chapter 14: geryon's place

double update bc i forgot to post the last one lol

Dazed, tired and hungry, they trekked onward, turning whenever Minos told them to. Nico would never let her take the lead again, probably afraid that she'd get herself killed despite her promise to him.

Finally, they ducked into a tunnel and saw light up ahead. They stared at daylight streaming through a set of bars above their heads: a steel grate, made out of metal pipes. Hoa peeked around and saw lush trees and bright blue sky.

Then, a shadow fell across the grate and a cow stared down at her. It looked like an ordinary cow but bright red—like a cherry.

She pointed. "Why do they have an Apollo cow here?"

Nico sighed. "I don't know. Let's go."

Tentatively, she looked at the bars that made a cattle guard. "Uh..."

Nico frowned. "Don't you have super strength? Just pop it out."

"I don't think the owner of the cattle will be too happy with us."

"Well, we kind of have no choice. You can just put it back later, right?"

She regretted telling Nico about her powers. "Fine."

Hesitantly, she put two hands on the edge of the frame, slowly lifting it up with ease. It creaked, but she didn't give up, propping it up vertically. "Go," she told Nico, her muscles straining.

He ran to the other side quickly, giving her room to run her hands down the metal and slowly lower it.

When Hoa reached the other side, she dropped it, making a satisfying THUD!

She wiped the sweat off her brow. "Damn."

Nico paused. "What was that?"

At first, everything seemed quiet.

That was until Hoa heard the distant baying of dogs. The underbrush rustled, and a dog popped out.

Wait, no. Two dogs.

Gods, I'm slow, Hoa thought. One dog with two heads.

The dog looked like a greyhound, long, snaky, and sleek brown, but at the neck of the mutt it V'd into two heads, one of them trying to turn around and bark while the other sniffed Hoa's hand.

Hoa gasped. "Doggo!" She reached her hand out, but Nico slapped it away. Turning to him, she pouted. "Let me pet the doggo."

Nico curled his hand around hers. "We don't know if they have rabies," he said. "And the dog might bite."

"That's fine," she said. "Death by petting doggo sounds like a good death to me."

"Well, it doesn't to me. If we can avoid the prospect of dying, let's do so."

A person emerged from the woods, and Hoa waved. "Hi, is this your dog?"

The man was huge, with stark white hair, a straw cowboy hat, and a braided white beard. He wore jeans, a DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS T-shirt, and a denim jacket with the sleeves ripped off so you could see his muscles. On his right bicep was a crossed-swords tattoo. He held a wooden club about the size of a nuclear warhead, with six-inch spikes bristling at the business end.

The man gave a curt nod to Hoa. "Yes ma'am, the hound belongs to me." he said. "Heel, Orthus."

"Orthus? Is that their name?"

"Yes, ma'am. Now," he said, "What've we got here?" he asked. "Cattle rustlers?"

"Just travelers." Hoa responded.

"We were sent here by King Minos," Nico added. "I'm Niccolò di Angelo, and my friend here is Hoa Pham."

She tensed when he said friend. I want to be more than that.

He towered over the two. "Half-bloods?"

The two eyed each other.

The man spread his arms. "Well? I may look intimidating, but I assure you, I've got no reason to bite."

After a moment, Hoa spoke up. "Yes, sir," She said slowly. "I'm the daughter of Deimos and—" she caught her breath. "Niccolò is the son of Hades."

He leaned close. "Oh, you're them. Listen here, you two. I'm Eurytion. It's not too late to turn back into the maze. You may not want to go see my boss."

Nico spoke up. "We don't have anywhere else to go. Besides, when a ghost tells you to go somewhere, you go."

Eurytion groaned. "Well, lads, that means I'm gonna have to take you to him. You sure about that? Last chance to go back."

"Locking it in. We're sure."

"Oh, well. Fine, if you choose so. Y'all lucky that your ghost signed you up already."

~•~•~

Hoa didn't necessarily feel safe, but she didn't feel like a hostage. Eurytion walked alongside them with the club across his shoulder. Orthus the two-headed dog barked a lot and sniffed Hoa's hand and growled at Nico and shot into the bushes every once in a while to chase animals, but Eurytion kept him more or less under control. She also learned that Eurytion was a son of Ares

They waked down the dirt path that seemed to go on forever. It must've been close to a hundred degrees, which was a shock after the cool breeze of the graveyard before. Heat shimmered off the ground. Insects buzzed in the trees. Flies swarmed them. Before they'd gone very far, Hoa was sweating like crazy.

Once, they passed a corral where the fence was coated in poop. Inside, a herd of fire-breathing horses milled around. The hay in their feeding through was on fire. The ground smoked around their feet, but the horses seemed tame enough. One big stallion looked Nico on the eyes and whinnied, columns of red flame billowing out of his nostrils.

"What are they for?" Nico asked.

Eurytion scowled. "We raise animals for lots of clients. Apollo, Diomedes, and... others."

Hoa became interested. "Like who?" she asked suspiciously.

"No more questions," he said.

Sus as hell.

Finally, they got out of the woods. Perched on the hill above them was a big ranch house—all white stone and wood and big windows.

"Don't break the rules," Eurytion warned as they walked up the steps to the front porch. "No fighting. No drawing weapons. And don't make any comments about the boss's appearance."

"Why?" Hoa asked. "What does he look like?"

Before Eurytion could reply, a new voice said, "Welcome to Triple G Ranch."

The man on the porch had a normal head, which was a relief. His face was weathered and brown from years to the sun. He had slick black hair and a black pencil moustache like villains have in old movies. He smiled at us, but the smile wasn't friendly—more amused, like Oh boy, more people to torture!

Hoa didn't ponder that very long though, because then she noticed his body—or bodies.

He had three of them.

His neck connected to his middle chest like normal, but the had two more chests, one to either side, connected at the shoulders, with a few inches in between. His left arm grew out of his left chest, and the same on the right, so had had two arms, but four armpits (if that made any sense). The chests all connected into one enormous torso, with two regular but very beefy legs, and he wore the most oversized pair of Levis she'd ever seen. His chests each wore a different color Western shirt—green, yellow, and red—like a stoplight.

The cowherd Eurytion nudged them. "Say hello to Mr. Geryon."

"Hi," Hoa said.

"Hey," Nico followed.

"Pleasure to meet y'all," Geryon said. "Hoa and Niccoló, is that right?"

"Yep," she said. "That's us."

"Well, Minos paid me a sum of money to have you two rest at my place for four nights as well as regular meals. Sounds good for y'all?" he asked.

"Yup."

"Aight," he said. "Y'all can go now. Eurytion can show you to your quarters."

"Thanks," Nico said.

Geryon nodded towards Eurytion, who led them to their room. It was large with beige wallpaper and wooden trims, a drawer made from the same wood sitting at the window, which was to the side of the bed. And the bed had grey sheets—

Bed. Singular.

Eurytion smirked at the two. "Well, enjoy your room." He gave them a tip of his hat, turning to leave.

He paused. "All the clothes you'll need are in the drawer, and essentials are in the nightstand next to the bed. If you need anything else, let me know."

And he left the two, who were standing there in shock.

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hi im madi, your loyal author ♥️

damn thats awkward

but yk that i have to do something like that >:)

also its a long chapter so ima make the next one a bit shorter probably

anyways

im also thinking of starting a third book! comment on the one you want me to do the most

so heres a rundown of each option because no, im not making it look nice, im too lazy for that shit:

1. reader x jax (the amazing digital circus/tadc universe)jax is about to prank you as the newbie (the light gray musical mouse who plays the flute) but he decides "hail no shes j too cute." you notice and then you two become besties and yea lovey dovey shit (kind of an enemies to lovers thing like all other books)

2.reader x alastor (hazbin hotel universe)y/n (tiger/wolf demon) stumbles into the hotel for a job and finds alastor and some lovey dovey shit happens while they prevent the hotel from getting shut down

3. a mafia story (no romance; purely action)the main character was abused by her old family (nigerian mafia) and found a really cool and badass new family (some agency) but her stupid old family wants war with the agency and stuff happen

4. a werewolf story (oc x oc)the plot may be something like the girl is a runaway and stumbles into an alphas pack grounds or something and then theyre mates for some reason

5. oc x carter kane (the kane chronicles universe, since there are barely any books i can find on that fandom)its kind of a love triangle thing where carter has to choose between the oc (path of wepwawet, a wolf death god) and zia

OK! so take ur pick and comment on the one you want most! any side stuff you can put here like "this category is absolute dogshit", which will be pretty mean or "idk what this fandom is", in which case ill be happy to help :)

also, if youre a friend from my md book, welcome! if not, go check out my second book which takes place in the murder drones fandom (just a bunch of oneshots but its rlly cute)

ACTUALLY anyways

how was the chapter?

also, what are some questions of your own?

anyways, tysm for reading this crappy book! 😃