Percy Jackson and The Council's Army

19. The One With The Stupid Invincible Dragon

(Recap: Why of course I can. But I thought you have figured out by now. End couldn't get the most powerful monster to do his bidding because you ride him. So he went for the second best." She said and left.
Reyna, Thalia and Annabeth looked confused but me and Skylar had pale faces. When they looked at us confused we said "The gypsican dragon. The most violent and feared of the predators in the univerese. I told you about Filos didn't I? Well just imagine a dragon almost that powerful but million times more dangerous and voracious than him. You'll get a fair idea." They nervously gupled.)

Once Nyx dissppeared, I looked back at everyone. "She was a great help, despite her nature. But the only thing we forgot to make her swear on was the truth about her so called gifts." I said, suddenly realizing how stupid we were.
"So you're just gonna throw away this wool and the pearls?" Annabeth asked me.
"I don't know. Let's take a vote. Trust her or not. We'll go with majority."
"Sounds fair. All in favour of using Nyx's gifts raise your hands, palms facing me and those not in favour raise your hands with your fists closed. Raise hands upto shoulder level everyone." Skylar announced.
The voting though, seemed unnecessary after the actual event because it turned out everyone was in favour of using those gifts. Everyone was willing to bet on Nyx if it meant no arai and a chance to escape.
"Annabeth. I thought you hated Nyx?" Reyna asked, seemingly surprised at her friend's vote.
"I still do, but the arai scare me more than her. Any chance I won't have to encounter them again and I'm grab it."Annabeth said. Reyna nodded at that logical explanation.
"Fair enough, Chase. Stormy, drop the wool and let it lead the way. Follow it, Thalia can bring up the rear, guard us from behind." Skylar said.
"Aye aye captain." I said, a bit irrirated at the use of that nickname again.
The wool suddenly started rolling. In the same direction that we'd come from.
"At least the way out is not through this scary dungeon. Let's go." I said.
The wool took turns through various places, more sulphurous and less sulphurous, dark and light, scary looking and well, more scary looking. But surprisingly we'd encountered so less monsters on our way that usually only two of us would be enough to defeat the group. Nyx had indeed helped us a lot. We'd been going on since almost about two hours, at least that's what I thought. Time is different in Tartarus. And roughly every fifteen minutes or so and there would be a small group of hippocampi or empousai or cyclops or some or the other such creatures waiting to be monster dust. This became so frequent that we began an unspoken method of fighting. One of us would hold the wool so it wouldn't go wondering and we wouldn't lose it while also making sure there was no aerial threat, two of us would watch the rear for an ambush while the remaining two would battle the monsters. We'd take turns, exchanging roles after each fight. Suddenly, the wool came to an abrupt halt and caught fire.
"Hey what's the matter? Why'd it catch fire?" Reyna asked looking at me and Skylar like we'd have an answer.
"Well I don't know, I didn't make it! Maybe we've reached where it meant to take us to so it burnt off." I speculated, confused myself.
"

Or maybe there's some kind of terrain difference here, like different air or something that made it combust." Skylar said.
"So why aren't we burning?" Thalia said.
"You sound dissappointed that we aren't." Reyna noted. Thalia just ignored that comment.
"That thing was made by Nyx herself, and even though we're calling it wool we all know it isn't exactly wool, it just looks similar. So maybe Hellfire's right and we've reached our destination, or this thing reacted with something here and caught fire." Annabeth said.
"Hey who's hellfire now?" Reyna asked confused.
"Uh.. Me? You don't remember? The fire, my palms, that sheishkebabed cage, the-"
"Oh shut it, I remember. We're just not used to people calling you hellfire. So I got a little confused." Reyna said.
"Are you really the assassin hellfire? The one whose stories we've heard?" Annabeth asked, looking at me skeptically.
"Of course I am, why you don't believe me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"If we go by the stories we've heard, you don't look like much. No offence, of course."
"None taken. As to why I don't look or behave like hellfire, the stories you've heard would make you believe that I'm a deadly assassin, but that's my part time job. What I am in front of you and the army is mostly who I am. I act like hellfire only under two circumstances. One, when it's my job and I have a specific target and two, when I'm very angry." I explained.
"Don't worry, he doesn't have a split personality, he's usually a bit stupid." Skylar said.
"Oh we figured it out ages ago." Reyna said while all the girls chuckled.
"Hey! I thought you were on my side Sky!" I complained. She just rolled her eyes.
"Okay. Now if you girls are done chuckling and making jokes at my expense, we have a job to do." I said frowning a bit.
"So what are we supposed to do now?" Thalia asked no one in particular.
"I think I can tell the way from here. This seems like known territory." Annabeth said, scanning the area.