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III

LIA

Lia was tired, uncomfortable and frankly, she felt really awkward. When her parents had announced they were going to fly over to New York to meet their old friends, then head over to Camp Half-Blood, she wasn't exactly thrilled, but rather than being thrilled at this very moment, she just felt really uncomfortable and she couldn't place why. It was probably due to the fact that she was in the same car as 'The Percy Jackson' as James would keep saying, Percy wasn't exactly what Lia was expecting, shirtless or not.

The Jackson's weren't exactly what she was expecting either. What was Lia expecting? Lia glanced to her right and saw Laura Jackson, she had dark brown hair down to her chest that smelled like sea salt, her eyes were a perfect mix between grey and green and she kept frowning, smiling, and looking like she was about to cry, as if going through all 5 stages of grief at once. Back at their apartment, Lia had examined her posture, which she held high, she was of average height but didn't look very strong and she gave off a 'chill' aura, except when she wasn't. Which was now. Lia was pretty sure she was hyperventilating.

To Lia's left was Jasper, he was staring out the window with his chin resting on his hand and his eyes which were of an intense grey color kept moving as they looked at the surroundings outside. His hair was blonde and curly and looked like a mop on his head, he wore thick black rimmed glasses which he kept fiddling with and frowning at. He reminded Lia of Andrew, a boy he had met in the 3rd grade who had been the nerd of the class.

She felt her palms go sweaty from the heat and the lack of space in the car, the van had 6 seats and his parents weren't in any and they were squished up in the middle of the car where people normally would step to get to the seats and despite being an adult, Percy Jackson didn't hold the title of 'World's Best Driver' like his bumper sticker would suggest. Every two minutes, there would be a reason to stop suddenly and it would send people lurching forward. Annabeth Jackson would tut every time or yell his name in distress.

Lia knew the ride from New York to Long Island South would take about 2 hours and 30 minutes and by checking her watch, she knew exactly two hours had passed without any trouble. But she could only cross her fingers and hope for the best, it wasn't exactly safe to have this many people with godly blood in their veins in one rugged van.

"What's camp like?" Jasper said, turning stiffly to face Lia with the backpack on his back. He could have taken it off but it seemed as if he didn't want to. Lia shrugged. She hadn't meant to be so bland or careless but it came off that way.

"I've been only once, when I was about 3, so there isn't much I can remember." Lia mumbled, crossing her legs on the seat. Jasper nodded.

"Where's it located?"

This boy really liked to ask questions, didn't he? Though Lia didn't quite blame him. Lia had assumed the Jackson's knew that they were of godly heritage, but apparently they didn't and Lia had been there when they'd found out, which wasn't pleasant. It felt like déjà vu when Tom and Lia themselves had found out. Except Tom gave a blackout while Lia did the same as Jasper did, question her parents sanity.

"It's on Long Island, up in Montauk. I think – "Lia stopped due to the fact that she was being choked by her own seat belt as the car paused again. Lia hoped Percy Jackson fought better than he drove, which was probably true.

"Hm." Jasper replied and went back to staring out the window at the trees that quickly passed by, it was quite early in the morning, 1:43 AM to be exact according to Lia's watch. Lia could spare a couple minutes to fall asleep, after all she was exhausted, and riding air currents wasn't an easy job. Lia felt her eyes flutter close like a butterfly and she was soon dozing off.

A voice interrupted her good sleep, it was hoarse, husky, and yet, somehow clear.

"Ah," the voice let out. "I have waited for this moment. To finally have enough power to speak, Lia Grace." It mumbled sleepily. Lia didn't like the sound of this voice. Not at all.

"I can sense your fear, Lia. But do not fear me – I can understand you. When the time comes, you will know what I speak of, you will make the right choice." The voice whispered, almost meekly. Lia didn't know what the voice meant but she couldn't think of anything.

"The mother may have been weakened but it is not over, the gods reign will fail and all will perish if nothing is to be done. She will return, as will-"

Lia swore she heard a snore.

"As will I, and I have chosen you. My child, as you are much more powerful than you believe and that others believe. I can see how strong you really are. When the keys go missing, you will find them, but follow my orders and live, don't and cease to exist. You are one of the firsts. Lia Grace."

Lia had no idea what this man, as she could only assume, was talking about, he was speaking some mumbo jumbo that made no sense. All scattered and mystic words that went together but didn't feel anything but cryptic. God, Lia hated cryptic people. She found her voice in her mind.

"Who are you? What do you want? What are you talking about?" Lia's voice rang in her own mind, the dream was blank and dark. There was a laugh, a loud, echoing, and empty laugh. Lia could almost imagine the smile on this person's face at the questions.

"You have great bravery to ask a sleepy deity those questions." The voice mumbled. Lia heard his subconscious snorting at the name. Sleep deity. "But those answers don't come easy, or else all would go well for your soon to be enemies."

"What do you mean I'm one of the firsts?" Her voice squeaked at the end, as if to emphasize that she was frightened.

"You, Lia Grace, will be one of the first to rise to my side. One of the first to become part of the new world, while the others become part of the old and the under."

There was a loud, but weak cackle and the sound of lightning and thunder clashed.

"I don't know who you are, how am I supposed to be part of your side?"

"You will find out soon enough. Time will come." The voice laughed again as if he had said something clever. "Until much later, Lia Grace. Oh, and do watch out of the herd of flesh-eating horses that come your way. This is just to test if I have chosen you correctly."

Another imaginary smile.

"Oh, of course, and to kill the others, well, most of them. There are few that we need, but that'll come later."

Lia awoke with a start and screamed "Flesh-eating horses!" she was blinded for two seconds and then her vision began to clear up and she saw the dark, silently awkward car, nothing but the sound of humming from the car was present. Lia felt his face go red. Jasper snorted.

"What?"

"N-nothing." Lia sighed and ran her hands through her hair, she felt her body pulsing with heat, it was like her body was becoming a heat beacon. Hot-cold, hot-cold. When she looked to the back, she saw his family looking at him with questionable looks. Tom looked amused, while her father looked confused and her mother looked concerned.

Whatever just happened, well, Lia could say had never happened before. Not once in her life, at least, not that she could remember. She was sure it was just a dream, but the voice was still alive in her head, as if it was little and floating around in his ear and playing trampoline on his brain.

When Lia looked out the window, she could see it was still dark outside, trees passed by and she could see part of the sea through the trees. The car lurched and at the same time, a bolt of lightning flashed and the sound nearly killed Lia's eardrums, it flashed so close to the car, it gave her anxiety. Lightning didn't flash this close unless it needed to.

Lia cursed his grandfather under his breath. He was always getting angry, either that or it was her dad or Tom, but the likelihood of that happening right now was low.

"Percy –"

"We're almost there." He mumbled, grabbing onto the steering wheel and then, he stepped on it and the car began rushing forwards and zoomed quickly past the empty highway. The time surprised Lia, it was 2:05. Her sleep had been much longer than it had felt. It gave her shivers to think about the voice again.

Herd of flesh-eating horses.

Lia had never heard of flesh-eating horses, but they didn't sound so friendly. As the name implied, they probably ate flesh. Mortal flesh. Or, demigod flesh? Legacy flesh. Any flesh. Lia didn't like the sound of that. She flipped her hand to her right side to check if her belt was there and if her knife set was there as well. Sure enough it was. Lia yawned and shook off the terrible feeling she had, when she closed her tired eyes again, the car lurched again.

Lia was getting tired of Percy Jackson's horrible driving.

"For god's sakes, Percy – " Lia heard Annabeth. She could hear the frustration radiating from her voice.

"It wasn't me." He said.

"What do you mean it wasn't you?"

There was a sudden loud bumping noise and the car lurched forward again. Lia's stomach was sinking, but she kept his eyes closed. Maybe it was another dream.

"What was that?" Laura asked, loudly.

Suddenly Lia felt her body being disoriented and her head hurt for the shortest moment and then loud shattering noises as well as scraping ones all over. It wouldn't stop. Lia was now afraid to open her eyes. When she did she saw disaster. The car was flipped upside down, the top of it was squished so it was pointing up like a damn mountain and two doors were open. There was a smoking smell and everyone was either flipped upside down and in their seats or on the ground, avoiding shattered glass.

Lia's stomach was 500 feet beneath the ground. She was pretty sure it wasn't even with her anymore. She felt sick. Her head hurt and she was upside down.

There was a sudden bump and the car flipped again, Lia watched her vision flip around as did the car, she felt herself falling out of her seat and her hands landed flat into a bunch of broken glass.

It was silent for a moment when the car was upright.

"Is everyone alright?" Lia heard her mother speak. Small mumbles fluttered across the car.

"We need to get out of here. Right now." Annabeth spoke, her voice was stern this time. Not distressed, her face looked dark, or maybe it was the moonlight streaking across her face. She scowled. Lia turned to her right to see Laura looking shaken up and slowly standing up.

Lia turned to her left side just to make sure and was left to see it was empty. She could feel her face turning white, she had bad feelings and bad ones only.

"Uh oh." Percy Jackson said. "I can hear-"

Several loud whinnies and neighs were heard and Lia froze. There were horses, and Lia didn't need Percy Jackson to hear them, because it was loud and clear what the whinnies meant. It meant dinner time.

A/N: I really enjoyed writing this chapter, especially the dream, despite being cryptically obvious. As always, thanks for reading ≧◡≦ and keep an eye out for the next chapter.