Melpomene (PJO)

4. The bowstring goes taut

Every single child of Apollo hated snakes. This applied to all, regardless of whether the scaly little monstrosities attacked you or not. It was like how the Athena Cabin sometimes evacuated at stupid-o'clock and woke up the rest of camp because someone thought they'd seen a house spider (sadly, Mari got the worst of both worlds). At least there weren't any snakes at camp.

The Aethiopian Drakon was much, much worse than a snake.

It had to be at least three meters long, with hideous acidic green scales and a foul smell, like burned hair. That didn't even make any sense because the Aethiopian Drakon didn't have hair, just claws. Very jagged looking claws, like sharpened needles sticking out of each of its fingers. But by far the most terrifying thing about the crime against nature and manicures in front of them was the eyes. The Drakon didn't have scales around the eyes, just pale green flesh. The edges of the green skin were charred around the eyes, by the sizzling mass in the sockets. Instead of optic nerves, the Aethiopian Drakon had lumps of searing coal. When it breathed in, the coal burned an angry green, like greek fire, and hot magma dripped down its cheeks, but the Drakon either didn't feel it or didn't care.

"What do we do?" Mari's voice came out small.

The Drakon had stopped breathing fire at them, but its nostrils were still smoking as it glared down at them with a searing gaze. It couldn't get to them because of the border, but they were still barely more than ten metres away. Mari felt a bead of sweat run down the back of her neck - the heat was like the campfire, but so, so much worse.

"We fight it off as best we can until Chiron gets here," Lee's said, eyes steeled in determination. "We can't go up against that thing in close combat, it'll burn us to a crisp. Mari, do you have a bow?"

"Yeah, I-"

"Give it to Austin. Kayla stepped on his as she was leaving. Try and use the mist to attack it as best you can."

"But I don't know if I can!" Mari protested. "I've never used the mist on a monster this size before, and I... I'm out of practice."

"I know." Lee notched an arrow and fired it at the Drakon, which roared at them and prepared to release another breath of fire. Michael snarled and used his teeth to shoot again, sending a volley of arrows into the Drakon's mouth. "Just do everything you can. That's all any of us can do till Chiron gets here."

Mari gulped, as she passed her bow and quiver of arrows to Austin. She didn't have any cool trick arrows, like Michael, who never left the cabin without at least ten sonic arrows in his quiver, or Lee, who was partial to flare arrows. Still, normal arrows could do a lot of damage if the archer shooting them was skilled.

Almost all of Apollo's children were skilled.

Almost none of the arrows did any kind of damage.

"What is that thing made of?" Lee whispered, horrified.

Mari curled her hand into a fist, forming the mist into long, thin needle-shapes and tried to poke them through the Drakon's hide. A few of the more dead-looking scales cracked and two even fell off, but the Drakon seemed to regard this as little more than an itch, not even bothersome enough to scratch with its danger-nails. Mari and her siblings failed at inflicting any lasting damage, but they had succeeded in one thing: they'd definitely pissed the Drakon off.

"Everyone, get back!" Lee shouted, hauling Mari and Austin away as the Drakon reared back in preparation to unleash another torrent of fire. They dived behind a rock, Michael hot on their heels as fire rained around them.

"E-everyone okay?" Lee asked, cringing against the boulder, which itself was rapidly heating up. It burnt to touch, but even that was infinitely better than facing all that fire with no cover.