1777 words

Argus turned out to be a guy who looked a typical blonde surfer dude, except for the fact that he had 100 blue eyes all over his body, including one on his tongue.

"That's disgusting!" I said, after Dad told us why Argus didn't talk.

Argus scowled and glared at me. I glared right back, which was kinda hard because I didn't know which eye I should look into.

"I can't believe you serve, Hera!" Aidan said, scowling. "She's the worst goddess in the history of gods!"

Argus looked like he was about to attack, but Dad intervened.

"Hey!" I said angrily as Dad made us get into the minivan we would be taking into New York. "I was about to kick his 100-eyed butt!"

"You mean we were about to kick his butt," Aidan said.

"You heard what I said," I said, grinning. "Besides, would you even be able to fight him?I've seen the way you swing your daggers."

Whenever I teased Aidan, he usually threw whatever he was holding at me, which, was, in this case, a pancake.

"Thanks!" I said, catching the pancake and starting to eat it.

"Hey!" Aidan said indignantly. "That's mine!"

No, it's mine, Agro barked, yanking the pancake out of my hand and wolfing it down.

"Agro!" I complained. "I'm hungry!"

You're always hungry, Pher barked.

"Shut up!" I muttered, my cheeks going red.

At that moment, Dad came climbed into the front passenger seat and buckled his seat belt, just as Zoë and Raiden climbed into the middle row (Snow sat at Dad's feet, while Aidan and I sat in the way back).

Argus started the car, and we trundled down Farm Road away Camp Half-Blood. I looked back  out the window for one final glance at the place I had called home for a few days. I stared at it until we rounded the corner, then it was gone. I slumped in my seat.

"Cheer up," Zoë said, turning around to face me. "We'll find a way to get that hind back."

"How?" I asked. "For one thing, we don't even know where the hind is. For another, I don't understand that stupid prophecy at all."

Zoë didn't have an answer to this, so she shrugged and turned back around. We drove for about 3 hours until we got to Penn Station.

"What are we doing here?" Raiden asked.

"How else do you expect to get to Wyoming?" Dad replied.

"Why are we going there?" I asked.

"I have a gut feeling," Dad said.

He walked over to the ticket booth and started talking to the man behind it.

"How much to Cheyenne?" Dad asked.

"$250 a ticket," the man behind the booth said.

"5 tickets, please," Dad said.

"Sorry, but there are no dogs allowed on the train," the man said, glancing at Agro and Pher.

"Oh Styx!" Dad cursed.

The man gave Dad a funny look. I could hear his thoughts for some reason. He thought that Dad was a weirdo and that Aidan and I were ugly.

"Who are calling ugly?!" I demanded, glaring daggers at the man.

The man's face turned ruby-red, and he started sputtering. "I-I didn't."

"DON'T LIE!" Aidan bellowed, so loudly that people started staring.

"Aidan!" Dad said sharply.

Aidan fell silent, but continued to glare at the man.

Dad hastily changed the subject. "I'd like to buy 5 of tickets to San Francisco, please."

The man nodded, still red. "That'll be $1312.5 total. Would you like to pay with cash or card?"

"Card," Dad said, unzipping his backpack and pulling out his wallet.

He put his card into the credit card thingy you use to pay for things. After this, Dad put his card back in his bag and turned to us.

"Well," He said. "We're on Trai-"

But before he could finish his sentence, there was a scream from across the station. "LION! THERE'S A LION IN THE STATION! AHHHHHHH!"

"Oooh!" Aidan said excitedly, turning around and looking around. "Where is it?"

"That's not a lion," Zoë said, pulling out her silver bow and quiver of arrows.

"What do you mean?" Aidan asked, frowning at Zoë.

She pointed across the station in the direction the screams were coming from. Instead of a lion, there was a giant, monstrous serpent-like creature with poisonous brown-green scales and horns, with poisonous green smoke coming from its mouth.

Its claws were longer than my arms, it had a body longer 2 buses put together, 200 ft tall, and feet the size of trash can lids. There were white spikes all along its body that looked like they would be very painful to touch.

"What the Hades is that?!" Raiden yelled fearfully, backing away into the ticket booth.

"That's a drakon," Dad said, pulling on his bracket, which turned into his bow and arrows.

"A dragon?" I said, confused. "But it's got no wings."

"A dra-k-on," Dad said. "Like a dragon, but with a k instead of a g."

"That's not the only difference, Orion," Zoë said, rolling her eyes. "Drakons have a paralyzing stare when they look into someone's eyes, and some also spit acid, instead of-"

But what dragons did instead of drakons, we never found out because at that very moment the drakon spotted us and ran across the station, fangs bared.

"Behind the booth!" Dad yelled. "Now!"

We all scrambled behind the booth just as the drakon spat a stream of green acid at us. The acid burned a hole right through the concrete.

"I'll try to distract it, while you guys run for the train!" Dad yelled, notching an arrow.

"What about you?!" I yelled back anxiously. "That thing could kill you!"

"I'll manage!" Dad yelled, running out from behind the booth. "Go!"

Zoë, Raiden, Aidan, I, Agro, and Pher ran as fast as we could in the opposite direction toward the train.

I could hear Dad yelling insults at the drakon. "Too slow, you μωρός snake! You missed, ὄνος!"

He had basically called the drakon stupid and a donkey.

Suddenly, my neck hairs stood up on end. I stopped running and looked back at Dad. Lightning crackled, thunder boomed. He had summoned miniature storm cloud to harass the drakon. It was working fairly well, considering its scales are hard as cement. The lightning distracted it, while Dad notched a fiery arrow.

He let the arrow fly, and while the drakon was snapping at storm cloud, the arrow hit it in the eye. The drakon let out a roar of fury and sprayed acid everywhere. Dad did not dive out of the way in time. The acid hit him full in the face. He screamed, screamed as though he was being burned alive, which I thought, as I stood there paralyzed with rage and terror, he probably was.

Zoë screamed. "Orion!"

She hurried forward to try and help him, but the drakon was now advancing on us.

"Go help your father!" Zoë shouted. "I got this!"

Without hesitation, she ran at the drakon and stabbed her daggers into its foot with all the strength she could muster. It barely made a dent, just seeming to annoy it rather than help at all. Zoë rolled out of the way just in time, as it sprayed a stream of acid at her.

She quickly got to her feet, leapt 200 ft onto the drakon's back, and started stabbing every part of the body she could reach. She made some progress this time. With one ferocious stab, her daggers finally pierced throw the scales.

With a huge wrench, she pulled her daggers out. Blood poured from the 2 holes made into drakon's scales. Zoë then proceeded to slash and cut off as many spikes on the drakon's body as she could. These feats were quite impressive, as the drakon was swinging back and forth trying to throw Zoë off.

She, however, hung on, which made me think that she had done this before. The drakon's tail come whipping up out of nowhere for like the 4th time. Zoë wasn't so lucky in dodging it this time, though. A spike pierced her chest right where her heart was. She screamed in pain and fell with a crunch onto the cement.

We're in trouble now, I thought. Both Dad and Zoë are down, and they're the only ones that can handle this!

"Go!" Raiden yelled. "I distract it!"

She stepped forward and pulled out her scythe.

She brandished it at the drakon and yelled, "Come at me, bro!"

The drakon stopped in its tracks. I didn't in understand why. Why didn't the drakon proceed forward and squish Raiden flat when it'd already done that to Zoë and Dad? They'd been mortally wounded while fighting the drakon and Raiden was just standing there, so why didn't the drakon just kill her?

Aidan and I watched, frozen. Raiden glanced in our direction and gave us a what-the-Hades-are-you-waiting-for look. We rushed to help Dad and Zoë. Dad had red marks all up and down his arms and legs and his shirt was soaked through with blood. Zoë's head and chest were bleeding profusely, and the white spike was still embedded in her chest, right above her heart.

I put my hand on Dad's chest and almost immediately took it right off. The damage I felt was unbelievable. The acid from the drakon had burned right through his skin and bones. His ribs, arms, and most of his internal organs were fatally damaged. It was beyond the damage of any mortal could heal. I knew that if I didn't help him, Dad would die. I began to chant in Ancient Greek, just like Dad taught me. Warmth surged through my fingers. I felt Dad's injuries beginning to mend.

His eyelids fluttered. "Kid?"

I smiled and hugged him. "Yeah, it's me, Dad."

Next to us, Aidan had healed Zoë, and she was sitting up, though she was definitely not going to hug Aidan.

"Now," I said standing up and notching an arrow.

Rage was coursing through me. I ran to face the drakon.

"Out of the way!" I snarled at Raiden.

She didn't need telling twice. Raiden scrambled out of the way.

"This is for hurting my family, ὄνος!" I yelled.

I let my arrow fly. As it flew through the air at lightning speed, it burst into silver flames. It hit the drakon right between the eyes with force of a rampaging rhino. The drakon collapsed into a heap of yellow monster dust. I was satisfied.

Then, I collapsed from exhaustion.