Daniel

Daniel and the other two all sat on the back.

They finally relaxed, the closest they came to relaxing was when they hiked through the hills, that had now faded into the distance. There was practically nothing that could actually surprise them at this point and they all finally were having a conversation without arguing.

“So Rachel what were you doing before you so heroically stepped in and saved us!?” Joel joked.

“Me and my,” Rachel choked up: “Umm... Well I think they were my friends, were on a quest, hunting this god, but then we encountered Bellona, who said that I was her daughter, that god we were hunting could detect any godly what-so-ever being, so I was a liability. I had to go.”

“Well, we have been hunted for three years now.” Daniel said.

“What was the most dangerous encounter for you?” Joel asked.

“One time I fought a giant sand monster. But that doesn’t compare to a lot of the other things I have fought, but its probably Tonitru!” Rachel said.

“We fought Arachne once!” Joel exclaimed.

“The god of art!” Rachel said. “How fierce!” Rachel shouted. “HA! HA!” Daniel mock laughed.

“A goddess is a goddess! They’re all powerful!” Joel said.

The sun had already started to set.

“Should we land to go to sleep?” Joel asked.

“Would sleeping in the air be the most dangerous thing we’ve done.”

.  .  .

The now mostly dragon had dropped them off in a small town, on his map Daniel could see the dragon nestled in small hills. The three were dying to eat, there was a place with a large green sing: BURGERS; is all it said. The place was small, the walls were maroon and the tables ripped. The round was made up of black and white tiles. The air smelled of grease and ketchup, there were two other people sat down in row seats.

Daniel sats studying his map, he fidgeted with his ring between his fingers. “It’s gonna take at least a day for Sty to rest, and if we stay here the automatons will catch us, we have to move towns over.”

“How!?” Joel said. He was hungry.

“Well he’ll know we’re on the ground now probably, but he’ll still be searching the skies for a few hours. Wait until he starts searching the ground and we take off again.”

“He’ll be searching the skies? How does he even know where we are?”

“Birds!” Joel said. “he sends birds after us, its useless to fight them.”

“Plus he has some basic demigod tracking technology. As long as his birds are near, he can roughly sense our aura.”

“Boring, boring, and more boring! Got it!” Rachel said.

Joels eyes widened as the waiter walked over with three plates of burgers and fries. The three didn’t talk for the next ten minutes while they ate.  

Daniel looked out as the two people in the aisle walked behind into the kitchen, they had long sword by their sides. “There’s a passage way back there I think.” (Passage ways, all across earth there are passage ways mortal people can’t see or enter, sometimes they’re trains, boats, or trams.)

“how’ll we get our weapons back?” Joel asked.

“Styr will find us!” Daniel claimed.

“You’re giving him a name now?” Rachel took a chunk out of her burger.

“Lets go!” Daniel jumped up from his seat and walked up to the counter. He looked over into the kitchen, there were two metal doors with windows. There were curtains around the windows. Daniel hopped the counter and lifted the curtain. Water light glimmered in a long narrow tunnel, there were arches all of the way down. Some of the arches led into rooms and corridors. There was a large decline filled with water, there was a small ship in the water. A few people walked in an out of the corridors.

“C’mon!” Daniel said over the counter. Suddenly a bronze gorgon shattered through the windows of the restaurant. Daniel and Rachel ducked down. Daniel pulled his dagger and leapt over the counter. The gorgon faced him, its face was battered and its sword pointed at Daniel. Joel hid under the table and Rachel stood in horror, the blade of the gorgon rested on Daniels neck. A distorted voice spoke: “Drop your dagg-g-g-ger!” Daniel let his silver dagger fall to the floor. The automaton walked behind Daniel keeping the sword pressed to his neck, it was cold, Daniel couldn’t even understand what was happening. The claws of the gorgon grabbed Daniel by the calves and its left arm kept him steady by the shoulder, its wing fluttered and they hovered in the air. Suddenly the wind blasted Daniel as they shot out of the building. Daniel let the claws rush up to his shoulders and he kept flying further into the sky. Every second Dniel lost more and more hope. The gorgon stopped in the air, Daniel swung from its claws. His legs flailed and he could see the ground forty feet below. The Gorgon started to wave its sword around aimlessly. Daniel looked around and a bee flew around the gorgons head. The bee changed shape into Joel, he pulled the dial out of his watch, the watch danced and the bracelet on it shifted. Joel grabbed the Gorgons head, the watch had shifted into a silver sword. The sword struck into the gorgons head, the gorgon staggered through the air, Daniel shook more as the gorgon spiralled out of control. Joel dove through the air and grabbed Daniel by the waist, they fell the wind blowing. The two pulled each other close, their eyes shut just feeling the wind as they fell...

Something struck them and they rolled across the scales of Styr. Daniel opened his eyes and grabbed onto Styr’s wing. Joel fell against him. Joel scrambled away and immediately they clattered to the roof on their shoulder. Pain rippled up Daniel. His orange shirt was ripped and some blood fell down his stomach. “We really need new clothes, AGAIN!” Joel complained staring into the sky. Rachel ran out of the burgers building and shouted something up at them. Was she being caring? Nope! “HURRY UP IDIOTS!!!” She walked back into the building. Joel and Daniel climbed down and over the counter.

Rachel was nowhere to be seen in the restaurant. The two walked into the metal doors, blue light shone in their eyes. The tunnel was dimly lit and steps echoed through the passage way. Stairs unfolded from the boat and an old man with a thick grey moustache stood aboard. He walked up more stairs onto the helm. The three climbed up the stairs and they sat against the railings on the boat. The stairs folded up again and oars shot into the water. Upon the helm Daniel could see two stands with stone tablets on, the guy with the moustache put his hands on the tablets and the boat slowly moved forward.