Phoenix was getting tired, so we decided to walk until Phoenix can “fly” again.

Phoenix said, “I’ve failed you my lady. Please forgive me.”

I petted Phoenix, who was carrying all of our backpacks.

“Please, my back is killing me.”

“I don’t care, unless we can start flying again?”

Phoenix galloped ahead. “You said something my lady? Let’s walk faster!”

Leo grumbled, “The horse doesn’t look tired anymore. Can we ride it?”

“Yeah,” Piper said. “She looks like she can fly again.”

At that moment, Phoenix started to slow down again.

She whined, “I’m tired.”

Leo muttered, “Drama queen”.

Phoenix and Piper asked at the same time, “Excuse me?”

Only Fern and I started to laugh, since we could hear Phoenix and Piper at the same time.

In some distance ahead of us, we heard a bunch of whacking and cursing. We followed the noise and saw some lumberjack cutting down a tree. The tree had this cut only a couple of inches, every time he hacked it with the ax it only nudged a couple of centimeters. He had this long, black beard covering his scarred face. He wore a red plaid shirt over an angry bird T-shirt. He also wore torn up blue jeans and leather worker boots.

Fern shivered, “I hate lumberjacks. They always cut away dryad trees with out their permission.”

Piper asked, “Why do they need to do that?”

Fern answered, “Nymphs can always get their revenge. Poison your food, have your own ax cut you, their meaner than they look.”

Finally, the lumberjack gave up; the tree wasn’t going to budge. He sat on a huge gray boulder and pulled out an iPad and started to play. From here, it looked like he was playing a game of Angry Birds.

Leo gasped, “Look, it’s an iPad. You do not know the last time I played a single game in this demigod life.”

He then ran up to the guy. So we were forced to follow behind him. The guy was startled by the group of kids coming out of the forest with a horse, but he smiled. He paused his game of angry birds.

“Hello ya’ll kids,” He said in a weird Texas accent. “What ‘cha doin’ ‘round these parts?”

Jason came up with an excuse, “We were hiking in the woods when we stumbled here”.

I nudged Leo. “How come you don’t have a Texas accent?”

Leo nudged me back. “Leave me alone.”

“Ah,” the guy said. “The name’s Simon the lumberjack and huntsman.”

Fern gulped, “Huntsman?”

I patted him on the back.

“Yup, I have the love for trees ever since I was a young’un. Let me show ya’ll how it started.”

He led us farther into the woods until we reached a wooden lodge. The pine trees surrounding it have been bent down, with the top being tied to the ground. It was pretty odd; it looked like a clearing when it wasn’t supposed to.

Fern whispered to me, “He doesn’t smell like a monster, but he seems awfully familiar. But something’s weird inside his lodge. I’m going to check it out.”

He then walked back into the woods.

“It get’s lonely out here. And I don’t have any friends to out huntin’ with me.” He began. “So I tie down the trees and tie somethin’ to it. I then let it go, and shoot it before it crashes to the ground.”

He then showed how he did it. He tied a piece of China, then got a hunting rifle. He then untied the tree, and flung the China into the sky. Flawlessly he got his rifle and shot it that was miles away in steady timing. All of us were horrified, except Leo.

He exclaimed, “Cool!”

“But what happens to the broken pieces of trash you shoot?” Piper asked.

Simon laughed. “Trash, smash. Who cares?”

I clenched my fists. What’s wrong with this guy?

Leo jumped up and down like an excited kindergartener who wanted to do something. “Show me, show me.”

And what’s wrong with Leo?

Simon chuckled, “Sure son. Just help me tie them trees again.”

Leo readily agreed. Simon got a rope and lassoed the top of the pine tree, the he and Leo pulled it down. He then showed Leo how to tie the rope on his hands to help himself hold down the tree. Simon then got another bent down tree and tied it to Leo.

Leo asked nervously, “What are you doing?”

“You should have found out by now, my boy.” He said dropping the Texas accent. “For I am Sinis, “The Tree-Bender. That’s how I got my title, Pityocampes.”

Leo gulped, “Tree bender?”

Piper gasped. “I think I remember now, Theseus killed you while he was traveling to Athens. You force people to help bend a tree then just let it go, kind of like your China dishes.”

Sinis laughed. “I was almost famous for tying my victims to two trees and just…let them go.”

When he was about to let go of the pine tree that was tied to Leo, Jason and Piper grabbed both trees. Piper got her knife and started to cut the rope.

I yelled to her, “Stop!”

But before she realized what she was doing, the pine tree flung Piper on one side. Then Jason and Leo to the other. I had Phoenix multiply herself with the Hermes horse- the fastest of the horse- and fly to the others. Then I was alone with Sinus.

I asked, limiting my words, “Why do this?”

He shrugged, “I always loved the slingshot and archery. Then I thought, ‘What if I can do something more for my hobby?’ Then I thought of this, it’s so fun to fling people into the air, so that’s my reason.”

I didn’t say anything.

He continued, “When I heard of the game Angry Birds- he pointed to his shirt- I was fascinated. Thanks to the game, it just gave me the love with my hobby even more.”

Thanks a lot Angry Birds.

“Show me how you get people to help you tie the trees.”

He laughed. “You’ve found out that you’re outmatched.”

I stiffened, he didn’t outmatch me. Please, I could defeat him in one swing. But all I really need to do is outsmart him.

He explained, “Back then, I forced people to help me. But now, they won’t do it by force. They just charge me for assault and such, that’s why I hate the government. So I just ask nicely like you’re friend over there, he doesn’t really have any brains.”

I muttered, “He’s some-what different.”

He took me by the hand and showed me how he ties the knot of his victims.

I asked. “Can I try?”

He smiled, “Sure, maybe you can become my apprentice”.

I was about to do it on myself, but I pretended to trip on some ropes. When Sinis helped me up, I tied the ropes of a bent tree on Sinis’ legs.

He smiled thinking that I was practicing how to tie the knot. “Yeah, you need to no, tie the knot first then put it around the loop.”

When I finally finished tying the “complex” knot, I got up to my feet. I grabbed a rope from the ground and started to tie it to Sinis’ hands. Sinis thought I was also trying to make another knot, since he didn’t try to struggle. When I finished I stared at him, being proud of my work.

He asked, “Just what are you doing? You can untie me now.”

I shook my head. “You’re pretty gullible. You don’t have any brains, do you?”

Sinis huffed, “It’s personal”.

I summoned out my sword then smiled sweetly at Sinis. “This is for all of the people you killed both back in the myths and now. You and your Angry Bird days are officially over.”

He glared at me. “You have the same tongue as Theseus when he killed me, so I wouldn’t be such a bother for future travelers.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

I was about to cut the rope, but it doesn’t feel right to kill him even if he did the same for the others. I heard beats of flapping and saw Phoenix, and the Hermes horse carrying Leo, Piper, and Jason.

Piper grumbled, “You just had to help him, just had to?”

“Sorry,” Leo said. He rubbed his wrists, they were burned with red rope marks. His skin was coming off and was bleeding red.

We all looked at Sinus who was busy trying to untie himself.

Sinis gave us a forced smiled, “How’s it going, had a nice flight?”

Leo yelled. “I glided in the air almost crashing down the forest. And you’re asking me if I had a nice flight?!”

Piper glared at him, "It's Gaea right? She brought you back to life."

Sinus rolled his eyes, "Someone's finally caught on."

Piper took a stap forward, dagger ready. "Why you-"

I then heard someone call my name in the distance.

“Alexandria!”

I looked and saw Fern. But his clothes were ripped like he was mobbed. There were lipstick kisses all over his traumatized face. He looked like one of those cartoon characters that were mobbed by a bunch of girls.

Leo stared at Fern. “Dude, is that lipstick?

“W-what happened?” I asked.

He pointed at the distance. “That happened.”

A group of dryads came to us. They all looked bruised up and been crying in their spare time.

Fern explained, “I went over to Simon’s cabin and found all of these nymphs locked inside the lodge”.

One of them sniffled, “When he tried to chop down our trees and we went for revenge, he captured us.”

“He treated us like his servants and cut down trees right in front of us,” another cried.

Some nymph burst out crying, “It was horrible.”

Fern shuffled, “When I unlocked the door, they burst out of the place and went nuts on me”.

Leo muttered to himself, “The satyr gets everything, even the girls.”

Jason elbowed him to be quiet.

One of the nymphs cooed, “Are you sure you’re not free, Fern?”

Fern stammered, “Sorry, I like this naiad at home”.

One of them grumbled, “Naiads, typical”.

Leo coughed, “I’m free”.

But behind Leo, Piper shook her head to the nymphs. They all got the idea and ignored Leo. All of the nymphs glared at Sinis.

One of them, probably the oldest, said to him, “Payback time”.

Sinis whimpered, “Did you prepare lunch for me?”

One of the nymphs said to us, “We could take care from here. Good luck.”

We all walked away from the mob of nymphs getting their revenge from Sinis. We even heard a bunch of yelling and pleading as we walked out of the forest.

As we walked over to some town since Phoenix is still to “tired” to fly. Piper was worried about Jason; he seemed awfully quiet after the Sinis incident.

Piper asked Jason, “How come you’re so quiet?”

Jason flinched at Piper. He then yelled like he couldn’t hear anything, “WHAT!?”

Piper had to yell, “WHY ARE YOU SO QUIET, WELL, A FEW SECONDS AGO!?”

Jason answered back, “LEO SCREAMED SO LOUD INTO MY EAR WHILE WE WERE FLYING INTO THE AIR FROM THE TREE. THAT I THINK I’M TEMPORARILY DEAF!”

We all stared at Leo who blushed brightly.

“What?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you scream if you were flying in the air 80 mph?”

Jason gave Leo a puzzled look, “WHAT!?”

Leo screamed, “WOULDN’T YOU SCREAM IF-”

He turned away, “Never mind”.

Jason hollered, “WHAT!?”

Leo sighed and turned to me. “We’re going to have this same exact conversation in some nursery home in Florida.”

Jason repeated, “WHAT!?”

I covered my mouth and tried not to smile. When we were passing the state line of Texas and New Mexico, Leo got really bored.

He said to us, “Watch this!”

He jumped side to side over the state line.

Leo would jump to one side. “I’m in Texas!”

Then he’d jump at the other side. “Now I’m in New Mexico!

He kept on doing that. “Texas, New Mexico, Texas, New Mexico!”

I looked into my ring and gave Jason ear drops, but behind Leo’s back. Jason winked at me then walked over to Leo.

Jason tapped at Leo’s shoulder, pretending to still be deaf. “YOU OWE ME!”

Leo asked, “WHY?!”

Jason rolled his eyes, “I’M DEAF THANKS TO YOUR SCREAMING!”

Leo screamed back, “FINE!”

“I NEED A HEARING AID!”

“I CAN’T SUMMON THAT.”

“BUY IT!”

“I ONLY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY FOR JUST THAT!”

“WELL TOO BAD!”

We reached a town in New Mexico. We headed to a McDonalds while Leo went to the pharmacy for the hearing aid. Phoenix was behind the dumpsters of the McDonalds, I promised her a happy meal.

She reminded me, “Don’t forget to get me the My Little Pony toy”.

We all sat in the booth getting ready to order some lunch. I told them about the visit of Apollo.

Piper asked, “You need to compete with the muses?”

Jason said, “Wow, you got it tough.”

Piper stomped on his foot. Jason eyes looked like his eyes were about to pop.

He then said, “I mean, we have to go to Vegas.”

Leo came into the booth with a plastic bag.

He yelled to Jason, “I FINALLY GOT THE HEARING AID!”

Everyone looked towards us.

Fern pat Leo at the back. “GRANDPA, JUST PUT ON YOUR HEARING AID!”

Fern then went to the counter to order our food. Everyone around us went back to eating.

Jason smiled at Leo. “Leo, you have to use your indoor voice.”

Leo sat there dumbfounded. “Do you know how hard it was to find this?”

Piper screamed, “DON’T WORRY GRAMPS, WE KNOW HOW MUCH YOU LIKE THAT TYPE OF HEARING AID!”

Leo grumbled, “They don’t accept refunds.”

We all burst out laughing. Fern came back to the booth with our orders. We then explained to Leo that we need to go to Vegas.

Fern asked while chewing on the plastic cup, “Where is the A-Lyre-Ing Nightclub”.

No one spoke, we never even heard of a club like that.

Leo suggested, “The Yellow book?”

Piper said, “We’ll just ask around or something.”

We left McDonalds and rode on Phoenix- who had enough energy to fly- and headed to Vegas.

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This chapter is dedicated to my little brother and his love for Angry Birds. They got on my nerves and it sure got on Alexandria's. The Jason being deaf part was a little humor I wanted to show that Jason and Leo are still the best of friends. Make sure to leave comments and I'll get back to ya'll.