CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FINLEY             BRIGGS

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Finn was an expert on weird. She was part god, a daughter of Bacchus. She could turn water into wine like she was Jesus. Her eyes twinged purple when that resting insanity in her began to fester. Speaking of, she could do things with that insanity that would get her condemned for even speaking it aloud. She was found and trained by wolves for a few months there. She'd been plagued by dreams of the Earth Mother for essentially her entire life.

But getting kidnapped by a field of grass? That was new.

She felt as if she were trapped in a funnel cloud of plants. She felt like a singer surfing over a crowd of supporters—only she was moving a thousand times faster, the grass blades weren't adoring fans, and Hazel Levesque was screaming beside her.

That was basically how Finn felt too. They couldn't sit up. They couldn't touch the ground. Finn had accidentally dropped her gun on the cliff, and Hazel's sword was still in her bedroll, strapped to her back. The plants kept them off balance, tossing them around, slicing their face and arms. Finn could barely make out the stars through the tumble of green, yellow, and black.

Frank's shouting faded into the distance.

"What in the name of all the gods is happening?!" Finn called out to Hazel.

"I don't know!" Hazel panicked. "But we're moving fast!"

She was right. It was hard for Finn to think clearly but she could recognize Hazel's words as fact. Wherever they were being taken, they'd soon be too far away for Percy and Frank to find them.

Finn closed her eyes and tried to ignore the pounding in her head, only made worse by the tumbling and tossing of the deadly grass (???). She couldn't suppress her groans of misery though. If Finn was drunk, she was sure that she would be enjoying this entire experience, but she'd gone too many hours without a single sip of wine.

This was miserable.

"Finley, give me your hand!" she heard Hazel shout.

Finn's face screwed up at the loud noise. "What?"

"Gods, just—"

Hazel broke herself off. It didn't matter what she was going to say. She reached out on her own and latched her hand around Finn's wrist. Finn didn't even get a moment the process this before the real craziness began.

Hazel tensed. Suddenly the ground rumbled. The swirl of plants released Finn and Hazel, and they were thrown upward like a catapult projectile.

"What the fuck?!"

Momentarily weightless, Finn opened her eyes. She twisted her body in midair. The ground was about twenty feet below. Then she and Hazel were falling. Finn's combat training somehow kicked in. She'd practiced dropping from giant eagles before. She tucked into a roll, turned the impact into a somersault, and came up standing (whether she stumbled the entire time was no one's business but hers).

Hazel landed more gracefully. She unslung her bedroll and drew her sword. Finn held her throbbing head. A few yards to their left, an outcropping of rock the size of a garage jutted from the sea grass.

Finn felt dazed. She was wrong a lot of the time, and a little sick right now.

But that wasn't there before.

The grass rippled around it. Angry voices hissed in dismay at the massive clump of stone that had broken their progress.

"Hazel, wha—"

"Explain later. Before they can regroup."

Finn still didn't understand. Nothing really clicked together until Hazel started running toward the rock. Explain later, because she had somehow caused this. Before they can regroup, because, well, they needed to get onto that rock before these grass creatures could regroup.

Finn followed Hazel and clambered to the top.

The grass swayed and rustled around them like the tentacles of a gigantic undersea anemone. Finn could sense their kidnappers' frustration.

"Can't grow on this, can you?" Hazel yelled, shocking Finn with her spite. "Go away, you bunch of weeds!"

"Uh—" Finn blinked, "yeah! Leave us alone!"

"Schist," said an angry voice from the grass.

Hazel raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Schist! Big pile of schist!"

The daughter of Pluto seemed absolutely scandalized at this, just like she had when she saw Finn's nose ring. Finn really didn't care about that right now. Not when she felt sick to her stomach, miserable, and clueless as to what the fuck was going on.

Then, all around Hazel's rock island, the kidnappers materialized from the grass. At first glance they looked like Valentine angels—a dozen chubby little Cupid babies. As they stepped closer, Finn realized they were neither cute nor angelic.

They were the size of toddlers, with rolls of baby fat, but their skin had a strange greenish hue, as if chlorophyll ran through their veins. They had dry, brittle wings like corn-husks, and tufts of white hair like corn silk. Their faces were haggard, pitted with kernels of grain. Their eyes were solid green, and their teeth were canine fangs.

The largest creature stepped forward. He wore a yellow loincloth, and his hair was spiky like the bristles on a stalk of wheat. He hissed at the two girls and waddled back and forth so quickly, Finn thought his loincloth might fall off.

"Hate this schist!" the creature complained. "Wheat cannot grow!"

"Sorghum cannot grow!" another piped up.

"Barley!" yelled a third. "Barley cannot grow. Curse this schist!"

Finn's knees wobbled. The little creatures might have been funny if she was drunk and they weren't surrounding her, staring up at her with those pointed teeth and hungry green eyes. They were like Cupid piranhas. Finn didn't even have her gun on her to fight them.

"Y-You mean the rock?" Hazel managed. "This rock is called schist?"

"Yes, greenstone! Schist!" the first creature yelled. "Nasty rock."

"It's a precious stone," she realized. "It's valuable?"

"Hazel, who cares?" Finn questioned desperately.

But Hazel seemed to. A lot.

"Bah!" said the one in the yellow loincloth. "Foolish native people made jewelry from it, yes. Valuable? Maybe. Not as good as wheat."

"Or sorghum!"

"Or barley!"

The others chimed in, calling out different types of grain.

"Finley," Hazel panicked. "You can't be on here. You can't—You can't be touching this."

Finn whipped her head towards Hazel so sharply that her headache worsened. "You trying to sacrifice me to the grain babies?!"

"No!" she cried desperately. But she did seem to understand how bad it might look from Finn's perspective. "It's not safe for you!"

"Okay, good to know. How should I jump back into the sea of deadly grass? Pencil dive? Belly flop? Cannonball?"

"Finley, I'm serious!"

"So am I! I'm not getting off this piece of schist!"

The grain creatures circled the rock, making no effort to climb it—at least not yet. If they decided to swarm Finn and Hazel, there was no way the girls could fend off all of them.

"You're Gaea's servants," Hazel guessed.

Finn's heart dropped, down to the pit in her stomach that was so unfortunately devoid of alcohol. "What? Gaea?"

Hazel just gave Finn a look. We need to keep them talking.

Which—sure. Finn was good at that part. Aimlessly rambling. Maybe Percy and Frank weren't too far away. Maybe they'd be able to see Finn and Hazel, standing so tall about the fields. She wished Hazel's sword glowed like Percy's.

"We are the karpoi, spirits of the grain," the yellow-diapered Cupid snarled. "Children of the Earth Mother, yes! We have been her attendants since forever. Before nasty humans cultivated us, we were wild. We will be again. Wheat will destroy all!"

"No, sorghum will rule!"

"Barley shall dominate!"

The others joined in, each karpos cheering for his own variety.

"Right." Finn swallowed her revulsion. "So you're Wheat, then—you in the ugly underpants."

"Hmmmm," said Wheat. "Come down from your schist, demigod. We must take you and her to our mistress's army. They will reward us. They will kill you both slowly!"

"Tempting," Finn tilted her head, "but no thanks."

"I will give you wheat!" said Wheat, as if this were a very fine offer in exchange for their lives. "So much wheat!"

Finn didn't really care much about this bargain. Not when that sickness was crawling throughout all of her body. She stiffened as she fully processed the words that the karpoi spoke. Especially when she looked to find Hazel just as tense.

We must take you and her to our mistress's army.

"Uh—Hazel?"

"Yeah?" Hazel squeaked.

"Don't tell me you also have a closely hidden history with Gaea you've always tried to keep secret?" Finn asked, under the horrible impression she already knew the answer.

Hazel let out a noise of misery. "No way. You too?"

"Fuck."

The one time Finn was right about something, and it had to be this. 

She didn't ask Hazel for details, because if Hazel asked her, Finn wouldn't want to share any either. Of course, Finn couldn't deny her curiosity, but she was more so worried about the fact that their quest group was now extra doomed. It wouldn't even matter if they survived the evil grain goblins. Finn, Percy, Hazel, and Frank would never make it out alive if two out of the four shared a haunting past with Gaea.

"There's not a chance it's a good history," Finn hoped, "is there?"

"No!" cried Hazel. "Why would I have a happy relationship with Gaea?"

Finn threw her hands up and the throbbing of her head worsened. "I dont know! You're a very likeable person. If Gaea's gonna take a liking to anyone, I figured it would be you."

Hazel sighed, almost guilty about the agitation she felt towards Finn. It was different now, knowing she and Finn were in the same boat.

"Well, did she take a liking to you?" 

"No one takes a liking to me," Finn whined.

Hazel paused, then shrugged. "Fair point."

Finn tried to think past her headache. How far had they been carried? How long would it take their friends to find them? The karpoi were getting bolder, approaching the rock in twos and threes, scratching at the schist to see if it would hurt them.

"Before we get down..." Hazel raised her voice, so that it carried over the fields. "Um, explain something to me, would you? If you're grain spirits, shouldn't you be on the gods' side? Isn't the goddess of agriculture Ceres—"

"Evil name!" Barley wailed.

"Cultivates us!" Sorghum spat. "Makes us grow in disgusting rows. Lets humans harvest us. Pah! When Gaea is mistress of the world again, we will grow wild, yes!"

Finn really wished they had a child of Ceres in their group right about now.

"Well, naturally," Finn tried playing into their chaos. "So this army of hers, where you're taking me and Hazel in exchange for wheat—"

"Or barley," Barley offered.

"Or barley," Finn agreed. "This army is where, now?"

"Just over the ridge!" Sorghum clapped his hands excitedly. "The Earth Mother—oh, yes!—she told us: 'Look for the daughter of Pluto who lives again and the daughter of Bacchus with blood on her hands. Find them! Bring them alive! I have many tortures planned for them!' The giant Polybotes will reward us for your lives! Then we will march south to destroy the Romans. We can't be killed, you know. But you two can, yes."

"That's wonderful." Finn tried to sound enthusiastic. It wasn't easy, knowing Gaea had special revenge planned for her.

"So you—you can't be killed because Alcyoneus has captured Death," Hazel said, "is that it?"

"Exactly!" Barley said.

"And he's keeping him chained in Alaska," Hazel said, "at... let's see, what's the name of that place?"

Sorghum started to answer, but Wheat flew at him and knocked him down. The karpoi began to fight, dissolving into funnel clouds of grain. Finn shared a glance with Hazel, the former considering if they for them to make a run for it. Then Wheat re-formed, holding Sorghum in a headlock.

"Stop!" he yelled at the others. "Multigrain fighting is not allowed!"

The karpoi solidified into chubby Cupid piranhas again. Wheat pushed Sorghum away.

"Oh, clever demigods," he said. "Trying to trick us into giving secrets. No, you'll never find the lair of Alcyoneus."

"We already know where it is," Hazel said with false confidence. "He's on the island in Resurrection Bay."

"Ha!" Wheat sneered. "That place sank beneath the waves long ago. You should know that! Gaea hates you for it. When you thwarted her plans, she was forced to sleep again. Decades and decades! Alcyoneus—not until the dark times was he able to rise."

Finn looked to Hazel desperately, because what the ever-loving fuck did that mean? Decades and decades... But Hazel wasn't "decades and decades" old. And how did Hazel force Gaea to sleep again?

But Hazel looked desperate too. Desperate for the karpoi to stop speaking.

"The nineteen-eighties," Barley agreed. "Horrible! Horrible!"

"Yes," Wheat said. "And our mistress still sleeps. Alcyoneus was forced to bide his time in the north, waiting, planning. Only now does Gaea begin to stir. Oh, but she remembers you, daughter of Pluto, and so does her son!"

Okay. This was getting weird. Finn could accept Hazel having a difficult past with Gaea without question, but the implications here were... positively insane.

Trust Finn. She would know.

"You will never find the prison of Thanatos!" Sorghum cackled with glee. "All of Alaska is the giant's home. He could be keeping Death anywhere! Years it would take you to find him, and your poor camp has only days. Better you surrender. The most death you will find for a while is at the mercy of her sins." The karpoi grinned at Finn, who paled. "We will give you grain. So much grain."

Finn wanted to keel over entirely. The daughter of Bacchus with blood on her hands. The most death you will find for a while is at the mercy of her sins. They will all fear you. For so long, Finn had been able to run from her past. She could cover it up with alcohol and surface-level conversations as much as she pleased, but the real truth of the matter would break through no matter what Finn did.

It didn't matter Finn had buried her demons six feet under the earth. She could bury them a hundred feet under, and it still wouldn't make any difference. The earth was Gaea's domain. Finley Briggs's truth lay in Gaea's hands, not her own. Not Finn's own bloody, tainted, shaking ones.

"Yes," Wheat said, sensing her anguish. "Give up."

Finn wanted to. She always wanted to. But she tried to compartmentalize her issues for the time being—Your trauma and alcoholic tendencies have been repressed for long enough, they can be repressed for a little longer. Which, true. The quest at hand was more important.

"Never!" Hazel gripped her spatha. "If we have to destroy you all, we will!"

"That's right!" Finn raised her voice, hoping it would somehow reach their friends. "I am the daughter of Bacchus! And—uh—he's also the god of agriculture! You don't want to see what I can do to!"

Finn held up her hands, as if there was power thrumming through her veins that she was threatening to use.

There wasn't.

The karpoi didn't know that though, and hissed in fear at Finn's threat. Still, they advanced. They gripped the rock, hissing as if it were scalding hot, but they began to climb.

"You have spent too long without conviction of your murder. Now it's your turn to die," Wheat promised, gnashing his teeth. "You will feel the wrath of grain!"

Suddenly there was a whistling sound. Wheat's snarl froze. He looked down at the golden arrow that had pierced his chest. Then he dissolved into pieces of Chex Mix.

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BAILEY YAPS...

Sylvie Duvall would've never let this happen... Situation would've been handled and dealt with... Have I mentioned I miss her...

How Finn and Hazel were looking at each other when the karpoi hinted at each other's tragic pasts 🤨🤨🤨🤨

Hazel's ass lucky it was Finn that heard all that cus that girl dgaf and is already worried abt keeping her own shit hidden

Shit = dirt = earth = "It didn't matter Finn had buried her demons six feet under the earth. She could bury them a hundred feet under, and it still wouldn't make any difference. The earth was Gaea's domain. Finley Briggs's truth lay in Gaea's hands, not her own."