CHAPTER FIVE

I woke up to the sound of a crackling fire and the smell of something cooking. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked around. I was lying on something soft, placed next to a small campfire. Across the fire, I could see Tamara lying on a bed of green leaves. She had a few band-aids on her temple, a new bandage wrapped around her cut leg, and her right shoulder was bandaged with white gauze, something green oozing out of the sides.

Crouching down next to Tamara was a girl. She wore running shoes, jeans, and a purple T-shirt. She was looking at the ground as she mixed something in a wooden bowl. Straight bronze-colored brown hair fell in front of her face like a waterfall. When she looked up, deep dark-brown eyes met mine. I gasped in surprise. They were exactly like Ben's eyes.

The girl placed the bowl down next to Tamara and stood up. She made her way around the fire and knelt next to me.

"Good, you're awake," she said in a husky voice.

"What—what happened?" I asked, my voice weak.

The girl reached over to a bag next to my head and pulled out a small silver container. Popping the lid open, I watched as she pulled bandages away from my right leg and rubbed a mint smelling cream on it.

"The hydra was about to eat you when my friend managed to kill it," the girl said as she worked. "You blacked out right after that, so we carried you and your friend to our campsite and tended to your wounds."

I winced as she reached an especially tender spot on my leg. "Who are you?"

The girl looked up from tending to my leg. "My name is Skylar Troy."

I felt a shiver run down my spine at the sound of her name. Troy, I thought. Ben's last name is Troy.

The girl reached for her bag yet again, and I saw purple tattoos inked onto the inside of her arm. They looked like copies of the ones Ben bore; the letters SPQR, crossed spears, and four score marks.

SPQR

I I I I

"You're from Camp Jupiter," I said.

Skylar paused what she was doing to look at me. "How did you know that?"

"The marks on your arm, and the purple T-shirt. They're just like Ben's."

Skylar froze, her eyes wide with shock and her muscles tense. "How do you know my brother's name?"

"Your brother?" I asked.

"Yes, my twin brother, Ben. How do you know his name?" she asked again, more demanding this time.

"We met him on a quest, Tamara and I," I said, looking over at Tamara. "We were looking for Zeus, and we met Ben in the Underworld."

Skylar narrowed her eyes as she looked at me, trying desperately to connect the dots. I was trying to as well, perplexed at who Skylar was and her relationship to Ben.

"You met him while on a quest to find Jupiter," she said slowly.

"Yeah."

"And he helped you find and rescue Jupiter, correct?"

I nodded at her.

"So why is he missing?" Skylar asked loudly. "He should have returned to camp days ago. What happened?"

I propped myself up on my elbows and tried to collect my thoughts. How was I supposed to explain the very complicated story to her?

"Okay," I started. "We met your brother in the Underworld. He was looking for the guide to find Zeus, same as Tamara and I, and two other boys.

"The guide led us to Hawaii, and since we were looking for initially the same god, Ben decided to travel with us. When we got to Hawaii, we went up to a mountain that the Egyptian god Horus was keeping Zeus, and we battled Horus and his mother, Isis."

Skylar nodded at me to keep going.

"It turned out that Isis had planted a demon inside Horus's head, which had caused him to go all evil and kidnap Zeus. Once we got the demon out of his head, Horus banished Isis away from us, and we freed Zeus. Then he transported us back to Camp Half-Blood."

"I don't understand," Skylar asked, puzzled. "You completed your quest. So why is my brother missing?"

"Ben was staying the night at Camp Half-Blood and was going to return to Camp Jupiter the next day, but one of the boys that had been traveling with me and Tamara decided to switch to Isis's side, and he kidnapped both Ben and my boyfriend, Archer. Now we're here in Puerto Rico, searching for them."

Skylar stared into the flames of the fire, trying to control her breathing. "And who was this boy who kidnapped my brother?"

"His name is Dakota Storm. He's an Egyptian."

Skylar tensed at that and clenched her fists. "An Egyptian took Ben?"

I nodded, watching Skylar closely. She looked really angry.

"And why is it that and Egyptian took Ben?" she asked.

I gulped. I had wanted to skip this part of the story, but it seemed that it was unavoidable.

"Dakota caught Ben and Tamara kissing down by the beach. He got angry because Tamara had chosen Ben over him, so he decided to get revenge by taking Ben away."

Skylar whipped her head around to look at me. "My brother was kissing a Greek?"

Uh oh, I thought. This is not going to be good. "Um, actually, Tamara is the granddaughter of Zeus, and the daughter of Horus." I said quietly.

Skylar shot to her feet in anger and started pacing back and forth. She clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to get a hold of her anger. I watched her, slightly scared. She looked angry enough to go over to Tamara and kill her right then and there.

"He knows the rules," Skylar said to herself as she paced. "What was he thinking, falling for an Egyptian?"

I silently willed Tamara to keep sleeping. If she woke up now, I didn't know what Skylar would do to her.

Skylar paced back and forth five more times before finally slowing to a stop. She looked at me with her chocolate-brown eyes and said, "So, let me get this straight. That girl over there," she said, pointing to Tamara. "Is the granddaughter of Zeus."

"Right," I said slowly.

"And she's the daughter of the Egyptian war god Horus, correct?"

I nodded in agreement.

"I'm guessing this Dakota Storm was sent to help Tamara with her magic."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Skylar figured out things fast.

"So that leaves you and your boyfriend." Skylar said, crossing her arms and waiting for an explanation.

"My boyfriend, Archer, is the son of Apollo," I said. "And I'm Tina, the daughter of Poseidon."

Skylar's arms fell to her sides, and she clenched her jaw.

Oh great, now I've angered her out even more! I thought.

Skylar finally stopped staring at me and plopped down on the jungle floor, rubbing her temple. I tried to sit up, but cried out in pain. I looked down and saw that underneath my shirt, my torso was wrapped in sturdy bandages.

"You broke four ribs," Skylar explained as she glared at the floor. "I gave you some nectar, but it's going to take a while for everything to heal."

"And my leg?" I asked.

Skylar pursed her lips. "Your leg is pretty bad. You must have fallen and scraped it against a blade or something, and the python's poison is didn't help matters. The cut isn't very deep, but it's wide and long. You're going to have a scar."

I stared at my leg, trying to imagine what it would look like with a permanent scar on it.

"And what about Tamara?" I asked.

Skylar looked at Tamara and scowled. "Well, her already injured leg was healing, but she's torn the skin, so it's going to take longer. She's going to have a scar too. It's her shoulder I'm most concerned about."

"What happened to her?"

"The hydra caught her with a fireball. Her shoulder's been burned badly. I've put a salve on it made from a healing plant here in the jungle, which should help with the scarring, but I don't know by how much."

I looked at Tamara sadly.

The leaves of a plant quivered to my left, and I tensed. Skylar only looked up as another girl entered the campsite. This girl was on the shorter side, maybe five-feet and three-inches. She had a thin but sturdy build, fair skin, light gray eyes, and sleek black hair pulled up in a pony-tail, choppy bangs falling just above her eyes. She carried with her several large logs, which she placed next to the dying campfire.

"She's awake," the new girl said in a deeper voice than I expected.

"Yeah. Sophie, this is Tina, daughter of Poseidon. And Tina, this is Sophie, daughter of Minerva."

I ran through my list of god names in my head, trying to place the Greek version of Minerva.

"Athena," I said. "In Greece, your mother is Athena."

"Very good," Sophie said. She stretched a hand out, and I shook it.

"I have a friend back at Camp Half-Blood who's mother is Athena," I informed them.

Sophie nodded, not very interested in her unknown half-sister, and looked at Skylar. "So, what's going on?"

Skylar told Sophie my story in the shortest way possible. Sophie's jaw clenched upon hearing that Egyptians had taken Ben, and she shook her head when told that Ben and Tamara were now a couple, as though she was ashamed of Ben.

By the time Skylar had finished her short version of my story, Tamara had started to wake up. She groaned and twisted her head around, looking at Skylar, then Sophie, and then finally me.

"What's going on?" Tamara asked. "Tina, who are they?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get a word out, Skylar answered for me.

"This is Sophie Collins." Skylar gestured to Sophie. "And I'm Skylar Troy."

Tamara's eyes widened with shock at the name Troy. She held her breath and completely froze. We all watched her take the news. I felt a bad for her. It had been quite a shock to me, and I wasn't even dating Ben. But to Tamara . . . I could tell that memories of Ben were flooding back, all too painful to think about because he was no longer there.

Tamara finally looked into Skylar's eyes, and another shudder shook her body. She tried to sit up, and cried out in pain, gripping her burned shoulder and biting her lip. Skylar rushed over to her and had Tamara lie down again. I watched them as Skylar took Tamara's old bandage off her shoulder. What was underneath made my stomach churn.

Tamara's shoulder was a mix of black and bright-red. Most of her skin was red and tender, reminding me of a raw steak, with blood all over it. But on top of her shoulder was all charred black flesh, still sizzling with heat.

Tamara twisted her head to look at her shoulder, and her face went as white as a sheet. I could see tears in her eyes.

Sophie knelt down next to me and stirred something that was in a pot next to the fire.

"So, you know a daughter of Athena?" she asked me.

I tore my gaze away from Tamara's shoulder and looked at Sophie. I couldn't see any resemblance between her and Annabeth, except for their eyes.

"Yeah," I answered her. "Annabeth Chase. She's my brother's fiancee."

Sophie looked at me with interest. "Is she marrying Percy Jackson by any chance?" she asked.

"How did you know?"

"They visit Camp Jupiter sometimes. They have friends who live there."
"They have friends at Camp Jupiter?" I asked.

Sophie nodded. "Several years ago, the goddess Juno, or in your case Hera, swapped Percy with a son of Jupiter named Jason Grace. The goddess Gaea was wakening from her deep sleep and calling her giant children up to destroy Rome and Greece. Seven demigods, including Percy and Annabeth, helped defeat her."

"I thought the Greeks and Romans tried to stay away from each other?"

"They did, but when Juno swapped Percy and Jason, the two camps had no choice but to cooperate. It's still a little tense between the Greeks and Romans, but we're friendlier towards each other now."

I lay there, mulling over what she had said. It seemed that everyone knew Percy and Annabeth, like they were famous demigods, legends even.

"Here, you need to eat," Sophie said. She helped me sit up, placing several objects behind me to support my back. Then she spooned food out of the pot and into a tin bowl and handed it to me.

The smell of it made my mouth water, and my insides grumbled. It took a bite and enjoyed the feeling of warm soup sliding down my throat.

"Thank you, for taking care of us," I said to Sophie.

She looked at me and gave me a half-smile. "Well, we couldn't just let you and your friend die, now could we?" Sophie stood up and grabbed a bow and arrow that had been resting against a tree.

The sight of the weapon made my heart ache, reminding me of Archer and his skill with bows.

"Skylar, I'm going for more food. We'll need to pack well while searching for Ben, and Archer," she added, looking at me.

I smiled in thanks and returned to eating my soup. Sophie walked back into the dense jungle to go hunting. Skylar was still with Tamara. Her shoulder was now wrapped up in gauze again, more of the green salve oozing out from beneath her bandages. Skylar sat next to Tamara, and they were talking quietly. Skylar's body had relaxed, and her voice no longer had a sharpness in it. I took that as a good sign.

I looked around at the rest of the area. We were in a small clearing that was surrounded by coconut trees. Two backpacks were placed a few feet away from the campfire, one a blood-red and the other a royal-blue. The red one was zipped open, and I could see salves, creams, ointments, bandages, and bags of ambrosia and nectar inside. Along with the First-Aid stuff were several sheathed knives and small black pistols. Lying next to the backpack was a sheathed sword. There was no doubt in my mind that Skylar was a child of Mars. It was such a shift from Ben, who had only carried a sword with him while on our quest.

Unless he had stuff concealed, I thought, a very likely possibility. I remembered him carrying a backpack, and now I was convinced that it had been filled with First-Aid supplies and several weapons as well.

I stuck my hand inside my pocket and with relief found my hairpin. It had magical properties that made it return to my pocket no matter where I lost it, but it was still comforting to find it with me.

"Okay," Skylar said, raising her voice so I could hear. She stood up from her seat next to Tamara. "We're going to stay here for the night, that will give the two of you time to heal. And then, Tamara said you had a dream about a cave?" she asked, addressing me.

"Yeah, I did. I have no idea where it is though."

"It doesn't matter. At least we now have a clue as to where Ben and Archer are."

I spark of hope ignited inside of me. Maybe we could find Ben and Archer after all, if Skylar and Sophie helped.

"You guys should try and get some more sleep," Skylar suggested. "You'll want to be fully healed for tomorrow."

Tamara and I nodded, and we both laid down on our blankets of leaves. After a couple of minutes, Tamara had fallen back asleep, twitching occasionally at the pain in her shoulder.

I stared up at the palm trees rising above us. Colorful birds flew from tree to tree, singing beautiful songs. I didn't think I would be able to fall back asleep, not with the renewed hope of finding Archer. But eventually, my brain finally managed to command my eyes to close, and I fell into a deep sleep with Archer in my dreams.