Daughter of Wine

Callida

"I smell demigod!" I hear. It's a rough, inhuman voice.

"You said you searched the warehouse!" Another voice. Similar, but a little feminine.

"We did!" I hear a third. "We still smell it, though."

Oh gods. I very quietly sit up, making sure to keep below the crane I'm behind. It's daylight now.

I peek over the crane and see three humanoid figures. They're massive and incredibly ugly from behind. I don't want them to turn around. I bet that's even worse.

"Maybe one passed through." The female voice offers.

She turns and scans the warehouse. I see she has one single eye. Cyclopes. She's wearing a chainmail muumuu, with pigtails braided with an assortment of copper wires, washers, and nuts.

I wish I didn't have to sleep. Dirt-Face kept me from hearing them sneak up on me.

The other two Cyclopes look similar to her. One has a toga of sorts made from fiberglass insulation, and the other has a loincloth made of steel wool. Neither would be on my list of outfit choices.

"I'm hungry, ma!" Loincloth whines. I realize that muumuu must be their mother. The two boys are brothers. "Demigod smells so good!"

"Well, if you'd found it, we'd be eating, wouldn't we!" She bellows. She lifts a truck chassis and smacks him on the head with it. He crumples, but apparently he gets hit with those a lot, because he gets right back up. "We're all hungry!"

My exit is on the other side of the warehouse. I thought if I slept in the back, it would make it harder for monsters to find me. But now I've trapped myself.

With the worst possible timing, the air shimmers beside me. It's Annabeth.

"Calli?" She asks.

I give her a "Shush" gesture, but it's too late.

"You hear that, Torque?" One of the male cyclopes asks.

"Yeah, It came from over here." I hear heavy footsteps coming my way.

I wave away the Iris message, grab my bag, and roll under the crane. Right in the nick of time.

"There's nothing." Torque says. "But the smell is stronger over here, Sump!"

I hear another pair of footsteps. It's fiberglass-toga.

I hear them grab the crane, so I grab ahold of whatever I can beheath it. When they lift it, they don't see me. It's hard to keep hold.

"There!" Their mom exclaims. I feel a hand around me, and they pick me out from the crane.

I give them my most winning smile. "Oh, hey. Sorry, I didn't see you there."

The smell is awful. It's a mixture of terrible body odor mixed with terrible breath mixed with engine grease.

"It's a little one!" Torque exclaims. "A snack!"

"I found her first!" Their mom demands.

"Oh, you don't want to eat me." I tell her. "I'd only arouse your appetite. You'd end up even hungrier."

She laughs. "Demigods always try those tricks with us. We're Northern Cyclopes, little girl! We're not dumb."

Torque carries me over to his mother. "She's so pretty, ma! The pretty ones always taste the best!"

Ma is even uglier up-close. She looks like she spends her free time bashing her face into brick walls for fun.

"Tell me, little girl. Who are you?"

"No one, really." I shrug the best I can in her grip. "Just passing through."

"She smells like grapes." Sump notes, leaning over me.

"Ah, a child of Dionysus, I see." Ma grins. "They always taste the best too. I've never had a pretty daughter of Dionysus."

"Yeah, but you see, you can't eat me."

"And why is that, little demigod?" Ma raises her eyebrow, somehow making her face more symmetrical.

"Because, if you eat me, you'll go insane." I tell her.

She laughs. "Is that so?"

"It is now." I feel my eyes burn purple. "A curse, Tha trelatheis an me fas."

Before I can say anything else, she shoves a nasty-smelling ball of fabric into my mouth.

"There, that's better. Maybe I can't eat you. But my boys can."

They tie me up and hang me from the engine block that's dangling from a crane. They start a fire, and discuss how to eat me. It's actually quite a long discussion, but they come to the conclusion that Ma likes her demigods with salsa, but Torque and Sump don't like salsa. It's too spicy. They want mayo.

"Toss her on the fire there, let's get her nice and charred." Torque decides. He grabs me and tosses me straight onto the coals.

I give my most convincing scream, and lay as still as possible. I'm one of the lucky Dionysus kids. I'm fireproof. I can summon fire too, but not to the extent that Hecate kids or fire-users from the Hephaestus cabin can. But I don't burn.

"Torque, go fetch the mayo." The mother insists. "Sump, we need some sides. I can't eat her, I need something else."

The brothers do as their told, and Ma stokes the fire. I watch the best I can through the flames, waiting for her to turn around or look away. It takes a while, but eventually, she does.

She gets up to grab more fuel for the fire, and I make my escape. I sprint from the coals to a crane closer to the door. I get in the driver's seat, and hope that my limited knowledge of mechanics helps me now.

"Gah!" She exclaims when she sees I'm gone. She searches her feet, as if my crispy corpse may have rolled out of the coals. "Where'd you go, little appetizer?"

I wonder if I just sit in here, will she ever find me?

Torque comes in, holding a crate of mayo jars.

I start up the crane and push some random levers. The arm swings and knocks Torque straight into the wall, mayo exploding everywhere.

I jump out of the crane right before another one hits it. I manage to roll behind a large shipping container, out of her sight.

"You busted my boy!" She screams. "Only I get to bust my boys!"

I dash behind the shipping containers, making great distance towards the exit. Unfortunately, big momma manages to step out in front of me. "There, you are!"

I hold out my hands, and grape vines break through the concrete floor, wrapping around her legs. She screams and struggles, but they hold strong.

"Sorry!" I tell her as I run past, just managing to dodge her arms that reach for me.

"I've got sides!" Sump declares loudly as his mother gets suffocated with enormous grape vines. I'm almost to the exit now. If he just doesn't see me...

"Ma!" He notices her, and then spots me. "Hey! We're hungry! Just let us eat you!"

I burst out into the yard. I have about a football field's worth of open air to run, then a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, then a railroad, then forest, then more city. Of course.

I hear Sump barreling behind me. I turn the corner around the warehouse and wait.

A few moments later, Sump barrels around the corner. I touch the back of his smelly leg and send waves of joy through him. He collapses to the ground, crying. "Oh, great Earth-Mother! I thank thee for my swift return to life. I thank thee for my mother, and-"

I climb on top of him, his big watery eye not even seeing me. As ridiculous as it sounds, I feel guilty, but it must be done. I stab my knife into his eye, and he dissolves into golden dust. I remember the hippopodes, and decide not to stick around.