VIII HAZEL
NOW THEY WERE AT SEA AGAIN, sailing toward Athens.
Annabeth had taken control of the ship, since she was the only member of the crew other than Leo who had half an idea of what all the shiny exploding buttons did. Hazel and Frank had found her and Percy near the center of town, just when half a dozen telkhines decided to show up their ugly dog faces. (Gaea was obviously knowing what she was doing if she sent four empousai, eleven basilisks, and six telkhines to destroy seven teenagers.) Right on cue, the Argo II hit a spectacular entrance performance and shot the rest of the monsters out with the ballistae.
Percy and Frank were on guard duty while Jason took a midday nap. Piper was helping Hazel clean up the mess in the mess hall.
"Quite a fight," Piper noticed. Poison sat in little puddles all around the room, and all the furniture was overturned. Even her cornucopia was considerably less shiny.
"Yeah," Hazel agreed as she tossed a pillow at Piper, who in turn put it down on one of the recliners. The TV was broken, frozen right when the Canadian team was about to score a goal in their opponent's net. The coffee table was utterly destroyed, obliterated into indefinable splinters and glass shards. The TV remote had somehow melted right onto the floor as a permanent display in the room. Hazel hoped someone fixed that before someone else tripped. "But rumour has it you were hit by a motorcycle."
Piper shrugged. "It's possible. Either way, after a little food of gods I was all better. Leo got vampire knives lodged in his shoulder."
Hazel nodded as if this were new news, even though she had already been told. "Frank turned into a weasel to scare away ten basilisks," she offered.
Piper snorted. "Seriously?" she asked, shaking out a pillow to even the feathers inside.
"They just screamed in terror and jumped over the side of the boat," Hazel continued, doing the same with another pillow.
"Do you know why?" Piper asked.
Hazel hesitated, then leaned close to her ear and whispered it. Piper made a disgusted face.
"Ew," she said. "That's messed up."
"I had the same reaction," Hazel replied. She stretched and yawned, looking around the room. It was back to how it had (mostly) been before the attack. "It's been a long day," she said. "Fighting genetically-mutated horses and monsters that have a secret fear of weasels can wear a girl down."
"Better than most days," Piper offered, and Hazel had to agree.
"Well, I'm going to hit the hay," she finished. "See you tomorrow, Piper."
"See ya," she replied, falling backwards on a recliner as Hazel left the room. She walked into her cabin and quickly brushed her teeth (it was weird how Hazel still insisted on performing normal day-to-day activities despite their dangerous circumstances), crawling into bed.
Of course, sleep meant dreams, which never meant good news.
-o-O-o-
Reyna stood with her hands on her hips on the top of a hill, facing a tiny picturesque French village as the sun set behind it. The sky was painted magnificent colours of red, yellow and blue. The praetor wore the same jeans and T-shirt she had when arriving to collect the Athena Parthenos, although her hair was let loose and was gently swaying in the breeze. She sighed and turned away from the village, revealing the forty-foot tall statue lying on its side at the foot of the opposite end of the hill. Nico lay sleeping against the mini-statue of Nike, and Hazel was shocked how pale his complexion was. All his shadowtravelling was definitely not doing him any favors.
Then there was the coach, who sat on Athena's broad ivory arm, fingering a simple paper picture. Hazel saw it to be a woman sitting behind a secretary's desk, mouth open as if voicing a protest. She was bringing a hand up to her face, but the shot was already taken. Her skin tone was pale but not deathly so, and her hair was a beautiful wavy copper that went down just past her shoulders. The slightest hint of a baby bump was visible.
Mellie, Hazel thought. Coach Hedge's wife. Frank mentioned that the two got married, but he never said anything about a baby. It was obvious by how Hedge fingered the picture that he loved and missed her terribly.
"Alas," a voice spoke from seemingly nowhere, "as much as they try, your other friends are still too far away…"
The scene around her shifted. It was the senators of Camp Jupiter and Octavian, huddled around a map of southern Long Island. Little red Xs and black dotted lines indicated battle plans. Then everything faded away to show the Camp Half-Blood demigods at the mess hall. They were all eating, but no one spoke. There was a tense silence that felt eerie and unnatural with such a large group. They were dressed up in armour and all bore weapons, prepared for any sudden attack.
Her dream changed.
Hazel stood on a street corner while a home across the road burned down. The only sound was the one of burning wood and the soft wails of a fire truck in the distance. Perhaps two minutes away, three at most.
In front of the house a woman was knelt. She wore a simple white gown and her chocolate brown hair was illuminated by the glow of the fire. A goat sadly pawed at the ground beside her. Hazel jogged across the street to meet up with her.
"What a shame," she said, her voice sorrowful but even. She hadn't turned to face Hazel, but it was as if she could tell she was there. "This was such a nice family. The mother and father loved each other so much. And they had three beautiful children, one who was not even yet two."
She paused for a moment, allowing the cries of sirens to take over the night.
"The middle child will survive the flames," she continued, drawing her finger through the dirt in front of her. "No one else. He will be raised in foster homes, where people are paid to love him. He will grow up, get a job, and eventually die of old age. He will never know a true family." The woman placed a hand over her heart. "If Gaea rises, so many innocent families will be crushed. So many lives will be grown without the love of a brother or sister, or a mother or father." She looked up to face the bright flickering flames once more.
"Only you and your companions, Hazel Levesque, can stop Gaea," she continued. "But she will try to stop you. She will try to separate you and try to kill you, like she did in Ithaca. Then she shall rise, and it will be the end of the world. The earth herself will destroy all gods and demigods."
The goddess went silent, her eyes closed. Hazel thought she had forgotten about her, until a minute later she added, "You will not be able to defeat her by yourself. Seek the help of someone nearby." Another brief pause. "Do not let any more families such as this one suffer," she finished.
The goddess got to her feet and ran barefoot down the street. The goat turned to face Hazel, brayed once, and bounded after her. The approaching sirens faded into the background. The bright burning colours of the fire dimmed. Hazel tried to call out to her, but everything was melting together…
She woke to Frank shaking her shoulder.
"Get up," he said. "We're having a meeting."
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