Okay, so this is a tad late, but I do actually have an excuse this time (Yay!). It's a combination actually, of internet issues (I literally waited half an hour for youtube to load. I clearly have NO LIFE WHATSOEVER.), being a bit busy, and being sick. It isn't throwing up everywhere about to die sick, but I spent about half of my waking day today coughing. MY ROOM IS A BIOHAZARD! As if that isn't annoying enough, it's making me super drowsy and I don't really want to do anything, including basic needs like getting up and finding something to drink. So that's fun! :D :D :D

So, does anyone have weird writing ideas? I dunno what to do now, I NEED MORE ODD STORIES! :D

Anyways, MOAR WRITING AND SUCH! *Goes into another coughing fit*

The minute he opened his eyes, Green could tell something was wrong. All the animals had gone silent, and even the trickling noise of the brook was muted, somehow distant. It was like an invisible pillow was being pressed over his ears. He looked around, spinning in a circle, eyes searching the underbrush. Something out there was looking at him, stalking him, he was sure of it, but there was nothing living anywhere nearby. Clarisse had disappeared from the spot where she had fallen asleep, he realized, and he tried to call out. No sound emerged from his mouth. Was he going deaf?

Suddenly, an inexorable force began to tug on him, forcing his face upward, through the canopy. Dappled light shone on his face, warm and comforting like the sun under Thalia's tree. He looked westward, towards where the sun lazed about just above the horizon. A storm was brewing there, massive clouds stacking themselves into a hurricane. Charybdis, he thought, but that wasn't possible. She was out in the open ocean, far away, but there was her storm!

As he watched, a long snake-like arm detached itself from the mass of inky cloud, forming a gigantic fist. It opened itself like a flower, reaching upward towards the sun. Green sprinted forward, trying in vain to reach the horizon and save the daylight from destruction, but his legs were snagged by the thorns of the rosebushes. They dug into his skin, holding him in place as the cosmic hand grabbed the sun and crushed it.

Night fell, the moon rising as if to rush to her brother's aid and swelling to fill half the sky. The hand of the storm swept along the horizon, clenching into a fist. He struggled against his thorny prison, wanting nothing more than to help, but the stems would not give way. Blood welled in all the cuts on his arms and legs, trickling down his skin.

Then, the fist of the night smashed into the moon and it shattered. Thousands of bright shards spread across the night sky, fading as they went, shooting stars losing their light. All but two. The brightest of the stars froze in the sky, growing and growing as his heart sank into the pit of his stomach.

Once again, two points of light grew into eyes, bulging lamp-like eyes in a hideous face he had smashed only hours before. Now, there was no escape. His limbs were held fast and Clarisse was gone, and it descended from the treetops like a spider from its web. It stopped inches from his face, the same wide smile close enough to kiss his forehead, like an affectionate parent. The mouth opened, wider and wider, enough to swallow him whole and bristling with needle sharp teeth. It paused, leaning it's head to one side, closed its mouth, as if thinking.

"AHH!" It shouted, snapping its teeth closed inches from his face. Huh?

He forgot his confusion as it reached for him, those fleshy fingers drawing ever nearer to his face, and this time it wouldn't ever let go… Well, if he was going to die, maybe he could burst its eardrums.

"AARGH!" He screamed, sitting bolt upright and cracking his head against a surprised Clarisse.

"What was that for?" she demanded, sitting up and rubbing her bruised forehead. He didn't answer, because he was too busy laughing with relief that it was only a dream. A really, really bad dream that he was probably going to have again. One of the teachers at Percy's school had mentioned that dreams were a way for the brain to deal with stress, and that monstrosity was going to take a long time to purge from his memory.

"What's wrong with you now?" she asked, irritated.

"Oh, nothing. So, are we going to leave now?" Green inquired brightly. She scowled, not appreciating his newfound optimism.

"Look," she told him, her voice calm. The use of calm tones by an Ares camper was enough to snap him out of his temporary giddiness. Why would anything ever be going well on a quest? Something must be really wrong again.

Something was really wrong again. Clarisse yanked up the bottoms of her jeans, revealing a blotch of skin on her ankle that had seen better days. It was wrinkled, covered in liver spots, stretchy and hanging off the bone.

"Ew," he commented, not knowing what else to say.

"It's where that thing grabbed me," she said.

"Oh…" he said, touching the spot on his forehead the thing had put its nasty little hands on. "Oh."

"What?" she asked, not liking being out of the loop, even if the loop only contained one person and was too small to be an actual loop.

"It got me too, remember?" he said, touching his head again to make sure that it was still as smooth as always. Nope, no wrinkles.

"Weird. Maybe it only works on demigods."

"Or it only works on children of Ares," he pointed out. "Or girls, or people without green eyes…"

"I get it," she said, scowling.

"Hopefully it'll go away," he said, trying to sound reassuring. Clarisse said something in Greek that probably wasn't very kid-friendly.

"We need to get out of here," she said, and as he couldn't have agreed more he followed her into the brush.

"Okay, I'm all for getting as far away as possible, but how exactly do we get off this island?" he asked, as they forded yet another icy stream.

"No idea."

"Shouldn't we be coming up with some kind of plan?"

"Shut up shrimp." He knew he should probably be arguing with her. After all, faulty planning was what had gotten them in this mess in the first place, but he was still tired and sore. They could think of something after they'd explored the island some more. How embarrassing would it be to come up with and implement an amazing and complicated plan, only to find that there had been a huge ship just sitting on the beach? Ha, as if they'd be that lucky.

After that, they went on in silence for at least a mile, mosquitoes and flies tormenting them all the way. Green gave the roses a wide berth, still not entirely recovered from his nightmare, and Clarisse kept stopping to check her ankle. Each time she would mutter a curse, and he would want to offer encouragement, but never knew what to say. Desperate to break the silence, Green wondered aloud, "Wouldn't it be just our luck for a sea monster to be guarding the‒" He was stopped suddenly, both by the realization that he was jinxing everything and the fact that they had just burst through some dense foliage onto a sandy beach. This wouldn't normally be too much cause for stopping midsentence, but there was a boat just sitting in the water, an actual adventure boat, not some modernized steamer! It looked like it was in really good shape, considering it was abandoned on some island in the middle of nowhere, with a massive square purple sail.

"Well," he managed, after a moment of gaping at it in disbelief. "Maybe luck on a quest does exist!" Or maybe they'd finally piled up enough Karma from their bad luck that something good had happened. If that was the case, one boat actually didn't quite compensate for all the horror and screaming and near death, but he wasn't about to complain.

"What're you waiting for, shrimp?" Clarisse asked, already halfway up the beach. Normally the prospect of getting himself from the beach to a boat in the water, rather far into the water actually, wouldn't have appealed to Green. Their luck seemed to have taken this into account and provided a small rowboat, complete with two sets of oars. It was exactly enough room for the two of them, painted bright purple. One side appeared to have scraped against something, ruining the bright purple paint job. He could just make out a lowercase letter "a" and some black dots.

"This is way too convenient," he said, but beggars couldn't be choosers. He and Clarisse ‒ mostly Clarisse ‒ hauled the little boat out into the waves and started rowing towards the bigger ship.

Not five minutes had passed before they were halfway to the ship, and Green's arms were halfway to falling off. Rowing was just another activity to add to the list of things he was comically bad at, along with sword fighting and archery and just about every other useful adventure skill, but Clarisse was built like an ox. She just about singlehandedly reached the Song Runner, which wasn't the most intimidating name in the world, and then grabbed a ladder that hung down from the deck.

"There's a ladder too," Green said glumly. "Trap, calling it now."

"Shut up," she said, more out of habit than anything else.

There was a coughing noise, and both of them instantly froze. Green waited, hardly even breathing, for another sound; a creak, a footstep, anything.

There was a door set into the back of the ship, a door that he assumed led to some kind of cabin, and Clarisse was slowly edging towards it, sword drawn. Another cough, this time definitely coming from behind that door. Green raised his fists, wishing grimly that he had something impressive and pointy to defend himself with, or even a shield of some kind.

Suddenly, in one motion, the daughter of Ares lunged forward, kicking the door open with a bang and leveling her sword at the opening behind it.

There, sprawled on the floor, was an old man. Tufts of white hair clung to his shriveled bald head, his wrinkled arms so thin that Green could see the bone, a toothless mouth open beneath sunken glassy eyes.

"Water…" he croaked, looking up pleadingly.

"Who are you?" demanded Clarisse, sword still pointing at the defenseless man on the ground. He was small too, not much bigger than Percy would be if he were here. It had to be the most pitiful thing Green had ever seen, and pitiful plus convenient usually meant monster. Still, he found himself lowering his guard, wanting to help the poor defenseless man.

"Where's the water?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the guy for a second.

"Pitcher… desk," he said, his arm twitching as though he was trying to point but the effort was just too much. Green shuffled sideways, keeping his head pointed towards the center of the room. Feeling behind him, he grasped the pitcher and slowly approached, kneeling down.

The man looked at him gratefully, swallowing the slow trickle of water that Green poured into his mouth.

"Thank‒" he said, then broke into a fit of coughing, his emaciated body flopping about like a fish.

"Who are you," Clarisse asked, the edge in her voice softening as the old man continued to do nothing threatening.

"You must kill… kill the life eater," he said, ignoring the question. "Can't let it… it won't…" the effort seemed to be sapping his strength, his voice trailing off into a whisper.

"The life eater?" Green asked, wondering if there was another horrible monster on the island.

"It eats you… your life," he managed.

"Yeah, we got that from the name," Clarisse said impatiently. Wait a second… this man, Clarisse's ankle, they looked oddly similar.

"Big head, bulgy eyes?" Green asked, hardly daring to hope. Maybe they wouldn't have to kill another beastie on the same island.

"Yes, how‒"

"We killed it, it's okay!" he said, grinning reassuringly. Although… "It didn't dissolve though," he said, his gut twisting as he said it.

"No, doesn't… it isn't… it's dead," the man said, seeming to deflate. He smiled, which would've been reassuring if he wasn't missing all his teeth. "I'm done," he said, panting. "I can go home now… go home…"

"Did it… do this to you?" asked Clarisse, kneeling down with Green, her hand going to her ankle.

"Yes," he said, sadly. "Was… fourteen, yesterday."

"Yesterday?!" asked Green in horror. If they'd showed up just a bit earlier…

"Got away… lucky… father helped me get here. I needed to warn…"

"Your father? Poseidon?!" he demanded, thinking of Percy. He didn't have a brother, did he?

"Need to go home. Please, the boat," the man said, twitching his legs.

"What? Where do you want to go?" Green asked, looking around. They kinda needed the ship, actually…

"Rowboat… it'll take me home," he said, rolling sideways on the ground. Well, without the rowboat he and Clarisse would have to swim to shore, but this guy was so… sad looking.

"Okay," he said, grabbing the man's arm and hoisting him over his shoulder. At last, someone so incredibly light even he could carry them!

"Green, are you sure?" Clarisse asked, still suspicious.

"He could've eaten us by now anyway."

She sighed and grabbed the other arm, and together they dragged the old, well, kid to the little purple rowboat.

"Thank you…" he rasped, as they lowered him into the small wooden raft. Another coughing fit sent the boat rocking, until the man went very still. His chest stopped rising and falling, and the boat began to float slowly toward the horizon. Green pretended to sneeze, covering his face and wiping away one rebellious tear. Some time later, while he and Clarisse avoided noticing each other's sadness in some kind of unspoken agreement, he broke the silence.

"That thing," Green said, "The life eater…"

"Yeah?" Clarisse asked irritably.

"Let's hope it never comes back, you know, from Tartarus," The sky rumbled, and he and Clarisse both glanced down at the same time, some animal instinct telling them to check really quick that the earth wasn't trying to swallow them up.

Together, the two of them managed to haul the anchor out of the water, after about ten minutes of swearing and tugging. It wasn't a large ship, obviously meant to be sailed by small groups of people, so they managed to get the ropes all in what they guessed were the right places. The wind was very cooperative, picking up just as they were ready and sending them skimming along the waves. It also helped that there was a potted plant on one railing that had picked up some tricks over the years, telling them that no, that rope did not go there and that they should really avoid leaving that bit there untied if they didn't want to sink.

They had been sailing for almost an hour, painfully slowly, and the island of the life eater was almost out of sight when Green finally decided that he wasn't going to help anyone if he passed out and fell into the ocean. Stumbling a little, he made his way into the cabin of the ship, stole all the pillows and blankets off the small cot in the corner, and built himself a nest of sorts. He was warm and dry, probably safe, and about to fall asleep when he felt a tugging in his gut. It was like being in a car, blindfolded, while someone floored the engine. He couldn't see it, but he knew that their little hunk of wood was picking up way more speed than he was comfortable with.

"Clarisse!" he yelled, bursting out of the tiny room to find the daughter of Ares still leaning on a railing outside, eyes scanning the horizon.

"I know!" she shouted back, over the howl of a suddenly furious wind. It grabbed anything not tied down and sent it swirling through the air, tugging at their clothes and hair, whipping the waves into a frenzy. Huri, he thought, but this felt different, somehow. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the storm didn't feel as… angry. Percy didn't have this kind of power over the wind, he knew, but he couldn't help a small flare of hope leaping in his chest.

"Green!" Clarisse shouted over the wind, grabbing his arm and pointing. A smudge was growing on the horizon, dark against the bright blue sky.

"What is it?" he yelled back, the wind snatching at his voice.

"An island!" she replied. It was obvious, once she said it. The island began to fill the horizon, revealing palm trees and sandy beaches, and a massive jutting cliff. Sheer sides, plunging straight down into the sea, it was made of a dark rock. What was more, as they drew closer Green could see a figure standing right at the edge, leaning into the wind.

Then, there was a screeching, groaning, ear-splitting noise, like the boat itself was screaming in pain. A massive rock loomed out of the spray, sticking up from the water like a massive tooth, and the boat had clipped it. Green could hear the water rushing into the bottom of the boat, a horrible sucking sound that filled his ears.

They rammed into anther rock, and the ship began to sink. Water poured over the railings, waves rushing over the deck. It tugged at Green's feet, sending him sprawling onto the deck. The last thing he saw before his head smashed into the deck was the lone figure on the cliff leaping out into open air.

He mumbled something, trying to protest, but his head hurt too much to think anymore. Slowly, reluctantly, he sank into unconsciousness.

So, that was really long! :D Does that make up for its lateness? Pwease? :(

Do remember to review as well, I read and respond to all of them! (Not that that's hard, I don't have too many. D: SO SADD!)

But yeah! :P

Also, I foreshadowed/referenced something! Anybody know what it is? :)

Pfft, of course that wasn't an evil plot to get more reviews, what do you take me for? (If you answered desperate, you win!)