~ ☼ ~

Riley and Alec couldn't stop arguing about the wheat.

With early morning traffic, it was taking longer than it should've to get to the Avalon Fishing Pier. And the entire time, my siblings were discussing what that bundle of wheat Demeter had given us really was. Alec, who was driving again, thought it was some sort of special sustenance, because Demeter seemed to really like food (I mean... same, girl, same... I'd even made everyone in the party take their left over food from Cassie's to go just in case I got hungry again). Riley, however, was still convinced it was a weapon in disguise, like a special sword or something. From where I was sitting in the passenger seat, I suggested, "Maybe it's just toxic wheat. Like, throw it at Python, and he immediately dies."

Alec chuckled. "I don't think that's how toxicity works, runaway."

Riley must not have heard me, because she just kept inspecting the wheat. I wondered what exactly the point was, why Demeter couldn't have just given us whatever it was without some asinine disguise. Maybe she just wanted to mess with us.

It was starting to feel like all the gods were messing with us.

Apollo, most of all. The sun was shining straight into my eyes as we stalled on the drag, and I had to ask myself if this was Apollo's revenge for all those things we'd said about him at Cassie's. Maybe it's what I deserved, but gods, if it wasn't annoying.

After a moment, Riley dropped the stalk she was holding with a huff. "I just don't understand what we're supposed to do with this."

Alec sighed. "It's okay, Riles. That just means we'll have to rely on Runaway over here to fight the entire battle for us." He looked at me expectantly, and I punched him in the arm.

"You better not, or else we're all doomed."

———

It took us a only few more minutes to reach the beach, and as we got out of the truck, I felt the sun's fury pound even deeper. I wanted to yell at it, say, "Hey, dad, you know we're out here risking our lives for you?! The least you could do is give us a nice breeze!" But I didn't know what would happen if I did that, and I didn't exactly want to attract the gods' anger more than I possibly already had.

I could've sworn my high tops sizzled against the pavement as I stood next to our vehicle, waiting for Alec to come around and Riley to get out of the back seat. As the former did exactly that, he said, "So, where exactly do you think Python is? Because I doubt he's just sitting under the pier, waiting for half bloods to kill."

Shrugging, I said, "He might be."

Alec gave me a look, but I ignored him and glanced at my sister as she hopped down from the back seat. She'd taken off her cardigan, so that she was now just wearing a Camp Half-Blood shirt, shorts, and sneakers - like Alec and I. Under one arm, she still had that godsforsaken wheat, and in the other, her new bow.

I looked back to Alec, who was staring in the direction of the beach. "How big do you think he'll be?" he asked. "Should we come up with some sort of game plan to attack him?"

"I was just gonna... walk down and stab him, I guess."

He sighed. "I guess neither of us are exactly Athena's children, huh? Strategy is not our strong suit."

Athena's children. I thought back to that boy I'd met early in the morning my first real day at Camp Half-Blood, Lucas. I wondered how Camp was doing right now, and if my last dream (the one where Kiera talked smack on me) was an indicator of what the acquaintances I'd made really felt or not.

Suddenly, Riley gasped loudly, making me blink out of my reverie and face my sister again. She was holding the bow down by her waist, as if she had just knocked an arrow - and she had. It had a long, golden shaft, with metal fletching shaped like... wheat.

That's when I noticed the bundle of wheat was gone. In its place, now hanging from Riley's back, was a quiver full of similar arrows. Wide-eyed, the archer looked up at us, and breathed, "... I think I found out what the wheat is."

She was so surprised that she didn't notice the ground open behind her, letting out steam and a long, long silhouette. As it rose, tall and lithe, its features became clearer. It had red eyes, green scales, and a long mouth, which opened to reveal a forked tongue and long, rumbling hiss.

"Oh my gods," I said, gaping at the thing. "I think I found out where Python is."

———

Riley spun, tilting her head up. I started backing away, fear rising within me as I realized this was real and inescapable. I walked right into Alec, and even though our bodies touched only for a millisecond, I could feel his chest heaving.

But I didn't look at his face. I couldn't take my eyes off of the thing before us, especially as the giant snake released two also-giant wings. I didn't understand how Cassandra had been able to stand up to this. I could barely stand at all.

"Well," it murmured. "It sssseemsss asss if I've found ssssome halfbloodsss to play with."

It flicked its eyes over Riley. "An archer with a bow of Apollo."

Riley protectively pulled the bow closer to her torso.

Then, it looked at me, and said, "A ssswordssswoman with the Sssword of Sssunssshine."

It took its attention off of my sister and I and transferred it to Alec. "And what do we have here?" It lurched forward, almost trampling Riley, who dodged at the last second. Python lowered its head so that it was almost at level with my brother's eyes. "You ssseem.... ssspecial..."

What the Hades is he talking about? I thought to myself. Is Python a misogynist that only pays attention to men or something? How is Alec special?

Now, I could see Alec's face. His skin had gone pale, his gaze frozen over with fear, but he clenched his jaw.

"I don't know what you mean," Alec said quietly. "Please don't kill me."

Python let out a raspy laugh. "Asss if I'd jussst kill you on the ssspot. No, young Ssson of Light, you are ssspecial. I think you and I could become good friendsss, if I take you away from here." It cocked its head, and then, like the crack of a whip, sprung out and grabbed Alec between its two massive jaws.

"ALEC!" Riley and I both shouted.

Oh my gods, I repeated in my head over and over again.

Python began slithering away, faster than I thought it would. Riley and I ran after it, but the parking lot was small, so it wasn't long before it reached the beach.

My sister chased it down, shooting arrows at the back of its head, but I stopped at the entrance of the Fishing Pier.

I had an idea. And it required running right into the face of danger. But I had to help Alec. He'd saved my life when Apollo dropped us from the sky, and it was my turn to repay the favor.

So I took a deep breath and launched myself onto the pier like a bullet.

I ran as fast as I could, weaving through the arcade and snack bar at the beginning out onto the main walkway. My chest was burning within a few seconds, and I knew I'd be in excruciating pain afterwards, but with my hand on Liakada, I gathered all the energy I had and kept going.

Beside the pier, Python had reached the water, but then he started flying. As he began to levitate through the air, his neck started to become parallel with the boards beneath my feet. I could see Alec, hanging out of the front of the snake's mouth where there was no teeth, free enough to be hitting and punching Python and generally trying to escape. He's not dead yet, I told myself. He's not even unconscious. You have to do this now.

As we've said since the beginning, I'm not exactly an athlete. But I thought of all the times I'd futilely wanted adventure in my life, and how at the same time I'd ran away from violin and sports and even the dracanae that had attacked me all the way back before my concussion. This was it. This was my adventure. I couldn't run away now, no matter how scared I was.

With the thought of myself and my friends - not Apollo, who I'd come on this whole quest for in the first place - in my mind, I hurdled over the barrier fencing in the pier and leaped onto Python's back.

The snake whipped its head around in shock, but then an arrow came flying from my sister far below, hitting him right in the eye. At the same time, I grabbed onto his hard scales, and, trying not to fall in the process, started slashing at his neck.

Together, with no strategy at all, we successfully made him open his jaw, dropping Alec however many feet into the sea below. I didn't look to find out if he was okay, though I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. Undeterred by the loss of his prey, Python flew higher.

High enough that the arrows Riley shot no longer reached his head.

"You wretched girl," Python snapped at me. "I wasss not going to hurt that boy. But I am going to hurt you. You've traded your life for nothing. Why didn't you just stay where it was safe?"

Why didn't I just stay where it was safe?

Out of nowhere, anger rose within me. Anger with Apollo, for dragging us into the task of doing his dirty work. Anger at Lamia, for killing Alec's mom. Anger at myself, for getting into this whole mess. And anger most of all, at Python, for daring to suggest that I would run away in a time of danger like this. That I was really that much of a coward.

I wish I could've came up with a snappy comeback like I usually do. But all I said in response was, "Well, why don't you just, just... screw off!"

And with that, I lifted Liakada from the apparently useless series of hits I'd been utilizing before and brought it straight down into Python's skull.

The good news is, this worked, and Python's body turned into dust. 

The bad news is, that meant I began to free fall. And I wasn't exactly a child of Poseidon who could summon the waves to let me down gently.

My head rolled back and I lost my sight to black. Still, I hung on to consciousness. I could feel the air rushing around me, the mist of the ocean so close now-

And then, there was light, and a surface underneath me.

Slowly, my vision returned, and I saw I was in a ball of pure gold. The water was just mere inches below me, but I was in mid-air, safe, protected. Immediately, I sat up, and turned to see my siblings on the beach. Riley had lowered her bow, but was staring at me worriedly. And Alec, despite how pained he must've been, was holding out his hand.

"Alec! Your powers!" I exclaimed, although I knew he probably couldn't hear me and I was mostly just talking to myself.

He brought his arm back, and my ball moved forward, back towards the beach, until it popped completely, and I landed on my feet in the sand. Now that I'd stopped, everything in me ached, but I couldn't think of anything else other than the feat we'd just pulled off.

I stumbled towards my friends, but I didn't speak. For a second, we just stared at each other.

Then, we began letting out giddy shouts of relief as we fell into each other's embraces. I was in complete shock, and I could tell they were too. Alec was still having trouble breathing, with his clothes coated in slime - er, snake saliva - and Riley was trembling.

When we let go, Riley said to Alec, "I can't believe your powers worked again!"

"I can't believe AJ jumped on top of Python!" he replied.

"I can't believe the wheat was actually just a bunch of arrows!" I added.

"I guess we didn't need a strategy after all," Alec said, shaking his head. I noticed his hair was also a bit slimy, matted up like a quiff.

I looked down at myself and realized I now had some of that slime on me too, but I was barely even bothered. I knew I'd find something to complain about later. For now, I just wanted to be thankful I was alive.

———

But you know who apparently wasn't thankful? Fricking Apollo.

Yeah, I know, he helped me at that violin recital in elementary school, and yeah, I know, he was the god of a whole lot of things and was probably too busy to just stop by the Outer Banks and say, "Hey kids, thanks a lot for doing this for me!" But the least he could've done is hooked us up with a ride home.

All we had was the truck, which was fine, but that meant it was going to take us 9 hours. And after everything we'd been through for our dad's sake, it was kind of annoying he was making us go through this too.

"AJ," Alec said, "Are you okay?"

We were in the truck, on our way out of Kill Devil Hills, and I was in the passenger seat again. Alec was looking at me, concerned, although it was hard to take him seriously when it looked like he'd just been spat up by a Venus Fly Trap.

I glanced at him, then at the sun outside. "Yeah, I guess. Just feel kind of weird that we're not getting any appreciation from... you-know-who about this."

In the rearview mirror, I saw Riley frown. "I feel the same way. But I'm trying to stay positive, because you know what? Even if our father isn't the most upstanding citizen, we have each other, and that's enough for me."

Alec's eyes softened, and I said, "That's sweet, Riley. I admire your optimism."

"Oh, I'm not being an optimist." She shook her head, and sweat fell from her hair. "I know the future isn't going to be great. I'm just trying to stay positive about the present. Before we've run out of things to be positive about."

Ok, that got dark real quick.

But she had a point. We had survived, and as I said, I was thankful. I was thankful for my siblings, too, and for Cassie's hospitality and Demeter's food supply (and this truck) and for Alec's revenge on Lamia. I just couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't fair.

"Okay," I said softly.

Alec made a turn onto the interstate, then looked back at me. "Hey, maybe changing the subject and turning on some music will cheer you up?"

He turned on the radio, and I smiled, despite myself. "I think it just might."

The song that was on was unfamiliar to me, but I sat back and savored it anyway. We were alive, we were going back to camp, and everything was okay, for now.

But in my heart, I knew that while this was the end of the quest, it was also probably the beginning of so much more.

~ ☼ ~ 

And there goes Python! Within just one chapter, the quest is over. But there's still a few things left to happen before I let go of 2006...

If you're still reading this, please vote and comment, and stay tuned for the next chapter! It'll be coming very soon.