The Lost Quiver Ch 12

Chapter 12: Old Friends
I looked at the dragon as his many heads twisted around the tree and I couldn’t figure out how to get past him. I mean I could use my blessing, but what about Megan and Abrams? Not only had I never told them, but I it isn’t like I could just pick them up and go.

“As long as we stay out of reach of the tree, we should be fine. Ladon won’t leave the tree no matter what. I think the best plan is to sneak around the outside and make a dash for the path,” Megan said as she looked at the situation. Everything was going pretty well as we hid behind rocks and ducking out of site when one of the heads moved in our direction. Everything was going pretty well until a rock feel down the side of the cliff and all of his heads shifted to our direction with one ramming against the rocks and all three of us came crashing down.

“Well, look what we have here, a few demigods trying to take a few apples. We can’t have that can we?” came the voice of the Hesperides. They all laughed at us as we slowly got to our feet.

“We aren’t here for any apples,” I tried to explain. “We are here to each the castle up top. We don’t want any apples.”

“We have heard that before. You think we’re stupid don’t you?” one of them shrieked as her hands turned to fists. “Ladon, eat these demigods!”

We didn’t have a lot of time to react as a head came for each of us and we ran back to try and escape. I pulled out my hammer and knocked one of the heads away as I found some footing. Abrams had pulled out his sword and started acting like a lion tamer as the blade turned into its whip form and pushed the dragon’s head back as it let out a low growl. Megan managed to make a swift jab into Ladon’s eye as it retreated back into the tree and another head took his place.

“Any other plans,” I called to anyone willing to listen.

“How about a talk,” Abrams said as one of the other heads came at him. “A little help here!”

Help; that is what we needed. I pulled the bell Athena had given me out of my pocket and began to shake it. It didn’t sound any different from a regular bell and it wasn’t very loud. Then, over the sound of my friends straining against Ladon and the laughs of the Hesperides came a roar that echoed through the mountain and everything stopped. A huge lion leaped over the cliffs and landed next to me as it had its teeth showing for all to see.

“Nolan, look out. It’s the Nemean Lion!” Megan called as the lion just looked at her before turning its head toward me and gave me a lick.

“I missed you too,” I said as I used my hammer to scratch behind its ear. After I had recovered last summer, a few campers had spotted the lion walking around the borders of the camp and a few were talking about killing it. I couldn’t let that happen and snuck out one night and found him in a few trees just outside. That was when I first started calling him Nemean even if he didn’t understand the name. When he saw me, he ran up and sniffed my shirt, as if making sure I was fine before running off to who knows where.

Nemean turned his attention back to Ladon and for a short time they just stared each other down. The silence didn’t last long as the heads began to attack us once again, but Nemean wasn’t scared as Ladon’s sharp fangs couldn’t break through his fur. As more and more of the heads became focused on Nemean, Megan and Abrams managed to fight Ladon off long enough to reach the stairs to the fortress. As I ran for it as well, heads began to focus on me and I was forced to run in-between them while dodging the best I could. His poison was deadly and even a scratch could kill. That was when Nemean ran past me and attacked the main body, forcing all the heads off me and onto him. I reached the stairs as I looked back to make sure my pet was safe. As I looked back, Nemean jumped off Ladon and retreated back into the mountain as we ran up the staircase.

“When we get back to camp, we are going to have a long talk,” Megan shouted at me.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  23:27, March 6, 2011 (UTC)