Meeting a wingless dragon had to be one of the most disappointing things in life.

The five of us stood alone outside the Empire State building wondering how we'd be able to get to Las Vegas. The sun was absolutely out of control; Apollo has to turn down the hotness. Sweat dotted everyone's forehead, and I was burned down to the point where I had to fan myself with my own hand. "Can't you possibly use your water dragon technique again?" I asked Percy, "I want to know how Sparkles is doing."

He crossed his arms, "I wish, but there aren't any oceans that Nevada borders."

"Anybody have any ideas?" Annabeth looked up from a paper map while tracing routes with her index finger, "All the ones I've come up with require a great amount of money."

"Ooh, I got something," Lance raised his hand, "Why don't we have Austin's dad give us a ride like last time? He seems like one of the chiller gods that won't kill us on the spot."

Austin and I look at him, sort of impressed. "You're not much of a thinker," I said, "What would motivate you to have an idea?"

"I... Have no idea."

"I'll shoot him an Iris; too bad we didn't see up him at Olympus," Austin said, flipping a drachma up into the air and catching it with the back of his hand, "Give me a minute. I'll find a hose or something." He ran behind the building, and so the four of us stood together impatiently.

"Rachel wasn't supposed to be giving out prophecies after the war with Gaea because of some problems with Apollo, right?" Percy thoughtfully questioned, tapping the temple of his head confusingly, "What's up with the gods recently?"

"Please don't let it be in alphabetical order," Annabeth clasped her hands together, "Aphrodite, Apollo... Mother better not go berserk again..." The wind turned into a brief howl, as if Athena was patronizing her.

"Man, you miss a couple years because you don't know you're a demigod, and BOOM! You miss stuff!" I complained, tucking a loose strand of hair back. Lance nodded in agreement.

"You guys got lucky," Percy snorted, "Our camp must've seen the most wars in millennia. I mean, come on; we're about to have a third one in the course of a decade!"

The sound of angry footsteps coming from behind the Empire State building echoed. Austin had a frustrated look on his face, and was tightly clutching the shaft of an arrow. "Gods, he's such a stupid idiot..." He muttered under his breath as he approached us.

"Should we back away?" Annabeth asked worriedly.

"I'm sorry, guys, my father is ridiculous," Austin rubbed his forehead stressfully, and I patted his back sympathetically. "I spoke him, but apparently he's heading up to Camp Half-blood for an emergency and can't help right now because of some problem with Zeus..."

"A god going to a camp for an emergency?" Lance frowned, "How often does that happen?"

"Rarely," Austin sighed, "Anyway, he seemed really stressed out. The only way he'll send us a ride is if we defeat the creature called Python for him."

"Python, as in one kind of snake?" I tried to remember my mental encyclopedia of animals. It's very limited. Some animals that are included are the pink fairy armadillos, tasseled wobbegong, and my favorite, the chicken turtle. These are real. Don't doubt me.

"No, the son of Gaea and earth-dragon, Python," Annabeth flinched, then shuddered, "He was the original Delphic order in the cult center for his mother, and became Apollo's chthonic enemy. He was slain, and Apollo remade his home and the Oracle as his own. Python must've cOme back when Gaea woke up!"

"So, basically, Apollo couldn't defeat him this time, and it's up to us to kill a monster that a god couldn't? Aw man, we're burnt toast!" I slowly started to become a kvetch (yes, I have managed to expand my vocabulary in six months. And no, it's not a word for vomit).

"That would explain why there was a bit of prophecy confusion between Rachel and Apollo," Lance said, "But where in the world would we find a dragon?"

"I think I have an idea," I said, looking across the street."

* * *

"Python's Potatoes and Pudding," Percy stared at the neon glowing sign, "Definitely not an evil lair at all."

"But that has to be the weirdest combination in the world," Austin wrinkled his face with disgust, "Only someone not in their right mind would go and eat something like that."

"In other words... You're describing me," I grabbed the handle on the door, "I'm going in, because I want to get this over with, and mostly because I skipped breakfast." My stomach growled in agreement.

"Wait," Annabeth hurriedly grabbed my shoulder in protest, "No plan? No talking over about what we're going to do?"

I looked at the others confusingly. "I mean, I was going to order for myself, but I guess I can pay..." I murmured dejectedly, "Although it took me a while to earn my allowance."

"That's not what I meant," Annabeth sighed, "You know what? Let's just go inside and wing it."

"So you'll get the chicken wings, and I'll order a side of fries?" Percy asked.

"Great! We got our menu together!" I cheerfully exclaimed and pulled the door open.

Lance looked at Austin and finally spoke to him, "You know, I wonder what happens inside her head."

"Sometimes I wonder if there is anything inside of her head," Austin replied with a crooked smile.

* * *

No one was inside the tiny restaurant. It was like a miniature desert with all the dust piling up on the couches and counters, and there weren't even workers inside. "Hello..?" I asked to the air, and no reply came back.

"Maybe Python is just slang for something," Lance said, "Or a nickname."

I slowly stepped forward, kicking away at the dust in the process. A sharp hiss shot through my ear, and I cringed in pain. "Ow," Percy rubbed his ears, "I better not be the only person who had to hear that."

"I'm slowly starting to become nervous," Annabeth reached for her sheath and grasped the hilt of a bone-looking sword. I undid my hair clip, and the bow formed in my hand. We all stood back to back by the doorway, keeping our defenses high. Percy uncapped his pen, and it grew into his Celestial bronze sword.

"Cussssstomerssss?" A scratchy voice crawled through my head, "Or my dessssssert?"

"Oh no," I grumbled, "Not the stereotypical slurring of the "s's"."

A small movement caught my eye, and I quickly yanked an arrow out of my quiver and shot it in that direction. It must've hit something, because there was a loud hiss of pain. "The offsssspring of Artemissss shall finish the fight," The voice crawled, "How inaccurate. The fight hasn't even begun!" The dust collected into a coil-like shape and hurtled forward. Percy tried to cut it down with a swipe of his sword, but the dust dissipated and recollected by Lance's side while grabbing him by the waist.

"Woah!" Lance shouted, and was tossed across the room. He slammed into those old records, and fell onto the ground. The shape collected in the middle of the room, solidifying as a scaly, green snake with legs. A silver arrow was buried in its flank, but burst into tiny silver sparkles and vanished. Its fangs bore, probably ready to sink its teeth into someone's heart.

"Wait a minute, that thing's a dragon?" I pointed at it in despair, "How disappointing! It doesn't even have wings!"

"Do not mock me, daughter of the moon," Python stretched his neck forward and leaned his head close to mine. His forked tongue flicked from his mouth as he stared at me with unblinking dilated eyes. I didn't remove my gaze or budge an inch. "Even with this body that Gaea gave me, I will get my revenge on that blasted god of the sssun."

"Don't you dare say anything bad about my dad!" Austin yelled as he launched his own arrow at the being. Python burst into dust, and reappeared by his side, with a tail tangling itself around Austin's neck.

"Ahh, a ssson of Apollo, are you?" Python smirked, if snake-dragons could, and cocked his head to the side, "Killing his child would be a great way to passss time." Annabeth quickly spun on her heel and swung her sword at Python's end. Another burst of dust clouded our vision, and we coughed as we inhaled the disgusting air.

"Percy, can't you somehow wash away all this filth?" Annabeth shook her boyfriend's shoulder, "Can't you get the Hudson river to clean this out?"

"That'd be a great idea, except the last time I tried to get the river's help, it tried to electrocute me," Percy said, holding his hand out as if he was getting a sense of every drop of water in the room, "And there are no pipes or plumbing; I can't do anything."

"You'd think that a boy who gains energy from water would carry around a water bottle with him at all times, but no," I said sarcastically while launching arrows at whatever moved. Lance got up, popped an ambrosia square in his mouth, and pulled out his own sword from his sheath.

"That's it!" Annabeth whispered gleefully, "We have water bottles in our backpacks! Astra, Austin, distract him!"

"Gotcha!" I ran to the middle of the room, "Hey, Python!" The dust cumulated around me, like spirals. "You're really stupid you know?" Really, Astra? That's the best you got?

"Me? Ssstupid? Pray tell," The voice sounded as if it was dragged across gravel. It seemed amused, not wanting its little entertainment to die yet.

"Yeah! You're an idiot!" Austin held out his arms bravely, "You didn't even know that I'm Apollo. Thinking that I'm one of my own children, how ridiculous!"

Python solidified and glared at Austin, but kept his distance. "You? Apollo?"

"It's alright, Python," I shrugged, "Everyone has the right to be stupid. But sadly, you're just abusing that privilege."

"Pardon?" The snake-dragon got uncomfortably close to me again, "I'll just assssume I heard wrong."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Annabeth pouring all our water into Percy's hands, well, he was forming a ball of water that was floating above his hands, but technically the same thing. "Oh, buddy," I confidentially patted Python's head, and he recoiled in surprise, "We're close, right? You're the jelly to my burger, the knife to my soup, the glitter to my sushi, and the ketchup to my ice cream."

"And that analogy meansss?"

"My friend, my point is that you're worthless."

Python scoffed, "Me? Worthlesssss? Daughter of the moon, you'll have to do better than insssult me."

"Oh, I'm not insulting you," I said, "I'm describing you."

"WHY YOU-!" He raised his voice, but soon after emitted an ear piercing shriek. Lance snuck his way behind the monster and shoved his sword right in Python's back. The creature turned its head to bite Lance, but Austin swiftly shot an arrow in between Python's creepy eyes. "I'll kill you all, especially you, Apollo!"

"Father, sorry for using your name as my own," Austin muttered a short prayer hoping that his dad wouldn't fry him in mid-battle.

A loud growl came from Python, and as he dispersed into dust, the figure grew larger to the point where the ceiling burst from its size. A roar that should've been for Godzilla echoed across New York, and Python looked down at us with an evil glint in its dilated eyes. The screams from New Yorkers were heard down the street, and the walls were crumbling with us entrapped inside.

The small ball of water in Percy's hands seemed completely useless at this point. "Astra, you had to tease him into a giant monster?" Annabeth scorned, and stopped pouring water from our last water bottle.

"Oops. Sorry," I smiled sheepishly.

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Sorry for the late update! Studying for a D.M.V. test is stressful...

(If you haven't already look at my media for jealously.) I just wanted to thank everyone for their support to get me this far. I finally published a book (for myself and you probably will never be able to buy it anywhere else due to copyright and stuff), and I couldn't be any more proud of myself. Thank you once again for taking me this far!

I have no idea where this story is heading, which is also a factor of why it's been taking a while to update... Please forgive me. I have the basic grasp of where it's going, but filling in the gaps... Urgh.

Vote if you enjoyed this (late) update, and comment your favorite sarcastic quote. You, my friend, are special if you're as sarcastic as Astra.

XOXO,
Arisa