When I came to after my Fates-induced vision, I found myself surrounded by a bunch of campers and naiads. I was about to ask what was going on when I felt someone pressing their hands against my chest like they were trying to break my ribs.
"She's awake!" someone shouted, and the hands stopped immediately.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think someone was performing CPR on me.
Gods, I hoped no one tried mouth-to-mouth. I would've hate having my first kiss stolen from me like that.
"Disperse," someone else ordered, pushing their way through the crowd that had huddled around me. A lot of the people groaned, but they listened anyways, returning back to whatever it was they were doing before deciding to watch me.
I sat up, shivering as I realized that my clothes were completely soaked and the sun had begun to set. Had I really been in that vision for a few hours? It only seemed like a few minutes.
"Andromeda, what in the name of my father just happened?" Mr. D asked impatiently, tapping his foot up and down despite levitating a few inches off the ground. I guess he didn't want to get his shoes dirty.
"A vision," I told him, still regaining my bearings. I usually had to deal with the aftereffects of vertigo and nausea and generally feeling miserable after a vision. Isn't it great to be the Fates plaything?
Mr. D's expression changed from one of anger to one of understanding. For some reason, the Fates particularly enjoyed hijacking my mind during my week with Dionysus. I didn't really know why, but I figured it had something to do with the fact that Mr. D was the god of insanity, which could definitely have occurred after some of the things I was forced to witness.
"Everyone to their cabins, now!" Campers dropped what they were doing and hightailed it back to their cabins, not wanting to face the wrath of an angry camp director.
I finally looked to my right, where I found Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson staring at me with mixed expressions. Annabeth and Percy were visibly distraught while Tyson was plain confused, putting his hands over one another like you were supposed to do in CPR and pumping the air in front of him.
Mr. D turned to yell at them, but I raised a hand, promising him that they'd be back in their cabins by the normal curfew. He agreed with a curt nod of his head before disappearing with the wind, leaving behind the scent of wine grapes.
"I didn't think Mr. D liked anyone," Percy commented, still troubled about what had happened to me.
"We have an interesting relationship to say the least," I replied, allowing my skin to heat itself up to the point where it could dry my clothes without catching fire.
"How are neither one of you concerned about the fact that Andy almost drowned?!" Annabeth demanded angrily.
"The nice girl drowned?" Tyson asked with a frown, the words sounding foreign in his mouth.
"Actually, I can't drown."
I sighed in relief once my clothes were done drying, hating the feeling of wet shoes and socks. Of course the Fates couldn't wait until I was in a safe spot. I'd probably fallen into the lake the moment I'd blacked out, slumping forward from the way I'd been sitting when I was working on my chariot.
"But you're not a daughter of Poseidon," Annabeth protested. "I know you haven't been claimed, but honestly, I'd think you were a daughter of Hephaestus from the way you can control fire. And Hephaestus children can all drown."
I frowned. Had she already forgotten about the discussion we had about my father last year? I mean, I'm not going to correct her if she's forgotten. The fewer people who knew, the better.
"Want me to show you?"
"Kinda, yeah," Percy said, having taken Annabeth's side on the argument. So good to know that they had expected me to drown.
I took off my shoes and socks before jumping into the lake, willing the water to push me to the bottom. Thankfully, I could withstand any pressure underwater like Percy could as a son of Poseidon, the only real difference in our powers being that I can't stay dry in the water. I mean, I can't cause earthquakes or volcanic eruptions either, but that was a good thing, in my opinion.
I stayed and held a conversation with some naiads for five minutes, much longer than almost anyone could hold their breath and not suffer serious brain damage. Then, using the lake floor as a launching pad, I pushed off and began to swim to the surface, enjoying the silence in the water.
When I broke the surface, I had the water lift me onto the dock, wanting to demonstrate that like Percy, I can't drown in normal water. Magic water on the other hand, well, that's a lot messier.
"Believe me now?" I kneeled over the edge of the dock, ringing some of the water out of my hair. Once again, I let my skin heat up to dry off my clothes.
Both Annabeth and Percy were pale. Meanwhile, Tyson clapped enthusiastically, saying, "Do your water magic again, Andy!"
I obliged, summoning some water from the lake and shaping it into a ball. I began playing catch with Tyson, making sure to keep the water from losing its shape every time Tyson caught the delicate ball in his ginormous hands. This was actually a very good method of training mental precision and multitasking, I thought to myself, finally setting the water back down into the lake as curfew was approaching.
"What...but...how?" Percy spluttered out, unable to settle on a single question to ask me.
"Probably my godly parent." I began lacing up my sneakers, trying to bite back my laughter as Percy kept struggling to form a coherent thought.
"But Dad would've claimed you by now!"
"Percy, I'm twenty. If Poseidon was my father, the Great Prophecy would've passed by now."
"You're right," Annabeth agreed. I could see the gears in her mind turning as she tried to figure how the heck I had water powers when I had no connection to any water deity. "That rules out Zeus and Hades, too."
"Are you my sister?" Tyson asked, completely lost in terms of the conversation. Annabeth shot him a dirty look.
"No, sorry, bud." He looked so saddened by the fact that I added, "But we can be friends."
"Yay, friend!"
Tyson ran over and gave me a bone crushing hug. Gods, I could feel my ribs touching each other, something that shouldn't even be anatomically possible unless he just broke all of them. But seeing that I wasn't suffocating, I let Tyson hold onto me for as long as he wanted while Annabeth stared at us in disgust.
"We can talk more tomorrow, I promise. But I need to uphold my promise to Mr. D, too, and that means it's curfew."
"Are you sleeping with us tonight?" Percy asked.
"I practically live in cabin three, Perce. Plus, it's not like I can just waltz back into cabin eleven and ask for my spot on the floor back."
"You could."
"But I won't."
Percy shrugged. "I mean, if Dad hasn't said anything about it, I don't think there's anything wrong with it."
"You're both crazy. Goodnight," Annabeth said, walking ahead of us to make it back to her cabin before our regularly scheduled curfew was enforced by the cleaning harpies.
Words of wisdom from the daughter of Athena.
0o0o
The day of the chariot race was finally upon us.
Tantalus had canceled all afternoon activities for the chariot race, trilling in that ear-splitting voice of his, "Attendance is mandatory! I'd hate to see anyone get eaten by the cleaning harpies!"
Cleo and I had spent the last few days between the forges and the arts and crafts building as we added the finishing touches and tweaks to our chariot. I'd done a majority of the wielding and engineering stuff as I'd studied under Hephaestus and knew chariots like the back of my hand.
Cleo had helped designed the wheels, doing all the calculations about how many spokes we should have and how thick they should be. If we made the wheels thicker, we'd have more stability but have to sacrifice speed and vice versa. We finally compromised, and Cleo had built the wheels with both of us agreeing if anything went terribly wrong with our wheels, I'd use the water in the air to take its place.
Hey, Tantalus had said nothing about the use of powers on the sign-up sheet, so I figured everything was pretty much fair game. The only real rule he'd put in place was that we weren't allowed to kill each other.
Cleo wheeled our chariot out onto the track while I held our horses' reigns in my hand, waiting to attack their harnesses. Our horses were two coffee brown thoroughbreds, powerful and fast. They'd been delighted to learn that I understood them, promising me that they would give it their all to make sure we'd win.
The grand prize of the whole race was that the winning cabin didn't have to do chores for a whole month. And I don't know about you, but not having to spend time shoveling horse manure out of the stables in the insufferable sun was enough to convince me to join.
After harnessing our horses, Cleo walked over with her bow slung over her shoulder, her quiver full of nasty, trick-filled arrows. I was going to be the driver, but if push came to shove, Cleo and I would switch positions as I was the better close-quarter fighter.
In the trees, tons of black pigeons started to flock onto the branches. In fact, there were so many of them that the sound of their wings flapping was enough to drown out conversations by the trees. Their beaks glinted in the sunlight, as if they were made of steel. Their eyes were shinier than any other pigeon I'd ever seen before.
Styx, I swore to myself. Stymphalian birds.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy and Annabeth arguing over something, probably the dream Percy had last night. He had spoken to Grover, who had discovered the location of the Golden Fleece on Polyphemus' Island.
"Charioteers!" Tantalus called. "To your mark!"
I climbed into our chariot's basket, Cleo following behind me. Grabbing the reins, I positioned us at the starting line and stared straight ahead, refusing to be intimidated by the other cabins. Cleo was the one in charge of telling me what we were up against, and she was very accurate and concise, so I had hope.
Once the track had been cleared of other campers, and all the racers were at the starting line, Tantalus shouted, "Charioteers! Attend your mark!"
Then he dropped his hand, and chaos ensued. I flicked the reins, our chariot lurching forward so quickly I thought I was going to fly out the back end. Within seconds, I heard a worrying crack! I didn't look back, urging our horses forward, while Cleo said, "Hermes and Apollo are out!"
In front of us were the Athena and Ares cabins, while Tyson tried to swat at Cleo with the giant ten-foot pole Percy had given him. The Hephaestus cabin was dangerously close to us as well.
Cleo ducked and launched a hydra arrow at the wheels of the Hephaestus chariot, who still managed to shoot off three sets of balls and chains at the wheels of Percy's chariot. I swerved a little to the left, our wheels creaking under the pressure, pulling ahead of Percy.
Behind us, I heard Tyson swat away the balls and chains from his wheels before hearing his pole connect with someone. I would've been hit, too, if it wasn't for Cleo tugging my shirt down, swearing under her breath as she let loose an explosive arrow right in front of Percy's horses, causing them to rear up in fright. But it hadn't been enough to completely knock them out of the competition, the pounding of hooves right behind us.
The Athena chariot's fighter had taken on a more serious look, picking up at javelin and pointing it directly at my chest. I waited for him to throw it, smirking to myself when I shadow-traveled the spear to take out the axle on the wheels of the Ares cabin.
If you haven't noticed by now, the wheels are the weakest point of the whole chariot. Take them out, and you take out the entire team.
Clarisse scowled at the spear, yelling at her fighter to attack the Athena cabin.
Cleo had been preparing to launch another arrow at Percy's chariot, who was now only ten feet, give or take, behind us. But her shot was interrupted when I heard screaming.
Take over for me, I instructed the horses, turning to see what was going on.
The Stymphalian birds were dive-bombing the spectators in the crowd as well as attacking other chariots. They swarmed Beckendorf and his fighter, causing for their chariot to plow straight into the strawberry fields, their mechanical horses steaming. Clarisse barked an order to her fighter, who threw up a camouflage net that shimmered as they moved, making them much harder prey.
Two can play it that way, I thought to myself, bending the shadows around us so that we were mostly covered. I didn't feel like getting my skin pecked at, and I sure as hell wasn't going to let Cleo get hurt because of some stupid birds.
"Stymphalian birds!" Annabeth shouted, slowing her chariot down next to Percy's. I did the same. "They'll strip everyone to bones if we don't drive them away!"
"Tyson," Percy said, turning his chariot to face the spectators, "we're turning around!"
"Going the wrong way?" he asked.
"Always," Percy grumbled, driving off with Annabeth towards the stands, leaving Cleo and me in the dust.
"How are we going to beat these things?" Cleo yelled, slashing her knife across one of the birds that managed to make it through our cloak of darkness.
"Loud noise!" I had to shout or else she wouldn't have heard me over the cacophony of people screaming and the beating of thousands of wings. "Do you have any sonic arrows on you?"
Cleo dropped onto one knee, and I slowed down our horses to prevent her from falling out. "Three," she said, notching one onto her bow. "Tell me when."
"Not yet," I said, watching as Clarisse crossed the finish line unopposed. She then yelled at Percy and Annabeth, who had taken off towards the Big House, while drawing her sword and running into the crowd. I waited two more seconds before yelling, "Now!"
The daughter of Apollo aimed right in the middle of the cluster, her arrow sounding with a screeching wheeeeeee! before exploding in midair, managing to take down two of the birds while sending the rest of them into a frenzy.
Seconds later, the sound of violins and men moaning in Italian flooded across the track. The Stymphalian birds went even crazier, slamming into each other like they were trying to see who could bash their brains out first. The birds swarmed together, coalescing into one large, dark mass in the air above the track.
"Now!" Annabeth called out. "Archers!"
I summoned my own bow and joined the rest of the Apollo kids, nocking at least four or five arrows per shot like the other archers. Next to me, Cleo's face was glowing with determination, trying to keep up with the archery skills of her siblings. We shot together in silence, focused on taking out the rest of these demon pigeons.
After a few minutes of suffering through Dean Martin, all of the Stymphalian birds were on the ground, dead. My fingers ached from the speed of my shooting, but despite that, I told Cleo to hold onto our chariot. Might as well finish if we can.
Our chariot pulled across the finish line in second place, and we stepped down, trying to steady ourselves now that we weren't standing on a moving surface. I took the harnesses off our horses, promising them some juicy apples later for their hard work.
I looked around at all the damage, frowning to myself. While Camp Half-Blood was still standing, half our strawberry fields had been run over by chariots, and everyone had been hurt. Then there were the Aphrodite children, shrieking their heads off because of damaged hair and clothes covered in poop.
"Seriously?" Cleo asked incredulously, shaking her head in disappointment. "The majority of them are bleeding, and they care about their hair?"
"Bravo!" Tantalus said, preventing me from saying anything to Cleo. "We have our first winners!" He walked over to where we were standing at the finish line and awarded the golden laurels for the race to a stunned-looking Clarisse. Then, he pulled out two silver medals from the pocket of his prison jumpsuit and handed them to Cleo and me.
Then, he turned and gave one of his revolting smiles at Percy and Annabeth. The guy wasn't even looking at me, yet I shivered in disgust anyways. "And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race."
Tantalus decreed that Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson had been responsible for the Stymphalian birds attacking, and as such, gave them kitchen patrol for the next week. Percy didn't help matters when he said, "Go chase a doughnut!" causing Tantalus to decide that we were going to have a feast of country-fried Stymphalian bird for lunch that day.
"I think I just might go vegetarian," Cleo said, slightly green in the face at the idea of having to eat the birds we just shot down.
"Agreed," I said, kicking away one of the bird corpses that had been by my foot.
And true to our word, we didn't eat any of the Stymphalian bird, earning us some weird looks from Tantalus. He probably thought that as second place winners, we'd be celebrating by joining in on the feast, but I wasn't in the mood for monster bird for lunch today. Instead, I ate a small salad.
After lunch, I felt my stomach lurch at the sight of so many plates stacked up for my friends to clean. Kitchen patrol was dangerous work for anyone that wasn't fireproof, as the cleaning harpies washed everything with piping hot lava, fresh from the Earth's mantle. Any demigod who ended up on kitchen patrol had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons to make sure they didn't burn to death.
"Hey, I'm gonna help Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson," I told Cleo after lunch.
She snorted, knowing that I was going to help even though I hadn't said anything to her during lunch. "Have fun cleaning, Ms. Fireproof. See ya at the campfire!"
"Really?" I asked, causing Cleo to laugh as she skipped off with the rest of her siblings.
I shook my head in amusement before grabbing one of those large plastic bins that bus boys in restaurants used, filling the bin with as many plates as I could. Then, I walked into the kitchen, where Percy and Annabeth were already covered in sweat as they scrubbed at the plates. Tyson had taken to making boats in the lava with the utensils and spoons, playing with them in the same way a toddler played with toys in a bathtub.
I wordlessly joined the trio, stopping in front of my own sink and beginning to wash off the bird crumbs with a lava spray gun. Annabeth had told Percy the story about the Golden Fleece after he told her about his dreams of Grover, the both of them coming to the conclusion that a quest needed to be issued.
"Tantalus will never agree to that," I said, causing the both of them to jump in fright. Percy even dropped the plate he'd been washing into the lava.
"Andy, what are you doing here?" Annabeth asked, her lips pressed together in a fine line, clearly upset about my presence. I guess she had been hoping to keep her thoughts under wraps for as long as possible.
"The nice girl has been here the whole time," Tyson pointed out, drying some utensils with a rag he'd gotten from under the sink. "She helped wash."
"Why? This wasn't even your punishment."
"Because I want you guys to make it to the campfire tonight. Do I need to have an ulterior motive to help you guys out?"
"Lay off her, Annabeth," Percy said, wiping away the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his t-shirt. "She just wanted to help."
"If that's the case, tell us why you and Cleo decided to cross the finish line during the chariot race. Did you even care about the camp being attacked by the Stymphalian birds?"
"There were less people by the finish line," I told Annabeth truthfully, surprisingly calm for being accused of being indifferent. "Plus, Cleo needed a better angle to shoot her supersonic arrow from. And I did care about the attack. I helped the Apollo kids shoot the demon pigeons down."
"Yes!" Percy cheered, causing for Annabeth and me to look at him weirdly. He blushed. "Sorry, I thought I was the only one who thought they looked like demon pigeons."
"Fine," Annabeth said, not sounding too happy about my story. "If Tantalus won't agree, we'll have to pressure him into it."
"Do it during the campfire," Percy said. "That way, he'll have to argue with us in front of everyone else. Maybe the others will side with us."
"They probably will. No one likes Tantalus, not even Mr. D," I said, pulling the plug out of my sink, the lava beginning to drain in a fiery whirlpool. I dried my hands off with a rag, the fabric beginning to steam from the embers that were stuck to my skin.
"It's a plan," Annabeth agreed, setting down the lava spray gun. She then chucked all the freshly washed dishes into a plastic bin and shoved it towards a conveyer belt that would give them their extra shiny, Olympus approved gleam.
"It's a plan," Tyson repeated happily.
I smiled. Good, everything was falling into place.
0o0o
The campfire that night was the most depressing thing I've been to in a long time, and this is coming from a girl who watched some of her closest friends have mental breakdowns as they cried and chucked their textbooks halfway across the library, all because they couldn't understand that day's biology lesson.
Ah, the wonders of college life.
Like most things at camp, the fire pit was enchanted, reacting with the audience. On a good night, I'd seen the fire burn a bright blue at twenty-five feet, the heat strong enough to light the first three rows' marshmallows on fire. The Apollo cabin would do their sing-along, and the crowd would respond, screaming back the lyrics at the top of their lungs like we were at a concert.
Tonight, however, the fire was struggling to stay at five feet, was as gray as lint, and cold. No one was trying to make a s'more; the day's events had left all of us too worn out for even that simple joy.
The Apollo cabin tried to raise everyone's spirits, but even they weren't into it, their enthusiasm clearly forced. I knew things were grim when Cleo kept playing wrong notes on her lyre, her face impassive as she robotically played the strings.
Even Mr. D couldn't bear to stay more than a few minutes, grumbling under his breath that pinochle games with Chiron had been more interesting than this. He gave Tantalus a distasteful look before walking away, unwilling to watch this miserable sight any longer.
When the last song was blessedly over, Tantalus said, "Well, that was lovely!"
He walked forward, holding a long stick with a toasted marshmallow skewered on the end. He then reached for the marshmallow real casual like, but before he could touch it, the marshmallow flew into the fire, committing suicide. I bit back a smirk.
Tantalus turned back toward us, smiling coldly. Gods, for someone who couldn't eat or drink anything, he needed some major dental work. "Now then! Some announcements about tomorrow's schedule."
"Sir," Percy said, standing up from his seat.
From back here, I could see Tantalus's eye twitch in irritation. "Our kitchen boy has something to say?"
Some of the Ares campers snickered, but Percy stood firm, not allowing embarrassment to make him back down. He glanced over at where the Athena cabin was sitting, and Annabeth stood up.
Oh, what the heck? I stood up, too.
"We have an idea to save the camp."
I knew Percy had grabbed everyone's attention, because suddenly, the fire glowed a bright yellow.
"Indeed," Tantalus said blandly. "Well, if it has anything to do with chariots-"
"The Golden Fleece," Percy interrupted. "We know where it is."
The flame's color shifted again, this time burning a vibrant orange, the same kind I'd seen burn at Hestia's hearth back on Olympus. It also happened to match the shade of our camp shirts. Percy then began blurting out his dream about Grover and Polyphemus while Tantalus continually tried to stop him, resulting in Percy only speaking over him.
At one point, Annabeth stepped in, giving background information on the Golden Fleece and the potential it had. Her words helped solidify the argument, making it seem like we had concrete evidence to work with and weren't just grasping at straws.
"The Fleece can save the camp," Annabeth concluded. "I'm certain of it."
"Nonsense," Tantalus said, motioning for her to sit down with the wave of his hand. She didn't. "We don't need saving."
We all glared at him, causing him to squirm uncomfortably under our gazes. Good, that serves him right.
"Besides," he added quickly, noticeably wanting for our glares to cease, "the Sea of Monsters? That's hardly an exact location. You wouldn't even know where to look."
"Yes, I would," Percy said.
Annabeth, who had walked over to stand next to Percy in the middle of her speech, leaned over and whispered something in his ear. He nodded, his eyes shining with determination in the glow of the firelight.
"30, 31, 75, 12," Percy said, earning himself looks of confusion from everyone.
"Ooo-kay," Tantalus said. "Thank you for sharing those meaningless numbers."
"They're sailing coordinates," he continued, blatantly ignoring Tantalus. "Latitude and longitude. I, uh, learned about it in social studies."
Even Annabeth looked impressed, her mind visibly working double time as she processed the new information. "30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west. He's right! The Gray Sisters gave us those coordinates. That'd be somewhere in the Atlantic, off the coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!"
"We need a quest!" I began to chant, those nearby quickly taking up the cheer.
"Wait just a minute," Tantalus said.
But it was too late. "We need a quest! We need a quest!" we all chanted, the fire rising higher in response to our voices.
"It isn't necessary!" Tantalus insisted.
"WE NEED A QUEST! WE NEED A QUEST!"
"Fine!" Tantalus shouted, his eyes smoldering with anger. "You brats want me to assign a quest?"
"YES!"
"Very well," he agreed. "I shall authorize a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying. I will allow our champion to consult the Oracle! And choose two companions for the journey. And I think the choice of champion is obvious."
He glared at Percy and Annabeth like he wanted to flay them alive, which wouldn't have been much of a surprise considering what he'd done to his own children, before turning back to the rest of us. "The champion should be one who has earned the camp's respect, who has proven resourceful in the chariot races and courageous in the defense of the camp. You shall lead this quest...Clarisse!"
The fire flickered a thousand different colors, like a TV screen going haywire. I averted my eyes, not wanting to hurt my eyesight. Yeah, I knew Hephaestus should have waited for me to leave before trying out his new TV, which had left me unable to see for a few hours.
The Ares cabin started stomping and cheering, "CLARISSE! CLARISSE!"
Clarisse stood up, stunned about the decision. Then she swallowed, and her chest swelled with pride. "I accept the quest!"
Great, now it's time to deal with the aftermath.