Fighting Fate

Cassadee's POV
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You know all those stories you hear about demigods? Like, how Hercules went on world-wide quests to conquer every foe? Or when Achilles went on a journey to the River of Styx to become invulnerable?
Sounds fun, right?
Wrong.
Having a quest, as awesome as it sounds, is not always a basket of cupcakes and daisies. Sure, it's been fun having to tell Henry what to do, but things aren't nearly as easy as giving Henry the "Evil Eye" whenever he and Evan started arguing.
Dragging a half-conscious teenage demigod through a forest that was seemingly designed to trip people with tree roots, for example, is not easy or fun.
I groaned and rubbed my back when Evan and I carefully set the black-haired kid against a poky pine tree. Jake and Fiona were both trying to get Henry to drink some nectar and unicorn draught, but Henry just shooed them away with a hostile scowl on his face.
I rolled my eyes at the ridiculous sight, then began to wonder where the heck Henry had brought us.
Trees, massive pine trees that loomed over everyone's head, seemed to go on for miles and miles all around us. Far off in the distance, mountains rose up from the ground like rocky walls. The sun was just barely up over the horizon, and the pink light from the day's sunrise was beginning to fade.
I shivered and rubbed my hands together.
The air was frigid, and a soft wind blew through the trees like a draft billowing through a house's curtains.
The cold temperatures and surroundings reminded me a lot of the forest that encircled my family's old house back in Maine, and a little pang of longing went through my chest.
Shut up, feelings. I commanded myself. I've got more important things to worry about.
I turned my attention back to the incapacitated demigod. I still couldn't believe what Luke had done.
I mean, fighting off a Fury was impressive enough. But summoning a massive geyser to defeat a drakon? Now that was some serious monster butt-kicking.
It still felt like a dream that he was another child of the Big Three. Luke would be the first child of Poseidon since, well, the last child of the old sea god. Even though I'd just met Luke, I really hoped his life didn't end like the most recent child of Poseidon.
I wondered how Camp would react to another child of Poseidon.
Would they celebrate? Cast him out? I was starting to get more and more worried about Luke when a faint snore interrupted my thoughts.
Luke shifted in his sleep, then muttered something about marshmallows under his breath. Okay, I thought, That's not weird at all.
I forced myself closer to him, and I grimaced when I noticed how much blood was seaping out of the wound on his arm. Three distinct talon marks were oozing crimson blood, so I quickly darted to Jake's bag to grab some supplies.
Jake and Fiona, who had recently been joined by Evan, were still all circled around Henry. The stubborn son of Hades had just admitted defeat by taking a small square of ambrosia and eating it.
"Hey," Jake grinned lopsidedly. "Long time no see. How've you been?" He still looked the same as ever, with his trademark emerald green eyes and rusty red hair, and I smiled back.
"Eh, pretty good. You know, just fighting the occasional stray monster. Nothing too extreme." I stated.
Fiona practically tackled me with a hug, and then punched me in the shoulder. "Cassie! I've missed you so flippin' much! How's Camp? All the satyrs and nymphs okay? Have those stupid Ares kids stopped threatening to light that one tree on fire?" She spoke at such a fast pace that I could barely keep up. I noticed Fiona's fake feet had slipped off some point during the shadow-travel, so caramel colored hooves were in the place of her normal red Converse shoes.
I squirmed out of my best friend's death-grip hug, and said,"Er, I don't know if you guys have noticed or not, but Luke's in a bit of trouble."
Jake cursed under his breath, (which, believe it or not, is pretty common) and rushed to Luke's side with a bandage and a bottle full of nectar. He muttered some hymns underneath his breath, and a faint glowing came from Jake's hand as he hovered over Luke's cuts.
They healed ever-so-slightly, and Luke sighed contentedly in his sleep.
Then Jake doused a bandage in nectar, and just as he was about to wrap it around the kid, Henry let out a loud yelp.
The son of Hades was sprawled out on the damp ground behind a tree, with a confused look plastered on his face.
He had just completely passed through a solid tree as he'd tried to get up.
Jake balled his fists while giving the dripping bandage to me, then stormed over to Henry while shouting profanities. "How many times have I told you not to over exert yourself when shadow traveling? A lot! Remember that one time when you went from Camp Jupiter to Camp Halfblood in one trip? You almost died, you dolt!" Fiona and Evan scurried by his side.
I rolled my eyes, trying to remember what Chiron had taught me in Emergency First-Aid class. How were you supposed to bandage a talon wound again?
"Hold on, kid. This might hurt a bit." I murmered softly.
I carefully set the bandage against the cuts, and Lukas yelped in surprise while he jerked to a start.
"Ow." He muttered sleepily. His eyes, that were almost the exact color of a tropical ocean, flicked over me cautiously.
"Told you it was gonna hurt." I said curtly. I continued bandaging, but tried to be little more gentle.
Luke frowned, and his eyebrows creased together in a brooding look. "I'm dead. So why does my arm hurt so bad?"
I smiled slightly, then helped him to his feet. "Trust me, you're not dead. And hopefully you won't be for a long time."
Luke leaned carefully against a tree, and squinted at me again. "Cassadee, right?"
I flinched when he said my full name. "Cassie's fine." I hated it whenever someone called me by my real name. Cassadee sounded way too girlie and princess-like for me, so I had ditched it for Cassie or Cass a long time ago.
"Gotcha." Luke muttered. "I'm Lukas. Er-Luke, I guess. Either way."
I found myself smiling sympathetically as he stuttered through his introduction.
I figured that having two Furies as parents must really suck, but having to kill them to protect your friends? Jeez. Not fun. And then having to drag your best friend away from a drakon with such a terrifying look that it could paralyze people with a single glance? That was even worse.
I already had some respect for the scrawny kid.
The unclaimed son of Poseidon glanced over to where Henry and the rest of our group lay on the cold ground.
"What happened over there?" He asked.
I sighed. "You know that portal we just traveled through? It was made by the guy who's currently arguing with Jake about taking some meds."
"Oh." Was all he could say.
Evan, who'd already lost interest in Henry's predicament, was already setting about creating a makeshift camp. He grabbed a piece of purple silk no bigger than a scarp of paper from Jake's backpack, and muttered something softly.
The silk shimmered with a faint silver light for a second, then began to grow in size.
It unfolded multiple times at a fast pace, like I was watching some kind of backwards origami.
Eventually, it transformed into a larger-than-average camping tent that just barely glowed with a silvery light.
I whistled, impressed. "That's a nice new toy, Ev."
He cocked his sandy-blonde head in response, smiling smugly. "Yeah, it was a birthday gift from Aunt Thalia. Pretty cool, right?"
Luke was staring in shock and awe at the contraption, amusement and curiosity shining in his eyes.
"Pretty cool? Dude, that thing is awesome!" Luke stopped to sniff the air for a second. "Er, why does it smell like flowers and pinecones?"
Evan just shrugged and held up his palms. "I dunno. Hunters of Artemis are weird sometimes."
The mention of Artemis's helpers brought up a whole new conversation, and I decided that I would leave them to their budding bromance.
I decided to check on Henry and Jake again, and (shocker) they were still bickering.
"Just drink the flippin' unicorn draught. It doesn't even taste that bad." Jake stated.
Henry, who was seriously starting to remind me of a stubborn two year-old, simply turned up his nose and said,"Sorry, but I'm not really in the mood for barfing unicorn rainbows, Sunny Boy."
They continued to argue, until I interrupted. "For the sake of Olympus, just take the stupid medicine!"
Henry glared at me for a second, then took a swig of the unicorn draught concoction while making a disgusted face.
Jake turned to look at me, and stated,"We're running low on medical supplies. Can we go grab some?"
I shifted uncomfortably. I said silently to myself, Alright, let's do this leading thing.
"Sure. I'll go grab some stuff from a town." I responded. Jake quickly scribbled down a few supplies down on my hand (I could barely remember my phone number, let alone medical materials) and then I realized that I had no idea where the nearest town was, or even what state we were in. "Um-Where exactly is a town?" I asked.
Fiona crinkled her nose, then reported,"About a mile and a half due east. Someone's making waffles." She added with a slightly wistful tone.
Everyone laughed for a brief second, and then Luke happened to notice Fiona's goat legs.
"What the- Am I hallucinating...or is Fiona half-goat?!" Luke exclaimed.
Fiona blushed slightly, crossed her arms, then retorted,"Satyr, actually. Two very different creatures."
Luke, who seemed to be extremely flabbergasted, just held his mouth open in awe.
Jake, Evan and I all burst out laughing at his expressions, and even the son of Hades chuckled to himself. Fiona smirked.
"Well, on that note-" I continued. "I'd better get going to the town." I turned to leave camp with a small wad of cash in pocket, accompanied by the sheath for my dagger and sword on my hip, but Luke interrupted.
"Wait! Can I come with?" He said, and his pleading eyes reminded me of one of those sad little kittens in anti-animal abuse commercials.
I shrugged. "Sure, why not? Who knows, maybe I'll need a geyser at some point."


Lukas's POV
~~~~~~~~~~

I don't really know why I wanted to come with Cassie on her trip to a nearby town.
I mean, sure, she had saved my life once already, and was semi-nice, but when she announced she was leaving a moment of panic spread throughout me like a wildfire going through a dry desert. It was almost like some part of me knew that something bad would happen if she went by herself.
So, there I was, hiking through muddy terrain that was littered with sharp rocks. I'm pretty sure I stubbed my toe on a rock or tree root every three seconds.
Cassie looked confident as she strode by my side, and I had the suspicion that this wasn't the first time she had hiked through conditions like this.
A streak of brown mud in her blue highlight made me fight the urge to brush it off. I felt like she'd probably blast me with a lightning bolt if I did something even remotely close to that.
"So," I said to break the stony silence. "You're the leader of this quest?"
"More or less." Cassie said wearily.
"That Henry kid, I feel like you and him don't get along too well." I decided to not tell her about the dream where I'd seen the two of them arguing.
She glanced at me over her shoulder for a second, then responded with,"Yeah. We don't get along well at all, actually. It probably has to do with the whole Hades-Zeus feud thing."
"Oh." My chest deflated a little bit. Fiona and Jake had told me in our talk about the gods that children of the Big Three didn't always get along so well. The thought of not getting along with Cassie bothered me, but not just because she was pretty. She'd seemed like a good fighter from what I'd seen so far, and I had the feeling that making enemies with a daughter of Zeus was a bad idea.
I decided to change the subject.
"Jake kinda freaked out when he found out I was a son of Poseidon. How come?"
Cassie stiffened, and the only thing that answered my question for a few seconds were the sounds of crunching pineneedles underneath our feet.
"You're the first son of Poseidon to be born in...well, a while."
Something about the way she said that made me feel uneasy.
"Hold up, did something happen to the last child of Poseidon?"
She stopped walking for a second, and pivoted to face me. Cassie was running her thumb along the side of the blade she'd thrown at me earlier, which didn't make me feel a whole lot better about the current situation.
"Demigods never have an easy life, Luke. For the children of the Big Three, things are even worse. See, the last child of Poseidon was this guy named Perseus Jackson. Everyone says he was one of the greatest heroes of all time. Like, he survived going through the depths of Tartarus, for the gods' sake."
I didn't know what a "Tartarus" was, (Dr. Who, maybe?) but I didn't dare interrupt her.
"But, well, he was killed a few years ago. Monsters. His entire family died with him. He had a wife and two kids."
"Oh." I squeaked.
"Yeah." She said softly. The daughter of Zeus had a sympathetic look on her face. I figured that didn't happen often.
"That...sucks."
She sighed again. "No kidding. Most of the older counselors at Camp Halfblood don't like talking about it, because Perseus and his wife, Annabeth, were a pretty big deal."
We continued talking about Camp Halfblood and about various monsters that Cassie had encountered until we reached a baby blue sign that had flowery, white words on it.
"What's it say?" Cassie frowned.
I focused more. The letters swirled around for a few moments more before I could read what they said. Stupid dyslexia. "Johnstown, Pennsylvania, I think."
Something clicked in my head.
"Wait, I know this place! It has the Cambria Library, and this really awesome museum dedicated to the flood of 1889. Did you know that when the dam broke above Johnstown it killed 2,209 people? And-"
I stopped when I noticed Cassie was looking at me with one eyebrow cocked suspiciously.
"Oh, sorry. I was rambling, wasn't I?"
Cassie just laughed and shook her head. "Nah. You're fine. But how the Hades do you remember that? I can barely even remember when the Revolutionary War started."
"April 19th, 1775. Battle of Lexington and Concord. And I don't really know why or how I remember it, but I do. My mom... I mean the Fury, she was a history teacher at my school. Maybe that's why."
"Awesome. Remind me to call you up whenever I need tutoring." Cassie teased as we set towards the small town.
We were on the side of a street that had a perfect view of Johnstown.
The road sloped downwards toward the old-looking town, and the morning light reflected off the houses' red clay roofs, making it look like a blazing fire on the top of every house. Maybe that's not the best description.
Buildings that seemed to be almost ancient stood next to freshly-painted building complexes, which cast a rather weird vibe over the whole city.
We made our way through a strip mall crowded with people and lined with designer stores that I couldn't name, and I caught Cassie glancing at a petshop's window. Two little puppies were romping around together in the small glass enclosure, and I said, "I hate to be a jerk, but I'm pretty sure Henry would kill us if we brought back a puppy."
Cassie and I laughed at the thought of it, and continued on our way.
Eventually we came to a stop next to a convenience store called "Uncle Manny's Place."
"C'mon," Cassie said. "They'll probably have some supplies in here."
We entered the building, and a tinkling bell welcomed us.
For a second I thought the store was empty, but then I noticed a man in the back of the store who was behind the counter. He was extremely tall, and a head of greasy black hair almost covered his eyes that reminded me of the color of maple syrup. The man's skin was unnaturally pale, and to make this guy look even weirder he wore a tropical shirt with bananas on the front of it, along with a pair of khaki shorts.
"Oi! Welcome, customers!" He had a heavy accent, possibly Mediterranean. The man ushered us into the store, and Cassie sent a weary look to me. I hoped she was just trying to mentally tell me how loud the guy's shirt was.
"My name is Manny! How may I help you?"
Manny pronounced his name oddly, slurring the letters together so it sounded like he was saying "My knee."
"Um-" Cassie cleared her throat and looked down at her hand where Jake had written our needed supplies. "We just have to get a few things. Do you have some bandages or water bottles?"
Manny let out a booming laugh. "Why, of course my dear!" He ruffled Cassie's hair, and I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn't burst out laughing at the murderous look on Cassie's face as she smoothed her blonde hair back down.
Manny clapped his hands together, then called,"Jinny! Can you get these nice people their things?"
A women with hair redder than Jake's burst out from a back room, and started rummaging through the shelves upon shelves of products on the sides of the wall. And I hate to be mean, but the woman wasn't exactly good-looking. Her nose curved forward in an almost beak-like way, and beady brown eyes seemed to follow our every move. I recognized plenty of stuff on the walls, including candy, backpacks, and a few shirts.
The shirts seemed fairly beat up.
The woman was wearing some kind of dress that looked odd.
Is that a Kimono? I thought.
Flowers, I think they were cherry blossoms, lined the sides of the dress.
Cassie's hand was hovering above where her dagger was hidden in her waistband, and a cold feeling started to grow in my chest.
"Would you like a shirt? It's complimentary!" Manny pulled a shirt off the rack, and held it up for us to see.
It was a fiery orange, like the color of a smoggy sunset, and had some burns and slashes through it.
The writing on the front of it said Camp Halfblood.
Panic surged through me. "Go!" Cassie yelled as she darted to the door.
I was right by her side, but the lady in the kimono blocked us by leaping in front of the door and hissing.
The kimnono slipped off part of her body as she did so, and revealed her arms to be flaming red wings.
"Harpy!" Cassie gave me the dagger she'd thrown at me earlier, and we went back-to-back, her facing the Harpy and me facing whatever Manny was.
The unidentified monster chuckled.
"Oh, demigods." He said like we were annoying pets. "So easy to trick."
He snapped his fingers, and a shimmering force-field of light that I hadn't noticed before disappeared. This revealed that he had a furry face that was the color of rust, and reddish-tipped spikes lined his back like barbed wire.
Manny was still grinning, but instead of his normal beaming, human smile were three rows of teeth in the shape of a snarl. His eyes glowed with a red light that seemed to just scream crazy.
Cassie said a few choice words under her breath in a language I didn't recognize, but I did happen to catch "filthy manticore" and "stupid mist."
Manny the Manticore (haha, wonder how long it took him to come up with that one) took a step forward, while showing off a scorpion-like tail that had one sharp barb on the end of it.
Dark purple liquid dripped from it, and I gulped as I realized it was probably poison.
I wonder if any of the surrounding Pennsylvanian hospitals had manticore anti-venom in stock. Probably not.
"It's been a long time since I've eaten fresh demigods, you know." The manticore said as the harpy hissed wickedly.
"Don't say anything, Luke." Cassie hissed in my ear.
I don't think I could've said anything. My throat was so closed up from fear that even talking might've sent me into a coughing fit.
"What was that, little Cassadee Richardson?"
Cassie flinched when he said this.
"Don't you dare call me that." She threatened. Cassie drew her sword in a defensive arc, then pushed three fingers away from her heart.
What was that? I wondered.
The manticore just chuckled.
For an awkward second, the only sound was his booming laughter rolling off the walls. Then he scowled at the harpy, and commanded,"Jinny! Chuckle evilly with me!"
So, together the two monsters roared with laughter in such an odd combination that it could've been classified as a symphony created by angry pythons-with the occasional sound effect of the Joker laughing manically.
"You think that puny Halfblood magic will help you here, girl?" The monster wiped a tear from his eye. (Monsters can cry? This whole mythology thing is way too confusing.)
Cassie seemed to be growing desperate, and I noted that her sky-blue eyes were scanning over almost everything in the room at an unbelievably fast pace.
I decided I would try to give her more time to think, so I shouted,"What do you want with us? We're skinny little things. Probably really stringy."
The manticore seemed to ponder this for a second, then waved his scaly hand dismissively.
"Nah. I'm not going to eat you. The Dark Lord's offering quite the bounty on you two."
My breath caught in my throat when he said that. Again, with this stupid "Dark Lord." What is this, Star Wars?
I masked my fear and just grinned like a psychopath.
Both the monsters and Cassie seemed unsettled by this, unsurprisingly.
"Do you even know who we are?" I said, still smiling.
The manticore furrowed his brows. "Well, your names are Lukas Furay and Cassadee Richardson..."
"Ha!" I laughed victoriously. A crazy plan was hatching in my head. "That's hilarious. I guess this 'Dark Lord' of yours doesn't tell you much, huh?"
The manticore got a wild tic in its eye for a second, then regained his calm look. "What do you mean?"
"Um, we're the Luke and Cassadee. The son and daughter of two of the most powerful gods. We fight like absolute demons." I put a heavy emphasis on the last word, glaring at the harpy-lady. Cassie snarled for good measure.
"Demons, eh? Perhaps we should try this so-called skill out."
I ran through all the kiddy curse-words Jake had ever taught me.
Then, the old beast gestured to the lines of shirts with punctures and burns on them.
"Many of your brethren can fight well, lost one. The real test is if you can think or not."
He grinned with malice.
I fought the urge to burst out, Oh no! Not thinking!
But the words crawled back in my mouth before I said them.
A familiar story bloomed in my head.
When my mom-Fury, whatever- had taught Ancient Mythology at my Junior High, everyone had snoozed during the hour-long documentary she showed us about Greek Mythology. Everyone except me, that is.
I remembered something briefly about the Sphinx, who had riddled everyone who dared cross her. If they got the riddle right, then Yay! They got to pass through like nothing happened. If not, well, then they'd return with more than a few gashes in their shirt.
"You aren't in any way related to the Sphinx, are you?" I questioned carefully.
Manny scoffed at once. "Hades, no! That old bag-Ugh! Makes me sick to even think about her. She always takes the credit for coming up with riddling people until their death. Hmph!"
For the briefest moment, Cassie smirked like she knew where my plan was going.
Then it was back to business.
"Oh, I'm sure that old Sphinx's riddles weren't nearly as good as yours. Right, Luke?"
She elbowed me in the ribs.
"Yeah. Who uses the same riddle, over and over, anyway? And it was about three generations of mankind. Bor-ring."
The manticore smiled at his new favorite pupils. "I don't always see demigods with such an on-point brain like yours." He clapped his hands once more, startling both Cassie and I. "Oh- I know what we can do! As you can tell, every demigod to fight me has died. Every one of 'em. However, if I give you a riddle first, then fight you if you're wrong, things will be more fair! You agree, right?"
I'm pretty sure my plan of killing the manticore and his chicken friend was failing fast.
Cassie made a little squeaking noise in the back of her throat, but before she could answer the manticore replied with,"Of course you do! Now, let's begin!"
He ripped an old, stained tarp away from what I'd thought had been a stack of cardboard boxes, but instead revealed a massive blackboard with scrawled handwriting on it.
The only word I could recognize was "Rules," which was written in massive letters towards the top.
Manny went on rattling about the terms and conditions of the so-called "game," while my ADHD brain wandered.
Well, of course everyone died. I thought. They couldn't read the stupid rules.
"...Any questions?" He asked, snapping me back to attention.
Cassadee sneered. "Let's get this over with, Luke."
The manticore raised a blood red eyebrow that was about as fluffy as a pampered cat. "Feisty. I like that."
Cassie snorted in response.
"Let Round One begin!"
I groaned silently. There's more than one round?
To add to the ridiculousness of the situation, the harpy took out a bell and ringed it-like the beginning of an old-fashioned boxing match.
While my ears were still ringing, the manticore said,"The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it didn't need it. And the man who needs it doesn't know it."
A cold bar of fear in my gut started to form. What the heck was he talking about?
Cassie seemed to be in the same situation as I. She'd gritted her teeth together, and was clenching her fists in thought.
Okay, just slow down. I forced myself to take a few deep breaths. Get this right. If you don't, you'll end up being little halfblood treats for monsters.
I muttered the riddle under my breath. "Doesn't want it, doesn't need it, doesn't know it..."
Think, think, think.
The answer popped into my head like a bubble touching blade of grass, and I grinned once again.
"A coffin. The man who invented it doesn't want to die. The second guy doesn't need it, because he isn't dead. And the last one, he's about to die, right?"
The manticore flashed me a surprised look, while Cassie got an ecstatic look in her eyes.
"Er, correct. For once." He shuffled around like this hadn't ever happened before, and said the next question.
"Let us try you a bit harder, then. Here's an old riddle made by Homer-one of the greatest Greeks to ever live: 'Once he hears to his heart's content, sails on, a wiser man. We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so- all that comes to pass on fertile earth, we know it all!'"
My mouth went dry.
"Erm..." Cassadee stuttered.
"What was that, my child?" The manticore smiled, knowing he trapped us.
"I've studied this before, back at Camp Halfblood." She frowned for a second in concentration, then blurted,"Death! It's death!"
The manticore grunted in defeat once again, and started to look even more uncomfortable.
Just as he was about to say the last question, his eyes fell on the writing that Jake scrawled on Cassie's wrist.
His beady red eyes opened wide in shock.
"You-You cheaters!" He exclaimed.
Cassie got a confused look on her face. Her eyebrows scrunched together like she was seriously concentrating on something, and her eyes opened wide in shock as she noted the Manticore's tail arching up behind its back, preparing to strike.
"No!"
I found myself kicking Cassie out of the way, and a blazing pain erupted on my back as I tackled her.
I rolled on the floor, yelping in pain.
Cassie leaned over me, yelling something I couldn't recognize into my ear.
Her yelling sounded watery and distant, like the voices of the people in my dreams.
The last thing I remembered before passing out in between waves and pain and nausea was the manticore yelling,"Cheating by writing on the contestant's body is in complete violation of rule forty-seven! DIE, demigod scum!"

Notes

Wazzup, everyone? I know, I know, I've been kinda M.I.A for a while. But don't worry! Now I'm back and better than ever. I'll probably upload a new addition to the story every couple of weeks now that I've gotten to the parts where I find it easier to write, so be sure to subscribe if you want to hear more. Oh, and one more thing before you start reading the next story. Does anyone have an idea for a nickname for Luke? I was thinking maybe Water Boy or Mr. Wikipedia, but for some reason those just don't sound very good in my head. Don't forget to leave a rating below, or some awesome comments! Adiós, my fellow Percy Jackson fans!