Chapter Three

I woke up with hundreds of bandages on me. So many, that I felt like a sore, broken, mummified, depressing looking goddess. Glancing around, I spotted Paxton next to me on a cot. Seeing all the medical stuff, I figured we were in the infirmary.

"Wake up," I demanded a little croakily. When he didn't answer, I pulled my pillow out from under my head and threw it at his face. "Wake up!"

He groaned and put his face between his knees, doing something. I glanced to the side and spotted my hoodie, which should have my dagger in the pocket.

"Hey, pass me my hoodie, will you? Please? Pass it? Please? Just throw it over here? Throw it at my face, I don't care? Just nicely hand it to me? HELLOOO?!" I was probably incredibly annoying…

He didn't answer so I sighed and soon, the ripping of the bandages that held my legs to the ceiling was sounded. I bit my cheek to get rid of the pain and reached over with my non-broken arm best I could to grab my hoodie. Making do with what I had, I found my dagger and flicked it open, dropping the hoodie onto the floor. Did I care that I was wearing an old, ratty Queen tee-shirt? Nope.

I slid the dagger onto the thick bandages and began to saw them apart. It caused a lot of pain, but I decided that I'd rather have that than be trapped in a bed for a few months. Finally, the cast popped open and I let out a quiet grunt as I shifted my entirely broken leg to the side of the bed and put on my shoe before working on the other the best I could, keeping my broken arm out of the way. After another five minutes of intense sawing I was able to get it off with my one hand, only splitting open my knee a little bit with the dagger. Finally, I was able to grab my other shoe and put it on my broken ankle. How had I broken all my bones? Probably from that stampede of campers…

I lifted my shirt enough so my ribs were showing and began to work on the bandage around that. As soon as it was off, I put down my shirt, sucking in a deep breath of air. It rattled everything in my body, which probably wasn't good, but I could live with it. Or die with it. I glanced over at Paxton for a moment. Still with his head in his knees…

As soon as I was able to get my arm's cast off, I got off of the bed, shakily beginning to force myself to take teeny steps toward the door. I got about halfway when I crumpled to the ground, my fingernails of my broken and non-broken arm digging into the floor, trying to keep me upright. Suddenly, a voice came from behind me, making me panic.

"AUGUST! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!" Will came storming towards me and I got up as quickly as I could and punched him in the stomach hard to get him away from me. I watched as he stumbled back into a bin and fell into it, a stunned look on his face.

I let the tears of pain wash over my face, my hand throbbing. Slowly, I turned and began to shuffle away again. I felt nauseous, but I ignored it, stopping at the door, panting. There was no way I'd make it to the beach on my own, but I was going to try. Wiping my non-broken hand on my sweatpants, I began to hobble toward the beach. A couple steps in, I fell again, shooting pain up all of my body, though there were no campers around to help me. I doubted they would have if they were around. Grunting, I attempted to push myself up, though failed, landing flat on my face.

Arms suddenly picked me up and I almost blacked out from the pressure.

"The- Gods- Let- Go-" I groaned, weakly pushing them as hard as I could.

I suddenly sensed water near me so I began to feel a little better, just smelling the salt.

"Drop me-" I mumbled.

Whoever was holding me dropped me and I dizzily rolled on the sand and into the water. As soon as I hit it, I felt my bones begin to mend. Slowly, I pushed myself deeper into the ocean, laying on the ground and breathing as I slowly healed. My hair floated around my face and I willed myself to get soaked. I didn't care…

Ten minutes later, I stood up, stretching and glancing around, my eyes catching a person staring at me from the beach; Paxton. A little more relaxed and feeling a whole lot better, I strolled over to him.

"How come you brought me here?" I asked quietly.

"You said Posiedon was one of your dads, I just assumed water helped you."

I nodded, "Nice observation. It does… A lot," taking a breath, I shook my head. "Who was that guy?"

He glared at the ground. "I don't know, but I've seen him before, unfortunately."

"Well he was definitely a god…" I started pacing back and forth, thinking hard. Suddenly, I came to a stop. "I forgot to ask… You okay? You seemed a little," I did the coo-coo sign, "messed with."

He frowned and met my eyes, "When? I feel like I've been that way a lot recently."

For once in five years, I burst into laughter, snorting like some happy weirdo. My hair got in my face as I bent my head, putting my face in my hands.

"Oh my gods- You have no idea. I feel that way every day…" I said between giggles.

"Nice to know someone feels the same. But really, which time?" I couldn't get rid of the smile, so I gave up and stood straight again.

"The most recent."

"Are nightmares a regular thing for you?" he asked.

My face fell slightly.

"Yeah, it's normal for all demigods. We all get them most of the time. Why?"

"I had a few, about the god," he responded.

I sighed, rubbing my temples again, "Okay- Well- Anything else you know about him?"

"He's planning something, that's the obvious part, and that it has something to do with camp, specifically war. And that, well, right before we left he said, 'I'll see you soon Paxton, we are blood after all,' I think we might be related-" he finished, looking at me.

I frowned and thought for a moment.

"Okay… Well… None of the Greek gods would plan war on the Greek camp. And the Romans wouldn't dare do that… I know their leaders. They wouldn't stand for that. Hm… Well, those are the only gods I know of. I've never been to school so I can't say that I know more," I concluded, though added something more, "But since I don't know all, it's possible that he's from a different set of gods…"

"Well, there are other mythologies, maybe that's what it is, but I mean, I could be wrong." he said, looking like he was thinking.

"Yeah… Well, I want you to go back to the infirmary. Get better. Tell Will I'm sorry. And I'll research this?" I suggested.

"Uh-huh, but where would you be? You're not exactly on good terms with Chiron of Will." he said.

"In the library. It's not like they can do anything about me. Besides, Dionysus loves me. He can't get rid of me," I smirked. "He likes my sass. Drives Peter crazy."

"That's good but you should apologize to Will yourself, I don't think he appreciates being ignored and treated like crap by you." he raised an eyebrow.

I stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "Fine but you have to come with me and make sure he doesn't murder me on the spot. I need to get my hoodie anyway." I took his hand and teleported us to the entry of the infirmary without giving him a chance to answer.

As soon as we reached there, I let go of his hand and walked over to my bandaged bed, putting my hoodie on and picking up all the bandages before putting them in the trash. It took me a moment to find Will. He was sitting alone, muttering to himself.

Slowly, I sat against the wall across from him.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I shouldn't have done that. I just had an irrational fear that you would keep me in here instead of letting me go get to water."

Will rubbed his temples and then turned to me, catching my eyes for a while.

"Promise to just talk it out next time? No running off like that? And no punching me?" he asked.

I glanced at the ground and then nodded. He pulled me into a hug, and my entire body was screaming 'NOT THIS AGAIN!' As soon as it was over, I gave him a forced smile and he left. As soon as I stood up, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"There. How was that?" I asked Paxton.

He shrugged, "You could have actually hugged him back, but that was good. Also, you're asking me? The other crazy person?" he asked.

"Fair. I just don't do voluntary physical touch," I said, "And you make a good point. I guess we both are clueless when it comes to this."

He nodded, "Uh, they're going to want an explanation later of what we were doing… What do we tell them?"

I got a mischievous look in my eyes as I thought of an excuse.

"We tell them we were on a date, and you tried to kiss me. It would explain all the broken bones. We say we got into a fight. Somehow, you got the lesser end of the injuries. Problem solved!"

He gagged, "Uh, how about no. We do not do that."

"Fine, genius. Let's see you come up with a better excuse." I crossed my arms.

"We tell them I startled you, and you ended up teleporting us both to a site, where we got attacked and then we got back but were too disoriented to realize where we had ended up," he suggested.

I stared at him for a long time.

"That doesn't make sense. I'm still going with that date thing. Or maybe I just say… Hm… I'm still going with that date idea."

"Please don't." he said.

"Fine. Let's just say we forgot." I suggested.

He nodded in agreement.

"Alright. Well, see you Parker." I dusted off my hoodie, reached up and patted his shoulder, then walked out of the infirmary, heading toward the library.