(This chapter is about Percy, but it's necessary for the plot. I think that most of the people hasn't read Percy Jacskon's novels, so they won't understand anything if I don't show this. I will post two chapters, so don't worry.)
(Btw, it's written in Percy's POV. If you have already read the novel, you can skip the chapter.)
I don't remember falling asleep, but I remember the dream.
I was back in that barren cave, the ceiling heavy and low above me. Annabeth was kneeling under the weight of a dark mass that looked like a pile of boulders. She was too tired even to cry out. Her legs trembled. Any second, I knew she would run out of strength and the cavern ceiling would collapse on top of her.
"How is our mortal guest?" a male voice boomed.
It wasn't Kronos. Kronos's voice was raspy and metallic, like a knife scraped across stone.
I'd heard it taunting me many times before in my dreams. But this voice was deeper and lower, like a bass guitar. Its force made the ground vibrate.
Luke emerged from the shadows. He ran to Annabeth, knelt beside her, then looked back at the unseen man. "She's fading. We must hurry."
The hypocrite. Like he really cared what happened to her.
The deep voice chuckled. It belonged to someone in the shadows, at the edge of my dream. Then a meaty hand thrust someone forward into the light—Artemis—her hands and feet bound in celestial bronze chains.
I gasped. Her silvery dress was torn and tattered. Her face and arms were cut in several places, and she was bleeding ichor, the golden blood of the gods.
"You heard the boy," said the man in the shadows. "Decide!"
Artemis's eyes flashed with anger. I didn't know why she just didn't will the chains to burst, or make herself disappear, but she didn't seem able to. Maybe the chains prevented her, or some magic about this dark, horrible place.
The goddess looked at Annabeth and her expression changed to concern and outrage.
"How dare you torture a maiden like this!"
"She will die soon," Luke said. "You can save her."
Annabeth made a weak sound of protest. My heart felt like it was being twisted into a knot.
I wanted to run to her, but I couldn't move.
"Free my hands," Artemis said.
Luke brought out his sword, Backbiter. With one expert strike, he broke the goddess's handcuffs. Artemis ran to Annabeth and took the burden from her shoulders. Annabeth collapsed on the ground and lay there shivering. Artemis staggered, trying to support the weight of the black rocks.
The man in the shadows chuckled. "You are as predictable as you were easy to beat, Artemis."
"You surprised me," the goddess said, straining under her burden. "It will not happen again."
"Indeed it will not," the man said. "Now you are out of the way for good! I knew you could not resist helping a young maiden. That is, after all, your specialty, my dear."
Artemis groaned "You know nothing of mercy, you swine."
"On that," the man said, "we can agree. Luke, you may kill the girl now."
"No!'" Artemis shouted.
Luke hesitated. "She—she may yet be useful, sir.. Further bait."
"Bah! You truly believe that?"
"Yes, General. They will come for her. I'm sure."
The man considered. "Then the dracaenae can guard her here. Assuming she does not die from her injuries, you may keep her alive until winter solstice. After that, if our sacrifice goes as planned, her life will be meaningless. The lives of all mortals will be meaningless."
Luke gathered up Annabeth's listless body and carried her away from the goddess.
"You will never find the monster you seek," Artemis said. "Your plan will fail."
"How little you know, my young goddess," the man in the shadows said. "Even now, your darling attendants begin their quest to find you. They shall play directly into my hands. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a long journey to make. We must greet your Hunters and make sure their quest is... challenging."
The man's laughter echoed in the darkness, shaking the ground until it seemed the whole cavern ceiling would collapse.
I woke with a start. I was sure I'd heard a loud banging. I looked around the cabin. It was dark outside. The salt spring still gurgled. No other sounds but the hoot of an owl in the woods and the distant surf on the beach. In the moonlight, on my nightstand was Annabeth's New York Yankees cap. I stared at it for a second and then: BANG BANG.
Someone, or something, was pounding on my door. I grabbed Riptide and got out of bed.
"Hello?" I called. THUMP. THUMP.I crept to the door.
I uncapped the blade, flung open the door, and found myself face-to-face with a black pegasus.
Whoa, boss! Its voice spoke in my mind as it clopped away from the sword blade. I don't wanna be a horse-ke-bob!
Its black wings spread in alarm, and the wind buffeted me back a step, "Blackjack," I said, relieved but a little irritated. "It's the middle of the night!"
Blackjack huffed. Ain't either, boss. It's five in the morning. What you still sleeping for?
"How many times have I told you? Don't call me boss."
Whatever you say, boss. You're the man. You're my number one. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and tried not to let the pegasus read my thoughts. That's the problem with being Poseidon's son: since he created horses out of sea foam, I can understand most equestrian animals, but they can understand me, too. Sometimes, like in Blackjacks case, they kind of ad-opt me.
See, Blackjack had been a captive on board Luke's ship last summer, until we'd caused a little distraction that allowed him to escape. I'd really had very little to do with it, seriously, but Blackjack credited me with saving him.
"Blackjack," I said, "you're supposed to stay in the stables."
Meh, the stables. You see Chiron staying in the stables?
"Well... no."
Exactly. Listen, we got another little sea friend needs your help.
"Again?"
Yeah. I told the hippocampi I'd come get you.
I groaned. Anytime I was anywhere near the beach, the hippocampi would ask me to help them with their problems. And they had a lot of problems. Beached whales, porpoises caught in fishing nets, mermaids with hangnails—they'd call me to come underwater and help.
"All right," I said. "I'm coming."
You're the best, boss.
"And don't call me boss!"
Blackjack whinnied softly. It might've been a laugh.
I looked back at my comfortable bed. My bronze shield still hung on the wall, dented and unusable. And on my nightstand was Annabeth's magic Yankees cap. On an impulse, I stuck the cap in my pocket. I guess I had a feeling, even then, that I wasn't coming back to my cabin for a long, long time.
............….
Blackjack gave me a ride down the beach, and I have to admit it was cool. Being on a flying horse, skimming over the waves at a hundred miles an hour with the wind in my hair and the sea spray in my face—hey, it beats waterskiing any day.
Here. Blackjack slowed and turned in a circle. Straight down.
"Thanks." I tumbled off his back and plunged into the icy sea.
I'd gotten more comfortable doing stunts like that the past couple of years. I could pretty much move however I wanted to underwater, just by willing the ocean currents to change around me and propel me along, I could breathe underwater, no problem, and my clothes never got wet unless I wanted them to.
I shot down into the darkness.
Twenty, thirty, forty feet. The pressure wasn't uncomfortable. I'd never tried to push it—to see if there was a limit to how deep I could dive. I knew most regular humans couldn't go past two hundred feet without crumpling like an aluminum can. I should've been blind, too, this deep in the water at night, but I could see the heat from living forms, and the cold of the currents. It's hard to describe. It wasn't like regular seeing, but I could tell where everything was.
As I got closer to the bottom, I saw three hippocampi—fish-tailed horses—swimming in a circle around an overturned boat. The hippocampi were beautiful to watch. Their fish tails shimmered in rainbow colors, glowing phosphorescent. Their manes were white, and they were galloping through the water the way nervous horses do in a thunderstorm. Something was upsetting them.
I got closer and saw the problem. A dark shape—some kind of animal—was wedged halfway under the boat and tangled in a fishing net, one of those big nets they use on trawlers to catch everything at once. I hated those things. It was bad enough they drowned porpoises and dolphins, but they also occasionally caught mythological animals. When the nets got tangled, some lazy fishermen would just cut them loose and let the trapped animals die.
Apparently this poor creature had been mucking around on the bottom of Long Island Sound and had somehow gotten itself tangled in the net of this sunken fishing boat. It had tried to get out and managed to get even more hopelessly stuck, shifting the boat in the pro-cess. Now the wreckage of the hull, which was resting against a big rock, was teetering and threatening to collapse on top of the tangled animal.
The hippocampi were swimming around frantically, wanting to help but not sure how. One was trying to chew the net, but hippocampi teeth just aren't meant for cutting rope. Hippocampi are really strong, but they don't have hands, and they're not (shhh) all that smart.
Free it, lord! A hippocampus said when it saw me. The others joined in, asking the same thing.
I swam in for a closer look at the tangled creature. At first I thought it was a young hippocampus. I'd rescued several of them before. But then I heard a strange sound, something that did not belong underwater:
"Mooooooo!"
I got next to the thing and saw that it was a cow. I mean... I'd heard of sea cows, like manatees and stuff, but this really was a cow with the back end of a serpent. The front half was a calf—a baby, with black fur and big, sad brown eyes and a white muzzle—and its back half was a black-and-brown snaky tail with fins running down the top and bottom, like an enormous eel.
"Whoa, little one," I said. "Where did you come from?"
The creature looked at me sadly. "Moooo!"
But I couldn't understand its thoughts. I only speak horse.
We don't know what it is, lord, one of the hippocampi said. Many strange things are stirring.
"Yeah," I murmured. "So I've heard."
I uncapped Riptide, and the sword grew to full length in my hands, its bronze blade gleam-ing in the dark.
The cow serpent freaked out and started struggling against the net, its eyes full of terror.
"Whoa!" I said. "I'm not going to hurt you! Just let me cut the net."
But the cow serpent thrashed around and got even more tangled. The boat started to tilt, stirring up the muck on the sea bottom and threatening to topple onto the cow serpent.
The hippocampi whinnied in a panic and thrashed in the water, which didn't help.
"Okay, okay!" I said. I put away the sword and started speaking as calmly as I could so the hippocampi and the cow serpent would stop panicking. I didn't know if it was possible to get stampeded underwater, but I didn't really want to find out. "It's cool. No sword. See? No sword. Calm thoughts. Sea grass. Mama cows. Vegetarianism."
I doubted the cow serpent understood what I was saying, but it responded to the tone of my voice. The hippocampi were still skittish, but they stopped swirling around me quite so fast.
Free it, lord! they pleaded.
"Yeah," I said. "I got that part. I'm thinking."
But how could I free the cow serpent when she (I decided it was probably a "she") panicked at the sight of a blade? It was like she'd seen swords before and knew how dangerous they were.
"All right," I told the hippocampi. "I need all of you to push exactly the way I tell you."
First we started with the boat. It wasn't easy, but with the strength of three horsepower, we managed to shift the wreckage so it was no longer threatening to collapse on the baby cow serpent. Then I went to work on the net, untangling it section by section, getting lead weights and fishing hooks straightened out, yanking out knots around the cow serpent's hooves. It took forever—I mean, it was worse than the time I'd had to untangle all my video game con-troller wires. The whole time, I kept talking to the cow fish, telling her everything was okay while she mooed and moaned.
"It's okay, Bessie," I said. Don't ask me why I started calling her that. It just seemed like a good cow name. "Good cow. Nice cow."
Finally, the net came off and the cow serpent zipped through the water and did a happy somersault.
The hippocampi whinnied with joy. Thank you, lord!
"Moooo!" The cow serpent nuzzled me and gave me the big brown eyes.
"Yeah," I said. "That's okay. Nice cow. Well... stay out of trouble."
Which reminded me, I'd been underwater how long? An hour, at least. I had to get back to my cabin before Argus or the harpies discovered I was breaking curfew.
I shot to the surface and broke through. Immediately, Blackjack zoomed down and let me catch hold of his neck. He lifted me into the air and took me back toward the shore.
Success, boss?
"Yeah. We rescued a baby... something or other. Took forever. Almost got stampeded."
Good deeds are always dangerous, boss. You saved my sorry mane, didn't you?
I couldn't help thinking about my dream, with Annabeth crumpled and lifeless in Luke's arms. Here I was rescuing baby monsters, but I couldn't save my friend.
Drako woke up in the middle of the night when he felt two presences leave the cabin next door.
One of them was Percy's, and the second was someone unknown. It appeared to be a Pegasi, but it was different from the ones he had seen in the stable.
Soon they were gone, and Drako had no desire to pursue him. However, he could no longer sleep. He got up, careful not to wake Thalia, and left the cabin.
No one left the cabins at night, and Drako didn't know why. That's why he was so surprised when he noticed several presences inside the Dining Pavilion. Approaching this one, he saw Nico hiding behind a column.
It wasn't even dawn, nowhere near time for breakfast. What was he doing up there?
Drako was coming up the steps behind Nico. He didn't see him at all, since he was using stealth. He was behind a column, peeking around the corner, all his attention focused on the dining area. Drako didn't waste to much time to find what he was doing: he was spying on the Hunters.
There were voices—two girls talking at one of the dining tables.
It was difficult to see the girls in the dark of the night, but Drako knew their voices: Zoë and Bianca. It sounded like they were arguing.
"It cannot be cured," Zoe was saying. "Not quickly, at any rate."
"But how did it happen?" Bianca asked.
"A foolish prank," Zoë growled. "Those Stoll boys from the Hermes cabin. Centaur blood is like acid. Everyone knows that. They sprayed the inside of that Artemis Hunting Tour T-shirt with it."
"That's terrible!"
"She will live," Zoë said. "But she'll be bedridden for weeks with horrible hives. There is no way she can go. It's up to me… and thee."
"But the prophecy," Bianca said. "If Phoebe can't go, we only have five. We'll have to pick another."
"There is no time," Zoë said. "We must leave at first light. That's immediately. Besides, the prophecy said we would lose one."
"But that meant that someone would die!" Bianca said. "By a parent hand."
"Maybe Phoebe's parents help the brothers," Zoë said, though she didn't sound convinced.
"But—"
"Bianca, hear me." Zoe's voice was strained. "I… I can't explain, but I have a sense that we should not pick someone else. It would be too dangerous. They would meet an end worse than Phoebe's. I don't want Chiron choosing a camper as our fifth companion. And… I don't want to risk another Hunter."
Bianca was silent. "You should tell Thalia and Drako about the rest of your dream."
"No. It would not help."
"But if your suspicions are correct, about the General—"
"I have thy word no to talk about that," Zoë said. She sounded really anguished. "We will find out soon enough. Now come. Dawn is breaking."
Nico scooted out of their way, and Drako followed behind.
As the girls sprinted down the steps, Zoë almost ran into Drako. She froze, her eyes narrowing. Her hand crept toward her bow, but the Bianca said, "The lights of the Big House are on. Hurry!"
And Zoë followed her out of the pavilion.
Drako could tell what Nico was thinking. He took a deep breath and was about to run after his sister when Drako stopped using Stealth and said, "Stop."
He almost slipped on the icy steps as he spun around to find Drako. "Where did you come from?"
"I've been here the whole time; I just masked my presence."
"Wow. Cool."
"How did you know Zoë and your sister were here?"
He blushed. "I heard them walk by the Hermes cabin. I don't… I don't sleep too well at camp. So I heard footsteps, and them whispering. And so I kind of followed."
"And now you're thinking about following them on the quest," Drako guessed.
"How did you know that?"
"Because if it was my sister, I'd probably be thinking the same thing. But you can't."
He looked defiant. "Because I'm too young?"
"Because they won't let you. They'll catch you and send you back here. And… yeah, because you're too young. You remember the manticore? There will be lots more like that. More dangerous. Some of the heroes will die. You're… weak."
He shoulders sagged. He shifted from foot to foot. "Maybe you're right. But, but you're going."
"What do you mean?"
"You're going with them. Keep an eye on my sister! You have to. Please?"
"Nico—"
"Promise," he insisted.
"I'll do my best. I promise that."
"Get going, then!" he said. "Good luck!"
Drako smiled as he stroked Nico's head. They each left for their respective cabins.
Or so it seemed, since Drako went to Cabin Number 3.
"Percy, we have to talk."
.......................
Prophecies were sacred, and they had always been fulfilled. That's what Thalia had explained to Drako.
When Drako heard that Phoebe wouldn't be able to participate in the quest, he feared little Nico would participate in it. That's why he had convinced him to stay home.
However, he wasn't going to be as foolish as Zoë to leave a prophecy half-baked. That's why he warned Percy and told him to prepare to travel tomorrow.
Of course, Zoë wasn't going to accept this. That's why Percy was going to travel with his Pegasi from behind. That, along with Annabeth's cap that allowed him to become invisible, would help him join the group when it was too late to turn back.
The next morning, the group of five consisting of Thalia, Zoë, Bianca, Grover and Drako climbed into the white Camp Half-Blood van. Normally it's Argus who drives it, but this time it was Zoë who was in charge of the wheel.
Their first destination was Manhattan. Because of traffic, they didn't get there until mid-morning.
Drako looked at Zoë in surprise from time to time. The minimum age for driving in the United States is 16, but she didn't seem to be that age. In fact, by all appearances, Thalia was the oldest with Phoebe.
It was so weird...
Imagine the police stopping them. What were they gonna say? That they're immortal Hunters?
................
"Can you continue without me for a moment?" Drako asked.
Zoë stopped the caravan. "What do you mean?"
"I have something to do, I won't be long."
"We won't wait for you," Zoë said.
"I can reach you quickly, I have my own method of transport."
Zoë thought about it for a moment, then remembered that Drako's vehicle.
"It's OK. Don't take too long or you might lose track of us."
Drako stepped out of the van, and immediately a pair of dragon wings flew off his back.
This was something he had learned from his Art of Human Transformation, the ability to partially take on something of his dragon form.
"Wait, doesn't that mean the parts I partially transform should have the stats of my dragon shape?"
Yeah, but you're so dumb you didn't realize that until now.
"Fuck your head, shitty author. Why are you only realizing this now?"
Leave me alone, and continue to play the retard.
"Tch."
Drako flew to the top of a building that appeared to be quite famous. It was called the Chrysler Building or something.
There was Percy there with his Pegasi (called Blackjack). In front of him was Dionysus.
The situation was tense, and it looked like he was going to see some trouble.
"Going somewhere?" Dionysus asked.
He was leaning against the building with his feet levitating in the air, his leopard-skin warm-up suit and black hair whipping around in the wind.
"God alert!" Blackjack yelled. "It's the wine dude!"
Dionysus sighed in exasperation. "The next person, or horse, who calls me the 'wine dude' will end up in a bottle of Merlot!"
"Mr. D." Percy tried to keep his voice calm as the grape vines continued to wrap around his legs. "What do you want?"
"Oh, what do I want? You thought, perhaps, that the immortal, all-powerful director of camp would not notice you leaving without permission?"
"He has my permission," Drako intervened.
Both turned to look at him. Dionysus eyes narrowed dangerously. "Can you give him permission?"
"We need six people to do this quest, we need his help," Drako said.
"And why should I care? I don't care even if he dies right now in front of my eyes."
Percy balled his fists.
"Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to you?"
Purple flames flickered in his eyes. "You're a hero, boy. I need no other reason."
"I have to go on this quest! I've got to help my friends. That's something you wouldn't understand!"
"Um, boss," Blackjack said nervously. "Seeing as how we're wrapped in vines nine hundred feet in the air, you might want to talk nice."
The grape vines coiled tighter around Percy. Below them, the white van was getting farther and farther away. Soon it would be out of sight.
"Did I ever tell you about Ariadne?" Dionysus asked. "Beautiful young princess of Crete? She liked helping her friends, too. In fact, she helped a young hero named Theseus, also a son of Poseidon. She gave him a ball of magical yarn that let him find his way out of the Labyrinth. And do you know how Theseus rewarded her?"
Drako had heard that story, and knew that Theseus did something bad to the princess. But, he didn't remember very well about that.
"They got married," Percy said. "Happily ever after. The end."
No, that wasn't how Drako remembered the story.
Dionysus sneered. "Not quite. Theseus said he would marry her. He took her aboard his ship and sailed for Athens. Halfway back, on a little island called Naxos, he… What's the word mortals use today?... he dumped her. I found her there, you know. Alone. Heartbroken. Crying her eyes out. She had given up everything, left everything she knew behind, to help a dashing young hero who tossed her away like a broken sandal."
"That's wrong," Drako said. "But that was thousands of years ago. Why is that important now?"
Dionysus regarded him coldly. "I fell in love with Ariadne, boy. I healed her broken heart. And when she died, I made her my immortal wife on Olympus. She waits for me even now. I shall go back to her when I am done with this infernal century of punishment at your ridiculous camp."
Percy stared at him. "You're… you're married? But I thought you got in trouble for chasing a wood nymph—"
"My point is you heroes never change. You accuse us gods of being vain. You should look at yourselves. You take what you want, use whoever you have to, and then you betray everyone around you. So you'll excuse me if I have no love for heroes. They are selfish, ungrateful lot. Ask Ariadne. Or Medea. For that matter, ask Zoë Nightshade."
"What do you mean, ask Zoë?" Drako asked.
He waved his hand dismissively. "Go. Follow your silly friends."
Percy blinked in disbelief. "You're… you're letting me go? Just like that?"
"The prophecy says at least one of you will die. Perhaps I'll get lucky an Poseidon grows tired of you. But mark my words, Son of Poseidon, live or die, you will prove no better than the other heroes."
After taking another look at Drako, Dionysus snapped his fingers. His image folded up like a paper display. There was a pop and he was gone, leaving a faint scent of grapes that was quickly blown away by the wind.
"Come on, Blackjack," Percy said, trying to sound upbeat. "I'll buy you some donuts in New Jersey."
��Be careful," Drako said to Percy. "I'll going back to the van."
With that, Drako went down and summoned Golden Drive. Soon he was on par with the van, much to Zoë's dismay.
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