Chapter 8

Merope's POV

I was starving, nobody could tell because I ate so civilized. I had a neat rhythm, and I didn't spill one drop of my cereal. Will Sunny or whatever his full name was didn't have the same type of pride. He ate like a savage. What kind of doctor is that?

I had a wonderful nap, the bed was memory foam, way better than sleeping without moving a muscle under a metalic dragon. After two days, I felt as fresh as ever.

Nicholas the Angel looked at me spekticaly. It's been two days and I already hate his guts, I'm sure he feels the same way. Actually hate is a strong word, more like dispise, or do not trust. He attacked me when I was under Festub. It fustrated me that I couldn't land a hit or two on that boy. Ever since then we've been giving each other death glares. The others must be very sensible because they placed Nicholas and I at different ends of the table.

Leonardo walked back to his seat beside me. Perry Whatson sat down at the head of the table. He must be the leader or something. I don't know what type of group would have a Hypnos offspring to lead the quest.

" Hi guys, don't tell me I was really out for two days." Perry asked.

" Oh you were," Thalia said with a hint of amusment in her tone." Had any dreams?"

" Yes."

" What were they about?" Annabeth asked.

Perry scratched the back of his neck." Um, let's see, I know whoever is going to tear Nico's heart out is a girl."

Nicholas-Nico glared at me. Did he think I was going to tear his heart out? That may lead him to hate me but he has absolutely no proof.

Annabeth must have seen this because she cast me a sympathetic look and placed a hand at Nico's shoulder. He quickly shrugged her off. Girls, so compasionate, boys, not so much.

" Also, the girl is going to use some potion to to do it. If injected or we drink from it, we die. It could be any one of us." Perry looked slowly at everyone in the table.

" So why only Nico?" Will asked.

Perry raised both his hands up." I don't know! Dreams don't tell everything."

" Maybe because Nico will be eaisier to kill since he hangs out with the dead a lot!" Leonardo suggested unhelpfully.

Nico massaged his temples. I almost felt bad for him. It must be fustrating to hear your friends talk about your death like it's some sick joke. Festub roared.

Annabeth and Leonardo stood up at the same time.

" Time to dive! Prepare yourselves because you're gonna lose your breakfast!" Leonardo called out.

" I thought I was gonna drive!" Annabeth said.

" It's my turn! Go buckle your seat belts." Leonardo ran to the throat of the dragon.

Perry, Nico, and Thalia didn't spare a moment. I heard Thalia once tell me the story about how the first moment Festub took off, she and everyone else at that time rolled over each other. Under Festub was worse. It took all my streath to not move.

I pushed my emerald door open, and I sat on the seat. I put on the three straps, one from my shoulder to the seat at the bottom, another the other way. I had one on my waist as well.

I heard Leonardo over the loudspeaker.

" Hello faithful passengers! We will be diving-"

Suddenly we dropped. I could feel my stomach churning, maybe some boys are sensible. I could feel my breakfast up my throat. The pressure pushed against me. As soon as it started, everything was quiet. I looked out my window. Small fish were swimming gracefully in groups.

I quickly unstrapped myself from the seat and walked outside, my legs felt wobbly. Perry, Annabeth, Thalia, and Will were already out. Leonardo came from the throat later.

We all clapped when Leonardo came.

" Leo, great job. I think I did puke." Perry said.

Annabeth nudged him playfully. Thalia nodded.

" Aw, gee, thanks guys." Leonar-Leo said.

" Where's Nico?" Thalia asked, looking around.

We waited for a few moments, but Nico didn't come out of his room.

Perry slowly opened Nico's obsidien door.

Nico's room was dark, typical of Hades' children. His bed was made out of pure black sheets, his curtains were a mix of blood red and black. The floor was normal polished stone, on top of it was a poor black bear skin. Laying on top of it clutching his head was Nico.

Thalia and I exchanged confused glances, Perry and Annabeth did the same. Leo raised an eyebrow and Will knelt over Nico to examine him.

" Pulses are normal, blood pressure rising though." Will noted." I think he has a phobia of water."

" Hydrophobia? Why didn't he tell us?" Annabeth said.

I rolled my eyes," Because some men are just too proud to admit that their fears are something stupid, like water."

I was quite sure Nico heard me, because the room temperture dropped a bit, but he was too weak to do anything else. Perry shifted unconfortably.

" Do you think Nico's afraid of me?" Perry asked Annabeth quietly.

I wanted to reply, but Thalia stopped me. She looked at Nico distantly, as if remembering something about herself. It suddenly hit me that Thalia was afraid of heights, despite being a daughter of Zeus.

" I'm sorry." I said to her, but Thalia shook her head.

" Don't apologize to me," She said gesturing to Nico.

I scowled, I was a hunter of Artemis, sworn to never love. I would never apologize to any man or boy, ever. But Thalia looked at me sternly, as if to say: This isn't a request, it's an order. I sighed, I was being treated like a baby.

" I guess Hydrophobia is pretty popular." I grumbled.

The atmosphere got colder.

" I mean...It is pretty scary once you think about it, you're afraid of being drowned in large bodies of water, right? We all are, there's nothing to be so worked up about."

The tempreture returned to normal, Nico slightly opened his eyes, Perry seemed to relax a little, and Thalia nodded in approval.

Will stood up and walked beside Leo. Nico sat up and slowly looked at all of us. His gaze landed on me a bit longer.

" What are you all doing here?" He asked.

I felt the blood boiling inside of me. I wanted to scream: "You made me push aside my pride to confort you and you didn't even remember!?" But before I could Nico sighed.

" Just kidding." Nico said without humor, then he looked at me for a moment." Thanks."

I gave him a hard glare, to say nothing has changed. But I felt a little bit giddy too. I don't know why but I did. I felt good that I knew a little about him, and to counter that, how much he is different from me. Nico returned my sign of pique with his own daggers.

" Alright, now that that's taken care of, what next?" Leo asked.

" Meeting, I think I might have got an idea of the prophecy." Annabeth said.

We all walked out to the ivory table, I sat next to Thalia, and Will sat next to her. Annabeth sat at the head of the table and Percy sat next to Nico.

" Okay, you all know that the three will make a choice that will save or doom the Gods of begining, right?" Annabeth started.

" Yep." Leo said.

" Well, the Gods of begining, might mean, the first gods."

" Like Pontus, Nyx, Gaea..."

" Yes those." Annabeth interupted Perry.

Thalia furrowed her eyebrows." Those gods are especially powerful, since they were the first."

" But why would the prophecy only chose three demigods to fight this...new evil if the issue is so big, it'll effect the first gods themselves?" Nico asked.

" I don't know, but you must have been chosen for a reason." Annabeth concluded.

" The prophecy doesn't include anyone in the prophecy to die does it?" Will asked." Because I don't think the gods will allow us to get another Physican's cure."

" Hey! Careful when you mention: Death, Prophecy, and Physican's cure within my presence!" Leo yelled.

" Sorry, but you know we are all right here." Thalia said.

I already knew the war last year with Gaea, and how Leo sacrificed his life to save everyone. And how he got brought back to life later.

" So, do you think the Lord of the sky is Zeus?" Perry asked.

Thalia stood up suddenly." No! Of course not! It must be...Uranus! He was one of the first gods."

" But Uranus was cut into a million pieces. He's gone." Perry said.

" Gone, not dead!" Thalia shot back.

" Okay, okay, don't overheat Thalia." Leo said.

" You're the one to talk, you can burst up in flames!" Perry said." And don't intrude when I'm arguing."

" Stop!" Annabeth yelled.

Thalia paused, and then sat down. All the boys shrank down to the lowest point in their chairs. I guess Annabeth was very imatading when she wanted to be.

" Bickering will get us nowhere. First things first. Will, organize your medical stuff. Percy, make sure we have a smooth swim. Leo, fix Festub's back. Thalia, you and Nico help Leo." Annabeth ordered.

They didn't waste a minuet. I frowned, what was I supposed to do?

" Annabeth, what am I supposed to do?" I asked.

Annabeth looked at me." What special abilities do you have?"

" Er, I'm good at fighting."

" Everyone here is, except for Will."

" Hey!" Will said.

Annabeth shrugged him off." You're a daughter of Atlas, right? I heard in the legends that you faded away when you married Orion."

I scowled." Well you heard wrong! I can manipulate sounds."

" Um...I don't know how that can be useful, but, go help Leo or something."

" I can't take too many people." Leo called out.

I felt so useless, why would I have a dream that made me come here if I had no use? I was getting really desperate to do something.

" I can cook really good." I blurted out.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow," excuse me, cook?"

" Yeah." I said, I wanted to kill myself. I would've died of embarrassment right then too.

" Really!?" Perry said." Because I'm tired of eating fast food."

He tossed me a spatula. I exchanged confused glances with Annabeth.

" Okay, since you can cook, cook." And with that, Annabeth focused on her notebook again.

I uncertainly looked at the spatula. I walked over to the kitchen, and I summoned ingredients and my cookbook. At least I'm doing something.

Chapter 8 end.