Indigo Eyes

Chapter 74

They got to Zeus's Fist, a huge pile of boulders in the middle of the west woods. It was a natural landmark where campers often rendezvoused on hunting expeditions, but now there was nobody around.

"Over there," Cressida said.

"No, wait. It's behind us," Percy said, but it was as if the scuttling noises were coming from several different directions. The pair circled the boulders, weapons at the ready when someone right behind them said, "Hi."

They whirled around and the nymph, Juniper, yelped. "Put those down! Dryads don't like sharp blades, ok?"

"Gods of Olympus, Juniper! Don't sneak up on us like that," Cressida exhaled. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here."

Percy lowered his sword. "In the boulders?"

She pointed towards the edge of the clearing. "In the juniper. Duh."

"You should feel stupid," Cressida said to him as if reading his mind.

"At least now I know what you feel like."

Her eyes widened at his audacity, as if she was about to tackle him to the ground and smack him silly.

"Are you guys busy?" Juniper asked, distracting Cressida from her anger.

"Well we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die," Percy answered and he was answered with a smack on the back of his head from Cressida. "Ow!"

"We're not busy," she replied. "What's wrong, Juniper?"

The dryad sniffled and wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. "'It's Grover. He seems so distraught. All year he's been out looking for Pan. And every time he comes back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

"Juniper, he'd never do that to you," Cressida said as Juniper started crying and she put a hand on her shoulder.

"He had a crush on a blueberry bush once," she said miserably.

"Hey," Cressida said softly, as soft as Juniper's silky clothes. "Grover would never even look at another tree. He's just stressed out about his searcher's licence."

"He can't go underground! You can't let him," she protested.

"It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start," Cressida said.

Another rustle in the woods had Juniper yelling, "Hide!"

And she poofed into green mist.

The two of them turned around, slowly, and coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, three metres long, with jagged pincers, an armoured tail and a sting as long as my sword. A scorpion. Tied to its back was a red silk package.

"Shit. Ok. Plan Macedonia. I'll take point and tie it down. You get behind it and cut its tail off," Cressida ordered as her spear turned into a thyrsus.

"Got it. Sounds easy enough," Percy replied as he swung his sword, and Cressida wanted to run him through with it because just as he said that, two more scorpions appeared from the woods.

"You had to open your bad-luck mouth!" Cressida yelled. "Di Immortales. The whole damn woods and all the monsters come at us!"

"Like this is my fault?" Percy said nervously as they backed up towards Zeus' fist. One, scorpion they could take. Two, with a little luck. Three? That was pushing it a little... or a lot.

The scorpions scurried towards them, whipping their barbed tails as if they'd come there to kill them.

"Climb?" Percy suggested as their backs hit the nearest boulder.