˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚
BOOK TWO.
CHAPTER TWELVE
❝ how the fuck is this percy's fault? ❞
ARIA WOKE up to find a sleeping Percy nestled on her shoulder, his head slumped in an awkward position. Shifting as much as she could in order not to wake him, she looked at their surroundings.
In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline, and she could make out a beachside highway lined with palm trees, storefronts glowing with red-and-blue neon, and a harbour filled with sailboats and cruise ships. If she had to make a guess, she would say that they were somewhere in the Florida coast.
"I see that Percy's got a bit comfortable there," Annabeth remarked beside her, sitting on her own hippocampi. "You're gonna need to wake him up. The hippocampi won't move any further."
Aria looked down to take a look at the sleeping boy, his features finally relaxed. She felt bad that she had to wake him.
Using her arm that wasn't being slept on, she tapped on his curls, the boy stirring and finally waking up, rubbing his eyes with his hand that wasn't on her waist.
"Where are we," he croaked, looking around at their surroundings with a confused expression.
"I think we're in Miami," Aria answered. She wasn't sure though. She was failing geography.
"The hippocampi are acting funny," Annabeth informed Percy, who nodded in response.
Sure enough, their fishy friends had now slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing the water. They didn't look happy. One of them sneezed.
"This is as far as they'll take us," Percy said. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore on our own."
Great.
None of them were very psyched about that, but they thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride. Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a couple of other things he'd salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow on the neck, gave him a soggy mango he had picked up on the island and said goodbye.
Once the hippocampi's white manes disappeared into the sea, the group swam for shore. The wave's pushed them forward, and in no time they were back in the mortal world. They wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed five kids dripping wet and looking they had just had a fight with a monster, they didn't let on.
Now that they were back among mortals, Tyson's single eye had blurred from the mist. Grover had put on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.
Annabeth ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the Miami Herald. "Fuck! It's June eighteenth! We've been away from camp ten days!"
"That's impossible!" Clarisse said.
"Thalia's tree must be almost dead," Grover wailed. "We have to get the Fleece back tonight!"
Clarisse slumped down on the pavement. "How are we supposed to do that?" her voice broke. "Besides we're hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is just like the Oracle said. It's your fault, Jackson! If you hadn't interfered-"
"How the fuck is this Percy's fault?" Aria exclaimed, getting frustrated with the daughter of Ares.
Annabeth cried out in frustration too. "Clarisse, how can you say that? You are the biggest--"
"Stop it!" Percy said.
Clarisse put her head in her hands. Annabeth stomped her foot in anger.
Aria had almost forgotten that this quest was supposed to be Clarisse's and for a terrifying moment, Aria could see where the girl was coming from. How would she feel if a bunch of heroes had butted in and made her look bad?
"Clarisse," Percy said cautiously. "What did the oracle tell you exactly?"
She looked up. Aria thought she was about to tell Percy off, but instead she took a deep breath and recited her prophecy:
"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,
But despair for you life entombed within stone,
And fail without friends, to fly home alone."
"...Ouch," Grover mumbled.
"No," Percy said. "No...wait a minute. I've got it. Does anybody have any cash?"
Aria, Grover, and Annabeth shook their heads morosely. Clarisse pulled out a wet confederate dollar from her pocket and sighed.
"Cash?" Tyson asked hesitantly. "Like...green paper?"
Percy looked at him. "Yeah."
"Like the kind in duffel bags?"
"Yeah, but we lost those bags days ag-"
Percy stuttered to a halt as Tyson rummaged in his saddle pack and pulled out the Ziploc bag full of cash that Hermes had included in their supplies.
"Ty!" Aria exclaimed. "How did you--"
"Thought it was feed bag for Rainbow," he admitted. "Found it floating in sea, but only paper inside. Sorry."
He handed Percy the cash. Peeking her head inside, Aria saw fives and tens, at least three hundred dollars.
Percy ran to the curb and grabbed a taxi that was just letting out a family of cruise passengers. "Clarisse," he yelled. "Come on. You're going to the airport. Annabeth, give her the Fleece."
Aria watched in disbelief as Percy took the fleece letter jacket from Annabeth, tucked the cash into its pocket, and put it in Clarisse's arms.
Clarisse said, "You'd let me--"
"Its your quest," Percy replied. "We only have enough money for one flight. Besides, I can't travel by air. Zeus would blast me into a million pieces. That's what the prophecy meant: you'd fail without friends, meaning you'd need our help, but you'd have to fly home alone. You have to get the Fleece back safely."
Aria could see Clarisse's mind working--suspicious at first, wondering what trick Percy was playing, then finally deciding he meant what he said.
She jumped into the cab. "You can count on me. I won't fail."
"Not failing would be really good," Aria quipped.
The cab peeled out in a cloud of exhaust. The Fleece was on its way.
"Percy," Annabeth started. "that was so--"
"Generous?" Grover offered.
"Insane," Annabeth corrected. "You're betting the lives of everybody at camp that Clarisse will get the fleece safely back by tonight?"
"It's her quest," Percy said with a shrug. "She deserves a chance."
"Percy is nice," Tyson said.
"Too nice," Annabeth grumbled, although she did look a little impressed.
"Come on," Percy told them, "Let's find another way home."
Just when he turned a sword was pointed at his throat.
"Hey, cuz," said Luke. "Welcome back to the states."
His bear-man thugs appeared on either side of the other. One grabbed Aria and Annabeth by their t-shirt collars. The other grabbed Grover and tried to do the same to Tyson, but the cyclops knocked him into a pile of luggage and roared at Luke.
"Percy," Luke said calmly, "tell your giant to back down or I'll have Oreius and Argius bash your friends' heads in."
Oreius grinned and raised Annabeth and Aria off the ground, kicking and screaming.
"Do you guys not have showers or something, good lord," Aria said, twisting her body away from the man holding her.
The arm around her tightened, and she yelped in pain as Oreius's hand began to cover her neck.
"Don't hurt her!" Percy cried out. "What do you want, Luke?"
The son of Hermes smiled, the scar rippling on the side of his face. He gestured towards the end of the dock, and Aria noticed what should have been obvious. The bigger boat in the port was none other than the Princess Andromeda.
"Why, Percy," Luke said, "I want to extend my hospitality, of course."
Aria snarled. "I want to extend your arms so hard they break off, you sicko."
"It's like you want me to hurt you," Luke growled, making a motion with his hands that seemed to alert the bear-man holding her.
He used his large, smelly hand to cover her face.
Percy drew his sword. "If you don't take your paw off her face in three seconds, I will cut off your hand."
Luke smirked, clearly amused by the unfolding situation. "Release her."
Aria let out a loud exhale, now able to breathe properly.
The bear twins herded the heroes aboard the Princess Andromeda to the deck in front of a swimming pool with sparkling fountains that prayed into the air. A dozen of Luke's assorted goons--snake people, Laistrygonians, demigods in battle armour--had gathered to watch the demigods get their 'hospitality.'
"And so, the fleece," Luke mused. "Where is it?"
He looked them over, prodding Percy's shirt with the tip of his sword, poking Grover's jeans.
"Hey!" Grover yelled. "That's real goat fur under there!"
"Sorry, old friend." Luke smiled. "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest."
"Blaa-ha-ha!" Grover bleated. "Some old friend you are!"
"Maybe you didn't hear me." Luke's voice was dangerously calm. "Where--is--the--fleece?"
"Not here," Percy said. "We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up."
Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have..." His face reddened as a horrible possibility occurred to him. "Clarisse?"
Percy nodded.
"You trusted...you gave..."
"Mhmmmm," he drawled.
"Agrius!"
The bear giant flinched. "Y-yes?"
"Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to Miami airport, fast!"
"But, boss--"
"Do it!" Luke screamed. "Or I'll feed you to the drakon!"
He gulped and lumbered down the stairs. Luke paced in front of the swimming pool, cursing in Ancient Greek, gripping his sword so tight his knuckled turned white.
The rest of Luke's crew looked uneasy. Maybe they'd never seen their boss so unhinged before.
"You've been toying with us all along," Percy said. "You wanted us to bring you the Fleece and save you the trouble of getting it."
Luke scowled. "Of course, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"
"Traitor!" Aria watched as Percy dug for something in his pocket and threw it at Luke. As expected, the son of Hermes dodged it easily. A look of confusion passed on her face, but it slowly turned to an expression of admiration as she realised what he had done.
A coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-coloured water.
"You tricked all of us!" Percy yelled at Luke. "Even Dionysus at Camp Half Blood!"
Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer, and Percy uncapped riptide.
Luke just sneered. "This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny little sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later."
"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?"
"I did, of course," he snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."
"Chiron had nothing to do with it?"
"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."
"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"
Luke raised his sword. "You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece...once I was done with it."
Aria saw Percy falter for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure. "You were going to heal Kronos."
"Yes! The Fleece's magic would have sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."
"And so you poisoned the tree, betrayed Thalia, you set us up--all to help Kronos destroy the gods."
Luke gritted his teeth. "You know that! Why do you keep asking me?"
"Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you."
"What audience?" Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same. They gasped and stumbled back.
Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an iris-message version of Dionysus, Tantalus, and the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching them.
"Well," said Dionysus drily. "Some unplanned dinner entertainment."
Aria, still being aggressively held, waved to the camera. "Hi Mr D!"
Dionysus looked over in her virtual direction. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Aria."
The girl beamed. "I told you guys he uses my first name!"
"You're the only child who doesn't bother me," the camp director said flatly.
"Mr D, you heard him," Percy said. "You all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."
Mr D sighed. "I suppose not."
"The iris-message could be a trick," Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands.
"I fear not," Mr D said, looking at Tantalus with distaste. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."
Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn't bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world. "I got it!" he cackled.
"I'm afraid we are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus," Mr D announced.
Tantalus looked stunned. "What? But-"
"You may return to the underworld. You are dismissed."
"No! But-nooooooo!"
As dissolved into mist, his fingers clutched at the cheeseburger, trying to bring it to his mouth. But it was too late. He disappeared and the cheeseburger fell back onto its place. The campers exploded into cheering.
Luke bellowed with rage. He slashed his sword through the fountain and the Iris-message dissolved, but the ordeal was over.
Aria felt pretty good about Percy's plan, until Luke turned and gave the boy a murderous look.
"Kronos was right, Percy. You're an unreliable weapon. You need to be replaced."
Aria wasn't even given a second to think about his words. One of his men blew a brass whistle, and the deck doors flew open. A dozen more warriors poured out, making a circle around them, the brass tips of their spears bristling.
Luke smiled at them. "You'll never leave this boat alive."
"One on one," Percy challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"
Luke curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill them hesitated, waiting for his order.
Before he could say anything, Agrius, the bear-man, burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. It was the first pure-black pegasus Aria had ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The pegasus stallion bucked and whinnied.
"Sir!" the Laistrygonian called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"
Luke kept his eyes on Percy. "I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."
"And you keep avoiding one," Percy quipped. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"
Luke glanced at his men, and he saw Percy had trapped him. If he fought Percy, he'd lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse. But if he backed down now, he would look weak.
"I'll kill you quickly," the son of Hermes decided, and raised his weapon. Backbiter was a foot longer than Riptide. Its blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with celestial bronze. Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.
He grinned at Percy wickedly.
"Luke," Annabeth said, "At least give him a shield."
"Sorry, Annabeth," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."
The shield was a problem. Fight two-handed with just a sword gives you more power, but fighting one-handed with a shield gives you better defense and versatility. There are more moves, more options, more ways to kill.
Luke lunged and almost killed Percy first try. His sword went under Percy's arm, slashing through his shirt and grazing his ribs.
Percy jumped back, then counterattacked with Riptide, but Luke slammed the blade away with his shield.
"My, Percy," Luke chided. "You're out of practice."
He came at the blonde haired boy again with a swipe to the head. Percy parried, returned with a thrust. He sidestepped easily.
When Luke lunged again, Percy jumped backward into the swimming pool. He blasted out of the pool a few seconds later, straight at Luke's face.
The force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. But before Percy could strike, he rolled aside and was on his feet again.
Percy attacked and sliced off the edge of his shield, but that didn't even faze him. He dropped to a crouch and jabbed at his legs. He must have been in a lot of pain because Aria watched in horror as the son of Poseidon collapsed to the ground. Luke hacked downwards and Percy rolled behind a deckchair. He tried to stand, but his leg couldn't take the weight.
"Perrrrrrcy!" Grover bleated.
He rolled again as Luke's sword slashed the deckchair in half, metal pipes and all. He clawed toward the swimming pool, looking like he was trying his best not to pass out. Luke advanced slowly, smiling like a maniac, the edge of his sword tainted with the blood of a boy he had once called friend.
"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." He looked back at them, where bear-man Oreius was still holding Aria and Annabeth by the necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon Appétit."
"He-he! He-he!" the bear man lifted the two girls and bared his teeth.
When Aria had said that many people considered her a snack, she was not meaning it in this way.
Pulling out her dagger with her one free hand, she stabbed the bear man in the thigh, Oreius howling out in pain.
That's when all Hades broke loose.
Whish!
A red-feathered arrow sprouted for Oreius's mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumpled to the deck.
"Brother!" Argrius wailed.
The black pegasus saw this opportunity and kicked the Laistrygonian that was holding its reins in the head. Then it took off to the sky, flying away free over Miami Bay.
For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies dissolve into smoke. Then there was a wild chorus of war cried and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.
"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.
Aria's mind had trouble processing everything she saw. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly coloured t-shirts with day-glo letters that said party ponies: south florida chapter. Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange styrofoam hand making a big number one. Another was a bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had google-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either side.
They exploded on the deck with such ferocity and colour that for a moment even Luke was stunned. Aria couldn't tell whether they had come to celebrate or attack.
Apparently both. As Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool.
His warriors scattered.
"Come get some!" yelled one of the party ponies.
They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.
Chiron galloped towards Aria and Annabeth, neatly plucking them off the deck and depositing them on his back.
She watched as Percy struggled to get up, the boy only managing to do it with Grover's help, who had avoided getting picked up by the centaur.
Luke was crawling out of the pool.
"Attack, you fools!" he ordered his troops. Somewhere down below deck, a large alarm bell thrummed.
Aria new that any second they would be swamped by Luke's reinforcements. Already, his warriors were getting over their surprise, coming at the centaurs with swords and spears drawn.
Tyson slapped half a dozen of them aside, knocking them over the guardrail into Miami Bay. But more warriors were coming up the stairs.
"You won't get away with this, horse man!" Luke shouted. He raised his sword, but got smacked in the face with another boxing glove arrow, and sat down hard in a deckchair.
A palomino centaur hoisted Percy and Grover onto his back. "Dude, get your big friend!"
"Tyson!" Percy yelled. "Come on!"
Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after them. A painted centaur joined them, the cyclops jumping onto the horses back.
"Due!" the centaur groaned, almost buckling under Tyson's weight. "Do the words low-carb diet mean anything to you?"
Luke's warriors were organising themselves into a phalanx. But by the time they were ready to advance, the centaurs had galloped to the edge of the deck and fearlessly jumped the guardrail, as if it were a steeplechase and not ten stories above the ground.
Aria prayed to every god imaginable.
They plummeted towards the docks, but the centaurs hit the tarmac with hardly a jolt and galloped off, whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as they raced into the streets of downtown Miami.
Aria had no idea what the Miamians thought as they galloped by.
Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. It felt as if space were compacting--as if each centaur step travelled miles and miles. In no time, they had left the city behind. They raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees.
Finally, the group found themselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, refrigerators and mosquito netting. They were in a centaur camp.
"Dude!" said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like, 'woah, i'm blind and I have an arrow in my mouth!"
The centaur with the google-eye glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!"
The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.
Chiron sighed. He set Aria and Annabeth down on a picnic blanket next to Percy. "I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare."
"Chiron," Percy said, "you saved us."
He gave him a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."
"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.
"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the sea of monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."
"Gee, thanks," Grover mumbled.
"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean...oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance is not the same for us compared to humans."
Aria looked over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun. She hoped they knew what they were getting into.
"So what now?" Percy asked Chiron. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him anyway."
Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him. He gently opened the medicinal pouch on his leather belt and began to treat Percy's wounds.
Percy stopped him, his face looking a little red.
"I think...," he started, fiddling with his fingers. "I think Silver's healing will be quicker."
Chiron gave the son of Poseidon a puzzled look, but didn't question it, backing away from the sitting boy, who had now averted his gaze to the floor.
Aria, who had not really been paying much attention (she was giggling at the fact that Tyson had fired a paintball gun at an innocent centaur), looked back at the group confused on why the conversation had abruptly stopped.
"What's going on?"
Annabeth had a smirk on her face. "Percy wants you to heal him."
"Oh okay. Why's everyone looking at me weirdly?" she asked, her confused eyes drifting over the silent group who were all exchanging glances.
"It's nothing, my dear," Chiron said.
Aria furrowed her brows but nodded, shuffling over to sit next to Percy, who was still intrigued by the ground.
"Give me your hand," Aria ordered, although her tone wasn't mean.
Percy lifted his gaze to look at her. "What?"
"I said give me your hand," she said again.
Percy brought his hand forward and Aria caught it, holding it in hers. She heard Grover snicker behind them.
"Why are we holding hands again?" Percy asked, looking down at their connected palms.
"So that I can transfer my healing powers onto you, idiot," Aria explained, closing her hands.
She muttered a quick prayer to her father, and suddenly, the light around them turned brighter, as if someone was turning a dial up on the sun.
The others around them watched in awe as both Percy and Aria's bodies started to glow, everything around them omitting a golden shimmer. Almost instantly, the light faded, leaving nothing behind but a completely fixed Percy and a muttering Aria, their hands still interlocked.
Aria's eyes opened and her incessant utters stopped. Percy, with his free hand, felt his face, as if he couldn't believe what just happened.
Aria removed her hand from Percy's grasp.
"Thank you," Percy whispered, hand still on his unblemished face.
Aria shrugged. "I told you I would fix you up."
Chiron cleared his throat, the centaur still kneeling on the ground next to them.
"I'm afraid that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organised enough to pursue us. Nobody won," Chiron brought them back to the topic at hand.
"But we got the Fleece!" Aria argued. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now, at least that's something."
Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You are all true heroes. You must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."
"You're coming, too?" Percy asked.
"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see...I'm curious about the Fleece."
camp notes ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
som is almost over thank goodness
do we want aria and percy's slowburn to be longer or...
- gracie