The Demigod Grand Prix: Chapter 13



Richmond Stanford

XIII

Unlucky Thirteen

For a split second, Richie was relieved. Upon nearing the bridge, he only knew the wherabouts of a few racers - Joseph Mierek was trying to fix his motorcycle last he'd heard, and Emily Condake took a spill just ahead of him. No one had seen her yet, but she couldn't have died.

....This was supposed to be fun, right?

When the bridge came into view, an announcement fielded over all the car radios and headsets, warning of some sort of beast that lurked near the bridge, and Richie was worried. He had no interest in dying.

...Naturally, this didn't stop the others. Damiko and Ramona almost seemed friendly when they raced beside eachother before suddenly tunneling deep under the bridge, into a dark abyss. Shortly after came Tori, who flew gently over the abyss without missing a beat, before disappearing a few miles away.

From there, everyone stopped and parked before hurrying to the edge of the bridge. They'd had a small role call and Richie, playing as the oldest on of the group for now, managed to calm everyone down and clue them in. That was when the rumbling started.

Melanie was visibly shaken, both literally and figuratively. Her eyes grew wide and he could practically see hair starting to friz and seperate from the elaborate french braid on her head. And when she realized he noticed, she looked down at her shoes and plucked at her peacock armor.

So, in a mature fashion, he conjured up a puch of Capri-Sun and offered it to her, and she seemed a little calmer. Juice had the effect, definitely.

Eventually he offered juice to the rest of the racers, most of who declined. Sucks for you, he mumbled through his straw, too good for juice, are ya?

Then Sasha appeared along with her new haircut. He had to bite his tongue to prevent any comments about it, most of which were too buttery and even a bit creepy in some aspect. Instead, despite the shaking under his feet, he calmly cleared his throat and maintained the same mature stature he had previously.

"Damiko went underground and got to the other side, Tori flew across with her reindeer and Ramona tunnelled. We canm't get across because they woke the troll." He explained to the older racer, who suddenly looked frightened.

"TROLL?!" She exclaimed, grabbing her cheeks in an exaggerated fashion. Did she not hear the announcement? Was she too far away, or....

"Sasha, quiet down-!"

Behind him, at the edge of the dark ravine the bridge crossed, he heard something grip the grass and dirt. The other racers began stepping back, slowly, sizing up whatever had just appeared from behind him. It uttered a loud groan, and at that point Sasha drew her shield and mouthed 'Run'.

While Richie wasn't one for listening, this time he rushed forward with such speed that he nearly smashed face first into Geoff, who was still looking at the troll. In a fluid motion, Rich had Chrimata loaded and ready to fire.

The troll was nothing like he'd seen before. It towered over them easily, easily larger than a giant. Although he'd never seen a real giant, he couldn't imagine it being any bigger then this.

It had three toes on each foot and ankles wrapped in vines or wire - something like that. It had strong, slimy legs and its huge green stomach spilled over a grassy loincloth with a flash attached to the waistband. Keeping up with that style, it wore bangles of finely woven brown grass over its wrists and around its shoulders like a cape, and a necklace of the large black, shining stones. Most striking was its face - hairless yet tattooed around its forehead, with a fat red nose and no jaw, just a few sparse yellow teeth.

He almost vomited when its yellow eyes looked down at him.

"WHO DARES DISTURB THE GUARDIAN OF THIS BRIDGE?" It demanded, prompting nearly everyone to cover their ears from the sheer volume of his voice.

Richmond realized he was still slightly in front of everyone else and, with the Troll's eyes fixed on him, he stepped closer.

"I, Richmond Stanford, son of Dionysus." His voice wavered slightly, and the tense atmosphere broke when Melanie took a deep sip of her juice box until the package crunched in her hand.

"DIONYSUS." The troll boomed, kneading his eight fingers together in a complicated pattern. "SO THE FOOLISH ONES HAVE GONE THROUGH WITH THEIR COMPETITION."

As if on cue, a roll of thunder graced the otherwise quiet bridgesite. Zeus heard that.

"E-er, yes. My friends and I will pass over the bridge and then you can go back to bed. Counselor's honor."

"DIONYSUS." The troll repeatedly, seemingly unaware of what Richie promised. "A CRAVEN IF I HAVE EVER MET ONE."

"Dude, we need to get moving. The others are ahead of us." Geoff whispered urgently behind him. Rich waved him off with a "Fine, then you talk to the troll."

"...FORCED MY DAUGHTER TO LEAVE ME AND BECOME A WINE CONNOSIEUR..." The troll wasn't even speaking coherantly, just mumbling at different tones with his arms crossed.

"He's not going to listen tous, what do you want to do?" Richie leaned back and whispered to the group.

"We fight, obviously." George mumbled.We were all visibly startled, none of us had heard him speak before. But his brow was knit and he nodded to himself contentedly. Sparks fluttered around gloves on his hands and we all stepped away to look up at the colossus.

" 'NO, FATHER, THIS IS NOT AN ABSURD PHASE BROUGHT UPON ME BY THE FOOLISH ONES, IT IS WHO I AM.'" The troll was speaking at a higher pitch, likely imitating that daughter he was rambling about earlier, and the tangent allowed us to retrieve the rest of our weapons.

Melanie summoned her hammer-axe in exchange for the juice pouch, which her mother would likely recycle.

George seemed to be playing with electric sparks in his hands - and we all thought his car was the only thing electric about him. He seemed sinister as the flickers lit up his face.

Sasha had her shield and what appeared to be a small dagger, which couldn't be that useful in this fight. But every bit would help, he imagined.

Geoff resigned. He shook his head and uttered a simple 'no'. He had no weapons, having left them in his vehicle, and in a split second he seemed to disappear, likely returning to his car. Whether or not he would race again was.....debatable.

So it was just the four of them. Melanie, Sasha, George, and Richie himself. Against the biggest creature Richie had encountered.

"Ready?" George murmured, to everyone nodding. His plan might work, but it would involve quite a bit of timing.

"Good. Rich, you're up."

Richie turned to the troll again, still yelling about his wayward daughter who was, from what he gleamed, on a pointless quest to confess her undying love for his father. And that made him uncomfortable obviously - not just because it was inherently creepy, but that was his dad she was talking about. Being a counselor forced him to see the few kids his father had with other women, and that hurt, but imagines his father dating some.......troll woman was.....worse. Way worse.

Which would help his focus, anyway.

Richie hostered his pistol focused his attention of the binding around the troll's ankles. As he guessed they were indeed vines or ivy of some sort, and with some added concentration he began to unwind them. Sweat dripped down his forehead - he had to move the foliage carefully to stop the troll from noticing.

He could feel the tenseness all around him as the vines finally unbound themselves. With a deep, shaking breath, Richie gripped them tighter and began tying them together before re-looping them around the monster's ankles.

It was an easy trick that the Hermes cabin's younger kids tended to use - the ol' tie your shoelaces together trick. This was the same idea, that the troll might try to move and end up falling onto his ugly, small face. When the knot seemed tight enough, he released control and nearly collapsed into the soft grass at his feet.

Phase two now. Sasha put on a brave smile and whistled a sharp note, somehow catching the troll's attention.

"Excuse me! Could you take a look at this?" She sounded overly polite and childish, but strangely enough the collussus seemed intrigued.

"...MY DAUGHTER? IS THAT YOU, FERAH, MY DEAR?"

Somehow, Sasha convinced him that she was his daughter. That was probably an Aphrodite thing....something related to charmspeak.

"Down here!" She called back. When the troll looked down it was too late, he realized that was not his daughter, and the little dagger was quickly swallowing up his entire left eye.

With a painful shout, the giants hands covered his left eye, which had been impaled by Sasha's only dagger on hand. It was an impressive shot for someone who wasn't a child of Apollo or a hunter.

"That was dumb luck." She seemed shocked but quickly returned to her upstanding, politely braggish smile.

In his frenzy, the troll tried to step forward and the vines restricted him, forcing him to come slashing down to the ground. George grabbed Melanie's arm and practically tossed her behind a bush in a feat of strength I'd never imagined before, and the others hastily followed, ducking and covering behind the thick tangles of the hedge.

"CHILDREN OF THE FOOLISH ONES, I KNEW ALWAYS YOU WOULD BETRAY ME. FACE ME, CRAVENS." The troll was shouting and, as the quartet peered over the leaves, the collossus reached for them; his longest finger just a few feet away.

George was quick to act then, throwing himself over the hedge and narrowly dodging his swatting arms. He gripped the troll's finger tightly and gave an exasperated roar, released a burst of yellow light all around him and gently implanting on the green skin of the monster. Melanie excitedly claimed that she could see his bones light up. The troll went slack.

George had just electrocuted the monster somehow. It hadn't even known that Hephaestus kids had any control over lightning but Richie supposed where there's heat......there's Hephaestus.

Breathing heavily, George nodded and adjusted his gloves with a smile. The only thing moving about the troll now was his eye, fixed on the bush.

"Melanie, clean up." He stated cooly, stepping away from the body.

"Yes, sir!" She cheered, hopping over the bush with her hammer-axe drawn. She looked absurdly happy as she neared the troll's face, any sign of fear from earlier gone and replaced by her ear-to-ear grin.

"Unforgivable! You can't just go taking over bridges, man! In the name of the rainbow, I'll punish you!"

She looked back at Richie and the others for a reaction.

"....Wasn't that from that one show? Sailor Moon?" Richie stated dryly. Melanie nodded and leaned back, readying her hammer.

"Yeah! I'm thinking I need a cool catch-phrase to say before I knock this guy out. Do you like it?"

"No. Stop doing it." Sasha answered in his place. "It's weird. Just knock him down so we can get back in the race."

"Fiiine. You guys are no fun." Melanie twisted suddenly and smashed the broad end of the hammer into the troll's nose, and with something that sounded like a sob, the great creature shuddered backwards and tumbled into the ravine, grass tearing under his fingers and leaving deep routs in the land.

George whistled and nodded. "Nice. One shot."

"What now?" Richie turned to Sasha, but she was already halfway back to the cars, followed by Melanie, who was giggling as per usual. The little team they had was ruined, and it was sort of sad, but at this point Rich just wanted to get this stupid race over with.

As he began the trek back to the cars, someone came blazing past him. A cherry red Harley Davidson with a blonde driver.

"Thanks for taking down the troll, guys!" She yelled as she passed. She popped a wheelie as she hit the bridge and laughed, dropping something as she crossed into the now troll-less zone. Richie turned to George curiously.

"...Is that a scarf?"