Fur, Freaks, and Fire

The sun was hanging high in the sky, beating down and baking the already dry earth beneath Richards feet. Not that he touched down on the ground all that often that afternoon. In fact, he barely felt the heat of the blistering Idaho July. There was a nice cool breeze flowing through his hair, every once in a while he zipped through a patch of shade or got splashed with some water from the river. The entire situation seemed like it would be relaxing. Oh well. Relaxation was overrated anyway.

"On your left! LEFT! THE OTHER LEFT!"

Richard kicked his legs out, sending water shooting up on all sides of him. The chimera above struggled furiously, trying to kick him off it's forelegs. Luckily for the dangling demigod, the other two heads were easily distracted by the obstacles of the canyon they were flying through. Of course it had to be one of those weird chimeras with dragon wings. Of course it had to have the serpents head instead of the tail, and of course he'd been dumb enough to volunteer to take care of it.

"Cami! Break right!"

"Everyone stop shouting! I'm working on it!"

"WORK ON IT FASTER!" Richard screeched as the counselors of the Athena and Hephaestus cabins bickered. The chimera plunged him into the freezing water of the river, dragging him through it in hopes of being rid of him. He struggled to climb up the monsters furry forelegs, just able to peek his head up out of the water. He could see Monica just ahead, her legs pumping furiously as she got a head start on the creature. Her bow was slung across her shoulders, and Richard was barely able to catch a glimpse of her scaling a pile of rocks before he went back under.

Water shot up his nose, pressed against his eyes, forcing him to keep them clamped shut. He was grateful the river wasn't deep enough his feet and drag along the bottom, but every once in a while his legs banged against a rock or skimmed against the side.

     When Chiron had sent them out to see what was up with all the extra fires this year, Richard had been prepared to chalk it up to human stupidity and call it good. That had been before they spotted three chimeras in the hills, and discovered one hiding out in the canyon as it made its way down to the Arizona area. It wasn't abnormal to find monsters that slunk around outside of Tartarus at any given time.

Richard kick his legs out once again, trying to make his way back above the water. He could hear the chimera's wings flapping rapidly, the screeching and roaring of the three heads, and most prominently, the rush of water flooding his years. His grip was slipping, his lungs were screaming at him; he knew he was a goner if you didn't get a breath soon. There was a loud thud, followed by a screech of pain. The chimera flew upward in a staggered pattern and Richard took a huge breath the second his head broke the surface of the river. The chimera was flying lopsided now, Richard still clinging to its legs desperately. It swerved, banging into the side of the canyon, skimming the top of the waters, and corkscrewed into the air. Richard felt his left arm break as he was rammed into the canyon wall, and he could see blood trickling down the side of his head. Great, another scar to explain when he went home.

"Look, I'm not trying to complain, but if you could get me off this thing I'd appreciate it. LIKE RIGHT NOW!!" Richard screamed as his ride plummeted back towards earth after Monica embedded another arrow in its wing. "KILL IT! NOT ME!!"

"If you'd keep it still, we wouldn't be having this problem!" She shouted back.

"YOU KEEP IT STILL!"

The chimera had adopted a zigzagging pattern that was slowly turning into simply flying in repeated circle. Blood loss, dizziness, and now nausea were affecting Richard's ability to function, and he can feel his grip slipping. If the chimera let go of him now, he was dead. If he kept holding on, he was dead. Basically if it did anything but land gracefully, he was dead. That was fine, he always wanted to die this way anyway. Killed hanging from a chimera like an insane cowboy. He could already hear Mr. D's brush off.

"The canyon did more than the chimera."

He couldn't think about that right now. Not while he was 100 feet above the ground and they were arrows flying at him. Monica need to start shooting a little to the left, or he was going to have a couple dozen arrows lodged in his abdomen. The sense of crisis was fading as the chimera's circles got slower and Richard mind got more sluggish. Was there really such an urgent need for him to keep hanging on? Why was he still hanging on in the first place? His grip started slipping about the same time the chimera went into a free fall, both of them tumbling to the air. Briefly, Richard remembered his old science lessons about mass and gravity and all that. If you dropped a baseball and a bowling ball of a building, would they hit the ground at the same time? If Richard and a chimera fall out of the sky together, which of them goes 'splat' first?

The answer to the question was neither. Both Richard and the chimera went 'splash' into the water. The freezing river shocked Richard back to reality. He screamed in surprise as the cold hit his system and jolted him awake again. He took off swimming towards the surface lopsidedly and with slow progress. His arm was screaming at him as he moved it but he kept going, cursing the fates for his being left-handed. How was he supposed to function with his left arm broken?

He broke the surface of the water again, treading it was extremely difficult he. The chimera breached a few minutes after him with its three head hissing, roaring, and screeching all the same time. It struggle for a moment before starting to swim to the shore. Richard groaned slightly before swimming after it. It hauled itself out of the water and collapsed, still half submerged. Richard climbed out a few feet away, forcing himself to stand and hobble over to the monster. He and unclasped his backpack from around his shoulders reached in, and pulled out his sword. The chimera looked at him, all three heads panting out of exhaustion. The snake head hissed weakly, the goat bleated pitifully, and the lion just glared at him. This part had always been difficult for Richard. He could already feel guilt clenching his stomach. He had to keep reminding himself that this was okay. It was just going to reform in Tartarus anyway. That didn't help him at all.

     The lion head growled aggressively as Richard stood next to it.

     "Yeah, I know."

With three slightly clumsy strikes, thanks to his non dominant hand, all three heads fell to the ground, and the body disintegrated into gold dust. It was then that Richard's legs finally gave out. His sword fell to the ground with a clang, and he collapsed next to it with his head pounding and his arm throbbing. His backpack had a few
squares of ambrosia in it, but he didn't think he could drag himself to it without passing out.

     He opted to just lay there, starring up at the sky that was beginning to go blurry. The feeling of 'dying' had become familiar in an unfortunate way. He was pretty sure that's why Chiron kept making him take children of Apollo with him when he went out into dangerous situations that would probably end with him doing some ridiculously stupid. Like hang gliding from a chimera. Now he'd just have to wait for Monica to show up.

     The sound of footsteps made his groggy mind clear slightly, and he groaned while lifting his head. A flash of auburn caught his gaze, and he dropped back down almost immediately.

     "No." He shook his head as the footsteps got closer her. "Not you. Anyone but you."

     "Thanks, Chump. I see how it is."

He groaned more loudly as the steps got closer. "The last time you 'helped' you pulled a Lockhart!"

     "Chiron regrew the bones!"

     "Two weeks after you made them vanish! Some Ravenclaw you turned out to be!"

Richard back pedaled as he caught sight of the tip of a wand. "River, River, think about this for a moment-"

     "Shush," River huffed, leveling the wand with the gash on his head, "I was going to respect your wishes and wait for Monica, but the Ravenclaw comment changed my mind. I can handle this. I'll let Monica do the break."

     "If I bleed out because of you-"

"You'll get what you deserved."

"I don't think Chiron will see it like that-"

"Vulnera Sanatur."

There was a quick flash of pain next to Richard's temple, then his vision stopped swimming and his head stopped pounding so furiously. The blood cleared out of his eyes as it flowed back into the gash in his head, and the smug face of River became much clearer. "I'm not a third year anymore, and for you information, I'm a brilliant Ravenclaw. I can handle a gash with ease."

"You could also handle grabbing the ambrosia from my bag," Richard grumbled, pushing himself into a sitting position, "that would've been less of a hazard to my health!"

"Shush."

"You shush!"

River stuck her tongue out at him and plopped his bad into his lap. "There. Now you can get the ambrosia yourself!"

"Love you too, River." Richard reached in, his hand disappearing up to his elbow as he searched through the bag.

"I don't know whether I should be in awe at that whole encounter," River started, "or be slapping you and telling you what a moron you are."

"Do the first one. I'll be getting enough of the second one from Cami and Monica." Richard seemed to be grabbing everything but the ambrosia. "Oh come on," he grumbled, leaning into it more, "that's what I get for giving it an extension charm..." His hand finally closed around the bag of ambrosia squares.

"It's been useful of these trips," River remarked, "I love being of age! Using magic without the Ministry or the MACUSA freaking out is great!"

"I just wish we could get out of school immediately following our 17th birthday."

"Are you kidding? Hogwarts is great! I'm going to miss it after this year..."

Richard popped the ambrosia into his mouth. The flavor of honey butter on freshly baked bread filled his mouth. He already felt so much better. "Yeah, but I've had enough of almost dying during the school year. I get enough of that durning the summer."

"You wouldn't be risking death if you'd stop going after it!"

"It's not like I was trying to find that basilisk, or deliberately seeking to be hunted by my professor turned werewolf. That's what I get for breaking curfew I guess. Karma has it out for me."

"No, it has it out for Harry."

Richard scoffed. "There we go. Blame it on Potter. My relaxing school life was ruined by a scrawny teenager. There's a sad thought."

"You Slytherins blame everything on him anyway, don't you?"

"No, we don't. That's just Malfoy."

"Ah." River chuckled slightly to herself. "Well what's the worst that could happen this year?"

"Exactly. What. The real question is when it will start. It could be absolutely anything. I will bet you six galleons and four drachmas that it will have something to do with Harry 'To Good for Rules' Potter.

"At least your summers are relaxing!"

"Oh yeah. I totally prefer slicing chimera heads for Chiron to spending a day at the beach."

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