Journal #6, continued
Third Camp Half-Blood
The inside of Third Camp Half-Blood's library had a dazzling marble floor and rich mahogany walls kind of like the New York Public Library; along the walls were frescos of important events in the history of Camp Half-Blood like that time Percy recovered Zeus's master bolt and the time you recovered the Golden Fleece Clarisse. There were comfy chairs where several campers were reading on those Kindle thingies (though these ones were made of Celestial Bronze).
"So what did you have in mind to research?" asked Andi as she led us down a corridor.
"I kind of wanted to research this guy I know, he's… kind of important to me," I said.
"Is he your boyfriend?" asked Andi with a mischievous glint in her eyes that reminded me so much of Percy (but then she was descended from him).
I sighed, "He's my acolyte and I'd so love it if that happened but… being a Traveler complicates things."
"I understand," said Andi as she gave me a sympathetic look.
Before long Andi brought us to a room with a computer that looked exactly like the one Patrick had showed us at the New York Public Library, only made of Celestial Bronze (I was beginning to detect a pattern among camp electronics).
"So why's everything made of bronze?" asked Patrick.
"Normal electronics sendoff signals that attract monsters, but the great inventor from Hephaestus cabin, Charles Beckendorf, discovered that making electronics out of Celestial Bronze prevents this from happening."
"Wait Charles Beckendorf, as in born in Stony Brook, Connecticut at the turn of the 21st century?" I asked.
"Well who else would it be? Here I'll pull him up on…"
"Actually that's who I wanted to research."
"Shut up! Your boyfriend is the Charles Beckendorf!" exclaimed Andi with glee.
"Wow, Charlie must be really famous."
"He's only about the most famous Hephaestus camper who ever lived! Not only did he revolutionize demigod technology, and was apparently one of your acolytes, but he was also the first casualty of Titanomachy II. In fact you could say he was the Crispus Attucks of Camp Half-Blood," said Andi.
Charlie, I know this must be hitting you really, really, really, really hard; I'm still nervous about what Saint Dane made my face feel like it was on fire and how that's what it would be like if I hadn't become a Traveler (still no clue what he meant, and it makes me even more nervous), but… oh what's the point? No matter what I felt then, it can't possibly compare to what you must be feeling.
Andi looked like she'd just said something she shouldn't have (which technically she did), and everyone else was looking just as mortified as I felt.
"If something happened to Clarisse…I don't want to know," I whispered.
"I understand, perhaps it's for the best you not know, just look at what happened to Oedipus," said Andi.
After that being at Third Camp Half-Blood seemed kind of pointless and we were all about to make our way to the flume when a thought occurred to me.
"Hey Spader, wasn't Saint Dane's plot for Frist Earth's turning point to alter the course of history so that the Hindenburg would survive and the Nazis would get the atomic bomb and take over the world?"
"Sure was, why?"
"So then the past can be changed and the future can be altered," I implored (I think that's the right word).
"So then we could save Beckendorf from getting kill! Hobey, that's brilliant Silena!" said Spader.
Aja frowned at this, "Look I want to save Beckendorf as much as you but… well what if he's meant to die?"
"The past is alterable, clearly fate's not an issue," Andi pointed out.
"I know but… well as Travelers we're not supposed to interfere with the natural course of events, and if we were to alter events of Second Earth that would defiantly be messing with the way things were meant to be."
"But it's only Charlie! What's the worst that could happen?"
"Well the Hindenburg was just an airship, and look how that nearly turned out," said Spader.
"Are you with me or against me?" I snapped.
"I was just sayin!"
"But then again you did say that Saint Dane told you that something was going to happen to you before you became a Traveler, so maybe it wouldn't be all that bad since Beckendorf is an acolyte," said Aja.
"I'll stay here and research everything I can, and I'll get my acolyte Theo Rodriguez to help me," said Andi.
"Rodriguez? Any relation to Chris Rodriguez?" I asked.
"Sure, Chris is his ancient ancestor, and so is Clarisse La Rue. You know interestingly enough Theo's name is short for Theseus, even though the original Theseus was a son of Poseidon, while Theo's a son of Hades."
"Clarisse, survived! She really survived!" I shouted ecstatically.
We offered to take Andi with us to Cloral, but she turned us down so she and Theo could research more efficiently, but promised she'd keep us updated on any developments. Before the five of us who were traveling were facing the flume, and we gave Spader the honor of shouting out "Cloral!" and springing the flume into action.
"Remember to put your feet together right before the flume drops us off," advised Spader as we were whisked past the chaotic mass of images.
Right before the music grew more intense to announce the end of the flume ride I could hear something I can best describe as a rushing of water, and I put my feet together like Spader had instructed. Go thing I listened because as soon as the music grew most intense instead of gently setting us down the flume dropped us into a pool of water! Spader, Aja, Siry, and I perfectly dove into the water, but Patrick belly-flopped (hard).
"That was kind of fun!" I laughed after we surfaced.
"That hurt!" groaned Patrick.
"Welcome to Cloral everybody!" said Spader enthusiastically as he tossed me a fruit that looked like a cucumber, but the inside was red and sweet and kind of reminded me of a watermelon.
"So if Cloral's all ocean shouldn't you be like a fish?" asked Siry as he took a bite of one of the fruit that was growing in the cavern.
"Well the scholar-does thing that Cloral had land at one point, but the ocean swallowed it up, and that's why the habitats were built. Of course the city of Faar covered themselves in a huge dome and guided the habitats from below the surface, but more on that later. Let's suit up!"
At the edge of the pool were five wetsuits and air-globes; the wetsuits were normal enough, but the air-globes took some getting used to. The way the air-globes work is that they perfectly conform to your head, have this thing on the back (that kind of looks like a silver harmonica) that perfectly recycles the oxygen in your breath to provide air, and they have some sort of communication system that allows you to actually talk to each other instead of using hand signals.
"Right, me acolyte Wu Yenza will be waiting for us when we get to the surface. To control your buoyancy adjust the controls on your wetsuit belts and just swim normally. Hobey Ho, let's go!" said Spader.
I'd have to say that of all the territories I've seen so far I can best describe Cloral as paradise; the water was crystal clear and the coral reefs were lush and vibrant. The fish were bright and colorful, many reminded me of fish of fish from Second Earth, but other were more exotic; I saw some pink ones that kind of looked like CDs, and I saw these silver ones that kind of looked like dolphins on diet pills.
"Spinney-fish!" said Spader.
"Yes?" I responded.
"No not spinney-fish as in you! I mean those silver fish you were looking at, they're spinney-fish. I might have to show you how to play spinney-do with'em."
We surfaced next to a sleek, streamlined boat that had these pontoon things on the side that Spader mentioned were used for propulsion. Wu Yenza had short black hair, was kind of Asian looking like Spader, and was wearing an aquaneer uniform that looked more official than Spader's.
"So this is why you've been keeping away, eh Spader?" teased Yenza as she glanced at Aja and me and playfully punched Spader's arm.
"Well I might have been doing other things, but they are a nice bonus!"
Aja glare at Spader was practically like draggers, "Look here you, I… I… I'm gonna vomit!"
And not long after that Aja did, all over Spader.
"Oh Aja please stop, I'm a sympa…" but Patrick never got the chance to finish, because soon he was punking too, though Siry was his unfortunate victim.
"I take it you haven't got your sea-legs yet Aja," said Yenza as she hosed off Spader and Siry.
"Not exactly, Veelox has plenty of dry land and my old job didn't exactly take me out on boats or… oh gods, my stomach," groaned Aja as she leaned over the side of the boat.
"Say Yenza, you still got me old skimmer?" asked Spader, his eyes wild with excitement.
"Of course, it's on the side of the boat waiting for ya."
Yenza hadn't even finished before Spader was over the side of the boat and revving the engines of the skimmer (which had the same weird pontoons for propulsion as the boat).
"Last one to Grallion buys the sniggers!"
Personally I probably would have enjoyed having the wind in my hair and the endless sea stretched before me just a bit more if I hadn't had to listen to Aja and Patrick barfing over the side of the boat. Fortunately, I was able to put that behind me once I got my first glimpse of Grallion; at first I thought it was an island, it was just that huge, but as we got closer I could see the it was clearly made of metal (well it look like metal). Yenza docked us on the lower level and lead us up the stairs and past the internal workings of Grallion.
"Are all of those machines made of plastic?" I asked.
"Yes they are, keeping things light-weight is key to keeping Grallion a float," said Yenza.
When we made it to the top of Grallion we were greeted by… miles and miles of farm land! No seriously, we were standing on a farm the size of an island, in the middle of the ocean!
"I don't believe it!" said Siry in complete awe (which is exactly what I was feeling).
"How can you not believe it? It's right here!" said Spader.
"No it's not that, it's just… wow! On Ibara we've got wooden boats with sails, while you guys on Cloral are building your own islands."
"Don't get too impressed, they may have master maritime affairs, but they haven't figured out movies yet," said Aja as she clutched her stomach.
"Oh right… what's a movie?" asked Siry.
As we passed field after field of what appeared to be apple trees Spader lead us to a row of buildings; there was everything you expect to find in a little town, a grocery store, a music store, a library, a pub, and housing for the workers. When we made it to Spader's house he gave us some paper and pencils that I used to write the first part of this journal, and after that he made us dinner, which consisted of some kind of fish that taste really good when served cold, and the infamous sniggers. Sniggers are kind of like reverse cream soda, when it first hits your tongue it has kind of sour, but if you hold it in your mouth it turns reallllly sweet.
"Wow, I see why you talk about sniggers so much!" I said after my umpteenth glass.
"Hobey Ho and now you know! But I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cut you and Patrick off," said Spader.
"And how many glasses have you had Spader?" asked Patrick, who was on a big of a sugar rush as I was.
There was an awkward pause before Spader spoke again, "Actually I guess another round wouldn't hurt."
"Hey Aja can I ask you something?" asked Siry.
"Sure."
"Are you feeling okay?"
"What do you mean?" asked Aja as she arched her eyebrow in suspicion.
"Well when we first came to Cloral you were okay, but this entire trip you've been spewing like a fountain," said Siry.
"Well… I guess I've been feeling a little under the weather…"
"But Aja, you've never been sick a day in your life, like all Travelers. Why would you start now?" I asked.
"Well people can vomit when they're nervous about something," offered Patrick.
Nervous, now what could… could it be? Could Aja have actually fallen for Spader? As the possibilities rushed thru my head Aja must have sense what I was thinking because her eyes grew wide with terror.
"Well, we've had a busy day. I'm just gonna turn in for the night if it's all the same to all of you," said Aja as she tried to inch away.
"Oh no you don't missy! Now get back here and…" but before I could finish Aja whirled around and wacked me so hard on my nose that I stumbled back a few feet.
"Any other questions you'd care to ask?" snarled Aja as she stomped off to the room we were sharing.
"No," I squeaked as I rubbed my nose and prayed to my mom that it wasn't broken or crooked.
We all paused for a moment before I got to my feet and broke the silence.
"Be honest, how bad is it?"
"Not that bad all things considered; nothing appears to be broken, might be a little sore but no swelling," said Patrick.
In order to keep me safe Spader offer me the couch to sleep on, and Siry sleep on the floor near me just in case. That night I had the weirdest dream, I dreamed that I was back at Camp Half-Blood and Kasha was with me, but she was wearing this tall red and white stripped hat and speaking only in rhymes; like at one point I remember her saying, "Where is Gunny? I think he's funny. My rhyming skills are really quite crummy."
Suddenly I was jolted awake when I felt myself being dragged off of the couch, as I got more awake I realize it was Aja doing it! I tried to scream for help, but Aja had her hand clamped tight over my mouth and my cries for help were muffled.
"Relax! I'm not gonna slap you if that's what you're worried about!" whispered Aja.
"Hey, who painted the kitten?" muttered Siry in his sleep.
"I don't think he heard us," I whispered after Aja took her hand off my mouth.
"That was kind of the point! Now let's get this over with before we wake him!"
"Well I clearly hit a sore point so I'm gonna guess that this is about your allegedly non-existent romantic life."
"I'm not saying it was that, but I'm not deigning that it might have played a factor in why I got mad at you," said Aja patently.
"Okay, I'll hold off for a minute," I compromised.
"I know, put the cookies in my shoes," said Siry in his sleep (Aja and I tried sooooo hard not to laugh at that).
"Does he always do this?"
"Oh yeah, but not like he'd ever tell you!" snickered Aja.
"I love you Aja Killian," said Siry as he wrapped his arms around Aja's leg and snored happily.
"Siry? Are you awake?" asked Aja tentatively, and as if in response Siry's snoring grew louder.
I put my hand over my mouth in sock, "Oh my gods, you like Siry!"
"No! No I don't!" hissed Aja.
"You don't have to be so defensive…"
"I'm not being defensive! Oh what do I care? You're wrong, and nothing you think can change that!" screamed Aja, so loud that it woke Siry.
"Huh? What the… why am I holding your leg?" yawned Siry in confusion.
"I…you…I'm getting some air!"
Siry looked at me confused for a minute, but next thing I knew he grabbed my hand and was dragging me out the door.
"What you doing?" I exclaimed.
"Well, you want to know what she was going on about don't you?" asked Siry.
"Yeah, but why are you so interested?"
Siry paused for a minute, like I had caught him off guard, "I guess I should explain how things work on Ibara. Well as you know Ibara is an alternate version of Veelox where you guys failed to stop Lifelight and people continued to get increasingly more decanted. Eventually it all got to be too much for the phaders couldn't handle it anymore and decided to give up and restart society without the evils of excessive technology, and they did this on the island of Ibara, which is where the territory gets its name. They kept certain technologies like electricity for fans and artificial lights, but nothing that could get on Lifelight level advanced ever again."
"Okay, so how does Aja figure into all of this?" I inquired.
"Well it's not Aja per say, but more her equivalent in the alternate universe. She was the one who set the plan in motion but… she got assassinated before the phader were all due to leave for Ibara," said Siry.
Charlie, remember that scientist guy you told me about who had that idea about a cat being dead in one universe, but alive in another? Well I think this is pretty much the same as that but with two Ajas instead of two cats.
"So she's like your idol, and blasting around Halla with her is like a dream come true for you?"
"Basically."
Siry was clearly interested in Aja, but not necessarily in a romantic sense (though I could defiantly detect that this might not be entirely true), and I could detect hints of a possible love-triangle among Aja, Siry, and Spader. In order to cover more ground we barrowed (let me repeat, barrowed, not stole) one of the golf cart thingies workers on Grallion drive around in; after passing row after row of fruits trees were about to give up when I caught sight of something moving ever so slightly in one of the trees (thank you demigod ADHD powers).
"Stay back, she's probably still mad and I need to get her calm first," I cautioned.
"Oh trust me, you should have seen her when we were training on Zadaa!" said Siry.
I cautiously approached the row of trees, not just because it might be Aja, but also because it might not be Aja and it would look suspicious with me and Siry being out so late at night; the next thing I knew Aja swung down from the tree and looked at me with an "oh, it's you" look.
"Okay, you do realize that when I was training with Loor on Zadaa she taught me seven different ways to kill someone, don't you?" asked Aja.
"You wouldn't kill a fellow Traveler. Even you know that's defiantly not the way it was meant to be," I said, narrowing my eyes and smiling slyly.
Aja seemed mildly impressed by this, "Nicely played, and nice persistence, but I'm not telling you anything."
"Oh you don't need to, it's that obvious."
"It is?"
"Oh totally. You like Siry because he looks at you like you're a goddess, and I'm willing to bet that you've never had that happen before; but you also have feelings for Spader, but you don't want to admit that you could possibly be attracted to him because of how totally opposite you guys are. I just love a good romance drama, don't you?" I said, and now it was my turn to smile confidently while Aja looked like a deer in the headlights.
"That's… kind of accurate," squeaked Aja.
Okay I'd had my fun, now it was time to be a good Aphrodite-girl and help Aja with her romantic problems. I was about to give her a hug when Siry rushed up to us.
"Oh hey, fancy meeting you two here," said Siry as he winked at me. "So I was just out for a stroll and… you might want to come see this."
We all loaded into the cart and Siry gave directions until we were at the edge of the habitat, where we heard a strange scrapping that seemed to be coming from under the habitat.
"Is something wrong with those gears and things?" I asked.
"Look closer, but not too close," remarked Siry cryptically.
Aja and I leaned over the railing and squinted out eyes to see… a sea serpent! There was an enormous sea serpent (do sea serpents come in any other sixes really?) that was scratching up against the side of the habitat!
"Well, so much for training," I gulped nervously.
I'm going to end the journal here, because if something goes wrong with the sea serpent (so far there's only one, but that could change) then I might not be able to write for a while.
I love you both and hope I can write to you again soon,
Silena.
End of Journal # 6
Well looks like a lot's happening on Cloral, but there's plenty going on at Second Camp Half-Blood as we'll see next chapter!