The beachside was silent as a gravesite as Fern and I looked out timidly, staring at the rainbow mist thrown up by the waves as they crashed in the setting sun, putting a rather nice sparkle on the array of shells being dropped on the shore as if by Poseidon himself.

I paused, only momentarily, to inch a bit closer to Fern, squeezing her arm for attention before unsheathing my sword, just in case. "Can you see it out there?"

She nodded, eyes far away but still in attention, searching the sand. "Yes," she promised, her innocent curls bouncing as she nodded, "It's right about…" as a wave receded, it left behind a golden glitter that made Fern jump. "There!"

Looking around carefully to make sure no one else had seen, I began to jog forward, toward the beach, before halting beside the small golden ring.

"This may just be a scavenger hunt, but a damn—" I covered my mouth, "Oops, sorry—a darn important one to these other campers. I know that the prize is just some fancy-smithed armor and weapons, but to them it's like a matter of life or death."

Fern wasn't listening. In fact, when I turned to look to her, I found that she was staring quite intently at something behind me, little brown eyes wide with what I suppose could only be described as "Oh gods…"

Turning round to follow her gaze, I found a spear tip at my chest and a two-hundred pound beeyotch in control of it. Clarisse, with her plump hand outstretched to me, smiled a spiteful smile. "Fork it over, first years," she demanded. "You don't even need the prize, not like you can fight."

I narrowed my eyes at her and gave her a pout, but we all knew that she was right. I couldn't fight. I was just some skinny little helpless daughter of Apollo that's a long way of from ever getting anyone's respect. I wanted to take her down, I honestly did, but it would be next to impossible, maybe even suicide, to even try. "Alright, geez," I said, dropping the ring into her lanky palm. She quickly closed it away from any hope of ever seeing the sun again and smiled triumphantly. "Smart move, sewer rat. Now get out of my sight."

For a few moments after that, I didn't move. I just stood there, staring at the tip of her spear, imagining it plunging into my body and drawing my blood, sealing me away from the world of the living just like that golden ring I'd given her. It was a scary thought, but not the first, or last time it'd come round.

Then the tip moved in one quick motion, striking me cross the face and knocking me back, sending fern lurching forward to try to catch me (fat lot of good that did though, her being a 9-year-old girl every bit as weak, if not smaller, as me).

"Didn't you hear me?" demanded the chub-monster before me. "I believe I just told you to get that little follow dog of yours and get lost."

Standing up slowly and growing red in the face, I took Fern by the hand and we began to walk back towards the forest, trying to get a bit of peace. "To tell you the truth, I'm getting sick and tired of it," I said to her once we had put distance between Clarisse and ourselves. "Sometimes I think I'd be better off making it on my own out the real world."

Fern placed her head on my elbow and gave a little sigh through her nose, eyes faraway once more. I softened a bit and gave a small smile. "Never mind. Let's just try to make the most of what's left of the evening."

Still Fern offered no reply, just continued to stare into space, every now and then blinking or even giving a slight twitch, but nothing much. Something was bugging her.

"Hey…?" I asked, putting my arm round her and trying to follow her gaze. "Something wrong?"

She was timid in answering, but still looked up to meet my eyes. "No," she finally said. "Not wrong. Just different, like, unfamiliar."

I pause for a moment, only shortly not taking a breath of air before asking, "Is it dangerous, do you think?"

She shook her head slowly. "I don't know why, but it's just making me uneasy, like when Zeus shakes the sky just outside the camp borders. I know it's far away, but I can't help but know how close it really is." She bit her lip. "It's gone now, though."

I nodded, biting my bottom lip but now having no questions. Finding this, the little blond girl sighed and walked away from me, a considerable ways toward where the strawberry fields began, and I carefully followed after, passing through the anxious silence.

After a moment, though, I stopped and sat down on a tree stump, realizing just how exhausted my day had been. Camp is Hell, by all means; the way that you have to fight with 800 other kids for what you want, never any privacy, and, excuse me for not being appreciative, but those Veterans of that Titan War I've heard so much about have become freakin' nazis, feeling like they can tell us what to do all the time and not giving a shit—sorry—about us newbies to the camp.

From the corner of my eye, I look down and spot the fading scars on my wrists, thinking back to when those came to be. The pain had made me smile, like the way that laughing gas gets you to suddenly feel like there's nothing wrong in the world while, in reality, you're horrified by the fact that you're getting freakin' drugged.

I'm about to stand up and engage myself into Zeus knows what when a sudden shriek pierces the air. My first thought is, shit, a rapist attack for no reason whatsoever. My second is Fern!

I stride my way into the trees that she'd last wandered into, already concerned questions coming out like, "Fern! What's up? What happened?" but now, Zeus protect us all, she's off.

Off, I mean, like, off in her own world, seeing stuff that no one else can… Exercising that oh-so-wonderful gift of prophecy from good old dad.

She's sitting here by the monster track, and, when I say "monster" I do mean, like, monster. It's probably longer than I am tall, with claw marks pushing into the soft Earth. To a mortal, this would be heart stopping, but the other campers'd probably laugh at me if I acted all freaked out about some track.

There's a moment of silence before a turn to Fern and ask almost in a whisper, "Fern? What's wrong?"

Fern stared at it for a while, eyes wide and afraid as she finally says, "This is it. This is where it comes from, Hazel, that feeling. A terrible thing is coming—a danger, coming closer and closer." And then a gasp, "Look!" She turned to the seemingly endless strawberry fields behind us. "Hazel, the field! It's covered with blood!"

"What sorta movies you been watching, Fern?" I ask, trying weakly to lighten the mood, but when my words just fall flat, I take long steps over to her and take her hand. "Come on, now, stop this. You're scaring me."

Fern shook some more. Tears—ones that I had not noticed until now—were streaming down her face and her eyes remained far away, but as I began to move, she slowly shifted her gaze into my eyes. I grit my teeth in frustration each time she cried out, me wanting to just get away from this place and that weirdo track. "Come on, Fern, it's heat, that's what's getting to you. We'd better get back to the cabin."

"Back to the cabin!" she repeated, her voice now escalating. "It'll come there, too, don't think it won't. The field, Hazel! It's—it's full of it, the blood."

I gulped now, fear enclosing round my throat as I just took a tighter grasp of her hand and continued to pull her, weep as she might. Once I'd finally gotten her to the U-shaped formation of cabins and near the cabin, I had to push her past the glimmering golden door.

All that night, though, each time I'd shut my eyes, I felt chills going up my spine and I'd have to sit up and stare out the window in search of some insane monster that'll go around leaving more tracks. "She's wrong," I finally whispered to myself, shutting my eyes and lying back down.

Although that wasn't true; I knew it then and I know it to this day. Fern was right.

XX

Hey guys! I'm so excited-- new story. Yay! I was originally going to make this a crossover between Watership Down and Percy Jackson, but I realized that very few of the Percy fans out there are going to be WSD fans as well. So I decided this: take the Percy Jackson main ideas, and some charcters, while adding in a few of my own. Then take the entire PLOT of Watership Down, and translate it into half-blood terms. Other than it just being complete fun for me, I think that if my friends from the world of PJO actually read this they wouldn't be lost when I talk about WSD. So, here's hoping for the best, and I hope you guys liked it. Thanks for reading! (Actually, I'm scared to death that people from the WSD ff page will find this story and set out to lynch me. Ah, well.)