CHAPTER 13 - Fay

Whilst the other demigods were fighting, Fay, the daughter of Poseidon, was healing.

She lost consciousness when she was thrown by Hercules, the G force taking its toll on her. She awoke to a bright light. The Sun. She was floating in the ocean; face up, the sun high and bright above her. She shook herself slowly. She was breathing underwater, as she had learned she could do years ago, after Poseidon claimed her. She had spent days in the canoe lake, talking to the naiads and practising her water manipulation powers. Looking down at her, she saw that she was a little sunburnt from floating here. Concentrating, she willed the water to heal her. When she was submerged in ocean water, it would automatically heal most wounds, especially the life-threatening ones, but with things like sunburn, usually a minor irritation, took her will to heal. It probably wasn't important enough unless she asked for it.

She rotated herself until she was floating head-up, and she willed the water to push her to the surface. Her head bobbed up and she willed herself dry - she could do that too. Unless she wanted to be wet, she could make herself bone-dry, even in water. She liked Poseidon's abilities, and was happy that she was his daughter.

Looking around, she tried to work out where she was. She was in the ocean, and couldn't see land immediately. That worried her. How far had Hercules thrown her? She concentrated again, and her exact coordinates popped into her head. It was of no use to her though, since she couldn't use them to find land, only her position. Being stranded in the ocean wasn't a big problem for her, since she could manipulate the water and breathe under it, but it was a problem nonetheless. What if Noah and Connor needed her help against Atlas and Hercules? She wondered how much time had passed. Had Kurt found a way to get out from under the weight of the sky? Had Noah found the Epirus bow again? They could both be dead, for all she knew.

She sighed, and focused on trying to locate land. She concentrated, willing the water to pusher up even more, until she was standing on it. She willed the water to solidify and hold her weight wherever she walked, and she thought that was pretty cool. It had taken her a long time to work out how to walk on water, and make it solidify on command. She willed a wave to lift her even higher, and then solidify when it reached its apex. That gave her a decent view of her surroundings, and an easier way to spot land. But she saw nothing. Hercules really must've thrown her far. She wondered if Noah and Connor were looking for her, when she had an idea. She released the wave and plunged back into the ocean. She then summoned all her concentration, and pushed out a telepathic plea for help from all of the marine life in the area. Then she waited. It didn't take long for the first fish to appear, a small tuna fish that kept repeating daughter of the sea god, daughter of the sea god, into her mind. She smiled and stroked it slowly, and it nuzzled her hand in response, and swam around her in circles, obviously happy with her presence. Then the bigger fish began to appear, and a few sharks swam lazily up to her, nuzzling her gently. She stroked the sharks and greeted them telepathically.

This was one of her coolest abilities, one she loved to use and did so regularly. She visited the ocean at least once a week to talk to the fish, and usually attracted at least one shark, as long as she was deep enough.

Hello, she said into their minds, I need to find land. Do you know where the closest land is? One of the bigger sharks swam forwards and turned down slightly, offering her its dorsal fin to hold. She obliged, and it swam away from the gathered fish, which all started to follow, as they raced through the ocean.

They arrived at Bolinas Bay after an hour, and the shark stopped, bobbing in the water. She stroked it one last time, thanked it, and it nuzzled her before turning and leaving. Once again she stood on the water, looking at the bay in front of her. She was back in San Francisco. The funnel cloud above Mount Tam was almost gone, but she could still see where the sky became solid. She hoped that meant the trouble had passed and they weren't dead. She willed the water to push her forwards and she stepped onto the beach. Looking around, she was surprised to see her staff further up the beach, impaled in the sand and sticking vertically upwards. She remembered letting go of it when she was thrown - this must be where it fell to. She walked over to it, smiling, and lifted it out of the sand. She spun it, and put it into the sheathe on her back. She also had a dagger strapped around her waist, but she didn't really like using it.

She walked up the beach, and back onto dry land. She walked onto the highway, heading towards Mount Tam. After half an hour of walking, she reached the turn-off, and saw that the car was gone. That meant that it had either been taken away by the authorities, or that they had survived and left. She was really hoping for the second to be true. She had no idea where to go now, where they could possibly have gone. She turned around to get back onto the highway when she spotted a monster. It was a hellhound, and it was running. She made a split-second decision and followed it. It wasn't running very fast, and she was feeling 110% after her time in the ocean - it had invigorated her, filled her with energy. She ran after the hellhound as it ran through a wood, managing to keep it in her sight. It ran across roads, through neighbourhoods and more woods, and she didn't fall too far behind. As they got closer to Bothin Marsh, the hellhound slowed down, and started sniffing the air alot. Maybe it could smell her, she wondered, and slowed down. But no, as they reached the marsh, it ran to a larger group of monsters. They were all moving further into San Francisco, and she wondered what they could be doing. Then the thought struck her. Noah and Connor. They had made it out, and the monsters were chasing them. That had to be it.

The monsters were marching down the middle of the road, and though the motorists obviously couldn't see them for what they really were because of the Mist, something was obviously amiss. As cars neared, they either turned around and screeched away, or abandoned, as the mortal ran away in the opposite direction. She used this to her advantage and got into a coupe, the keys still in the ignition. She knew how to drive, she had taught herself at the camp. She and the Stoll brothers hotwired the camp van and took it out for a drive every now and then.

She put it into drive, and floored the gas. She rocketed past the monsters, and she hoped they didn't smell her, as she drove ahead of them, hoping to find more on the same trail, or Noah and Connor themselves. It involved a lot of trial and error, and taking alot of wrong turns, but every now and then was a small clusters of monsters, moving in the same direction. It was like breadcrumbs. She followed the trail with varying degrees of success. Sometimes she took a wrong turn because they looked like they were headed down one road, but they would go down another instead. It was confusing. She hoped she was going the right way when she drove across the Richmond bridge, making sure to pay the toll and act as old as she could. She was 17, so it wasn't hard, and the toll booth attendant didn't seem to care.

She was soon back on track as some monsters were leaving the bridge too, a group of hellhounds charging down the path ahead of her. She didn't have to pass these, as they were fast enough for her to follow, so she did. She followed the highway until it reached the Caldecott Tunnel, which is where the hellhounds stopped, sniffed, and ran into the maintenance tunnel. She stopped the car and sighed. A maintenance tunnel? A dead end. Until she saw the car parked near it. The sedan Noah and Connor had taken. It was them! They were here. But so were monsters, and they were honing in on them from miles around. She got out of the coupe, feeling uneasy, and headed into the tunnel.