Drake slid his sword into his hand, his shoulders tensing. Thomas clenched his jaw and stood up slowly. Lucia put her hand on her bracelet, which spiraled into her shield when she twisted it, ready to stand up when she needed to. That’s when they heard the screeching and looked up. “Scatter!” Drake shouted.

“Where? We’re surrounded by freaking corn!” Came Thomas’s panicked reply. Lucia huffed and shoved them both into the corn as the winged creatures descended towards the ground. “Curse you, Hades!” Thomas screamed, covering his head in his arms. Lucia rolled her eyes and twisted onto her back, eyes narrowed. Her shield spiraled out from her bracelet just in time for the… chicken girls? to swoop down and lash out with their sharp talons.

“Move,” Lucia ordered Thomas, who shot her a dirty look. As the child of Ares, he was the more impulsive one, but not when he was being ordered around by a girl. Lucia was the daughter of Apollo, so the group tended to rely on her for advice even though she didn’t have the gift of prophecy. Thomas drew his javelin and screamed “AAAARGH” and charged the harpies as they circled again.

Drake shook his head and hoisted his sword, charging into battle with Thomas. Lucia nocked an arrow and let it fly. It released with an earpiercing whistle, nailing three harpies in one go, raining yellow monster dust down on the ground. Three down, three to go. Drake yelled as one of the harpies hooked her talons into his back, but he managed to shake her off and slice her in half, coughing yellow dust as he ran to help Thomas, who was occupying the last two.

“Die, feathery chicken ladies!” he was screaming, swinging his javelin aimlessly. “Leave my cheese alone! You cannot defeat me, I’m the son of Ares!” Lucia had to resist the urge to laugh. Thomas spat out a red feather. “Y’all gonna help me or what?” he yelled, ducking as one of the harpies made a grab for him. Lucia nocked another arrow.

“Thomas,” she called. “Duck!” As she let the arrow fly, Drake threw his sword at the one closest to him, impaling her into a corn stalk. Lucia’s arrow pierced through the last one, and Thomas fell to his face on the ground.

Lucia, laughing, walked over to him and nudged him with her shoe. “Well, looks like the mighty son of Ares finally found an enemy he couldn’t beat.” Thomas rolled over and coughed out more monster dust, glaring at Lucia.

“Shut up,” he muttered.

Drake smirked. “Do you want a lollipop for being such a brave boy?” he asked mockingly. Thomas threw an ear of corn at him.

“Let’s just keep going,” Thomas grumbled, standing up and brushing himself off. Lucia and Drake tried to contain their laughter as Thomas took the lead and they continued towards the village – which hadn’t gotten any closer.
  To be continued...   Note: the article last week contained a typo that I forgot to correct: Drake's mother is Athena, he is not a child of Hephaestus.