Changing the Future

Chapter 33

Despite the fact that the sun hadn't finished setting yet, the forest made it seem like it was the middle of the night, the trees' shadows blocking out any remaining sunlight. The only thing that kept Cleo and I from running into trees and tripping over our own two feet was the faint bronze glow that came from my sword, giving us just enough illumination to see.

"I hear something," Cleo whispered, holding a hand out for us to stop. Silently, she nocked and arrow and tilted her head to the sideways, craning to listen.

I tightened my grip on Epithymia, turning around in a small circle to get my bearings. Something was nearby, I could sense it from the way that the dryads fled into their trees, meaning that one of the six monsters Quintus had released was coming our way.

"There!" Cleo whisper shouted, drawing back her bow and shooting between a few bushes, where something had just rushed past, causing for the leaves to rustle together.

The monster hissed, revealing that Cleo's arrow had hit its mark. It pushed through the forest, standing in front of us, forcing Cleo and me to back up before its pinchers could snap us up.

Quintus had ordered six scorpions from the Triple G Ranch, each one about ten feet long. Even in the fading sunlight, I could see that the scorpion appeared to be made out of pure amber with jagged pinchers, an armored tail, and a nasty barb that was easily three feet long. Its beady black eyes were the size of a small shield, the kind we gave to the younger kids during training to keep the Ares kids from skewering them in the arena.

On its back, I could see the white silk wrapped package, which may or may not have contained the gold laurels. Cleo eyes the packaged, quickly nocking another arrow, drawing her string back, and releasing the string. Her arrow hit one of the scorpion's legs, causing it to hiss angrily and charge us.

My eyes widened, and I practically tackled Cleo aside to avoid being run over. I brought my sword down behind me, hearing the scorpion hiss even more as the blade cut into its armored hide and got stuck there.

"Styx," I swore, drawing my daggers as Cleo clambered up a tree, shooting at the scorpion's unprotected back. I'd get my sword back later, but right now, I was more concerned about not being snapped in half by pinchers or stabbed by a poisoned barb.

The scorpion whirled around, clearly annoyed by the arrows landing in its hide, but while the front was focused on trying to shoo Cleo out of her tree, its three feet long barb was trained on me. I didn't think it was possible for the tail of an animal to be so coordinated while the head fought something else, but clearly that didn't apply to scorpion monsters.

I had to cross my daggers together in an X to prevent the scorpion's barb from stabbing my chest. Even then, the best I could do is push against it as it fought back, causing my feet to dig into the dirt.

Then, I stopped pushing against the barb and ducked to the side, causing for the scorpion's tail to dig into the ground. Before the scorpion could recover, I slashed downward, severing the barb from the rest of the tail. Now, while it was distracted by the loss of its tail, I raced forward and yanked my sword free from its side.

The scorpion lurched sideways, and I heard a feral growl pierce through the air before Cleo leaped from her tree, landing onto the scorpion's back. I kept the pinchers away from her by taking point and slashing at the scorpion's front, forcing it to choose between attacking me or Cleo.

"Got it!" Cleo announced triumphantly.

"Good job! But we kind of have to kill this thing first!" I shouted, chopping off one of the scorpion's pinchers.

Moments later, where the scorpion had been, gold dust littered the ground as Cleo landed flat on her stomach, muttering curses in Ancient Greek as she stood up and dusted herself off. She sheathed her dagger against her thigh, before tearing into the silk package, swearing when she realized that the laurels were not in this package.