Chapter 19
Jason
"Vulture hides...little morsels...vulture hides," before those words could die away, he hopped off the ledge, twisting in the process, grasped the edge – ceasing his fall – dropping the remaining few feet to the cavern floor. Feet settled, he drew his sword, and sprinted toward the brazier.
He had no idea what awaited him. He had no idea if he would be too late. All he knew was Annabeth and Nico – his brother and sister-in-arms – were in danger and needed help. As he ran, he feared being too long in coming. It only took him a handful of seconds to reach the center of the room, but, to him, each of those seconds felt like their own little eternity.
Once he got past the bronze fire-pit, he shouted, "Annabeth...Nico, move!"
They both twisted toward the sound of his voice, but neither seemed to register the words. There was nothing for it. He couldn't see the creature against the dark-shadows and weak-light, but it didn't matter. He knew where the voice originated from and that's where he aimed his right-shoulder to left-hip downward slash.
Not knowing what awaited the impact: metal, flesh, bone, or stiffened leather, he had no intention of holding back. Utilizing all his fear, all his adrenaline, he unleashed the violent attack. The sword moved so quickly, he could hear the tip whistle as it tore across the air. When it reached the point where he expected to feel resistance – he received a nasty shock – nothing was there. The sword past through the space above the hides and kept on going. He had committed so fully to the follow-through, he went with the blade – tumbling forward onto his backside.
"Ooommph," he grunted, landing.
A bubbling rasp echoed through the chamber. "Quick little morsel...very quick, but speed will not avail you here." Jason's eyes darted around, trying to pin-point the voice's origin. "You cannot see me, little morsel...not here...not unless I wish it."
"What are you?" he shouted into the void.
The demon chuckled, "Names are power, little morsel. What do you offer?"
That was a first. Normally, talkative monsters love nothing more than to brag about themselves. He couldn't recall ever hearing of one that wanted to charge you, just to hear its name. Although unusual, it did afford him a unique, possibly exploitable, opportunity.
After recovering himself, he moved over to his companions – whom likewise had recovered from their temporary fright – and called out, "What are you charging?"
The chuckle rumbled again, but this time it sounded more solid...more real. He whipped his head toward one of the pillars, and, just for a second, thought he saw a large blue shape lumbering out of the shadows, before vanishing.
"I think I just saw it," he whispered to Annabeth and Nico.
The voice rumbled, "Unknown...what do you have that I will not be able to pick from your bones?"
Annabeth whispered back, "What did it look like?"
"Is it a spirit," asked Nico.
"I've heard that one before," he shouted back – he really hadn't – before quietly replying to his friends, "Big and blue...you can't tell?"
"That's all you saw," she asked, incredulous.
Nico shook his head.
He glowered at them. "Just watch the pillars. I'm pretty sure it's circling us."
"Have you?" the thing said. "I would much like to hear, when."
Jason flashed a fierce confident grin, out into the room. "Is that your price?"
"Perhaps," the monster replied, interested. "It would of course depend upon the quality of your answer."
"There," declared Nico, "whatever it is just vanished by the pillar – to the left of the lower stairs."
"Did you get a good look," inquired Jason, without turning to glance.
"No more than you did," he answered. "Big and blue. Weird thing was I saw it in the shadows, then lost it in the light."
Jason and Annabeth glanced back at the blue embers, gathered in the base of the brazier. Then they peered at one another.
He dipped his head at the flames, silently asking, "You think?"
She nodded, "Yeah." She cut her eyes back and forth between Nico, the vulture hide rug, and the brazier. Then, using her hands, motioned him to keep the thing talking.
"I need a guarantee," he challenged. "If I tell you, and you decide it isn't worth your name, will you at least reveal yourself, so that I might guess?"
"Hmmm," it growled, thinking it over. "It would do you little good, seeing me, morsel. None that have looked upon me, have lived to speak of it."
Well, that was problematic. He had been hoping Annabeth would be able to identify the thing and suggest a strategy for taking it down. Now, even if he managed to get the creature to appear, they would still be up the creek without a clue, what to do.
He stopped to ponder their options.
There was the rug and the coals. If he and Annabeth were on the right track; they just needed to extinguish the blue were-light, and presto...the monster would instantly appear. Though, that didn't mean the monster would be easy to dust, afterward. He gazed over at the doorway, leading down. If he continued to stall – and they played their cards right – maybe they could make a break for it, while the blue beast wandered around the far side of the room. On the more narrow corridor they could beat a fighting retreat. Rug or retreat? If only one of them had brought a shield.
"Very well," the stalker grumbled, "Even should your tale prove...disappointing, I shall reveal myself, before devouring you."
Jason gave a mental shrug. Stalling would work, either way. "It was almost four years ago," he began, "when word of a giant...shark," Jason suppressed a shiver. Though his recovered memory felt grainy and disjointed, just recalling the menacing image of the Trojan Sea Monster, Ketos made the hair on the back of his neck leap skyward, "reached Consul Lupa's furry ears."
"Hmmm," rumbled the monster. "A shark, you say?" The thing sounded pleased. "Much like myself, it is a predator of the shadows. The prey never sees it coming, until it is too late." A deep ruffling sound echoed through the chamber; the thing was chuckling. "Yes. A very fine predator...if...simple."
Jason absorbed the facts of the monster's comments, filing them away while he whispered to Annabeth and Nico the crux of his two ideas. They nodded and whispered back their understanding. Nico then moved behind the vulture-hide rug – his back to the lower stairs – watching the side of the cavern, where they had entered. Jason took Nico's spot, opposite Annabeth. If the son of Hades, noticed the monster moving around one of the stone columns, he would move a step back, signaling Jason and Annabeth to toss the rug over the brazier, before the three of them made a run for it. In the meantime, he was to continue the story, while the daughter of Athena tried to catch her own glimpse of the beast. Hopefully, she would be able to identify the monster or, at the very least, a potential weak-spot.
"In California, or anywhere for that matter," continued Jason, "A shark attack is startling, but not exactly unheard of. For awhile, it will cause a superficial panic and beach closings. There may even be an expedition called, to track down and slay the hungry fish – if the mortals feel adequately threatened." A contemptuous snarl rippled through the blue were-light, adding more weight the air of menace. Jason soldiered on. "However, the sense of danger mortals experience is nothing compared to what the children of Rome feel. Before the Greeks sacked the city of Troy, the descendants of the ancient metropolis were haunted by a lingering curse..."
Suddenly the wavering shadows, the flickering illumination, and the confining gray columns seized Jason's consciousness; hurling him back into his own memories. His eyes fluttered, and everything around him changed. He no longer stood in the middle of a cramped dungeon; instead he found himself trapped inside a steel cage. The scents of mold and death were replaced by the salt and brine of the sea. The air formerly so still and cold, now felt warm as it blew across his face.
"...sure about this Octavian?" Bobby asked, his hands hovering near the control panel that operated the boom, from which Jason's cage dangled over the Pacific Ocean. Bobby was different than the last time Jason had seen him, but he also looked exactly as Jason remembered him – more than three years ago. The son of Mars wore his, formally common, short-sleeved purple polo shirt, the one with the gold embroidered eagle soaring above the academy's initials: H.M.A. Though he still had nearly eight inches to grow and about seventy more pounds of muscle to add, Bobby still made the thing seem tiny; despite the fact it was a man's large. The guy always had been, and always would be Hadrian's version of "The Hulk".
Jason readjusted his scuba suit's goggles as his eyes swiveled to the string-bean young man standing to Bobby's right. Octavian Egnatius, was two years older than Jason and Bobby, and he embodied everything that was wrong with the rulers of the latter day Roman Empire. He was overly ambitious, greedy, and narrow minded in the "grand scheming" kind-of-way. Tell Octavian they needed to build a simple fort, and he would design a castle. Which is why the guy had chosen Bobby and Jason to accompany him. Octavian wanted to be Praetor and saw the sons of Jupiter and Mars as potential obstacles. In hindsight, the way he wished their mission to go was obvious. Jason was meant to die being the bait, and Bobby would die of wounds, thereafter.
"Of course I'm certain," snapped Octavian, moving over to the small fishing boat's oversized mounted harpoon gun. Octavian rapped the side of the cannon. "This is all the Imperial Gold we need," he said, gleaming at the sun-fire tip. Bobby opened his mouth to protest, but Octavian never slowed down. "Besides, if the the cage were made of Celestial Bronze or Imperial Gold, then Ketos would never come..."
"Near the pillar behind you," pointed out Annabeth, drawing Jason back into the here and now. "I think it's some kind of gorilla monster."
Jason's face felt flushed. He drew in a deep breath and rubbed his eyes, trying to dispel the queasiness that followed his surprising mental jaunt. "What makes think that?" he asked.
"The silhouette was overly muscled and slouched over short legs; the head fell along the same line: oversized jaw, flat nose, sloped forehead, and I'm pretty sure I saw some pointed canines, protruding between its lips." Once her description was complete; Annabeth seemed to notice his disorientation. He racked his brain, trying to come up with a believable and diverting explanation. They couldn't afford a distraction. Particularly, a distraction he didn't understand himself. Perhaps it was a new side-effect from Juno's mental reboot. – a potentially fatal side-effect.
Nico solved the problem, temporarily. "You noticed all that!" he exclaimed. "What did it do...pose for a picture?"
A good question – a problematic question, if they allowed it to interfere with the matter-at-hand. Fortunately, Annabeth – aside from a single twitching brow – didn't rise to the irritatingly phrased skepticism. Instead, she coolly responded, "I think we're dealing with a Eurynomos."
"How––"
The Eury–whatever spoke, "Continue morsel...or be devoured."
Jason, for only a scant second, hesitated – weighing the pros and cons of continuing to play for time. If Annabeth had truly deduced the creature's identity...then there was no longer any need to stall. That also meant there was no need to risk a hallucination relapse. On the other hand, Athena's daughter seemed even more wary, now. Conclusion: this thing was likely as bad as its boasts...
"Thanks to our history with sea-monsters, we tread carefully whenever near the sea," Jason explained. "It begins with Laomedon, Father of Priam, Grandfather of Hector and Paris, former King of Troy. The story goes has two origins. In one, Neptune and Apollo came to Laomedon seeking to serve penance for rebelling against Jupiter; in the other, the King asked of them a favor. Either way, the gods agreed. Apollo tended and blessed Troy's flocks, while Neptune worked strengthening and building Troy's walls."
"I do not care for history, morsel," warned the Eurynomos.
Jason's jaw firmed and his eyes narrowed. It did not do, showing enemies weakness. He fired back, "Hey! You asked for the story, and I will tell it...My way!" He took a second to moderate his tone. "Now, like I was saying: favor or punishment. Personally, I think it was favors because afterward King Laomedon raised a grand temple to Apollo. Regretfully, I think he also refused Neptune's requested payment. That's when he cursed Troy, and the Ketos began haunting our shores. And no matter where we go...no matter how many times we vanquish it...the colossal terror always returns. That's when it happened. Four..."
Again the Underworld cavern slipped away, and Jason again found himself gazing upon his past.
"...forty feet," Octavian barked at him – hate and fire dripping from his voice. "Mortals have been ensnaring larger fish for centuries." Utter contempt for mortals, Jason always hated that most about Octavian. "Now lower the boom," the elder demigod shouted at Bobby.
Bobby gave him a last, questioning look. Jason nodded – the rubber-latex dive suit pulled at his close cropped hair, and the chain-mail chinked next to his ear – and the future First Spear consigned him to the briny deep. The primordial cold of the ocean enveloped him, but it was a small distant sensation – insulated as he was by the scuba gear. What truly seeped into him was fear. Breathing through his aperture he bobbed inside the steel box, bait for a legendary predator. Why a Legion retiree had decided to open a charter fishing business; Jason hadn't a clue, but then again Albert Masterson never possessed a sensible reputation, even before coming to the academy.
For nearly an hour, he tread the salty swill three miles off shore of Mendocino. His thoughts drifting with the tide. Then came the bellow. Low and gnashed to the point he barely could decipher the words, "Meat...Sacrifice." That alien voice made his skin crawl. An enormous, sleek shape ascended out of the darkness. Like the fearsome great white shark, Ketos was dark across his back and white along his bottom, but unlike ordinary sharks, this behemoth was ridged with back curving spines before and after his single massive dorsal fin. Jason barely noticed the rows of pale, serrated teeth; lost as he was in the monster's great black eyes. For the second time in his life, Jason truly recognized one of the Death's many masks. Ketos accelerated toward him. Jason unsheathed his Celestial Bronze sword...
And barely intercepted the Eurynomos's strike. The monster's massive arm blew through his defense, catapulting him into the air. Surprised to be airborne, Jason barely had time to register the gorilla like creature's roar for what it was: pain. It must have cut itself on the blade, he concluded, before crashing into one of the loose piles of bone. Several points dug into him, and he released his weapon reflexively to clutch at his ribs and back.
Dazed and momentarily disabled, Jason watched as Annabeth drew her knife and stabbed at the Eurynomos's right side. The blue beast's form blurred, and Annabeth's dagger past through the monster, as if it were air. The nightmarish thing rounded on her – its bulk solidifying – and hefted one its claw tipped hands. But before it could unleash its attack on the startled daughter of Athena; Nico struck. Much as it had done with Annabeth, the Eurynomos rippled, becoming transparent; however, unlike Annabeth's golden blade, Nico's pitch black iron sliced a deep and vicious wound into the creature's insubstantial flesh.
Again the monster unleashed an agonized roar, while faint golden ichor sluiced down one of its short, hairy legs. Then it vanished.
"Jason," called Annabeth, her eyes casting frantic glances amongst the shadows, "are you okay?"
He he levered himself and groaned. "Fine...what's another scar or two between friends," he replied, trying to a lay worry and fear. Judging from the stark set of Nico and Annabeth's jaw, he hadn't succeeded. He pressed on. "I think it's time to put that fire out...don't you?"
"Right," she agreed. "Nico grab the rug."
Nico paused. "But it won't..."
"That Eurynomos was sitting on it, before," she snapped. "Now come on."
They laid down their arms and reached for the black feathered throw. That's the when the monster chose to reappear. From behind Nico, it raised both arms; its hands clinched into a double fist, intending to crush the child of Hades with one blow. Though, it still hadn't yet fully reformed; Jason didn't hesitate. He grabbed a skull from the pile and heaved it at the gorilla-monster's head. It shattered on impact and staggered the beast, buying his friends the precious seconds they needed to turn off the lights.
Everything grew dimmer, but the unusual nature of the Underworld still left the chamber brighter enough to see. The Eurynomos snapped into solid form, and went wild. "No!" It flailed dangerously raking one of Nico's shoulders and missing Annabeth by a hair.
Not wanting to take any chances, and without understanding why, Jason reached down and clutched a long narrow bone. Broken and jagged on one end, the son of Jupiter charged the monster's back, grasping the shaft of calcium like a spear and lunged, burying the bleach white weapon between the Eurynomos's shoulder blades.
The blue-black creature convulsed, falling off to the side, tipping over the brazier. The blue iridescent coals skittered across the floor across the floor. The Eurynomos became opaque once more, but the bone-spear never wavered. The monster drew a ragged breath and spluttered, "You were lying, morsel. I saw your mind as it drifted between the real and the dream." It rasped out a chuckle. "But it no longer matters." Jason cautiously skirted around the dying thing, to look it in the eye. The black spheres were already glossing over and the mask of Death had shattered, but it still managed to focus on him – even as its body began vanishing like smoke caught in the breeze. "We shall meet again...Jason, in the void of night. My master will be most pleased, when I bring to him your soul. Most pleas..." The Eurynomos was gone.
Nico pulled in a sharp quick breath. "What'd you think that means?"
Jason shrugged and winced – his ribs were at least bruised, if not cracked. "Any ideas?" He asked Annabeth.
She shook her head, "Nothing comes to mind...not yet."
First up, I want to extend a couple of writer recommendations. A couple of guys DuesNk3 and Tears of a Spirit have been helping me out, and even recommending my stories to their respective readers. I ask anyone that is following my stories, and feels like checking out a couple of young writers, to hop over to their profiles and give their stories a shot. Thanks again guys, and thanks in advance to anyone that checks out their work(s).
Now to address this latest hiatus. There have been some personal things (nothing major), some selfish things (falling into yet another book series), and some sort of professional things (getting back into school and starting to write my own non-FanFic book) that have diverted my attention from this story. I won't to get back to updating fairly regularly, but I don't know that that will be possible, mostly because of those last two items - just so you know.
Thanks for the patience. I hope everyone has had a good first month of the Gregorian New Year. I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter, and as always, thanks for reading.