Percy folded his hands behind his head as he laid on the cot. The ocean smell didn't seem welcoming; instead it seemed vile and dangerous. The various candles scattered around the room barely ever stayed lit, and when they did, it did nothing for the smell.
Suddenly he shot up as if possessed, then threw up over the side of the cot. He wiped his mouth and groaned. "Dang it." He took the medicine Annabeth had been working on, poured it in to the medicine cup, and drank it whole without a thought. Annabeth had asked the Hecate kids to make it taste good, which drained most of the Hecate kids for a couple hours. Medicine was simply not made to taste good.
The Sickness, as it was commonly referred to among demigods, had also affected Frank and Piper. The trio had been assigned to Poseidon's cabin, as the Sickness couldn't spread there. Percy had been affected for three weeks, Frank for two, and Piper for four days, yet Piper's was the worse. While Piper couldn't lift herself off of a cot, Percy could walk around and Frank could shift into small mammals. Today his choice of animal was a monkey.
Frank swung over to Percy and drank bottled nectar, then chewed some ambrosia squares. He offered one to Percy, who politely declined.
"Suit yourself." Frank swung back over to his cot. "Piper's asleep. Try not to throw any pans around or anything."
"I didn't do that when she had it!" Percy complained, which got a laugh out of Frank.
"Fine! Want to read a book?"
"FRANK!" Percy couldn't stop himself from giggling.
"Okay, sorry. But seriously, we should be quiet." Percy nodded when Frank said this, taking a sip of water.
"Okay, Frank. Since you can read-which you just pointed out to me-write some of the log about the Sickness." Frank groaned softly, and Percy went back to sleep.
Nico sat down at the Hades chair for the Camp Half-Blood council. He looked as despondent and brooding as usual, but something seemed off.
"I think we can all agree what the first topic is." Annabeth started. She exhaled. "Nico, did you come back with any new discoveries?"
"Yes, actually." Nico stood up, and the campers seemed to visibly shrink. "After my quest with Will and Hazel, I picked up sufficient results on the long-lasting effects." Nico frowned. "However, Will was brutally attacked halfway through, and we-we had to leave him behind." Nico wiped his eyes. "Also, Hazel picked up the Sickness. Luckily, she's only had mild effects. She's in the Hades cabin." He sat down, his eyes watery. He passed a rolled up piece of parchment to Chiron, who read it.
"This is troublesome," Chiron sighed. "Rachel, have you got anything?"
"I got a glimpse," Rachel said. "Ella reminded me what I had said, so I was able to write it down. Here goes:
The monster's curse
The hidden verse
The golden field
The dragon's shield
The tunneled path;" Rachel paused. "Here Ella said it started to flicker on and off."
"Flickery," Ella muttered. "Hickory dickory dock."
"Yes, flicker. Here are some phrases:
The golden arrow
The hidden swamp
The snake's chomp
The ruby lie." Rachel looked around. "Any idea what any of those mean?"
"The giant's curse is probably the Sickness." Annabeth said. "The golden field could be a field of wheat, and the tunneled path could be the Labyrinth." She shuddered.
"How can a lie be ruby?" Connor Stoll asked. "If it meant a lie pertaining to a ruby, couldn't the quest-goers just be like, 'He said stuff about a ruby! That's a lie!'?"
"They'd have to be on guard. Not every single sentence about rubies is necessarily a lie; it just said lie, not lies." Travis answered.
The talk about the prophecy continued on, and they were trying to decide who would go when Chiron looked at his watch and said, "This should've ended nineteen minutes ago." The councilors rushed to their cabins as the half-moon rose.
Percy couldn't always sleep, but when he did, he dreamed. Percy didn't always dream, but when he did, his dreams were terrifying.
After the fifth time he woke up out of terror, he got up. This would be no use. He looked around the cabin: Hazel had moved in after Nico's quest had ended. Piper's bed was floating in vomit, and Frank wasn't in his bed. Wait, what?
Percy looked around some more. Frank was lying on the floor, shivering. His feet were paws, his legs had fur. He changed, morphed from the waist up. Frank was a hellhound.
Frank/Hellhound suddenly woke up and rushed at Percy. Percy had Riptide out in a flash, but he couldn't bring himself to kill Frank/Hellhound. He grabbed the shield Tyson had made for him and, with huge hesitation, slammed it into Frank/Hellhound's head. Frank/Hellhound was knocked out, but only temporarily. Percy rushed to the Hades cabin. Nico would know what to do in a situation like this, wouldn't he?
He knocked on the door, and Nico opened it. "What?"
"It's Frank!" Percy yelped, realizing this was the first time he was seeing Nico without his stomach jumping. "Frank, hellhound, absolutely terrified!"
Nico looked confused, but he followed Percy. Percy opened the Poseidon cabin to show a knocked out hellhound. "That used to be Frank," Percy breathed.