Warning: Certain ancient Greek names matches words use of foul language but no foul language was intentionally used. Also if you haven't read them yet read 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Early Adventures' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse' and 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Magical Labyrinth' as well as the one shots 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Stolen Chariot' The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Sword of Hades', and The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Bronze Dragon' before reading this story as stuff that happened in them will be mentioned. Lastly, any one who wants to do a Demigods and Olympian reads story using 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon' is allowed as long as you inform me about it.
I'm Trying to Enjoy My Last Days!
I dreamed Rachel Elizabeth Dare was throwing darts at my picture.
She was standing in her room, which really was really a huge loft with industrial lighting and floor-to-ceiling windows a top floor of her family's mansion, which is renovated brownstone in Brooklyn.
Some alt rock was blaring from her paint-covered Bose docking system. As far as I could tell, Rachel's only rule about music was that no two songs on her iPod could sound the same, and they all had to be strange.
She wore a kimono, and her hair was frizzy, like she'd been sleeping. Her bed was messed up. Sheet hung over a bunch of artist easels. Dirty clothes and old energy bar wrappers were strewn around the floor, but when you've got a room as big as hers, the mess doesn't look so bad. Out the window you could see the entire nighttime skyline of Manhattan.
The picture she was attacking was a painting of me slaying Antaeus. Rachel had painted it a couple months ago. My expression in the picture was fierce—disturbing even—so it was hard to tell if I was the good guy or the bad guy, but Rachel said I'd looked just like that in battle.
"Demigods," Rachel muttered as she threw another dart at the canvas. "And their stupid quest."
Most of the darts bounced off, but a few stuck. One hung off my chin like a goatee.
I also realize that with almost dying trying to escape the Princess Andromeda, getting to see my dad's realm and meeting my immortal family and step-family, the war council and finding out that I wasn't going to live after my sixteenth birthday; I've forgotten to contact Rachel and give her my answer about her trip. Although, now that I think about it, it probably be a bad idea to contact her once I wake up since I made it clear in the war council meeting I was staying.
Someone pounded on her bedroom door.
"Rachel!" a man shouted. "What in the world are you doing? Turn off that—"
Rachel scooped up her remote control and shut off the music. "Come in!"
Her dad walked I, scowling and blinking from the light. He had rust colored hair a little darker than Rachel's. It was smashed on one side like he'd lost a fight with his pillow. His blue silk pajamas had "WD" monogram in the pocket. Seriously, who has monogrammed pajamas?
"What is going on?" he demanded. "It's three in the morning."
"Couldn't sleep," Rachel said.
On the painting, a dart fell off my face. Rachel hid the rest behind her back, but Mr. Dare noticed.
"So… I take it your friend isn't coming to St. Thomas?" That's what Mr. Dare called me. Never Percy. Just your friend. Or young man if he was talking to me, which he rarely did. I think it's because I'm from a low class family and he probably think Rachel could do better.
Honestly, my mom and I could move up classes. We have the money from the Lotus Casino Card I got on my first quest. Heck, that card paid the remaining stuff we needed for my mom and stepdad's wedding (by the way, Paul does know about the card, and agrees to only use it for emergencies as—in his words— 'It's better to earn your money'). Not to mention, he had no clue who I really am.
Rachel knit her eyebrows. "I don't know."
"We leave in the morning," her dad said. "If he hasn't made up his mind yet—"
"He's probably not coming," Rachel said miserably. "Happy?"
Mr. Dare put his hands behind his back. He paced the room with a stern expression. I imagined he did that in the board room of his land development company and made his employees nervous.
"Are you still having bad dreams?" he asked. "Headaches?"
Rachel threw her darts on the floor. "I should never have told you about that."
"I'm your father," he said. "I'm worried about you."
"Worried about the family reputation," Rachel muttered.
Her father didn't react—maybe because he'd heard that comment before, or maybe because it was true.
"We could call Dr. Arkwright," he suggested. "He helped you get through the death of your hamster."
"I was six then," she said. "And no, Dad, I don't need a therapist. I just…" she shook her head helplessly.
Her father stopped in front of the windows. He gazed at the New York skyline as if he owned it—which wasn't true. He only own part of it.
"It will be good for you to get away," he decided. "You had some unhealthy influences."
Another proof of how lowly he thinks of me.
"I'm not going to Clarion Ladies Academy," Rachel said. "And my friends are none of your business."
Mr. Dare smiled, but it wasn't a warm smile. It was more like, Someday you'll realize how silly you sound.
"Try to get some sleep," he urged. "We'll be at the beach by tomorrow night. It will be fun."
"Fun," Rachel repeated. "Lots of fun."
Her father exited the room. He left the door open behind me. Rachel stared at the portrait of me. Then she walked to the easel next to it, which was covered in a sheet.
"I hope they're dreams," she said.
She uncovered the easel. On it was a hastily sketched charcoal, but Rachel was a good artist. It was a picture of Luke as a young boy at years old, with a wide grin and no scar on his face. I had no idea how she what he looked at that age. I didn't even know Luke when he was that age. But the scary part was that the painting looked vaguely familiar but at the same time wasn't. Like I seen a picture just like it before.
However, my attention was diverted when Rachel uncovered the next easel. This picture was even more disturbing. It showed the Empire State Building with lightning all around it. In the distance a storm was brewing, with a huge had coming out of the clouds. At the base of the building a crowded had gathered with spears, javelins, and banners—the trappings of an army.
"Percy," Rachel muttered, as if she knew I was listening, "what is going on?"
The dream faded, and the last thing I remember was wishing I could answer her question.
…
The next morning, I wanted to call her, but couldn't. The only ones with a phone that I was aware about was Chiron who only used it in emergencies and Annabeth, who I don't want to ask to use with the whole jealousy Annabeth had with Rachel. Not to mention whenever a demigod uses a cellphone, the signal agitate every monster within a hundred miles like we're sending up a signal where we're at. Even here at camp, that's something none of us want.
I ate my usual breakfast by myself at Poseidon table. Nothing I'm not use too. Before my mom adopted Tyson and he became a camper, I spend six years the only camper in Poseidon's table.
After breakfast, Annabeth and I walked down to inspect cabins. Actually, it was Annabeth's turn for inspections. My morning chore was to sort through reports for Chiron. But since we both hated our jobs, we decided to do them together so it wouldn't be so heinous.
We started at Poseidon's cabin which was basically just me. I made my bunk that morning (well, sort of) and straightened out my private stash (which Annabeth insisted of checking since she knew about it), but not exactly a five out of five work that Tyson did last summer.
Annabeth ended up giving me a three out of five, mostly due to my clothes scattered across the cabin.
I tried to skim through Chiron's stack of reports as we walked. There were messages from demigods, nature spirits, ad satyrs all around the country, writing about the latest monster activity. They were pretty depressing, and my ADHD brain did not like concentrating on depressing stuff. Either way, I tried to skim for anything about something bright and alive. Nothing yet on Thalia, but that's expected since they probably just got the message last night. There were not even reports of new demigods, which was even more depressing.
"Nothing new on the monster activity," I said.
"I don't know if that's a good thing or not," Annabeth reassured.
We visited the Aphrodite Cabin, which of course got a five out of five. Silena was even there to make sure before going on her at-camp date with Beckendorf. In fact, the only place in the cabin that had stuff on it was the wall behind Silena's bunk, which was decorated with pictures of Beckedorf, and even that was organized.
"By the way, Percy, here," Silena handed me a box of chocolate. "Think of it as my thanks for making sure Charlie got off that ship safely."
"Thanks, Silena," I responded now wishing we didn't have done Poseidon's cabin first because now I had to carry a box of chocolate and Chiron's paperwork. Not to mention it will lead to a lot of questions during inspections.
I didn't have to ask Silena where she got the chocolate. I remembered that her dad owned a chocolate store in the village, which was how he'd caught the attention. And since Aphrodite Cabin is always clean for inspection, I know it wasn't bribery.
"Nice work as always, Silena," Annabeth said, "And Percy, you can stop by your messy cabin real quick while I inspect Ares Cabin."
"Great," I muttered. I really wished Annabeth didn't remind me how messy my cabin.
I thanked Silena again before Annabeth and I headed out. All at the same time, I was thinking Silena will probably reward the secret double-agent when we find out who he or she was for sending Mrs. O'Leary to Beckendorf and me in the first place.
As it turned out, we didn't have to inspect Ares Cabin, or Apollo's Cabin for that matter. As we headed out and I decided to try one of my rewards for a good deed (they weren't blue, but they were good) and was about to offer Annabeth one when a fight broke out between the two cabins. Some of Apollo campers armed with firebombs flew over the Ares cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi. The chariot looked pretty sweet ride. Soon, the roof of Ares cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow water on it.
Then the Ares campers called down a curse, and all the Apollo's kids arrows turned to rubber. That was one of Ares' kids' powers along with the power to control dead soldiers of losing sides of wars. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids, but the arrows bounced off.
Two archers ran by, chased by an angry Ares kid who was yelling in poetry. "Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay! I don't want to rhyme all day!"
Annabeth and I sighed. Last time Apollo cursed a cabin, it took a week for the rhyming couplets to wear off.
We decided to give both cabins one out of five before ducking as Michael Yew's Chariot dive bombed an Ares camper. The Ares camper tried to stab him and cuss out in rhyming couplets. He was pretty creative about rhyming those cuss words.
"We're fighting for our lives, our divine parents are risking a lot to fight Typhon, and they're bickering over a chariot…" I said, "And yet I can't help but shake this feeling Ares is laughing at me right now."
"They'll get over it," Annabeth said. "Clarisse will come to her senses."
"I hope so," I muttered.
We decided to skip returning to my cabin to avoid Ares and Apollo kids (it sometimes stinks to be neighbors with Ares' cabin). I scanned more reports ad we inspected a few more cabins. Demeter got four out of five which was lower than usual even for Demeter cabin. I'm amaze they kept it at least decent with their mother missing, but I guess they wanted to impress Demeter for when she returned.
Beckendorf manage to get his siblings to organize their cabin enough for a three out of five. Hermes got a two after we cut them slack for being filled capacity.
Finally we got to Athena's cabin, which was orderly clean as usual. Books were straightened on the shelves. The armor was polished. Battle maps and blue prints decorated the walls. Only Annabeth's bunk was messy. It was covered in papers, and her silver laptop was still running.
"Vlacas," Annabeth muttered, which was basically calling herself an idiot in Greek.
I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. Even Annabeth's half-brother and second-in-command, Malcom, suppressed a smile. "Yeah, um… we cleaned everything else. Didn't know if it was safe to move your notes.
That was probably smart. Annabeth had a bronze knife Luke gave her that belonged to Halcyon Green, which was given to him by the girl he defied the fates to save. Anyways, she normally save the knife for monsters, people who messed with her stuff, and at one time the Stoll Brothers after they poured spiders into Cabin Six (A long story).
Malcom grinned at me. "We'll wait outside while you finish inspection." The Athena Campers filed out the door while Annabeth cleaned up her bunk.
I decided to continue looking through the reports, partly because I was hoping I missed something, mostly because Annabeth's siblings just made things awkward.
See, even on inspection, it was against the rules for two campers to be alone in the cabin, and the rule been especially enforced since Silena and Beckendorf started dating. Not even Clarisse and Chris don't even stay in the same cabin alone as many times as Silena and Beckendorf.
I took out a piece of chocolate I had saved and ate it. What can I say? Silena's dad made sure to send good chocolate, and it's not like I asked to be rewarded for doing a good deed.
Anyway, for some reason I was thinking about the rule as I continued going through the paperwork and savoring my chocolate.
I looked over to see Annabeth closed her laptop, which had been given to her as a gift from the inventor Daedalus last summer. She really have a lot of plans and notes. It was no secret that Annabeth wanted to be an architect someday.
"So…" I said, "Is everything cool with your family?"
Annabeth nodded. "My dad wanted to take me to Greece this summer," she said wistfully. "I've always wanted to see the Parthenon."
"I don't blame you," I said. "I had hopes to see the remains of Hal's place one day."
Annabeth stared at her inspection scroll. "Three out of five," she muttered. "For sloppy head counselor. Come on. Let's finish your reports and get back to Chiron."
On the way back to the Big House, we read the last report, which was handwritten on a maple leaf from a satyr in Canada—or rather a Satyr assigned to Canada. If possible, the note made me feel worse.
"Dear Grover," I read aloud. "Woods outside Toronto attacked by giant evil badger. Tried to do as you suggested and summon power of Pan. No effect. Many dryads trees destroyed. Retreating to Ottawa. Please advise. Where are you?—Gleeson Hedge, protector."
Annabeth grimaced. "You haven't heard anything from him? Even with your empathy link?"
I shook my head dejectedly.
Ever since last summer when the god Pan had died, our old fried Grover had left camp to tell any nature spirit and satyr who would listen Pan's last word. The Council of Cloven Elders treated him like an outcast, even though he wasn't outcasted. The only time he came back to camp was to see his girlfriend, Jupiter. Last I heard, he was in Central Park organizing the dryads, but that was two months ago. Iris messages never got through. I tried to open my empathy link but for some reason Grover wasn't responding to that.
"Percy, do you think Typhon is a distraction," Annabeth asked.
"Why you ask?" I asked as I popped another chocolate in my mouth.
"Because the way you were acting at the meeting yesterday—and would you stop eating that chocolate?" Annabeth asked.
"But they're good. Here, have one," I offered one.
Annabeth took it. "I don't see what the deal is about it," Annabeth said as she ate the piece of chocolate. "You're right, these are good."
"Told you. After my mom's famous homemade blue sweets, these had to be the second best chocolate I had," I responded. "As for how I was behaving—I'm just not certain that all the monsters on the Princess Andromeda, was all of Kronos' attack power."
I told her about the conversation between Krios and Hyperion. I also brought up my dream vision last night about Rachel's painting (rather reluctant, but last night's dream didn't help me feel better about the one before.
"Percy, if you're right, then more enemies will be coming," Annabeth said, "Not just Typhon."
I nodded. "I'll tell Chiron when I get the chance—knowing him he probably knows I been holding back. But for now, I want to enjoy my life while I can. No matter if it's here at Camp Half-Blood, or with my mom, or wherever. I think I deserve that much."
Annabeth looked at me as if studying me, like she always does when she's not satisfied, but she nodded.