Chapter 12 ~ Adrian
"Hey! You leave her alone!" Adrian said fiercely, arriving at the scene, "Neither of us asked for this! I don't even know who asked for this. I mean it wasn't me but...I guess the Oracle did so blame her!"
Lysandra gave him a perplexed look, "Actually, the Oracle didn't make this prophecy..."
"Whatever!" Adrian frowned at her, "I'm saving your butt, genius!"
Nethrys scowled stonily and stormed away. Rolling his eyes, Adrian joined Lysandra back at the Medical bay, slinging his arm around Trudy, who had come with Adrian and moved to join him. They went back to the medical bay where Elektra was healing Katerina's leg while she talked to her.
"Hey Katerina, how's the leg?"
"Why are people so worried about my leg, its fine!" Kat reassured.
"Hey, cute boots, are they yours?" Trudy asked, nodding to the brown hunting boots at her bedside.
"Yeah, hunting boots - got them on sale!" Kat exclaimed, "Thanks for doing my hair, by the way!" She fingered her French braid from the crown of her head to back.
"No problem!" Trudy replied cheerfully. As they both started rambling on about girl business, Adrian heard choking sounds from across the bay. He could just make out Kyle through the thick crowd, choking and gargling. Adrian sprinted over to him, while Trudy and the others followed.
Adrian reached the gargling Kyle; he started pounding him on the back. Kyle reached for his throat, trying to cough out whatever was in it. Adrian continued pounding in between his shoulder blades. Kyle spluttered out water that landed on his feet, he continued vomiting up salty water, coughing and spluttering. Everyone had ran over to Kyle and made a circle around him.
"Kyle, are you okay?" Rosamynd said, concerned.
"What happened, Kyle?" Trudy asked, handing him some water, which he recoiled from and accepted nectar instead.
"I-I was drowning, I couldn't breathe properly!" Kyle panted, sitting down on a medical bed.
"You right here," Vytoni pointed out, her dark eyes narrowing in suspicion, "There's no water. You might have been dreaming, but you probably shouldn't be as traumatized as you are now, and you would know if you were in one." Kyle only shook his head, mumbling a string of curse words under his breath.
"But you're a Son of Poseidon - how could that be?" Lysandra mused.
"I know - it confuses me as well. I don't understand!"
"Describe it to us - once we understand, maybe we can figure it out," Enryx furrowed his eyebrows, taking the glass of nectar away from the demigod, "And that's enough nectar - you can literally burn up from this stuff, you know."
"There was water all around me and it pushed down on me from all sides and the more I struggled, the more disorientated I got. I pushed with my arms and legs but I couldn't find any leverage, and for all I knew I was pushing myself further down." Kyle stopped rambling, taking a deep breath as Rosamynd put a blanket over his shoulders.
"My lungs burned for more air even though I knew I would get none, but I finally couldn't take it, so I took a breath. Cold water filled my lungs and blood pounded behind my eyes and ears. The darkness engulfed me and I had nothing left in me to fight anymore, so I gave into the darkness and let the water consume me. There was a rush of cold and darkness, and I woke up, gasping with a mouth full of seawater."
"But you're alive now, and that's great!" Adrian tried to be positive about the situation. Trudy nudged him hard with his elbow, but soon rubbed it, apologizing.
"Yeah, thank the gods." Kyle sighed and leaned back while Rosamynd pressed a cool cloth on his forehead. Huh. I never knew she cared so much about the guy.
"We better tell Chiron. This is one of the strangest things that has ever happened to a Son of Poseidon!" Lysandra said, obviously frustrated.
"I'll go," Adrian took Trudy's hand, starting towards the Big House, "Don't wait up!" Vytoni and Enryx joined him as well, much to Adrian's confusion.
"Uh..."
"I was just gonna go work on my archery skills," Enryx gave them a quick wave before disappearing. Vytoni vanished as well, offering no explanation whatsoever.
"Guess it's just you and me, huh?" Trudy gave Adrian a bright smile, which he returned. They walked in silence, hurrying to deliver the news to Chiron yet grasping what little time they had together alone, basking in the warm afternoon sun.
They quickly stepped inside the Big House and found Dionysus crunching on some potato chips and sipping on his large bottle of coke. Dionysus looked up from his tray of food and saw the two standing at the doorway grasping hands and grinned.
"Hello lovebirds! What do you want?" He said his mouth full of crumbs. Adrian gave Trudy an apologetic look and held her hand tighter.
"Err... we came looking for Chiron, there was some trouble with Kyle, a Poseidon kid," Adrian explained.
"There's always trouble with Poseidon kids," Dionysus shook his head and made tutting sounds.
"Well this time it's real trouble, Kyle had a hallucination of him drowning."
"Well, I must say that is quite unusual," The God of Wine lazily snapped his fingers,and a satyr immediately brought forth yet another tray of food, "But it's nothing serious? Chiron's study is down the hall, the second door to your left. Good day, Andrew."
Adrian opened his mouth, intent on correcting him, but he closed it and turned around, taking Trudy down to the hallway, where less unhelpful souls like Chiron dwell.
"Chiron?" Adrian said, knocking on the ancient wooden door.
"Come in! I'm making travelling preparations for your quest," Chiron looked up from his desk, smiling warmly at the couple in greeting.
"The quest. Right," Once again, Adrian felt an uneasy feeling in his stomach, but he pushed it away.
"What do you need, kids?" Chiron asked, looking at some papers on his desk.
"Well, just recently, like a few minutes ago, Kyle Brenna, a kid of Poseidon just had a hallucination that he was drowning, which is strange for a kid of Poseidon."
"Ah, Kyle, take me to him!" Chiron stood up from his wheelchair and instantly in all his centaur form glory.
They ran -well, Chiron galloped- back to the medical bay, where Kyle was sitting up, still pale and shaking but otherwise looking better.
"Kyle, is everything alright?" Chiron asked urgently. Kyle nodded and sighed, shifting and trying to sit up straighter to face the centaur. Rosamynd rushed over to him, helping him up and giving him some water.
"Remind me to take more precautions while going underwater."
"You should take more precautions while going underwater," Adrian reminded. Kyle gave him a funny look and shook his head while laughing sarcastically. Everyone waited as Kyle explained everything all over again to Chiron who was listening intently.
"It felt so real, Chiron - like I was actual drowning, which I've never experienced before." Kyle shook his head again, sinking into his pillows.
"What is your greatest fear, if I may ask, Kyle?" Chiron asked softly. Kyle's looked up at him, terror clouding his sea green eyes. He uttered a word, so softly that Adrian barely heard it. Barely.
Drowning.
"What?!" Lysandra looked at the demigod, worry in her voice, "But-you're a-"
"I don't know," Kyle sighed, slumping back down onto his gurney, "I just don't know."
"That explains everything!" Chiron whispered, "I'll find you kids later and explain talk it through with you. I have to do my research first."
Chiron galloped off back to the Big House which left the Godlings standing there, confused. They let Kyle rest for a while as they headed to back to Katerina's bed, where Elektra was still tending to her leg with a few other kids from the Apollo cabin.
"Wow, legs that's bad?" Adrian asked.
"Apparently, if they don't close the wound soon then tons of bacteria and poisons could get in there, then I'd have to chop of my leg if it did, and I like my legs in a pair, thank you very much!" Kat said.
"It will heal soon," Elektra reassured for what seemed like the thousandth time, "Don't worry." Katerina rolled her eyes then laughed, though Adrian couldn't tell if she was still worrying or not.
"It's probably gonna heal in a few days," Adrian said again, While Elektra nodded in agreement and started to treat some other demigod who had broken her arm.
"So," Adrian and Trudy were the only ones at Katerina's bedside, "Why were you in that forest, anyways?"
"Well, uh, I was exploring -you know, enjoying the world outside of the Underworld," Kat said, wiping the blade of her long dagger, then tossing it back on the table, nearly hitting Adrian's hand. He frowned, retracted his hand and putting it back around Trudy's waist.
"The underworld? You live in the underworld?" Adrian looked at the girl in front of him. She doesn't seem like the Underworld type...
"Yeah, with Hades," Kat informed, smiling.
"I thought you lived alone, but Hades took care of you." Poor Trudy looked as confused as he felt.
"Well, I don't. Anyways, I should take a rest if I want this goddamned leg to heal!"
"Sure, we'll just go now," Adrian said and patted Kat's head as he left with Trudy, who waved bye to her as well.
Adrian smiled and walked alongside of Trudy, holding her warm hand.
"You know, this is one of our last nights at Camp Half-Blood," Trudy whispered to him, grasping his hand tighter. Adrian nodded and frowned.
"At least we'll be together," He smiled warmly at the beautiful blonde Godling. Trudy stopped Adrian and turned to face him.
"You know Adrian, I'm really glad Nethrys left on that quest, because otherwise I wouldn't have met you." Trudy said, resting her hands on Adrian's chest and smiling up at him.
"I am too. I'm glad that I was born, and that I was raised by Ares, that I went to boot camp every single year until I was thirteen, I'm glad I-" Trudy interrupted him with a soft peck on the lips, making him grin and blush wildly. "That was the best way to interrupt someone in a middle of a rant..."
"I'm sorry!" Trudy apologized sweetly, batting her lashes teasingly up at him.
"Don't be!" Grinning, Adrian leaned down and kissed her, sweeping her up into his arms in an exaggerated motion. They pulled away, laughing but Adrian didn't put her down.
Adrian walked Trudy back to the Aphrodite cabin, stopping right outside. Adrian pulled her in for a goodnight kiss, making the Aphrodite kids giggle and swoon. They smiled at each other and Trudy went inside, turning around to wave at him again.
For some absurdly strange reason, Adrian decided to sleep in the Nemesis Cabin. I guess I just need the peace that the Ares cabin is unable to offer.
"Back again, are you?" Sighing to himself, Adrian looked up to meet Alli's challenging gaze, glaring back just as harshly.
"Listen, I've got a quest soon, so I really need to get all the sleep I can get-"
"What?"
"I need to get to sleep."
"No, before that, what did you say?"
"I have a quest soon."
Alli's tone went dangerously acrid, her practically black eyes hardening, "You are going on a quest? That is unheard of!"
"No," Adrian said triumphantly, having outsmarted her, "Nethrys Blackthorn was on a quest. He just came back."
Alli smirked, shaking her head, "Nethrys was only overseeing the demigods. He was not, however, part of the quest."
Adrian deflated, turning his back on his half-sister, "Whatever," He muttered, flopping onto his bed. Slowly, he felt the tides of sleep tugging at him, so he let go and sank deeply into the dream world.
"Wake up," A voice hissed, snapping Adrian out of the blissful sleep he had so enjoyed. Drowsily, he looked up and saw Enryx standing in front of him.
He groaned, and then yawned loudly, making the archer recoil, "It's eight in the morning," He rubbed his eyes, "Can't a guy get some sleep done here?"
"This is your last day at Camp Half-Blood," Enryx said urgently, "So we need to get cracking."
~~~ END OF CHAPTER 12 ~~~