The Daughter Of Night (Original Version)

59- I Climb A Giant Apollo

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Riding into camp on a giant ant was one of the most interesting experiences of my life.

Clinging to the Mama ant with Apollo, Austin and Kayla as the other three demigods hung to an ant behind us I thought that this would be a stupid idea.

We burst out of the woods to see a massive golden statue of Apollo wading out of the Long Island Sound, completely nude.

Once again I marvelled at how disproportionate statues of Apollo were.

"Stop staring!" Apollo told me.

"I wasn't staring!" I said. Apollo rolled his eyes.

"How is that thing even alive?" Kayla asked, "What did Nero do? Order it online?"

"Thee Triumvirate has vast resources," Apollo answered, "They've had centuries to prepare, once they reassembled the statue all they had to do was fill it with some animating magic- usually the harnessed life forces of wind or water spirits. I'm not sure. That's really Hephaestus's speciality.

"So how do we kill it?" Austin asked.

"I'm working on it!"

"Apollo what do we do?" Kayla asked.

Apollo thought for a moment and then lent down to speak to the giant ant.

"I know I can't ask you to give up your life for us, just give us one pass around the statue's head? Enough to distract it, then set us down on the beach?"

The Mama ant did this. She dived towards the Colossus's head.

"IMPOSTER!" Apollo yelled at the statue, "I AM THE REAL APOLLO! YOU'RE UGLY!"

The Colossus (much like Apollo) did not like being insulted. The statue swung a rudder at us, the rudder clipped the ants wings and we crash landed on the beach.

I landed face first on the sand, I clambered to my feet as quickly as I could. I pulled Apollo to his feet.

"You can kill it," I told Apollo, "But I have to help slow it down!"

"I know, okay, go," he told me, he kissed me quickly, I let go of his hands and ran towards the Colossus.

I knew Apollo wouldn't like me doing any of what I had in mind to slow the Colossus down, but that was not my main concern.

I figured that the baby would be okay, seen as he was probably a god and from what I had seen so far he was powerful enough to take care of himself.

I grabbed onto the Colossus's foot just as it took another step and I was pulled along with it.

The statue's legs were wet a slippery, and the metal was smooth, making it had to climb. But I managed to shimmy my way up to it's waist, which took me quite a while.

I used the colossus's private parts as a foot hold and jumped, grabbing onto it's belly button. The chest was easier to climb because Nero had given it a very chizzled appearance. Once I was on it's shoulders.

I pulled together some shadows and held them together in a ball of darkness.

"Hey bronze butt! I yelled. I clung onto the statue's neck as it moved it's head, looking for the source of the noise.

When it looked in a direction that gave me a clear shot at it's face. I threw the ball at it, and made the shadows spread out, covering the statue's face. Thankfully it seemed that this stopped the Colossus from seeing for a while, before it shook the shadows away and kept walking.

I saw a chariot take to the air with Apollo, Kayla and Austin in it. I really hoped Apollo had a plan.

I scaled the side of the statue's head, just in time to see Mrs O'Leary the hell hound pee on the Colossus's head and Percy slip over in it.

"What the- Mrs O'Leary jeez!" Percy scrambled to his feet.

"Um hi," I waved at him.

"Percy!" Austin flew the chariot close enough to speak to us.

"Alright," Percy frowned, "who unleashed the giant bronze guy? Apollo did you do this?"

"I am offended!" Apollo cried, "I am only indirectly responsible for this! And I have a plan to fix it?"

"Really?" I asked, "how's that going?"

"If you guys could keep the Colossus from stomping on the camp's hearth, that would be bad. I just need a few more minutes to enchant this arrow."

"Well get enchanting!" Percy yelled.

Hey guys!
I'm posting this chapter early because I've just seen that this book is now ranked at #941 in fanfiction.

I know it's not a really high number, but it's a massive milestone for me as I've never had a book in the top #1000 before.

Thank you so much to every single person who has voted, commented, or read this book. It means the world to me that you all enjoy my writing and are just as invested in Ri and her story as I am.

As most of you know, I often write my books quite far in advance (as I have done with this one). Currently I have written up to Chapter 70 of this book. However updates are going to slow down now because I want to wait until Burning Maze comes out to write anymore so it will be more accurate.

I will try and space updates out so that you still get updates before the beginning of May when I will be able to read Burning Maze.

Remember to vote, comment and be amazing!
~Em xx