"Annabeth and Percy, you two are going to do this quest that I have just told you about. Leave in an hour, Argus will drive you into the city where you will get on a train and travel there. Grover will accompany you two." Chiron said. I felt like my whole time at this crazy camp was all about quests. I would get back from one quest and then—BAM! Another quest.
This time, me and Annabeth were supposed to go to some summer camp, (sadly, not Camp Half-blood,) and find this demigod and bring them to camp. I wasn't sure yet he/she was a boy or girl. "Um, Chiron, would you mind telling us what this person looks like?" I asked. "Yes, but, well, we never know what a demigod will look like until they get to camp." Chiron sighed. Annabeth rolled her eyes, probably thinking, Percy doesn't know anything, pfft, you don't know what a demigod looks like until they get to camp. I tried my best to glare at her. "Nevertheless, Mr. Jackson, she is a girl. Her name is Rosemary. She is your age, thirteen." Chiron said. "Come on, Seaweed Brain, let's get going." Annabeth turned around and jogged back to her cabin.
In my cabin I grabbed a few orange Camp Half-blood t-shirts and extra pairs of socks. I didn't know how long we were supposed to stay at this other summer camp before we found Rosemary. I hoped it wouldn't take that long. I ran out of my cabin and met Annabeth by the pine tree where the newly recovered Golden Fleece hung glittering in the branches. We trudged down to where Argus was waiting with the Camp van, and Grover waved from the passenger seat. I hopped into the back of the car. "Road trip!" Grover shouted. "Grover, we're just going to some camp to rescue some half-blood." I said. "Not just any camp. Camp Whispering Waters." Grover read off of some brochure. "Sounds creepy." I said. "Tell me about it." Grover agreed.
Annabeth slid into the seat next to me. "Camp Whispering Waters? That's a big camp. I wonder how they designed it? Do you think they have a dining pavilion like ours? Huh, I doubt it." She said, answering her own question. "Annabeth if you're gonna talk about stuff like this the whole trip, I'm walking." Grover complained from the front seat. Annabeth gave an exasperated sigh.
On the way to the camp, Grover decided we should play I Spy. Now, usually I would never play that. But, I was bored. So why not? "I spy with my little eye, something orange." Grover said. "Our shirts." I said, with my head against the glass of the window. "Very good!" Grover announced. "I'm bored. Are we almost there?" Annabeth asked. She was so quiet, I had momentarily forgotten that she was also ADHD. Momentarily. Usually, she was pretty crazy, too.
As If on cue, we passed by an old sign that read: WELCOME! CAMP WHISPERING WATERS. Only, some of the paint on the letters were peeling so the sign now read: ELCOM! CAM WHIPERIN ATERS. "Welcome." I said, with no emotion. Argus parked the car and we all got out and lugged our duffel bags to a line forming by a booth front of the sign. When we got up to the booth, a woman greeted us.
"Welcome, campers! My name is Heba!" Heba? What an interesting name. She was in her early twenties, with chocolate colored hair, and the weirdest gold eyes ever. She had big silver and purple earrings hanging from under her ponytail. "Uh… Heba… are you one of the counselors?" Annabeth asked, testing out Heba's name. "Yes! But only for you, Annabeth Chase, I can't be a counselor for the boys. Since the cabins are divided by genders, of course, so are the counselors." Heba said. How in the name of Zeus did Heba know Annabeth's name? "Ohhhhhkay…" Annabeth said, eyeing Heba suspiciously, but if the overly-perky woman noticed, she didn't let on.
"And, you, Percy Jackson, we've been waiting for you and Mr. Underwood. I will be Annabeth's counselor," she said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annabeth bury her face in her hands. "And this will be your counselor." She gestured to her side, where a guy materialized next to her. Literally. He wasn't there before. "This is Marc!" Heba announced. Marc waved. He had the same weird golden eyes as Heba. Heba handed us schedule sheets for the week, (Thank the gods camp only lasted a week!) and I looked at mine. Grover and I had the same schedule, since we were in the same cabin I guess, but Annabeth had a complete different schedule, which was going to be a problem, since all three of us were supposed to be looking for this Rosemary girl.
"I'll take care of it. Just wait till later on when the activities start." Annabeth said, and left, following Heba to her cabin. "Come on, guys, you are going to love camp!" Marc said. Since we were out of options, we followed him.
He led us to the saddest cabin ever. Especially compared to the ones at Camp Half-blood. It was old and gray with two windows in the whole cabin. And the windows had no glass, only screens, which were torn. Inside the cabin were four bunks, which meant eight guys, plus Marc. Marc introduced us. "Okay guys, set your stuff down and get ready cause it's time to go to your first activity, archery!" he exclaimed. Great. At our camp I'd done archery several times, and every single time I sucked.
We were walking up the hill to get to the archery range, when I heard a voice next to me. A girl's voice. "Percy!" I whirled around. So did Marc. "Is there a problem, Percy?" he asked, his strange eyes glinting in the sun. "N-no." I said. He turned around and kept walking. "Jeez. And I thought Heba was odd." The voice said again. I looked again, but no one was there. I couldn't see anything, but I knew who was talking. I grabbed a fist full of invisible fabric, where there should have been air, and yanked the material. When I looked in my hand I was holding a New York Yankees baseball cap.
"Annabeth!" I whispered. She scowled and grabbed the hat back, putting it back on her head and disappearing. "This was my solution." She said. "Pretty smart." Grover said. "Yeah well, Athena always has a—" she started t say, but I cut her off. "Yeah, yeah, we know." I waved my hand. Some random kid from our group came up to me. "Man, are you seriously talking to some imaginary friend named Annabell?" he said, gawking. Suddenly, he yelped and face-planted straight into the dirt. "Ouch! An imaginary friend that trips people!" he scrambled up and ran away. Marc looked us, but said nothing.
"Percy, Marc smells weird. He smells human, but kind of monster-ish." Grover whispered. "So did Heba." He added. I nodded. If I could see Annabeth, she'd probably be nodding too. "So, where are we going?" Annabeth asked. "Archery." I replied. "Awesome! I love archery!" she said, before realizing that she was invisible, and would attract attention if a bow was magically floating and shooting arrows. "So all I get to do is watch?" Annabeth sounded annoyed. "Yeah. Well it's not like we asked you to follow us and turn invisible." I said. I was about to bug Annabeth even more, but right then, and invisible foot kicked my shin really hard, and I stumbled.
"Geez, Annabeth. What's your deal?" I complained. "I didn't do anything." She replied. "Yeah, whatever. I just happened to trip for no reason." I said sarcastically and looked up. Marc was staring at me strange, with the tiniest of smiles on his face. I felt like I had stepped into an icy shower.
We reached the archery range. Me and Grover had to share, since we were the last ones, but I pretty much didn't even try. Grover was pretty good, and Annabeth was trying to make me attempt to shoot an arrow, but I just didn't feel like it. My mind kept wandering to Heba and Marc, and why they were so strange. And they both had those creepy gold eyes.
Night fell, and it was time for the opening campfire. Annabeth sat with us, telling us every single detail about the girls in her cabin. "Oh my gods! I almost forgot to tell you!" she exclaimed suddenly. "What?" Grover asked. "Rosemary is in my cabin." She said. "What does she look like?" I said. "Uh… Brown hair, tall, and… she's wearing a purple shirt right now." Annabeth said. "Um, Annabeth, where is she sitting right now?" Grover asked. "She's right next to Heba, in the first row." Sure enough, when I looked, there was a girl who was tall, even taller than Annabeth, sitting in the first row, next to creepy Heba. Rosemary wasn't talking to the other girls, she was sitting with her arms crossed, staring at the ground. "Now, all we have to do is get her to camp." Grover summed up.
Annabeth promised she would try to talk to Rosemary, and that the next day, she would follow us to our next activities. When we reached our cabin, I tried to fall asleep. But, naturally, I had nightmares. My dream started like this: I was standing in a forest, with thick trees surrounding me. Moonlight shifted through the tall pines. And most confusing of all, Rosemary, was leaning against a tree, her eyes wide with fear, and her Hello-kitty pajamas splattered with mud.
"Um, hello? Please, stop. I—I don't like this!" she said, her voice small. In the darkness, someone moved, cracking branches and twigs underfoot. Rosemary whimpered, and a pair of gold eyes glowed twenty feet away from her. "Leave me alone!" she said, her voice shaking. A second pair of golden eyes glowed. All of a sudden, a familiar face materialized next to Rosemary. This girl was wearing plaid pajama pants and an orange Camp Half-blood shirt. She held out a glowing Celestial bronze knife. "Rosemary, run!" Annabeth yelled.
I woke up and fell out of bed. I had to wake up Grover. Both Annabeth and Rosemary were in danger. I shook Grover. "Food…food!" he muttered. I pinched his arm. "Ow!" he yelped. He bolted upright. "What in the name of Zeus?" he rubbed his eyes. "Grover, get your shoes on." I said. As Grover pulled on his fake feet, I glanced over to where Marc was sleeping. Or should have been sleeping. He was nowhere in sight. Grover and I ran out the door and down the creaky steps. In between breaths, I told Grover about my nightmare. His eyes widened when I mentioned the gold eyes. "Marc and Heba." He murmured. "I know! We've got to help." I said. I reached into my pocket for Riptide and closed my fingers around the pen. We reached the forest.
I swatted away branches and bushes with my sword, tripping over tree roots and rocks. Finally, I got to the clearing where Rosemary and Annabeth were in the dream. Sure enough, there they were. Apparently, Rosemary hadn't taken Annabeth seriously and decided not to run for her life. They were huddled together, as the things with the glowing eyes continued to move slowly towards them. Annabeth spotted me from my hiding spot in the bushes. She nodded ever-so-slightly, and looked a bit relieved. But only a bit. Rosemary, on the other hand, didn't see me, and silent tears were sliding down her face. Annabeth was standing in front of her, but she had only a knife. No shield or anything.
Finally, the golden eyed things stepped out into the moonlight. They were obviously Marc and Heba. "We didn't want the new half-blood to get to your camp." Heba said, in a voice that definitely wasn't hers. I recognized the voice. I had heard it taunting me in my dreams, like knifes against a chalkboard. It was the voice of Kronos, the titan king. "Half-blood?" Rosemary asked. "You know, this one is powerful. Child of Hecate. She will help save your camp when the time comes, Annabeth." Heba continued, in that haunting voice. "We don't really want that." Marc said, in the same awful voice. He lunged toward Annabeth, but she was quick with her knife. She slashed at Marc, but he stepped back. Heba continued to circle around her and Rosemary. "Grover, you get Rosemary!" I whispered, then leapt out of my hiding spot and sprinted to Heba. "Kronos!" I shouted. Heba's eyes rolled back into her head, and she laughed. "The famous Perseus Jackson. Saved Zeus's lightning bolt last year. Saved your precious little camp this week." She/Kronos said. "Annabeth!" I yelled. "Don't kill Marc. Krnonos is just possessing them. They're just mortals. Just knock them out!" Annabeth made a strangled sound which could have been a yes or no. I hoped she was doing okay. I resisted the urge to look back. I stepped close to Heba, trying to get a good strike with my sword. She only laughed.
"You are good, son of the Sea God. But I am better." Heba whispered. She lunged at me and I rolled sideways. When I got up, I ran and hid in the shadows. "You can't hide." She said. When she was turned, I ran up behind her, and smacked her with the butt of my sword in the back of her head. She crumpled to the ground. I stood over her, watching the gold fade from her eyes, and turn to dark brown.
I turned to Annabeth. She had the same luck. Marc was passed out on the ground, at her feet. We congratulated each other, but were interrupted when we heard talking in the bushes. "Grover?" I asked. Grover poked his head out through the bushes. "Yep. Let's go. I'm creeped out right now."
We headed back to the camp and grabbed our stuff. Then we grabbed a flashlight from Annabeth's duffel bag and Iris-messaged Chiron at camp. "You found Rosemary?" asked the old centaur. Annabeth nodded. "Very well. I will send Argus to pick you four up right now." And the message ended. We sat in front of the faded sign, as me and Annabeth stood guard with our weapons, and Grover did his best to explain everything to Rosemary. "Wait. The goddess—Hecate, is my mom?" she asked, bewildered. "Yes, for the hundredth time." Grover sighed exasperatedly. Light started to break through the sky, and the sun started to rise, just as the camp van came driving down the dirt road.