Chapter 9.

I live out my nightmares

We were a few miles outside Half Moon Bay when night fell.

It was getting dark, and the closer we went towards the Bay, the more dangerous it would be to stop for the night.

Monsters would be more in number closer to the bay, because that's where Koios was. We could still expect a few patrols, but it wouldn't be as bad as facing the full brunt of the monsters. Eleanor had told me the spies from Camp Jupiter that had gone to scout out the mission reported that there was a huge army of monsters around Koios.

At least, the ones that returned, did. Reconnaissance was a deadly mission, especially when monsters were involved.

"Alright, we'll stop here," Caleb declared, and I looked around to see where we were. Trees were all around us, so that was basically pointless. Caleb was consulting a map from time to time, along with a compass that he had brought, to make sure we were not going off trail.

But it wasn't really hard to miss the trail. You just had to follow the abandoned weapons and bloodstained clothes. Remnants of earlier reconnaissance missions around the area, though I couldn't tell if they were successful or not. There wouldn't be any bodies, in most cases. You either escaped out alive, or the monsters ate you.

I shivered and remembered Lupa's teaching on how to survive being captured by monsters. While I wasn't able to remember everything, I remember her drilling into my head that several of them liked to ambush demigods from the back. Which was why I had fallen to the back of the line to make sure no one was following us. Nike had noticed this, and asked me why I was slow.

I told him I was guarding his back, thank you very much.

The place Caleb chose for us to rest for the night was a pretty good spot- it was probably marked on the map he had. It was a decent-sized grotto, about twice my height and fairly wide. Carved into the side of a small hill, the grotto was continuous with the top of the hill above it, meaning it was a stone outcropping, although above it was a bed of grass. It was the only clear area for miles- all around us until the bay, the forest stretched around on all sides, deep and foreboding.

The grotto was deep enough for four demigods to sleep in peace, easily. Six if you didn't mind invasion of personal space.

Of course, we slept six at a time. One of us had to keep watch, after all.

"So how's it going to be?" Caleb commented, as he slung his sleeping back over his shoulder and threw it on the ground. The bag hit the dusty stone floor, releasing a small cloud of dust.

The floor of the grotto was solid stone, with pebbles scattered all over the surface. Lying down here without a sleeping bag would be a nightmare.

I didn't have a sleeping bag.

"How's what going to be?" I asked, because everyone else was arguing how it was going to be, but I had no idea what it was, or how it was going to be.

"Watches, Percy," Haniel said, turning towards me. He looked like he was a bit younger than me, with bright blue eyes like a cloudless sky. He looked like an albino basketball player, with pale skin and very blond hair that was turning white at the edges. He was thin, wiry, and easily the tallest person in our group. He was taller than me by at least a head and a half.

"What do you mean? Are you building Rolexes in your free time?"

The son of Auster chuckled. "Not that watch. Night watches. Sentry duty."

"Ohhh," I agreed, "makes sense. So that monsters don't creep up on us unawares."

"Exactly," said Nike, who had walked up to listen to what we were saying and ignoring the debate about who got which watch going on between Caleb and Eleanor. Melissa and Caroline were spreading sleeping bags in a way to maximize ground coverage, so that no one had to step on the rocky floor.

Up closer, I could see that Nike was quite muscular. Although he wasn't huge, he was built like Bruce Lee. No fat, just layers and layers of powerful corded muscle.

He also had really long, dexterous fingers. Like a guitarist, and they were constantly in motion. Sometimes they made a grabbing motion, particularly around others pockets, I noticed, which was why Nike usually had a stress ball he used to constantly squeeze.

I figured it was a child of Mercury thing. It also explained his massive forearms.

"So how do you decide who gets what watch?"

"Usually the leader of the quest decides," he replied, gesturing with his head towards where Eleanor and Caleb were arguing, and I sighed.

"This is going to take a while, isn't it?"

He nodded. "That's why the rest of us usually lay down our sleeping bags by the time they decide."

I looked around.

Sure enough, Caroline and Melissa had already put their sleeping bags next to Nike and Haniel's. The two girls were talking about something to do with cereal boxes, but I couldn't exactly hear what.

Caleb's bag was already on the ground, but Eleanor hadn't put hers down yet.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I don't have a sleeping bag,"

"I'll give you my pillows, I don't need them," Haniel said, and Nike nodded, "Mine too," he added, "I don't like them. Too soft."

I shook my head. "But I'm sleeping on the floor. Those pillows will get dirty. Really, really dirty."

"Don't worry about that," Haniel chimed in, "these are only temporary. We'll leave them here in the grotto anyway."

"You will?" I asked, surprised, "Why?"

"It's part of the regular supplies we get every quest. We knew we'd have a stop before the action, so they're for the night- or rather, the lull before the storm. It's going to be the last night we'll be sleeping comfortably in, for a while I guess."

"Why don't you take them with you?" I asked. Mom and I were never flush on money, so the idea of wasting seven perfectly good sleeping bags and even more pillows (each sleeping bag came with two pillows. Which was a lot, considering I slept with none back at the Wolf House) was a bit weird to me.

"Well, Percy," commented Nike dryly, "I think running around with a sleeping bag would get in the way of us fighting a Titan, don't you think?"

I blushed, while Haniel chuckled, making the weird pendant he had around his neck jerk up and down. "Yeah, makes sense."

I studied the pendant, suddenly noticing it up close. It looked more like a neck plate, with the words Haniel and Cohort V etched on it in Latin. It was made out of a dull metal, which didn't reflect light. A thin but strong cord wrapped it around Haniel's neck.

"Curious, Percy?" asked Nike, as he noticed me staring at the neck plate.

I nodded. "Why do you have that? Only Haniel and Melissa have those…is it because they're…that-that ratio thing Caleb was saying-"

"Probatios?"

"Yeah…that. What's that?"

"Every demigod who joins Camp Jupiter is a probatio in their first year," Haniel explained, "and after a year of service you get enlisted into the legion. Either that, or you commit an act of great valor and the legion accepts you sooner- but that's quite difficult and doesn't happen often."

"What happens when the legion accepts you?"

"You get tattoos," Nike said, grinning, and showing me his forearm.

Along the inside of his forearm, clearly tattooed with something hot, were the words SPQR, followed by three lines, and a symbol of a caduceus.

I knew that symbol. I'd seen Hermes' caduceus. But I couldn't let Haniel and Nike know that, because according to them, he didn't exist.

"That's cool," I said, looking at the tattoo. It seemed painful. "Why are there three lines?"

"Those three lines represent three years of serving the legion," he replied, gesturing to each of the lines.

I nodded. That made sense. It was a little like Camps I had attended as a kid- for every week you completed at Camp, they gave you a bead, and by the end of eight or nine weeks, you had enough to make a decent necklace out of.

Only, the Romans seared the marks into your flesh instead of giving you beads.

"Is it painful?"

"You bet," the child of Mercury replied, "though you're usually in mortal pain or too high on adrenaline to notice."

"What?" I asked, worried. "What do you mean?"

"Alright, we've decided," Caleb announced, and everyone turned to look towards him, including Nike, with a wink.

I still wasn't sold on the whole tattoo thing. I hoped it was optional.

Caleb looked down at a piece of paper quickly listed out the watches. Eleanor stood to his right, nodding as he read down everyone's names.

I got the first watch, since I was the least experienced. If it was the first watch, I just had to stay awake a little longer. Watches in between- especially the last one, were more difficult. In between, well, you had to sleep, then wake up and stay awake, before going back to sleep. The last watch is always the hardest, because you have to stay awake for you watch as well as the whole day, which means sleep deprivation is going to affect your reflexes. And when you're a demigod and those reflexes be the difference between living and dying, things like sleep suddenly become really important.

Either way, I was glad I was the first watch- I wasn't really someone who enjoyed staying up at night. Unless staying up involved pizza or video games. Preferably both. I was more of a lazy summer afternoons type of guy. At least, that's what mom said.

Haniel and Nike walked over to talk to Caleb about their watches, and I noticed Eleanor finally beginning to set up her sleeping bag, so I walked towards her.

"Hey Percy," she greeted, not taking her eyes off the sleeping bag she was bent over, trying to unfold. "What's up?"

"I figured I'd offer to help you if you needed any help setting up your sleeping bag. Or whatever, I don't really know what I'm doing. But everyone else has finished with theirs so…."

"It's alright," she said, looking up at me and smiling, "I've got this, thanks."

I nodded, before heading out of the grotto, because I had nothing else to do and didn't want to get in the way of anyone. The bags I carried, besides the gravestones and stylus, mostly contained canned food and water.

The whole experience so far honestly just felt like a big hiking trip. The only difference being the mortal danger we were always exposed to. Most most hiking trips,you have a great house or a beautiful view awaiting us. We, however, had an ancient being more powerful than a god that wanted to kill us.

As I stepped out of the grotto, and the voices of the others died behind me, it was like stepping into a different world. It was nearly nightfall, and the grotto was surrounded on all sides by a small sandy clearing. Beyond the clearing, the forest began abruptly. It was like the trees had decided to leave a small camp site for wandering demigods, it even had a pile of stones in the middle for a campfire- probably used by previous scouts before the whole monster camp had set up at the bay.

The only issue was, this far away from Lupa and Camp Jupiter, we couldn't risk lighting a fire. Because with such a big group of demigods, that would basically be equivalent to signalling Monsters! Tasty meal right over here!

For a moment I morbidly wondered what monsters would think I tasted like. The best answer I got was fish and chips.

"Pretty quiet, huh?"

I turned around to see Melissa walk up. She was shorter than me, though she looked a lot older. She had tanned skin, curly brown hair dyed a bright green green at the ends and large hazel eyes, which she partly hid behind a pair of large gold-rimmed spectacles. She looked more like a child of Athena than Ceres, but the fact that she always had plants growing out of her hair made it hard to make that mistake. She was sipping lime tea from a clay cup she had crafted from the earth.

I nodded. "It's pretty peaceful. For now."

The daughter of Ceres nodded, a sad expression covering her face.

"What's up? You look a little….sad" I asked, not sure if I was supposed to point it out to her.

"It…it's just, well," she admitted, embarrassed, "forests and lime tea remind me of my elder sister. She was also a daughter of Ceres- both of us were."

"You have an elder demigod sister? That's sick!"

"Had, Percy," she corrected. "She died while the two of us were running towards the Wolf House. She- she stayed back to distract the monsters so that I could get to safety," Melissa replied, wiping away tears that suddenly appeared at the corners of her eyes. I felt bad for reacting so excitedly.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to get so emotional, but…but she really liked lime tea, and that was something she could make from nothing."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said, looking down for a moment. "She could make lime tea from nothing?"

Melissa chuckled in between sniffs, and I turned red.

"Sorry, that's insensitive-"

She waved her hand, "It's alright. But yeah. We're children of Ceres. We can grow plants from the ground, and to a small extent, control the earth. Mostly for agricultural purposes or to make small vessels, like this cup I'm holding. We're also good at making porta-potties."

"That's pretty insane. We'll never run out of lime tea that way."

The daughter of Ceres smiled. "I guess that's true. I don't know if I can grow any plant other than lemon trees though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Percy," she said, turning to face me, "children of Ceres can make all plants grow when they're near them, but we can't literally summon any plant we like from nothing. Each demigod has different plants- it's almost like their spirit plant, in a sense. You know, like Power Rangers and stuff. I can summon lemon trees. It's not that difficult, you get the ability for the first time when you go through a traumatic experience. A few from Camp can summon a few shrubs and herbs…poppies, dandelions, geraniums and so on. One of them can even summon a sequoia."

I nodded, though my expression probably was more along the lines of what the heck how'd they do that?, judging by Melissa's reaction.

"How'd they do that?"

"Training accident," Melissa's lip twitched. "One of the instructors was going really hard on this Ceres kid- her name's Sofia- and she literally was traumatized. Because her parents were millionaires- her mortal parents, I mean- she was used to being pampered all the time. So someone shouting at her was a 'life-threatening experience'," she rolled her eyes and used air quotes, "And then-BAM-" she slammed her fist into her other palm for emphasis, "a giant sequoia tree erupts from the ground out of nowhere in the middle of the training field."

"How did the Instructor take this?"

"Not too well. He was above the tree as it grew, so he was stuck high up in its branches. Took us a while- and two Pegasi to get him down, and another whole week to cut down the tree."

I chuckled. "That sounds cool. I'd like to meet this Sofia person."

"She'd like to meet you. She's really sweet. Just a little…well…"

"Cuckoo?"

"Yeah," Melissa replied.

"I'm a bit weird too. Aren't well all weird in different ways?"

"No Percy. Most of us are normal," she teased with a snort, "It's just you."

"Hey!"

Melissa chuckled, and I joined her.

The two of us gazed out at the dark forest in silence for a few minutes. We could hear noises in the distance. Wolves howled. Deer ran through the woods. Cyclopes lumbered around, looking for demigods to kill, their giant clubs trailing across the forest floor.

"Do you know why we're going to the Bay?" I asked, to break the silence.

"You mean Half Moon Bay?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded.

"I…I thought you knew."

"Nope," I said, shaking my head. "I came in blind. Do you know something?"

The brown-haired girl nodded. "We knew-it's pretty hard not to know. Ceres came to Camp Jupiter in all her glory, one day, and told us someone had stolen her symbol of power."

"Her what?"

"Her weapon, Percy. The main one that she uses to channel her powers. Like Zeus has a Master Lightning Bolt, Hades has his Helm and Poseidon has his trident, Ceres has her cereal box."

"And how did she, well, lose this box? Did she leave it at her breakfast table or something?"

"Percy!" Melissa chastised me, though she smiled, "Someone stole it. They found the thief- a brainwashed ventus-"

"A brainwashed vent?"

"Ventus," she corrected, "a storm spirit. He was taken in for questioning, but remembered nothing, which is worrying, because it means some of the gods living in Olympus have turned. There's no other way such a breach of security could have happened."

"Where's Olympus? What do you mean they turned? Turned right or left?"

Melissa shrugged. "I don't know. Probably on top of a mountain somewhere. By turned- I mean they've turned to the Titan's side."

"How do you know all this?"

"Ceres told me in a dream. That's why I'm here on this quest," she added, looking down like she was embarrassed. "I'm older than you, but I came to Camp late, because I'm don't have as powerful a demigod scent, and more importantly, I didn't know who I was till a few months back. I'm not the best at fighting, but mother was insistent one of her children was part of the quest, and the only children of Ceres in the fifth cohort are me and Sofia, so she picked me."

I looked around at the rest of the demigods.

"So," I asked, lowering my voice, "the others don't really consider you up to their level?"

"I don't know," Melissa said, shrugging. "I'm still a probatio either way. All I know is that I have to get this weapon back. I can't let my mom- or Rome- down. I'll die trying. I have nothing else to live for. Not-not after Jayden died."

"Was Jayden the name of your elder sister?"

She nodded. "I have to get this box back. For her. She always believed I could do something big that changed the world. Not all of us demigods get huge prophecies that say we'll change the world or kill a Titan or something. Most of us just have to deal with regular lives and dangerous monsters, dying unknown deaths in the battlefield. Most people won't ever hear of us."

"I-I'm not going to let that happen. We'll get the box. And you won't die. You'll see."

Melissa smiled, tucking a stray strand of curly hair behind her ear.

"Thanks, Percy. I hope so."

"Hey, first watch!"

I turned around to see Caleb gesturing at me. I wasn't sure what he was signaling, because it looked like a complicated dance pattern, but I figured it was to get out of the grotto and to keep an eye out. For monsters.

"Good night, Percy."

"'Night Melissa."

I turned around and faced the dark woods, while the rest of the group lay down in the grotto, either sleeping or whispering obnoxiously loudly. Those whispering were soon shushed by those wanting to sleep, so the night quickly turned peaceful.

I looked down at the watch I'd borrowed from Haniel. Its phosphorescent hands told me that it was around 10 in the night. I was keeping watch till 11ish. Then I had to wake Nike up for his turn.

All around me, I could hear nature going to sleep. Birds called out sleepily from between the trees, and I heard the occasional raccoon and a few coyotes slinking in the darkness. Crickets chirped all the time, making it seem like they were pulling off a night-shift concert. Wolves called out in the darkness, and I even heard a distant roar, like a bear that was out hunting.

I'd like to say that was the scariest sound I'd heard, but I'd be lying. Somewhere off in the distance, I knew there were monsters lurking around. Distant thumps that shook the earth, like the they had a T-Rex in their army. Weird calls that sounded like dying souls. Evil laughter, far out in the distance. Several creatures that looked like vultures flew overhead at one point, I couldn't really see them, but the cries the made as they flew over chilled me to the bone.

The moon wasn't bright today, which meant I was in near total darkness. I could see a few feet ahead of me, but either way, I didn't really matter, because beyond that the dense foliage meant that I couldn't see anything unless it came close enough for me to see- or smell it- or it made more noise than a baby throwing a tantrum.

We'd placed lots of dry leaves and sticks on the edge of the sand surrounding the grotto. Not so far off that every creature walking through the forest would be heard, but close enough so that we knew if anything stepped on the sticks and leaves, it would definitely be heading towards us.

Imagine you're in a giant wheat field. Behind you is a small house, and a small ray of warmth strays out, faintly lighting your back, but nothing more. Crickets are chirping a dime a dozen, and the occasional firefly flies past. You're standing alone in the field, looking out into the dark night, the sky ablaze with a million stars.

It feels awesome, doesn't it?

Then add darkness so pervasive you can't see the stars or even few feet ahead of you. And noises in the field sounding like monsters that want to kill you. Scuttles in the undergrowth. Deep primal roars in the distance.

Yep, that's how I felt.

Sweat damped my forehead as I looked around, before drawing Maelstrom out. The blade glowed gold, giving me a little light- I could see my hands and legs and maybe two feet in front of me, but that was it. It was more for reassurance, though. That the gods were still there. That they cared- to an extent. The darkness was so prominent it felt like a literally nightmare.

That's not to mention the nerves. I could feel my gut roll in nervousness, the kind you get when you're alone at night, looking into a huge expanse of darkness, hoping nothing sneaks up on you, because you know that there are a million things that will.

My first time keeping watch was really traumatizing. Almost like that time I first met the warden in Minecraft. Almost, but a lot worse, because unlike in the game, if I die, I can't respawn.

I thought I'd struggle staying awake for the watch, but I was too freaked out to consider sleeping. I had no idea how I'd manage to sleep once my watch was over.

I turned around, and looked at the group of demigods sleeping behind me.

They trusted me.

I realized just now.

They trusted me enough to sleep, knowing that I had their backs. That I'd alert them if anything happened.

A warm feeling filled my chest, and I resolved that I would not hold back this quest. If I had to use my powers in ways that would make people afraid of me, as long as I could protect my friends, I would.

I'd be loyal to my friends no matter what.