It took Meg a moment to comprehend what she was seeing. At first glance the birds looked like nothing more than tiny, tan specks on the horizon line, but as they flew closer, their size grew apparent. They were as large as humans, with sharp metallic feathers and bronze beaks, and there were hundreds of them all heading her way. She noticed something drop from the sky. Was that dung? The dark-colored substance hit the top of a tree and the branches surrounding it withered on contact, the whole tree starting to smoke. Poison!

Their ear-piercing squawking on approach made her instantly cover her ears, but the move did nothing. The sound was making her dizzy. She needed to get out of that orchard, but she was suddenly unsure of her surroundings. She turned toward the river and saw the boat.

“Red! Back to the boat! Red!” Phil called.

Meg dropped the precious apple and started to run, going no more than a few feet before she tripped over a root she’d failed to notice in the ground. She stumbled, but kept going, her eyes on the gate a few yards away. Bang! She was down again, her toes catching on a large root that seemed to appear out of nowhere, which was impossible, and yet…Meg sat up and spun around. Roots were growing up out of the ground all around her. She scrambled to get up again and felt a sharp root pierce her right sandal.

“Ouch!” she cried, dragging her right foot behind her as she kept moving toward that gate. Suddenly a root broke out of the ground right in front of her, rising like a tree. Meg stopped short, trying to change direction, but the vines whipped around her ankles, tightening and holding her firm. “Phil! I’m stuck!”

“Bat them away with anything you can find!” Phil shouted.

Meg spotted a large rock. She reached down and began bashing the roots with it. They recoiled, loosening their grip, and Meg burst forward, throwing herself at the fence.

“It’s locked!” Meg cried.

“Pegasus, go get her!” Phil yelled.

Why didn’t she think these things through first? Now she’d put the three of them in danger.

The horse took off from the boat, flying straight toward the gate, and Meg held her arms up, ready to grab whatever part of him that she could. Pegasus reached the fence and—BOOM! He bounced back as if he’d been struck.

“Peg!” Meg screamed in horror as the stunned horse flew through the air.

Phil saw what was happening and used an oar to turn the boat around just in time. Pegasus landed with a thud, half in, half out of the back of the boat, sending wood flying and breaking the sail completely off. Phil struggled to pull him back in.

WHIZ! BAM! The birds’ feathers were launching off their wings into the air and hitting targets. Several feathers pelted the tree closest to her, slicing it in half. The tree fell to the ground, apples rolling toward the gate.

“Phil! Their feathers kill!”

“I know that!” Phil shouted. “Those are Stymphalian birds, Red! They aren’t here for a picnic!”

“What do I do?” Meg cried as she pulled harder on the gate. She tried to get a foothold in the bottom and pull herself up and over it, but her sandals kept sliding. The fence was as slick as ice.

“Oh, now you want to listen—RED! Behind you!”

Meg dove to the ground as one of the birds attempted to hook its talons in her shoulders. It kept coming, Meg rolling out of the way before it could land. The bird hit the gate, denting it and stunning itself in the process. It shook its beak, trying to get its bearings, and Meg jumped up and ran farther down the fence line looking for an opening she could squeeze through. Feathers pelted the ground around her. A huge dung ball splattered the nearest tree and poisoned it on contact. The tree slammed to the ground, narrowly missing her.

Meg dove for cover, hiding herself in its branches. She gathered as many apples as she could around her to shade her from sight.

Phil saw what was happening and rowed in her direction. “I’m coming toward you!” he called from the boat, swatting at incoming birds with his oar. He batted one away and it landed in the river. “You need a weapon! Those birds can’t pierce cork. If you can find some, it would protect you.”

Meg could hear feathers slicing the ground around her as the birds squawked angrily. They were looking for her. She pulled herself in tighter, trying not to be seen, but the birds spotted her anyway, landing on the downed tree, pecking away. One pierced the fabric of her dress and slid right through. Meg screamed. She was a goner if she didn’t find a weapon soon.

Weapons. Athena’s gifts in case she was reckless. How did that god know her so well? If only she hadn’t left the bow and arrow on the boat.

“Red, use the krotala!” Phil cried.

“What?” Meg pulled her legs tighter to her chest.

“The clapper! Use the instrument!”

The clapper? she wondered as a bird grabbed hold of her dress hem and started to pull. What is that thing going to do? Do I throw it at them? Meg pulled the instrument out of her sack and looked at it skeptically, ready to question Phil, but then she thought better of it. She had to have faith he knew what he was talking about. She clapped both pieces together, hearing the sharp sound it made. Several birds shrieked in agony and flew off. I can’t believe it! she thought with glee and struck it again. The birds on the tree disappeared and Meg crawled out. “Phil, it works.”

“Good job, Red! Take that, you bronze metalheads!” Phil reached the shore and was holding her bow and arrow.

“Phil, watch out!” she screamed.

A bird swooped in low on the boat from out of nowhere, lifting Phil and the bow and arrow into the air. Meg ran out into the open and threw a golden apple, trying to strike the bird down, but missed.

“Aaah! Red!” Phil cried, trying to kick out from the bird’s grasp as he was pulled higher and higher.

You are not taking my satyr. She picked up another apple and threw it as hard as she could. She hit the bow and arrow, which dropped from Phil’s hands. Meg bolted out into the opening, placed the krotala in her satchel again, and grabbed the weapon, quickly placing the arrow in the bow and aiming at the bird’s wing as it climbed higher. She had only seconds before Phil’s height would be too great to let him fall. She squinted into the sunlight and aimed, then let the arrow go. It pierced the bird’s wing and Phil fell, screaming, into the top of a tree.

“Phil, stay hidden in that tree or the birds will—aaaah!” Meg felt the back of her dress lift as she was hoisted in the air by one of the birds. She could see other birds headed her way to get their piece. With no arrows left to nock, she used the bow the only way she could—to whack the bird holding her. The bird instantly let go, and Meg went tumbling several feet to the ground. Vines instantly wrapped around her legs and arms and slammed her face into the dirt. She tried to kick herself free and felt something grab her by the shoulders again. That gods-forsaken bird was back and tugging on her upper body while the vines tried to claim her lower half. She felt like she was being split in two.

She punched the bird’s talon with her right fist and its grip loosened just enough for her to reach in her satchel for the krotala again. She clapped it fiercely and the bird immediately let go of her. Then Meg used the krotala to bash the vines till they receded. She kicked out of the vines and threw herself forward, the krotala slipping from her fingers in the process. Her reaching hand had just grazed the instrument when she felt herself being lifted in the air again.

“Nooo!” Meg cried and turned and punched the bird again. It dropped her and she started running.

“Red, it has Pegasus!” Phil cried as he started climbing down from the tree.

“Phil, stay there!” she shouted. “I’ll—aaah!” Two new vines tightened around her legs, winding higher and higher around her body till they squeezed her chest so tight she was afraid she’d pass out. She felt her eyes start to close. She had lost the bow and arrow. She’d misplaced the krotala. Pegasus was just a dot in the sky. She didn’t have much time to save him or herself. And what about Phil? Stay awake! she told herself. Fight!

Phil appeared out of nowhere, running as fast as his hooves would take him as he hurled apple after apple at the vines. He didn’t see the bird come up behind him till he was hoisted in the air again.

No! She tried to cry out, but her voice was gone. She was being squeezed tighter and tighter. With the only thing free being her hands, she dug her nails into one of the vines and it recoiled. Meg did it again and again till they retreated enough for her to get her arms free. She reached out to grab the leather straps of the krotala and felt a bird yank her back, lifting her body off the ground again.

Concentrate, Meg, she told herself. You’re a big, tough girl…. Meg kicked out hard and felt a vine holding her leg tear away. Arms flailing, she wound back with her free hand and socked the bird in its chest. You…can…do…this. The bird shrieked and instantly let go.

It would be back in moments, but a moment was all she needed to kick-start her plan. Meg launched herself forward again, trying to reach the krotala. If she could just reach it, she could scare the birds, then run for the bow, find the fallen arrow and aim it in the sky to make the birds drop Peg and Phil, and then…and then…okay, she’d have to figure out how to catch them, but she had the start of a plan. Plans were good. She needed to remember to make more of those before she sprang into action. But the point was, she was fixing things on her own.

Meg reached for the clapper again and her fingers closed around it just as the bird landed on her back and two more vines latched onto her arms. There was a loud snap and Meg was able to see a cluster of the birds breaking the bow with their razor-sharp beaks before the vines wove around her chest and squeezed. Meg felt herself start to lose consciousness. You can do this, Meg! Fight! she told herself. She had started to tap the clapper ever so slightly when there was a sound like thunder, followed by a crackle of lightning. Hercules burst from the sky dressed in what looked like a suit of armor made of cork.

It all happened so fast. Hercules landed two punches on the birds holding Pegasus and held on to another for dear life so that he didn’t plummet to the ground. The bird released Pegasus and the horse began to fall, waking just before he hit the ground. With a giant flap, he tore up to the heavens and Hercules leaped for him, climbing onto his back and racing toward the bird carrying Phil. Pulling up alongside him, he punched the bird in the chest and it let go of Phil, who fell onto Pegasus’s back. The three quickly descended, heading straight toward her. Meg barely had time to inhale before Hercules had jumped from Pegasus’s back and landed on the bird holding Meg. He picked it up and launched it into the river with a flick of his wrist, then picked up the krotala and clapped it together so hard, every bird around took flight, flying away till they were nothing more than specks on the horizon.