Hello! How are you Today! Hopefully good. I like this chapter, personally, sadly no one I knew had the time of day to give this some helpful proofing before posting (THANKS ALOT STEVEN!). No matter, I did the best I could myself, This one is Reyna's Pov, one character that doesn't get alot of actual humanity and life in stories I've read (exept Perspective by Lilypad009 Go check her out! That one kept me up all night to read it.) So anywho, Have Fun!
Chapter 12
Reyna
Reyna watched the waves hit the front of the ship over and over again, the rocking actually calming her nerves. She let the sea mist gently hit her face and listened to the roar the ocean gave. Her early memories in the demigod world were founded in the ocean. Reyna remembered how her sister and she ran from her home in San Juan, in Puerto Rico, how they found refuge in Circe's Island, how they had been taken by the pirates, how together they learned to fight. The end of their ocean voyage was also the end of their time together, Hilla went to the Amazons and Reyna joined the legion. Before that she had grown used to the waves outside singing her to sleep, she felt them talking to her in her dreams, and how she knew it would always be that way. Now she back on the water, and it didn't give her the same thought, but it was close enough.
Now that they had come to an agreement, the crew worked of their free will, going about their business, but they didn't act friendly, friendliness implied that they liked the trio. Reyna didn't care, as long as Nico had a plan and it worked. The members of the ship glanced at the statue every once in a while, giving it nervous looks as they went along. It stared back ominously as if to say 'try anything, i'll stomp you flat'. Hedge stood in front of the statue, hefting his baseball bat and eyeing everyone who came close. Nico was sleeping against the base, groaning every once in a while, Reyna felt worried for him. He was killing himself with the effort of crossing the ocean, she could see it in his eyes, how close he was to giving out, but he held on.
"Ma'am, may I have a word with you?" It was the captain, he stood tall and unwavering, she knew he was a man of authority, he carried himself resolutely, as if he could never make a wrong choice. such air was important in any leader, act like you don't know what you're doing, and you'll lose the respect of your underlings.
Reyna nodded and he led her to the bridge, where a man was staring at a map on a metal table. The captain jerked a thumb to the door and the man complied. When he had left the captain sat down on a bolted down chair. "Sit," he offered, pointing to a chair on the other side. Reyna sat and the captain pulled out a hip flask from his pocket. Pouring the contents into two shot glasses he offered one to Reyna, "You drink?" The daughter of Bellona looked at the glass, she wasn't a complete stranger to alcohol, pirates hardly followed age restriction laws, but she wasn't a fan of it either. After giving it a thought, she took the glass.
The captain raised his, "To madness."
Reyna smiled, but raised hers as well. "To madness." They drank, and Reyna found that it was tequila, one of her late fathers favorite drinks. She swallowed and put the glass down, looking at the man in front of her expectantly.
He sighed, "I may have not invited you onto this ship, but I can at least be polite. I'm sorry for the way I treated you and your friends earlier."
Reyna swallowed. "I wouldn't have been the most polite either after our entrance. I appreciate the gesture."
The captain nodded, he looked down at the two sitting against the giant goddess. "I am crazy right? I am just imagining the statue and the goat-man." The statement seemed to be more of a question, and Reyna thought about how she would answer, normally she would not condone the revealing of the Roman world, but now…
"No," Reyna said finally. "You aren't crazy."
The man laid back in his chair. "Well thats a relief." The captain took another look and said "So are you witches or something?"
Reyna shook her head "No… It's complicated."
"Uhuh." The captain poured more liquor into his shot glass and then then held the flask over Reyna's, asking for permission. Reyna nodded and he filled it up. He picked up his and downed it, putting down the glass. "So whats the deal with you the boy and the goat man? Are you Mystical criminals or something?"
Reyna looked at the two down below. "The goat man is Gleeson Hedge, He's a protector, a chaperone if you wish."
"And the boy?"
"A friend-, an acquaintance."
The man scoffed "I can tell, you look at him with more concern than an acquaintance, but avoid him more than a friend. Is this usually how magic people have relationships?"
She scowled at him "So you think you can offer me alcohol, and then pry into my private life? I don't even know your name!"
The man poured more into his glass looking at it for a while before picking it up. "Graham, Captain James Graham." He drank it then put the glass down and slid it away. "Us men have a custom, when you have problems like you yourself seem to, we talk them out over something strong, so that even if the talk leads to nothing, we at least haven't totally wasted our time.
'So, what makes you avoid him. I'm not a relationship specialist, you can ask my two exes to affirm that, but its obvious you like the kid."
Reyna looked at him, not saying anything, but she wasn't angry anymore, only conflicted, she normally didn't talk to people about her feelings, she was a leader, she was to be strong in front of the people under and above her.
Captain Graham leaned back, "The best part of talking to me is that once you're done, you can leave, I can leave you alone, and nobody has to know we had this conversation, but you're going to drive yourself mad not letting it out."
Reyna sighed "It isn't that I hate him, I simply can't afford to have any affections towards him."
Reyna paused, choosing her words carefully, James waved his hand in a 'go on' gesture.
"There was a prophecy, I was told that I would never find love in his type. I won't go into another heartbreak, I have had too much of that." Reyna said coldly, she promised herself she wouldn't cry, but as she said it, her eyes began to water, how could she be so weak, she was supposed to be above this, but here she was, babbling to a complete stranger.
James leaned forward. "I may not understand prophecy, I may not know what his 'type' are, but I know heartbreak. "My first wife, Helen, was an amazing woman, she adored me, and I her. It wasn't to last however, she died in a car accident, a drunk driver hit her head on and killed her instantly. I told myself I would never marry again. Then I became engaged to Mary, we were happy for a while, then she started becoming distant, she would welcome me home with a smile the first days, then she would be distracted, then she would be forgetful, then she would be gone, only to come back the next morning. I didn't understand later until she left, leaving a note. She had run off with another man." The captain sniffed. "Well my last wife I divorced of my own free will, she thought that boats were expensive so I must be rich, she got angry at me, telling me I spent my money away somewhere else on my travels, finally I left her my savings and dumped her in seattle. She had spent all the money I left her on cigarettes and alcohol and now she works a job as a waitress at a dinner." The captain said this last part so fast, it was clear he was not happy to admit it. "Later I came in contact with this other girl, owned a cafe down in spain, she was amazing... Smart, witty, and downright gorgeous, and above all, she loved me, and I loved her. You'd think I would wise up and marry this one right?" The captain shook his head in regret. "I told her I couldn't, I bore the scars of three other relationships, I wasn't going to jump into another. A year I came to my senses and came back to her. I found that she was engaged to a barber down the road who had his eyes on her since birth." James sat there for a solid five minutes saying this, tears were in his eyes and he sniffed, staring at the floor.
Finally he looked up and noticed that Reyna was still there. "I tell you this so you understand that I have empathy for you. You can't just give up on yourself and your love life just because it was "destined" that you don't be with that boy. You like him, and if you don't find out if he is the one for you, you will regret it."
Reyna sat there, she was telling herself that his words were true, she probably would regret it, there was nothing to do, the daughter of Bellona remembered the conversation she had with Venus. Venus is commonly known as a gentle goddess, but during that conversation, she was downright evil. It was a curse, more than a prophecy, that Reyna would never find love in another demigod. Reyna at the time was very close to Jason Grace, and at when the love goddess had told her to leave the son of Jupiter alone, she refused. Then the curse took place. A few months later, Jason disappeared, gone for the most of a year. Then she was denied by Percy Jackson, who she had to admit, was already taken. Before that, she had gone on a few dates in her spare time, there usually wasn't a second date, Reyna always called it off. Ever since then she had grown her calloused behavior. She shunned male company, and any relationships period. Then she went to Old Rome, and met Nico Diangelo. He didn't flirt with her, he didn't do anything to invade her privacy, it wasn't anything romantic he did to make her start to fall for him, it was the small acts of kindness, the concerned looks, him putting her first, he was cute, in his own way, the way he smiled, his corny jokes, in fact, if it wasn't for the pale skin and the aviator jacket, she could have mistaken him for a slightly younger Percy Jackson, their personalities were very similar. She couldn't help herself at first, he was effortlessly tearing down walls built up after the curse, she didn't realise it until she was almost defenceless, she was used to her cold attitude to others to keep people at bay. When she realised the effect he had on her she clamped up like an oyster, but he didn't change, it was like he didn't notice.
Reyna shook her head, "Thank You, Captain Graham, for your advice… I'll take it into consideration." Reyna picked up her glass, downed the contents, "If you will excuse me, I have to prepare for departure."
Captain Graham nodded, "Good luck…"
"Reyna... Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano."
The captain shook his head in mirth, "How do you remember that mouthful?"
Reyna smiled before heading down the stairs.
It was getting cold, the water spray was almost to freezing point. Reyna shivered and turned her coat collar up to catch the spray. Taking a deep breath she walked over to Gleason.
"What did he want?" The protector asked, gesturing at the bridge with his baseball bat.
"He wanted to apologise for how he reacted to our entrance and insure that he was not seeing things."
Hedge huffed " I'll say it again, I don't like how the ocean messes with the mist. Sailors see things they shouldn't. It's why Heroes don't cross large bodies of water if it can be avoided."
Reyna raised her eyebrow, "Thats the only reason why?"
Gleeson coughed twice "Well...not the only reason, spheres of power and what-not."
That wasn't what the daughter of Bellona was talking about, but it sparked her interest, she couldn't push it however as they were interrupted by the captain coming out of the cabin, grim faced and gruff once again. "Land ho! Or whatever the saying goes."
Reyna turned around to find a quickly approaching strip of land that supposedly was long island beach. She turned to wake Nico only to find him standing next to her, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. " Mornin'" Nico said with a yawn.
"Di Angelo," Reyna said acknowledging his presence "how did you sleep?"
"Not well enough."
"You think you're ready for the jump?"
Nico thought before nodding, "We'll make it."
Reyna wasn't sure if he was being truthful but didn't have anything to contradict him, as much as they had become more friendly towards each other in the past week or so, he remained to her a mystery. She did know that he tended to lie about his condition if it meant they would continue their excursion across the atlantic. Nico was selfless like that, always putting the good of others, no matter who it was, above himself, this self harming behavior didn't always speed up their progress as Nico put himself in critical situations far too often, leaving them hanging wherever they landed. Reyna could only think that this behavior couldn't be good for his health, what would happen if he shadow traveled too much? She couldn't say seeing as he was the first person she had seen do it. He was pale and looked a little too close to death for comfort, but he had looked like that on their first meeting. She would have to bring this up to the Coach when he wasn't busy, or in earshot of Nico.
Of course, she had to ask herself, was it her business in the first place? Maybe she was being nosey, what was she doing trying to decide what was best for him? He was always polite, but Nico never showed signs that he wanted to talk about his physical condition, maybe he wasn't being selfless as much as private. Maybe he didn't like her prying into his life and wellbeing. This thought angered her. How could he think something like that? She needed to know how he was doing, his health was important to the task at hand. He can't just hide that from her when it meant so much to the fate of the world, as much as he may be self conscious, or whatever he felt.
Reyna shook her head, she was overthinking it. "Are you ready then?" She asked.
Nico nodded, he shifted before looking towards the captain "I'm ready for the jump."
The captain nodded back before turning to his crew, "Alright then! Get to your feet! This thing's going to rock the boat with its absence so be at emergency stations!" The crew rushed to their assigned posts shouting instructions and requests for assistance below and above deck. Reyna rushed to the statue, making sure the rope was fastened securely and that nothing was forgotten. Gleeson was stomping his hooves and stretching his neck out, both him and her had become used to the routine travel protocol. Nico on the other hand took his time walking back to the stone figure. Reyna now realised that he was not alright, but she was torn on what to do, should she call it out? they couldn't stay on the ship, the captain was right about that. The tension on the ship could be felt physically as well as almost emotionally, probably mixing with the emotion of the panicking sailors. She stayed herself however as Nico grabbed the rope with one hand and the stone itself with another, resting his back on the ankle and calf of the goddess. Sighing, nico looked at his companions, "Are you ready?"
Reyna wasn't, something was telling her that this wasn't going to turn out well, but she nodded anyway, and with that, Nico took a deep breath, before the world folded into darkness and the daughter of Bellona's senses became overwhelmed by the rush of nothing that was the void between the world of light and dark.
SO! Thanks for Reading, Also if you liked it, Give a Review, Its what we live on. I know alot of writers that had amazing work stop because people only read and never gave their opinion. Its outright rude if you ask me! Anywho thats the end of my rant, have a good one folks!
