"Jase! Jase!" I was shaken awake. Charlie was urgently whispering my name in attempt to wake me.
"What? I'm awake! What?" I groggily swatted him away.
"It works! We can find them!" he confessed. I jumped up. He had a crazed smile. In his hand was his mother's crystal, but Charlie had put it in some sort of weird looking device. It was glowing.
"What is it? Are you sure?"
He pulled me out of bed and towards the control room. There was a rolled out blanket and pillow on the floor but it didn't look like it had been used. The circuit board was a mess. Wires were sticking out everywhere. Charlie began attaching half of them to the device of his hands.
"You were right. Dad used it to find my mom, but he didn't use it to track Ogygia! It was used to track my mom. Because I have half of her DNA, it worked to track me to. But this is only half the crystal, that's why it's so small. He has the other half so he can track me, but I think I've figured out how to reverse it so we can find him. It lights up when we're going in the right direction. I've hooked it up so the dragon, he said his name is Fetus, can use it. Now, we're going in the perfect direction. If we don't stop, we should be there by noon tomorrow, maybe earlier," Charlie explained.
I grinned and pulled him in for a hug. "Charlie, you did it!"
He looked proudly at the crudely made device. "Now that I've woken you up and got you excited, you should get to sleep. We've got a long day tomorrow. When morning comes, we should start packing up and getting ready to go because I'm not sure exactly when we'll get there," he advised.
"You should too. Sitting up and staring at that crystal isn't going to make us go faster. Go to bed," I shot back. He smiled and waved me off.
I went back to my cabin with a smile on my face. I stayed silent as not to wake Oscar. Getting a notebook out, I turned on my desk lamp and got to work. We knew how Mom and Dad were trapped, which gave us an advantage. I wrote that down, making a quick sketch. If I could hold up the water to keep Mom alive, then dad might have a chance to get loose and fight. But could I keep Mom safe for that long? If I could get a message to my dad, then we'd be able to control the poison together and free my mom. I wrote that down too. I wrote down everything I could think of until eventually I feel asleep.
"Jase, you gotta stop doing this to yourself" Jonathan lectured, waking me. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and put on my glasses.
"What time is it?" I yawned.
"Nearly eight," Jon answered. "Figured I'd let you sleep in."
I jumped out of my chair and grabbed my notebook. "Gather the others! We have good news," I smiled at him and ran down the hall to the where Charlie probably was. He was conked out on the circuit board with one hand on the crystal. He looked so peaceful, I almost didn't wake him.
"Morning sunshine!" I said loudly.
Charlie rolled over, nearly falling out of his chair. "Five more minutes!" he pleased. I rolled my eyes.
"Charlie."
He whipped his head up and fell off his chair. "I'm up, I'm up!" he called, waving his arm in the air. I smiled and offered him a hand up.
"Have you told them yet?" he asked.
I shook my head. "Not yet. I told Jonathan to gather everybody. Knowing them, they're probably in the dining hall for breakfast. Max found our magical dishes the other day, we don't have to stop for food anymore."
"Magical dishes?" he asked as we walked towards the dining hall.
"Oh, you're going to love them. They're enchanted in a way that whatever food you think of will appear on your plate."
"Are you kidding? Omg I need it!"
I laughed and opened the door for him. Like I'd thought, the others were eating breakfast.
"Charlie's made a discovery, so I need all of you to pay close attention. Charlie?" I stepped aside for Charlie to explain his findings.
He took a deep breath. "Ok, so, when my dad left Ogygia, he took a crystal with him so he could find it again. Turns out, the crystal tracked my mom, not the island. Because I have her DNA, my dad split the crystal in half so he can track me if I ever got lost or something. Thanks to Jase's suggestion, I was able to reverse it. I've hooked the crystal to the Fetus and put it to work," he said quickly.
"We've found a way to track down Leo and the others, we should be there by lunch," I reworded.
"We found them?" Max verified. Charlie nodded. Max, in turn, pushed his chair back and left the room. I went after him.
"Max!" I called as I began to catch up. He looked back but he didn't slow down.
"What? We need to get ready!"
"Slow down, it's only eight in the morning."
He looked at me and I realized that he was terrified. "Max, what's wrong?"
He slowed to a stop. "Jase, your dream," he paused. "You didn't see my parents. You don't know if they were there" he explained.
"Max, stop." I held him by the shoulders. "Just stop. Don't think about it, stop freaking out about it. We're going to save them, all of them. Go get your armor ready, and make sure to pack ambrosia. When you're done packing, meet back in the conference room so we can go over the plan."
He took a deep breath, "Ok, ok. I'll be there in a bit." He gave me a half smile and disappeared into his room.
