(Author's Note: Eek! I haven't updated in a while, have I? Please don't destroy my essence! Anyhow, read and review? :) I will shower you will cookies... someday. Disclaimer: Though I do own the books of both the 39 Clues and PJO, I am not the possessor of their copyrights. Therefore, both of these remarkable series are not mine. xD)

Chapter Four

Hippie-Ponies

"Nikko, wake up. It's morning." I heard as a small hand nudged my shoulder. I sat up quickly, excited for our day ahead of us.

I hadn't bothered to change out of my clothes and into pajamas last night, so I excused the idea of changing into fresh clothes.

My eyes soon came into focus after I yawned and stretched. Trees surrounded me. Wherever I was, it was cold. My watch told me it was a quarter past five. Whether it was in the morning, or during the night, I had no idea. Tyson, the three other orphans, and I had trudged through snow for what had seemed like hours yesterday. For all I knew, it could have actually been two days ago, I felt like I had slept for so long.

"Nikko," the voice repeated.

"Oh!" I started, nearly jumping out of my skin.

Apparently, my eyes had not adjusted as well as I had thought, for Shannon, the youngest orphan, had been watching me the whole time, from not even five feet away.

After I had calmed down, I faced the six-year-old. "Where's Mr. T?" I asked.

"Tyson?" she replied. I hadn't known that she knew our guardian as Tyson. "He is waking the other two. Me and him have been up for hours."

"Where are the other two, anyway?" I mumbled.

"Have to talk louder," she chided me. I groaned exaggeratedly; I should have remembered how difficult it was to deal with Shannon.

"Never mind," I grumbled, but loud enough for her to hear. I stood and looked around.

"Where are we?" I asked, not that I expected Shannon to know.

"By water." Was her answer. I huffed. I supposed that's what I got for asking a six-year-old.

Shannon quickly grasped my hand and led me through the trees. I only had just enough time to snatch my backpack that I had apparently used for a pillow last night unto my back as Shannon broke into a swift trot.

The trees opened into a clearing, which Shannon led me to. The clearing spread out to reveal a large body of water, easily a lake or possibly ocean. Mr. T was crouched over the water. From behind, it looked like he might have been sick. The two other orphans, Midge and Valentino, watched him warily.

Unlike Shannon, Midge is fairly tall, but nowhere as tall as Valentino. He's taller than me, not that that's saying anything, and he just turned fourteen, whereas I'm fifteen. Midge is twelve, and I think she's proud of it. She had been getting tired of being called "kid" by me. She says that ever since she was ten, she has the reserved right of being called an adult. Yeah, right. And she still hangs on to every word that Mr T., Tyson, says during story time. All of them do, actually, even Valentino.

Midge looked frightening with her bed head, her reddish blonde hair sticking out all over the place. She wore a simple deep gray parka and pink ski pants, which definitely went perfectly with her hideous neon green snow boots. She didn't seem to notice that she was scaring all wild animals in the vicinity.

Valentino looked…bored. His blindingly light blonde hair was covered in flakes of snow, making him look like he had a serious case of dandruff. His dark green turtle neck could be seen protruding from his brown winter coat. He wore white jeans that looked vaguely familiar; had he taken them from my drawer?

Shannon and I shuffled over to the trio, trying to understand what in the heck Tyson was doing.

When we got close enough, I wondered if I was still dreaming. Tyson was… speaking to three large creatures in the water. They looked like …horses? I was asking myself over and over again how they possibly floated in the cold water. What they were, I didn't want to know. Shannon, however, did.

"What," she croaked. "Are those?" She shrieked as she ran toward the beasts. Tyson made no move to stop her, so I guessed that the whatever-they-weres weren't dangerous.

"These fabulous creatures," Tyson smiled, "are hippocampi."

No, of course Shannon didn't ask what a hippocampus was. No, she didn't ask why Tyson had gone to all the trouble of bringing them here. And certainly, she did give me enough time to ask if anyone else was feeling as weirded out as I was. What Shannon did ask, surprise, surprise, was what the "hippie-ponies'" names were.

According to Tyson, the largest in the middle he had christened "Rainbow" when he was young. He sure loved all three of them a whole lot, but Rainbow seemed sort of special to him. The other two's names were Smitt and Foaln. Shannon immediately recognized Tyson's closeness to Rainbow and fell over herself to make Smitt and Foaln feel loved, as if Tyson hadn't cared for them at all.

"But what are they for?" I finally had the courage to ask. Shannon sent daggers with her eyes at me; daring me to mention anything other than love hippocampi were useful for.

"Travel," Valentino answered numbly. He didn't look too happy about it.

"What, via water?" I snorted. Valentino nodded sharply.

"You're crazy, right? We don't even know if these things could hold us. I mean, look at them! They don't exactly look like boats!" I exasperated.

"Nikolai! They have ears!" Tyson warned, a bit too late. The hippocampi had already shot freezing water from their mouths unto my already cold self.

"Sorry," I grumbled, irritated with the hippie-ponies.

Midge stepped in. "Nick's right." I scoffed at the nickname; it just wasn't me. Midge continued, "How will we five, plus our bags, all fit on three hippocampi?"

Tyson grunted. "Hadn't thought of that." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. He peered at the hippocampi.

"You guys don't happen to have any friends, do you?" he asked them. They seemed to laugh as if that was a joke. Duh! Their expressions seemed to say.

The head hippocampus, Rainbow, stuck his mouth in the water and… screamed? Whatever he did, he sent crazy vibrations through the water.

In no time at all, two other hippocampi had emerged from the icy waters. Rainbow stared thoughtfully at Tyson, and he stared back. This, I thought, was one of their forms of communication.

Tyson clapped his hands excitedly. "Meet Steve and Mike!" he announced. Shannon laughed happily, but Valentino, Midge, and I looked at each other pointedly. Note to self: Five hippie-ponies maximum per day for Shannon.

Ever rode a horse? Okay, maybe you've ridden a horse, but have you ever tried to straddle a fish? If so, you'll know what I mean when I say that riding a hippocampi was no fun at all. From Valentino's green face and Midge's pained expression, I could tell that they weren't enjoying the experience any more than I was. Our groaning was only overpowered by Shannon's screams of merriment and Tyson's yells of encouragement.

My hippocampus was like a jet ski. It jumped over the waves one by one, and I could just tell that it knew how much fun I was having. I had gotten stuck with Steve, the grumpiest of the hippocampi. Tyson would of given Shannon the privilege of riding Rainbow, but no other hippocampus could hold his weight. Shannon had been torn between Smitt and Foaln, but ended up choosing Mike. He had been looking very lonely, in her opinion. Midge had boarded Smitt, while Valentino seriously tried not to throw up on his first quarter of a mile on Foaln.

After what had seemed like, and quite possibly was, hours and hours, a small beach came into view. I hadn't even noticed that the water splashing had had its temperature rise considerably. For the most part, we had rode in silence. I could tell that we orphans, excluding Shannon, were feeling overwhelmed. No doubt still in the land of dreams, I reasoned. Half-fish, half-horses? That didn't even happen on Animal Planet.

"Land ho!" Shannon called from a hundred feet ahead of us.

"W-what's t-t-that?" Valentino managed through clamoring teeth.

Tyson's voice was filled with longing and we could just feel his homesickness. "That, my children, is Camp Half-Blood."

(Author's Note: Thanks for reading, please review! ;D)