Nikomedes and the Game of Olympus

Chapter 14, Act V - Never Let Percy Meet A Reindeer.

The following morning, we were on the roof, holding off Laistrygonians with various methods. Hoses, fireballs, gusts of air, light arrows, you name it, as long as it was in our arsenal.

Eventually, Frank emerged from the attic. "Morning." I said, barely deflecting a cannonball with aerokinesis. "Glad you could make it." Luke added. Conversation began, and I focused more on defending the house. To be fair, dozens of Laistrygonians don't exactly make it easy to defend from them.

Eventually, a cannonball zoomed right by my ear, and exploded behind us. "Guys," I snapped. "We need to go. We can't hold them much longer."

"Right. Well, I've got one more trick up my sleeve to hold them back. Your lawn has a sprinkler system. I can blow it up and cause some confusion down there, but that'll destroy your water pressure. No pressure, no hose, and those cannonballs are going to plow right into the house, and us." Percy said.

"I've got an escape plan." Frank promised. "There's an airfield, a few miles north of here, where a legionnaire is waiting for us. He'll help us, we just need to get there first." He explained.

"Well, rather than waste the time of getting stuff ready for us to escape by car or something stupid like that, maybe you can turn back into a dragon or something, pick us up and carry us away while Percy pulls his distraction." I suggested.

Frank nodded. "Gimme a second." He told us. We stalled for a few minutes as he closed his eyes, and he slowly began morphing into a dragon. The Laistrygonians hesitated, some stepped back, a couple even ran away.

"Now!" I told Percy. In an instant, the sprinklers exploded, spraying water everywhere, ruining the yard, and temporarily blinding the giants. "Everyone, get on!" Luke called. And so, we climbed on the Frank Express, and flew north, Ella fluttering alongside us, towards the airfield Frank mentioned.

It was weird, flying. Percy's arms were wrapped around Luke to stay steady, and Percy looked panicked the entire time. Even Luke looked unsettled, and I knew why. It took Jupiter or Zeus just one second to detect us, and if he looked even a little closely, he'd see a son of Poseidon, a daughter of Pluto, and a traitor to Olympus riding a dragon in the general direction of Alaska.

Jupiter may not be as paranoid as Zeus, but both of them would still smite us in an instant.

Thankfully, today seemed to be a day where Zeus was incapacited more than usual by his split between Greek and Roman forms, because we got to the airfield just normal, and not extra crispy.

"Go! Get on the plane! Who knows how long the Laistrygonians'll take to get here? Probably not long." I urged them. Frank morphed back into himself, and stumbled up to the legionnaire, and started talking with him.

Ella, however, took one look at the plane and shrieked. "N-n-no!" she yelped. "Fly with wings! N-n-no airplanes."

I nodded. "Right. Harpies don't like being restrained. Ella, hide in the woods. I can try contacting a friend to pick you up, and bring you to Camp Jupiter. Okay?" I asked her.

"Camp." Ella muttered. She continued, speaking in Latin now. "Wisdom's daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome."

"Right. We can talk later about that, okay? Go hide." I told her. With that, she darted away, tufts of red feathers left floating in the air.

Percy looked troubled, but we boarded the plane. I heard the ground rumbling, slowly getting louder. I knew it was the Laistrygonians. The plane's engines revved, and we started moving. I stretched out my senses, allowing me to see around the plane without restraint.

I saw a cannonball hurtling toward us, and I thrust out my hand, aerokinesis working overtime to freeze it in the air, and fling it back at the giants, twice as hard as they'd thrown it. "Go!" I screamed to the cockpit. There was a cuss from the direction of the cockpit, but we lifted in the air, the plane shaking as we took off.