Chapter 7

John Gets a Yacht

"Great," said Mary, "Now what?" I wanted to punch her until she was numb. All she did this entire time was complain. I wished that instead of Laelaps, she would go chase the Teumessian Fox.

"We can't swim all the way there with all this stuff," exclaimed John. Apparently, he was sick of her too.

"Lets walk along the shore," I said," There's bound to be a shop of boats around here somewhere."

We walked for what seemed like forever. If I knew traveling would take this long, I would have just taken the plane. Violet walked over next to me.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Much better," she nodded, "I'm glad we finally got rid of that dog."

"I've been wanting to ask you something," I said, waiting for her approval. She looked at me waiting so I continued, "How did you escape the hellhounds?"

"Well…" I waited, but it seemed like something she was thinking it over, "I… I didn't. I was saved by a few of these kids who had been around the area. I remember them all wearing purple t-shirts. It's weird. I can remember it all so perfectly. After they saved me, they gave me some food and comforted me. They explained to me about demigods. I remember this one boy was really cute. He had black hair and bright sea green eyes. He had a sword and was the one out of two leaders in the group. He…"

"I get it. Can you continue the story?" I said a little frustrated.

"Sorry," she blushed, "Anyway, they said something about the gods and I accidentally said something in ancient Greek. They were shocked and left. Just like that. They spoke another language too but I couldn't tell what it was. Whoever they were they weren't from Camp Half-Blood."

She suddenly became quiet. I knew who those kids were from though. I remember Chiron saying something about another camp for Roman demigods. I know that the Roman gods and Greek gods are the same except that the Roman gods are more warlike. I didn't get the name of the camp though, or where it was. Without realizing it, we were holding hands.,

"I knew it!" said Christian excitedly running right between us.

"Knew what?" I asked.

"You two really like each other. I mean, like like each other."

"Ew! No! We're just friends," I said, hoping that I wasn't blushing.

"Yea," said Violet, her face got a little red.

"Believe me," said Christian, "My dad is the god of love. I know when people like each other."

"Shut up," said Violet.

"I'm just saying," he said holding his hands up in surrender.

Eli and John came over and joined us, Mary kept walking behind.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Eli.

"Nothing," said Christian.

"Hey," shouted John, pointing ahead, "Finally! A bunch of boats."

We all looked ahead and sure enough there they were. A dock filled with row boats, yachts, and speed boats. We ran onto the dock and stared at all of them.

"Let's get a yacht," said Eli.

"We don't have enough money." I said, looking back at the small log cabin at the start of the dock. Inside the window I saw a plump, hairy, little man. He had a grim face and was glaring at us. He started walking out the door and toward us.

"Get in!" said John. Everyone jumped in except me and John who started untying the rope that connected the boat to the dock.

"We can't just steal a yacht!" I shouted. The guy started running slowly, as he cursed about stupid kids.

"Yes we can," said John.

"We don't even have a key!" I shouted again. He stared at me for a moment, finished untying the rope and pushed me into the boat.

Except I missed the boat. By the time he pushed me, the boat had moved. I fell with a large splash and Violet and Eli started trying to help me onto the boat while I heard a few grunts on the deck. I didn't bother to look because I couldn't get in the boat. Once they got a hold of me, they accidentally dropped me. John jumped on holding a pair of keys in his hand. I glanced back and saw the grim little man lying in pain on the floor.

"Come on," I shouted, "Help me on!"

"We're trying!" shouted Eli.

The boat started and John leaned over, grabbed my hands, and pulled me up. We started moving out into the Mississippi River. I stood up, dripping wet from head to toe. I looked behind us and I saw the man as he stood up and started yelling a bunch of swears.

"How'd you get me up so quickly?" I asked.

"No man left behind. Some of the Ares kids have an ability to make sure of that, unless they can't help him or her." said John.

"Thanks," I murmured.

"No problem," He replied.

I looked on the second floor of the yacht and saw John take the wheel from Christian. I dried off a bit and sat on the inside part of the boat. Violet and Eli came in a sat next to me. I was right in the middle.

"I can't believe we stole a yacht." said Eli, putting his hands behind his head in a proud manner. He turned and looked at us with a smile from ear to ear.

"I wouldn't be so proud." said Violet.

"Come on," he said almost laughing.

"I have to agree with Violet on this one," I said.

"You guys are no fun," he said laughing, putting his hands back down.

Christian came down and we all hung out together. After about two minutes the boat stopped and John came down.

"What happened? Are we there already?" asked Christian

"A fog is rolling in," he replied, sitting down by us. We were starting to run out spots to sit.

"Soon we'll barley see a thing, so I turned the boat off and we're going to stop until it goes away. We're really close but I don't want to crash into a dock or something," said John.

"Where's Mary?" asked Eli.

"She staying up there," John said, shrugging his shoulders.

We talked and joked around for a while. It was fun being able to just hang out.

Suddenly, we herd a scream coming from outside. We ran up there and saw Mary staring at the water.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I saw something in the water," she stuttered.

"It was probably a fish," said John.

Just then, I saw something huge surface the water for a split second. Apparently the others saw it too because they all stood there with their mouths wide open. Suddenly the boat shook.

"What was that?" Violet shuttered.

Then, the water gave a huge splash and a wall of water was surrounding the boat. There was a soft singing in the background. In front of us, I could make out a blurred image of a woman waist up, and a fish waist down. Almost like a dolphin tail, except it was green. She had black hair, going down to her waist and deep blue eyes.

"Hello," she said in a sweet and innocent voice. I looked at Christian and his face told me she wasn't charm speaking.

"I must know…" she said.

"Must know what?" I asked scared half to death. She was pretty and scary all at the same time.

"Is Alexander the Great still alive?" she asked. I suddenly knew who she was. She's Alexander's half sister, Thessalonike, she was turned into a mermaid after throwing herself into the ocean as attempted suicide.

"No," Mary said before I could answer, "He died, like, a bazzilion years ago. Where have you been?"

"Mary, you idiot!" I shouted at her. I looked back and the mermaid wasn't little anymore. She was hideous now.

"Wrong answer!" The mermaid cried in anger.

She lifted her hands and the fog twirled around her. It started to hail and the waves became violent. Usually this would be impossible for a river, but then again… welcome to my world. The world of impossibilities.

The hail became huge clumps of ice as they fell violently from the sky. They fell almost all the way through the floor of the boat. Over the sound of Violet and Mary screaming, and the roars of thunder, I herd the mermaid laughing at us. John ran to the wheel, but right before he grabbed it, a huge clump of hail broke it off!

"I'm usually hanging around in the Gulf of Mexico and go around the Atlantic Ocean but when I saw that this many half-bloods were traveling so close, I couldn't resist." She chuckled.

"Wait!" I shouted to her, "I know the right answer. Alexander is alive and rules the world."

"If only you said that first. Then I'd let you go." She said with a broad grin that ran from cheek to cheek.

We started spinning down the Mississippi River towards the Gulf of Mexico. She was doing this so she could unleash her full wrath on us. The boat spun, and rocked, and made me nauseous. The boat was falling apart. We all found our way to each other by where the steering wheel used to be.

Violet and Mary screamed their heads off while Eli, Christian, John and I simply yelled. The boat shook really hard and we had to keep crawling back into a group.

Then the boat lunged into the air, flipped upside down, and dropped into the water. We all held onto something on the boat as it turned sideways and was still tossing and tuning in the water. The mermaid laughed louder and louder. We were, for sure, now in the Gulf of Mexico. John and I climbed to the side of the boat that was out of water. Together, we helped up the others and held on to each other. I felt like I was on the Titanic, or at least in the movie.

"Guys," I shouted over the wind, "We half to jump before the yacht starts sinking. Otherwise it would pull us under with it."

"Are you nuts?" screamed Violet, "The waves are way too harsh."

"This might be the only chance we've got though," I shouted.

"Fine," Violet said reluctantly.

"On the count of three," I said, "One two three!"

We all jumped and started swimming franticly. I saw a calm shore far in front of us as we swam. I kept swimming until I felt something suddenly hit my head really hard. I fainted and thought that the shore, in the short distance, was going to be the last thing I ever saw.