovered quickly only coming face to face with a large brown paper bag and the soulless glare of a pair of black sunglasses.

"Oh my, I am so sorry Darrrling. I didn't see you there…" came the toxically sweet sounding voice of someone who I am sure was everything but sorry.

Aunty Em stood in the doorway, barricading our only exit, with two large brown paper bag full of groceries one held in each arm. She glared down at the three of us, her eyes slowly scanning each of us before looking at her receptionist. Her gaze quickly morphed to scornful before rapidly switching to repulsively sweet. "Oh, and what's this? Do not tell me these sweets are already leaving me…" She spoke in a quiet almost sad tone. If I was a fool I would believe that she actually felt sad about us going… Luckily I'm not a fool.

"Umm… ahh… Kinda, maybe… where we?" Grover whimpered out, looking more guilty then someone with their hand in the cookie jar.

Tim Just scratched his head and burped.

Sadly I could not say the same for my colleagues.

"Yes we were, we paid and we greatly enjoyed our stay. But we have to go now so goodbye." I said grabbing the two morons behind my by the wrist and trying to push past the tall women. The women was not fat, are bulky, yet trying to get past her was like trying to force my way through a brick wall. She stood steadfast against my attempt to get past, standing still in the middle of the door way.

"Oh Darrrling," I was getting sick of her calling me that. "Surely you and your friends are not in such a rush that you would not join me for complementary Breakfast? Free of charge, but of course." She spoke. The temptation of her offer was diabolical, free food, on a quest? Even if it served as lure for a trap such a thing would pull in even the most paranoid of questers into the potential trap. Her voice did not help the situation either, even with my absolute distaste of the women I had to admit her voice was incredibly convincing. As if almost like magic her voice lured me in to the idea that having a bit of breakfast couldn't hurt… Wait Magic? Could it be….

Oh Gods, what is that smell?

In a matter of seconds we were being herded like sheep by Aunty Em to the backroom (Which turned out to be an entrance to the large greenhouse that was no doubt the Garden Emporium of her business.) with the smell of delicious food as our intangible guide. We were lead to the back of the large Greenhouse where a small group of benches have been set up, an entire barbecue set up on the far end and the entire area was walled up with a brick fence that stood at waist height. The whole set up would have been very peaceful and friendly if not for the eerie silence and absolute emptiness of the little eating area. Perhaps if there were a few other people the place would have been warm, perhaps even welcoming but at the moment it just seemed so… foreboding.

"Ahhh it is a shame Mr Ulysses will not be joining us for this wonderful meal, but you cannot blame the poor man… those ex-military types are not very good with reintegrating back into society. To be honest with you I am pretty sure he hasn't left his room since he came here two weeks ago…" Aunty Em said as she moved towards the barbecue/kitchen set grabbing some food from a built in cupboard (Was it healthy to store food in a greenhouse?). "Oh I do apologies for my rambling… it is just I can't help but see my guests as family, so glad to have them say, such a pain to see them go… My psychologist says my attachment to my guests is just my way of filling the hole left by my sisters…" The old lady continued, preparing something in her kitchen set up as she talked.

"Oh… I'm sorry for your loss…." Tim said, looking down at the old wooden bench we had sat down at, running one of his fingers along a black line in the old wood.

"Oh there not dead dear… just gone. But even so I miss them terribly, they were such a help when this place first started up… and I will never forget them for their support after the, well, incident… but that is old news… very old news. Oh I almost forgot, what do you lovelies think of my statues?" The old lady said gesturing with one of her gloved hands to the large garden she had set up.

I had no idea why I didn't notice them before... something that disturbing should have not been an easy miss.

There were literally hundreds of them, scattered throughout the garden hiding within the plants and bushes or out in the dirt paths in clear view. Men, women, children and even creatures of stone stood eerily still stuck in some sort of motion for all of eternity. There was defiantly a verity to all her 'work'. Some of her statues seemed to be of a modern style; modern clothes of stone like jeans, hoodies and t-shirts appeared on several concrete statues that looked freshly made, not much sign of damage or degrading of the stone statues. Some on the other hand looked much older, I saw one of someone who looked fresh of the stage of a disco party, frozen in a dance move, an old fashion police officer alongside a trench coat and fedora wearing detective in mid smoke, one hidden deep in the undergrowth appeared to be dressed as a ancient Greek warrior frozen in an attacking pose… at least I think it was, the lack of an arms and half a head made it hard to figure that part out. The animals where of a variety too, bears, deer's, a stone lion and what even looked like some sort of dinosaur down the back. But the Mythical creatures were defiantly the eye catchers of the entire statue collection; gnomes, small gryphons, what looked like a Naga, a unicorn, an old looking Satyr down the back (Grover had seemed to notice the stone Satyr to and was moving to get a better look) but then I saw it.

It was the beast… Or at least something like it…. It was about the size of an adult horse, frozen in mid roar. It stood upon a pair of dinosaur like legs and a tail swirled behind it, two long arms stretched out by its side ready to grab at something and its neck snaked back… ready to strike. My blood ran cold at the sight of the beast, my entire body freezing in fear and my breath began to quicken. It was not the same one that Had been hunting me since I was 7 but it looked close enough… it didn't have the webbing between its claws, or the sail along its back (Replaced with a pair of spiked lines) And it had a single spike crest on its head compared to the nightmarish trident one my tormentor had. Even If it wasn't my tormentor it was still just too similar… its close proximity to the garden eating area only added to the horror.

I felt small, terrified under the Icy stone glare of the stone monstrosity.

The clang of a plate on wooden table was what saved from full on panic. I snapped around to see 'Aunty' Em placing a collection of breakfast food upon the garden table. I almost felt obliged to thank the elderly lady for saving me from my psychological freak out but held my tongue when her hidden glare turned upon me.

"I saw you staring at my Wyvern statue." She said her voice sounding less sickeningly sweet and more interrogating. Her head leaned closer to mine, her head, her lips frightening close to my ear. "Do you like it?" She whispered, her voice like venom leaking into my ear.

"It's pretty cool. How long did it take to make." Tim blurted out stuffing a whole unpeeled banana in his mouth in one go.

The woman suddenly shot up from her position beside me taking a straight and professional posture. "Oh it does not take as long as you would imagine, Not long at all especially when you have been doing it as long as I have… But that one is three years old now and surprisingly enough, no one has shown any interest in it… but now I think I know just the place for it…" 'Aunty Em' said her stare once again coming down upon me. I looked down at a bowl of sloppy looking porridge before me. I didn't feel Hungary any more…

"Which reminds me, how would you three like to pose for some of my statues!" The old lady said cheerfully moving away from the table and back towards the cooking set. A part of me, a very large part of me wanted to flee at that very moment, whilst she wasn't paying attention. Grab the others and just go. I was tempted to act upon that reaction but something held me back, this place was creepy for a reason, and the curious more dangerous side of me wanted to know why. What exactly put me of about this women and her home.

"Wath noth *Gulp* In a rush, sure." Tim answered friendly swallowing yet another banana. I gave him an uncertain look but he made no notion of noticing it. Grover didn't seem to notice anything going on, his attention seemed focused solely on the stone satyr.

"Ah Marvelous! I do so love making statues of my guests! Especially the children, everyone loves children! They are in such high demand you know?" 'Aunty Em' said cheerfully. "Once you are done eating we can go to my studio! I have everything set up there…"

With only Tim eating it didn't take long for the three of us plus ' Aunty Em' to begin moving through her large garden. She walked in front us leading the way, but was still close enough to notice if we stopped or slowed down. The walk was silent apart from Tim humming some tune in his head that sounded like a mix between 70's pop and Chinese folk music.

"So 'aunty Em' how did you get into… sculpting." I asked trying to satisfy the curious part of my brain so the more rational fear driven side can orchestrate a plan of escape. Background Information normally assisted in ending its thirst.

"That looks a lot like my Uncle Ferdinand…" Grover muttered as we got a better look at the stone satyr ".. Has the same mole and everything…" He continued sounding slightly amused at the though. I have never met his Uncle Ferdinand, Heck I didn't even know Satyrs had official families but I would take his word for it.

"Oh it was a long time ago Darrrling, but if you so desire to hear it… It all began when I was young and Beautiful, some would say the most beautiful woman of my time, which May I add was compete exhaustion; One of the most beautiful but certainly not the most," I rolled my eyes, humble wasn't she? "Anyway, thanks to my beauty and my charm I managed to win the interest of a very important person. We dated for a while, I loved him, he loved me that sort of thing… but tragically it was not to last for the ugliest creature of all reared its head: Jealousy." The women said stopping to examine one of the statues, it was another old one, of a person in Greek armour but this one was in far better condition than the other. She did not turn the face us but seemed to look at the young face of the concrete, but his armour was what caught my eye. In the middle of his Chest piece was the faded symbol of a trident…

Oh no…

It can't be…

"What she was Jealous about I have no idea; my looks, the fact I was dating that guy, because we were very happy or maybe a mix of all three but whatever the reason she saw it right to punish me, and my sisters –oh bless them- for standing by me… She scared us, for life. I myself getting the worse of the damage… That Woman destroyed our lives, made it impossible for any of us to live a normal life… and the worse part of it all: She got away scot free." 'Aunty Em' practically hissed the last part her voice becoming angry and harsh.

"Heh… If I didn't know any better I would say that IS my Uncle Ferdinand…but that's impossible because the last time anyone ever heard from him he was on monster scouting for Med-" Grovers whisper coming to a sudden halt only strengthened my already strong hypothesis of just who this women really was. We shared a look, Grover skin was pale in fright and every part of him looked just about ready to flee… or faint.

Only Tim remained blissfully unaware of the absolute danger we were in.

"You know Annabeth you have her eyes…" the woman spoke with a straight tone.

I never told her my name.

They say children of Athena have a plan for everything, for any situation. However with all my genetic brilliance and quick thinking only one plan leapt to mind.

"SCATTER!"

I ducked into the bush as quickly as possible, swiftly moving through the thick foliage of the greenhouse. I had no way of knowing if the others reacted as quickly as I did, if that… creature got them. I didn't dare look back in fear that I might become a victim due to fear and dangerous curiosity. I had already put myself and the others in enough danger already because of that, I should have just packed up and leaved before we walked into this obvious trap.

A crackled laugh with a subtle hissing sound underneath it echoed throughout the garden, a fearful chill ran down my spine as the sound reached my ear… it was horrible… a courage draining sound if I have ever heard one.

"I Do love it when they run, it only makes the satisfaction of the capture so much better." 'Aunty Em' chuckled out. Hopefully that meant the others had managed to escape in time. I could only hope.

That was all I could do when faced with a foe as dangerous as The Gorgon Medusa.

As I rushed through the greenhouse I realized that I had no idea where the exit to this blasted place was. I had paid no attention to my surroundings when I had entered the building, none of the statues I could see looked familiar and the plants I was hiding in where just too thick for me to get a clear view of anything else without being in sight of the Witch. I was tempted to put on my invisible hat and try to navigate around but the idea that I may accidently bump into Medusa and be turned into an invisible statue was too horrifying a thought. Smashing a window was also an option that passed through my mind as plausible but dismissed it as stupid soon after. There was no doubt in my mind that this entire place was enchanted with crazy levels of magic, even if I could break a window and escape like that I was sure Medusa would either catch me or my companions before I could complete the task. So many risks, so many things that could go wrong… This all could be avoided If I had forced us to go…

What was that touching my leg?

A sudden force pulled me of my feet and violently yanked me out of my hiding place. I closed my eyes as tight as I could as powerful leather like substance coiled around my body tightly lifting me to my feet. The coils squeezed my body tightly causing me to release a strained gasp of air.

"Finding it hard to breath? Good. I must admit when I first awoke to find my lower half now that of a snake I was so incredibly furious, having to learn to move with this was so much work that I was unable to retain any of my guests for three months. That the problem with being a monster, as the times change so does how humans conceive you… and that in turn alters your appearance and behaviour, I Shudder In fear for the day humans begin to believe I ssstretch my S's." Medusa whispered her voice being so close to my ear that I felt a fork tongue tickle my earlobe, I tried to cringe at the sensation, force my body away but Medusa's coils held strong, if not become stronger. "But the snake tail does have its ups… It's especially good at crushing the life out of Athenas brats." She practically spat out my mother's name and the snakes in her head seem to hiss in anger if the sound was anything to go by. Her coils became tighter and tighter making it incredibly hard to breath or move.

"That pain your feeling… it can end you know, just like that… all you need to do is Look into My eyes." Her voice… like silk… so sweet. And she was right, the crushing it hurt… Opening my eyes sounded nice….

"I wasn't lying when I said I see my guests as family, and I hate seeing them go… but this way they don't have to go. They can stay here forever with me! Away from the cold harsh world, where people hurt you for things you can't control, and abandon you once things become rough! In here they don't have to worry about all that… Because they have me, and I will always care for them no matter what happens…" Medusa said, her voice was soft, almost broken… she did sound heart broken. "Here no one judges you, not by your looks, or where you're from… who you are. They accept you, even if you look like a monster." She continued, her grip loosing on me. However I did not try to struggle even though I knew that I should, no. Instead my eyes continued to loosen, slowly allowing light to enter even if my mind screamed for my body to stop, to realize the danger I was in.

Nothing was working.

"Shǔnxī tā, èmó!" A voice cried out.

Shantie tar emura?

It was then a sudden explosion of light appeared before me, breaching the darkness of my eyes. I tightened my eyes just to try and hold of the bright light but it was too much. If my eyes had been open they would have been damaged perhaps even blinded… just like Medusa was.

She screamed in pain, a sound that can only be described as teeth scratching a chalkboard, her snakes released similar screeches of pain only of a much higher pitch. Her grip of me was released violently and I fell to the floor hard. I groaned on my side as the sound of something colliding into the large form of Medusa, the collision was enough to knock Medusa quite a distance, either that or the attack was enough that it sparked me to instinctually roll away without me knowing. Whatever the reason Medusa sounds further away along with whoever or whatever attacked her.

Carefully I opened my eyes (Making sure to face away from Medusa) I could hear the sound of metal hitting a skull echoed behind me in a erratic pattern and the cries of a pained women. A green gazing ball on a small pedestal gave me a reflected idea on what had happen and who my helper was; Tim. From the look of things Tim must have tackled Medusa with a running start because the two of them where at least 7 meters away from where Medusa had captured me. He was sitting atop her, his colourful mask covering his face as he smashed the butt of a half extended bo staff with extreme force. Medusa flailed wildly underneath him obviously still blinded from whatever Tim had done before, her arms tried to push of the lanky teen who had pinned her top half and a 5 meter long dark green and brown snake tail as thick as her waist curled and tossed around without pattern or purpose. I knew that Tim was giving it everything he got behind those attacks but I found myself doubting if the attacks would even do anything against her but make her angry. Perhaps if we were dealing with a younger form of Medusa the attacked might have stopped her but I doubt she was as weak as she use to be…

My suspicions where proven correct when the tip of Medusa tail wrapped itself around Tims neck Violently pulling him off of her. Lifting the boy of the floor Medusa slivered back up to an upright position staring up at the teen she had raised into the air, I could not see her face in the reflection but I had no doubt that she did not look happy, not at all.

Tim grabbed a hold of the tail desperately trying to hold himself up so his weight was not being held up by his neck alone. Tim's legs kicked widely trying to connect with some part of Medusa's body but she was smart enough to hold the nimble Teen just out of his reach. The collective of snakes that where not all still dazed from Tims attack hissed and spat wildly as each tried their mightiest to see the young Demi-god that attacked them, no matter where they were on her head.

Medusa slammed Tim against a sturdy looking stone pillar with enough force to crack to large garden decorative and Make Tims body jolt stiff, a pained cry spurted from the back of his throat as Medusa Hissed audible hiss. "Foolish monkey, You Have gone too far… No matter, once I remove that Mask you will make an excellent addition to my garden..." Medusa threatened reaching out slowly with one taloned hand to the mask that dawned Tim's face, which was no doubt his only protection against Medusa's power.

I couldn't stand by anymore.

As Quickly and quietly as I could I rose to my feet, grabbing a hold of the green gazing ball in my left hand as I stood at a crouch. In my right hand I brandished my dagger, it was In no way a suitable weapon to take on Medusa, heck none of us had one. Tim only had his staff and a bag of tricks, nothing suitable for taking down a monster, Grover only carried his flute (And a bad selection of nature magic), it was rare to see and Satyr with any sort of weapon on them, they were notorious Pacifist. My Dagger for all its Unsuited qualities for the task ahead was the only weapon that could even remotely get the task ahead.

I slowly crept backward towards Medusa, making sure that I kept out of her line of sight. My Invisibility hat would be helpful in this situation, but I don't think Medusa would be fooled so easily as other monsters would be. She was able to find me perfectly well whilst I was hiding, so I don't think the hat would make that much of a difference. My only hope was that Tim could hold out long enough -and keep her attention- So I could try and deliver some sort of blow to the monster.

I crept closer Cringing slightly as Tim was once again smashed into the Pillar for smacking Medusa's hand away. She Hissed again, the same as her snakes as her tail shacked slightly. "On second thought I think I will Give you away. Knowing your history I'm sure you would cause me endless grief…"

"My… Hist-ory….?"Tim chocked out desperately trying to hold himself up In Medusa grip.

She paused for a moment before crackling slightly. I moved closer, almost in striking range of the Monster woman. "So you don't know? Anything? I expected as much… got to hand it to them they sure know how to punish disobedience… Hmmm, Maybe I should send your petrified form to them…. You certainly don't belong here…" Suddenly her body froze up, she stopped talking and moving. I was confused for a moment until I Noticed one of the snakes, one so small that It was probably a child was staring right at me.

It was now or never.

I struck her In the back, right under the left shoulder blade, the knife digging deep into Medusa skin. The attack wouldn't stop her; I didn't have enough time to get close enough to strike her in any spot that would be fatal by Knife. But it would slow her down.

She screamed in pain swinging widely around and smacking me with a now limp left arm in the back of my head, The blow knocked me forwards, dislodging the Knife (Which was still in my hand luckily) out of the spot I had buried it into making her wallow in pain even more. I had no time to celebrate my small victory or even get up when Tim was tossed at me by the flailing Medusa's tail. Tim, who was more agile then I ever was, was able to turn the landing into a clumsy roll snatching up his staff and my arm in one chaotically coordinated move. He yanked me to my feet before breaking Of into a Pained run, pulling me along with him. After I recovered I Swiftly moved closer to him getting under one of his arms and acting as crutch for the slightly limping teen.

We didn't look back, only focusing on trying to put as much distance between us and Medusa as possible. Tim extended his bronze staff to its full length using it as a walking stick before pushing me away. "We got to keep moving, I'm slowing you down! Go!" Tim said staring at me through his multi-coloured mask. I shook my head pulling him forwards as quickly as I could.

"No, we can't beat her if we split up for her to pick us of one by one. We need to stick together. Come one, we need a way out, we can't fight her when she has home field advantage." I said pulling him towards the closest Window wall I could see. Even if the wall was enchanted we could follow it to a possible exit.

"Not if you're Stone you're not!" Medusa screeched, She might be hurt But There was no doubt she could catch up to us without too much trouble. There was no way we could get away like this… I could already hear the shifting of Pebbles as she slivered after us at high speeds.

'Blaa-ba-ba!'

The sound echoed throughout the gardenhouse, and pretty much stunned everyone present, even Medusa stopped in confusion. Then, from directly overhead came a very unexpected sight; like really unexpected. Grover flew out of the undergrowth, winged shoes beating like that of a Hummingbird, a ninety pound hummingbird at a height of 3 meters of the ground. He brandished a tree branch twice the size of a baseball bat like a large club, leaves still attached to the end he held. He shot past us and straight at Medusa. I didn't see it but I could hear the swing, the sound of Wood cracking slightly echoed through the air as Medusa cried out in shock and pain. For a second I was stunned, Tim was too, Heck I'm pretty sure Medusa was as well. But a follow up sound of Grover hitting Medusa finally snapped me back to my senses; he was buying us time.

Without hesitation I pulled Tim towards the wall ignoring the cries of the battle behind us and the yelps coming from my injured companion. My own pain made me grind my teeth and hiss as my muscles complained and ached but I carried on.

It didn't take long for us to reach the glass walls, or maybe it did, I couldn't tell, Time seemed of in this place… That or fear was messing with me more then I was willing to admit. The glass was old and looked like it hasn't been cleaned in years, muck and grime covering the wall making it nearly impossible to see through it. Considering this was a trap I suppose it made sense that you couldn't see through the glass. The windows frame's probably where reinforced…. Once upon a time. They were rusted up and falling apart now, still in good enough condition to do their job but from a structural point of view unsafe and unsanitary. Medusa may be good at looking after her Garden but the building itself?

It was probably her own little way of annoying my mother, and by association her children, most of whom where perfectionist by nature… myself included.

"Ok so smash the glass and run? That the plan? What about Grover?" Tim said standing up as best he could holding his Staff in a batting like position before taking a mock swing. "Hows he going to get out?"

I sighed, still examining the building for a structural weak point that we could exploit. "If Medusa heard our plan I have no doubt Grover heard it too. As soon as we break the glass he will follow the noise and escape with us…." Suddenly spotting a good spot, a weaker looking window that would be easily broken. "There strike that area."

Tim nodded Before moving closer to the window, He moved into a thrusting position, no doubt trying to put as much distance between him and the glass as possible, he was after all wearing the least amount of clothes of us all and had bare feet. I questioned the practicability of that sort of attack to break glass but did not make my point vocal. No doubt Tim could put enough force into the attack to break the already flimsy glass. With a hesitant look back he moved, putting all his power behind the attack. The butt of the staff collided with the glass with tremendous force…

Yet nothing, not even a budge.

Suddenly Grover was tossed through the bush, his body was bruised and his stick was broken in half. He let lose a pained moan as he collided with the pebble floor, Shaking he got up moaning ever so slightly as he tried to move. His intrusion was joined by an all too familiar laugh, one that I had grown to dread since the first time it came out of the woman's mouth. I lifted up the Green grazing ball (Something I was smart enough to bring along) just in time to see a battered Medusa slither out of the vegetation. Grover had done a number on her, a bruised body and torn clothes where signs of the Satyrs brave battle. She now had a bloodied lip, but whether that was from Tim or Grover I did not know, either way, in my mind it was an improvement on the disaster she calls a face. I was proud of him… for all its worth.

We all took precautions to keep our heads turned away from the approaching Medusa, even Grover in his barely conscious state had enough sense in him to keep his head to the ground and away from the gaze of Medusa. She chuckled, menacingly slowly turning around us, forcing all of us to reposition ourselves in order to face away from her.

"For a daughter of Athena you truly are foolish, nothing can break the glass from this side! You where trapped in here with me since the moment you walked into my motel the night before… no one ever escapes from me…. NO one." She hissed out in a mocking chuckle, her voice sounded a little rattled and tired. No doubt Grover's beating had taken a lot out of her, but compared to us, she was in pristine condition.

"I must admit it is very rare for me to want to destroy one of my statues… I do love them all dearly after all… But you have all given me good, no very good reason to reduce you all to rubble once your all stone… but no I got a better Idea now… after all you hurt me all so dearly… it is only fair I return the favour…" She said moving her body so she was now in front of the window we were trying to break. I kept track of her with the green ball not taking my eye of her for one second, ignoring the horrifying look that was her face in favour of keeping an eye on my enemy. The others however continued to look away, not wishing to be turned to stone or simply to pain to do anything about it.

"For you Satyr… I think I will sell you to one of those big companies, the ones that tare the planet apart for profit, who so carelessly destroy the world and wild you hold so dearly. I'm just sure one of their big CEO's will just love to have a Satyr in there office… as they sign away the world to destruction." Medusa hissed out. Grover bleated weakly, He was barely even able to stand up, constantly moving his feat weakly around to try and keep himself from falling over. From the sound of it he was on the verge of giving up, utterly defeated.

"As for you monkey, it will be rather expensive but I know who exactly would just love to have a statue of you in their garden… maybe under a peach tree? No matter, I'm sure they will treat you well…" Medusa chuckled. With Tims mask on It was hard to tell what exactly he was thinking, or how he took that news. But judging from the way he held his staff he seemed agitated, however I doubt he was stupid enough to attack at the moment. His mask had saved him once and I doubt it will work again, especially against a prepared Medusa, she would most likely turn him to stone before he could even finish his swing.

"And as for you Annabeth…. I got something Special just for you…" I shivered at the way she said my name, In the green ball I could see her move closer to me… and to faint sources of light on the other side of the glass plain… "Once I have turned your friends to stone, and your spirit, your will is finally broken… then I'll petrify you… at the moment of your absolute worse… I'll scar your face first though… a little… tradition I have going with the children of Athena," She approached ever closer, as did the faint lights, a muffled recognizable sound came through the glass but Medusa was to busy monologuing to notice. " And then, I'll send you and your destroyed, miserable looking face straight to Athena's temple on mount Olympus… Oh how she will be furious… and so very disappointed, she might even destroy you just to get you out of her sight… That's the sad thing about Gods, … the gods don't care who you are or what you are, in their eyes where nothing more than playthings for their amusement, that is the true tragedy of Demi-gods." Medusa Muttered reaching over me and grasping the Green ball out of my hands with a single taloned arm, it took no effort for her to pry it from me her greater strength made it impossible for me to hold onto it… that and It has served its purpose.

Because the last thing I saw in the green ball was a looming shadow growing closer and closer to the dark galls windows, the pair of lights guiding the mass on its forward course…

A course that Medusa stood in the way off.

"MOVE!" I yelled Quickly pushing Grover as far to the right as I possibly could, knocking both myself and the Satyr clear out of the way. I got a quick glimpse of Tim to see him practically fly to the left, Further then any human being should be capable off, but perhaps not for a Demi-god. We all ducked keeping our heads to the floor and our arms over our heads in preparation.

Leaving Medusa stunned, alone and confused… but not for long I imagine.

Because the sound of Glass breaking, metal flying, tires turning, an engine roaring and the heavy thud of something Metal hitting something flesh followed swiftly after we had ducked out of the way. A large amount of rustling was heard after something heavy landed in the undergrowth, only for the sound of destruction to catch up to whatever landed in the bush, complete with another heavy Sound of metal meeting flesh with a oddly satisfying thump.

After a second the bushes stirred again, this time more slowly, like whatever that was causing the disturbance was unsure of what exactly was going on or simply to weak to move, this continued until the sound of a car door slamming shut silenced the faint noise. I kept my head down holding my breath as the sound of heavy footsteps in gravel echoed through the Greenhouse.

Krunch.

Krunch.

Krunch.

Krunch.

Krunch.

The unmistakable sound of a gun cocking.

"What-"

Whatever Medusa was going to say it fell on death ears as her voice was drowned out by the powerful sound of gunfire. Three shots fired each in after the sound of a pump, must have been a shotgun.

Than there was nothing utter and complete silence.

it did not last however for the sound of water pouring and softly splashing on what sounded like gravel reached my ear. A soothing sound, probably created by some sort of water feature in the garden Yet I found myself questioning if I had ever heard it before now...

I waited for a few seconds, wondering if any other sound would follow, but none did. With great hesitation I looked up only to see a familiar looking old, beaten up, pick-up truck with a faded red paint-job that had way too many scratches now taking up residence where Medusa once stood. The truck was covered in glass, dust and old window frame and the hood was buried in the undergrowth of the garden, the fading away golden remains of what was once Medusa scattered all over the front of it.

As for the head? Barely even recognizable as being a head at all, more a golden bloody mess of snakes and skin.

Standing over the remains of what once was Medusa stood a man of 6.4, dark African American skin and a build that screamed military training. The guy dressed like he was out of a Terminator movie; a dark military jacket that looked patched up and very worn with faded grey and black military cameo cargo pants. His heavy feet falls where the result of a pair of Combat boats that looked like they could crush a skull under heel. In his right arm he held a pump action shotgun, though the barrel was facing the floor his finger still seemed to be on the trigger, the Idea of no sudden movements or sounds quickly sprung to mind. In his left hand He held something, a canteen of sorts. He was busy pouring out the content of the container all over the dust and what was left of the head of Medusa, Some sort of Yellow Liquid…. That Smell… was that Gasoline?

Putting away the container the man pulled out some matches lighting one, a small burst of yellow fire coming to life as he did, before tossing the small flame on the gasoline soaked remains of Medusa, setting the dust, her head and the vegetation around her alight with yellow and orange flames.

That was when he finally turned and I got to see the man's face for the first time. Hardened is the first word that comes to mind, along with terrifying thanks to the menacing glow made by the growing flames. His face was that of someone who didn't smile at least not often and was stuck in an aggressive frown. He appeared about mid thirties to early forties in age and defiantly wasn't doing anything to hide it. His eyes where menacingly dark and focused, nothing seemed to break his concentration or penetrate his focus. His head was shaved bald along with his face, revealing 3 defining scars along with many other faded cuts, knocks and bruises. A single scar under the left side of his chin, another running from his crown to the top of his left eye, and the final most horrifying wound of them all the; burn. It ran from the top of the right side of his face, where his hair line would have been if he was not bald to the bottom of his chin. The burn reached parts of his check, his neck, forehead and getting disturbingly close to his right eye, close enough that I was surprised his eye even worked. They were a mix of second degree burns and a few third degrees with no conceivable pattern or clear point of most damage. The burn also seemed old, it had obviously had some time to heal but it defiantly looked horrible, and painful.

I was so caught up on his burn that I nearly didn't notice the man reloading his shotgun… with Celtic bronze bullets.

I gasped audible, quickly regretting my decision as soon as the man looked up from his activities. His piercing glare focused on me and I immediately felt very, very small. Looking to Grover for some sort of support, only to find the Satyr was unconscious, steadily breathing as he lied face first in the gravel. Mentally groaning I too no comfort in the fact I could not see Tim from where I was but I was sure he was in no state to help me at this moment of time either.

I did not realize how close the man was until I felt his shadow loom over me. His body seemed to block out the light from the sun covering me in a dark shadow and hiding the man's face from my eyes, the only thing I could see of his face was the faint glow of his eyes as he stared down at me.

The though of running away jumped into my head but I was quickly reminded that the man had a shotgun when the barrel moved disturbing close to my head, almost touching the top of my scalp.

It was then he chose to spoke. "Get your friends in the truck before this place burns down, or stay if you want. Whatever you choose make it quick." The man spoke, his voice was deep and monotone with a gravel to it. His words where short and sharp, almost like he was making sure that I would not mishear him.

A part of me almost thought I did.

The man walked away from me, his heavy footsteps echoing through my head. He stopped before turning to me resting the shotgun on his right shoulder, him hand still holding on to the grip, and finger on the trigger. "I'll be back in a few minutes. If you and your friends are in the truck I'll take you as far as you're going, In MY direction. If you and your friends are not in my truck, you're no longer my problem. Understand?" The man spoke, his voice remaining even without the slightest bit of passion.

He did not remain long enough for me to answer because he began to walk away before I could even open my mouth.

It took a moment but I finally managed to find my voice once more, however only one thing came out, a single, barely audible question. "What's your name?" I asked, regretting the words as they came out, it was a stupid question. One that would get me nowhere in figuring out this man's motives, who he is… what he is. Why was he helping us?

He didn't stop walking, didn't look back, But he did respond.

"Names Ode Ulysses, Don't get use to it, your not going to be using it for long." He responded before walking deeper into the greenhouse, Shotgun over shoulder and his back to me. Leaving me alone with my injured friends, a old Pick-up truck, a raging fire (That was really starting to do a number on the garden) and the melting remains Of Medusa's head, the bloodied flesh melting away as fire consumed the skull of the monster that had nearly killed all of us.

…What have we gotten ourselves into?

I am such a bad writer… Or at least I'm bad at time… probably both.

I had no intention to leave this chapter for so long, I really didn't but things began to build up and problems arose… I do enjoy writing this story for all honesty, Its probably my most favourite Idea I have had for a story for a while. I just need to get better at managing my time… and other stuff.

I don't want to directly copy the first books story line, it just won't fit with what is going on…

Medusa got a buff! In fact I'm pretty sure all the monsters will be getting some sort of buff in one way or another. I hope I wrote her well… I tried to go for the lonely old lady for her… well a lonely old lady who is part snake, can turn people to stone and is a sociopath, but mostly just lonely.

And who is this Ode Ulysses anyway? We will just have to wait and see.

To be honest I was originally going to release theses as two separate chapters but I decided against it because hey, you guys deserve a little extra for waiting so long… Next one shouldn't be this long though… hopefully.

Goodbye for now.