That day left pretty much everyone exhausted and I was no exception. Using so much of my powers for the earthquakes had left my body pretty much no more use than a vegetable. When I'd dismounted from Snowstorm I had face-planted the deck and had been unable to move any further than that. Snow lay down next to me, chewing at my hair with worry as those who could stand move hurried to try and help us who were completely out of energy. A little nectar and even a scoop of sea water later, I was able to at least sit up and drape myself across Snow for comfort and warmth, but I could feel my entire body tingling and popping like all my atoms were fried. I began to get the feeling that I would never fully heal from where I had almost made myself explode with godly power. That I would be stuck like this for the rest of my life, limited on how much I could use my powers and vision otherwise I might just suddenly turn to ash. The pearls were probably the only thing keeping me together right now though their magic could only stretch so far. They were working well because we were directly on the sea. The further inland I went the less potent their power of healing would be, hence I had always tried to stay close to water with them for as long as possible.
Eventually people gathered at the mast where the three of us vegetative bodies – that's me, Percy and Jason – were slumped so we could all convene together. It didn't seem like we were being pursued, but we were now far away from land as both Frank and Hazel put it. They had been arguing about something but I'd been too tired to hear it. "Did you find the map you wanted?" Leo questioned and thankfully, Annabeth confirmed that she had. If we'd gone through all of that to not even come out with the map then I would have been seriously pissed.
"I'll have to study it. How far away from those coordinates?"
"At top rowing speed, about an hour. Any idea what we're looking for?" Having not been aware that we were heading towards specific coordinates, I managed to lift myself up a little with my arm still slung over Snow's back to pay more attention to the conversation at hand. I need food after this. A bacon wrapped double cheese burger ought to do it. Everyone was now looking at Percy as Annabeth had questioned him about the coordinates.
"The Nereid said Chiron's brothers were there, and they'd want to hear about that aquarium in Atlanta. I don't know what she meant, but…she also warned me to be careful. Keto, the goddess at the aquarium, she's the mother of sea monsters. She might be stuck in Atlanta, but she can still send her children after us. The Nereid said we should expect an attack." What I wouldn't give to have the Siren right about now. There is no ship better equipped to fight sea monsters. Even the Argo II didn't compare because it had been built in a rush. My Siren could take out pretty much any monster of any size so long as she was handled effectively, and if I do say so myself, there was no better naval captain.
"Can we get the ship aloft? If we could fly…"
"That'd be great. Expect Festus tells me the port aerial stabiliser got pulverised when the ship raked against the dock at Fort Sumter." I groaned aloud.
"We really need to stop crashing this ship." To that everyone agreed, but since Jason and Percy were now starting to see yellow and the world upside down and I was still no better, we all called a break so that we could get some rest. I was exhausted, so after Snowstorm managed to get me up whilst slung over her back, it was up to Annabeth to actually get me downstairs as Frank and Piper helped Percy and Jason. Snow had to take a different route with more room in order to get to her adjoined stable since she couldn't fly in through the hanger doors as we were sailing, but once I was in bed, Annabeth game me some more water to drink which did make me feel better, though what I needed was just soak in a bath. Thankfully, my room had that function. Leo had built it in for me, so I instructed Annabeth to press one of the buttons on the wall beside my bed and almost immediately the bed retracted into the wall, pillows and all, to be replaced with a glass bowl the size of a queen sized bed which filled with water from the sea. I sank into it quite happily and promptly fell asleep, leaving Annabeth blinking in a daze before leaving me to rest.
The water did me wonders and helped to build back my strength, also keeping any nightmares at bay. Sometimes the only pleasant night's sleep I ever got was in this water bed. It was strange that this sort of thing didn't bother me at all but being trapped in that aquarium had sent shivers down my spine. Maybe it was because there was no lid on this fish tank and it was my choice to be here. If I wanted, I could jump out or just press a button and make it disappear. Anyway, I slept deeply and without dreaming, which I was grateful for. Maybe the gods were showing me pity today. Once again I only got a few hours' sleep, but it was enough that the water filled me with energy once again so that when I was awoken by Snow screaming at me to get my lazy butt up and out on deck, I was awake in a flash. Sea monster attack. Duty calls. Snow was more than happy to remain in her stables where she was safe, allowing me to rush outside to behold the gruesome majesty of the ugliest looking monster I had ever seen as I was able to use my vision for a brief few moments. "I'm guessing we can't roast that thing on a barbeque for gumbo, right?" I questioned bluntly as I reached the others, staring at the sea monster which I honestly couldn't decide was more of a shrimp, a catfish, a centipede or a horrible mix of everything with a few more creatures thrown into the mix. I heard someone gag at the suggestion. It was probably Frank.
The monster started ramming the ship as the others began to panic and freak about what to do. Jason couldn't summon any lightning to scare it off, and if Leo hadn't already engaged the oars into spears then I'm guessing they were off the table for some reason. Percy was just as wiped out as Jason was, so when the sea monster came to attack again, a horrific mess of sounds rattled my ears which made me think of slimy octopus legs, if I'm honest. I'd met enough sea monsters in my travels to know tentacles when I heard them and I had seen that mess of nose hairs this monster sported. Ugly. The tendrils slammed against the deck and would have hit me had I not rolled out of the way on instinct, though my brother wasn't so lucky as he was thrown off his feet, his grunt sounding in my ears whilst the monster also grabbed hold of Piper which caused her to scream. I sensed Jason and Annabeth leap into action to try and fight them off, however I could tell Jason was struggling to even hold his sword whilst Annabeth's knife just wasn't cutting through fast enough. I drew Amaryllis and with a shout, launched myself forwards. A clean sweep severed the tendrils clutching onto Piper so that she dropped straight into my grasp, allowing me to drag her free as I then thrust my trident forwards and the freezing effect began to take place as a cold frost and ice started to spread through the tentacle nose hairs so that they started to slow down and become sluggish. "Thank you!" Piper squeaked as she clung to me for dear life as I pulled back long enough to set her on her feet as Jason rushed to her, yelling her name.
"I'll keep it occupied until someone can think of a way to kill this thing!" Shouting so that everyone could hear me, I twirled my trident back and forth behind my back as I began to channel my focus towards the water below, taking a deep breath before thrusting my weapon upwards with a yell of effort. Water blasted upwards, I felt the cool froth and droplets fall against my face as the wall swept upwards with explosive force between the ship and the monster, causing it to screech and release its hold on the ship. Without even thinking for a second, I leaped overboard and started to surf the foaming waves in order to leap directly onto the creature itself in order to find a weak spot or a chink in the armour that would allow me to kill it. One thing I could safely say, this thing was one tough cookie. It recovered fast and was seriously annoying, screeching every time I hit it with my trident in order to get a feel for its shape and structure, searching for the weak places in its armour whilst trying to stay grounded on it though every time I slid off, I simply jumped on another wave, dodged an attack and tried again.
Shouts came from the ship, Leo yelling to try and get my attention. I couldn't hear them over the sound of the waves and the monster's screeches, though when the shouts became louder and more panicked with Hazel joining in the fray, I realised that something must have happened. More to the fact, Leo and Hazel were about to be swallowed by the monster. "Lily! Lily get back! Greek fire!" Leo was yelling and it was more than enough for me to realise that I needed to get as far away from this creature as possible before Leo in his craziness set fire to it. Instantly I stopped commanding the water and dove downwards instead, straight into the ocean where I felt incredibly safe and in control, allowing myself to sink below as I then turned my attention upwards. With the water around me I could sense everything, including the shape of the monster that was still partially emerged so I focused on it and the ship, pushing the two further apart by channelling the water to separate them so that the Greek fire didn't jump onto the ship by accident. I heard the explosion above before I felt it, a deep rush of heat felt even at this depths as I remained floating below.
I listened and sensed carefully but everything was so confusing as the water continually churned that not even with my perfect sense of direction at sea could I even begin to figure out which way was up or down as I was tossed through the currents made by the thrashing monster. I attempted pulling at the water to try and settle it so that I could push myself back to the surface, but in the confusion I must have been caught by one of the shrimpy legs of the monster as next thing I knew I was crashing against the hull of the ship and of course, smacked my head with enough force to knock out a minotaur. Why is it that heroes and demigods have just…the worst luck? Sometimes it just feels like there is a specific god or goddess who makes it their personal responsibility to ensure that we demigods suffer constant misfortunes and twists of fate that constantly make our lives so immensely difficult. Anyway, if ever I find out that there is a specific person who has made it their life mission to mess with demigods, then I swear I'm going to beat them black and blue.
So there I was, floating like useless kelp underneath the water struggling to even focus because I'd hit my head so hard, I dimly thought how great it was that I could naturally breathe underwater and mumbled a prayer of thanks to my dad. The water was already naturally healing me as well as the pearls around my waist so the split on my head was already healing which allowed me to sense what was around me a little better. Searching around me, I became extremely confused when I got the impression that there was some kind of man fish near to me, and not just one either. The water wrapped around their bodies, allowing me to roughly judge their shapes and size and man-fish was the best I could come up with. I began to rise up and straighten, also sensing three other bodies in the water which I believed to be Frank, Leo and Hazel so I automatically began to shout in defence and move towards them thinking that they were in danger. Next thing I knew another heavy blow landed on the back of my head, a brief impression of a person or being behind me, then everything went black once more and this time it stayed that way.
Like I said. Someone up there was seriously messing with me.