Chapter Text
I could feel the pile of sand in my mouth, it was grainy (obviously). My back felt like it was caved in with a boulder, my entire body ached with conviction.
“IMANI! ARE YOU AWAKE,” said a male voice
I opened my eyes to see brandon kneel next to me, he was a couple of inches away from my face but when i opened my eyes he leaned back and blushed.
“oh my god! i thought you were out then” he let out a sigh of relief
“w-where are we” i asked slowly sitting up straight, i could tell we were on a beach but in the Carribean I was sure the was a few of those.
“it look like we’re at some sort of... resort?” said looking behind me
I stood up and turned my head around to what was behind me, it was a tourist hotel with a massive swimming pool. Very tacky in my personal opinion. Behind it was a port city
“i know this place! We're in San Juan!” i said a bit to loud it hurt my brain
“hey, you need some help?” Brandon asked kindly lifting me up
“where's Lavanya and Diego?” i said to Brandon as he pulled me up
“I think they’re in the city, the currents from the sea of monster should have washed the rest of them to the other side of the coast” he explained, fidgeting with his hands
Unfortunately right now we didn't have much time to worry about a quirky habit my friend had because, as if this quest couldn't get any worse, a 4 meter tall crab digs its way through the sand... i would say you could say a lot of things about me! Smart, amazing, charming, but lucky is just simply not one of them! Also not helping is the fact that the last time i fought a massive animal was when ele died. I needed to win this for her.
I got my throwing knives out and gestured to Brandon to show him that we were kind of screwed I can't lie. He had a scythe (which was pretty standard for a child of demter) that was bronze with emerald embellishments (Imani, focus on the crab not the bedazzling!)
The crab took the first swing at me (a bit rude for my personal taste.) i jump to the side but it knocks over my quiver and knives, which know kind of hard to kill a monster while all of your equipment is buried in sand.
Brandon follows up with a swing to the crabs' claws, but the blades bounced back off made him fall over! And if that wasn't bad enough, the crab goes and slashed his back.
We we’re hopless
I grab my throwing knives from under the sand and run over to the crab, i slide down on my knees next to Brandon to make sure hes okay. He has a bit of a gash on his lower back but nothing Lavanya can't fix with a bit of ambrosia. I lift him up and place him over to the side, just out of harms way from the crab
Okay now i needed to focus
Okay so it cant get sliced through its skin and i only have slicing weapons, it seemed to have a week spot on its belly but i can't get there without getting stomped on! I maybe could have used my electric guitar to levitate it but i would be surprised if it even landed in the city after the wreck
Wait, i could make music without the guitar! But I sucked at singing (autotune is my icon)
Oh well worth a shot.
I started just randomly vocalizing, not a specific song or anything just trying to make a decent melody like i did when i was producing or mixing. I tried to put my emotion it, the same way i did when i did my riff down at the campfire in camp half blood.
Suddenly the crabs armor started to crack with golden beams of electrifing light spilling out the seams, suddenly it exploded sending giant shards of crab... exoskeleton? I think that the right word, anyway. It got sent flying my way, one of them slammed into my stomach making all the air leaving my lungs and blood from my brain (I stopped singing at this point if you couldn't tell)
I got slammed into a stone wall which separated the hotel from the beach, i tired to get up but my whole body felt sore. There was no way I could get to my equipment which fell out of my hands when I got launched by crab debris, (i really need to have those on me on all times)
I saw the crab slowly limping towards me. It was weakened but I'm sure those meaty pinchers could still pulverize me into the sand. Is this how Ele felt when the fox went up to her? Was i going to suffer the same fate? At least i saved brandon...
BRANDON!
I saw from the corner of my eye carrying his scythe grunting while jumping onto the crab, because it no longer had the exoskeleton it only took one slash.
He drove the scythe through the monsters head, it started to evaporate into golden dust, leaving nothing but one crab eye as a gross spoil of war
“augh!” he said grabbing his back, and following over
“Brandon!” i said shouting to him, i slowly lifted the crab debris over myself and tried to slightly heal him (i was horrible and healing but i was still a child fo apollo so i wasn't useless)
“t-thanks” i said slowly
“really? I feel like i should say that if anything!” he said with a smile
“IMANI!” said a voice
I turned around to see the other half of the group rushing to us as fast as they could, Diego was the one shouting
“Diego!” i said rushing to hug him, over his shoulder i could see Lavanya snickering
“where were you! I looked all over for you!” he yelled at me pushing me off him, which didn't feel very romantic
“i-i missed you to” i said smiling punching his arm it felt a bit rude to scream at your girlfriend after losing her, i could see Lavanya calling me over
“hey taiko, i-i was so worried” she said in a sad funny way
“I missed you too, Lavanya” i said tearing up hugging her
“So... what we going to do about him?” asked Amari with a brittleness in her voice
I looked around to see brandon barely able to sit upright, he was sitting on the sand with his head spinning
“Ambrosia...” he said dazed
I looked at Amari and realized that she was in no better mood right now, with her right arm covered in blood stained toilet paper, with a darkness in her eyes.
“oh okay... I'm sorry taiko but could you please fix up Brandon while i heal Amari? Please!” said lavanya placing her hand on her forehead in frustration
“o-of course!.. But where?” i said, our ship and healing quarters have been... yknow shipwrecked
“that” said Diego pointing to a yacht, we were going to hijack it