Percy's POV. Thanx to all who reviewed! :)

Chapter 6

I Trade In My Island For A Fortress

I slept deeper than I'd ever slept before. It seemed like an eternity that my mind was wafting from dream to bizarre, random dream. One dream had me racing along the track against a bus filled with tree naiads. Aphrodite kept trying to give me a lift in her limo to the finish line, but Ares was driving and would speed away, laughing maniacally, every time I came close to the vehicle.

In another dream, I was an inch tall-gym teacher trying to introduce myself onstage during orientation. The problem was, no matter how I hard I tried, I couldn't make myself be heard over the sound of Greenday playing live on the stage behind me. It didn't help that the auditorium full of booing Thalias kept throwing dodge balls at me, either.

The third dream disturbed me the most by far. I was standing on a rock. The rock was like a small island, maybe five feet by five, and it sat in the middle of a black, churning sea. All around me was thick gray fog. To my right, the fog began to clear, and I could see a figure standing on a similar rock maybe fifteen feet away. I gaped when I saw that it was Annabeth.

She stood there, shoulders straight, and looking me right in the eyes just as Annabeth always did. It struck me not for the first time how beautiful she was: Her eyes matched the surrounding fog and the foam of the dark sea, and her golden hair fell in bouncing strands on her tan shoulders. She wore a simple Greek robe that matched her eyes. But there was something else, something that seemed out of place…

Tied around her left forearm was the pink scarf of Aphrodite we had found at water world in Denver. The ends of it wafted in a breeze I could not feel.

Suddenly, to my left, the fog drifted again. There, relaxed upon a pedestal of her own, was Rachael. Rather than standing at attention, she had elected to sit cross-legged on the edge of her rock. She wasn't as beautiful as Annabeth, but she wore a dress like something out of a fantasy that my own imagination could never achieve. The colors seemed to fade in and out in pleasing ways to the senses like Aphrodite herself, and holding back her hair were the beautiful chains that had imprisoned her for so many months. She had the Harry Potter book in her lap and was tearing out pages of it to make the tiny paper ships she was sailing my way. Every time she sailed a new ship she would grin bashfully at me, sometimes shyly avoiding my gaze, and then resume her project.

I wanted to get them to safety, for I could feel a sea storm coming, but in trying to decide who to go to, I felt torn. Rather than going right or left, I stumbled forward into the water.

But this wasn't normal water. Normal water I could control. In this water I sank at an alarming speed, faster than if I'd been falling through the air, and all around me was darkness. Darkness. Darkness. And then, a darkness I recognized to be the inside of my eyelids. I opened my eyes.

A normal person might be alarmed at the sight of a Cyclops standing at the foot of their bed, grinning like a small child at Christmas, but this was a normal event in the life of Percy Jackson. Instead, I felt elated.

"Tyson!" I exclaimed, jumping up from my bed and getting wrapped in the biggest hug of my life. Imagine a bear hug with a real bear, and you've almost got a Tyson hug. I didn't care that he was very nearly crushing my ribs; I was just happy to see him.

"Tyson," I gasped once he'd released me. "When did you get here?"

"Just now!" He beamed at me. "I arrived just as Pony bring you in here. You were snoring," he said, nodding very seriously.

"Brought me in-" I looked around and realized I was in Cabin Three, Poseidon's cabin. With the exception of a massive carpet bag with a pony-and-rainbows print (and what looked suspiciously like a peanut butter sandwich sticking out of it) sitting near the next bunk, everything looked exactly as I'd remembered it. Although, for some reason, I couldn't remember having walked into the cabin. Huh, that's weird, I thought. I remembered fighting Lamia and Rachael fainting, but everything after that was fuzzy.

"Wow," I said, scratching my head. "I guess I must of fallen asleep in Chiron's parlor." I turned my attention back to Tyson, a grin back on my face. "How long are you staying?"

"All summer!" he declared joyously. I received another hug, feeling pretty buoyant myself. I'd missed my bigger-younger brother terribly since he'd gone to work in the forges and was ecstatic to have him back.

"Come on," I said as I threw on some clean clothes. "Let's go check on someone up at the Big House before breakfast."

Tyson nodded vigorously before following me out the cabin door, humming and skipping in my wake.

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((O)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

When I stepped out onto the grounds, I stopped in my tracks, nearly getting bowled over by Tyson in doing so.

Camp was like a fortress. Each cabin had fire-resistant, stone walls with arrow knocking pits surrounding them. The rooftops were covered in layers of barbed wire with the exception of a few archer stands and watch towers that could only be accessed from inside the cabins. Large, metal poles were stuck in a circular formation around the encampment, and I would later learn from Beckendorf that they generated Greek fire. Most of the camp was at breakfast, but the few campers patrolling were decked out in full Greek armor, and they nodded at me as I passed.

Camp was obviously anticipating the first great battle of the war very soon.