Changing Fate (Book 1: The God and The Titan)

7

"NOSOI?" PERCY PLANTED HIS FEET in a fighting stance with Emma and her two swords. One which looks like the backbiter Luke Castellan had used before. "You know, I keep thinking, I have now killed every single thing in Greek mythology. But the list never seems to end."

"You haven't killed me yet," I noted.

"Don't tempt us." Percy and Emma said in unison.

The three nosoi shuffled forward. Their cadaverous mouths gaped. Their tongues lolled. Their eyes glistened with a film of yellow mucus.

"These creatures are not myths," I said. "Of course, most things in those old myths are not myths. Except for that story about how I flayed the satyr Marsyas alive. That was a total lie."

Percy glanced at me. "You did what?"

"Guys." Meg picked up a dead tree branch. "Could we talk about that later?"

The middle plague spirit spoke. "Apollooooo..." His voice gurgled like a seal with bronchitis. "We have coooome to—"

"Let me stop you right there." I crossed my arms and feigned arrogant indifference. (Difficult for me, but I managed.) "You've come to take your revenge on me, eh?" I looked at my demigod friends. "You see, nosoi are the spirits of disease. Once I was born, spreading illnesses became part of my job. I use plague arrows to strike down naughty populations with smallpox, athlete's foot, that sort of thing."

"Gross," Meg said.

"Cool," Emma said.

"Somebody's gotta do it and thank you Emma!" I said. "Better a god, regulated by the Council of Olympus and with the proper health permits, than a horde of uncontrolled spirits like these."

The spirit on the left gurgled. "We're trying to have a moooment here. Stop interrupting! We wish to be free, uncontroooolled—"

"Yes, I know. You'll destroy me. Then you'll spread every known malady across the world. You've been wanting to do that ever since Pandora let you out of that jar. But you can't---"

"I am Emma Lightning, Daughter of Κρόνος, I command you to stand down! NOW!!!" Emma Asserted.

"We dooon't serve yooour father Titan spawn!" The nosoi disclosed.

Κρόνος...I know that name it's Ancient Greek for Kronos. Emma's Kronos's Daughter. But how, he's been trapped in Tartarus for centuries. I didn't have time to ask how, I was terrified. My sixteen-year-old mortal instincts were screaming, RUN! My knees were knocking together, and my right eye had developed a nasty twitch. But the secret to dealing with plague spirits was to keep talking so as to appear in charge and unafraid. I trusted that this would allow my demigod companions and the titan time to come up with a clever plan to save me. I certainly hoped Meg, Emma, and Percy were working on such a plan.

The spirit on the right bared his rotten teeth. "What will you strike us down with? Where is your booow?"

"It appears to be missing," I agreed. "But is it really? What if it's cleverly hidden under this Led Zeppelin T-shirt, and I am about to whip it out and shoot you all?"

The nosoi shuffled nervously.

"Yooou lie," said the one in the middle.

Percy cleared his throat. "Um, hey, Apollo..."

Finally! I thought. "I know what you're going to say," I told him. "You, Emma, and Meg have up with a clever plan to hold off-"

"Apollo, Let Percy finish!" Emma snapped.

"I was going to ask what happens if Emma and I slice and dice these mouth-breathers with Celestial bronze."

The middle spirit chortled, his yellow eyes gleaming. "A sword is a small weapon. It does not have the pooooetry of a good epidemic."