Piper glared out at the distance. It should have been beautiful. The sun was slowly starting to rise. It reminded her of her first date with Reyna. Of course, her girlfriend didn't remember anything.
Her dream had warned her of this. She hoped. No, she prayed that it was just a bad nightmare, and her mind was making everything up.
Piper turned away from the sunrise. She glanced at Reyna who was still gripping the backpack. Reyna had put her sword away, but she had not said another word to any of them. No emotion was being shown.
It took all of Piper's willpower to stop herself from reaching out and grabbing Reyna's arm. When they had first met, Reyna was quiet. She wasn't rude. She just kept to herself.
Then, Isabel had insulted Piper's heritage. Reyna had decked the girl faster than anyone could blink. Even though Piper didn't like others fighting her battles for her, she did love to see Isabel looking all shocked with a bloody nose.
A friendship formed out of that. Slowly, Piper managed to turn that friendship into a relationship. It had taken almost an entire semester.
They had their first date by sneaking out of the school. It took almost a hour to convince Reyna. Piper would do it again though. That was when she had her first kiss. After that day, Reyna allowed Piper to grab her hand whenever she wanted. It was a silent sign of trust.
Piper sighed tiredly. She tried to not stare into Reyna's black eyes. It was too easy to get lost in them. Reyna subconsciously ran a hand through her black hair. She had redone the braid when they first took off.
Reyna's face was emotionless, but she couldn't stop how tense she was. Piper knew her girlfriend was probably more confused than anything. Her thoughts were interrupted by Leo choking on a Pegasus feather.
"This is freaking awesome," Leo said. after he spat the feather out. He looked down at the ground. "Can we ride the Pegasus after this?"
"We have lessons for that," Percy replied. He seemed a little more relaxed than earlier. Percy tilted his head. "Well, Scipio said no. He promised to put his hooves in your asinum if you came too close."
Piper frowned. She had no clue what that word meant, but Reyna's lips did curve into a small smile. It was quickly lost as she stared out into the distance.
"Lessons for it where?" Piper questioned.
"Camp Half-Blood," Butch answered. "It's a safe place for kids like us."
Piper bit her cheek in anger. She had been called a half-blood by Isabel and her little posse. Was the universe playing some kind of cruel joke on her?
"Half human. Half god," Reyna muttered. She looked at them. "Also known as demigods."
"Yeah," Percy confirmed. He looked back at them. "How long have you known you were one?"
"I woke up this morning without any memory," Reyna replied. "Your guess is as good as mine."
Percy nodded. He spoke, "My father is Poseidon. He's the god of the seas and the reason I can talk to Pegasi. I never got your names."
"I'm Leo. That's Piper. Cranky over there is Reyna. You get use to it," Leo answered. Reyna shot him a glare, but her eyes widened slightly.
Piper turned and saw the left wheel was on fire. She spoke, "Um guys. We have a problem. The left wheel is on fire!"
As she looked at what was chasing them, she saw more of the storm spirits. Reyna had called them Venti. They looked like horses instead of humans.
"Anemoi behind us," Butch reported. He looked at Percy. "Can you put the wheel out."
"No. Get us out of here," Percy ordered. He looked back at them. "Hold on."
Before Piper could ask what he meant, the chariot zoomed forward. Everything became a blur, and she was pretty sure her stomach had been left behind. Piper closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them, they were flying over a new place.
All she could make out was a green valley. There was water on one side. Cliffs surrounded the other three sides. As they got closer, she could make out more details.
There was a large, blue mansion, temples of some sort, and more cabins than she could count. The most attention grabbing part was the giant rock wall that was on fire. She did not want to do that.
The chariot dropped out of the sky. Piper grabbed Reyna's arm and closed her eyes tightly. This was not how she imagined her death.
"Get it to the lake," Percy ordered. Piper could barely hear his voice. She opened her eyes as the chariot came to a sudden stop. Her breath left her as she saw water had caught them. It slowly lowered the chariot to the shore.
Percy looked weak as he got out of the chariot. Butch steadied him. A crowd of people started to converge on their location. All wore orange shirts, and most wore a necklace with beads on it.
Piper slowly got out of the chariot. She stood by Reyna's side. Piper noticed that Reyna's left hand moved to her right ring finger. She rubbed it like she expected a ring to be there. Leo stumbled to their side.
"I changed my mind about riding a Pegasus," Leo said. His face was pale as he tried to not vomit.
One boy pushed to the front. He raised his bow exasperated. The boy spoke, "Do you know what borrow means?"
"It's not too bad," Percy began. Piper looked back. One wheel had fallen off. The chariot had been almost split in half.
The boy glared and turned towards Piper. He spoke, "These three are it? They should have been claimed already."
"I know," Percy muttered darkly. "That's not the worse part. I didn't find any sign of Annabeth."
The campers all started muttering to themselves. They obviously saw Annabeth as a leader. If Piper had to guess, she would say Percy was the other leader. A girl pushed forward to the front of the crowd.
Piper's inner alarm went off. She knew she would not like this girl. The girl was tall, Asian, and everything on her looked perfect. Piper had dealt with this type of girl before.
"They don't seem worth the effort," the girl muttered. A few others girls behind her nodded their agreement.
"Hey, we had the hard job here. All they had to do was pick us up, but we had to fight a Chimera," Leo said. All the campers started whispering to themselves again. The girl looked at them with a new look. It wasn't respect though; the girl was wondering how she could use them to make herself look good.
"You'd be dead if you fought a Chimera," someone from the crowd called. Others nodded their agreement, and the whispering started again.
"I saw it with my own eyes," Percy interrupted. He looked around. "Now is not the time to fight. Hopefully, these three will be claimed by dinner tonight."
"What does claimed me?" Piper questioned. She glanced at Reyna who just stared ahead emotionless. How could Reyna be so calm at a time like this?
Everyone all gasped at once. They took a step back from Leo. Piper turned to look at her friend. A fiery hammer was floating above Leo's head. It almost looked like a hologram.
"Did I do something?" Leo questioned. Piper pointed to his head. Leo looked up and yelped. He backed towards the lake like he was going to jump in. The symbol followed him.
"The curse," Butch began. Percy shot him a look. Butch nodded slightly.
"Vulcan," Reyna said. She was watching the symbol calmly. "Leo's been claimed by Vulcan."
"Wait. I've been claimed by a volcano dude?" Leo questioned.
"It's Hephaestus in Greek, but you're right," Percy said to Reyna. "How did you know that?"
Reyna shrugged. As she did, Piper noticed the blood on her jacket. She spoke, "Reyna, your arm."
"I'm fine," Reyna said. She slipped her left arm out of her jacket to show that she was fine. Reyna took her jacket off, but Piper's attention shot to her right arm.
"What is that?" Percy questioned. Reyna looked as confused as they did. She held her arm out. There was a tattoo on her forearm.
The tattoo had a sword crossed with a torch. The letters SPQR were below that. Four lines like a bar code were below the letters. It could have been a tattoo, but it also looked burned on. Reyna ran a hand over it.
"Will," Percy said as he turned towards the boy with the bow. "Can you take Leo on a tour of the camp?"
Will nodded. He grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him away. Leo stared as he left and made a motion to his own arm. Piper could of swore that he whispered something about wanting a tattoo as well.
The campers were whispering as well. They eyed the tattoo warily like it had declared war on them. Percy examined Reyna closely. She raised her chin defiantly as she met his eyes.
"Drew, take her to meet Chiron," Percy ordered. Drew rolled her eyes, but Percy seemed to ignore it. He looked at Piper. "Let me give you a tour."
Piper nodded slightly and followed Percy away. She spoke, "Is Reyna in trouble?"
"No," Percy answered. "Chiron is nice and fair. Reyna will be fine. I hope."