𐌙/𐌍 Ᏽ𐌵𐌀𐌋𐌄 & 𐌕𐋅𐌄 Ᏽ𐌐𐌄𐌀𐌕 𐌌𐌙𐌕𐋅𐌔 ¹

Chapter 9

Nine
ꕤ

I Wash The Stables

  I lost hope when I saw the horses’ teeth.
As I got closer to the fence, I held my shirt over my nose to block the smell. One stallion waded through the muck and whinnied angrily at me. He bared his teeth, which were pointed like a bear’s.

  I tried to talk to him, but they didn't seem to want any business with me besides me in their bellies

  "Hi," I told him. "I’m going to clean your stables. Won’t that be great?"

  "Yes!" The horse said. "Come inside! Eat you! Tasty half-blood!"

  "Tasty!" The other horses chimed in as they waded through the field. Flies were buzzing everywhere, and the heat of the day didn’t make the smell any better. I’d had some idea that I could do this challenge, because I remembered how Hercules had done it. He’d channeled a river into the stables and cleaned them out that way. I figured I could maybe control the water. But if I couldn’t get close to the horses without getting eaten, that was a problem. And the river was downhill from the stables, a lot farther away than I’d realized, almost half a mile. The problem of the poop looked a lot bigger up close. I picked up a rusted shovel and experimentally scooped some away from the fence line. Great. Only four billion shovelfuls to go.

  The sun was already sinking. I had a few hours at best. I decided the river was my only hope. At least it would be easier to think at the riverside than it was here. I set off downhill.

🌙🏹࿏

  When I got to the river, I found a girl waiting for me. She was wearing jeans and a green T-shirt and her long brown hair was braided with river grass. She had a stern look on her face. Her arms were crossed.

  "Oh, no you don’t," she said.

  I frowned. "I didn't even say anything, yet?"

  "I know what you're doing!" She huffed. "You're trying to use my river to clean those stinky stables!"

  "I just–"

  "The last guy who asked me this favor—oh, he was way better-looking than you, by the way—he convinced me, and that was the worst mistake I’ve ever made! Do you have any idea what all that horse manure does to my ecosystem? Do I look like a sewage treatment plant to you? My fish will die. I’ll never get the much out of my plants. I’ll be sick for years. NO, THANK YOU!"

  The way she talked reminded me of my mortal friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare—kind of like she was punching me with words. I couldn’t blame the naiad. Now that I thought about it, I’d be pretty mad if somebody dumped four million pounds of manure in my home.

  "I'm sorry," I sighed. "But my friends are in danger."

  "Well, that’s too bad! But it’s not my problem. And you’re not going to ruin my river."

  She looked like she was ready for a fight. Her fists were balled, but I thought I heard a little quiver in her voice. Suddenly I realized that despite her angry attitude, she was afraid of me. She probably thought I was going to fight her for control of the river, and she was worried she would lose.

  The thought made me sad. I felt like a bully, pushing around a cute girl that was smaller than me.

  I sat down on a tree stump. "Okay, you win."