A/N: Thank you so much for the support, Ethempat! Its great to have another Fanfic author's point of view. The hard work put into this chapter is dedicated to all the reviewers! You guys are great! Please review! Disclaimer: Alright, let's get this over with. I. Don't. Own. Anything. Except. Maybe. My. OC. Thank you! Disclaimer: I don't own anything, see other disclaimers for more XD.
Apparently, when referring to the hippy store that had a Ding Dong launched from it, R.O.F.L doesn't stand for rolling on the floor laughing. It stands for Rainbow Organic Foods & Lifestyles. This is according to the sign outside their bright rainbow colored stain glass door.
The walk through the fields was treacherous, spent dripping in sweat, running for our lives from a trio of toxic fanged, fire spitting, over-sized, snakes. By the time we reached the porch, we lost all hope of the patiences involved in manners and barged into the odd store without knocking. It was a store after all.
From the outside, the place looked like the kinda cabin a fairytale sprite would own, and from inside, it looked like the kinda place you wouldn't find anything you wanted in, unless, of course, you wanted the following *cough cough*: strange authentic dreamcatchers, books with titles that didn't make sense, strange sounding herbs and teas, and OTHER stuff you'd find in an old lady's attic or cupboard, because they had plenty of that!
Wearing a bright colored tie dyed shirt with the store's name and logo on it, was a pixieish girl smiling at us. It didn't fit together, her white frizzy hair in a messy ponytail, pointed elf ears, and ghostly translucent skin.
I hadn't realized Percy was still leaning on me (not that I minded) until he tried to steady himself on his own weight. He ended up stumbling onto the small wooden stand to the side of us, which had a statue of a head on it, causing it to crash and break on the floor.
"Oh you poor thing, breaking your father's statue like that, let me help you, Mr. Jackson." the employee girl helped him up. Mr. Jackson... This sent a big thought of uh oh through me, Frank, and Percy. Now kids, when a stranger knows your last name normally you just think they're a stalker, and you shout for help, or at least start to back away slowly. But for all you fellow demigods out there, this sort of occurrence means you should find the nearest sharp thing in the vicinity and get to interrogation, because it cannot be good.
"I'm sorry, but who are you? How do you know Percy's name?" I said, with an intense knitted eyebrow action going on.
"It's alright Ginger, I'm not Medea, or," her giggle sounded like air brushing on a chime of bells. "Circe. I'm a friend. I'm Fleecy, the cloud nymph. My manager is Arcus, or as Mr. Jackson knows her, Iris."
There was a sudden urgency in Percy's figure, in his voice, "Iris, is she here?"
"Yes Percy, I'm here. I've been waiting to see if you would come," thats when Arcus, or Iris, came. She looked like Fleecy's aunt, with similarly white colored hair, cut in a short curly bob, wearing the same clothes, but with tan skin, rounder ears, and purple eyes instead of Fleecy's blue. She flashed me a cautious look that held some meaning.
"If your here, and you run this place... Who does Iris Messaging then?" Percy'd head tilted. Fleecy raised her hand.
"Iris Messaging?" Frank and I asked, harmoniously.
"A form of communication the Greeks use," Iris nodded.
Greeks. Grecian demigods. They were real. Just like Percy had showed us, just as Octavian had feared. Holding back a gap and gasp, I remember'd I had my own theories and suspicions too, I had evidence of them the whole time, just like I thought.
"How about you show Percy and Ginger how it works Fleecy, and give Percy something to drink while your at it. Don't mix up the healers and the changers this time, I don't think that man wanted grass growing from his feet," Iris said, Fleecy looked a little guilty when she nodded. "I would like to talk to you Frank, if you don't mind." And so Frank and Iris went off to her office. Fleecy waved us along to another door, before I went in, I stopped.
"You should go first, and try to contact," I reassured him by placing a hand on his back, he took a deep breath, and then went in with her.
I waited for maybe fifteen minutes, pacing back and forth, crossing my fingers. Then finally, he came out, I gave him a meaningful look, and he shook his head. It hadn't worked, needless to say.
"It's blocked. And the tea, it was terrible," he said, looking forlorn.
"I'm sorry. You do look less green though." I pointed out. It was true, he had a little more color.
"You should go in and I-M Reyna. And don't worry 'bout it," he laughed drily. "I always preferred coffee to get caffeine anyways." He didn't want to talk about it, obviously.
Hesitation in my step, I walked in for my turn. The room was fairly empty, a desk with stacks of paper, a full bookshelf, and a simple gleaming bronze fountain.
"All you gotta do it throw this in the water and say, 'Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me-' then say the name of whoever you wanna see," Fleecy passed me a big shining coin of gold, the size of a quarter, engraved was some Greek goddess on one side, and on the other was some sky scraper building.
I turned it around with my dirt crusted finger nails in my palm. I knew who I should contact, and who I wanted to contact. But from what I knew about this, and what'd happen to Percy, only one of these names would work anyways.
"Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Reyna Arellano." and I threw it in the sun-kissed water.
I caught her at a bad time.
Immediately I knew she must've been in the Roman bath because bubbles were popping in the background, and her hair was soaking wet.
"Ginger!" her expression looked beyond shocked and sheepish. The exact description of beyond shocked and sheepish actually.
"Sorry!" I looked down, my face burning with a furious blush even though I could only see her head and above.
I explained to her about the Greeks, and where I was, but she didn't seemed surprised at all. It had seemed more likely that there were Greek demigods then it hadn't so I could see why this wasn't a big deal, but what happened next... Well... It was not what I had been expecting.
"Thats not it though. We ended up here because we were chased by basilisk, from the scalp of a giant, a giant who is the commander of a army of monster that's Pluto bent on destroying New Rome and camp," I took a deep breath, waiting for whatever reaction I was gonna get. All I got was a sad sigh. "Reyna..?" I pressed on.
"Look Ginger, I already knew this, and there nothing more I can do," she said.
"Wait... What!? When? How?" This was news to me, it was probably news to everyone.
"Lupa, she kept me informed, they'll be here by the Feast of Fortuna," Reyna had never seemed so... Hopeless to me. She'd always been a solider; optimistic, strong, very aware but never ever hopeless.
"There wasn't anything you can do about it so you didn't want to freak them out, you didn't want them to panic even more," I realized, she nodded. Maybe now was the time to tell her something. Before it got to late to do it, since we'd both be dead. Nico always said the souls of Asphodel are meaningless when they whine cause they didn't use their voice. I needed to use mine for once. "Reyna... Look... There something I should tell you..." I didn't think about telling her my great secret, I hadn't even thought of the wordings I'd use, like I'd planned on doing when telling her, it just came out, which never happened to me. I only had a few more minutes. Could I do it in then?
"Ginger, if you can, wait. I don't want to do this now. I can tell that this is important, but I don't think I can take anything more on right now. I want you, to want to tell me." Reyna stopped me.
She was right. What was I thinking? I shouldn't tell her this now. It'd just distract her, I couldn't afford that. And I really didn't want to tell her. So I nodded, then wiped my hand through, that Fleecy had motion on the side for me to do, and it disappeared. I muttered something I'd wanted to say to her under my breath, then walked out towards Percy.
Maybe I'd regret not telling her, if I ended up dying. But I couldn't change that now, couldn't I?
