Chapter 10.

Some trees give Melissa a panic attack

By the time it turned 11, I was more than ready to switch shifts. The night was freaking me out.

Besides the eerie noises and the darkness, the sense of just being…alone, was playing havoc with my mind.

I cautiously headed towards the grotto, looking back all the while. I couldn't help it, I was overcome with paranoia.

The forest- what I could see of it anyway- looked the same. All the same, my ADHD mind conjured a million things stalking through the darkness. Huge lizards. Gorgons. The clown from IT. My old math teacher.

I turned back, terrified, and looked around the grotto. It was dark, and I had to crouch so my head didn't hit the rocky ceiling, but I could faintly make out the outlines of six sleeping bags. I drew maelstrom out, its yellow gleam allowing me to see a little more, which meant instead of seeing six black forms of sleeping bags, I could now see six of them, but in color.

"Psst. Hey! Nike!" I whispered, walking down and prodding one the sleeping demigods. It was pretty hard to tell who was who, because everyone was in sleeping bags and looked like big rolls of cloth, but I could tell this was Nike because I heard him mutter things like 'stealing things is technically not a crime if you don't get caught,' in his sleep.

"Nike!" I whispered, more forcefully now.

"Huh-Wha-"

The son of Mercury opened his eyes and lifted his head up, rubbing his eyes and groaning. It looked like he was used to demigods with weapons waking him up at the dead of night, because he simply yawned and stretched.

"Sup Percy," he said, not fully awake. "My shift huh?"

I nodded, before realizing he couldn't see me in the dark, so I spoke up. "Yeah. Have fun- but honestly, it's a bit creepy."

Nike sat up, his knees bent and his hands resting on his knees as his body woke up fully. He yawned, and I heard a faint chuckle.

"I know. Night watches on quests are quite the terror, I've heard. Well, it's my turn to experience them."

I didn't know how much he'd be laughing about it in the end of his watch, but I was too sleepy to really worry. I was going to ask him if he wanted to borrow maelstrom, then I remembered he was a Roman legionnaire.

"Sweet dreams, Percy," Nike said, chuckling as he went out, humming a song that sounded like Sweet Home Alabama.

I stuck my tongue out, but realized he probably didn't see it either way. The darkness made communication really difficult.

I squinted, looking around me. In the grotto, I could see the others, though all they looked like were round cocoons. Towards the back of the grotto was a pile of cans- the food we had eaten yesterday, and several packs of Tropicana. I took one of the packs and drank some of the juice, doing my best not to slurp.

All the while, I was looking for a place to sleep on.

"Where is a pillow when you need one," I muttered to myself, as I held the Tropicana pack in one hand and maelstrom in the other, hunting for pillows. As if an answer to my question, I saw a pile of white to my right.

I gently eased Maelstrom back to coin form and crawled towards it, careful not to move over anyone. Hades had no fury like an angry awoken demigod.

When I reached the pile, I felt it, just to make sure it was pillows, and not a white pile of….well I don't know what, but not pillows.

It was soft.

This was the pile of pillows.

I smiled. Each of the gang had probably given me one, like I was some kind of charity they'd picked up on the way. I chuckled to myself as I threw the juice pack back towards the rest of the used food, whispering 'Kobe'.

The juice pack hit a stack of empty bottles, which clattered to the floor.

Shit.

I glanced around, but fortunately everyone was still asleep. I was glad today had been tiring enough to make everyone care about sleep to much to wake up at light noises.

Caleb was hugging something- I wasn't stupid enough to go check it out, because his hunting knife was clearly visible next to him on the floor. It gleamed golden, emitting a small amount of light like a deadly night lamp.

For easy pick up, he had told me earlier when I'd asked him.

Easy pick up against who, I didn't know.

I quickly spread the pillows out on the floor, five at length, with a pillow to cuddle. Because I wanted to, okay?

There were more pillows, but girls tended, on average, to sleep with four pillows or more, which meant I slept on these five. None of the guys used a pillow. Except me, of course.

The pillows weren't the best. They were hard, for one, and I couldn't even push them down with my body weight. Each of the pillows had something corny written on them, embroidered into it with a pink thread, like Sleeping is so easy I can do it with my eyes closed, and Nap time is happy hour. I kept my feet on that one.

I understood why the guys didn't want the pillows-besides the weird quotes, these were more like rocks covered with a white cloth. Obviously, it didn't get why the girls wanted four of them either, but that wasn't anything knew.

I sighed, before sitting on the pillows, falling back gently to look up. While the pillows were fairly wide, there was only so wide you could make a pillow, which meant if I rolled more than once on either side I'd end up face first on the stone floor.

I tossed and turned to my left, then my right over the pillows, wondering if I'd ever fall asleep.

I looked up at the ceiling. It was black.

Looking around me, everything was black. I shut my eyes, though I didn't really make much of a difference.

I counted sheep. I counted blue pancakes. I counted blue sheep eating blue pancakes.

Nothing seemed to work.

I sighed, before finally humming Stairway to Heaven softly, to myself. I'd loved the song when I was young- well, younger- and mom was a huge fan of the band. We'd even seen the official tour bus in the streets of Brooklyn once.

Whenever I heard this song, I always thought of mom. Of her warmth, and how she made me feel happy inside, because she loved me. I felt safe.

For what was probably the first time today, I genuinely smiled, thinking about her.

I hoped she was safe, and doing well.

And that she'd ditched Smelly Gabe.

I'm not sure at what point I fell asleep, but I opened my eyes to find myself at a beach.

In my dream, the beach was long, miles and miles of sand. It curved around the ocean, forming a crescent shape into which the ocean crept, forming a bay. Behind the golden sands, steep stone cliffs, dark and foreboding, rose up. Above them, I could see grass, and a few small houses, and beyond that, if I focused, I could barely make out a treeline.

Between two of the largest cliffs was a narrow gorge, which seemed to be the only entry down to the bay.

Waves crested the beach, lapping over the sands. There were no rocks, so there was no powerful ocean spray or deafening thunder, just the waves hitting against a sandbank. It was early morning, and the sun was just rising. There was still some humidity in the air (somehow I knew it was 82%) as night was giving way to day.

The bay was empty for the most part. No stalls, or beach-side restaurants or resorts. Definitely no Ferris wheels.

A few people roamed the bay on its west end. A group of school kids playing volleyball. A couple going on a stroll. A few surfers. But towards the east, the bay was deserted, except for a few plastic bags. And a decaying wooden sign read WELCOME TO HALF MOON BAY, painted in red letters over a yellow background.

It didn't look like the beach welcomed a lot of people recently. In fact, most of the beach was empty, except for the few people at the left. It was probably due to the growing monster camp that would probably be setting up on the beach.

See, the Mist can hide monsters from mortals, but even then, it doesn't obscure everything. Sure, a few hellhounds could look like a few stray dogs, but how often would you go to a place where you knew you'd see fifty stray dogs hunting together?

In fact, the people who were still on the beach were either really brave, or really stupid.

Or they just really loved the beach.

Since I had no idea what I was supposed to do, I walked towards them. Demigod dreams usually showed significant events. And something told me this wasn't a random dream my brain had conjured up- for some reason, I was supposed to see this.

As I walked up towards the west end of the bay, I saw a lone lifeguard post, with a bored-looking girl sitting there, clad in an orange swimming costume. A white and yellow surfboard rested against her chair. The board behind her read, Welcome to Half Moon Bay, but in italics. Below it was a clock, showing the date and time.

It was early September, so I realized this was in the past. By at least four or five weeks, because while I wasn't sure what the date was, I knew I we'd hit November.

Demigod dreams have meanings, so I wasn't sure what this one meant. Especially since it was in the past.

Did the gods wanted me to have a beach vacation?

I decided to sit down on the beach, and glance at the endless expanse of water in front of me.

The sun was really hot, but for some reason I didn't feel any heat. I could see the heat though, and everyone around me was applying so many layers of sunscreen they just looked like a bunch of snowmen in the end.

It was a killer tan. Literally.

Just then, a glint in the sun caught my eye, and I turned towards the right.

At the opposite end of the bay, I could see a boat anchor near the edge of the beach, and two figures slip out of it, stealthily, like they didn't want to be discovered. Which wasn't practical, because they were getting off a white boat wearing armor that glowed in the sun, in the mid afternoon.

They also had long swords, and looked like they knew how to fight to kill. So I ran towards them of course.

I dodged past the couple, who were packing their picnic bag, leaving. A few surfers were still braving the heat.

Right in front of me was a body builder. At least, he looked like one- twice my height and three times my width with bulging veins and huge muscles. He was wearing a sleeveless black shirt, and a pair of shorts, with a cap. Several tattoos of skulls and mermaids were etched on his hands, and he walked like he wanted to beat up someone.

In my hurry, I didn't notice a small strand of stray washed up sea weed. I tripped on it, and fell onto him.

Only, I didn't fall onto Mr. Built. I fell through him.

I looked down, and realized I couldn't see myself. Or feel anything. Which meant that I was basically a ghost here. A presence no one could detect.

That made things easier.

I guess only people couldn't detect me though. Because nature certainly could.

I quickly ran over the sands, towards the two people in the east end of the beach.

I saw the boat move back while the two walked forward with their back towards it, slowly drifting back towards the sea. It looked like they hadn't anchored it.

It was a large dinghy, painted white, though the paint was flaking off. The name painted on the ship was probably MAIDEN OF THE MIST (I was pretty sure that name was copyrighted by another boat) but the paint had faded, and the remaining letters simply spelled MAD HEIST. At this distance, I could see that the dingy actually had a person rowing it, and the ship was heading back towards the towards the open ocean, where a larger ship probably awaited it.

'Hey!' I wanted to shout out towards the people on the beach, 'Your ship is leaving!"

But I couldn't make a sound. I couldn't speak either, in this dream.

I continued running towards the people with swords.

Up close, I realized two things.

One, I had come a long way from the west end of the bay. I could barely see the body builder from this far- he looked like a small stack of potatoes. The life guard girl was nothing more than an orange blip I could barely see in the distance.

This side was deserted. The wind blew harshly, screaming over the sands.

No one was here, though I could see numerous tracks, like a large number of creatures passed through this place. They looked suspiciously like monster tracks, so I instinctively felt for maelstrom.

Then I realized that I didn't have my sword. My jeans pocket was empty.

Before I could react, the two people walked up.

They were girls, and they looked like they wanted to kill me.

The younger one looked around thirteen, with piercing black eyes, black hair and brown skin. She had a regal look, like she was the secret queen of Mexico. The way she looked at things was as if she wanted to take everyone and everything on- and she'd probably still win. She walked with the poise of a natural sword fighter, like she knew how to handle weapons. She wore a white blouse below a red-and-white checked shirt, and jeans shorts. She also had a bandana around her head, with a skull and crossbones over it.

The older one looked exactly the same, except, well, older. Maybe her late teens? And she had a red flannel shirt instead.

That and she had a wicked scar that crossed horizontally across her forehead. It looked like it was a recent cut, with pink scar tissue still visible on it. Lupa had taught me the stages of wound healing. I could tell that was a pretty sick scar.

Either way, they looked like two warrior goddess sisters that had come to kill everything and everyone in California.

"Are you sure this is the right choice, Hylla?" the younger one asked, "Don't you think we should've gone to some other coast? A more hospitable one, for example?"

"I am sure, Reyna."

Reyna and Hylla. I figured those were their names, unless they were using code names, which would be weird, but I wouldn't put it past them. These two looked like they solved naval treaties for fun. And battled monsters cause they were bored. They had this air of seriousness around them, as if they'd gone through a lot of trauma from a young age and they were overly mature thanks to that.

I was pretty sure they were demigods, so that meant I was probably right.

Reyna scowled. "I'm not so convinced. Unless your sources are right- that there's a Roman Camp here."

"Are you sure you want to join the Romans?" Hylla asked, concern in her eyes. "I know you hate Jason and Annabeth , but the desire to get revenge should not cloud your decisions."

"I know what I'm doing, Hylla. Thanks."

Hylla grunted, before the two of them continued to walk down the beach, towards the gorge. Even the bodybuilder stayed away from them- they walked like two panthers. With a deadly, feline grace I could never pull off, even though Lupa had tried to teach me to walk like a wolf many, many times. I got the feeling that they were two powerful demigods, but I didn't know who their parent was.

Just then, Reyna turned back and looked me in the eyes. Her eyes were dazzlingly dark, like two onyxes, and I lost my breath with how intense her glare was.

She shouted, "Wake up idiot! Wake up!"

I woke up.

Haniel was leaning over me, his face white like he had seen a ghost.

"Wake up man! We have to leave now!"

"Wha-" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes, "What about breakfast?"

"Not now! Melissa spotted a monster heading our way, we have to scram!"

That got me to wake up.

I quickly sat up, while Haniel nodded and went back to packing his weapons.

I looked around. Everyone was quiet, but moving quickly, packing everything they had to take with them. Eleanor was taking a few daggers, strapping her sword around her waist, while shouldering a backpack that probably contained nectar, ambrosia and some first aid.

Haniel and Nike were packing their weapons, while Melissa and Caroline were making sure we had enough food to last us for a few more days. Caleb was furtively packing a stuffed cactus into his bag.

I didn't really have anything to pack. No daggers, no medicines, no stuffed animals. Just a pair of extra clothes and a toothbrush, because I knew mom would kill me if I told her I went on an epic death quest without a toothbrush.

I also packed the gravestones into the small satchel I carried, before walking out of the grotto slowly on the balls of my feet, hand in my pocket to draw out maelstrom if needed.

I couldn't see anyone around, especially not monsters, but the tension in the air was thick. Everyone was whispering silently, cursing their luck, cursing bad timing and cursing monsters. I heard someone curse Nintendo as well, but I wasn't sure what that was about.

I looked back at Melissa, who had quickly come out of the grotto, scanning her surroundings. She was hyperventilating, and her face was red.

"You alright?" I asked her, whispering. I knew I couldn't talk, because everyone else was keeping quiet while packing, which meant that the monster chasing us had a good sense of hearing.

She nodded, swallowing hard. "I'll-I'll be fine."

I grabbed her shoulder. "Stay calm. You won't help anyone by panicking. Remember, deep breaths, alright?" I reminded, looking into her eyes and smiling, "We'll get out of this. We'll be fine."

I wasn't sure if I was reassuring me or her, but she nodded and worked on taking deeper breaths while I looked back around the forest, looking for any sign of movement in the morning mist.

"How do you know there are monsters around?" I asked her, whispering.

"The trees told me."

"Oh."

We all were geared up, chucking all the sleeping bags and pillows to the deepest part of the grotto, and throwing sand, grass and rocks on top to make it look like no one had ever been there. Caroline sprayed the whole place with disinfectant, because while monsters could smell if demigods had been in a place, Clorox made it very hard for them to smell anything other than 99.9% germs being killed, which would make it harder for them to track us.

"Run, but do it quietly," Caleb whispered, before quickly running towards the East, looking down at his map and drawing out his compass.

Everyone else just ran after him. No one wanted to be last, except, well, me of course. I felt like I had to be there in case something happened. It did nothing to help my nerves though.

The forest was cold in the early morning, though by the way the sun was up I figured it was at least around 6:30. A cool mist hung heavily over the forest, and large flies buzzed around in the undergrowth.

It was also eerily quiet. I could hear my blood flowing in my veins. My heart thumped in my chest, its sound almost painfully loud.

Unlike when I was keeping watch last night, the forest was dead quiet. Birds didn't chirp. I didn't hear a single wolf or bear. Even the crickets had shut up.

It was like something dangerous and deadly had crept into the forest. An alpha predator that anything with a brain realized was dangerous and automatically decided, hell no, I'm staying away from this thing.

And that was probably what was chasing us.

"Psst," I half-whispered, half-spoke to Melissa who was in front of me, "How many monsters did the trees tell you were behind us?"

She turned back briefly to raise a single finger. Her index finger, not her middle one.

I frowned. "We're fleeing from a single monster?"

That didn't make sense.

I'm was pretty sure seven demigods, all armed and trained, could handle a single monster. What if it was a lost hell hound? Or a child Cyclops?

Then I heard it roar.

It sounded like something from a nightmare. A powerful scream cut through the woods, sounding like a group of lions trying to sing opera. Only, instead of laughing, the noise chilled you to the bone. The trees shook, leaves falling down. The fact that such a bone-chilling noise came from a single monster made me shiver.

Yeah. Running was a good choice.

I was too busy trying not to wet my pants to realize I ran into Caroline.

"What's going-mmph," Caroline cut me off before I could continue, placing her hand over my mouth.

"Quiet, Percy. It has excellent hearing!" Eleanor whispered with a frown, stress creasing her forehead.

"What does?" I asked, but everyone was too busy looking at a map to respond.

"Percy, how good are you with boats?" Caleb asked, worried. Sweat lined his forehead, and I knew it wasn't from running.

"Never been in one," I replied. "But what does that have to do with-"

"It's our only chance. I know there's an old abandoned dock nearby, it's for an inlet that leads directly to the open ocean. It's our only chance to stay alive."

"But that's off our course, right?" I argued, "What if we continue running?"

I heard distant thumps in the forest. First slow, then a little quicker. Branches snapped, trees creaked. A pack of birds suddenly squaked and flew upwards from somewhere deep behind us in the forest, as if something had scared them.

A lone bear began to snarl, roaring as if challenging something.

The cries quickly turned to screams of fear and pain, before there was dead silence once again.

Eleanor looked at me with a dead serious expression. "We can't outrun it Percy. We can't fight it, it would kill us. Plus, its paws mean it can easily run through the forest, the only advantage we have right now is that we're small, we can run through the trees, while its going to be slowed down by them- but the goat's head should take care of that," she added, with a dark chuckle.

I shivered. "Goat's head? Are goats a major cause of deforestation?"

Caleb sighed, shivering. "Well talk about this later. For now, focus on staying alive. Follow me, we're heading towards the inlet, and there should be a few boats there. From there, it's up to you, Percy," he said, looking at me like I was his best friend and worst enemy.

I nodded, swallowing hard. "What happens if I can't use the boats?"

"We die. For sure."

I prayed hard to Neptune as we continued our track down the forest, towards the inlet.

Far behind, I heard another scream. The same one as before. I sounded abominable. Like some hellish creature that had crept up straight from Tartarus to chase us.

I had a sinking suspicion as to what it was. Sounded like a pack of lions. Had a goat head. Good at clearing trees. Pretty large. Excellent hearing. Your worse nightmare.

I quickly caught up to Melissa, who was trying not to have a panic attack again."Quick question, do you know what monster it is?"

She nodded. Her face was red, and I could see her teeth grinding. She was having a nervous breakdown, but she kept running either way, because that's the only way we could stay alive.

"And which one is it?" I asked, hoping I was wrong.

"Ch-ch-chimera," she replied, her teeth rattling.

Of course.

I remember talking to Lupa about monsters I shouldn't engage, once.

This was one of them.

I remember asking her if I could take on a chimera with my current skill level, but she shook her head.

"If I train you for a year more," she had said, "then perhaps. It would be slim, but with some help you would have a chance."

"And what if I encounter one before that?"

She had looked me deep in the eyes with so much seriousness I nearly though a random chimera would appear at the Wolf House.

"You run, Percy. Run like you never have before. Go to the water. To the air even. Anywhere away from it. Do not- DO NOT engage it. Even the gods will have mercy on demigods that they like, but the chimera has mercy on no one."

Yeah, I was running like my life depended on it. Because it did.

A/N: Regarding ships, I'm probably going with Percy/Annabeth, the only other possibility might be Percy/Reyna. Do let me know what you think though, either via PM or reviews.

Reviews are appreciated, as always.