A/N: In one week ... I WILL HAVE FINISHED EXAMS! I hate my school board, we're STILL not done. And we haven't done anything at all this week! I've been reading Harry Potter in all of my classes! A freaking waste of time. Sorry, but I'm mad. And the fate I'm only getting one review a week isn't helping my mood ... (I know I say I don't care, but it'd be nice, you know?) Anyways, here is your chapter. Hope you like it. And ... remember this was written, like, a year ago so please ignore mildly wrong information.

Cora: Hotel Keeper of Doom

The train ride had been irritating. Percy had increasing been ticking me off. Now, don't get me wrong, I did really like Percy. He was nice, and supportive of my feelings at camp. But for some reason I felt like I had to act mean to him. Like some instinct, that I had to take every shot I could at him. Maybe I had some annoying sibling wherever I came from . . . Unlikely.

Any who, we were now in some town called Sept-Rivieres. Which actually meant 'seven riviera's' in case you were wondering. We were scouting around for a motel to stop for the night. Actually, me and Hunter were trying to find one. I had found something else interesting about me. I could read French like it was English. Well, I did that with Greek before but that was a common thing for demigods.

We ended up using a brochure that included a map. Why a small town had a brochure I didn't know. There were several motels. We figured the most run down one would attract less attention. It was near the edge of the town. So we ended up with a bit of a walk. Well, it was quite a walk for everyone else. I didn't get tired.

The motel was run down. Paint peeling, cracked sidewalks, and chipped doors. If you could think of it, it was probably there. Obviously the owners didn't care. I was surprised the place was still in business.

Since it would look weird if two people underage had tried to get room; me and Percy went in. We chose Percy over Annabeth because he looked slightly older (aftermath of fighting in the two wars as a leader). I had to go because I was the only person who understood what everyone was saying. Gah, I had to help so much; and I was already stressed enough.

The lobby wasn't much nicer then the outside. The man sitting at the desk was wearing what looked a bit like a suit. It was wrinkled and stained, as if it hadn't been washed in months. Thankfully the man was a mortal. It was pretty obvious he was. I could just tell.

We walked up to the front desk, which was just a large table. The man didn't even look at us. It wasn't until I pounded the bell loudly that he looked up. He stared at us, annoyed, as if we had interrupted something; even though he had been doing nothing.

"What do ya two want?" he asked us in a bored tone.

"We need two rooms for the night," I told him. If you were wondering why we needed two, it was because all of us sharing a room would have been something bad waiting to happen. And we all figured splitting up the guys and the girls might have been best. Which I completely agreed with.

"Aren't you a little young to check into a hotel?" Motel, I corrected mentally. I jerked my head towards Percy. Was this guy partly blind or something? The man glanced and Percy scowling then turned back to me.

"He doesn't know French to well," I informed the man.

"And you know English and French?" he asked sceptically. Well, I couldn't blame him for finding it odd.

"Yeah, what's your point?" I replied. The man shrugged.

"Just struck me a strange. Whatever, not my business," he said reaching behind him to a rack of key. "Here ya go. Rooms 454A and 454B. Pay on your way out mind ya."

"Got it," I replied catching the keys as he tossed them to me. Me and Percy headed back outside to Annabeth and Hunter. I threw one of the keys at Percy, which sadly he missed. Instead of catching it, it hit his chest and fell to the ground. Nice going Percy, you had the slowest reflexes. Well, I actually wasn't surprised since I hadn't even made sure he was facing me . . .

"How did you get the man to just give them to us?" he asked suspiciously. I rolled my eyes.

"What do you think I did? Threaten him? The man just didn't care," I told him.

"Oh. Um, well, what rooms are we in?"

"454A and 454B," I said. He nodded and we headed back in and around the lobby. There was a central area right behind it. The area had a filthy pool and rusting deck chairs. If the pool wasn't so gross I would have been tempted to jump in. I glanced at Percy and saw he was tempted; if actually did try to jump in, I was going to slap him because that thing looked like it would have made him a mutant.

We actually ended up going around the pool to get to the stairs (no elevator) that led up. I would have preferred not doing that because you couldn't see half an inch into the water.

It took a couple minutes, but we did find our rooms and get in. I flopped on one of the two beds in Annabeth's and mine's room. I was a little tired. My body was probably still recovering from the Mormo attack; even though I felt fine in every other aspect.

I was starting to fall asleep when Annabeth did something that confused me. She reached into her bag and pulled out a laptop. It was a sleek silver model with Greek lettering on the top – Delta. I sat up and watched as she booted it up. The Delta lighting up blue as the laptop hummed to life.

"Where did you get that?" I asked, almost hesitantly. She barely glanced at me.

"It was a gift from Daedalus," she told me softly, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. I had the strangest feeling it had been a parting gift. Now, I wasn't quite sure who Daedalus was (I hate my memory loss!) but I wasn't about to ask her.

"Oh," I whispered, and then a thought struck me. "Wait, I thought half-bloods and technology don't mix to well?"

"Normally, you're right. But this one was made by a . . . sibling. Monsters can't trace it," she explained. Well, that certainly made sense.

I didn't bother asking anything else. Annabeth was extremely evasive. Unfortunally, just as I was falling asleep, the whole place started shaking. And it was not an earthquake (wait, how did I know that? Oh, right, my dad was the god of earthquakes. Sometimes I was such an idiot). I almost fell over trying to get up. Annabeth quickly stopped what she was doing. She cursed and closed her laptop, stuffing it back into her bag.

I opened our room's door a crack and peaked outside. I cursed myself. Standing right outside our rooms were three eight-foot tall giants. One was a bright ice blue, with frost coloured hair and a spear in one hand. The other two were normal coloured. Sort of. They had tattoos all over their arms, and I was pretty sure they had fangs. I slammed the door shut as quietly as I could. I looked at Annabeth, my eyes wide. She had her bronze knife drawn, her eyes fierce and questioning.

"What's out there?" she whispered. I was about to reply when there was a knock on the interior wall. I hadn't even noticed a door joining our rooms.

I moved and opened the door. Hunter was standing there with Percy behind him. They both looked nervous. But at seeing me their faces flushed with relief. I was relived too, for all I had known, they could have been attacked or something.

"Thank the gods you two are okay!" Percy exclaimed. "Do you know what's going on?"

I sighed. "We won't be okay for long," I told them. "There are three giants outside the door!" I then quickly repeated it in French for Hunter, which made him look nervous. Percy was staring at me like I was crazy.

"You looked?" He asked horror stricken.

"Um, yeah," I muttered.

"Are you insane?" That caused me to glare at him.

"No. What else was I supposed to do?" I shot back. "Wait around not knowing what's out there? Hope it's not a monster? It was just a peak." Percy was shaking his head in disbelief.

"You're going to get yourself killed doing that," he said. I shrugged and leaned against the door frame.

"As if you wouldn't do that as well," I commented.

"At least I check on you guys first," he pointed out.

"Okay, I'll give you that," I told him. "But anyways, what are we going to do about the giants? One's blue."

"Hyperborean," he said his eyes widening. "But they're supposed to be peaceful. And Laistry – something or other. Not Canadians." Where'd he get Canadians from?

"Laistrygonians," I said immediately. I blinked, how did I know that? The creepy voice hadn't told me that. Now, apparently the names of monster were the same in all languages, because both boys looked at me weird.

"How do you know that?" Hunter asked me.

"No idea," I muttered with a shrug.

"Can we get focused?" Percy interjected.

"I am focused!" I practically screamed at him. Should not have done that at all. Before he could reply to my outburst the door to their room started rattling. They just looked at it not realizing what it meant. I did. I forced them into our room and shut both doors. A second later the building shook and the sound of crackling fire was heard.

I pulled out my charm and it elongated in my sword. Percy drew Riptide and Hunter drew his dagger. The interior doors rattled and shook. I cursed under my breath. We did not need this!

"Come on!" I said urgently. I pushed open the door and stepped out onto the aisle looking over the central area. The giants were inside the boys' room. Which would have been a relief (they had their bags) except it was on fire. And parts were covered in ice. Time to make a dash for it.

I had only taken a few steps when I spotted a man in the motel uniform coming over. Mortals were not something we needed to deal with. If only that had been the case. The man was just below the porch railing when he began to grow. Within seconds another Laistrygonian was before me. This whole place was being run by monsters! Minus the guy at the front desk. But that was probably to throw any half-bloods off.

The cannibal giant jumped on to the aisle way. A flaming bronze cannonball appeared in each hand (now I wished Tyson was here. He'd help us and he was immune to fire).

The giant threw one of them towards me. I rolled forward to avoid getting caught with that thing. I stood up and looked back. There was a huge gaping hole between me and the others. Now I had to face a fire-throwing cannibal giant on my own.

The edges of the hole were on fire. Never knew metal could host flames. I was basically trapped. I think that was what the giant had intended all along. There was just one other problem. Since there was an entire section was on fire; the mortals at the motel (there were only a few) were rushing to escape. If I wasn't mistaken, I heard the very faint sound of sirens somewhere. This fire was going to get us into loads of trouble.

Turning back to the giant in front of me, I decided that using two weapons would be more effective. Holding my sword in my right hand, I pulled out my dagger and held it in my left. This would give me a slightly better chance; I hope.

The giant bared his teeth in a menacing, hungry smile. He probably wanted to eat me. Without wasting a second, the giant swung his fist down at me. And even though he wasn't huge, the fist still left a slight dent in the ground.

I bolted forwards just in time to get missed. I gave a low swipe with my sword and cut right through one of the legs. The monster burst into a column of green fire and vanished. But not before it could throw the second flaming cannonball. The cannonball broke another hole in the aisle way; destroying more of the floor as well as most of the railing.

With the immediate threat out of the way, I turned back around to the others. One of the Laistrygonians was gone. Almost everything was covered in ice, thanks to the Hyperborean. Oh, and you can't forget that everything was on fire. I did mean everything, the floor, the walls; everything.

Without really thinking, I sheathed my dagger and took a few steps back. I sprinted forwards and at the edge (which was on fire) I jumped. The gaping hole was several feet long. I hadn't really been thinking, or trying to cross, so part way through in midair I came back to my senses. It was like a slap in my face, what was I doing? Being stupid, that was the best answer. I started to fall and probably would have crashed into the ground. Somehow I reached out and managed to grasp the edge of the aisle way in front of me with my fingertips. I ignored the flames; they strangely didn't feel that hot. I pushed my sword onto the aisle and gripped the edge harder. It wasn't easy, but I managed to pull myself up.

Crouching there I retrieved my sword and surveyed the fight. Percy and Annabeth were taking the Hyperborean, Hunter was taking the last Laistrygonian. Treading as quickly as I could on the ice, I dodged flaming cannonballs and blasts of icy air. I joined in with Hunter against the Laistrygonian. Distracting it so he could stab at it with his dagger. It too burst into a column of green flames.

We quickly turned to the Hyperborean, hearing the ever increasing sound of sirens. Annabeth had a thin coating of ice on her side. She whacked the monster with the butt of her knife, while Percy stabbed its leg.

They turned to us, and the sirens stopped growing louder and lights flashed at the other end of the motel. We looked at each other and an understanding passed between all of us. We needed to get out of here.

Over at the edge (with no railing any more) Percy jumped down on to the ground; since he was invulnerable and couldn't get hurt. Annabeth jumped down next and he caught her. Hunter grabbed the no-longer-sizzling edges of the hole and dropped to the ground that way. Placing my sword back into my pouch I followed his example.

Percy and Annabeth were already across the centre area and inside the lobby running out. Hunter was part way there, me following them at a jog. I managed to push into the cover of lobby just as firemen found away from the outside to the direct heart of the blaze. I hoped to the gods they didn't see me, but I wasn't sure.

All four us of ran for our lives, trying to find a place to stop for the night. The whole way we were keeping an eye out for even more monsters.

A/N: Right, so I know Hyperboreans aren't quite like that; but they can be so let's say this one was conned into working for Gaea and he never got the memo she's asleep again ... let's stick to that story (I wrote this in, like, June last year! Or ... maybe it was April?). Anyways, a bit more action there! So let me know what you think via either reviews or alerts or favs! That's all for this week!