After enduring Tantalus' horrible story about how he was punished for feeding his children to the gods and a reminder about curfew, I snuck out to the beach. Sue me for wanting to get away from the psycho, but I really wanted to clear my head before the mess I was about to get myself into.
I sat down on the cooled sand, the waves only spraying me with their mist as a gentle breeze blew. Gods, I wished I lived by a beach in my old home. I would've spent my whole day there with a bunch of books and be perfectly content.
There was a full moon shining in the sky, casting its silver glow across the water, creating the surface of the ocean to shimmer as waves rolled onto the shore. In the distance, I could hear the dryads laughing as they chased owls through the forest, something I didn't think Athena would be too keen on.
I fiddled with my bracelet, which helped calm me down. I'd been dreading this moment for a while now, especially after my last encounter with the messenger god. We were still friends, as far as I knew, but we were currently in the stage where we needed to stay away from each other, or we wouldn't be friends anymore.
To my surprise, even after the harsher curfew restrictions, none of the harpies had found me yet. I wasn't complaining, mindlessly drawing doodles in the sand with my finger before the waves would wash them away.
Eventually, after what felt like an hour, I saw Percy walk onto the beach with a red and white checkered blanket and a six-pack of Cokes. He noticed me and splayed out his blanket, patting the spot next to him.
I took a seat next to Percy, declining the Coke he offered me. Percy shrugged and popped the tab on his can, sipping at the soda in the same way someone would drink their coffee. For a demigod, it was basically the same thing because of the caffeine. For some reason, caffeine helped many demigods with their ADHD, but others, like the Stoll brothers, shouldn't be allowed within a hundred mile radius of the stuff.
I'd only ever seen the Stoll brothers hopped up on caffeine once, and it's something I hope I never experience ever again. I still remember the ugly shade of green they'd dyed my hair after throwing a water balloon full of magic hair dye at the back of my head.
Percy began pointing out different constellations – Ursa Major, Hercules, Orion – when somebody said, "Beautiful, aren't they?"
Percy choked on his soda.
I recognized Hermes' voice instantly but stayed silent, wanting to see how this would play out. Hermes was dressed in red nylon running shorts and a New York City Marathon t-shirt, the same clothes he'd wear when we trained up on Olympus. His hair had more gray than I last remembered, giving the impression of salt-and-pepper hair instead of his dark brown locks.
To my right, Percy eyed Hermes up and down, probably trying to figure out how the heck a mortal had managed to jog right into camp. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if a mortal could pass through the weakening barrier, but we were secluded enough from the rest of the world that I wasn't really concerned.
Unless the Stoll brothers took advantage of the weak borders and called the pizza man again (long story).
"May I join you?" Hermes asked Percy, sparing me a brief glance before returning his attention to the son of Poseidon. "I haven't sat down in ages."
That I could believe. Whenever Hermes wasn't training me, he was running around the world, delivering millions of packages and mail with his Hermes Express company that was founded, owned, and run by Hermes himself. Sometimes, he'd send me on my own mail runs to give him some time to answer business emails and texts.
"Uh, sure," Percy said.
Hermes smiled. "Your hospitality does you credit. Oh, and Coca-Cola! May I?"
He took a seat at the end of the blanket, popped open a can, and took a drink. "Ah…that hits the spot. Peace and quiet at-" His phone began to ring.
"Spoke too soon," I muttered softly, knowing that Hermes could hear me while Percy couldn't.
Hermes sighed and pulled out his phone, allowing for a bluish light to shine around it. When he extended the antenna, it turned into a small caduceus, George and Martha entwined around the pole, though they were smaller than most earthworms.
He accepted a call about Prometheus' lost package and ignored Demeter, causing me to wince. Last time Hermes had put Demeter off, she killed all the flowers in the floristry department, causing a lot of complaints that yours truly had to deal with.
The two of them spoke, while I zoned out, having this conversation already committed to memory. I mean, if I really wanted to, I could pull out my copy of The Sea of Monsters right now and read their conversation as it happened. Except doing that would completely blow my cover, so I returned to doodling in the sand.
I zoned back in when I heard Hermes say, "I would make up your mind in the next five minutes if I were you. That's when the harpies will come to eat you. Now, good night cousin and aunt, and dare I say it? May the gods go with you."
He opened his palm, his caduceus flying into his hand. Percy was glancing down at the gifts Hermes had given him – three large, waterproof duffel bags, a bottle of Hermes' multivitamins, and a thermos from the show Hercules Busts Heads – while I glared at the god.
"Hermes!" I shouted in anger, but he vanished with the sea breeze once he was twenty paces away. I debated following the god to kick him where the sun doesn't shine, but I didn't, instead digging my nails into my palms until it stung.
Annabeth and Tyson came running down to us after Hermes had disappeared. Annabeth had her dagger in her hand and her head on a swivel, looking around the beach for potential threats. Tyson had his hands in fists, like he was waiting to smash the head in of whoever had been trying to hurt Percy.
"What's going on?" Annabeth asked. "I heard you guys calling for help!"
"Me, too!" Tyson said. "Heard you yell, 'Bad things are attacking!'"
"We didn't call you guys," Percy said. "We're fine."
"But then who…" Annabeth trailed off, noticing the three yellow duffel bags at our feet, then the thermos and the bottle of vitamins Percy was holding. "What-"
"Not enough time," I cut in, giving them the run down. When I finished, the harpies screeched in the distance, much closer than before. That meant they were picking up on our scent, cutting down on our time even more. I glanced back at the shoreline, scowling at the lights glowing from the Princess Andromeda. Oh, how I hated sharing a name with that cursed ship.
"You three get to that ship," I told them, picking up a duffel bag and shoving one into each of their arms. "Percy, pray to your father for help, like Hermes said."
"What about you?" Annabeth asked, adjusting the straps of her duffel bag as Percy prayed aloud to Poseidon. "You're going to get in trouble for breaking curfew, too. And we'll need your help if we're going to the Sea of Monsters."
"I'll meet up with you guys one way or another, I promise, but right now, you need to get on that ship."
The harpies screeched again, sounding as if they were right behind the sand dunes. Suddenly, three elegant hippocampi broke the surface of the water, stopping on the shore for the three of them to get on. Their entire body was silver, but their back ends had glistening scales and rainbow tail fins that glimmered in the moonlight.
Tyson audibly gasped. "Fish ponies!"
"Hippocampi! They're beautiful."
The one closest to Annabeth nuzzled her hand, inviting her to get on.
"We'll admire them later," Percy said, jostling Tyson to break his stupor. "Come on!"
"There!" a harpy screeched behind us. "Bad children out of cabins! Snack time for lucky harpies!"
I pulled out my Stygian iron hunting knives, causing for the winged chicken-ladies to hiss and bare their teeth at me. "I'll hold them off!" I shouted at the trio, who were still struggling to get Tyson to stop staring at the hippocampi. "Good luck! Don't die!"
When I heard the hippocampi take off into the open ocean behind me, I lifted a hand up, the water creating a barrier to give my friends some time to put some distance between them and the camp. The harpies were upset and tried to attack me, but after I grazed one of their sister's with my knives, they stayed out of my reach, hissing and threatening that they were going to eat me.
I then dropped the wall of water and dissolved into mist, watching as the harpies turned to each other, bemoaning the fact that they had lost their midnight snacks. I traveled back to the Poseidon cabin, glad that we had a general rule to always keep the window open.
I landed at the foot of my bunk and flopped into bed, exhausted by everything that had happened today. How was it possible that the chariot races had only been seven or so hours ago?
Within seconds of my head touching the pillow, I was out like a light.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of someone trying to break down the door.
Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I blearily made my way to the door, managing to have tripped over a bundle of Tyson's equipment he'd brought up from the forges. I yawned and opened the door, blinking twice as I saw a nervous-looking Clarisse standing on the doorstep.
She would never admit to being nervous, and the way she held herself didn't give it away, either. No, I knew Clarisse was nervous by the dark circles under her eyes and the fact that I could see she'd bitten her nails down to the nailbed, to the point where she was almost bleeding. Her fingers were fidgeting as well, like she didn't know what to do with her hands.
Strapped to Clarisse's back were two spears and one of those camp-issued backpacks that were given to newcomers. She had a water bottle in one of the side pockets and a sheathed dagger in the other. I figured she had her provisions inside her backpack – a change of clothes, some mortal money and drachmas, and ambrosia and/or nectar.
"Clarisse," I said, my voice thick with sleep. "Can I help you?"
The daughter of Ares scowled at the ground, like she was having a serious issue with talking to me right now. She swallowed and said, "Will you be one of my companions on this quest?"
I blinked, not having expected that. "You hate me," I reminded her, crossing my arms across my chest.
"So does the rest of my cabin," Clarisse said nonchalantly, as if that would help her case. "But none of my siblings are willing to come along, and no way will I get help from those know-it-all Athena kids."
"Why me?"
"Because you're a good fighter and have connections, something I need."
"Okay," I agreed, seeming to stun Clarisse, who had been ready to keep talking. "Give me five minutes, and I'll meet you by the dining pavilion."
I changed into a purple shirt with silver flower details around the hem, my favorite pair of quest jeans, and my black combat boots that I'd modified by adding Celestial bronze to the tips, meaning if I kicked a monster hard enough, they'd disintegrate on impact. I pulled my hair back and headed out for the dining pavilion.
After meeting up with Clarisse, we left Camp Half-Blood and headed for the Amtrak station, which would take us as far south as Richmond, Virginia. Clarisse told me how we were going to get into the Sea of Monsters, saying that her father had prepared her a ship to use that was docked in Chesapeake Bay.
The train ride was mostly uneventful other than some annoying wheat karpoi that had managed to sneak on board, yelling how wheat was superior to every other plant and that he'd rule the world. Clarisse hadn't even batted an eye, spearing the karpoi through the chest so quickly that none of the mortals noticed anything had been amiss.
Clarisse and I didn't talk if we didn't have to, which I thought was for the best. I mean, although Holly left this past year, I seriously doubt she had said good things about me. The entire Ares cabin probably thought I was some mixed child of different gods from what Holly witnessed firsthand.
The summer weather in Richmond was miserable. The humidity was so thick, I could feel my clothes sticking to my skin within five minutes of leaving the air conditioned building of the train station. Mosquitos attacked my arms despite the fact that we were in a downtown area with very minimal vegetation and not many places for mosquitos to lay their eggs.
"The docks are ten blocks down," I told Clarisse after reading a map in the middle of a plaza surrounded by various shops. "But apparently something big is in the water, because the coast guard is being very picky about boats going out to sea today."
"You can take care of that?" Clarisse asked, starting to walk quickly in the direction of the docks.
"Yes, but they have to be able to hear my voice."
"Consider it done," Clarisse said gruffly, picking up the pace, shoving her way past people who moved too slowly on the sidewalk. I tried apologizing to everyone Clarisse bumped into but gave up after six people, settling for gesturing for people to move out of our way with my hands.
Like I'd overhead in the plaza, the docks were practically void of all people. There was only one other guy, who appeared to be mooring his boat, coming in from his excursion. Under one of the bridges, I heard the sirens of the coast guard, their little white skiff jetting across the bay while one of the two men on board shouted unintelligible gibberish from his bullhorn.
"Do you know what the boat looks like?" I asked, trying to find a boat that stood out amongst the others. The majority of the boats here all looked identical, as if someone had hit the copy button too many times by mistake.
"We'll know when we see it. If I've learned anything about the gods, they aren't exactly subtle."
"Very true," I agreed, scowling at all the different piers that the docks split off into. "Split up," I said. "We'll cover more ground that way."
"Alright," Clarisse said. "Shout if you find it."
"Ditto."
I went right; Clarisse went left. I managed to check out four or five of the piers before I heard Clarisse shouting my name from the other side of the docks. I jogged over, not wanting to slip and hurt myself before the start of a quest.
"Wow," I breathed, looking up at the ship in front of me.
The ship was a dark gray, like it'd been submerged underwater for hundreds of years, and was anywhere between seventy and eighty feet in total length. On either side of the ship were two large cannons that could easily be covered by sliding metal panels. Standing alone in the smack middle of the deck was this huge, black smoke stack, indicating that this war machine ran on firepower versus a modern day motor. The cabin took up the majority of the space on the deck, giving the ship the silhouette of an oyster that had been embedded into a plank of wood.
An ironclad, I remembered from a movie on the Civil War that Ares had forced me to watch. This was a Confederate battle cruiser, whose sole purpose had been to take out Union ships.
Overlooking the metallic railing of the ship were about two dozen men dressed in light gray Confederate uniforms. From down here, their faces appeared to be perfectly normal, but I knew when I got on board, I'd see their shimmering skin over their skeletons.
There were words on the front of the hull that read CSS Birmingham in bold red lettering, though the majority of the paint was covered in a layer of moss. Clarisse squinted at the ship's name, struggling to make sense of it.
"This is the CSS Birmingham," I told Clarisse. "A Confederate ironclad. This baby has a lot of firepower."
"Good, just what we need to blow Polyphemus' fat head off," Clarisse said, her eyes glinting with joy at the thought of shooting the cannons. Ares had hit the nail on the head with this one. This ship and its crew seemed to fit Clarisse's personality perfectly.
One of the Confederate sailors, the one who had the most medals on his jacket, threw over a rope ladder and shouted, "Climb aboard! We've been expecting you!"
Clarisse took the leadership role of the ship surprisingly well, ordering around dead Confederate soldiers like this was what she was born to do. Within ten minutes of us getting on the ironclad, we were already on our way south, choosing to go as far south as North Carolina before heading for the Sea of Monsters.
After sweet talking the coast guard into letting us pass, we sailed out of Chesapeake Bay. But we hadn't gone that far out – about five miles off the shoreline – when a loud roar echoed from a heavily forested area.
"Think we should check that out?" I asked Clarisse, who had already been in the middle of putting her armor over her clothes.
"I'm not taking any chances of that thing following us, especially if it's what almost kept us from leaving," Clarisse huffed, sliding on her greaves over her boots. She redid her belt that sheathed her sword at her hip, her hand resting on its hilt.
Turning to the captain of the ship, Clarisse said, "Take us toward the forest."
"Look for the mouth of a river," I added.
"Yes, Lady Clarisse," the captain said respectfully before running off to relay the message.
The air was hot and muggy, the breeze startlingly dry for sailing in the ocean. Sweat trickled down the back of my neck, and I was wearing normal clothes. I didn't even want to think about how hot Clarisse must've been in all her armor, but if she was uncomfortable, she didn't show it.
Like I'd said, there was a mouth of a river that would take us from where we were now, out in Virginia Beach, back into Chesapeake Bay. As we made it further down the river, Clarisse demanded that the engines be shut off, the low grumbling from the boat and the black smoke rising from the smokestack threatening to give away our position.
Again, the monster growled, the trees shaking from its intensity. Though we were too far away to make out anything clearly, I swear I saw something that looked like seven different snakes move from one fixed point. Bronze glinted from underneath the snakes, and one of the heads got chopped off.
"Hydra," I said, gripping the railing tightly. "We can't help from here."
"Move us closer," Clarisse barked.
"But, Lady Clarisse-"
"That's an order!"
Some of the soldiers grumbled under their breaths, but a glare from an angry daughter of Ares was enough for them to get moving. As we moved forward, Clarisse told some other soldiers to ready the cannons. This was the best way of taking down a Hydra, because we'd be at a distance from the heads that spewed acid and fire as well as cauterize the heads immediately, preventing them from reforming.
"There!" I pointed out when we got close enough.
"Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!" Clarisse shouted, wearing a look of sick fascination on her face.
"They're too close, m'lady!" the captain said.
"Damn the heroes! Full steam ahead!"
"Aye, m'lady."
"Fire at will, Captain!"
"Get down!" I shouted at Annabeth, Percy, and Tyson as the ironclad shuddered from the force of a cannon shooting a thirty-two pound cannonball.
The cannonball collided with the Hydra, causing it to explode in a spray of green monster guts before vaporizing into gold dust. I grimaced at the sight, hearing Annabeth yell, "Gross!" most likely covered with the insides of a Hydra.
We finally pulled up at the end of the river, giving way to a swampy marsh with knee-high reeds and grass that made my skin itchy just looking at it. Insects chirped away lazily in the scorching heat and gross humidity. Mosquitos swarmed over the surface of the water in ugly black clumps, making me scowl down at the river.
My eyes finally settled on Tyson, Percy, and Annabeth, all of which were completely covered in monster dust. Annabeth was swatting at her clothes and hair, trying to get the dust off of her, while Percy and Tyson stared at the ironclad.
"Losers," Clarisse sneered, her face glistening with sweat. "But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."
Bending down, I picked up the rope ladder and threw it over the side of the ship, allowing for them to make their way up. Once the three runaways were on board, Clarisse had one of the soldiers give them the official tour of our ship.
"I'm going to set our coordinates," I told her, heading down into the combined boiler and engine room, which were huffing and groaning like they were going to explode any minute. I knew of the upcoming explosion we'd have to deal with, but for the time being, I could make sure we were heading in the right direction for as long as possible.
Overhead, I heard Clarisse arguing with Annabeth and Percy about the quest and them getting involved. I sighed and took a seat next to the map charter, plugging in our coordinates by changing the numbers on rusted rings. But I wasn't too convinced by the archaic device, so I went back upstairs, planning to stay in the helm with the soldier steering the ship. However, I paused halfway up the steps, eavesdropping on the conversation going on in the tiny mess hall.
"Where are your cabin mates?" Percy asked. "You were allowed to take two friends with you, weren't you?"
"They didn't…I let them stay behind. To protect the camp," Clarisse replied gruffly.
"You mean even the people in your own cabin wouldn't help you?"
"Shut up, Prissy! I don't need my siblings! Or you!" I heard her sigh angrily. "Besides, I brought someone else along," she said so softly that I doubted Percy heard her.
"Clarisse, Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about the camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail."
"No! I don't care what the Oracle-" She stopped herself.
"What?" Percy asked. "What did the Oracle tell you?"
"Nothing," Clarisse snapped. "All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're not helping. On the other hand, I can't let you go…"
"So we're prisoners?" Annabeth asked.
"Guests. For now."
"I'll take them to their hammocks on the berth deck," I offered, finally making myself known.
Clarisse had her feet propped up on the table, calmly drinking a Dr. Pepper, not caring about the fact that I'd probably overhead more than she would've like me to know. Tyson, who hadn't said anything, was nervously eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, the saran wrap pile growing in front of him. Annabeth and Percy looked shocked but then shrugged it off, probably remembering that I'd promised them I'd meet up with them again.
"Good. Make sure they learn about what happens to enemy spies."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Clarisse. C'mon guys; let me show you where you'll be sleeping."
The trio stood up and followed me downstairs.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I love and appreciate every single one of you!