The boat was creating a rainbow of sea spray, which gave me an idea, "mother, please show me Chiron the centaur," a window opened in the spray to show Chiron, he was in a darkened room, there was a lot of drunken shouting, which meant he was visiting relatives.
"Alice? Percy? Annabeth? Tyson? What are you doing," I filled him in on what was going on, "hmm, you have to watch out," the loud shouting got louder as the Macarena came on in the background, "curse my relatives, you shouldn't have left camp, any of you, but if you do get the fleece," he was cut off by his relatives shouting again. "Get it to Miami," I'll be watching, "he was cut off by the connection being severed by a bottle being thrown at it.
"Thanks Mum," I said to the now empty screen, the rainbow formed a slight smile before returning to usual.
An hour later, we saw land, just a smudge, on the horizon; "land ho," I shouted, the others looked at me weirdly. "Oh come on tell me you weren't thinking the same thing," Percy smiled, Annabeth rolled her eyes and Tyson looked confused. A coastguard cruiser passed us and then turned back for another look, we were after all a yellow lifeboat going very quickly with no obvious propulsion and manned by four kids. "Virginia beach," I read off the side with a great deal of difficulty.
"We've travelled like," Annabeth tried to calculate in her head.
"Do you want an abacus, or a slide rule?" I asked, Annabeth stuck her tongue out at me.
"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," Percy said, "how do I?"
"Son of Poseidon thing," I offered, "what's our current coordinates?"
"Thirty six, forty four, seventy two, two."
"Ladies and gentlemen, Percy Jackson, the human GPS," I said, Tyson tapped on my shoulder.
"Other boat coming," we turned to see the coastguard boat heading towards us.
"Keep going into Chesapeake bay," Annabeth said, I couldn't use magic, magic wasn't protected by mist.
We zoomed into Chesapeake, Percy loosed the cap of the flask slightly more, we sped up, the bank narrowed, we were entering a river, Percy obviously noticed, he collapsed slightly like a Stoll brother coming down off a sugar high. "There past the next sandbank," Annabeth said, I was surprised she knew this area, we zoomed into a marshy, swampy area, with zine choked trees and hot, muggy air.
"Come on," Annabeth said grabbing her duffel bag.
"Where-" Percy started, but I threw his duffel at him and got out the boat, we walked up the bank, I thought quickly and put a notice-me-not charm and a muggle repulsing spell on the boat.
"Not a good place," Tyson said swatting at mosquitoes who were trying to eat him.
"Repulso," I cast, the mosquitoes flew at Tyson, but were thrown off by a shield, I repeated the process with each of us, "it'll wear out in a couple of hours, but until them it will repel any small objects, rain droplets, insects, spiders."
"Thanks magic girl," Tyson said, trying to hug me, but I ducked out, I rather liked having my ribs intact.
"You're welcome, but Tyson, no hugs, sorry it's just you're rather large and I'm rather small, so it would end badly," Tyson cocked his head like a dog and then nodded in agreement.
"I won't hug," Tyson said, he sound sad, it made want to comfort him, but Annabeth stopped, we all looked at her expectantly.
"We're here," Annabeth said as she walked over to a thicket of brambles, she pushed a woven circle of brambles out the way to reveal a doorway.
We squeezed inside, the hideout, because that's what it was, was large enough for all four of us, even with Tyson, it was made of woven plants, and the floor was covered in stuff, backpacks, bottled water, long-life food, a kerosene lamp, musty sleeping bags, tools and both dirty and clean clothes. As well as demigod stuff, a quiver of arrows, bronze javelin tips, a sword, nectar and ambrosia packets. The place and a layer of dust, and the floor was starting to get over grown with saplings.
"A demigod hideout," Percy said he looked at Annabeth, "you made this place?"
"Me and Thalia," she said sadly before her face darkened, "and Luke."
That made sense, the three of them had travelled all over the country, of course, they'd have safe houses to hide if they needed to, they probably had dozens like this. But, knowing this it made me uncomfortable, one of the people who built this place was dead, and another was a traitor, leaving just Annabeth, I couldn't let my thoughts torture me, so I set about clearing the ground.
"You don't think Luke will look for us here?" Percy asked nervously.
Annabeth was quiet before shaking her head, "we made dozens of these safe houses like this, I doubt Luke even remembers where they are, or cares," she turned her back and walked into the corner.
"Um, Tyson?" Percy said, "would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness convenience store, or something."
"Convenience store?" Tyson asked scratching his head.
"Yeah, for snacks, powdered donuts, or something, just don't go too far," Percy explained awkwardly.
Tyson's face brightened up, "I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness," Tyson left the safe house calling for powdered donuts, it was a dreadful ploy by Percy to get rid of Tyson so he could talk to Annabeth.
So Percy didn't have to think too hard I got up and walked out, "I'll set up some wards."
I spent the next twenty minutes setting up muggle warding wards, and half-finished monster wards, I couldn't finish them until Tyson got back, when he got back, he was carrying a couple of donut boxes, "where did you get that?" I asked finishing off an alarm ward.
"Monster donuts, just over the hill," Tyson said around mouthfuls of donuts, he pointed at a hill, I walked over, and crouched down next to a tree, sure enough, there was a store, sitting in the middle of the woods; its awning proclaimed in big black letters that the blue store was:
MONSTER DONUTS.
A cartoon ogre was biting the O in monster. It looked normal enough; I could see donuts on shelves, a car park, a till, a bored university aged guy sitting reading a magazine behind the till. But, there were no customers, no cars in the car park, not even one for the employee, and the fact it was in the middle of the woods in the Chesapeake estuary.
"This shouldn't be here," Annabeth whispered behind me, I was glad I wasn't the only one, "it's wrong."
"What do you think?" I asked, "ogres, harpies, hydras?"
"It's a donut shop," Percy said exasperated, "it's perfectly normal."
"Shh."
"Why are whispering?" Tyson whispered, I smiled and patted him on the back.
"Tyson, do you smell any monsters?" I asked.
Tyson sniffed, "only donuts."
"Annabeth, Tyson went in, he bought donuts, he's fine," Percy said pointing at Tyson.
"Yes, but he is a monster," Annabeth said emphasising the word is.
"Aw, come on Annabeth, monster donuts does not mean monsters. It's a chain, we have them in New York," Percy said incredulously.
"A chain, but don't you think it's strange that one of them appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods?"
"I thought about it, it did seem a little weird, but, I mean, donut shops aren't really high on my list of sinister forces," Percy said nervously.
"It could be a nest," Annabeth said.
"Yes, but a nest of what?" I asked.
"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so quickly?" Annabeth asked, which meant she was giving Percy the full explanation. "One day, there's nothing, then boom, a new burger place, or a coffee shop," my wards went off, I waved at Annabeth, she looked at me, I pointed back the way we came she nodded. "Percy some of the chains replicate so fast because they're linked to the life force of monsters, some child of Hermes worked it out in the fifties, they breed," Annabeth trailed off, "no sudden moves."
I could hear it, something slithering towards us, 'please don't be a Basilisk,' I begged internally, I slowly turned around, it was a hydra. A hydra is terrifying, this particular one was the size of a rhino, it was hissing, its seven heads writhing in a all directions, its skin was leathery on the bottom and scaly ontop, rather comically each neck had a bib at the bottom which read: I'm a monster donut kid. Percy made to draw his sword, Annabeth stopped him, the glow of bronze would have alerted the hydra, the diamond shaped heads look around, we slowly backed away, until Tyson stepped on a twig.
"Scatter," Annabeth shouted, we all jumped into motion, we dove away as the hydra spat poison in our direction, the green liquid hit a tree, which instantly started smoking and fell on Tyson. Percy tackled him to the side just as the hydra snapped at him, the tree instead fell on two of the hydra's heads, the hydra wailed in outrage, before yanking its heads out and screaming at the tree, it then coated the tree in acid from all seven heads, reducing the tree to a pile of goop.
"Reducto," I cast, the spell hit the hydra, knocking it to the side, "expulso," the explosion knocked the hydra back a bit. It turned to me and hissed its outrage before shooting acid at me, "protego duo," the acid splashed harmlessly against a shield, "ventus," the acid returned to the hydra, which hissed in anger, but nothing happened, "of course it's immune to its own acid," I muttered. Percy took the opportunity to remove a head, the hydra wailed in pain, "incendio," the spell missed the stump, meaning that two more heads grew in its place I heard Annabeth berate Percy, but I was more focused on the hydra. Tyson charged the hydra and punched it in the stomach, "colloshoo," I tried desperately, it fail, hydras don't have shoes, the hydra's tail slapped Tyson into a tree.
Then something weird happened, I heard a chugging sound like an old steam engine, it was making the riverbank shake slightly. "What is that?" Annabeth asked dodging acid.
"Steam engine," Tyson said punching a head in the teeth, the head spat out several tooth shards.
"Incarcerous," I cast, magical rope shot from my wand and wrapped the heads together, "conjuro fulguris," I cast, the hydra screamed in pain and slumped, but didn't dissolve, I wasn't strong enough, the hydra turned to me, magical fatigue was setting in, then the chugging sound got weirder.
I heard a familiar female voice call, "there, fire the thirty two pounder!"
"They're too close, m'lady," a gravelly male voice called.
"Damn the heroes," the girl called, "full steam ahead," I realised I was in the way of the cannon, I jumped to the side and covered myself with a shield, as Percy, Tyson and Annabeth hit the dirt.
There was an earth shattering boom, a flask of light and a lot of smoke, and the hydra exploded into guts, which would have covered me if I hadn't got my shield, the others weren't so lucky. "Gross," Annabeth called as the hydra guts evaporated off her clothes and skin.
"Steamship," Tyson called with childlike glee.
I coughed on the gunpowder smoke, chugging towards us was an US civil war era ironclad, lining the deck were soldiers in grey uniform, they had semi-transparent skin, which showed their bones, on the prow in mossy letters was the CSS BIRMINGHAM, standing in full armour, and next to the smoking cannon that saved us was Clarisse.
"Good to see you Clarisse," I called trying to be polite.
"Losers," she said sneering like Draco, "I suppose I have to rescue you, come aboard."