There we are, chapter twenty one already :)
This is quite an exciting one, so I hope you enjoy it!
Only one more day till House of Hades, asdfjhkl I'm soo excited!
Okay, I don't own this. Except Pen.
Read on!
Chapter twenty-one: Tree-sap and Snake-bite
They touched down on Great Salt lake, where Festus had sensed everything they needed:
Lime, Celestial bronze and tar from a nearby town.
Leo was glad that at least something was going all right again and he rounded up the others for a
talk-through in the mess hall.
Jason still hadn't come round, and although Coach Hedge said he would be okay, Leo couldn't help but worry.
"Isn't there anything we can do for him?" he asked Coach, who started to shake his head, stopped and then said
"Actually, there might be. My special Goltpine-tree-sap paste."
"Great" Piper said "Why don't you use it then?"
"Can't" Coach replied, rubbing his club in his hands.
"Er, why not?"
"Haven't got it with me"
Leo rolled his eyes. Good thing Chiron had chosen such a responsible chaperone. Not.
He decided to let Festus search for Goltpine trees anyway, and to his surprise, the intercom peeped after just a minute, saying that there were some of them on an island, opposite of the island where the Lime and the Bronze were.
"Hey, Coach" Leo grinned "If we got you some tree-sap, could you make the paste?"
Coach Hedge huffed "'Course I could, Valdez! Do I look like I'm inept at healing to you?"
Leo thought it wiser not to answer that question but instead turned to address the others.
The other girl, Hazel had joined them, too, arriving on that freakishly fast horse of hers.
"So, guys, we need Lime, Celestial Bronze, Tar and apparently some Goltpine tree sap. Luckily, we can get all of that here. Let's split up into teams okay?"
They all nodded and Percy said "I'll take Frank and Annabeth to town to get some tar"
"Good." Leo answered. "Coach Hedge, you stay with Jason and guard the ship."
The satyr mumbled unhappily about missing all the fun, but agreed to stay on board.
"Right, this leaves Piper, Pen, Hazel and me" Leo said, about to propose that he and Penelope go get the Lime and Bronze when Hazel spoke up
"You and me can go to the Lime Island on Arion, Leo."
This took Leo aback, and he wondered why Hazel wanted to team up with him.
She had continued looking at him in that odd way she had back at Camp Jupiter, and slowly it was unsettling.
But he said, "Yeah, okay." and turned to Piper "Will you go to get the tree-sap then?"
Piper nodded and so did Penelope, although the latter didn't look happy at all, but narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.
What was up with her? Leo wondered.
"How will we get to the island?" Piper asked, and Hazel answered "Frank, can you go drop off those two at the island first maybe?"
Frank didn't look happy about being used as a taxi, but agreed nevertheless.
"Great." Leo sighed, hoping they would all come back soon so they could be on their merry way.
"See you all later then."
~Penelope's POV~
When Frank had dropped them off on the island, Penelope took a good look around.
The place was covered in what looked like a forest, which seemed kind of out of place here.
The tree, Coach Hedge had said, was a very rare specimen, and looked like an ordinary pine tree except that it's needles were gold around the edges.
"Let's go shall we?" Piper asked, and Penelope nodded, taking out her stylet as a precaution.
It seemed to good to be true that they would find everything they needed all in the same place.
They started to make their way through the forest, dodging branches as good as they could but still ending up scratched to pieces.
After walking in silence for the first few minutes, Penelope asked Piper:
"Why do you think that Hazel girl wanted to go with Leo?"
She tried to keep the resentment in her voice to a minimum, but of course Piper picked up on it instantly.
"No idea, why?"
"She looks at him funny" Penelope said, avoiding the question. She knew her cheeks had turned red, and she turned away, pretending to check the area for threats.
"You like him, don't you?" Piper said slyly, a grin on her face.
"What, no! I mean, yes, but no!" Penelope spluttered, cursing the fact that one of her best friends was a daughter of Aphrodite.
She wasn't even sure how she felt about Leo, and she didn't want any rumours to start circulating.
"Don't worry" Piper nudged her. "I won't tell anyone."
Penelope knew she could trust Piper, and talking to someone about it did feel kinda nice.
"Okay. So I like him, a little. Just a tiny little bit though."
Why did her face have to go so red, now?
Piper laughed "Yeah right, just a tiny little bit. You keep telling yourself that, Pen."
"Hey-" Penelope was about to protest, when they both stopped in their tracks.
Before them, standing in the middle of a clearing, was a huge Pine tree.
It wasn't an ordinary Pine tree though.
It's branches shone in a soft golden light, emanating from it's needles, which were all tinged in gold.
"Reckon we found it?" Piper asked Penelope, who chuckled. "Yep, I think so"
Looking around cautiously, they approached the tree and got out the odd metallic thing Leo had quickly built so they could get the sap out of the tree.
While Piper fixed the device onto the bark, Penelope patrolled around the Goltpine.
The Coach had warned them that Goltpine was a divine tree and that monsters were likely to be attracted to it.
So far, Penelope couldn't see any though.
"Is it working?" she asked Piper, anxious to get off the island, which was starting to give her the creeps. The woods were full of noise, ordinary wood noise, but still it sounded like ten monsters to Penelope.
"Yeah, but the sap is like super thick, so it'll take a while."
Penelope nodded, and sat down next to Piper.
"If you think about it, taking sap from a tree is like taking blood from a person." Piper mused, while they were waiting for the file on the end of their device to fill.
Penelope giggled "It's like we're tree vampires."
This made Piper laugh as well, and for a few minutes they continued to crack up at the thought, even though it wasn't really that funny. Pen guessed they simply needed to ease some of the tension from the past hours.
Suddenly, she heard a noise, right above them.
"Psst!" she hissed at Piper, who stopped laughing immediately.
"What?" she asked, whispering.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Piper looked around.
For a moment, everything was silent.
And then, from the branches above them fell an enormous snake with a loud hiss.
It writhed for a second and then looked at them, its eyes glinting menacingly.
The terrible thing was, it had four of them, a pair on each head that was protruding from either end of it's long, thick body.
Both of them scrambled backwards, forgetting that stealth might be the better option now.
But the snake was simply too terrifying for them to hold still.
"Piper, get the file!" Penelope yelled, holding up her stylet.
The monster hissed, and the combined sound from both its heads made Penelope shiver all over.
It snapped at Piper as the girl got up to fetch the file, but Penelope stabbed at it, managing to leave a deep cut in its side.
This however only seemed to make the snake madder, as it now turned on Penelope, who ran away from the tree, trying to give Piper some room.
Luckily, her plan worked and the snake followed her to the edge of the clearing.
Unluckily, it swiped one of it heads at her, knocking her off her feet and making her fall hard on the ground.
"Piper, hurry up!" Penelope yelled, trying to get back up, but the snake kept snapping at her so she had to scramble out of the way instead.
"It's stuck!" Piper shouted back, desperation in her voice.
Penelope looked over at the tree to see Piper yanking at the device, which only slowly came out of the bark.
The brief moment of inattentiveness cost Penelope dearly, as the snake suddenly threw itself onto her, pining her to the ground with its huge, scaly green body.
One of its heads was right in front of Penelope's face, while the other bit into her thigh, making her cry out in pain, as she tried to shove the snake off.
But it was no use. The monster was simply too heavy.
And now, it brought its head up, readying for the grand finale, about to bite her head off.
Penelope knew she had no way of getting out of this, and closed her eyes so she didn't have to watch the snake's teeth as they glinted above her.
There was a loud hiss, and she flinched, positive that she was about to feel the horrible mouth on her face, when quite suddenly the weight lifted off her.
"Penelope!" Piper yelled, and Pen opened her eyes to see her friend standing above her, holding a monster blood drenched dagger in one hand.
"Piper" Penelope sighed in relief, and tried to sit up. But the world was suddenly lopsided, and the moment she was upright, she tripped, unable to keep her balance.
"Pen, what- your leg!" she could hear Piper cry, and dimly she looked down at her leg, only to see a huge part of her jeans ripped away, and a scary looking snake bite on her thigh.
Everything was spinning, she couldn't focus anymore, and a strange ringing filled her ears.
"Piper?" she mumbled, almost unable to form the words "I don't feel so good."
For a second she could make out her friend's horrified face.
Then, she crumpled to the ground and everything went black.