Um, hey guys, how was your weekend? *ducks as a laptop sails past head* Yeah, I probably deserved that, considering how late this update is. Sorry guys! :blush: My weekend has been crazy, especially with finals coming up and last-minute projects needing to get done :p Not only that, but my laptop's been on the fritz – fortunately daddy fixed it so we're good now :) (And yes I'm almost a legal adult and I still call my father 'daddy' so sue me ;-p).
In other, more enthusiasm-worthy news – I GOT A CAR! :D:D:D Cue girlish squeal worthy of Aphrodite… now: Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Okay, done ;D First car, whoo! His name is Thunder – just looks like a boy, idk – and he's a 1995, 2.5 Turbo 300D Mercedes Benz and he is beautiful :sniff: I'm so proud! :D
Anyhoo, also excitingly, we passed the 100 review mark for this story, and the hundredth reviewer was the lovely Books111 – whoo! Congrats ;D And now, time for the anonymous reviewers to become famous ;) :cough: sort of, not really :cough, cough:
Lubi – it will, but I haven't definitively decided what I'm going to make it out to be; once I do, I will start adding in little hints to the story of what it could be, R.R. style of course ;) Until then, I'm about as clueless as you lol xD Thanks again for reviewing, hun :)
Nissi1216 – Wow, that's a new one lol haven't heard it expressed that way before, but thank you very much :) I think I will look it up – I've been looking for a good PJO fic, thanks B-)
AceOfSpadeZz – Thank you, I appreciate the support :) Don't worry, I couldn't hurt Nico… too much ;) There will be more of both coming up so keep a lookout :D
Also, one minor note, TrueImage26 pointed out that Frank lived in Vancouver not Toronto, so sorry guys my bad :blush: You know I really should look up stuff like that before I go off half-cocked, but well, I hate research so… :sheepish grin: lol anyway, thank you for pointing it out and I will try to be better about checking first before I post. In addition, remember guys that the poll for your favorite PJO or HoO couple will close in one week. Oh, and on a side note, do you think I need shorter author notes? Let me know. Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get to chapter ten. As always, onward! :D
That's My Seaweed Brain
Chapter 10
Hazel
Wake up…
"Hazel! Hazel, wake up! We've landed," an insistent voice said piercing my sleep filled mind as they shook me awake.
My eyes flew open and I sat bolt upright, smacking the person leaning over me right in the head. We both grabbed our foreheads and groaned. "Ouch," I muttered.
"Yeah, no duh," the other person retorted. I looked up in surprise at Piper McLean's grimacing face.
The last person I'd expected to see this morning waking me up was the pretty Venus girl who'd apparently captured Jason's attention. So far, we had hardly spoken to each other the last couple of days we'd traveled from California, though there hadn't been a clear reason why. Though wary still of the Greeks with the exception of Percy, I didn't really harbor any dislike for the girl, I just didn't know what to talk to her about.
Admittedly, there was something about Piper (like with any Venus girl) that was slightly intimidating; holding a poise and confidence that went beyond physical beauty. You had to notice her, it was impossible not to. Even if she wore a Where's Waldo costume, you'd still be able to pick her out of a crowd.
"Are you okay?" Piper asked, and I realized I'd been staring.
"Sorry, just thinking," I mumbled. I rubbed my eyes, hoping to clear the cobwebs and the dread that Nico's mom had filled me with. She thought I could save her son, but he couldn't even contact us again and I had no idea how to find him. I was just one kid, what could I do?
"You seemed like you were having a nightmare," Piper observed. "Did you get another vision of your brother?"
I grimaced, "No, just a message from his mom. She expects me to save him."
Piper nodded. "It's, hard," she began tentatively, "when adults expect you to do something you're not sure of; when they think you should be able to handle everything responsibly and not fail. It's a lot of pressure." She sounded like she was speaking from experience.
"Yeah, I guess so," I agreed, getting out of bed to get dressed.
Piper leaned against the wall as I disappeared into my cabin's bathroom to pull on fresh pants and a shirt. "You shouldn't be afraid, Hazel," the Venus girl said eventually. "I mean, we're all a little scared, but you're a daughter of the Big Three – you're super powerful, you'll find him."
I gave an unladylike snort that would've made the nuns at St. Agnes hit my hand with a ruler. "Yeah, so everyone keeps telling me. Lot of good being a daughter of Pluto does. All I can do is cause precious jewels to burst from the ground."
Piper gave me a wry look, "yeah, and all I can do is make people listen to me. You shouldn't doubt yourself Hazel – I haven't known you for long, but you seem pretty powerful even excluding your godly parent."
I frowned. "How?"
Piper shot me a wink. "Girls have power. You know some people in camp don't take the Aphrodite kids seriously, and in some ways I don't blame them. Most of my siblings sit out activities and focus on their makeup and getting couples together – honestly I don't approve, but even a senior counselor can't always control her cabin, even with my ability. The point is, people don't take us seriously, but they fail to remember something about our mother."
"What's that?"
"Do you know the story of Aphrodite's birth?" Piper asked, and I shook my head. "When Kronos, er Saturn, castrated his father Oranos, or Caelus, the pieces fell to the sea, mixing from the sea foam and Aphrodite was born; in a way, she's the oldest of the Olympians, Kronos' half sister and Zeus' aunt."
I let that sink in for a moment. Venus was my godly aunt? That was kind of weird to think about, even more so than the god of the Underworld being my father.
The Cherokee girl went on, "My mom once told me that, 'love is one of the greatest driving forces of the universe'. It was love that sparked the Trojan War, and it was that war that allowed Troy to sail to Italy and found the race that would become Rome. It was all because of my mom. Gives you quite an appreciation for the lady when you think about it that way, huh?" She gave me a lopsided grin.
I nodded. "That's great, but I don't understand what it has to do with me."
"You love your brother, right?" She asked.
"Of course! Aside from Frank, he's my whole world. We're all we have in the world," I felt a little sad at the thought. Were all of Pluto's children so lonely? Did we all have such bad luck?
"Then you'll find him," she assured me.
I opened my mouth to protest that I didn't know how, when Piper put a hand on my shoulder. Standing next to each other, I realized she was a little taller than me, like Annabeth. However, we shared a similar bone structure – thin and small, but the grip of her hand and the muscles of her arms said we that she was also pretty tough despite first appearances. Like me.
"Love will always find a way. If you love Nico, you'll find him, trust me." She smiled, her multicolored eyes twinkling.
I found myself returning the smile. I'd never been fond of the goddess of love before – after all, she'd been giving me grief in the love department with Frank for a long time. But looking at her daughter, who believed so much in love that she was guaranteeing I would complete an impossible task, I couldn't help thinking that maybe she wasn't so bad after all.
"Thanks Piper, that means a lot," I said.
Piper grinned. "I'm glad I could help. Ever need any advice on love, or how to smack someone around, I'm your girl," she laughed.
"I'll keep that in mind," I replied dryly.
Just then, above us there was the sound of a big commotion coming from the top deck. "Uh, maybe we should check that out?" I offered nervously.
Piper nodded, her uneven braids bobbing. "Good idea."
We ran up to the top deck, emerging to see utter chaos around us – though not the kind you'd expect. When Octavian talked about Greek demigods and their camps, he always painted the picture of savages with no sense of civilized behavior and total pandemonium (whatever that meant). Now, granted, there were around two hundred kids – varying in age from eight to maybe nineteen – swarming around the ship and making a lot of noise, but it wasn't angry shouts or catcalls, it was like a celebration. A moment later, I realized why.
Standing in the midst of the crowd was Percy Jackson, their Praetor of sorts, being thumped on the back and hugged and high-fived like crazy. Two seconds later, some big, strong looking kids about Frank's size lifted Percy onto their shoulders and the whole camp cheered in a more uniformed manner.
They shouted, "Percy! Percy! Percy!" It was like being back on the Field of Mars after Percy slew the giant Polybotes. Percy's face, much like last time, was grinning even as he turned as red as a ruby. Clearly, he was well loved here.
After awhile, Annabeth and several other senior campers managed to calm the camp down until Percy was back on his feet. Frank appeared by my side as I watched Percy laugh and joke with a few people, who stayed behind to exchange a few words before they left as well. Eventually, it was just Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Grover, Tyson, Ella and a handful of older campers left standing by the end of the gangplank of the ship.
Piper smiled took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh. "It's good to be home, if only for a few hours." She glanced at me – then at Frank who had shyly taken my hand – and grinned. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go check up on my siblings; have to make sure that Drew didn't take over from Michael and Lacy while I was gone. No way in Hades, am I letting that brat run the cabin while I'm gone!" With that cryptic remark, Piper dashed down the gangplank and disappeared over a hill.
"She's weird," Frank said once the Venus girl was gone.
I laughed, thinking of our conversation this morning. "I think she's nice."
"Oh yeah, sure, she's nice… but still weird." Frank replied and I gave him a playful shove.
"Come on, Zhang, let's go be sociable." I pulled him along beside me, following the route Piper had taken to the beach we'd landed on. We walked to over to the group surrounding Percy. I felt my shyness flair up at all the people, even if it wasn't the whole camp.
Aside from everyone who had traveled with us, there was a skinny girl with frizzy red hair and emerald green eyes wearing a baggy I Heart New York tee shirt and a ratty pair of jeans, both of which were covered in little doodles made with markers, and strangely she wasn't wearing shoes. She looked friendly enough, but something about her eyes (or maybe the ancient, powerful aura that hung around her), something, made me think of Octavian. It wasn't a pleasant comparison.
There was also a big girl with stringy brown hair pulled back with a red bandana and a harsh face wearing combat boots, camouflage pants, orange camp shirt and a leather jacket – there was something mildly familiar about her, though I didn't know what. Next to her was a broad shouldered Hispanic boy with short dark hair, a sword sheathed at his side. They seemed to be an item, though how I could tell, I wasn't sure.
Lastly, I saw a tall, lean boy with blonde hair, blue eyes and a brilliant smile, a bow and quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder; I couldn't help thinking that he looked a lot like a statue I passed daily doing chores at Camp Jupiter. Which god was that statue of? I couldn't remember. It had something to do with archery.
"Glad you guys are up," Percy greeted us with a grin, his cheeks still mildly pink. "We don't have a lot of time here, but I want you guys to at least get a quick tour."
"Sounds cool," Frank agreed. I nodded and smiled, feeling shy around the group gathered.
"Percy, aren't you forgetting something?" Annabeth prompted.
Her boyfriend screwed up his face in confusion, "um, no?" He said, sounding unsure.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I swear your head is chock-full of sand," she muttered, then said louder, "Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque, meet Rachael Dare, Clarisse La Rue, Chris Hernandez and Will Solace. Guys, meet Frank and Hazel." She introduced all of us, Percy looking properly abashed for forgetting to do so beforehand.
"Nice to meet you both, and thanks for keeping Percy in one piece," Rachael, the ginger girl, said first grinning happily. Her smile was so different than Octavian's – not an ounce of malice or cunning to be seen anywhere – that I was ashamed I'd ever compared them.
I smiled, "well, believe me, it wasn't easy. This guy should be on suicide watch." I joked, jerking my thumb at an indignant Percy.
"Hey, who fought off that army of shadow spirits so you could fight the giant, and jumped into a freezing cold ocean to save your sorry butts? That's right, me!" Percy retorted, folding his arms.
I maturely stuck out my tongue. "And who had to help you swallow down green tea and wheat germ when you had a mental breakdown? That's right, me," I shot back good naturedly.
He rolled his eyes but grinned. "Touché, Levesque."
"Wheat germ?" Will asked, wrinkling his nose.
"Shadow spirits?" Annabeth echoed, glaring at Percy who must've forgotten that detail.
"Don't ask," Frank cut in.
Clarisse gave him a long look, eyeing his stature up and down. "Let me guess, son of the war god?"
Frank looked a little startled. "Uh, yeah, Mars. How did you…?"
She stuck out a huge, calloused hand. "I'm a daughter of Ares. It's not hard to recognize godly kin, even if you do have a baby face."
Frank took the hand but frowned distastefully at the insult. His looks had always been a sore spot. "Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically.
"No problem," Clarisse grinned, showing off crooked teeth.
"That's not even the best part about him, Clarisse," Percy cut in, trying to smother a grin. "He's also a descendant of Poseidon."
Clarisse's smile disappeared real fast. "You're kidding?"
"Nope," Percy replied cheerfully. "Technically I'm Frank's great, great, great…" he paused in puzzlement for a moment, counting out the 'greats' on his fingers. "Uh, several more greats, uncle," he finally said, giving up on figuring it out.
"Oh great, just what we needed, another kid of barnacle beard," Clarisse muttered, ignoring how the sound of the sea beating against the shore grew louder at that.
Frank sent Percy a mock glare, like 'great, first time meeting my Greek family, and you make them hate me. Thanks a lot.' Percy gave him a sheepish smile in return. Whoops.
"Not that this isn't interesting," Annabeth cut in, "but we have a time schedule to keep. I've got to talk to my siblings and see if they've received any word from Mom."
Will shook his head. "Not likely, not even my dad has spoken to me or my brothers and sisters. Apollo isn't like that normally; he even missed sending a gift to one of my brothers for his birthday over the weekend. Zeus is keeping a tight lock on the Olympians – nothing in or out except for claiming demigods."
Ah, so that's why Will looked like the statue. His father was Apollo, the god of archery (which explains the bow and quiver, weapons that most Romans considered cowardly), music, art, poetry, and the sun. It made sense.
What I couldn't figure out is why they talked about hearing from their godly parents like it was supposed to be a regular occurrence. The most my dad had done to acknowledge me – aside from the gifts on my thirteenth birthday – was tell Death not to send my soul back to the Underworld. Not exactly a warm and loving relationship.
The Greek demigods all dimmed a little at Will's words. It was like they knew the information already but they were hoping something would change soon. I'd have to ask Percy about it later. There was something I was missing.
"Well, it won't hurt to ask," Annabeth said eventually. "Anyway, like I said, I've got stuff to do. Rachael," she turned to the girl expectantly. "Have the Hunters arrived?"
Jason perked up at this, and I remembered that his older sister was a Hunter – whatever that was. I'd never gotten the details of what that meant. Another thing I'd have to ask about.
Rachael shook her head. "You missed them. They had been here for a week. Then yesterday morning they received some cryptic orders from Artemis. She sent them on another hunt, somewhere far from here, but I don't know where. We haven't heard from them since."
Annabeth groaned in frustration. "I'm gonna kill Thalia when I see her next. I told her to wait for us!"
Rachael shrugged helplessly. "Artemis is the only god who's had any real contact with us lately – did you think Thalia was going to jeopardize that by ignoring her? Not likely."
"Still…" Annabeth frowned, her brow wrinkling as it always did when she was thinking. After a moment, she shrugged as if dismissing a thought.
"Okay, I think that Leo, the Hephaestus kids, and Ares cabin should tag team to load up the ship with supplies. Will, if you could round up any of your siblings to help out in addition, we'd appreciate it – we've got a deadline to keep." Will dipped his head in acquiescent. Leo and Clarisse nodded, and along with Chris and Will, vanished over the dunes of the beach to carry out the order.
"Rachael, I need you to talk to Ella here, you've got some things to discuss – yes, Tyson you can go with them," the blonde girl added as Tyson's brown eye turned pleading. The three of them disappeared as well. I wondered why Rachael needed to talk to Ella, they didn't seem like much of a pair to me. My list of questions for Percy just kept growing and growing.
"I need some time to think, call me when we're ready to leave," Jason said, shoving his hands in his pockets before he turned and left. He'd been kind of moody lately.
When he was with Piper, it wasn't so bad and he was more relaxed and happy. But when she was absent, his mood would grow more melancholy and brooding. I knew he was thinking of Reyna when that happened. I'd guessed that they'd 'broken up', even though they'd never really been a couple. Clearly, Jason was still torn up about what happened. Although I think he thought it was the right decision, it was still hard on him. Reyna too from what I'd seen.
"Okay, that leaves you three," Annabeth said contemplatively. "Percy, how do you feel about playing tour guide?"
Percy grinned. "You don't have to ask twice." Annabeth smiled, gave him a quick kiss then ran off to complete her errands. He gave Frank and me a wry look, "ready to see my version of the mythical world?"
Frank laughed. "Why not?"
I nodded. "Let's go."
We climbed the hill and all I could say was, "Jeepers."
"Whoa," Frank agreed.
"Guys," Percy swept his hand to encompass the whole valley in front of us, "welcome to my home."
Unlike Camp Jupiter which was run like a military institute and looked like something out of a history book, Camp Half-Blood looked like a normal summer camp – with the exception of the sword arena, lava rock wall, chariot race track and Greek buildings. It was amazing in its own way, totally unique. Judging by the proud look on Percy's face, it was home to a lot of demigods; somewhere around two hundred kids ranging from about eight to nineteen roamed the camp. It looked so inviting and fun.
"Come on, let's get this tour started. We'll start with the Big House," Percy said, leading us towards a huge four story mansion, painted blue with a red roof and a rooster weather vane.
"The Big House?" Frank asked curiously.
"It's sort of like the Principia, our head quarters," Percy explained. As we walked, campers called out greetings to him, stuff like 'good to have you back,' 'missed you Percy', and 'hey, you didn't die. Awesome!'. I guess Juno was right – Percy was the perfect replacement for Jason. He was a leader here as much as at Camp Jupiter, and it seemed that everyone liked and respected him.
After seeing the Big House and meeting Chiron (I still had trouble believing that centaurs could be good, but the hero trainer was pretty cool), we looked at the canoe lake, took a quick tour of Rachael Dare's cave (apparently she was a mortal with good sight and the camp's Oracle, which explained Percy asking about one back at Jupiter), saw the arena, the open air dining pavilion (Frank asked what they did when it rained, causing Percy to laugh), the archery range, the woods, and finally we came to the cabins.
There were a little over twenty of them, with only one that actually looked like a regular cabin, the rest were decorated so bizarrely it was making me dizzy. One glowed gold, one silver. One had lightning bolts across the door. One had peacock feathers engraved on it.
One was built like a bank in stainless steel, where Leo and his siblings were hanging out and checking on things. One was pink with lace curtains in the window, where I saw Piper standing on the porch arguing with someone with long black hair. One had barbed wire and a boar's head over the door, which Frank seemed to be attracted to for some strange reason. One was low and long like a bunker, built out of abalone and seashell, and that Percy seemed relieved to see.
At the end of the line was a cabin made of black stone, skull and crossbones over the doorway and torches on either side of the door that burned with green fire. I couldn't explain it, but I felt… compelled to go closer.
"Hazel? Where are you going?" Frank asked as I changed direction.
"I just want to check something out," I murmured distractedly.
Percy looked up, his face going carefully blank as he watched me walk towards the cabin. Something in his eyes said he wasn't going to stop me. I didn't take the time to think about that.
I walked up the steps of the cabin, put my hand on the door and pushed it in. The inside was painted with black walls edged with gold at the top, the floor was a warm dark cherry wood, and the beds were covered in black sheets. The only artificial lights in the room were more torches with green fire. It was very cozy and kind of comforting, like how my dark room in New Orleans was.
"Whose cabin is this?" I asked, turning around. Percy and Frank had followed me to the foot of the steps.
"This is the cabin for the children of Hades – Nico lives here when he's in the area." Percy looked sad, even as he tried to keep his emotions blank – no doubt for my sake.
I gave him a sad smile. I looked over my shoulder into the cabin, seeing one of the beds was messier than the others. "Uh, guys? You go on ahead. I'm going to hang back for a while."
"You sure?" Frank asked, "We can wait."
"No, it's okay, really." I smiled, "I'll be fine I just need some time alone."
Percy gave me a searching look, then nodded as he apparently was satisfied that I really was okay. "Come on Frank, I'll show you the fastest route to the top of the rock wall. I can even keep you from getting singed by the lava."
He led Frank away and I heard him talking as they disappeared. "Uh, couldn't I just change into a mountain goat or a falcon to get to the top?"
"Well, sure if you want to take the easy way out."
Their voices gradually faded, and I stepped back into the cabin, shutting the door. "I think it's time I learned a little more about my dear brother – it might help me find him."