---

---

Ezekiel rolled his eyes at Kristin. "Yes, little miss sunshine I did know it was a group effort. Did I make that an I statement? No. Jeez, how low is your self-esteem to think that I didn't include you in it?" He rolled his eyes again and pushed forward, walking past her and further into the junk yard. "Ya, we shouldn't be here," he said but Leda already took off.
Ezekiel looked around, trying to find a working car. And would you believe it, luck was on the sun demi-god's side. He found a mint 2015 Chevrolet Silverado. "Please please please," he chanted as he opened the driver's door and found keys on the seat. "Sweet! Thank you Apollo," Ezekiel praised. He looked back at Kristin and dangled the keys. "Please tell me you or Leda can drive." Ezekiel was not to prideful to fake knowing how to drive, that wasn't not his greatest flaw and he knew the value of getting to their destination quickly and as safely as possible.

---

---

The two cyclopes looked at one another, one of them was a male while the second was a female, both wearing what looked like to be some kind of farmer outfits. "Tasty demigod, go get the oven in the kitchen ready." He said to the woman cyclopes and nodded, while the other cyclopes picked up it's club. "We gonna eat well tonight!" He said as he swung the club, hitting Leda in the chest and knocked her backwards. While Zeke was successful with finding them a ride Kristin looked at him and rolled her eyes towards him. "You are so annoying and insufferable!" She said, by the time the quest would be done she'd probably end up stabbing him herself.

It was taking awhile for Leda to come out, and then she heard something crash, she shook her head a little bit towards him. "I'm fifteen I don't even have my license." She said before running into the house, she paused when she could smell something cooking, and Kristin quickly made her way up the flight of stairs. Seeing Leda getting knocked down on the floor, she took out her spear and ran forward managing to stab the cyclopes who immediately turned into dust. She quickly turned to look at Leda and helped her back up to her feet. "Are you okay?" She asked her.

---

---

Leda groaned, hitting the wall after the cyclops smacked her with his club in the chest. Nothing seemed to be broken - she could still breath - but she had had the wind knocked out of her. Ultraviolet had clattered to the floor, just out of reach. She was struggling to get up to her feet when she saw the tip of a spear come through the chest of the cyclops, and it then burst into dust. Kristin had saved her. "Stupid gender role following monsters..." she groaned, accepting Kristin's help as she rose to her feet. "Why can't the male cyclops be the one cooking in the kitchen and the female can kill the demigod? It's the twenty first century after all..." She bent down and grabbed Ultraviolet.

The daughter of Iris then moved down the staircase, following the smell of home cooking to find the other cyclops. "Next time you reform, have some gods-damned self respect!" she snapped, before slicing the monster with her sword, turning her into monster dust confetti. Leda let out a little bit of a sigh, feeling exhausted. It probably would have been a stupid idea to spend the night in the house, but the beds were tempting. "Did you and Zeke find a ride?" she turned, asking Kristin. There weren't any other monsters in the house as far as she knew.

---

---

Ezekiel gave a mock bow, grinning and stepped onto the running boards of the truck. "I live to please," he said before he watched Kristin run into the house after Leda. He stayed put and turned the truck over instead and was relieved when it started. He looked over and noticed that the gas gauge was nearly at empty. Well, things's couldn't be a hundred percent all of the time. He shut the vehicle back off and pocketed the keys before he went on a hunt to find fuel.
He hunted through the little junk yard and managed to come across two gas cans a few feet from each other. Both were pretty light weight but it was better than finding nothing at all. Ezekiel walked back to the truck and poured both of the containers contents into the fuel tank before tossing the cans into the back of the truck for use later on. He then walked back and honked the horn. "Today ladies!" He hadn't heard any screaming and if there was anything in that house, at least they now had a getaway vehicle.

---

---

Kristin followed Leda down the flight of stairs and into the kitchen, she watched her easily kill the female cyclopes without much of an issue at all. "One less monster we have to deal with." She said relived that they wouldn't have to deal with them anymore, she made her way over towards the pot that it was cooking and lifted it up. Kristin winced slightly smelling how awful the food was that was inside of it, it looked really nasty as well. "Who would eat this?" Kristin asked as she pulled out the ladle that was in it, seeing some nasty foul brown goop dripping out of it.

"We should have Zeke try it." She said jokingly. Kristin then heard the car beeping and nodded towards Leda. "Yeah we managed to find a truck, you do have your license right?" Kristin asked Leda, she didn't she wasn't old enough yet to get one herself either. Though she could easily get one when she turns sixteen and she could drive herself.

---

---

Leda gagged, smelling the soup the cyclops had been cooking and getting a look at it. It was utterly disgusting. She didn't even want to think about the fact that her bones could have easily ended up in there. "American food. So gross," she teased. Despite having spent a few years at camp, Leda still identified strongly with her British culture and heritage. The day her accent faded and she started referring to football as soccer would be the day she'd die. "Though I don't even think Zeke would deserve to chow down on this," she then said. She didn't like him - but she didn't completely despise him. She soon regretted that though, hearing him honking the horn and exclaiming for them to hurry up.

"Aces!" she exclaimed, happy to hear they had a truck. It'd be easier to avoid monsters - or at least, she hoped - if they just drove themselves to Texas. Maybe after they finished the quest, Apollo would be nice and give them a lift back to camp in the Sun Chariot. "Yup, got it in December. I'll drive." She was rather proud of that accomplishment. The driving test itself had been easy - the written test had nearly been her downfall. Leda had been practicing with Argus in the camp vans. She liked to think that he hadn't totally hated teaching her. "Can you navigate, though? I can lend you my compass."

That was another thing... It was dangerous for demigods to use phones, which meant she couldn't just ask Siri for directions. Her compass ought to work, but if it needed to be fiddled with, she'd rather the person sitting shotgun do that. Leda reached into her bag and retrieved the magic item. It looked like an ordinary compass, but its enchantment worked so that way it always pointed where to go, as long as a question was asked. "Here," she said, handing it to Kristin. "Don't lose it." None of the food in the kitchen looked good enough to steal or loot.

Leda then left the house, heading out to where Zeke was in the truck. "Kristin's sitting shotgun, I'm driving. I don't care if you sit in the bed or what."

---

---

Ezekiel sat in the divers seat, fiddling with the radio while he waited for the girls. They definitely took their time but it was possible they had come across something. Ezekiel jumped out when he saw them vacate the house and held up his hands. "Don't matter to me, just as long as we get the heck out of dodge," he said and opened up the back door. "We need to find a gas station though, not much fuel and I barely found any but we do have two gas cans now should we run out before and need to walk."
Ezekiel crawled into the back, not caring in the least that he didn't get to ride up front. He had his iPod with him as well so if they decided to listen to gods awful music, at least he had his own. "So, find anything exciting inside," he asked them curiously. They had been in the house longer than Ezekiel expected them to be.

---

---

"You are actually trusting me with your compass?" Kristin asked looking at Leda a little bit surprised they weren't really friends, they didn't get along really well with each other that much. "And American food is the best." Kristin said, she always really did like eating any kind of fried food whenever she did get the chance to. Kristin followed shortly behind Leda and back out into the yard of the cyclopes, at least the flesh eating horse that had fled didn't decide to come back. She looked up at the sky the sun was about to set and they didn't have to much sunlight left really left in the day.

"We should find a motel or something as well soon." She suggested, Kristin didn't really like to be in a car at night, as she climbed into the front seat and pulled out Leda's compass. Kristin nodded as well they should be able to get some gas whenever they got to a hotel before they stopped for the day. "Where is the closest motel and gas station?" Kristin asked setting the compass down on the dashboard and it started to point to where they should go, she took a moment and looked through the glove compartment and managed to find a map in pretty good condition and shoved it into her backpack.

---

---

"Yeah well if you break my compass, I'll feed you to the cleaning harpies," Leda warned Kristin. She was a bit protective over her things, but she again wasn't stupid. She knew that staring at the compass constantly and looking at maps while trying to drive would just be a distraction, a risk. Besides, Kristin's mother was the goddess of battle strategy - maybe that applied to finding the best route to get to a motel as well. Once everyone was buckled up, Leda adjusted her seat, making sure that she was the appropriate distance from the steering wheel. She was extremely tired, but the nerves of driving gave her a jolt better than a Red Bull. She didn't consider either Kristin or Zeke to be her friends, yet she didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of them... and she didn't want to get them killed either.

Once they were on the road, Leda turned on the radio and started scanning through the stations, constantly hitting skip until she landed on a station playing Billie Eilish. She could live with that. "Couple of cyclopses with antiquated ideas of gender norms," she answered Zeke. "Once we get some distance between us and the house, I'll stop for gas. And then look for a motel."

She rolled down the driver's side window slightly, letting the night air drift in and tickle her face, helping her to stay alert. The drive was long and it was late into the night, about ten o'clock, when they pulled into a Motel 6 parking lot in North Carolina. They had gone about 200 miles from Virginia. About halfway through, Leda had stopped to get gas and buy some snacks from a 7-11. She parked the car and killed the ignition, slipping the keys into her pocket. "I got about $80 left - you two?" she asked. She had spent $20 at the 7-11. An empty can of Red Bull was on the ground by her feet. "And 50 quid, but I doubt they take that..."

---

---

Ezekiel listened to his own music for most of the way, although he did tune in when Billie Eilish came on. He yawned and stretched when they finally made it to the motel. ]"Drachma only on my end so I suppose that means I get stuck in the truck ya?" Ezekiel was a full time student at camp so he didn't generally have the US currency on him. It didn't matter much to Ezekiel where he slept anyways. If he could drive he probably would have taken over for Leda for as long as he can. They were on a deadline after all and stopping didn't seem like the best idea to him. It just gave monsters more time to find them.
"Although I wouldn't mind stealing a shower in the morning," he noted. If they were going to stop in a hotel, may as well use the running water to his advantages. He started to shift his pack to make a pit of a pillow so it would be a bit more comfortable. At least in this vehicle you could tuck the seat belts away so they weren't digging into your back.

---

---

Kristin leaned back while occasionally looking at the compass on the dashboard watching it rather closely during the whole car ride, she didn't really like Billie Elish's music. But Leda was the only one who had a drivers license out of the two of them, so she'd be fine with it, she rolled the window down and let her arm hang out enjoying the cool night air as well. Looking at the clock was around ten in the evening, she was getting pretty tired as well and luckily they were able to refuel and find a Motel 6 nearby as well. Kristin climbed out of the truck and stretched slightly letting out a slight yawn.

She pulled out her wallet and looked at the fifty dollar bill she had on her, looking at Leda asking about how much money they had left on them. "I have a fifty and thirty drachma on me. It should be enough for us to sleep for the night." Kristin said, while looking over at Zeke, though she didn't like him that much she didn't want him to end up getting killed by a monster while sleeping in the truck by himself, Kristin handed Leda back her compass. "You really should come in with us, sleeping alone isn't really smart at all." Kristin said to him and looked at Leda. "Lets go and get checked in." She said as she made her way towards the office of the building itself, inside she saw an older looking man watching some hockey on the TV.

"Hi there, i'd like a two bedroom please?" Kristin said as she handed her part of the money onto the counter, and once Leda gave the man her portion as well he handed Kristin the motel room key. "Last room on the second floor." He said as he went back to his game, Kristin nodded and made her way towards their assigned room, inside was pretty basic, a microwave, two beds and a futon as well in the corner of the room.

---

---

Leda raised an eyebrow as Zeke said he'd stay in the truck, only stealing a shower in the morning. "Sounds like a bloody brilliant way to get yourself killed," she couldn't help but say. It wasn't nearly as nice as Kristin's thoughts on the situation, but Leda didn't care. Demigods were in grave danger every time they left Camp Half-blood, especially in groups. Three demigods in one spot was about the largest number they could really do safely in her opinion. If Zeke were to sleep outside by himself in the truck, what happened if a monster came? Who would save his skin?

She followed Kristin into the motel, each step feeling almost unnatural. Her body was incredibly tired and exhausted, as she was running on fumes. Leda barely even had detailed memories of driving them here for three hours, as most of the road had ended up blending together. She let out an exhausted yawn as she gave her portion of the money over to the motel clerk. As soon as Kristin unlocked their room and they headed inside, she dropped her bag down on one of the beds. She kicked off her shoes and crawled into the bed. "Night, losers," she mumbled, before falling asleep in seconds. She hadn't even crawled underneath the blankets. Her hat covered her head and her face was smooshed into the pillows.

---

---

Ezekiel shrugged, trying to seem indifferent to them telling him to come spend the night in the hotel. It would understand if they didn't, he didn't have the US currency to pay them back but he was grateful they at least cared for his health and safety. If only because he could keep them alive. "Thanks," he said and shoved his notebook into his pack before he grabbed it and headed inside with them.
It was a cheaper motel but still decent and Ezekiel was fine with that. They walked in and Leda immediately claimed one bed and passed out. Ezekiel smirked and leaned over to Kristin. "How quickly do you think she'll have Ultraviolet at my throat if I crawled in with her," he joked and tossed his bag onto the futon. "I'll pay you back when we're in camp," he declared before he went to the bathroom.
After he washed up for the night, he walked back out to the futon and fished out his poetry book to finish writing. "We should leave early. We need as much time as we can get with finding Calliope," he noted. He went back to his writing. He was nearly done with the short poem and wanted to complete it before the inspiration left him. It was fleeting after all, as with any god given gift. Ezekiel yawned as he finished and slid the book away before he yawned and stretched and laid down to let sleep claim him.

---

---

"Sleep well Leda." Kristin said as she watched the girl flop onto one of the single beds, she looked over at Zeke for a moment and shook her head slightly. "I'd imagine she'd kill you in the most painful way possible." She said as she set her pack down on the bed and did a little bit of unpacking, before making her way into the bathroom once Zeke was done. She did a quick shower, and then left the bathroom turning off the lights. She brought the covers over herself and closed her eyes rolling over to her side and fell asleep rather quickly for the night when the dream started.

The three of them would find themselves in what looked to be a big stage of some kind, Marsyas was standing on stage with Calliope bound to a chair. There were a few monsters in the background as well hoping to watch a show, as Marsyas spoke.

"Apollo aint going to save you, and without you there to judge his little competition with Hermes it'll be an easy win and it'll be incredibly humiliating for him!" He said cackling, and looked towards the monsters that were inside of the building. "They will probably be sending some half-bloods soon, so slow them down or do whatever you want to them make sure that they don't find us." Marsyas said, before getting the feeling that he was being watched and looked at the three of them, before the dream suddenly ended. Kristin quickly woke up and looked over at Leda and Zeke for a moment before making her way into the bathroom to get herself changed and ready to go for the day.

---

---

At some point during the night, Leda must have gotten cold and crawled under the blankets of the bed, as she woke up in a tangled mess of sheets. She groaned, reflecting for a moment on the dream she had had. It wasn't the most dangerous of quests they were currently on - from what the dream told her, the entire evil plot revolved around dealing a blow to Apollo's ego. Calliope was super cute though. Leda blushed slightly. Even though she didn't believe it was cheating to find other people attractive, she doubted her girlfriend would appreciate her dwelling too much on the Stolen Muse's beauty. "Morning," she told Zeke, figuring he was probably awake.

She waited outside the bathroom door for Kristin to finish up, since she hadn't showered last night. Her eyes felt incredibly heavy. She would have loved to get some more sleep, especially with the long day of driving she had ahead, but the sooner they made it to Texas the better. They needed to finish this before Apollo's competition with Hermes after all. Once Kristin finished, she went into the bathroom and took a shower in record time - less than five minutes - before getting herself cleaned and dressed for the day. Leda braided her hair back to disguise the missing chunk and then put the hat she acquired back on for good measure.

Hopefully no other monsters would want to go eat her hair. "Shower's free," she said, leaving the bathroom.

---

---

Ezekiel woke shortly after the dream as well, hearing people move about the hotel room and then Leda greeting him. He stretched out on the futon and there were a few responding joint cracks. The sleep hadn't be the most comfortable but he had at least slept through the entire night so that was something. Hopefully they would make it to Texas today and then they could get down to business.
Ezekiel stood up once Leda emerged from the bathroom, announcing the shower was free and went to do the same. He brought his pack with him so he could change his shirt and jumped into the shower. He stole an extra couple minutes under the hot water before shutting it off and readied for the final leg to Texas.
As he readied, he thought back on the dream. It was no surprise to Ezekiel that Marsyas was trying to embarrass Apollo. All the gods, as far as Ezekiel was concerned, were far more worried about image and how they saw themselves than the well being of anyone else. Of course there were a rare few that cared about more than just the skin on their neck but those gods tended to be punished. It was sick. However, at least there was an advantage to the dream they had last night other than learning about the gods self-centered attitudes, Ezekiel had seen a name of a location in the dream.
He walked out of the bathroom, tucking his beanie away in his pack so his hair could dry and looked at the girls. "So, I saw a name on wall of the building Marsyas was holding Calliope in, Backdoor Comedy. If he keeps her in the same location, even though he saw us, we might have a shot. Or we could walk into a trap."

---

---

Kristin started to get her things packed up and looked at Zeke for a moment she did remember seeing the sign as well in the dream as she made sure that everything was safely secured into her backpack. "It probably is a trap, he did say that he was going to throw whatever he has at slowing us all down getting there." Kristin said to Zeke as she slung her pack over her shoulder looking at the two of them. "I'm going to get us checked out then and meet you all at the truck." She said as she made her way out of the room and headed back down the flight of stairs of the motel and entered the hotel offices to return the key, looking up at the clock it said 7:30AM they had a whole day to move.

Kristin leaned herself up against the passenger side door of the truck, since Leda was the only one who could drive and had the keys on her as well. She looked up at the sky there weren't to many clouds in the sky so the weather was going to be pretty nice as well which was good to. Kristin looked towards where their room was waiting for the slowpokes to get a move on as well so far there weren't any monsters yet which was also a really good thing.

---

---

Leda thought about it for a moment. She doubted that Marysas would move Calliope. He struck her as the self assured type, the sort of douchebag that would waltz around claiming they had swagger. "Either way, Backdoor Comedy is a good starting point... He's probably counting on having his goons kill us. I dunno about you two, but he seemed pretty rotten and acted like the sort of self assured arse who wouldn't think he'd need to move the Muse." Briefly, she wondered whether Calliope was the muse that oversaw comedy. Her mind quickly reminded her though that that was Thalia - not to be confused with the famous daughter of Zeus. "Maybe you should take a kip in the truck, see if you find out anything else." She glanced at Zeke, as Kristin had left to go check them out of the room.

She grabbed her things, having shoved most of her stuff back into her bag already. She traveled relatively light. Kristin had her magic compass, yet Ultraviolet was secure around her neck in pendant form. Leda left the room just a few minutes after Kristin had, heading out to the truck. She unlocked it with her keys, having to manually insert them into the driver's side door, since it didn't have a handy fob to use. "I'm thinking we can make a stop in Atlanta," Leda suggested to the daughter of Athena. "I can maybe get us to Houston tonight, but it's more likely to be tomorrow since I can't switch off driving."

The engine roared to life as she inserted the key into the ignition. Leda fiddled through the radio stations, waiting for Zeke to emerge from the motel and get in.

---

---

Ezekiel nodded in agreement with Leda. Trap or not, it would be a good starting point for them and if he did move Calliope, Ezekiel would try his best to track them down. He shouldered his pack and followed Leda from the motel room. "Ya, maybe I will later on," Ezekiel said, referring to taking a nap later on. He had been around Leda enough to understand some of her British slang terms.
He crawled back into the back of the truck once Leda unlocked the doors and slipped out his notebook and went over what medicines and herbs he had again, just wanting to keep a concise tally on everything. "If we stop outside Houston then at least Leda can get some sleep before we go in there full force," he noted. If they stopped outside Houston then at least they could get their barrings a bit better and look up where this Backdoor Comedy was so they weren't driving around aimlessly. Granted, they had Leda's compass but it wouldn't surprise Ezekiel if it magically stopped working once they got to Houston. The gods loved their entertainment, and the demi-gods, their own children, were a great form of entertainment.

---

---

Once Leda got into the truck and unlocked all of the doors Kristin quickly crawled up into the front passenger side seat and strapped herself in. She looked over towards Leda for a moment she was kind of surprised that she made a suggestion on a stop since it was the closest location to them that wouldn't be a bad drive. "That works for me, though we are a bit strapped for cash right now as well, so if we do run out of fuel we will have to figure something out. And we probably wont be able to get a motel room next time either."

She said, since the money is an issue right now to. Kristin thought for a moment on how much time they had left they had probably four days left, and they just used their first day just to get here now as well. "We'll have time to probably stop and rest again to, but Atlanta is probably our best bet." She said, Kristin didn't want Leda to drive more than she wanted to since she was their only driver right now as well.