𝙩𝙪 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 - p. jackson [₂]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒙𝒙𝒊.

𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐄.

based on how piper and jason described him as the number one jerk, i was glad i'd said no. besides, i would never dishonor zoë's memory by seeing him, unless it was to punch him on her behalf.

it was an immediate difference once we entered the ancient lands.

several times an hour, something attacked the ship. a flock of flesh-eating stymphalian birds swooped out of the night sky, and festus torched them. storm spirits swirled around the mast, and jason blasted them with lightning. while coach hedge was having dinner on the foredeck, a wild pegasus appeared from nowhere, stampeded over the coach's enchiladas, and flew off again, leaving cheesy hoof prints all across the deck.

"what was that for?" the coach demanded

after shoveling some food in my mouth, i headed down to my room and began working on one of my projects. the electroconvulsive shock therapy that bucky was being put through was intense. based on my research, there was a lot of memory wiping and pain that was involved.

annabeth was using daedalus' laptop, but i had downloaded the files to my own laptop, and was currently scrawling notes with J.A.R.V.I.S.'s help.

"tink, you're still up?" percy poked his head through the door.

i looked up from my notes and drawings and diagrams, shrugging sheepishly. "i couldn't sleep. why? what's up?"

"i'm on watch right now," percy told me. "if you're not doing anything, you want to join?"

i got up, stretching out, "let's head up."

the fog was so thick, we couldn't even see festus at the front of the ship. the argo ii rocked softly against the waves, the darkness bothering me more than i liked to admit.

"there's something dangerous at the end of the mark," percy told me, breaking the silence.

"what?"

"i had a dream about it," he explained. "i talked to annabeth, but she seemed freaked out and wanted to go back to decoding the map. she also told me not to tell anyone, but you. i haven't figured it out yet, but there's a crumbling chamber and a dark voice. it's got something to do with spiders."

"i'll talk to annabeth about it," i promised. "you know she just doesn't like burdening people with her own problems."

"i love how we're all horrible at speaking of our problems," percy muttered sarcastically. "at least you force us to get it out."

"it's the least i could do," i laughed lightly.

"we're not far from the italian coast," percy muttered. "maybe a hundred nautical miles or so to the mouth of the tiber."