Ivy Pittaluga had always made a solemn vow to keep her distance from Percy Jackson, determined to keep her world separate from the camp hero.
However, she realizes that fate has a mischievous plan in store for her. Suddenly thrown together as unlik...
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We were all on Geryon's trolley mobile that resembled a kiddie train from the zoo. Nico sat at the very back and had refused to sit next to any of us. The rest of us were in the middle two cars. Due to the little space, I was stuck between Percy and Annabeth. The three of us were squeezed into the car as we toured the ranch.
"We have a huge operation!" Geryon boasted. "Horses and cattle mostly, but all sorts of exotic varieties, too."
"Hippalektryons?" Annabeth gased as we over came a hill that showed the creatures. "I thought they were extinct!"
The creatures were at the bottom of the hill. Each had the front half of a horse and the back half of a rooster. They had feathery tails and red wings. Two of them started to fight over a pile of seed.
"They look weird." Percy leaned towards me and whispered.
"Maybe they're intelligent." I shrugged. One hippalektryon kept pecking at a pile of rocks instead of the feed. I winced at its stupidity. Percy raised at brow, fighting a smirk. "Nevermind."
"Rooster ponies." Tyson said in amazement. "Do they lay eggs?"
"Once a year!" Geryon grinned in the rear view mirror. "Very much in demand for omelettes!"
"That's horrible!" Annabeth said. "They must be an endangered species!"
"That's just wrong." I shook my head in disgust.
"Gold is gold, darling." Geryon waved his hand in dismissal. "And you haven't tasted the omelettes."
"That's not right." Grover murmured.
"Now, over here we have our fire-breathing horses, which you may have seen on your way in. They're bred for war, naturally."
"War?" I repeated, sharing an unsettling look with Annabeth and Percy.
"What war?" Percy asked.
"Oh, whichever one comes along." Geryon grinned slyly. "And over yonder, of course, are our prize red cows."
"So many." Grover said as we stared at the hundreds grazing on the side of a hill.
"Yes, well, Apollo is too busy to see to them." Geryon explained. "So he subcontracts to us. We breed them vigorously because there's such a demand."
"For what?" Percy questioned.
"What demand can holy cows have?" I inquired.
"Meat, of course!" Geryon raised a brow. My stomach flipped at the thought of people, or monsters eating sacred animals. "Armies have to eat."
"You kill the sacred cows of the sun god for hamburger meat?" Grover said. "That's against the ancient laws!"
"Oh, don't get so worked up, satyr. They're just animals."
