Missouri

Torey looked up, unfazed as he stuffed the rest of the soda can into his mouth and chewed. Greek gods granting blessings for their kids -- whoop de doo. It's not like he hasn't seen this a lot, anyway -- he'd been doing this for the past seven years. Nothing could really surprised him, unless a Laistrygonian decided to jump them. He swallowed the soda can and sighed, nodding to Jamie. "Well, this was... magical."

Jamie stood gaping at the stallion. Dang! he thought. "Thanks guys!" he shouted upward. Then he turned to Torey. "Okay, maybe this ain't so magical to you, but I'm still pretty new to this whole magic and gods thing." He couldn't tell why, but he was somehow able to sense the stallion's name. Tranquillitus Animi. He was a brilliant shade of white. Jamie climbed on the horse. Then he looked at the satyr. "So...where were we? What now?"

"Well...." Torey frowned at the horse, tapping his chin as he walked in a circle around the horse, examining it. "Well, can the horse talk? I know that the gods might send talking animals sometimes, to help their kids and all. We'll need to try that first and figure out some of its abilities, if it has any."

Jamie agreed. "How we gonna do that?" he asked, "Do I just talk to it? I don't know Greek or Latin or anything..."
Then he thought. "Isn't that supposed to come naturally or somethin?"

"Greek? Yeah, you're supposed to speak Greek naturally." Torey nodded, stopping by Jamie's side. "It might be able to understand you in English too, but hey, let's try everything we can."

Jamie looked his new stallion straight in the eyes.  "Can you talk, like, in English?" he asked it.  No response.  Then Jamie decided to try in Greek.  Maybe it would just come to him, like Torey said.

"Μπορείτε να μας μιλήσετε;"

Woah...
But Tranquillitus Animi just snorted.
Great...
"Καταραμένος Στύξ, εγώ θα βρείτε τα μυστικά σου ακόμα!"
Jamie looked back at Torey.
"We can figure that out later, but first, let's find out just how fast this guy is.  So, which way is this...Camp Half-God?"

"Half Blood," Torey corrected, as he hesitantly approached the horse. He'd never liked riding horses -- he supposed that it was because it would be incredibly uncomfortable with his goat-side and the accompanying hooves, hitting the poor thing on the sides. "It's...." He stopped for a moment, thinking. "It's to the east, on Long Island, I think."

"You think? Man, I need a guide! Why don't you get on? You could put some pillows or something under you, if that would help it to be more comfortable."

Torey snorted, shaking his head. "No, no, it's just that horses and I -- we don't get along very well, especially not the magical kind. But yeah -- it's to the east on Long Island. We'd better get to a more secluded place or something and see if the thing has any magic in it, aside from talking."

"Where do you suggest, that would be secluded enough?" Jamie asked, trying to think of any halfway torn-down shopping malls or something that would be in Columbia nearby.

"A forest clearing or something, there's a lot of forest around here...." Torey looked around, pursing his lips as he looked back at Jamie. "We'd better hurry, too, before a monster finds us." He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small set of reed pipes, checking them for any damage before turning back to him. "Your horse friend ready?"

"Mhmm." You'd better be, Jamie thought, staring at his horse. Then he realized was still holding his sword; he'd been holding it almost the whole time. He sheathed it, and looked around. He saw, off to the left, north of them, northwest of Columbia, a large forested area. It was getting windier, and the sun was hiding behind some clouds. Not even evening, and already kinda darkening out. Not a very good omen, I'm guessing...

Jamie hopped up onto his horse. "Hope I don't need a saddle," he muttered. "Alright, Tranq, lets go!" As soon as Jamie grabbed onto its neck, the horse dashed off at a mad speed towards the wood, maybe near 70 or so miles per hour; it was hard to tell. It was like he knew exactly where Jamie wanted him to go. "Better try to keep up, man!" Jamie yelled over his shoulder. The wind in his face felt amazing! But part of Jamie warned him...danger didn't seem all that far off.

Torey yelped as the horse sped past him at the speed of a runaway car, almost making him fall over flat on his face as it passed him and continued on its merry way to and through the forest. He straightened himself, grumbling that Chiron didn't pay him enough to do this, and then followed the two at a brisk trot, resisting the urge to try throwing a tin can or his reed pipes at Jamie.

"Slow down!" he shouted at them, cupping his hands around his mouth, "I'm not a race car, and how else will you find camp without me?" As he did so, Torey paused in his running/trotting/limping and sniffed the air -- there was a faint, odd scent, like that of a monster's. Oh gods, why now.... He looked back at the retreating forms of the boy and his horse and continued his run after them, shouting, "Slow down, dammit!"

Jamie slowed to a halt and turned around, laughing loudly.  "Man, you were the one that refused a ride!"  Then he saw the look on Torey's face.  He indecisively started his way back towards Torey, then stopped again.  Jamie looked down at his sword, then back at Torey.  "...Run?" he said, hopefully.  But he knew it was pointless.  He jumped off Tranq and unsheathed his sword.  The glow of the bronze was startling.  Unsure, he called over to Torey.  "What now?"

Torey sniffed the air again -- the scent was getting stronger and more familiar, like that of a... hellhound? Something furry. He gave Jamie a once-over and quickly decided he wasn't ready to fight off any monsters yet, but Torey's nature magic wouldn't be able to do much on such short notice. Their only option was to run as fast as they could and make sure the thing didn't get to them. "No, no, get back on the horse! I'll get on behind you and we'll just run to the east as fast as we can -- hurry, go!"

"Got it!" Jamie called.  You'd better have a super-speed mode, he thought as he climbed back on Tranq.  As soon as Torey gets on, we make a run for it, understand?  CAMP.  HALF.  BLOOD.  You know where that is?"  Then Jamie thought..."Κατασκήνωση μισή-αίμα," he whispered to Tranq.  Tranq whinnied and reared up onto his hind legs, for just a second, and snorted.  He was ready to get going – fast.

Torey ran as fast as his goat legs would allow him to Jamie and his horse, noting that now the scent was too close and distinct for comfort -- the thing, definitely a big hellhound, was about twenty yards away, hidden in the trees or bushes or something and waiting for them to move. With difficulty, he clambered onto the back of the horse and behind Jamie, nearly hyperventilating as he wheezed: "Go, go! East, tell it to go east -- Long Island!"

Jamie turned around, a mischievous smile on his face.  "Way ahead of you, man!  Next stop, just off Long Island Sound!"  Jamie looked behind him, catching just a glimpse of a huge dog-like monster jumping for them before shouting, "GO!"

All of a sudden, the whole world looked like it just went into the Millennium Falcon's world of hyper-speed.