We get attacked while eating gummies
"What are you doing?"
Nico stood at the edge of the room watching me as I try breaking the floor of the ship
"I lost my ring"
"You want to sink the whole ship for a ring?"
"I'll take my chances."
He crouches beside me, eyeing the direction I lost my ring, "What does it look like?"
"Black"
"Black? That's it?"
"What? You want me to add butterflies and rainbows?" he laughs humorlessly
We continue searching in silence, then he broke it.
"Found it." He pulls out my ring from between the planks and studies it "Is this a sword?"
"How do you know?"
"Because you killed something with it."
"Ah makes sense." It didn't actually make sense, but I kept quiet
"What type?"
"Hm? What type of what?"
"Sword"
"Stygian."
Awkward silence
"How did you get it?"
"My dad gave it to me. His cyclops fixed it."
"Uh-huh"
He tossed the ring over to me, Frank walks into the room and sees me and Nico crouching down slowly taking the ship apart.
"Wha-? You know what I don't wanna know." Then he leaves. I thank Nico and rush to my room to see Ashley reading
"Whatcha doing?"
"Reading."
"Whatcha reading?"
"Nunia"
"What?"
"None of your business"
I glance over her shoulder to read, but it was blank "Your reading blank pages in your free time? What are doing studying the pages to see what the material is?"
She scowls "No dummy. Its only visible to me"
"Why? What's your secrets?" I gasp dramatically "Is it your diary?"
"What? No!"
"Shame..."
She grins evilly "It's a book that reads the future."
"Okie. So, what's my future?"
"I can't say, it'll disturb the balance of nature." I nod pretending to understand what she just said. That lowlife son of a biscuit was just making excuses to annoy me..!
"It's getting late we should go to sleep." She shakes her head
"You go, I'mma stay for a while." I climb up the bunk bed and rest my head.
I dreamt I was in the ocean, my dad stood before me and smiled
"How's life?"
"You brought me here to ask me how's life?" I ask
"And to just give you a heads up, special request from your brother"
"Percy?"
"No. Tyson"
"Oh, you mean the cyclops Percy told me about"
"Yes, now I would like to inform you that the prophecy mentioned, daughter of Neptune."
"Yees?"
"And that means it's my roman form as you may know." I nod
"Well dear, do you know where you are heading?"
"Peloro Cape, right?"
"Yes, but have you noticed the prophecy mentioned, a blistered kingdom"
I tense "Doesn't that mean-?"
"Yes hon, you must tread a blistered kingdom, so I hope you brought your mother's charm?"
"Yeah" I look down, where my mother's necklace sat.
"When you run out of power, I need you to use it"
I stayed silent for a moment, he waited "Wait, use it? As in the necklace?" he nods
"But how? It's a necklace! I can't just point it at a monster and say 'Behold! Tremble before the necklace!'"
"No silly, that would be suicide. You'll know when you need it."
He gives me a weak smile "I can't meddle with your quest any longer. Good luck"
After that I slept peacefully without any dreams (Such a wonderful feeling), when I awoke, I stayed paralyzed on my bed before getting up with a loud groan. I rubbed my eyes groggily and glanced down to wake Ashley, she was slipping of her bed dead asleep. I jumped of my bed and caught her before she could fall off, her eyes fluttered open
"Good morning sunshine." I said, she flailed
"What's wrong with you?! What is this, Beauty and the Beast?! You can't carry me like that!" she screamed
"You were gonna fall!" I protest, she rolled her eyes
"Sure bud." I ignored her and head to the bathroom
-----
I walk up to the lower deck and grab a banana for breakfast. Leo was the first to see me
"'Morning sleepyhead" he said as he passed by
At the edge of the deck was Percy and Annabeth laughing together, Leo walked over to Piper and started having a tense conversation with a lot of waving, Hazel's head was on Frank's shoulder, but they stayed quiet. Nico stood alone leaning on the wall
"Good morning" I said
"Morning." I smile he returns it with a cold smile then leaves the deck. Percy spots me then waves
"Sup. Slept well?"
"Yup. What about you?"
He shakes his head "Not possible."
Annabeth elbowed him and cleared her throat "Any dreams?"
"My dad talked to me last night"
"What did he say?" Percy asked
"I'll fill you in later"
"For now, we should discuss the meaning of the prophecy" Annabeth said
I nod then shout, "Everyone in the Mess Hall!"
---------------------------------------
We all sat around the table an empty seat (For Nico probably) and Percy on either side of Annabeth who was in the leader chair, next to Percy was me, Leo who fiddled with straws then Ash. Hazel sat facing me, Frank and Piper next to her. Nico stood at the edge of the room, again.
"Before we start young half-bloods, I got gummies!" I lent them all 3 gummies each
"Where did you get this from?" Frank said
"A magician never tells her-"
"She packed it in her bag 3 days ago" Ash blurted, my left eye twitches
"Ahem. Let's just discuss the prophecy while you eat."
Annabeth mumbled the lines repeatedly, until finally
"Thou shall face the wrath of the king's fire. Masquerading as human, battling to fulfil his desires. That must mean Alpos. And in Eva's dream he was human. Friend and foe link in arms to thwart the anger of the one below. 'The anger of the one below' it should mean Gaea." She assumed
"That's 2 and a half, now the rest" Percy said as he ate the blue gummies first then finished the rest, not bothering to ask before stealing some of mine.
"Betrayed by one who yields the bow, a bow? Meaning we get betrayed by someone who took our bow?" Frank suggested
"'Daughter of Neptune shall tread the blistered kingdom. For destiny shall lie in her hands'. Isn't that you? But why would it say Neptune?" Piper asked me
"Why are you asking me? I don't know" my voice came out shriller than I intended
Piper curled her lips "That isn't important right now, what about the rest of the prophecy?"
"Northward they lie in wait for their freedom. Only to find death lingering within the sand, what is that supposed to mean?" Frank said
"Northward is kinda where we're headed, and death does it mean someone dies?" Percy questioned
"We'll know when we get there I guess." Leo said
I glance at the ingredients for the gummies and gasp "346 EACH?!"
"Each what?" Hazel said
"CALORIES!!" everyone dropped their gummies, except Percy, who continued gobbling his gummies with figure, I stare at him in amazement
"Sometimes I wonder how your still thin".
He chuckles "A magician never tells his se-" (Can't we just finish the phrase already?)
Suddenly, my skin felt like hoar frost "We have to stop!" Percy and I shouted in unison,
"Why-?" the ship lurched left making Leo topple over me, Ashley fell face flat, Percy staggered around the room putting those sea legs to the test, Annabeth helped Hazel and Frank pull the table so it wouldn't crush us. Nico briskly ran to the deck; I kicked Leo forward as he tried to get up
"Go!" I barked; we ran after Nico to find a huge shadow surrounding us flipping the ship over.
"Oi! Get your hands off my ship!" Leo shouted "Steady, steady. Sh-sh. You can do it ...." he rubbed his fingers on the railing whispering to his ship encouragements.
"Festus! What do you see? Who's attacking us?" Piper asked, Festus did several creaks, and screeches, Leo nods
"He says some weird looking Merpeople! They have devices on them which probably made them come here undetected!"
"Merpeople? As in mermaids?" Frank said
"More like mermen" I corrected
Slowly the Mermen boarded the ship, surrounding us. I mean come on; this is ridiculous. How could Festus say Merpeople they look nothing like those majestic creatures! Imagine a Blemmyae ok?
This was much worse, from waist down they had 3 slimy snake-like fish tails (I don't know how that works but overall, the sight was gut retching) no eyes, jagged teeth with their black gums shown, tentacles for the left arm and crab claws on the right. They had kelp for hair and for "hats" they had anchors and oars (No sense of style). Wrapped around their neck was some sort of device that blinked green.
A merman slithered towards us; his crown made of ropes and coral (It's getting worse)
"Hello!" he gleams.