The morning brought with it a much more somber attitude than the day before. Ryker awoke well before the others and quickly packed up his effects, slinging his bag onto his back and moving to the river's edge. The sky was slowly growing lighter, but the sun had not yet made its first appearance on the horizon. After his mother had disappeared Ryker had experienced such a feeling of restlessness that he was not able to get more than a few sparse hours of sleep. He wasn't tired, too many days of dealing with little sleep had seen to that, but he was mentally weary. His mother's parting words had circled around in his head until he had begun to see them in the few dreams he had managed to begin. He stooped down at the water's edge and splashed some of the cool liquid onto his face, dissipating the last effects of sleep from his body. From where he crouched at the water's edge he stared into the center of the river, silently willing the water to part so that he could see the door that Percy and Hazel had discovered on their exploration. The water, of course, refused to budge and continued to run through the canyon despite the demigod's wishes. Ryker scratched his chin absentmindedly, as he considered what they could face. According to what they had been told, Python was an earth dragon and a rather well-known one at that. In Ryker's experience, creatures that were well known had become so for a reason. On top of that, they had no idea what manner of monsters would be guarding their master's lair. For all Ryker knew it could be a massive horde of other earth dragons. That would be difficult. He admitted. He had faced only one dragon in his life, and that had been a young water dragon. Ryker had not won that particular battle, escaping into the woods before the beast could further damage him. The water dragon had been able to send blasts of ridiculously high pressure water from its mouth and Ryker had been keen to avoid them after a row of trees had quite literally been disintegrated by the dragon. An earth dragon would be undoubtedly even more difficult.

Ryker was so lost in his contemplations that he did not see when the others staggered wearily out of the tent, rubbing their eyes. Hazel and Will held cups of steaming liquid to their chests, almost as though the liquid was precious to them. Perhaps it was. "Morning." Percy grumbled, striding past Ryker and marching directly into the water. The son of Poseidon disappeared beneath the surface and Ryker lost sight of him. He blinked in slight surprise at Percy's abrupt disappearance.

Back at the tent, a crackling sound and the scent of smoke alerted Ryker to a fire. He turned where he crouched and saw a curl of smoke wafting up from the tent. He pushed to his feet and pursued the smell of fire, curious to see what it was that they were up to. Inside the tent Nico, Hazel, and Annabeth were sitting at a table while Will went about preparing food over a large rather ornate stove. Ryker ducked his head under the overhead and searched the cabin for their missing party member. Will, who strongly resembled a gold-haired zombie that Nico had summoned from the underworld, seemed to notice his search and nodded to one of the rooms. "Piper is still asleep." He said in a dead voice. He reached for his cup of steaming liquid as he simultaneously began cracking eggs with his free hand. Ryker took a moment to appreciate the change in demeanor that Will had exhibited. Ryker had never seen him so lethargic, moreover he had never seen him without the usual glow of cheerfulness that seemed to follow him around. In all honesty, the child of the Lord of the dead looked livelier than Will at that moment.

"You look awful." Ryker commented.

Will shot him with a glare that Ryker almost felt inclined to be intimidated by, mostly because he had never seen Will so much as frown angrily. "You are one of those people, aren't you?" He hissed through narrowed eyes. He took another long draft of his drink and at the same time, a bitter smell wafted over to Ryker.

"One of what people?" Ryker asked, covering his nose and screwing up his face as a second assault of the bitter smell attacked him. "And why are you drinking liquid death?"

Annabeth looked up from a sheaf of papers that she had procured from somewhere and rolled her eyes, though Ryker saw that she was also not in top form. In fact, the liveliest out of the bunch was the one who smelled like death as a constant. Nico seemed rather amused by the conversation in fact. "Will considers morning people to be only slightly above monsters in terms of likability." Annabeth explained.

"And he isn't drinking liquid death." Nico added. "Trust me. I've seen it. What he's drinking is coffee."

"It smells awful." Ryker insisted, his nose still covered in a vain attempt to stay the scent.

"Will prefers his coffee to be as dark as Hades." Hazel told Ryker in apparent sympathy while she stirred in large amounts of what looked to be honey into her own coffee. The extra ingredient significantly diluted the coffee's scent, which Ryker was immensely grateful for.

"Stupid morning person." Will grumbled, angrily attacking the egg with a metal device that Ryker could not identify. "Why can't you be miserable to be up so early like the rest of us?"

"If you were still tired why did you bother getting up?" Ryker snapped back, quickly growing annoyed at the irritating way Will seemed to view the world at present. "Piper evidently didn't want to wake up, so why don't you go back to sleep?"

"Because I need to wake up!" Will said in a voice that Ryker was certain he had intended to be menacing. Unfortunately it came off like Will had swallowed a frog. "I don't want to wake up but I have to. Now are you going to stand there and make my morning even worse than it usually is, or are you going to help me cook?"

"I am going to stand here and make your morning worse." Ryker said unhesitatingly.

The tent was silent for a full minute before the three half-bloods sitting at the table burst into a fit of laughter. Will seemed bewildered by Ryker's response, just as Ryker was bewildered by the other three demigod's reactions to his statement. Every time that it looked like one of them was about to get themselves under control they would look at Will or Ryker's faces and their laughing fit would be renewed. This continued for perhaps five minutes, and probably would have continued for much longer had Percy not returned to the tent. As before, Ryker was thrown by the lack of water on Percy's clothes. Being a son of the god of the seas, Ryker had almost expected him to be constantly dripping water. Evidently that was not the case at all.

"What are you laughing at?" Percy asked brightly, taking a seat at the table. "Tell me, I wanna laugh too."

"Ryker made a joke." Nico said, still chuckling. For some reason Percy's return seemed to have a sobering effect on the group. Almost like they knew that the time to get serious about things was upon them. "Annabeth, you wanna go wake up Piper? We should speak about how we are going to do this."

"What joke did I make?" Ryker asked Nico.

"You said you were going to make his morning worse instead of leaving him alone." Nico said uncertainly. "You were joking, right?"

"No, that was a statement of fact." Ryker answered. "I have every intention of making him suffer from this point on. Payment for that damned whistle."

Will gave a small groan of dismay and brought the large plate of eggs, sausages, and other food over to the table. The other demigods immediately tore into the food with a ferocity that Ryker was actually impressed by. He snagged a stray piece of sausage and an apple and happily devoured them with frightening quickness. The others were still eating, Piper had yet to actually say a word to anyone, so Ryker waited patiently outside. He didn't understand how they could be so lethargic so early in the morning. Prey moved in the morning. Any hunter knew that. To have the best chance at your prey you had to adjust to the prey's schedule and habits. Being fully awake and alert in the morning was tantamount to being able to eat. Rest was for the afternoons, when all the prey had gone to ground and were resting.

A screech overhead drew Ryker's attention and he sidestepped just as a harpy dove at the ground, his neck her intended target. He flexed his right hand and the claws sprang forth. When the harpy flapped to get away and presumably gain altitude for another attack Ryker stepped forward, his claws flashing in the morning sunlight. When the others stormed out of the tent, their weapons drawn, the harpy had already crumbled away to dust leaving behind a pile of vibrant blue feathers.

"What happened?" Piper demanded, her first words since waking up. "We heard a scream."

"Harpy." Ryker answered, dismissing the claws from his right hand. He looked all of them in the eye and then switched his gaze to the river. "This isn't going to be an easy fight. Are you ready?"

"I don't think 'ready' is a term I would use." Percy muttered under his breath. "Prepared maybe."

"They mean the same thing, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth told him, but her smile was tight. She was just as nervous as the rest of them. Walking into enemy territory with no idea of what they were facing, or even what sort of terrain they were dealing with was among the worst strategies she had ever heard. "How many can you take at a time?"

"Probably just one." Percy admitted. "I have to keep our clothes dry too so that we don't get too slow from water when we get down there. So who's first?"

"Me." Ryker stepped forward immediately. He felt a familiar wild recklessness begin to sing in his blood as the promise of a fight loomed in front of him. "I'll go first."

"Are you sure Ryker?" Hazel cautioned. His answering glance must have been more severe than he intended because she shrank back slightly. "Fine, fine." She muttered, her hand on her spatha.

"You ready?" Ryker turned to Percy and then headed for the water. Ryker stepped into the river and smiled when he did not feel the water fill his boots. Percy grabbed Ryker by the shoulders as they dove underneath the water.

For perhaps the first time, Ryker was truly appreciative of Percy. They zoomed through the water like fish, quickly making their way to the door. Percy paused in the water above the door and pointed. "That's it." He said a tad unnecessarily. "You sure you are ready?"

Ryker swam down and seized the door's handle. He had expected it to be difficult to open, but it came free with relative ease. He sent one confident smile back to Percy before disappearing through the opening. The second he was through the door he knew that the first challenge was already in place. The water did not follow him through the door, instead it hovered around the outside like it was stopped by some sort of invisible barrier. Warm air was all that awaited Ryker on the other side. He fell down perhaps twenty feet, rolling when his feet struck ground to absorb the impact. He came up with his claws ready and a wild grin on his face. What he saw laid out before him caused even his reckless confidence to take a hit.

Hundreds if not thousands of dragons, all of them varying in color and size, were stretched out in front of him. It was clear what they were guarding, a set of massive doors on the other end of the chasm. The dragons hissed at the intruder and several took to the air while others burrowed into the ground. The door closed above Ryker and he was grateful for the light that seemed that the walls of the cavern seemed to emit. He took a steadying breath, his eyes downcast. When he looked up again his wild recklessness had returned and a laugh sprang from his chest. "Oh yes," He said, shivering with ecstasy, "This… this is going to be incredible."

...Dragons, mate. Dragons.- Hallowed