Chapter Two

I landed with a thud onto metal deck of the warship. It was massive and majestic, but what really caught my attention was the twenty or so armed demigods that were gathered on the deck, peering down at me. I sighed, but I supposed Lord Apollo was a bit distracted when he had sent me, and probably hadn't considered that I might land rather awkwardly. I stood up and looked at the faces around me.

There was a blonde girl with grey eyes, a short hyper looking guy, a beautiful girl with short, jaggedly cut brown hair, and a blonde kid with blue eyes. I also saw a centaur, presumably Chiron, a nervous looking satyr and about fifteen other demigods behind them. I sighed and started to address my audience.

" I'm assuming this is the Argo II, is it not?" I said, watching the wary faced Greeks. The centaur stepped forward.

" Yes, it is. May I ask who you might be?" Chiron asked, still a little unsettled by my sudden appearance. To tell the truth, I was a bit unsettled by my appearance as well.

" I am Aurora Borealis Malpense, daughter of Poseidon, champion of Jupiter, and an emissary from Mount Olympus. I will be joining you all on your voyage, that is if you don't mind? Oh, and I guess you can call me Aura I suppose." I said calmly. Chiron let out what I think was a gasp and the blonde girl's eyes narrowed in thought.

" Oh, Of course we don't mind you joining us. May I ask though, how did you, err, pop up to be here with us exactly?" He asked, apparently fully recovered over the reason for his gasp.

" Actually, would you mind if we continued this discussion in private? It's rather important." I asked. It wouldn't hurt for a little privacy now and then while discussing official matters. I thought to myself. Or maybe you just like being dramatic and building suspense, I thought on the other hand. The other demigod faces ranged from anger, to curiosity, to plain confusion as Chiron nodded and led the way towards the bridge of the ship. The other five followed, obliviously important for some reason on this ship. I followed Chiron down a metal walkway, idly wondering how Apollo's little skirmish was going. For once, I was glad I wasn't out there fighting the battle. Then I thought of what Jupiter wanted me to do. It seemed like I would also be fighting a battle here, but one much harder than Apollo's. Gaining these peoples trust was going to be the toughest battle I've ever fought. So far.
*. *. *.

The bridge was sort of the control room on the ship, and it was filled with brasserie, bronze, and steel levers galore. I guiltily pushed away an urge to press all of the buttons at once to see what would happen. That's ADHD for you I guess. The blonde boy kept looking at me strangely, as if I reminded him of someone. I returned his questioning stare with one of my own and he looked away and cleared his throat. The blonde girl, however, was openly staring at me in amazement, which I am totally not used to. This was why I kept myself away from other demigods. They always looked at me like I was some abomination of nature, a freak that shouldn't be befriended. I cleared my throat to ask a question

" So, are you curious as to how I got here?"

" A little." the blonde girl said.

" By the way my names Annabeth, this other girl is Piper and she is a daughter of Aphrodite, Jason here is the son of Jupiter, and Leo is the son of Hephaestus.". The boy with the blonde hair- Jason- was shaking his head smiling.

" ' A little'! Annabeth here is dying to know all about you, and she's the daughter of Athena if it wasn't obvious." I laughed, Jason had a sense of leadership that made an almost insult seem like a harmless joke. I looked at the group of them. They all were friends, that much was obvious, and they were also all battle hardened. I smiled, knowing that even if I wasn't already ordered to, I would enjoy getting to know them. They weren't that much different from me.

" Well, first off, you can call me Aura and secondly, Lord Apollo was kind enough to give me a lift," I paused" And a nice drop. " The kid named Leo laughed and the others chuckled. Chiron however, was staring at me in admiration.

" So you're the infamous Northern, are you?" the others looked puzzled, but I understood what he meant, and glowed at the praise. Annabeth's eyes grew wide as she connected the dots.

" You.. You're the ... Wow. You're an amazing hunter Northern. It's an honor to meet you, you've been a big help. " the satyr, I think Grover was his name, nodded, wide eyed.
I scowled at all the attention, it seemed a bit much. All I did was help Artemis and Apollo (when he got around to it) hunt the most extreme of the monsters Gaea had raised. And maybe a few giants as well. Speaking of Apollo...

" Do you guys have a Iris message fountain? I should check in with Lord Apollo. Last I saw him he was playing with a pack of Manticores."
Annabeth nodded and pointed towards the little water fountain in the corner. I tossed in a drachma, and asked for Apollo, and it showed him in a room with Chiron in it. Puzzled, I turned around and saw him standing right behind me, trying hard not to laugh. He didn't succeed. I whirled on him and scowled, then raised my eyebrows at the gash on his arm, which was dripping his golden ichor blood. As I watched, the wound healed itself and looked as if it had never been there.

" And you said you didn't need my help. " I scoffed. But Apollo was frowning at me. " You look really pale Aura. I mean more than usual. Aura, did it hit you at all?" He said in a low calm voice.

" Because the spike that grazed me had already projected some of its poison." My cheeks went pale as I remembered the scratch on my back. Now that I was paying it attention, it felt like acid in my veins was burning me up. I nodded weakly then started to fall as the poison reached my spinal cord with my nerves on it. Chiron and Apollo caught me as I fell, but not before my head hit a heavy steel panel.

They both maneuvered my small limp body towards the meeting table. I heard loud voices, but they seemed like they were far away and yelling through water. I briefly opened my eyes and saw Apollo and Chiron hovering over me. Apollo looked like he was going to heal me himself, but Chiron was warning against it. Apollo was going to anyway. They rolled me over onto my stomach to get to the gash on my lower back. I felt a very concentrated heat on the wound , and it felt like it was burning. My breath started coming in shallow gasps and Apollo looked worried, almost uncertain as to whether or not his efforts had worked. Then a cool soothing tendril of ice went into my wound and got rid of the acidic poison and it's damage. I could feel my legs again and a loud pounding filled my head as I sank into a deep sleep.

*. *. *.

My eyelids felt really heavy and they were cemented closed with fatigue. I wondered if it was even worth the effort it would take to open them. I listened hard, and I could hear the beeping of a heart rate monitor and the low even breathing of someone else. I was in an infirmary. I was rather curious to see who else would be stupid enough to get hurt on the ship and get stuck in here, so I cracked my eyes open a few millimeters and squinted in the harsh white lighting. Apollo was sitting on a chair by the doorway, wearing headphones for an iPod and he must have forgotten to turn it off. A rather genius idea popped into my head but just then, Chiron came in with a child who must be a good healer. He was probably my height with light brown hair and brown eyes and they were talking about me.

" I think Northern-err- Miss Aura will recover and be awake before the end of the day. Lord Apollo did a great job as usual. He had been asking how Miss Aura was last night" the camper said.

" Yes, but in the process he tired himself out, and adding on his own wound, he won't be back to peak power for an hour or so rest ." Chiron said calmly.

Hmm, it seemed that once again Apollo had helped save my life. Well, a thank you would be in order. I felt the electrical currents around me and latched onto the iPod's power. I drained the heart monitor battery and fed the power into the headphones. I then let the volume burst out extremely loud, and Apollo burst awake to the sounds of whatever's he had been listening to, just fifty times louder. I held back a laugh as he jumped out of bed with a look of murder on his face. He glance towards me saw that I was "sleeping" and held back his obscenities. Chiron and the camper were totally shocked by the angry and abrupt rise of the upset Olympian. Apollo glared at the iPod as if it were the devices fault. He glanced towards me again and raised his eyebrows at Chiron, wanting an update.

" She should wake up this afternoon. " He answered the unspoken question softly. I couldn't hold in my laughter any longer. A small giggle escaped from my mouth.
In an instant Apollo was hovering over me, radiating angry heat, and glowered at my amused face.

" What in Olympus was that for?" he shouted, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Chiron trying to hold back a laugh. Trying to hold back what seemed like a landslide of laughter I spoke, my voice hoarse.

" I was just letting you all know that I was all better, but my voice was too sore to speak. " It was a poor excuse and I knew it. Apollo was still glowering at me, so I added.

" Oh, and thanks for saving my life. Again. I guess I owe you one. " Apollo rolled his glowing eyes and gave me a look that let me know that he would hold me to that offer. He turned towards Chiron and shot me an evil smile. Then he said

" Give her sleeping medication, that way we can know when she wakes up next time. " I let out an indignant gasp but the medicine was pulling me back under.

*. *. *.

When I woke up again, I was out of the infirmary and in a small cabin on the ship. I was on the bottom bunk and Annabeth was sitting on the bottom bunk next to mine and was watching me. When she saw my eyes open, she smiled and put down a book that I think was about architecture.

" He isn't saying anything, but Lord Apollo is really ticked off about something. He has a much larger vocabulary than I thought and he has some real winners to describe what happened. What did you do? Lady Artemis said the last time he was this irritated was when Michael Jackson died."

Annabeth said, her tone amused. I couldn't wait for her to say what else I had missed , and realized that my eyes and ears hadn't been very open.

Just then, the ship's captain, aka Leo opened the door and his eyes widened when he saw me. I mean rude much! I tried to think about it from an outsiders perspective. My pale skin, dark brown / black hair and sea green eyes certainly weren't normal. And I am extremely skinny.

Killing monsters for a living kept me fit. Then I noticed that my shirt had been rolled up to my midriff to reveal the jagged white scar tissues on my back. Looking at it reminded me of scar that was nearly identical on my thigh. Both scars had been caused by manticore spikes.
" How upset is he? I mean all I did was short circuit his iPod a little. " I kind of felt bad, but I know that I didn't totally ruin it. Annabeth laughed and said
" Well, I don't think he's going to be talking to you anytime soon. How are you feeling? Can you get out of bed, because Jason wanted to talk to you about your dad. "

I sighed, knowing that it would have to come up sooner or later. I rolled onto my side and froze.

" What did you say about Lady Artemis? Is she here?" If Artemis was here, then Apollo must have been really angry, or really worried about something. Annabeth nodded her answer, and I sprang out of bed. It had been two years since I had last seen her in person and I wanted to know if she had any news from Olympus, especially from my dad's.

I got to my feet and saw a pile of clothes on the foot of my bed. I grabbed them and turned towards the bathroom door. A wave of nausea rolled over me, and I grabbed the doorframe to stay upright. Before Annabeth could say anything, I gritted my teeth and staggered into the bathroom. I slammed the door and looked at the clothes someone had gotten for me to wear.

There was a pair of black skinny jeans, a deep blue V-neck T-shirt, a black hoodie, and lightweight running shoes. My dagger was there as well, and my ring that either turned into an Imperial gold sword, or into a Imperial gold spear.

I slipped into the clothes and strapped my dagger to my waist. I slipped the ring on and twisted my silver bangle onto my wrist. The bangle was thin and delicate with a sphere of compressed air and water that resembled a crashing wave. It had been a gift from my mom... I pushed that thought aside and stepped out onto the deck to meet my sort of half brother.