Chapter 3: The Long Journey Begins…. Sort of
After I was done Sally hugged me and gave me some food and money for the road and I headed off on my adventure. For my first stop on the tour I would be visiting my cousins in Long Island, New York. My cousins Alex and Kerrigan were my age and they were also my best friends. We'd been through a lot together and I knew they'd help me on my long journey. I dug around in my bag for some cash and came up with $15 and Sally had given me $10. I had $25, that wasn't enough to take a train to Long Island, much less New York. I thought about my bus ride in and decided to take a bus to from Augusta to Portland. Twenty-five dollars should be enough or so I'd hoped.
"HEY WATCH WHERE YOUR GOING, LITTLE GIRL!" called some man that I'd bumped into.
"Sorry," I apologized.
He left and I looked down in front of me and his wallet was sitting on the sidewalk. I looked to see if anyone was looking and then I snatched it up into my open hands. Immediately I opened it and there was $500 inside. Thank the gods, I had been saved by a random man on the street. I thought about what the man looked like. He'd been wearing a pin-striped suit and he had long gray hair with a matching mustache.
Zeus!
He'd known I was in trouble and he sent me some money. I looked in the secret pocket and found six golden drachma in it. Instantly I knew I needed to Iris message Luke Castellan. I grabbed a drachma and looked for an apartment complex. People milled down the streets and I followed hoping someone would walk to an apartment. Finally, a collage age woman went to an apartment complex and I went around the back and thank the gods, found a hose! I picked it up and threw a drachma into the water.
"O goddess, accept my offering."
The mist shimmered enough to make a faint rainbow.
"Show me Luke Castellan," I said, "Somewhere along the East Coast."
The goddess spoke, "Please deposit three more drachma to find Luke Castellan."
I tossed in some coins and an image of Luke sitting on a city bench appeared. His head was resting on the back of the bench and he appeared to be sleeping.
"Luke!" I called. He instantly woke up and I laughed.
"Thalia? What did you need and what did you do to your hair?" he asked and I'd never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life.
"I cut it off and dyed it. Where are you?"
"A Long Island bus stop, where are you?"
"Augusta." I said, "Can you do me a favor?"
"Of course, what do you need?"
"Since you're in Long Island can you look for Alex Mireles and Kerrigan Healy? There my cousins."
"Sure, I'll Iris message you later."
"Bye Luke and good luck." The image faded and I looked for a bus stop. I finally found one downtown and waited. While sitting there I'd realized that I'd left my bags on the other bus! I was such an idiot! A bus stopped and turns out it was the same bus driver.
"You again," he muttered in disbelief.
"You're the one that didn't go to collage!" I taunted. Then I added bubbly. "Do you have my bags?"
"In the back." I scurried to the back and sat down. Instantly I'd fallen asleep and my dream wasn't all that good.
In my dream there was a tall man in a twenty some year old Luke Castellan's body and he was standing next to a boy about sixteen with black hair and sea green eyes, like Poseidon. Next to the boy was a girl about the same age with curly blonde hair and grey eyes, like Athena. Luke's voice wasn't how it really was it was deeper and sinister like Kronos. The boy was holding a three foot Celestial bronze sword with the word 'Riptide' engraved on it. The girl had dropped a Celestial bronze knife and Luke/Kronos was asking for it.
Luke's voice broke through Kronos, "He's changing. Help. He's almost ready he won't need my body anymore!"
"The knife, Percy!" the blonde girl said to the younger boy, "Hero …. cursed blade …."
My eyes flew open. What was I dreaming? Luke becoming Kronos, how is that even possible? How could this happen… Luke EVIL? He'd saved my life there's no way he could be evil! I set the dream to the back of my mind and tried to focus on where I was. No one was on the bus and we were stopped. I stood up and walked to the front of the bus and asked the bus driver where we were. He said we were in Long Island.
"Could I get off please?" I asked.
"Sure, $50" he replied. I handed him the cash and stepped off the bus.
Finally, it was time for the real, real journey to begin.