Magnus Chase and the Wrath of Morpheus

Chapter 6

I Pass out, Part One

"Seriously guys, get a new catchphrase", Halfborn grunted as he impaled one of the Mare's heads with a knife throw. "It's kinda boring if you always show up with the same thing."
The Mare fell off his horse and sank to the ground, slowly vaporizing into a black fog that dissolved in the air. His friends hissed and drew their swords. They jumped off their horses and moved towards us. It was hard not to laugh at their disfigured, crippled bodies limping towards us. Only their certainty that they would be strong enough to fight all of us is what made me fear them. "Hey, Señor! This is the time where you let go of me and I kill your enemies!" I had completely forgotten about Jack, who I was still holding in my hand. "Oh, uhm, right", I said, nimble-witted as I am, and threw him towards the creatures who called themselves Mare. Their new frontman spat on the ground, swung his sword and hit Jack so hard he flung away and right through the window. "You're next", he said and pointed at me with his dark, bony fingers. They screeched and leaped towards us, slicing open seats and tearing away cushions. One of them jumped right onto Mallory's face. "Get him off of me!", she screamed and tried to shake him off. Grover took his bag and hit the Mare so hard he ripped apart in the middle and died instantly, dissolving into black fog just as his friend did just seconds ago. Another one tried to attack Alex but she jumped aside quickly and he ran past her. She turned around pressed the monster against a seat and strangled him to death with her garotte wire. There were only two left but TJ had already loaded his rifle and shot one of them while the last one climbed back on the back of his horse and fled. The other horses followed him. We were all in shock. Even though the battle had only lasted a minute or two we all were staggered that monsters we had never even heard of attacked us with no apparent reason and no goal.

"What do we do now?", I heard TJ ask. Mallory took her bag, which had fallen off the seats during the fight, and sat down with it. "I think it's best to wait and talk about it when we arrive at Camp Halfblood. We have no idea who they obey and what they wanted. The only reasonable thing is to find out more about the artifact and maybe it will reveal part of this fragmented puzzle we have lying before us."

I nodded: "I agree. We can't do much here and..." I got cut off by my talking sword that smashed a window to my left and was now hovering in front of me. "How dare you let them do this to me!" He said. I think he was angry but it's hard to tell. After all, he is just a sword. "Excuse me?", I said. "You told me to let go and you went to fight them on your own! I had nothing to do with that." "Well, I don't care what you think señor. Now you gotta pay for what you did. I made some extra loopings flying back here just for you", Jack said and flew right into my hands. But Magnus, you might ask, how is this a punishment? Well, you see, everything that Jack does is taken off of my current level of energy once I take him back. I couldn't even try to stop him and immediately passed out.

"Finally." I heard Alex say when I opened my eyes again. We were sitting in a taxi driving through a forest. Well, sitting isn't the right word. I was lying on the back seats with my head in Alex's lap. I felt her fingers play with my hair. "Took you long enough. We're almost there. I admit that people were looking when we carried you out of the train. The first taxi driver didn't even let us get in the taxi when he saw that five kids with a seemingly dead body wanted to enter his vehicle. You're getting fat by the way. I needed help carrying you."

"Well maybe you're just getting weak", I groaned and sat up. "Call me weak again and I'll smack you so hard you won't be able to eat those Falafels you brought with you, which in my eyes was a completely hideous idea. But then again it came from you so I guess it's normal." "How is bringing your own food a bad idea? Especially when we don't know what they'll serve us at the camp." Alex mumbled something under her breath. "What did you say?"

"I said you're going to find out because I ate all your falafels..."

If our cab wouldn't have stopped at exactly this moment then I swear to you I would've killed her but she opened the door and jumped out of the still moving taxi. "Son of a..." I grabbed my bag and ran after her up the hill on top of which I saw the entrance to Camp Half-Blood. Alex, who was looking back to see if I was following her, laughed when she saw me trying to catch up to her while still feeling dizzy and stumbling my first few steps. But luckily karma hit her right back. Her foot got caught in a root that was hidden by withered leaves covering the whole forest ground. With a high pitched scream she fell flat on her face. I took up my pace and reached her in seconds. I turned her around to face her and sat on her so she couldn't get away again. Fighting for air I gasped: "You did what? How dare you Fierro, how dare you." She grinned. How rude of her. "But Magnus, I had to do it." For a moment I actually thought she meant it and just wanted to ask her how the situation came up where she had to eat my falafels. She laughed, took my face into both her hands and kissed me. "You know you can't stay mad at me." Well, the joke's on her because I can stay mad at her. Especially when it's about my falafels. It wasn't that bad but I couldn't let her win this fight.

I got up and already wanted to continue walking when I heard another Taxi arrive and I looked back. Mallory, Halfborn and Grover got out of the car. But where the hell is TJ? I thought. I turned my head towards the taxi Alex and I had arrived in. There he was standing in front of it, throwing his arms up in the air: "I don't have any money to pay! How am I supposed to pay when you two just run away with all my stuff?" "Just ask Mallory!" I yelled back. I turned around again and when I looked up the hill I suddenly saw two posts signalling the entrance of camp halfblood. I took up my bag again and walked towards the top of the hill. When I reached it all I saw was a farm but as soon as I walked through the entrance a whole world opened up before my eyes and I couldn't believe what I saw.