Chapter 27: The son of Poseidon gets lost on sea

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Nyx and I were waiting on top of the First of Zeus for Tyson. He said he had to say goodbye to someone, I told him it was better not to tell someone but I realized later that most of the campers would be okay with us leaving to retrieve the Golden Fleece. It was kind of obvious Tantalus did not really care about saving the camp so no one really cared about his permission.

It was almost 11 in the evening and Tyson still had to show up.

"Shall we just leave without him?" Nyx suggested.

'You can't, Tyson is an essential part of the quest.' Chaos said, 'remember?'

Yeah, I told Nyx and Chaos about the Prophecy which both of them thought was very concerning. Chaos said it should be impossible for the Fates to control my fate, she suggested that maybe the Oracle produced this prophecy based on the fates of others and how they would influence mine. Yet she sounded unsure. Nyx did not understand the purpose of a prophecy at all.

I had the backpack from Hestia on my back, filled with some ambrosia, food, clothing for me, the thermos of Hermes and multivitamins and some cash, in case we ran into a stray vending machine on the Sea of Monsters.

We heard some noises coming from camp and we saw Tyson running toward us with a backpack slung over his shoulder, it went up and down every step he took. It must have been filled with metal scrap parts because it was loud enough to awake the dead. Then I saw why he was running.

Two Harpies we're on his tail, yelling at him, commanding him to come back.

I noticed a blonde girl sneaking behind Tyson, from tree to tree staying in their shadow. The weird thing was I could only spot her if she moved which was weird. I had no idea if Tyson knew he was being spied on. First I thought it was Annabeth but she would be invisible instead of almost invisible.

Nyx manifested a dagger and threw it at the first Harpy, however the Harpy dodged it and made a dive towards Tyson. I jumped down from the fist of Zeus and uncapped Riptide and summoned FrostSilver.

Before the Harpy could scrape Tyson I hit the Harpy on her wing and almost sliced it off. I intended to make another swipe but Hemera suddenly spoke up.

'You can't kill them or Zeus will be angry at you.' Hemera noticed and I felt incredibly dumb for forgetting that.

"Nyx, we can't kill them!" I yelled at Nyx, not sure if she had heard it.

"I know, it's horrible!" she yelled back as she summoned a whip. She held a harpy at distance by striking it against the ground.

I tried to scare the Harpy away but she quickly realized I couldn't kill her, or maybe she didn't care at all.

"Help Percy!" Tyson yelled as his Harpy was getting really close.

The blond girl stepped away from the tree and that's when I noticed what really had been going on.

The moment the girl stepped away from the tree her skin changed back to normal, somehow her skin had camouflaged itself to blend in with the tree.

Of course I recognized her.

"Katie!" I called out, which made Nyx turn to the girl who had just appeared.

"Wait where'd you come from?!" Nyx asked. The Harpy took this moment of distraction to dive forward at Nyx but she shadow traveled away and reappeared on the same spot when the Harpy had passed.

"Push them against the ground!" Katie shouted, dodging the Harpy who previously was attacking Tyson.

Nyx shrugged and shadow traveled on top of the Harpy, causing both of them to crash down. When the Harpy hit the ground Katie closed her eyes and aimed her hands at the Harpy like she was about to summon fire. But instead of that, the grass around the Harpy began to grow longer and wilder. Like it suddenly became really excited. Within seconds the Harpy was covered by grass which seemed to strangle her.

"Katie, we can't kill them, they are Zeus's servants.' I said and Katie nodded because that sort of thing is just regular Monday stuff for Demigods. The grass stopped strangling the Harpy but it still kept her trapped.

The other Harpy saw what happened and fled away, probably for reinforcements.

Katie looked like she was about to faint but she managed to stand straight.

"We need to go, now." Nyx said, gazing at the Harpy who fled.

"I want to come." Katie suddenly announced.

"What?!" I asked but Tyson nodded like he already knew about it. Then the puzzle pieces clicked together.

"Wait, you told Katie we were leaving?" I asked Tyson.

"Don't be mad at him, I wanted to come anyway. I already had the idea you two would sneak away." Katie defended Tyson.

"We can't take you with us." Nyx said sternly.

"You need a child of Demeter." Katie said, which made me freeze. "How do you know that?" I asked suspiciously.

"The plants told me."

'She is crazy.' Nyx responded, though she didn't say it out loud."Wait, you talk to plants?" I asked, that was disturbing to know.

"I had a dream from my mother, she taught me how to do it, saying I would need that skill soon," Katie shrugged. "So, I guess this is why."

Oh, of course Demeter. She was aware I had to use the Golden Fleece to heal Meg.

"It's going to be really dangerous." Nyx said with a smug smile.

"I know, but I can't do nothing and let Meg die." Katie said determined.

'You can't leave her here, Especially not after she helped you with the Harpies.' Aether chimed in.

'And you need a child of Demeter.' Hemera added.

'She talks to plants.' Chaos said dryly.

"Fine,I hope you are ready for a cruise." I said and we headed off towards the shore where, hopefully, the Princess Andromeda would pass through.

"How do we get there?" Katie asked when we couldn't walk any further.

I could see the ship enter the bay in the distance, almost peaceful looking.

"I could shadow travel us." Nyx suggested.

"All four?" I wondered.

"After that I would black out. Hehe, get it blackout?" Katie gave Nyx a confused look, probably because she could not see through the Mist and see Nyx's real appearance.

"Pray to father." I told Tyson.

Tyson nodded and closed his eyes and, just like that, 3 Hippocampus appeared on the surface of the water. Nyx thoughtfully counted them out loud.

Nyx smiled at Katie. "Well it looks like Poseidon doesn't like children of Demeter."

"Or maybe you can just shadow travel to the ship and you don't need one." Katie responded calmly, which pissed off Nyx, especially since Katie was right.

We all took a Hippocampus while Nyx was staring angrily at the Hippocampus, muttering some swear words.

"Well see you at the ship losers!" She yelled before vanishing.

"What's her problem?" Katie asked.

I shrugged, "Guess she just did not expect a fourth member."

As we got closer to the ship I was struck with a brilliant idea.

'Hey Chaos, I have a good idea but I need your help.' I said with a mischievous grin.

'What?' Chaos asked.

'You know the name of that ship?'

'Yes. It's Princess Andromeda right?' Chaos said.

'Can you change the name on the front to, Titanic? I am sure Kronos will love it.' I asked.

Chaos started grinning. 'Well if you insist.' The letters on the boat began to reshuffle themselves, some letters broke off to form new letters until it was all rearranged..

"Hey that's weird, they named the ship Titanic." Katie said.

"Yeah that's weird." I noticed.

"You can hear what he says?" I asked Katie. She had her eyes closed and in her hands she was holding a flower. I had no idea what kind of it was but Katie reassured me it was important.

She nodded. "The flowers tell eachother things, they share secrets they hear. I asked this one what Luke is talking about."

"Are you sure you're on meds right now?" Nyx complained.

"Ssst!" Tyson shut Nyx up.

"He's talking to someone," Katie shared. Her eyes darted downwards. "It's a monster, he says he smells Demigods on this ship." Katie said.

Shit.

We all understood we had to run. First I was stumped about how we got discovered. Then I realised that the last time I was on this ship there were a lot of Demigods to hide our scent. Now we were just the only one, beside Luke.

"I'll shadow travel us to a lifeboat" Nyx said and we nodded. Within a second we were on a lifeboat. I slashed the ropes as we heard the siren going off.

The sleepy cruise boat came to life. Out of every nook and corner monsters came. Most of them were pretty confused. The ones that spotted us in the lifeboat quickly turned their attention to us.

"FaI cut the last cable and we fell down with a splash.

"The thermos!" I yelled, then I remembered no one could open my backpack unless given permission. I swung the backpack off my back and took out the thermos.

"Percy hurry!" Katie said as I took it in my hand. Winged monsters came off the deck and spread out their wings.

"SNAKE!" Tyson yelled. I turned around and we saw the slimy body of a huge sea serpent make it's way over to us. I could not see how big it's body was, only the fact that it was bigger than the entire cruise ship. Maybe it had hidden underneath it.

It dove for us.

I slightly opened the thermos and we sped forward, away from the ship at an incredible speed.

I hoped that we would get away safely like last time but my hope was crushed when Tyson said, "Not fast enough."

Somehow the sea serpent was still chasing us, and catching up on us. That should be, impossible!

Even though the ship was just a small dot in the distance the giant serpent was still hot on our trail. Its head was almost looming over us.

I painfully realised we could not go any faster without losing the thermos. I panicked as I realised we stood no chance against it. Maybe I could but that thing was huge and the moment I'd let go of the thermos it would strike at us.

Tyson threw random pieces of equipment that had been lying around at the boat but the snake's head weaved around each projectile with ease.

This was not our territory and I could not use the sea to my advantage. I realised I might actually die here.

I couldn't fail.

Please, I thought to myself, or maybe just the serpent. Go away!

A tear dropped down my face.

The Hearth had weakened me too much, not only physically but also emotionally.

Suddenly, I felt Nyx place her hand on my shoulder and I turned around. "Relax Percy, it's gone."

"Gone?" I blinked again and it felt like I'd been in the same position for hours. Maybe I was.

"We escaped?" I wondered. I tried to think back but all I came up with was a blank spot in my memory.

I looked around and then I noticed something weird, the sea. It was foggy around us. A lot colder and I could say we were certainly not at Long Island Sound.

"Where are we?" I asked out loud.

Then suddenly Nyx changed her appearance, instead of her usual black dress she wore some silver armor that shone like the moon but had sparkles on them, then I realised it were stars, glowing stars.

On her back she carried a scary axe made of the same kind of metal as her armor strapped to her back.

Her void black hair was now normal black and in a braid, she wore some kind of crown made from a black substance. It looked like a tiara but it was to big for it

One second she wore her normal dress, next moment she was all dressed up like she was about to kill someone.

Well maybe she was.

"What happened to you?" I asked her.

The other just looked confused at me, then I realised they could not see it through the mist.

"You idiot!" She hissed angrily at me.

"What did I do!" I asked.

'This is your fault! You and your stupid powers.' Nyx continued the conversation through our mental link.

'What's wrong? Just explain Nyx!' I said, a bit worried and scared.

'It's not Nyx now, my name is Nótt.' She said.

'What?'

'Nótt. I'm now Nótt.' She hissed angrily, 'You panicked when the serpent was chasing us right?' she asked with a disgusted tone.

'Yeah.' I muttered totally confused about Nyx's, I mean Nótt's behaviour.

'What did you think when it was chasing us?'

'Get us away from the snake.' I simply stated.

"Great!" She said out loud and threw her arms dramatically in the air.

"Great Percy. You messed up before we could even enter the sea of monsters!"

"What's wrong with you?" Katie asked, noticing the different behavior of Nótt.

"Percy!" She snapped at me.

"Look at the horse!" Tyson pointed at the fog in front of us.

I turned my gaze away from Nyx and watched the water.

A hazy fog has started to settle, surrounding us on all sides. I narrowed my eyes.

Through the thick fog the shape of a man on a horse was visible through the fog and it seemed to be standing on the water.

"What's going on?" I asked, demanding answers from Nótt who seemed to know what was happening.

She glared at me, not at all worried by the appearance of the strange shape in the fog.'It's because you and the fact that the ancient laws are not working on you.'

'Wait the ancient laws are the reason?'

She sighed, 'Percy when we were chased by the snake you wanted to get away from it. The sea obeyed your command a bit too well. We're now in a place where it can never reach us.'

'That's great right?' I asked, looking warily at the fog and the outline of the horse and man.

"So, exactly where are we?" Katie wondered, noticing we were no longer trying

"We drifted away from the Sea of monsters," Nótt said grimly. "We are on strange sea's."

"What do you mean?" I asked Nótt.

She glared at me before saying, 'Percy, you brought us to the Jötunheimr sea.'

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next chapter is on Friday :)

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