Chapter 14 July

As we made our way through the city in the direction Grover's spell indicated, Landyn and I told the satyr all about our quest with Nico, including how we failed and got ourselves separated with my twin. Actually, it was mostly Landyn telling the story; I'd fallen silent just before the Phineas part. Remembering the quest made everything happening around me right now seem unreal. Every time "Nico" or "June" was mentioned, my stomach twisted, along with a sudden pang in the chest. How long had it been since I popped up in Camp Half-blood? Probably less than a week? But it already felt like months; the pain was getting unbearable.

"Hey, Landyn." I said suddenly, "What is the date today?"

Landyn turned away from Grover and replied: "Um, June 29th?" He glanced at Grover for assurance. Grover nodded.

"June 29th." I repeated softly. I wondered whether I could keep my promises to both Mom and Nico. Time was slipping away.

"Why did you ask?" Grover questioned. But I didn't get the chance to answer before he stopped abruptly and looked apprehensively ahead.

"What? What is it?" Landyn frowned. We all squinted at the ahead. There was nothing peculiar, at least in my viewpoint.

"That's strange." Grover muttered, and turned back to us. "Something is wrong with the pack of demigod power…it suddenly sped up and it's moving way too fast. But the power is not so dense anymore, but more spread out."

"Where is it heading?" Landyn said sharply. His eyebrows were furrowed, looking very serious. On the other hand, I was panicking. What? Did the Romans decide to pick up speed and hit Camp Half-blood with a surprise attack? What about June? What is going to happen to her?

Grover gazed at the sky, "I think they're traveling by air…towards New York."

"Air?" Now I was really lost.

The satyr nodded. "Maybe they are riding something that can fly. Like the way we ride chariots and Pegasi."

"Wait, if they're heading towards here, isn't that a good thing? I mean, they are pretty far off and it would take us forever to get to June." Landyn said suddenly, eyes widening. My heart leapt. I tried to calm down and think more reasonably, but all I could think was: June. I am going to see her soon!

Grover bit his lips. "That's true…but that means war is nearer than we expected. I wonder whether Camp Half-blood is prepared well enough." His large eyes were cast down and his hands were balled.

"Oh, right." Landyn said and fell silent. My heart went cold. Camp Half-blood was in danger, and all I could think about was reuniting with my sister. Shame hit me like a wall. Grover helped us despite that he was dying to return to Camp and Juniper. How could I forget Camp Half-blood? How could I forget Chiron, Rebecca, Will and Rachel? I was so selfish.

"Grover, I'm sorry. I should have thought of that." I apologized. After a second thought, I added earnestly: "Hey, maybe you should go back to Camp first. You've already helped us enough and Camp needs you."

Grover's mouth dropped open. "But…" He started to protest.

"Yo buddy, everything's gonna be fine!" Landyn caught up with my proposal quickly. "Since we know that the Romans are heading here, it won't be hard for us to find them on our own, right? Plus, we really don't want you to get in more trouble." He convinced.

Grover stared at the ground and contemplated. At last, he looked up and said: "Guys, I really appreciate this. I'll go back to Camp now, and maybe I can explain things to Chiron a bit. You two really don't deserve to be exiled."

"And, I especially want to thank you…"

"July." I informed, grinning.

"-July." Grover smiled back. "Thanks for helping me get back on my feet. Now, please try not to be the first two martyrs of this battle, ok?"

"You bet." Landyn said. And with that, Grover turned on his heels, or I should say, "hooves". We watched him disappear at the corner of the street and exchanged glances.

"Well, we must get going too." Landyn said. I nodded and looked at the sky. Between buildings, the sun was dipping low, making sky look like molten gold near the horizon. Night was falling.

xxx

After Grover had gone, Landyn and I discussed our situation. Landyn reckoned that the Romans would have to land and rest for the night. Since they were heading for Camp Half-blood and they were fast, it was likely that they would land in Manhattan.

"With so many of them, they would want to camp out in a big park or something, right?" I thought aloud.

"Uh-huh." Landyn said. "Let's go. This is our chance-our only chance. If they arrive at Manhattan tonight, they are most likely to strike Camp Half-blood tomorrow." I nodded and said nothing. Landyn's eyes were set ahead, burning with determination.

xxx

When we finally got to Manhattan, stars were already blinking above. We decided that the most possible place where we'd find the Romans was Central Park, which was the biggest park in the area. So that was where we went, in full speed.

At the gate of the park, I stopped in my tracks. I looked inside and felt my hand tremble. After so much time, I could hardly believe I was only a couple of miles away from my sister.

"Ah, there you are, July." Landyn suddenly appeared in front of me. "I thought you were kidnapped by some monster! Don't suddenly zone out like that, ok?" I nodded and gulped, following Landyn closely.

After we entered the park, I looked around anxiously for any sign of suspicious teenagers that looked prepared for war, which caused passer-bys to stare at me suspiciously. Suddenly, Landyn said that he wanted to visit a souvenir shop. I was confused. But much as I wanted to scream No! I need to get to June RIGHT NOW! I agreed reluctantly and trailed him to the nearest shop. While Landyn went in the shop, I got myself a map and stared it until my eyes could burn a whole through it. Where could they be? How can I sneak into their camp? How can I find June? What if we got caught? I was alarmed at how nervous I was. But my mind was either all blank or stuffed with useless worries, just not calm enough to think of any strategy. I didn't realize Landyn was already out until I felt my head being capped. I reached to my head and felt the brim of an overlarge bucket hat. Whirling around, I found Landyn behind me.

"Tuck your hair in that hat. Your hair is too long and shiny, it stands out. Maybe if we come across a Roman, you can pass off as June." Landyn explained.

Ten minutes later, we found ourselves near the woods where we encountered Oak and the other tree nymphs. It suddenly dawned on me that they would probably know something. So together we called out for Oak to come out. Luckily, we didn't have to look for too long this time. Seconds later, Oak materialized in front of us.

"You came to see me!" She beamed. "I didn't know you were visiting again so soon. Missed me?" Oak batted her eyelashes at Landyn.

Landyn just smiled and said: "We don't break our promises. Nice to see you again." Oak giggled.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and said loudly: "Actually, we came to…" I didn't get to finish my sentence because Landyn clapped his hand over my mouth and said loudly: "So how are things around the park? We thought you might be bored or something so we decided to pay you a visit before going back to Camp."

"Aw, how thoughtful you are!" The nymph sighed happily. "As a matter of fact, something interesting happened just now and I doubt we would be bored for the time being." She looked over her shoulder where some other tree spirits were hiding and they broke into giggles again.

At the same time, I slapped Landyn's hand away and glared at him to show that I got his message. I had to admit that Landyn was much better at this sort of thing than me, because after a few minutes of chatting, we had learned everything we needed to know. Apparently, the Romans did arrive at Central Park that evening and the nymphs were eager to find out whether there were handsome heroes wandering around. They were so eager, in fact, that it wasn't even hard for us to end the conversation and make them lead us to the Romans. Nearly half and hour later, we were all hiding behind trees and sneaking looks at a large grassland not far away. Although the passer-bys with no surprise tossed us strange looks, none seemed to notice the abnormal things going around on the grassland. Tents were set up and lights were lit from within. People were walking around, talking and whispering. On top of all that, unless my eyes were tricked by light, I saw enormous beasts with wings resting in one corner. But my eyes didn't dwell on them; I scanned around furiously, hoping to catch the light of white-blond hair.

After looking for several minutes, I gave up and told Landyn: "This is no use. I can't find June. They're still too far away. We'll have to sneak closer." He agreed and we decided that we needed a distraction. The next question was how we were supposed to distract the enemy.

"By calling Fire! Fire! or dropping a bomb near their camp?" Oak suggested, trying hard not to laugh. The other nymph covered their mouths and shook with laughter. Obviously, they thought this was a really fun game of "Free the Captive". I ignored them and looked up to Landyn. He studied the Roman camp for a while, holding his chin.

Finally, he turned to me and said: "I think I've got an idea. But it's a pretty risky one." Then he told me his plan.

"Ok, let's do it." I said definitely. The plan we were about to carry out was, as Landyn said, very risky. But unfortunately, I had no other ideas. So Landyn, Oak and I moved through the woods till we were just across the place where the winged beasts were resting. Now closer, I found out the beasts were huge eagles with gleaming coats of feather and sharp, deadly beaks. I swallowed hard and once again prayed that the plan would not go wrong.

"Oak, are you ready?" Landyn asked.

"I'm always ready." She grinned and sprinted out from behind the trees towards the Roman camp with agility and stealth neither Landyn nor I possessed. Within seconds I lost sight of her among the giant eagles.

"She's going to be ok, right?" I whispered to Landyn.

He nodded and reassured me: "Of course, she has her own branch of woodland magic, doesn't she?" It was true, and that was why Oak had volunteered to do the job.

We didn't have to wait long to see how well Oak had done her job. Minutes later, the first screech of an eagle was heard and instantly, all the eagles were screeching and flapping their enormous wings. Some even took off and fly aimlessly around, claws accidentally ripping tents when they swooped down. As we had expected, this threw the Romans into chaos. Demigods were shouting and running around all over the place.

"Now, we go." Landyn said and we jumped out from our hiding place and ran right towards the camp.

As I ran into the chaotic camp all I could see was teenagers in purple T-shirts flashing past. So many people were shouting that I could hardly make out anything they were saying. I ran around and opened my eyes wide searching for the familiar face of my twin.

No, not her. No…not this one either. No…no…not her…My throat started closing up. I wanted to call out her name, but I knew doing so would only draw myself unwanted attention. But I couldn't catch sight of June anywhere. Where is she?

Suddenly, I felt someone grabbing my arm and jerking me back. I swung around and found that it was Landyn.

"Calm down, July!" He panted. "You almost ran into one of them!"

Just then, I heard a terrible screech so loud that my ear hurt. I looked up just in time to see a pair of gleaming sharp claws swiping down, so powerful that it seemed to be tearing the air into pieces. I opened my mouth automatically to scream but it came out as a choke. Before we could pull out our weapons Landyn and I were seized by the collar and thrown back. The eagle's claws missed us by inches.

"Oof!" I lost my balance and fell on my butt, yeah, real gracefully.

"Phew! That was close!" I heard someone said beside us as Landyn pulled me onto my feet. We turned to the voice and I felt my heart drop. Uh-oh. I thought. We're dead.

It was a Roman demigod, judging from his T-shirt.

"I have no idea why the eagles suddenly went berserk. But Reyna's going to have them under control soon." He said. "Before that, you guys shouldn't run around like that." Then what are you Romans doing? I thought.

"I, uh, guess so. Thanks for saving us." Landyn said. I nodded at a side, feeling more and more uneasy. Neither Landyn nor I was wearing purple T-shirts; he was bound to find out that who he saved was not his kind.

"No prob. Hey, you're…you're the new Fifth Cohort girl, yeah?" He said as he took a closer look at me. "But I thought the Fifth Cohort was on the mission to track ArgoⅡ?" He frowned slightly.

"Um..." I gulped. "I…" I could feel beads of sweat popping up on my forehead. I threw Landyn a pleading look. However, Landyn didn't have the chance to talk.

"Oh, of course, you're new so Reyna wouldn't send you on such an important task! Sorry, I wasn't thinking." The Roman boy said, smiling apologetically. "It's ok. You don't need to feel embarrassed. We're all new once, right?" He slapped me on the back and grinned. I gave Landyn a confused look but he just shrugged in return. Was the boy talking about June? Did he really mistake me as June?

Just when I was about to let my breath out, the Roman demigod switched on a serious face and pulled me aside.

"Is he your boyfriend? I've never seen him before. A mortal?" He asked quietly, eyeing Landyn.

"Uh…" I was really starting get annoyed with myself. Couldn't I start a sentence with something other then "Uh" and "Um"? But I couldn't help it. We didn't expect we would have to deal with such a strange situation. According to the plan, once we were discovered, we should retreat immediately.

"No, he's just a friend. And yeah, he's mortal." I swallowed and said quickly. Better a mortal than a Greek demigod, right? The Roman guy narrowed his eyes.

"…with clairvoyance." I added nervously, remembering Rachel. "He can see through the mist, but he's mortal."

"Ookay…that's pretty rare. But still, why is he here?" The Roman demigod continued to ask.

"I just happened to come across him, um, ten minutes ago. We both live near here, you know." I rambled on.

The boy scratched his head and after a few seconds of hesitation, he said: "Ok, but you'd better not let Reyna see him. Bringing irrelevant people to camp is forbidden. Didn't Bob tell you?"

"I guess he forgot." I said, silently letting out a breath of relief. On the other side, I wondered who "Reyna" and "Bob" were. She sounded pretty important…and scary.

"Well, get him out of here now, will you? And don't let Reyna see you in clothes other than your purple T-shirt." The Roman demigod advised.

I thanked him and returned to Landyn. I told him briefly about our conversation.

"Looks like you did fine on your own! I was worrying that your mind would go blank and you wouldn't know what to say." Landyn said solemnly.

"Thank you so much, I feel so proud of myself." I said sarcastically. "But it sounds to me like June isn't here. What do we do?" The relief I just felt was fading fast. Landyn bit his lips.

"Retreat, I guess." He decided. "We've looked long enough. And according to that boy, June is on another task…"

"She's not here." Landyn said at last, pain leaking through his voice.

My shoulders drooped. I nodded slowly, but I couldn't say anything, not when I was trying hard not to cry. I guess I already knew when I heard the Roman demigod's words, but it was still hard to take. It felt like you were trying so hard to grasp something in front of you, and just when you felt it in your palm, it slipped through your fingers. I hung my head and blinked furiously. Landyn took my hand and navigated our way through the Roman demigods. No one paid us much attention, so we almost made it out, almost.