I’M SO EXCITED THIS STORY IS COMING TO A CLOSE BECAUSE “UNTAMED” IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!  Okay, that’s enough of my ranting.  Have fun!  Oh, and this is dedicated to Leonidas_son_of_Nike because he’s reviewed every chapter of all my stories multiple times so a huge thank you to him!  And thank you to all my other reviewers who have dutifully stayed with this story <3 

Chapter Quote:

“Today is the day!  You’re mountain is waiting.  So… get on your way!”

~Dr. Seuss

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Chapter 16: That’s Ironic

Silena 

The drive from Laughlin to Colorado Springs, according to the GPS in the Ferrari, was supposed to take a little over twelve hours.  But when they ran into more law enforcement problems in Flagstaff, Arizona, they had to take a detour and the drive ended up meaning to take fourteen hours.  That led them to a road called Highway 550, which turned out to be the infamous “Million Dollar Highway” Silena had read about.  It was a narrow, winding highway located in the most rugged part of the Rocky Mountains.  The lanes were narrow with no guardrails to prevent a car from falling off the sheer drop offs if they lost control.  The only thing that comforted Silena was that she knew Bryn could use wind to push their cars away from falling off a cliff or make the cars fly.  Of course it would take a lot of energy to do so…

However, the group of four reached Colorado Springs with little trouble after that.  Silena only had about… ten heart attacks from Derek deciding to pass Bryn to show off the car or him deciding to race her.  He normally didn’t drive that recklessly but considering the car they were in, Silena doubted she could drive the speed limit too.

The supposed fourteen hour drive actually only took twelve hours, the same amount of time as their original route would have taken.  Of course, that was because Bryn and Derek never went the speed limit; they went twenty or thirty or more over.  They all took four to five hour shifts of driving.  Derek and Bryn drove four the first time, Rachel and Silena drove five the second, and then the former two finished up the drive.

Upon reaching Colorado Springs, the cars received many stares.  The town was well to do, but you still didn’t see a Lamborghini and Ferrari that often.  They stopped at a McDonald’s to grab a quick breakfast.  It wasn’t the healthiest of meals but none of them cared.  They were all starving.  Once they finished with that, they ended their journey at Garden of the Gods.  Silena stood in awe at the sight before her.  Red rocks in all sorts of formations towered over them.  One was called the Kissing Camels (the name is self-explanatory, is it not?), one formation was called the Balancing Rock, and Silena tried to figure out how the rock, that was the size of a tank, balanced on such a small structure.  There were other formations that Silena didn’t have time to figure out the name of because Bryn was already walking, trying to find out where she had to go to rescue Luke.  Silena chastised herself for getting distracted so easily.  She jogged to catch up to her friend who seemed to be off in her own little world, finagling her way through the tourists (and there were a lot of them).

“Hey Silena, do you know if bald eagles are common in Colorado?” Rachel inquired.

“Sort of.  They’re here, but they sort of a rarity to see.  Why?”

“Oh, it’s just there’s a bald eagle up there on that rock formation.  I think it’s part of the Cathedral Spires or something.”

“It’s looking right at us.  That’s a creepy as hell bird…” Derek grumbled.  Bryn’s head snapped up at his comment.  She looked over at the majestic eagle.  It stared back at her.  For about two minutes, the two had a staring contest before the eagle swooped down and landed on Bryn’s shoulder.  Tourists gaped as Bryn calmly let it perch on her.  Derek, Silena, and Rachel didn’t think anything of it.  The eagle was Zeus’s symbol.  For all they knew, Bryn could talk to it.

They had confirmation a few seconds later. “Adler says we need to climb up that spire.”

Silena snorted at the name and wondered if anyone else saw the irony in the eagle’s name…

“How are we going to do that?” Rachel questioned, raising an eyebrow as she looked up at the spire that had little to no footholds.

“Adler will fly us up,” Bryn said.

“I know eagles are powerful and all, but can it really carry four of us up there?  And how are you talking to it?” Derek pointed out.  Adler screeched angrily at him, scaring him and the tourists.

“I am not going to repeat what he just called you, and yes.  It’s some pretty powerful mist he has on right now, but this is my father’s pet eagle, the one who carried Ganymedes up to the Heavens.  He can carry us.  And he’s the only eagle I’ve even been able to talk to.  Anyways, that’s not the point.  We have a problem.  He can only carry three of us…”

“I’ll stay.  I’ll wait here for Percy.  You guys go,” Rachel offered.

“Are you sure?” Silena asked.

“Positive,” she reassured. “Now go.”

“All right.  Silena, Derek, hold on and hold on tight,” Bryn ordered, grabbing Silena’s hand.  Derek glared at the eagle (which it returned) but listened to his friend.  When Bryn gave the bird the go ahead, it shot up into the sky, carrying the group with it.  Silena gasped at the sensation.  When flying with Bryn, she could tell how much strain it put on her friend to support such a load.  With Adler?  They might as well have been feathers.  He dropped them off at the top of the biggest spire, nuzzled Bryn, bowed to Silena, and squawked in Derek’s face.  When Adler flew away, Derek flipped off the bird.

“I’m going to find that bird and eat eggs in front of it, just to show him what I’m capable of,” he remarked.

“All right, you can get your vengeance later.  For now, concentrate on the task at hand,” Bryn laughed.  She faced the rock. “Okay, so now what?  Adler didn’t tell me anything else except that the entrance was here.”

Derek pressed his hand against the rock and slid it up to small but deep hole. “Maybe there’s a lever in here?”

“Be careful!  There could be something bad in there!” Silena warned.

“I think the worst thing that could get up here is a spider,” Bryn commented.

“That’s the worst possible scenario in anything.”

“I forgot about Athena’s phobia of spiders.”

“All right, here I go…” Derek took a deep breath and stuck his hand into the rock.  A second passed by before, “AHHHHHHHH!”

The girls screamed, fearing the worst.  But then Derek started cracking up laughing and slapping his thigh.

“Oh your faces were priceless!” he cackled.  Both girls hit him on the arm.  He didn’t care.  To him, it was obviously worth whatever pain they inflicted on him. “But I was right, there’s a latch back here.  Hang on…”

He moved his arm a little bit before pulling it out. “Well I hit something,” he said.

At that moment, they heard the sound of grinding coming from beneath them.  You know in those cartoons where the floor comes out from underneath them and the character stays suspended for a few seconds before plummeting downwards?  That’s what Silena felt like when she saw the rock beneath them give way to a pitch black hole.  Bryn started to say “Oh sh-” but it was lost when she started screaming along with her companions.  The fall felt like it took seven days, although Silena knew that was wrong.  It probably took more like seven minutes… okay, like seven seconds, but still!

Someone grabbed onto her hand, but rather than freaking out, Silena stayed calm.  The only person it could be was Derek or Bryn.  Her fall started to slow down but when she landed onto a rocky island, it was still enough of an impact to shake her brain and scrape her legs.

Shrieks pierced her ears.  Silena looked over to find her quest leader on her stomach, withering in pain.

“Bryn!” she exclaimed, crawling over to her.  Bryn’s legs were submerged in black water.  Silena dragged her friend out of the sketchy looking liquid.  Her shrieks reduced to gasps. “Are you okay?”

“Bloody hell,” she breathed heavily. “Where’s Derek?”

“I’m here,” he said, appearing behind Silena. “What happened?”

“Whatever you do, don’t touch the water.  It’s the River Acheron,” Bryn warned. “I found out the hard way.”

“The River of Woes,” Derek said.

“Sometimes called the River of Pain,” Silena added. “It’ll cause excruciating pain to whoever touches it, mentally or physically.”

“It only physically pained me,” Bryn said, standing up shakily.  The trio looked down the tunnel.  The only thing they saw was the river illuminated by torches on the cavern walls.

“So… who has the brilliant idea on how to get across?” Derek mused nonchalantly, rocking backwards and forwards on his feet.  Silena took a step forward, swatting away Bryn and Derek when they tried to stop her from walking into the water.  She was a daughter of Poseidon was she not?  And her dad had told her about the time he’d fallen into the River Lethe but hadn’t had his memory erased because of his powers.  She didn’t know if she had control of the Acheron, but she was willing to try to save her brother.  Any pain was worth enduring if it meant saving him.  Taking a deep breath, she thought about entering the river and staying completely dry before taking a step into it.  Looking down, she was ankle deep, but she felt nothing, no pain.  She smiled and turned around.

“There has to be a way to get down that tunnel.  Does anyone have a flashlight?” Silena inquired, hoping to the gods they did.  Derek came to the rescue, pulling one out of his backpack.  Silena took it, turned it on, and disappeared beneath the river.  The water was extremely dark but shallow, only about six feet deep.  Bones, human and animal, littered the bottom of the floor.  She tried not to yelp when she saw one that still resembled a human face.  She swam around the small island they’d landed on, hoping to come across something to help her friends cross.  Whether it was fate or luck, which Silena decided to go with luck because the Fates never do anything nice, she came across a sunken, wooden boat.  Upon inspection, it seemed perfectly fine save for the broken oars, but that was doable.  She could just control the boat herself.  Holding the flashlight between her teeth, she grabbed the edge of the boat firmly in her hands and pulled with all her might, using the power of the river to help her lift it.  Five minutes later, Silena surfaced with the boat floating next to her, waiting to give its passengers a ride.

“You’re incredible, Silena,” Bryn praised, giving her a hug.  Her friend’s display of affection, even something as minor as a hug, shocked her.  Bryn never did that.  Deciding to ignore it, she helped her friend and boyfriend get into the boat without touching the water.  She got in herself and steered the boat forwards, hoping the water would stay calm for Bryn’s sake because the daughter of Zeus already looked like she wanted to pass out.  Of course, she was in the realm of two of the Big Three’s realms, Poseidon and Hades, water and underworld.  She was at their mercy if one of them randomly chose to make her life end that day.

About five minutes into the trip, they came across a fork in the road.  Silena stopped the boat and stared, having no idea which way to go.

“Right.  Go right,” Derek said.

“I’m trusting you on this, but how do you know?” she answered, controlling the boat to the desired direction.

“I don’t know.  It just seems right.  I feel like the left leads to something… dangerous.”

“And you don’t call that dangerous?” Bryn demanded, pointing ahead.  At first Silena couldn’t see anything.

That’s when she realized that was the problem.

She couldn’t see a thing except darkness awaiting them.  Bryn kept trying to create a light ball but her Hecate powers refused to work here.

“It’s fine,” Derek assured, although it sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well.

“Guys?  Hold on, I think this is about to get really rough,” Silena admonished, grasping the boat so tight her knuckles turned white.  Bryn wedged her legs underneath the wooden seats and held on for dear life, closing her eyes.  Derek sat next to Silena, giving her an apologetic grin for getting them into whatever mess they’d gotten themselves into.

The trio reached the blackness and it wigged her out not being able to see anything.  The water rocked the boat from side to side but nothing too harsh.

Silena spoke too soon.

The boat dropped violently in altitude before splashing down.  Bryn let out a painful yelp from what had to be water droplets touching her.  Derek’s leg touched Silena and she wondered if he had done that on purpose.

A wave then made the boat lurch to the left, nearly capsizing them.  Silena’s heart pounded from the anxiety of thinking about what surprise was going to hit them next.

“Guys, I hear roaring water.  Why do I hear roaring water?” Bryn groaned.

“Those would be rapids…” Silena responded hesitantly, not wanting to tell her friend she sensed the rapids and knew exactly what class they were.  Naturally, her friend had to ask, causing Silena to say, “Class Six…”

“Isn’t that-” Derek began, attempting to turn on the flashlight she’d just used to find the boat, but it was no use.  The thing wouldn’t turn on.

“Yep,” she responded.  They were about to ride what was classified as the most difficult type of rapids in the world to go on. “I have this.”

She didn’t have it.  She couldn’t even see.  The first rapids made the boat spin in a full circle.  It proceeded to rise up on a very tall wave before plummeting downwards.  By now, Silena couldn’t hear herself think, much less try and control the boat, but she had to.  Her friends’ lives, her brother’s life, and her life were all counting on her to get them through this.  Silena had no other option but to succeed.

“Go to the left!  The left!” Derek shouted frantically.  Silena listened, propelling the boat left.  “Right!  Go right now!”

Silena listened to her boyfriend as he shouted random directions.  At one point he shouted ‘up’ and she used the waves to make the boat go airborne.  Bryn hadn’t made a sound since the water had touched her skin earlier.  Silena couldn’t see if her friend was even still in the boat so she made the risky decision to pat around the boat until she made contact with her friend.  It didn’t take long for her to find Bryn.  Unfortunately, her hand touched Bryn’s face, freaking the daughter of Zeus out so much that she bit Silena.

“Ow!  It’s me Bryn!” she snapped.

“Sorry!  I’m a little preoccupied with trying not to die here!”

“We’re almost done!  I see light!” Derek hollered over the roaring of the waves and currents.  Silena smiled, anxiously waiting for the rapids to die down, but the river had one more surprise in store for them.

“Rock!” Derek barked, even though Silena couldn’t see anything.  She tried to make the boat bounce up to sail over it but the front of their boat hit the rock, making it flip front over and back end multiple times.  All of them squealed in terror.  When the boat landed (thankfully upright), the rapids suddenly disappeared, the trio ended up in torchlight again, and they could see land.

“Well, that was fun,” Derek commented.  Silena looked at him like he was crazy.  He said, “Just trying to lighten the mood…”

“It’s not working.  Derek, if this was the good passage, I dread to think what was in that other one,” Bryn remarked, opening her eyes.

“Let’s just hope we don’t have to go on this to get back to the surface,” Silena said distastefully.

“I’d rather die than ride that again,” Bryn mumbled.  She was the first to hop off the boat and onto the ground.  Derek was second, Silena third. “Okay, swords at the ready, or bow and arrows in your case Derek.  Now, let’s go raise some hell for Pollux and let’s get Luke.”

Nothing else needed to be said.  They were now on the final leg of their quest.

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This was a longer chapter for y’all :) Did y’all enjoy?  Review if you did :P