SWNOVELXO Chapter 10: Hellhounds
The trio didn't have to wait long for the bus, just a quick five minutes, though they felt like months to the three adhd demigods. They boarded the bus and quickly found three seats on the back of the bus. Alex couldn't shake off the feeling that something was immensely wrong here. He looked around but saw no name tags, so no monsters were following them, still as the bus' engine roared to life, he kept his eyes peeled. For a good while, nothing happened, they drove through the Lincoln tunnel and he almost thought that they might be safe after all. That is until a car rammed the bus, sending it swirving off the road, onto a more rural road. The driver lost control of the bus and they barrelled towards the river. Percy was the one to push the emergency stop button. The bus screeched to a halt and was hit by the same car again, only it wasn't a car, it was a dog the size of an SUV, shaggy black fur covering it, beady black eyes shining and razor sharp fangs, as big as daggers bared. The passengers and the bus driver exited the bus just before the hellhound rammed the bus again, flipping it on its side, smashing the windows, showering the three demigods in shards of glass. Alex took Percy by hand, jumping out the window, quickly followed by Annabeth. He grabbed his sword from his inventory and immediately regretted not packing a bow and arrows, he really didn't want to get close to this monster but he had no choice. If he ran away, the hellhound would devour his friends and the gaggle of mortals behind them. They were confused, arguing with each other and more than one were pointing their phones at them as they squared off against the beast. Their battle would be all over the internet. All Alexander ever used the internet for were cat memes but he had a sinking suspicion that that video would be much more interesting than any kittens. What the mist would make out of this spectacle, he could only wonder.
The hellhound pounced on Percy, who dodged and landed a shallow cut on its thick fur. It was like cutting through leather with a dull knife. Each of their cuts were doing little to the beast, "wise girl, any advice?"
"Hellhounds are known for their affinity to the fire, like cyclopses, they can survive even swimming in lava. Normally, you would pelt a hellhound with arrows from afar but we don't have that luxury!" Annabeth danced around the monster.
"It likes the heat? Then what about the cold?" He concentrated. Slowly, a lance of ice, 5 feet long, appeared in front of him, spinning in mid air before he shot it straight in the mouth of the hellhound, penetrating its skull, vaporising it.
"That was harder than it had any right to be", Percy exclaimed, lowering his sword, "what now? Should we-"
From the distance, they could hear the howling of dogs, deep and growling, "there are more on the way", Alexander took them by the hands and ran into the forest. There, they kept walking inwards.
"The farther we get, the less likely they are to find us", Annabeth insisted, even after they had been on the move for an hour.
"What about our things?" Percy asked his voice filled with (justified) worry, "everything we brought was in that bus, the food, the clothes, the money and all our ambrosia and nectar"
"I have money, ambrosia and nectar covered, as for food and clothes…" he inwardly cursed himself for not stocking up on food before the quest. He thought this would be a lot more straightforward than it turned out to be. He expected a few fights on the way, sure, what he didn't expect was to be tackled by a hellhound the size of a big car. He noticed that Percy had a nasty wound on his arm, which had already dried. He was impressed, a normal demigod, with a wound like that would've lost consciousness from blood loss long before the hour that it took him to notice the wound. He pulled out an ambrosia square and handed it to Percy. He happily ate it and the wound seemed to heal.
"Don't be as reckless as back there again", Annabeth scolded the see weed brain.
"Oh, you care for me?" He teased.
Her face flushed for but a split second before she regained her composure., "it is just… if you die, this will be the end of your quest and I will have lost my chance to see the world, I would have had to return to camp and train, train for combat I would never see"
"You haven't left camp half blood since you were seven?" Percy asked. They were now in darkness, the sun had set and the glow of the city behind them was hidden behind thick trees, making it hard to see the faces of his companion.
"No, only short field trips, my dad-"
"The history professor?"
"Yeah, it didn't work out for me, living at home- I mean, camp half blood is my home now!" She spoke fast, a nervous habit, "in camp you train and train and that's good and everything but the mortal world is where the monsters are, where you will learn wether you are any good or not"
"You are pretty good with that knife" Percy tried to lift her spirits.
"You think so? It was a gift from Luke…"
"Anyone who can hold their own in a fight against a hellhound with nothing but a dagger is good in my books", Percy smiled, though he couldn't see her face.
Another mile or so of walking later, they saw light in the distance. There was also the smell of food in the air, of grease and fat and all that good stuff. They found a deserted two lane road leading through the forest, the thick underbrush seeming to just vanish on that strip of road. On one side was a closed down gas station and a poster for Star Wars, episode 5 and one open business, a small shack with a bright neo sign, reading Aunty Em's garden gnome emporium. It took him a few minutes before he was able to read it, his dyslexia working against him but in the end, he made out the words, Alex's companions didn't seem so enlightened, so he read it out to them.
"The lights are on inside", Annabeth noticed, walking past a hyper realistic statue of a a man in a hoodie, brandishing a long knife, "maybe it's open?"
"Snack bar~" Percy moaned.
"Snack bar", the duo nodded. All of them were hungry and whatever was cooking in there was smelling deliciously unhealthy.
As they walked past the statues, they were about to knock, when a woman opened the door, wearing a long black gown, covering everything but her hands, they couldn't even see her mouth but what Alexander saw bright and clear were the letters above her head.
[Medusa]