XI

Frank

Being a dagger is not fun.

Especially if it feels like you're being squished into a very, very small space, with your legs feeling like they're being impaled in something. His head felt like it was constantly being gripped, and his hands felt like they were stuck to his side. You basically can't do anything at all, and you barely have any control over your mind as well.

This was how Frank was feeling as he transformed into a dagger. His mind was so foggy he didn't even know what he saw, except for black. He had no control over his body, and it was getting increasingly harder to remember that he was human. His last bit of consciousness was panicking. And after what seemed like forever, he transformed into a human again.

His training with the ram-horn dude in his dreams had paid off. He would never have thought he could transform into inanimate objects a month ago, but now the possibilities seemed endless.

Luckily, he still had his clothes on, which would have been embarrassing otherwise. He was on the deck of the Argo II, looking down at the cannons on the port side. Leo was driving, a determined expression on his face. "Die, you stupid hand!" he yelled, pressing a couple dozen buttons. Loud explosions were heard as a bunch of fiery balls of death burst out of the cannons, firing in front at… something.

He stood up, and he said, "Hey."

Leo jumped. He whipped his head around. "Holy Hephaestus, dude! You didn't have to do that! Could you, like, break it to me a little more gently next time?"

"Sure." Frank shrugged. "What's the problem?" he walked over to the helm and peered in front of the ship. There, on the ground, a giant hand made of dirt-the same one that had taken Percy and the others, Frank was sure- was racing away from them at ridiculously high speeds. As the cannonballs hurtled towards the hand, it swiftly maneuvered out of the way. The Argo II was only barely catching up.

"That." Leo replied. "I managed to get the final wire soldered up, and we've been sailing all night. That giant Gaia fist is hard to catch!"

"Maybe I could help?" Frank asked. An idea suddenly popped into his mind. What if…"

Leo stopped him. "No, man. You've already become a dagger today. So you should go get some rest. By the way, you've got blood on your trousers."

Frank looked down, and immediately jumped. Blood- probably blood from the wolf Leo had stabbed (he could guess that much) covered his pants. He yelped and ran downstairs to change. As he grabbed a pair of clean pants and put them on, he started to wonder. If he could transform into something similar?

He ran out of his room and immediately concentrated. In an instant he felt his body turn a lot lighter. When he raised his hands, he couldn't see them.

He had become air.

He rushed out of the room and soared into the sky. He couldn't really see anything, but he knew where he was. He focused on the cannonballs. There!

If their problem was that the cannonballs weren't fast enough, then Frank was going to fix that. He zoomed towards the nearest cannon. As it fired, time slowed down. Frank's first instinct was to zoom away, but he wasn't human anymore.

He wrapped himself around the cannonball, his body changing to form the shape. He summoned all of the strength his wind body could muster, and he pushed the cannonball faster. Faster than Frank could make out, the cannonball crashed into the base of the giant hand.

A giant explosion followed, and Frank was blown into the atmosphere.

When his vision cleared, all he saw was clouds.

Oh, no.

He'd been blown into the clouds.

He zoomed around, but the winds were really powerful up here. It was all he could do to keep in the same place. He hurtled back down, where he hoped he'd be able to find the Argo II. But when he saw the land, he realized he'd been blown all the way across the Mediterranean. He was in Egypt.

He had no choice. If they were to find Gaea, he had to find the crew! He transformed into an eagle and squawked. He hurtled off in the direction where he thought he'd come from.

After what seemed like hours (his friends later told him it was about half an hour), he finally got to the shores of Greece.

He went south along the coastline, as the giant hand had been doing. After a while, he managed to find the Argo II. It had a small hole in the side. Even from the air, Frank could hear Leo yelling, "Curse it, you giant fist!"

He set down on the deck and transformed.

Annabeth, Percy, Hazel, Jason and Piper were on the deck. They'd been cleaned of any dirt, wood or plants that they might have picked up while in the fist.

"Frank!" Hazel said, overjoyed. She was wiping tears furiously from her eyes. "I-We thought you were gone!"

"No." Frank said. "I just got blown away from the Argo II after the cannonball hit the giant fist. I got back, though."

"Frank, what did you transform into just now?" Leo asked.

"Air, or you could call it wind, I guess." Frank replied.

"You can transform into inanimate objects." Jason leaned forward with interest.

"Yeah." Frank said. "Anything. I just have to concentrate hard enough. I found out while Leo was fighting the wolves. I transformed into a silver dagger."

"Wow." Percy said. "That's ridiculously unfair. I can't transform into inanimate objects."

"Trust me, it's not that fun." Frank replied. "You don't really get a lot of options on what to do, especially if you transform into things like a dagger. I was forced to stand for about half an hour, probably. You can't sense anything. Trust me, it's not nice."

Percy immediately sat back down. "Oh. Whatever, then."

Suddenly, Leo said, "I think I know why that fist was headed this way."

Frank whipped his head around. Leo had been looking at port side the entire time after he'd asked Frank those questions. "Why?"

"Over there," he said, pointing at a hill in the distance.

Frank looked closely. "Isn't that a giant building on the top?"

"Yeah." Annabeth said. "That's the Acropolis-the watchtower that most major Greek cities had."

"Yeah." Frank said. "That city right there-it's Athens."