love is embarrassing | j. grace

vi. the happy dragon is not all that happy

six. the happy dragon is not all that happy

     IVY WAKES WITH A START. Voices in her head, puzzling dreams that make no sense, and a new quest where they would have to travel by air or sea . . . the demigod life was truly so exciting. Obviously she was cursed — sorry, blessed — with the voices, but she wasn't sure why that would be a blessing. And also what power did she have that was so terrible? I mean all she had was a giant pinecone stick — the thyrsus.

She sits up in the bed, glancing at her many rings. She knew the ring on her ring-finger was the pinecone weapon and she had been told the one on her thumb was a weapon as well. Ivy glances around the empty cabin, just in case, and pulls the ring off her thumb. It unwinds into a dagger, the giant stone right in the middle of the hilt. She grins, admiring the weapon. But then, she wonders how on earth she was supposed to get it back to a ring. Usually, this is when the voices in her head would come and give her semi-helpful advice on how to get it back to a ring. But, they were being unusually quiet this morning. (Which she was very thankful for).

Ivy sets the dagger down, maybe Annabeth can offer her some wisdom. She is the daughter of such. Someone knocks on the door, startling her. Ivy jumps up and rushes to open the door. Speaking of, Annabeth was standing in front of her holding a backpack and a fresh set of clothing.

"Morning!" She says, "I've brought you some more clothes and a bag for your quest."

"Thank you," Ivy says, accepting them. "Um, do you wanna come in?"

Annabeth eyes her warily, despite their seemingly friendly conversations from yesterday, Ivy can tell Annabeth doesn't quite trust her. Which, Ivy supposes is valid; her and Jason show up when her boyfriend is missing and they have no memory and refer to everything by their Roman names. She'd be suspicious too.

"I should get on my way," Annabeth tells her, "But I'll see you before you go."

"Oh, okay," Ivy nods and Annabeth skips down the steps and heads in the direction of the other cabins. Ivy shuts the door and heads back over to her bed.

She makes the bed and then looks in the backpack. There was a few changes of clothes, and squares of something in a baggie. Ivy grabs her bathroom bag and heads into the washroom, ready to get ready for the day. She untangles her hair, and pulling out her fringe she messily braids her hair. Briefly, Ivy wonders if she had any siblings of her own out there looking for her, ones that might be able to braid her hair better than she can.

She shakes the thought and finishes her routine.

Ivy glances at the new set of clothes Annabeth had brought her, switching out of the Camp Half-Blood shirt for a fresh one and switching her shorts for an athletic skirt. She laces up her converse, grabs her backpack, and the ring/dagger and heads outside. Just as she was about to head to the Ven — Aphrodite cabin to pick up Piper she hears a loud horn blow and Piper is running out of the cabin, still looking as beautiful as she had the night before.

"Leo?" Ivy hears Piper yell and Ivy looks to see a giant, bronze, dragon swooping down into the grass. The campers were all in a disarray.

"It's cool! Don't shoot!" Leo shouts. The archers lower their bows and the warriors with spears and swords take a step back. Everyone else peaked out doors and windows, Ivy almost wanted to run back into her cabin and do the same.