The prospect of going on yet another quest filled Annabeth with mixed feelings of dread and excitement. The fact that Percy was going along with her again assisted in alleviating some of the anticipation that curled in her stomach. After leaving the tent, and the still slightly disoriented Ryker to Will's ministrations, Percy and Annabeth followed Reyna through the Roman camp. When legionnaires saw the Praetor moving through the camp they quickly moved to get out of her way, something that Annabeth found very helpful.
"So does anyone have an idea where this snake is?" Percy wondered. "Is it even really a snake? Because, technically, a hydra is a serpent. And I really don't want to fight one of them."
"I'm hoping Rachel might know." Annabeth answered. "If she doesn't we can always ask Chiron for some direction."
"And if all else fails we can just go spelunking into random caves until we find the right one." Percy said with false brightness. "Or maybe Ryker can smell out the Oracle?"
"He's a demigod, not a bloodhound." Reyna reminded him. She paused to berate a legionnaire whose armor had rust on the outskirts before turning her attention back to Percy and Annabeth. "What do you two think of him by the way?"
"He's… different?" Percy admitted, rubbing the back of his neck in slight discomfort. "I don't know honestly. I get a weird vibe about him. Whenever he looks at me it's like…." He struggled to find a way to describe just how it felt when Ryker looked at him.
Annabeth knew exactly how Percy felt. She felt the same way. Ryker was constantly on edge it seemed, the issue with Will earlier had only solidified further her thoughts on the matter. "It's like he can't decide if he wants to attack us or run from us." Annabeth finished the thought. "But if what you guys say is true and he really was raised in the wild, it only makes sense."
"I was just thinking about that." Reyna said as she pushed open the door to her office. "The fact that he survived so long by himself in the wilderness is… admirable at the very least. He may very well prove useful to you on this quest."
Annabeth wasn't so certain. Nico had gained his allegiance through a lie. Nico alone had been the one that had got Ryker back to camp. There had been no other assistance. The child of Hades had just appeared with an unconscious and blood covered Ryker out of Percy's shadow and told them to help. Annabeth had no clue about the code of the wild, but if what Nico had said was true then Ryker was now under the impression he owed all of them his life. If that lie were to fall through, Annabeth did not want to have to fight him. She had seen him fight during the game. Greeks by definition were wild fighters, especially compared to the well-oiled machine that was the Roman legion. But Ryker was on a completely different animal, almost literally. His fighting style followed no set pattern. On top of that mercy was not at the top of things he seemed concerned with.
"Speaking of which, I don't suppose that you can offer us something in the way of transport?" Percy asked hopefully. "I mean, I appreciate the boat last time, but a car or something would be nice."
"I think that would be possible." Reyna smiled. "Especially without a certain Centurion attempting to send you to your death."
Annabeth watched Percy scowl as he undoubtedly remembered the centurion in question. She had never officially met Octavian herself, but she was not upset by this based on what Percy had said of him. She wished she could now however, if only to strangle him. Annabeth blamed him, possibly unreasonably, for Leo's death. If Octavian had not fired the onager at Leo and Gaea then possibly the son of Hephaestus could have survived the explosion he caused. Unfortunately, they would never know. "Where is Rachel by the way?" Annabeth inquired. She leaned down and patted Reyna's metal greyhound, Arget, on the head. The dog barked in appreciation and leaned into her touch. "If she doesn't know I want to ask Chiron."
"If neither of them know, what is your next idea?" Reyna inquired. "And to answer your question, Rachel is currently in the small house we had set up for her and Ella. It's not too far from here actually. If you would like, we could continue this conversation as we go to speak to her."
"Sounds good to me." Annabeth said reasonably. Reyna stood up from her seat and swept out of the door, taking the lead as befitted a Praetor. "And to answer your question, I really don't know. Any ideas?"
"You could always go to ask my sister." Reyna said delicately.
Percy winced and shook his head. "I would really rather not do that…" He said slowly. He looked to Annabeth with wide eyes and she understood why he was so hesitant against such a meeting. Hylla was the leader of the Amazons. They were a huge empire, but they were famously misanthropic. They might allow Percy, and perhaps even Nico and Will, into their base of operations but Annabeth did not see a meeting with Ryker and Hylla going so well. In fact Annabeth could easily see that meeting ending with bloodshed.
"Yeah," Annabeth mirrored Percy's wince. "That probably would not end well. If we have to, sure, but we'll have to leave Ryker tied up outside or something."
"Again, I think you confuse him for a dog." Reyna said, but she was clearly trying not to laugh. "I wouldn't try to teach him any tricks if I was you."
"No promises." Percy answered. "But like Annabeth said, I would save that for a last ditch effort. How has your sister been by the way? She stopped by Camp Half-Blood a while ago to pick up a new recruit. Didn't get a chance to speak with her though."
"She's fine, I suppose." Reyna shrugged. "I don't speak with her all that much truth be told. She has her obligations and I have mine."
"Have any amazons been taken?" Annabeth inquired.
"None as far as I know." Reyna answered. "We might not talk much, but she would most definitely tell me if something like that occurred."
Reyna stopped in front of a small house and Annabeth immediately knew that it was the home of Rachel and Ella. Books were strewn about on the porch and a makeshift nest had been made out of a mess of almanacs and dictionaries. Reyna quickly ascended the steps and knocked on the front door of the house. A brief sound of something falling over followed by muffled cursing preceded Rachel throwing open the door and blinking in the sudden glare of the afternoon sunlight. "Oh, is it morning already?"
"More like afternoon." Annabeth corrected. "You haven't been out much have you?"
"Not really." Rachel admitted, sinking down to sit on her step. Reyna stepped back and sat beside her. "I've been trying to piece together a few of the prophecies that Ella has memorized, but the problem is I'm not really sure what goes where. I don't want some poor unfortunate demigod to be sent off on a prophecy to slay a dragon only to realize they were supposed to save the dragon instead."
"I can't imagine a quest that would involve saving a dragon." Percy noted.
"Which is exactly why I want to get everything right." Rachel said tiredly. Now that she was in the sunlight Annabeth could see the dark shadows under her eyes. Losing the Oracle of Delphi had taken its toll on the mortal girl. "Anyways, why are you here? You know I can't give prophecies anymore…"
"Yeah, about that." Percy smiled at her. "We are, erm, trying to fix that situation."
"What Seaweed Brain is trying to say is that we are going to get the Oracle of Delphi back from the snake." Annabeth quickly spoke up in response to the confused look that Rachel sent her way. Percy was not very good at getting a point across. "We were hoping that you could give us an idea on where it is and how to get there."
"Snake? You mean Python?" Rachel asked suddenly serious.
"Oh, so it is a snake." Percy sighed in relief.
"No…." Rachel said slowly, looking to each of the assembled demigods as though they were insane. "Python is an earth dragon. The Earth dragon. Apollo himself had to go to fight it to take the Oracle of Delphi's spirit. It took a god to kill Python."
"Oh, well, unless Apollo is taking requests I don't think he is going to be able to do it again." Percy said. "Which means it's up to us. Again. Great."
"Are you sure about this?" Rachel asked. "I can't give you any advice or anything."
"No, but we need to know the rest of this prophecy." Annabeth answered tiredly. "Whatever it is, it has to do with the missing demigods. We need the rest of the prophecy. So this is our only real course of action."
Rachel sighed and rubbed her temples. "The only thing I know is that Python took Delphi to the same place he had her before."
"You mean the center of the Earth?" Annabeth asked, horrified. She remembered the story about how Python had lived in what was supposedly the center of the planet. "How are we supposed to get there?"
"No, no." Rachel shook her head viciously. "Not the center of the earth. That wasn't true. I can sort of still feel Delphi's spirit, but only barely. It's like a cell phone with really, really bad reception. He's deep below ground, but he isn't at the center of the Earth. The best I would say is to go east."
"I don't suppose you could tell us how far East?" Percy asked hopefully.
"I would say still in North America." Rachel answered, but she didn't sound certain. "Other than that I really couldn't say. I wish I could be more helpful."
"It's alright." Annabeth told her consolingly, one hand on her shoulder. She smiled and shrugged. "It wouldn't be a quest if we knew exactly where to go."
"That's true enough." Percy muttered moodily.
"So what's this I hear about a new demigod coming here and causing trouble?" Rachel wondered. The others looked at her in surprise and she smiled. "I might not get out that much but people do walk by my house. I hear things. Apparently he took out the three sentries?"
Reyna, Percy, and Annabeth exchanged a look and nodded in unison. Reyna quickly caught Rachel up to speed on everything that had transpired since Ryker's arrival at the Roman camp and Percy did the same for his arrival at Camp Half-Blood. Rachel listened in silence until they were both finished and then she let out a low whistle. "This guy sounds… interesting." She said with a laugh and a shake of her head. "Still… if the gods have taken that much of an interest in him he must have some big part to play in this prophecy. I think you are right to take him along."
"Well he will make things interesting at least." Annabeth admitted. She still wasn't too certain of Ryker. Daughters of Athena were masters of strategy. Strategy meant that you understood exactly what pieces you had to play and when you should play them. Ryker represented an unknown element. Unknown elements were generally the ones that undid usually sound strategies. Until Annabeth could at least understand the new demigod she wasn't entirely sure she could trust him. That lack of trust she knew could potentially get her or someone she loved killed.
One look at Percy and Annabeth knew that he was thinking along the exact same lines that she was. This quest was dangerous, that much was certain. But it was dangerous in more reasons than one. And one of those reasons was one of the demigods that they were to be joined by on this quest. "Well," Annabeth said finally, "Thanks Rachel. I'm going to go send an Iris message to Chiron and see if maybe he knows something or can give us an idea."
"Good luck." Rachel told her. She opened her mouth to say something else and then hesitated.
Annabeth saw the hesitation and turned back to face her. "What's up?" She asked.
"Nothing," Rachel said immediately. "It's just… He's the son of the goddess of mountains, right?"
"That's what Chiron said." Percy nodded.
"Well, one of the scraps of prophecy that Ella had memorized was just one line… But it went, 'and so shall mountain or end fall.' That's it though."
Percy and Annabeth exchanged a look and shrugged simultaneously. "I really hope that's a different prophecy." Percy groaned. "Because that does not sound good."
A little author's note here. I am not going to exclusively write this from Ryker's point of view. As you can see I will be switching up points of view. Thank you as always for reading. Hoping you have a wonderful holiday season. -Hallowed
