Sunny frowned. “Yes, Lord Zeus, this does sound like a crisis situation. May I inquire why you did not seek us out earlier? We could have helped to slow down the progression of this war.”
I held back a snort as my eyes flicked back to the black-furred centaur. “Well, the centaurs have not been very . . . friendly, shall we say, toward us in the past. Plus, we were busy dealing with the Knowing,” Zeus explained, also looking pointedly at the big centaur from our first adventure in the big meadow.
“Ah, the Knowing. Many rumors of such societies have been told throughout the ages between groups of centaurs, but I am intrigued to find out that at least some of them are true,” Sunny stated diplomatically, though I could tell that he did not really care at all about the Knowing. He just kept glancing curiously back and forth between us and the black-furred centaur, probably feeling threatened by his lack of knowledge. “And by the looks on your faces, I’m assuming that you have met Anton before?”
Poseidon frowned, dusting off his golden trident, and said dryly, “If you mean did he try to kill us when we were only seven years old, then yes, we have met Anton.”
Sunny gasped and glared at Anton. “What were you thinking, trying to kill the gods? You are crazier than I thought you were, old man!”
“I am not much older than you,” Anton growled menacingly at Sunny, his yellow eyes flashing as he stomped a large hoof on the ground. “Plus, we did not know that they were gods and, back then, neither did they.”
Sunny’s mouth set in a hard line as he chose to ignore Anton’s rude tone, determined to keep on topic and to appear in control of the situation. He cleared his throat and asked, stroking the short goatee on his chin, “So where is your camp? And when should we bring more soldiers?”
“Do you know where Pan’s hideout is?” Zeus responded, and Sunny nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that’s where most of the army is camped. Send a third of your centaurs there by nightfall. You can stay here at your camp to lead the rest of your troops into battles on this side of the river. If we need more help, we’ll send Hermes to let you know.”
Sunny nodded again and bowed his head one last time. “It was an honor to meet you, my gods.”
“Likewise. And thanks for not trying to kill us again,” Apollo replied, taking another cautious glance at Anton, who still looked angrily at Sunny.
The Monster Watch quickly waved good-bye to the group of centaurs then we crawled back through the bush full of thorns to start our treacherous return trek to the army base camp. Even though retracing our steps was much easier, the walk was still almost two hours long. No monsters had bothered us so far and I was trying to figure out whether that was a good thing or bad. I knew the fact that we hadn’t run into any monsters could very well mean that our troops were greatly outnumbered at the battle by our own meadow.
When we finally reached the river, Poseidon parted the waters again and we raced to the army camp on the other side. I couldn’t help but notice that there were almost no Knowing Warriors, nymphs, or satyrs around the camp, meaning that they were all fighting or injured. Beginning to worry, the three boys and I ran over to the map of the forest to move our pieces back to the army camp and to check on the position of the troops, since we hadn’t heard anything over our walkie-talkies in a long time.
According to the map (and assuming it was up-to-date), Hera, Ares, and half of our troops were still battling a group of undead warriors near the small meadow, and someone had even made a new figurine to represent Alec, which was stationed at the same spot. That group had also been joined by Demeter and Aphrodite. Meanwhile, Artemis, Pan, Dionysus, and a few of Artemis’s huntress nymphs were busy battling the Hydra, a ferocious monster with multiple heads, farther down the river and south of the army camp. The map had Hephaestus stationed in the town, hopefully making more weapons, and in theory Hestia was right here at the camp.
Sure enough, Hestia walked out of one of the large tents a minute later and smiled. “Hey, you’re back!” she exclaimed in that soft voice of hers. “How did it go with the centaurs?”
“Fine,” Zeus replied with a sigh. “A third of them are being sent over here later tonight. What have you been up to?”
Hestia combed her fingers through her long, light brown hair. “Oh, not much,” she answered, gesturing to the tent she had just come out of. “I’ve been helping out in the infirmary. Luckily, there haven’t been too many serious injuries or deaths, but I should probably be heading home soon.”
“Same here,” Apollo agreed with a yawn. “I’ll walk with you.” With that, they collected their things and strode out of camp together, heading east toward Main Street while Zeus, Poseidon, and I watched them slowly disappear into the trees.
Not five minutes later, Artemis called in over the walkie-talkie to inform everyone listening that she and Dionysus had killed the Hydra and were heading back to their houses while Pan and the huntress nymphs were coming back to the camp. Soon after, Hera, Ares, Demeter, Alec, and Aphrodite also agreed to retreat for the night, since their battle had pretty much reached a stalemate, for better or for worse.
“Are you two ready to go home?” Zeus asked, and Poseidon and I shrugged, not caring one way or the other. “All right then, let’s go,” Zeus continued, deciding for us. “I’m starved.”
A few minutes later, we were on our way home, keeping as quiet as we possibly could to avoid running into any sort of monsters. We had walked well over seven miles that day and our feet were screaming in pain. We had only been walking for fifteen minutes when my shoelace caught on a bush, as if demanding I stop for just a few moments, and I just barely avoided falling on my face.
“I’ll catch up with you guys,” I groaned, waving at Zeus and Poseidon to carry on without me. They nodded quietly and disappeared into the bushes. Sighing, I stood back up after retying my shoelace and was about to start running after the two boys when I heard a high-pitched evil laugh coming from somewhere off to my left. Without the slightest hesitation, I raced to where I thought the sound was coming from, ignoring the low-hanging branches that slapped my face and the pain of my tired feet. I was so focused that I didn’t even bother to call Zeus and Poseidon for help.
I burst into a small clearing just in time to see none other than Alec dive into a bush and out of the range of a giant, green snake tail that was aiming to knock him down. My eyes slowly followed the tip of the snake tail all the way up to the point where the opalescent scales faded away into the pale-skinned torso of Echidna, the half-nymph, half-serpent “Mother of all Monsters.” Her long, dark hair flowed elegantly over her shoulders as she spun her head around and her beady, black eyes settled on me. “What do we have here?” she hissed under her breath.
Hearing Echidna’s comment, Alec chose that moment to poke his head out of the bush, his dark hair now covered in dead leaves and cobwebs. “Hey, Athena, what’s up?”
“Not much. How are you doing?” I responded, trying to appear equally calm. We did, in fact, have a slight advantage over Echidna, since her long, heavy tail made it difficult to maneuver around the dense trees and brush, and by the look on his face, I was certain Alec realized that as well. After all, every capable fighter knows that sometimes an environment itself can be used as a dangerous weapon.
Alec smirked, twirling his sword around in one hand but still keeping his bright blue eyes on me, and replied, “I’m okay. You know, just fighting a monster.”
Only a few feet away, Echidna looked momentarily confused as she glanced back and forth between Alec and me, wondering why we were almost completely ignoring a frightful creature like her. The frown on her face told me that she was quite offended, but then she shook her pretty little head, refocusing on trying to kill us quickly and efficiently. I had to bite back a laugh when the beautiful monster lunged at Alec. She had twisted her tail around a tree without even realizing it and was forced to pause her attack to extricate herself. Alec easily rolled out of the way, not even bothering to try to strike back yet.
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I smiled as I nonchalantly leaned back against the rough bark of a tree trunk to watch the scene play out in front of me, waiting for my turn to take a whack at the beast. Meanwhile, Echidna lunged at Alec again and, again, Alec jumped out of the way. Glaring with rage, Echidna then swung her fifteen-feet-long tail in the opposite direction, hoping to catch Alec off guard and knock him down. Unfortunately for the monster, Alec, still smirking, just leaped over her tail as if it were a jump rope, which only enraged Echidna even further.
With a cry of anger and frustration, Echidna whirled around, this time slithering swiftly after me, and I had to jump over her gigantic tail like Alec to get out of her way. I heard the monster let out a hiss from behind me and instinctively somersaulted forward so that she couldn’t squeeze me to death in the thick coil of her tail. I stood up quickly and gave Alec a high five, ready for more. Our little game of teasing Echidna continued for another couple of minutes until she opened her mouth to call for help from other monsters.
“On three?” Alec suggested, deciding it was about time that we stopped toying around with her, and I nodded wordlessly. “One, two, three!” And we took off toward the monster, Alec to the left and me to the right. Before Echidna even had time to think about which way to turn, Alec had launched himself into the air and was flying over her serpent half, a confident gleam in his eyes. Echidna only let out a bloodcurdling wail as the sharp, inward-curving blade of Alec’s kopis sword sliced cleanly through the end of her tail.
The monster continued to try to trap Alec in her strong tail, but now offbalance, Echidna had to lean against a decomposing log to keep herself from falling forward, leaving a gaping hole in her defense. The half-nymph, half-serpent spun her head around to get a better look at the damage and started to whimper as her golden-green monster blood gushed out of the open wound. Finally choosing to put Echidna out of her misery, I took a deep breath before hurling my spear at her and, with a sickening thud, it sank deep into her heart, just below her brassiere made of leaves and grass. A thin stream of blood had just started to trail down her flat stomach when Echidna, as well as the severed piece of her tail that lay a few paces away, crumbled to dust.
Letting out a small sigh of relief, I walked over to the log and retrieved my short spear, wiping off Echidna’s sticky blood on the lush, green grass. “Nice job,” I told Alec with a nod of approval.
“You too,” he replied, walking over to join me.
Suddenly, we heard a rustle in the bushes from behind us, and both Alec and I whirled around to face the sound, weapons raised and at the ready once again. But it was lucky that I didn’t release my spear right away, because it was just Zeus and Poseidon. “Is everything all right?” Zeus asked, panting. “We heard a scream.”
Alec chuckled as his sword abruptly changed back into its rock form and he stuffed it into his pocket. “Yeah, you heard the scream of Echidna. We’re all good now.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Poseidon huffed, “but it means we just ran all the way back here for no reason!”
Alec grinned, adrenalized. “You’re always welcome to hunt down some more monsters. I know I’d be down for more.”
I couldn’t tell if that was supposed to be a joke or not, so I turned to face him, taking the chance to study the young hero more closely. Overall, Alec looked good—well, no worse than he did the night before. I could see no new major wounds on his body, although he was still wearing all of his armor so it was hard to be sure. Nevertheless, I sighed and out of concern told him quietly, “Alec, don’t follow me home tonight, okay?” He needed to take a break from being so imperiously brave, from being so much like us gods.
Alec just stared at me, slightly confused. “Why not? Is Cole going to be there?” he growled in a low voice.
“No, of course not,” I answered quickly, readjusting my ponytail that had been messed up in the fight with Echidna. “It’s just that you need to get some rest and I don’t want you walking all the way back to camp from my house alone after what happened last night. We need you to be strong enough to help lead the battles.”
Alec sighed, running his fingers through his dark hair in deep thought. Then he took a step closer to me and with one eyebrow arched, he whispered suggestively, “What if I can’t fall asleep?”
I smirked. “You’re smart; I’m sure you’ll think of something. Now, you’re less than fifteen minutes away from camp. Do you think it’s at all possible for you to make it back without running into a monster?” Alec laughed, and it was difficult not to join in. “I’m serious. This path you’re on is reckless,” I said as I looked into his deep blue eyes, suddenly not sure which path I was really talking about—the physical or metaphorical one.
Alec must have caught on to what I was thinking, though, because he whispered back mysteriously, “So is yours.” Without another word, he waved good-bye and sprinted off toward the army camp hidden in the trees.
Once we’d gotten word over our walkie-talkies that Alec had, in fact, arrived safely at the camp, Zeus, Poseidon, and I changed our course, now heading southwest for our own houses because it was almost dinnertime. Just over half an hour later, we had reached the edge of the forest. Carefully, the two brothers and I took all of our armor off and hid the pieces in trees so no one would find them. As soon as we stepped outside of the forest, we were abruptly forced back into the reality of our human lives when the headlights of my father’s old pickup truck, which was driving toward us, lit up the darkness, illuminating our faces.
“Do you want to come over to our house for a while?” Zach offered in a low voice, in English.
I just shrugged as my drunken father slammed the door of his truck and headed into the house without even giving the three of us a second glance; he was too busy trying to walk in a straight line. I silently thanked the Fates that my idiot father hadn’t gotten in an accident while driving intoxicated, but all of a sudden, I realized he probably had a lot of practice and it had never even crossed my mind before. I made a mental note to confront him about that later when he was at least slightly more stable.
“Hey, what if we just stayed in the forest?” I wondered aloud, wishfully staring off into the distance.
Luke glanced at me with a confused look on his face, his brow furrowed. “What do you mean? We can’t just leave our families.”
“No, I mean during the war. You know as well as I do that Hades will probably be carrying out some surprise attacks at night in the near future and we should be there to support the troops, especially since the other gods wouldn’t be able to. They still have to sneak out into the woods and lie to their parents, remember?” I explained slowly, getting more and more excited about the idea by the second. “It’s also a good way to smuggle better food to the troops, so they won’t have to eat berries and deer all the time.”
“I see where you’re coming from,” Zach started, running his fingers through his dirty blond hair. “But what do you suppose we’re going to tell our parents? And do you think they will actually let us go? Even if they don’t really show it, they aren’t very happy that we go into the forest all the time. Especially your mom.”
“Easy,” I replied with a shrug. “We’ll go camping. It’s not really a lie. We’d be staying in tents anyway and my dad will probably let me go without a second thought, drunk or not. He always has. I just won’t tell my mom.”
Zach sighed. “All right, but tell us if your dad says yes or no and then we’ll ask our parents.”
I nodded and the three of us were about to walk across the street when a voice called out to us from farther down the dark, quiet road. “Hey, stop! Ashley, is that you?” came the befuddled voice of Cole. I only exchanged irked glances with Zach and Luke, knowing the fact that Cole had sought me out this late in the day could not mean good things. Plus, after an entire day of negotiating with centaurs and running around the forest, none of us were really in the mood to converse politely with him.
“I swear,” Luke began in a low voice,
shaking his head, “if a monster doesn’t kill Cole by the end of this war for being just plain nosy and annoying, I will.” Zach and I just laughed, ready to get our conversation with Cole over with.
Chapter 7
HE KNOWS
So, um, where have you been all day?” Cole asked me, ruffling his caramel-colored hair nervously.
His question alone made me want to walk away from him right then. First of all, we had just walked out of the forest so wasn’t it obvious where I had been? And second of all, Cole had absolutely no reason to know exactly where I was at every second of the day. I belonged to no one.
“Well, we were in the forest. Where else would we be?” Luke shot back at him harshly, his blue eyes flashing, and like Zach, I held back a snicker.
Cole cleared his throat awkwardly, sensing the tension between all of us. He sighed and started, “All day? Oh, right, I guess I should’ve known . . .” His voice trailed off, and he nervously stuffed his hands into the pockets of his gray sweatpants before he continued, “I just wanted to see what’s been going on, I guess.”
“Cole, get to the point,” I said softly. “We don’t have all night.” As if to prove my point, a loud crash sounded from inside my dimly lighted house, followed by angry voices yelling. Cole glanced worriedly between Zach and Luke so I knew there was something he didn’t want to say in front of them. Unfortunately for Cole, I wasn’t in the mood to stick around after the brothers left. Rapidly tiring of his presence, I told him bluntly, “If there’s nothing else, we’ll be leaving now.”
“I—I just wanted to see if you wanted to do something with me tomorrow,” Cole finally sputtered, and Luke, Zach, and I raised our eyebrows. “And I had something . . . but never mind. I left it at home.”
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