Chapter 7
I Start My Quest
I woke up the next morning still in the Hermes cabin. I looked at the large digital clock hanging on the wall. 7:30, I still have and hour and a half until breakfast. Well, whatever, might as well get up.
I grabbed my stuff and went over to the boy's bathroom and changed. Man, these Hermes kids can sleep. I changed into a pair of brown cargo shorts and a camp half-blood shirt, whose sleeves I had ripped off. I grabbed my skateboard that I had the Stoll brothers smuggle in, my vans hat and shoes and left. I put the hat on to protect my eyes against the sunlight and jogged over to Apollo's cabin. I knocked on the door and Julie's older sister opened it.
"What do you want?" she groggily said.
"Is Julie up?"
"Yeah, duh. We're the kids of Apollo, you know god of the sun?"
"Yeah, OK. Well tell her to find me at the arena. See ya," and walked off.
-At the Arena-
I slipped into the arena, hoping that no one else was there, but then again, I was wrong. Again, as always. The kid in there was no other than Percy Jackson, the kid of the prophecy and the one who saved me. I crept down the stairs, trying to catch him off guard as he thrashed the dummies, slicing off their heads and arms.
"What 'cha doing here?" he said as he sliced another dummy.
"I came here to skateboard. And you?"
"I've got a lot of stuff on my mind, and sword play always calms me down."
"Well, don't mind me. Nor slice me."
"Alright. Well, I'm gonna go to the beach and wash off."
"The beach? What about the showers?"
"I'm the son of Poseidon. No harm in swimming in the ocean, right?"
"Yeah."
Then Julie came riding into the arena on her dirt-board (A:N/ A dirt board- a skateboard with larger wheels and axels for riding on the dirt).
Percy left and headed for the beach, while I on the other hand did a quick kick flip then grinded on some of the seats. While Julie went down to the arena and boarded there. My watch then beeped 8:30.
"I think we should go or Chiron's gonna get mad at us for having these."
"Alright. See ya at breakfast."
I walked to where the construction was going on and had a look. A few more days and it would be done, so that I no longer have to sleep on the floor! WOO HOO!!
I kept on walking and ended up at the beach. I looked out a saw what seemed to be a cruise liner. I tried to read the side, but the sun shined into my eyes. I don't know what it said, but I saw some REALLY strange figures aboard it.
The next thing I knew I heard footsteps behind me. I turned and saw Percy.
"That's the Princess Andromeda. I've got some bad memories from that ship," he said.
"That's the Princess Andromeda?" I questioned.
"Yeah, Kronos, Luke, and their 'friends' are aboard that ship. Well, not Luke anymore, its Kronos in Luke's body," calmly stated the teenager.
"Eew. Well, soon enough I'm gonna be aboard that ship," I murmured to myself.
"What was that?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing of any importance."
We both stared off into the distance. Then I heard the conch sound. Time for breakfast.
We walked off to the dining pavilion in complete silence. Once we arrived we split off from each other and went to our own benches. I got a plate with fruit, cereal, and a bagel. I went up to the brazier and threw in a fat apple and some strawberries.
I was eating when Chiron came up to me and said, "I have word from Poseidon that the Princess Andromeda has docked near here. Get Rob and Julie and your stuff and met me at Half-Blood Hill in ten minutes. Now get going."
I finished off my bagel and stuffed an apple in my hoodie pocket, and told Julie and Rob to grab their stuff. I ran off to the Hermes cabin, grabbed my duffel bag and headed for Half-Blood Hill. On my way over I saw Julie jog over with a backpack on. Then I turned, remembering Rob. I walked back into the Hermes cabin Rob was still packing his stuff, and by packing I mean just jamming everything that he owned into a duffel bag. I walked over really quietly and yelled, "HURRY UP!!" Rob jumped and turned to see me almost falling over laughing.
"Oh, ha ha, really funny."
"It wasn't just funny! –laugh- It was –laugh- HILARIOUS!! –laugh, laugh-"
I finally got over myself and got up –still chuckling-.
I helped Rob finished packing and we both started to walk to Half-Blood Hill.
Once I got there Chiron trotted up the hill, and threw us onto his back before we knew what was happening. He then started to run, I saw the trees rush by, getting faster and faster until everything was a total blur. Within 5 minutes (I had turned the stopwatch on my watch on) we were at some sort of dock. I turned in a full 360' and surveyed my surroundings. I turned back to my right and saw the Princess Andromeda. I turned around and Chiron was gone, our bags lying on the ground. I looked at Julie and Rob, both with dirt on their faces and clothes a little torn, around the edges. I looked at myself and saw that I was also a little dirty with my clothes also torn.
I turned toward Rob and Julie and signaled to go aboard the ship. We walked toward it and were noticed by a few guards aboard the ship. A guy with short sandy hair and a sky blue button up shirt with khaki pants. Then I saw his face, there was a long scar across the side of his face.
"He must be Luke," I thought to myself.
"Who are you? I know what you are, but who are you?" demanded the guy who seemed to be Luke.
"I'm Derek, she's Julie, and he's Rob. We're here to join Kronos and his cause against the gods," I confidently stated.
He stared at me a little longer and said, "Welcome aboard. Climb the side ladder. Then I shall have my servants show you to your rooms."
"Thank you," said Julie.
Luke seemed to grin at that, but I don't know because I was to far away to see his face clearly.
We each shouldered our bags and walked over to the side ladder and climbed.
Once on top of the deck, I could see a pool, a small bar in the corner, and a few waterslides.
"This place is gonna be fun," I excitedly murmured to myself
Julie and Rob finally got up. Then these normal looking women with apparently snake bodies for legs came out of the inside of the ship and walked (or was it slithering?) over to us.
"Follow usssss," hissed a snake lady, thing, person, whatever she was.
We followed them into the ship. The inside was like a mall/ hotel, and was totally awesome.
The snake ladies led us to three rooms and shoved us all into only one of them.
"The doorsss on the right lead to the other roomssss," they simultaneously hissed.
They turned and slammed the door, then I heard a faint clicking noise coming from the door.
"Crap. We're locked in. Whatever, who wants TV?" I asked the other two.
They just stood there staring at the room. Then I actually looked, and man, was it awesome. It was like an Imperial Hotel room, but for free. There was a plasma TV on the wall, and what seemed to be a king sized bed with the canopy and black and gray comforters, deep brown leather couches, and a fully stocked fridge, not a mini-fridge, but a HUMONGUS double-door fridge. There was an entertainment stand with a PS3, a Wii, an Xbox 360, and a Gamecube. And there sitting next to all of the awesome game systems, was a closet. Rob walked over and opened it. Sitting inside were a million games for all of the systems.
I turned and saw Julie walking toward the bathroom. I followed (no, I'm not a pervert, I just wanted to check the bathroom out!). Inside was a huge hot tub, a shower, and a tub that seemed to have those little jets that shoot out water in the water.
I walked back into the room itself, then ran to the bed and hurled myself on top of it. It was so soft, that I felt like I was on a cloud, Cloud 9 to be exact.
Like the room? I sure do! :P Man, I'm daydreaming it and I'm the one typing this!