E Chapter Two: An Early Trip To Camp
M
M
A
Percy helped me up onto the Pegasus as I shuddered, my sobs dying down. He looked at me sadly, like something was troubling him. He hopped in front of me and the Pegasus took off. Every few minutes, Percy looked back at me to make sure I hadn't fallen off. I was wondering about why Percy was in such a rush.
"Why are we going to Camp?" I croaked, my voice barely working. "I thought the summer session didn't start for another three weeks." Percy tensed. He looked back at me and sighed.
"Chiron found something out…" Percy explained. "He wanted all the children of Poseidon at camp now. As soon as we all arrived, he'd tell us what's going on."
I looked at him, and just waited… As the Appalachian Mountains came into view, I just realized something.
"What about Kyle and Jason?" I asked Percy. Percy only chuckled.
"The summer session for them is the same as everyone else. But Chiron wanted us at Camp ASAP." I still wondered why, but we were close enough to camp that I figured I'd find out soon enough.
When Camp came into view, I shook myself out of a nap I wanted to take. The black Pegasus landed right in front of the Big House. Percy hopped off, and knocked on the door. A girl ran out, Percy's girlfriend, Annabeth Chase. They hugged and Annabeth looked up and said, "Percy. Is it… Is it true?" Percy nodded, and waved for me to walk in with them.
Inside, I saw Chiron sitting in his wheelchair, which was his cover-up whenever he went into the mortal world. When he saw us enter, he nodded, but he didn't smile as he usually did when he saw us.
"Good." He said, looking at us grimly. "We were just about to start our meeting. Come along." He rolled his wheelchair into the recreation room, which served as our conference room. In the conference room were all my siblings from cabin three; Deandra, Kevin, John, Logan, Christen, and Jeff. They all looked uneasy, and we sat down, fidgeting with anticipation.
"Thank you all for coming." Chiron said, after we all settled down. "I wish I could tell you good news, but I'm afraid that isn't the case." John scratched behind his ear and Christen stifled a yawn.
"What is it, Chiron?" Percy asked. Chiron shifted in his chair, uncomfortably. He cleared his throat.
"There is a problem with the Titans." He reported. "Well… one in particular. Oceanus." There was a sudden chill in the room as everyone tensed. Oceanus was the old Titan of the sea. If he was causing a problem, Poseidon was in trouble.
"What's wrong?" I asked, "What's Oceanus up to?"
"We have to help dad." Deandra decided. She got up to leave, but Chiron grabbed her arm, and pulled her back.
He moved her back to the table, "Deandra, you have not let me finish. Please sit down. I need to tell you something… something grave."
"What can be graver than this craziness?" Kevin said. Chiron looked at him, took a deep breath, and delivered a horrendous message to us all.
"Oceanus has aspirations to take out all of Poseidon's children." He said in an ominous tone. We all stared at him quizzically, not comprehending his words. Suddenly, something sunk in… Prometheus' warning from last summer.
"Has anyone gone missing?" I shouted, slamming my hands against the table. Everyone looked at me in surprise. I guess they didn't expect someone like me to have a huge outburst.
Chiron shifted uncomfortably, "No, none of the children at this Camp have gone missing. But there is something that a satyr detected right before the end of the summer session last year. It had to do with you, child. Sit." Chiron rolled his wheelchair over to the door, and called out, "Grover! Please come in."
In walked a satyr that looked about twenty years old, with extremely curly brown hair, with his horns sticking out in between the curls. He came in and sat next to Percy and Annabeth. Chiron cleared his throat.
"Grover, please tell Emma about what you found out." Chiron said. Grover cleared his throat, and stood up. He played with his leg fur as he spoke.
"Well," He said, "Last summer, I felt… I don't know, a tinge of power in the air around you, Emma." He nodded toward me. "I investigated further, and I figured out what it was; an empathy link." I blinked, uncomprehendingly.
"What's an empathy link?" I asked Grover. He looked at Percy.
"It's a link, obviously," Percy explained patiently, "It allows two people to share emotions. But, there's a trade off… If one of the two dies-."
"Let me guess." I interrupted, "The other does, too." Percy explained further.
"Not all the time. The other person could actually live for a long time…"
Deandra cut in, "But in a coma. And they'd both end up dead sooner rather than later." I felt like I was going to be sick. I sighed, and put my head in my hands.
"So," I mumbled, "Who do I share an empathy link with?" Grover looked down, embarrassed.
"That… I don't know." Grover said, "But what I do know is that Emma should be able to make contact with whoever she shares the link with, and that should tell us who the person is. Whoever this person is must not know about the connection either if they haven't made any attempt to communicate with her." He paused, thinking. "Emma, is there any possibility that someone made a link with you last summer?"
I thought about this for a while, going over everything that I did last summer, and I eventually shook my head. "I don't think so. Frankly, I don't even know how it's done." Percy and Grover sighed, obviously exasperated. I got up from the table.
"I need some air." I said, heading for the door. Chiron attempted to stop me, but to no avail. I ran to Cabin Number Three, Poseidon's cabin. I plopped down on a vacant bed, and attempted to fall asleep. When I succeeded, I was glad that no dreams entered my fevered brain. I appreciate a good night's sleep when it comes along.
The next morning, I woke up and found my other siblings mingling in the cabin. I looked out the window, and saw it was dark. It couldn't be later than four in the morning. But everyone looked wide-awake, and everyone was talking. I walked over to the crowd of my siblings.
"What's up you guys…?" I said sleepily. Everyone turned towards me with a weird look on his or her faces. Kevin stepped forward.
"We've… we've been discussing this empathy link of yours." He said. "We're thinking if someone you knew when you were a baby… maybe your parents and their parents knew how to make an empathy link, and they did. Maybe they thought you guys would be good friends, but that didn't happen."
I thought about this for a long time. It could've been a possible outcome, but a part of me thought that it was impossible. All of a sudden, Grover came busting in through the door. He looked pale, and he was carrying a coffee mug.
"I FIGURED SOMETHING OUT!" He cried, running up to me. "I narrowed down the link suspects. I've figured out a connection between you and who ever you have an empathy link with. You guys are siblings." I stood up.
"Are you positive?" I asked him. He nodded. I dropped to the floor, putting my head in my hands. My sibling? It was eerily like what Prometheus had predicted last year. I shivered, and crawled back into my bed. I ignored the whispers of comfort from my brothers and sisters, and tried to fall asleep. When I succeeded, I had a dream that if it hadn't happened, I never would've figured out my big problem.
In my dream, I was in an underwater palace; my dad's palace. I looked forward and saw my dad. He looked at me sadly, as if something depressing was troubling him. He nodded at me, and I walked toward him.
"Hello, Emma." He said, "How are you, my child?" I shifted from foot to foot. I never was completely comfortable talking with my dad, face to face.
"Not good…" I said kicking some shell around the ground. "But, umm, dad… quick question."
Poseidon moved around in his seat, as if he was trying to get comfortable. Eventually he stopped moving, and nodded. "What is your question?" I rubbed my shoulder nervously.
"Do you even know what's going on?" I asked, "With… Oceanus and all?" Poseidon actually paled with dismay. You'd think that an all-powerful lord of the seas would take this without showing any emotion, but you'd be sorely mistaken. Poseidon looked as if my question brought up a death he'd been trying to get over.
"Of course I know, child." Poseidon answered. "How are you taking the news, Emma?" I shuddered. How was I taking it? I thought incredulously.
"Horribly." I said, sitting down on the floor of the palace. "I just found out I have an empathy link… And I don't even know who I'm connected to!" Poseidon suddenly looked very alarmed. His mouth was moving, as if he was trying to tell me something, but his voice didn't carry through the dream. Then, I heard a horrible laugh. A cold, deep, menacing laugh that chilled me to the bone.
"Found you, half-blood." The voice said. And I woke with a start.