I don't Own Percy Jackson
"We're not getting that quest," Will grumbled as we leant back against one of the logs that surrounded the campfire.
When we had gotten to the camp-fire everything was in full swing. Most people had joined in the sing-a-long led by the Apollo cabin, while everyone else was lounging around talking and laughing with their friends. Well, everyone except Tantalus. He was busy glaring at anything that moved as though they had personally offended him. Although I guess in a way most of us had.
All this had come to an end when we had arrived at the campfire yelling about know a way to save the camp, although Tantalus' glare had worsened when he saw us. Everyone instantly agreed to the idea us getting a quest - well everyone except Tantalus and Annabeth(who jumped at the chance to flatter Tantalus as much as she could to go on the quest) - but of course Tantalus' shot the idea down immediately, saying the camp didn't need saving and that there was no need to panic.
Of course you can imagine how people reacted when he said that, and if you can't, let's just say there was a lot of swearing and throwing of things. So naturally, Tantalus changed his mind pretty quickly. But he didn't give Will and I the quest, he gave it to Clarisse instead.
"You don't know that," I consoled him. "And besides, do you honestly think I'm just going to sit back and wait for her to save the camp while I could be doing something about it myself?"
He chuckled and nodded in understanding.
I looked up to see if Clarisse had decided to appear yet, but instead found Tyson standing in front of us, fidgeting nervously.
"You're leaving?" He asked, his voice shaking weakly.
"Tyson, we might have to." I replied honestly. "But I promise not to go anywhere without you."
"Promise?"I nodded, smiling gently.
"Promise," I stood up and held my arms out wide. "Come here."
He walked into my arms, sniffing heavily. Rubbed his back, waiting for him to calm down.
"I made a promise to myself that I would protect you, and I can't do that if you're not around now can I?"
He shook his head against my shoulder and squeezed me tightly, bringing me closer to him. Also cutting off my air supply.
"I also can't protect you if I can't breathe." I gasped.
"Sorry," He said quickly, letting me go.
I gratefully took in lungful's of oxygen as I patted him on his arm.
"Its fine bug guy," I said, straitening up with a cough. "What brought this on?"
"Being here. The fighting, the birds." He shrugged, using his fist to wipe the corner of his eye. "I don't want to lose you."
"I've told this before, you won't lose me."He gave me a watery smile which made me rub his arm comfortingly.
Suddenly everything went quiet, all the conversations that had been going on around us stopped. Looking around, I saw that people had turned around and where watching something. Following their lines of sight, I realized that they were watching as Clarisse approached the campfire were everyone was now on their feet; waiting to hear what she had to say. Only she didn't say anything, she just kept walking. Towards me, Tyson and Will who had appeared at my shoulder when everyone went quite.
"Well girl? What did that thing say?" Tantalus asked spitefully. But Clarisse just ignored him and carried on walking, eyes fixed on me and Will.
When she was in front of the three us she finally stopped.
"Would you two, Will and Sophia I mean, mind hel-" She paused, coughing slightly. "Will you join me on my quest?"
I turned to Will wide eyes; in all honesty I had not been expecting that. Will's expression matched my own, although he seemed a lot happier than I was about going on a quest again. Don't get me wrong; I was very happy, it's just going with Clarisse I wasn't happy with. That and I didn't want to leave Tyson behind. I turned back to Clarisse, unable to say anything.
"What?" Never mind, Annabeth had the speech thing taken care of. "Why them? Why not someone else?"
"You mean why not you?" I snapped, I really wasn't in the best of moods with her.
"No! It's just that… What I mean is… What I'm trying to say is that other people deserve the chance to leave on a quest as well."
"Why don't I believe you?" I asked, making sure my face held no emotion. "Yeah, I get that other people should get their chance to go on a quest, but it's up to the person who got the quest on who goes and who doesn't."
She let out a scream of frustration and ran her hands through her hair; she turned to Tantalus, eyes burning.
"You can't allow this; they've already been on a quest. Someone else should go."
"I hate to say it, but she has a point." Tantalus said, agreeing with her. "Someone who hasn't had a quest should go."
"But because they've had a quest before, they've got more experience." Clarisse protested. "So they've got less of a chance of dying."
"Clarisse, you hate us," Will pointed out. "Why should it matter if we die?"
"I don't think it matters, but it means I have a chance of actually coming back alive." Clarisse answered. "So how about it?"
"I don't mind," Will answered, looking at me. "But, uh-"
"You can go if you want, you don't need my permission." I turned to Clarisse to explain. "I promised Tyson that I wouldn't go without him."
"But it won't feel right if it's just me. We're a team." Will protested, I felt a slight blush creep onto my cheeks and I hoped that he thought it was because of the light from the fire. "Besides, you're the only one who knows about…"
He paused, and used his eyes to indicate the sea with his eyes.
"You'll be fine, nothing will happen to you." I consoled, rubbing his arm comfortingly, trying to ignore all the eyes watching us. "I promise."
Will seemed a bit conflicted, but he finally sighed and looked back Clarisse and nodded.
"Are you sure you don't want to go?" Clarisse asked.
"Not without Tyson."
A pained look crossed her face, and with a deep sigh she looked at Annabeth.
"Would you-?"
"Yes," She said immediately.
"I guess that answer's that then," Tantalus announced with fake happiness. "You'll leave immediately."
Clarisse, Will and Annabeth left in under half an hour. They only just had time to grab the essentials before they were forced down to the small docks down at the beach. I didn't even get time to say good bye to Will. Neither Clarisse nor Annabeth knew what they had walked into with Will. He had a terrible fear of water, so he probably wouldn't be much help if they got attacked on the sea.
At the moment, I was sat on the beach staring out at the water waiting for Tyson to appear. I had asked him to come down so we could figure out a way to get out of here and help save the camp. I held a can of coke in my hands as I sat upright with my elbows on my knees, looking up at the sky, trying to make out the few constellations I already knew.
"Drachma for your thoughts?" A calm voice broke me out of my thoughts.
I spun around and watched as man in a tracksuit approached where I was sitting.
"Mind if I sit?" He asked, pointing towards the space next to me.
"Uhh-"
My hand crept towards my pen, which lay heavily in the pocket of the green jacket Will had given me last year in Vegas. I kept forgetting to give it to him, so I figured while I still had it I may as well wear it.
"Relax," The man said, sitting himself down beside me. "I'm not going to hurt you."
"Strange," I said, not taking my eyes of the man as he helped himself to the few cans I had brought with me. "That's what a dentist normally say's before they stick a needle into your mouth. But it still hurts."
"But I'm not a dentist, now am I?" He chuckled.
"How should I know? I don't know you."
"You sure 'bout that?" He asked smirking, before taking a giant gulp of the coke,
I studied his features more intently, trying to think of where I would have seen or met him before. Nothing about him really stood out, his salt and pepper hair was sticking up in all directions as though he constantly ran his hands through it. His tracksuit made me think of the runner's I saw going through central park on the few times I could actually find time and go there to relax.
But when I looked at his face, a spark of recognition caused me to sit up right, a name on the tip of my tongue. His upturned eyebrows gave him a elflike quality I had seen plenty of time on some of the camper's here, but his eyes caught my attention. They were a shade of baby blue I had only ever once before, on an old friend.
"Luke," I murmured.
"Pardon?" The man asked, eyebrows drawing together.
"You're Hermes, Luke's father."
"Well," He chuckled, taking another swig from the can. "That's one way of being introduced. But yes, I am Hermes. God of Thieves, Travellers, Roads and Messengers. Also messenger of the Gods, but I tend to leave that out of my introduction."
We sat in silence for a while, him looking up at the stars in wonderment and me watching him carefully.
The silence was interrupted by ringing coming from his pocket.
"Boss, Demeter's on the line." A voice hissed.
"Excuse me for a second," The God said off handily to me.
I kept my eyes on him as he moved away from me to take his call. I watched as he steadily got more and more frustrated before he finally hung up his phone, and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
"Don't worry boss," A different voice hissed.
"Yeah," The same voice from before hissed back. "Maybe if you went hunting for rats you'll feel better."
"George!" The other voice scolded.
I looked around trying to see if anyone else was on the beach with us, but found no one. I wonder if I was starting to hear things.
"Don't worry," Hermes said, sitting back down next to me with a sigh. "You're not going crazy."
"Then who-?"
"Let us show her." The first voice, who I think was called George hissed. "It's been so long since we've in our original form."
"Fine," The God sighed. "But just this once."
He laid his out so the cell phone rested perfectly flat on his hand. A golden glow encased the phone, quickly growing brighter by the second. Eventually I had to turn away to stop myself being blinded by the golden light which disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
In the place of the cell phone was now a golden rod, with silver wings at its head, fluttering with the slight breeze that felt amazing against my skin in the summer heat. I had seen pictures of this odd staff; it was a Caduceus, Hermes' symbol of power.
When I saw what was wrapped around its base, I ended up jumping back in fright. Not really expecting to see two green snakes staring back at me with bright yellow eyes.
"Doesn't look like much, does she," George hissed, before looking towards the other."Do you think she'll have any rats?"
"George," The female snapped. "Don't be so rude."
"What? I'm hungry!"
"You're always hungry,"
"Am not! I just haven't had lunch."
"That's always your excuse. It's always 'I've missed breakfast,' or 'I missed lunch,' and the same with dinner."
"But I do miss meals sometimes,"
"I know you do, in case you didn't realize it, we're attached! But you don't have to go on about it."
"But I'm hungry," George whined.
"Okay enough," Hermes snapped tensing slightly, then relaxed again as he looked at me. "Sophia, I'd like you to meet George and Martha."
"Pleasure," Martha greeted.
"Likewise," I replied, still a little uncomfortable to go near them.
"Now that we've got the introductions out of the way, I think we should get to why I'm here don't you think?"
"I think that would be a good idea."
"But first, why don't you tell me why you weren't on that boat with your friends?" He looked at me intently, as though he was genuinely interested why I stayed behind as Will was off saving the camp with Clarisse and Annabeth.
"Because I didn't want to leave Tyson alone. I promised I would stay with him, why?"
"No reason, it's just that you may or may not have confirmed something for me."
"Excuse me?" I asked, looking at him blankly.
"Nothing to worry about right now, but I want you to know that I'll be watching you Sophia. We all will be," He said, looking up towards the night sky to make sure I knew he was talking about the rest of the Gods, although I already knew without the hint. "There's something unique about you, something us Gods have not seen in a few years. So, naturally we have to find out what it is."
I laughed once and looked out towards the sea. It looked so calm and peaceful tonight, as though it was trying to ease the uncomfortable feeling that had settled in me.
"Now I want you to listen carefully. How much do you care about your friend Grover Underwood?"
"A lot sir, he's my best friend."
"Do you know where he is?"
"Unfortunately no,"
"You sure about that?" He asked, leaning back onto the sand and looked out towards the water.
"Of course I am." I snapped, forgetting that I was talking to a God. "Do you think that if I knew where he was that I'd be here instead of with him or at least looking for him."
I looked out towards the water again, trying to calm myself down. As I was was watching the waves crash gently against the golden sand, something seemed to click into place in my head.
"The last time I saw Grover it was in a dream," I told the God sitting by me, from the corner of my eye I saw him cock his head slightly towards me letting me know I had his attention. "He was in Florida, being chased by something. I couldn't see what it looked like but I know it was big. I haven't had any dreams about him since. Should I be worried?"
"Probably," He answered, nodding slightly. "But then again it could mean that he's too busy to contact me."
"What do you mean contact me?"
"He hasn't told you?" He looked towards me in surprise, but then explained when he saw my blank expression. "You share an empathy link with Grover. Basically he can talk to you when he's far away from you if he hasn't got a phone or any drachma, it can only happen between a satyr and a human. Maybe it could work with a God to..."
He trailed off, looking into the distance with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Lord Hermes?" I asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Sorry, but either way you'd have to ask him about it." He rolled his caduceus between his hands, causing hisses of displeasure from Martha and George.
"So if he's too busy to call me or use this... empathy link, what's he doing?"
"That's for him to say, I'm afraid." He sighed standing up. "Now, because time is growing short and if I'm honest we're not really getting anywhere and the harpies will be doing their rounds very shortly and I don't know about you but I don't really feel like getting eaten today do you?"
"No, but I-"
"Thought not," He smiled happily, throwing his caduceus onto his shoulder. Knocking Martha and George's heads together. "Now I want you to listen to me, no interruptions. Clear?"
I nodded quickly, opening my mouth to say something but was cut off by him again.
"Great, unfortunately I can't tell you much but you should know that you should have been with them." He pointed behind him towards the ocean. "With young Will's fear and the sea monster's they are bound to encounter, they would have needed someone whose instincts are allot sharper on water. But no matter, you're more than likely to meet up with them soon enough, although I doubt that daughter of Athena would be very welcoming."
"I agree with you there," I said spitefully, a bit miffed that Annabeth was the one who went in my place. She'd probably come up with lies about me to tell Will, to turn him against me.
"What did I say about interrupting?" The God asked, hands on his hips.
"Sorry." I apologised, sitting up straighter to show that I hand his attention.
"It's okay. I'll probably get in trouble for not letting you figure this out yourself, but Grover's out there." Again, he pointed behind him towards the water. "You the fleece, you find Grover simple. But your friends don't know that. So if you want to save him, you'll have to go yourself. Now you probably have about thirty minutes to reach that boat."
He pointed out to sea for about the hundredth time that night, following his finger I saw a seemingly abandoned cruise ship floating leisurely in the distance. Where had that come from?
"Now I can give you something's you'll need on your little adventure but on one condition." I motioned with my hands for him to continue. "Please try and help my son, he's been brainwashed to think I don't care about him. That none of the Gods care about their children. Try and make him see sense."
"I can't promise anything," I answered honestly. "But I'll try my hardest; I've met the real Luke, it might have been only for a little while, but it was long enough to know he's a good guy."
"Thank you Sophia," He said, looking as though a heavy burden had been removed from his shoulders. "Despite what some people say, you're a good kid. Now, as I said before, time is running short. I want you to take these."
Snapping his fingers, he caused three duffel bags, a thermos and a jar of mini multicoloured balls appear out of thin air.
"The thermos contains the four winds of the North, South, East and West. Be careful how you use it. Now pick it up," I looked at him sceptically. "Go ahead, pick it up."
I picked the thermos up carefully, not wanting to be the ones to drop it. It was painted with two different colours. Red on one side, blue on the other. And no matter how many times I tried to turn the blue side of the thermos to face me, it always snapped back to face the ocean.
"It's a compass," I guessed.
"Very good Sophia, yes it's a compass. The blue side will always face the ocean. Very handy I think. Now these," He picked up the jar of multicoloured balls and shook them violently. "They may not look like it, but they are multivitamins. Extremely powerful, can reverse any sort of magical enchantment. And the duffle bags have a sleeping bag, spare food, money and a few medical supplies. So you shouldn't have to worry about not having any of these things. If you spread them out correctly they should last for quite some time."
"Thank you," I said, surprised that a God would be willing to help me as much as Hermes was doing.
"No problem, just remember your promise." He said sternly. Then smiled again, the amount he smiled and how happy he looked when he did it unnerved me. "Unfortunately, our time is up. Your friends are looking for you."
Just then, I heard to people calling my name.
"Over here!" I yelled, turning to look towards the direction the voices came from.
I turned back to thank Herms again, but he was gone.
"Is everything alright Sophia?" I heard someone ask.
"Yeah, just a bit surprised." I turned back to see who had approached me, and was surprised to see not only Tyson, but Katie as well.
"Katie? What're you doing here? You know what? Never mind, we're running out of time," I continued, not giving Katie a chance to answer as I watched the cruise ship slowly make its way into the horizon. "Both of you, grab a bag, we have to hurry."
I grabbed one of the navy duffel bags and threw it over my shoulder. I handed Tyson the thermos and grabbed the jar of vitamins.
I led them into the sea, far enough that the water started to rise up to our knees. I could hear the harpies screeching in the distance. I don't think I've explained the harpies before, but basically they're the camp's guards, cooks, cleaners and basically they do whatever else needs doing at a demigod camp. But if they fine you out after curfew, the eat you. So people tend to stay inside to avoid them.
"Would you like to let me know what's going on?" Katie asked, clutching her bag to her chest.
"Soon, now quiet I'm praying."
'Hey dad, this might seem a bit sudden but do you think you could, I don't know, get us to the boat? Dad?'
I felt the water churn around my feet and suddenly, three splashes caused me to look up in surprise. In front of us fish like horses, splashing around happily at the sight of me and Tyson.
"Hippocampi," Tyson exclaimed happily. Instantly going towards the one closest to him.
"What?" Katie asked, looking more confused than I had ever seen her.
"No time," I said, seeing the harpies flying towards us. "They've found us. C'mon, get on one now. Quickly!"
I threw myself onto the back of one of the two remaining Hippocampi, and when I saw that Tyson and Katie were comfortable asked them to take us towards the cruise ship as quickly as possible.
"Hold your breath Katie?"
"What? Why sh-?"
She didn't get to finish her sentence as the Hippocampi dove under the water, swimmer faster than anything I had ever seen towards the cruise ship. If there was one thing that I knew for certain, was that I was definitely going to get my best friend back. And nothing was going to stop me.
A/N Hey guy's, I want you all to know that I am very sorry for not updating sooner. I would have done but my head always went blank whenever I tried to write. But I make sure to write whenever I can, even when I'm in school, so hopefully I'll be able to update once a week like I used to do.
About the poll I have up on my profile, I want you all to know that it will be coming down soon. I have the first chapter ready, I just have to add the name in where it's meant to. But I should warn you all, I won't be able to update that as much as I will update this story but I will do my hardest to do an update at least once a month. If you still want to vote, you have until tomorrow when I come home from school. These are the results so far:
Lyria-16
Ivy-13
Jade-9
Jamie-7
Ella-7
Briar-7
Merlea-5
Emma-4
Emily-4
Alice-4
Amelia-3
Rosalie-3
Until next time,
WelshGirl4Lifexxx
P.S Make sure to vote for your favourite. =D
