This chapter is bugging me. Unfortunatley Harley doesn't have much opportunity here, being around lots of older people really doesn't help. Although I have a few exciting plans for the next chapters.

Sometime after the others had left for the materials I had wondered into the mess hall and started snacking on strawberries. It was an hour or so of quiet chatting and watching Camp Half-Blood before the sound of horse hooves on the deck rung through the ship.

I jumped up and ran up the stairs to the next floor to see a very odd looking Leo carrying a sheet of bronze with Hazel.

"Gods of Olympus." Piper stared at Leo as she came out of Jason's room. "What happened to you?"

He looked very silly.

"Long story," he said. "Others back?"

"Not yet," Piper said.

Leo cursed. Then his face brightened. "Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room."

Jason must have woken up.

He ran off past me with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel in the doorway. I walked over.

Piper raised an eyebrow at her. "Team Leo?"

"We met Narcissus," Hazel said. "Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess."

Jason sighed. "I miss all the fun."

On the deck above, something went THUMP and Annabeth and Percy came running down the hall moments later. Percy was toting a steaming large plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Annabeth had a patch of black sticky stuff in her hair. I covered my nose.

"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.

Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the tar down his face.

"Ran into some tar monsters," Annabeth said. "Hey, Jason, glad you're awake. Hazel, where's Leo?"

She pointed down. "Engine room."

Suddenly the entire ship tilted to the side and everyone stumbled. Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.

"Uh, what was that?" Percy questioned.

"Oh…" Hazel looked embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like…all of them."

"Great." Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank and Annabeth. "You guys help Leo. I'll hold off the water spirits as long as I can."

"On it!" Frank promised.

The three of them ran off, leaving Hazel Piper and I at the cabin door. The ship listed again, and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick.

"I'll just…" She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway, and ran off. I followed her hoping to distract her.

It took a while but eventually the clanking of metal died and the engine hummed to life before flying off leaving the yelling of nymphs behind. Pulling open Hazel's door I saw Leo emerge from the engine room covered in all sorts of mess.

"Meeting in the mess hall," he said. "Crazy day, huh?"

The crew compared notes on what had happened in Salt Lake City, but even Leo's ridiculous story about how he tricked Narcissus wasn't enough to cheer up the group. Personally I thought it was very funny but I was busy eating a piece of purple apple pie. Percy was across from me eating a blue pie.

"So where to now?" Leo asked. "I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there's still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic."

"We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter," Percy said. "Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."

"I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans?" Piper asked. "Maybe-maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charmspeak."

Jason took her hand. "It wasn't your fault, Pipes. Or Leo's," he added quickly. "Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."

"Maybe if we could explain that, though—"

"With no proof?" Annabeth interrupted. "I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."

"She's right," Hazel said. "Reyna might listen, but Octavian won't. The Romans have honour to think about. They've been attacked. They'll shoot first and ask questions post hac."

"You're right," Piper decided. "We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry."

"Nemesis said we have only six days until- until Rome is destroyed," Hazel said.

"You mean Rome Rome, not New Rome?" Jason confirmed.

"I think," Hazel said. "But if so, that's not much time."

"Why six days?" Percy wondered. "And how are they going to destroy Rome?"

No one had an answer for that; I didn't feel very useful right now.

"There's more," Piper said. "I've been seeing some things in my knife." I forgot she had a magic knife.

"Things such as… ?" Frank asked his fork halfway to his mouth.

"They don't really make sense," Piper said, "just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins."

"Twins, like in Ella's prophecy," Annabeth said. "If we could figure out those lines, it might help."

"Wisdom's daughter walks alone," Percy said. "The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth, that's got to mean you. Juno told me…well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she's wrong."

"Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend among the Roman praetors—something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along."

"Nemesis mentioned something similar," Leo said. "She talked about an old score that had to be settled—"

"The one thing that might bring the gods' two natures into harmony," Hazel recalled. "'An old wrong finally avenged.'"

"I was only a praetor for about a half a day. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?"

"I…uh, I'm not sure," Jason replied. "I'll give it some thought."

Percy narrowed his eyes. "You're not sure?"

Hazel broke the silence that followed. "What about the other lines? Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death."

"Giants' bane stands gold and pale," Frank added, "Won through pain from a woven jail."

"Giants' bane," Leo said. "Anything that's a giants' bane is good for us, right? That's probably what we need to find. If it can help the gods get their schizophrenic act together, that's good."

"We can't kill the giants without the help of the gods," Percy confirmed.

Jason turned to Frank and Hazel. "I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god's help, just the two of you."

"Alcyoneus was a special case," Frank said. "He was only immortal in the territory where he was reborn—Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but…" He shrugged. "Percy's right, we'll need the gods."

"So…" Leo pushed his chair away from the table. "First things first, I guess. We'll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs."

"Someplace close to a city," Annabeth suggested, "in case we need supplies. But somewhere out of the way, so the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?"

"Well," Piper asked, "how do you guys feel about Kansas?"

Chapter on the other hand are steadily getting lengthened! Happy Happy!

Reviews and Ideas are Appreciated and Adored

~Jessica