Over the course of the next few weeks, Luke and Percy kept busy. Luke scouted the decent sized island and had come to the conclusion that it was completely overrun by nature. Other than the Inn, it looked like nothing had been on the island before. Percy had worked on weeding the close land, making an area he could set up a small vegetable farm and to both of their surprise, there was ripe food ready days after he planted the seeds. The plants grew, and continued to grow when he harvested and took care of it. He also cleared the vines that were growing across the Inn. He wanted to keep the Grapevines as they were but Luke stated that they needed to repair the outside as well as inside of the building, so for now the vines were dancing along trees and waiting to reclaim their original home. (Percy thought that it was good luck to have them there, seeing as the Inn was built for Dionysus, and Grapevines were his symbol). While he worked on cultivating the land, Luke was set on repairing the building. His first mission was making the kitchen usable for them, and so far it had been his largest project and he's done decent work with it. Several trips to the mainland to gather supplies had it in decent shape. (Percy liked to pretend that they were gathering supplies legally, but they didn't exactly have money).
It was two weeks into their stay when four people washed ashore. "Luke!" Percy called to the blond when he noticed them. They had been on a lunch break, Percy was in charge of meals as normal for them, when he had spotted the four laying in the surf. They both jogged over to the strangers and Percy noticed the Kraken in the deep waters.
I have brought Master companions. They had been in a shipwreck off the coast. Master will tend to them. And it was gone. It was the first time the Kraken had come close to the island since bringing them there. The beast had otherwise stayed in it's protective circle, or followed them to and from the mainland when they went for supplies.
"What did it say?" Luke asked.
"They were shipwrecked." Percy answered, he moved to whom was clearly the youngest. A boy no older than eleven. "We should get them out of the water." Percy picked the boy up. One of the others, an african american, stirred. Dark brown eyes blinking up at Luke and Luke automatically backed up to give him space.
"Who…?" He was a muscular guy with short cut black hair and dark brown skin. His outfit consisted of soaked jeans, a soaked white tanktop and a battered black leather jacket. "Hades, what happened?" He asked himself, sitting up and holding onto his head. Percy and Luke shared a look before the blond moved back to his side.
"You alright?" Luke asked, grabbing his attention. The teen looked at him.
"My head's killing me." He answered.
"I'd expect that, after a shipwreck." Luke commented.
"Ship…" Brown eyes widened and he looked around. "Gods we have to warn them. Leo, Leo!" He shook the kid next to him and the latino shot up. Catching fire almost at once.
"Where's the fire?" He asked in a hurry then looked at himself. "Damnit I'm the fire!" Percy waved his hand and water rose from the ocean and doused the boy. He yelped in shock and stared at Percy with wide bright brown eyes. "Dude! You don't just drop water on someone!" His caramel skin was covered with a white T-shirt and black skinny jeans. His curly brown hair plastered to his face.
"I'm sorry, I don't usually meet Demigods that just burst into flames." Percy countered, there was a moments pause before they both laughed. "I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."
"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus." They shook hands, Percy shifting the boy in his arms. Leo looked at his older friend. "This is Charles Beckendorf, my brother. And the kid you're holding is Tyson, dono his parenting." He spotted Bianca and moved to her side, checking her over. "And this is Bianca di Angelo daughter of Hades… is this all of us?" He looked at the two. "Did nobody else… oh gods all those people." He frowned and looked over at the two strangers. "Where are we?" Leo asked.
"The Hydra… or what used to be it." Luke answered. "I'm Luke Castellan, son of Hermes."
"The Hydra? From the old Pirate legend?" Beckendorf asked
"Yep." Percy nodded.
"Shouldn't it be bustling with buildings?" Leo asked skeptically, Beckendorf got up and moved to Bianca's side, carefully picking her up.
"There's one building, we're working on fixing it up." Luke commented. "We can talk more while we're there."
After Bianca and Tyson were laid down the four boys gathered downstairs and Percy brought them out what he made for lunch. "So what happened?" Percy asked after they all got something to eat.
"We were on a quest, and found Tyson." Beckendorf answered. "We had to go to the sea of monsters… it was… a challenge. But on our way back we ran into a ship, a group of demigods were working towards bringing Kronos back."
"What?" Percy gasped, his eyes wide.
"Yeah, they shot our ship down when we didn't agree to joining them. There were mortals on our ship. I can't believe that we're the only ones that made it…" Leo let the thought drift.
"Let's be optimistic and think that they washed up on a different land mass." Percy offered, "this place is protected from mortals… and most monsters."
"Most?" Beckendorf questioned skeptically.
"Sea monsters are different from land monsters." Percy answered with a shrug.
"Right," he nodded a bit. "Now your story?" He pushed.
"Not much to tell, we left Camp halfblood and set out to sea." Luke said. "Found the island about two weeks ago and we've been restoring the inn ever since."
"You're from camp?" Leo asked. "I don't think I ever saw you there."
"Must've walked in different circles." Luke shrugged. "Percy didn't participate in camp activities, and I usually stayed behind with him. We did things in our own time and way, not a lot of people bothered us."
"Why did you leave?" Beckendorf asked.
"Didn't fit in." Percy shrugged. "Luke's gotten to the age where he can't stay at camp anymore, and if he's leaving then I'd rather not stick around. So we left."
"That's reasonable." Leo mused. "So now what? We can't leave until Bianca and Tyson get up, and I didn't see a ship to get off the island. So we're stuck here?"
"I can take you back if you'd like, after you're all rested and recovered from the accident." Percy shrugged. "Until then you could just hang around, maybe help us with repairs, you are children of Hephaestus after all."
"Sounds reasonable enough." Beckendorf nodded. "Just show us what you're working on."
Tyson (a boy with messy brown hair, light tan skin and hazel eyes) didn't wake up for another two days, and Bianca (an Italian girl with olive skin, curly black hair and onyx eyes) took another five. By that time a lot more work on the Inn had been done then what Luke and Percy could've managed on their own. They explored the island and found supplies to rebuild in the trees and they even found celestial bronze and imperial gold. With that Leo and Beckendorf rigged up a solar powered generator, and wired up the house to use electricity.
"According to the maps in the books," Percy said as he, Bianca and Leo wandered through the trees, trying to make out what had been where back in the day. Percy had one of the four legendary books in his hand with a map of the island open. They were trying to follow what had once been a road, but now was just an overgrowth of plant life. "The mansion of The Hunt would be…" He stopped and Leo paused as well. "Here." He pointed to a small overgrown trail, but it was clearly a trail. They looked at each other.
"Should we get Luke?" Bianca asked, glancing back the way they came from.
"Luke is helping Beckendorf with the final repairs." Leo responded. "Then we head to the mainland tomorrow and see about getting new furniture…" He didn't have to mention the lack of money they had. Maybe building their own would be safer. On silent agreement they followed the trail up to the ruins of a building. At one point in time it might have been a beautiful mansion, two or three stories tall. But the only sign that it had been multi-story was the destroyed staircase in what had once been an entry hall. Some of the walls were still partly standing, giving outlines of rooms but otherwise everything was destroyed. They walked around looking for anything remaining from the former owners before Leo found a trap door near the steps. "Guys," He called them over.
Percy helped him lift the heavy wood and they found a dark passage leading under the house. Percy drew his sword, lowering it to light up the steps in a faint bronze before they followed it down. "Holy Hephaestus." Leo whispered when they entered a large room. It was filled with treasure, golden coins, rubies, emeralds, crowns and weapons made of all sorts of metals. Rare jewels and things they couldn't even name. None of them could move out of shock.
"This is…" Bianca kept her voice a whisper, as if speaking would make everything vanish.
"I don't think we'll have money problems anymore." Percy said quietly. He was the first to step forwards, cautiously moving through all the treasure that's been untouched for centuries. Slowly they followed after.
After a few minutes of digging Bianca found something that was out of place. A brown, leather toolbelt, resting on a large metal dragon. Gasping she called Leo over to inspect it, the moment his hand pressed to the shoulder the dragon powered up. Glowing gold eyes opened and it stared at the tinker.
Anyone up for a drawing project? It'd be nice for a cover photo to the series.
And that concludes Chapter 2, slowly bringing in those key crew members. Hope you enjoyed it ~BA