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With one hand behind her back and one hand on her dagger, Annabeth snapped her fingers to make the Mist peel away from the flight attendant's form. 

Thanks to her ADHD brain, Annabeth noticed two things in the split second that the Mist dissipated.

One: the woman had no eyes in her empty sockets. Two: her name tag said Lamia in Ancient Greek.

Lamia lunged at the demigods in a bright blur of vermillion, gold, green, and blue.

Annabeth reflexively swung her dagger at the monster. She was sure she must have made contact. The monster's too-long body slammed into Annabeth.

The monster stopped hard, but Annabeth went flying across the building.

Annabeth's head hit something hard. Her vision went fuzzy. She stood too quickly and her vision went black. She felt like she was going to throw up. Instead of doubling over, she rushed the monster, blind, with her head rush.

It was stupid. She forgot all about self-preservation. Her only goal was to protect Reyna.

Her blade sank into the monster's cold hide. She heard something go crunch.

Her body went into shock.

I should get checked by a doctor, thought Annabeth.

She passed out for real.

~~~

Moments before Annabeth came to, she subconsciously noticed that there was a pain in her hand. It was a deep, sharp pain, and her whole hand was swollen. Pain radiated all the way to her shoulder.

Her eyes snapped open. Reyna was giving her a piggyback ride. Annabeth's hands were tied together and her arms were looped in front of Reyna's chest. Reyna was supporting Annabeth's weight by holding her legs. Annabeth had a binder headache, which was not helped by all the jostling.

Reyna was running at full tilt. Reyna's bag was on Annabeth's back somehow, but unfortunately Annabeth's own bag was gone. Somehow Reyna was hauling the weight of another demigod and a bag while running. Annabeth revised her opinion from earlier. Although she had spent every day running or training in the sword arena or lifting weights, compared to Reyna, she was definitely out of shape.

"Put me down!" Annabeth managed. Somehow she managed to not bite her own tongue off.

Reyna looked behind her, then she slowed down to a trot and paused long enough for Annabeth to hop off. Reyna grabbed Annabeth's arm and guided her to the cover of some trees. They collapsed together under the canopy in relative safety.

"I think...we're...safe now," huffed Reyna. She wheezed.

"What happened?"

Reyna put her hand up. She needed a minute. Annabeth took a moment to get her bearings. They were in the middle of an immaculately manicured public park. She studied her hands. They were bound together with rope and duct tape. Her right hand had swollen to almost twice the size of her left hand.

She was upset that she'd allowed them to be ambushed. She'd been distracted.

Reyna caught her breath. She unsheathed her dagger and cut through Annabeth's restraints like butter. Reyna examined Annabeth's hand while she talked. "This looks terrible. I'm going to splint it, then you can have some ambrosia."

"Yeah, it hurts like Hades."

Reyna shook her head. "You were amazing. You stabbed the monster. The Celestial bronze went straight through her, but as soon as your hand hit her hide, well...I guess hitting her was like hitting a brick wall. I heard this disgusting crunching sound, but it was as if the sound was a thousand miles away. She was so distracting. I had my spear at the ready, but as soon as I looked into her empty eyes, she put me in a trance."

"Lamia and her lamiai were precursors to the empousai," said Annabeth, suddenly glad that she'd been unable to see the monster on her second attack. "But I only thought their powers of seduction only worked on male heroes."

"Well," said Reyna quickly. "Lamiai eat children, not men. Maybe their powers only work on children."

Annabeth shook her head. "I've been studying these creatures my whole life. I've never heard that."

"Well, maybe this one did. Because, she's different. Wanna hear something crazy? For a split second, I saw her as a fox."

Annabeth felt bug-eyed. "Huh..."

"You think I'm lying. Well, I'm not; I really did see her as a fox. Then I blinked and she was back to being a lamia."

"That's so strange."

"Well, after you disintegrated her, I was freed from that weird trance and we ran away. The other flight attendants were also monsters, apparently. We escaped on a tour bus. We took a rest stop, but I didn't get back on the tour bus. I think they thought I was a college student and you were a duffel bag. The Mist is a powerful thing, isn't it?"

"Wait, how long was I out?"

"Don't worry," said Reyna, sounding worried. "It was only a few minutes."

"Like half an hour?"

"Yeah." Reyna quickly dropped Annabeth's broken hand, as though she'd just realized they were holding hands. "Your hand and wrist are broken," said Reyna. "Definitely the thumb and index finger. Maybe the pinky, too. I think there might be a splint in this magic bag somewhere."

Reyna began digging around in the bag that belonged to the Hunters of Artemis. For some reason, the sight reminded Annabeth about the time she'd spent considering joining the hunters. At the time, the oath had been, I turn my back on the company of men, which Annabeth had thought sounded ripe for loop holes. Thalia said that Artemis had since changed the oath after she brought it to Artemis's attention.

Reyna found a perfect splint. She wrapped Annabeth in bandages and splinted her wrist. It was a little sloppy, but it would do the job.

"It must hurt," said Reyna. "Have some ambrosia."

Reyna fed Annabeth, which felt a little stupid, but the buttered popcorn flavor helped Annabeth remember better times. She could feel the comfort working its way through her body. The pain in her head, which she'd hardly even noticed because her hand had been worse, began to fade. The swelling in her hand started to go down.

The ambrosia must have helped Annabeth think, because an idea that had been precipitated by Annabeth's weeks of studying for Comparative Mythologies sparked a thought.

"Foxes were a pretty common character in both American Indian mythology and Norse mythology. I wonder which version you saw."

"That's an interesting coincidence."

"Maybe you saw a blend of the two. I think you weren't hallucinating. Maybe you were seeing past another layer of the Mist. Maybe the fox and lamia became merged when the heart of Western Civilization entered the Americas."

"How...?"

"I'm not sure," admitted Annabeth. "It's confusing if they're the same creature, just buried under different layers of the Mist. Are they completely separate entities, but we just can't tell? And if they're the same, why would some ancient peoples see a fox when another saw a snake woman? There are no obvious connections between them. Maybe because they're both tricksters?"

"Why was I randomly able to glimpse past a layer of the Mist? I've never been able to do that before."

"We learned how to manipulate the Mist at Camp Half-Blood," said Annabeth. "I tried to do that. I couldn't tell she was a lamia until I bent the Mist. Maybe you just saw one layer past me."

Reyna shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe this is happening. This time last year, I didn't think the Greek gods were still around. And now..."

"Yeah, our view of the world is getting way more complicated. Maybe that's part of the reason that the gods' relationships with their children is so complicated. It's not just Greco-Roman politics they have to worry about. It's the conflict and interaction of thousands of gods."

"That would definitely explain why the gods seem so self-centered."

"I hope I'm wrong," said Annabeth.

It seemed naive as soon as Annabeth had said it out loud. Over the years, Annabeth had learned that there was no such thing as a coincidence when gods meddled with her life.

"Why bother?" asked Reyna. "Why even bother to hide the fact that other mythologies exist?"

"Maybe because it's confusing," offered Annabeth. "Do you know how many gods there are if every mythology is real?"

Reyna stared at her dagger. "Yeah, well, I'd rather be confused than lied to."

Annabeth didn't know what to say to that. They watched a flock of birds overhead.

"I feel useless," admitted Annabeth. "I've studied so many European myths but never the First People's myths."

"You're not useless. You're a brilliant strategist. With all this stuff about unknown myths, that's what we really need right now."

Annabeth looked at her splinted hand, which she could no longer use to fight. She wasn't nearly as good with her left hand. She'd trained with it, naturally, but she'd never developed it as well as she had her strong hand.

"You are good," insisted Reyna. "Women are often overshadowed on the field of battle by men, but you're one of the most skilled people to ever wield a blade. You're quick, clever, and skilled. It's obvious that you've trained for over a decade. I don't think anyone could have done better."

Annabeth looked to Reyna with admiration. For the first time, Annabeth really appreciated how pretty Reyna's eyes were. "Well, I think you'd give me a run for my money."

Reyna hauled Annabeth to her feet. "Come on. You're dehydrated. We could both use a drink. I think we passed a place that would be perfect for a break." 

~~~

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