'Hades, I swear if you ever send furies after my children again, I will through you in the depths of Tartarus!'
'You are guilty yourself Zeus, having three children with the same mortal woman!'
Up on Olympus, on the winter solstice, Zeus and Hades were having one of their usual arguments and the other Olympians were looking bored. Hephaestus was building a miniature clockwork bird, Hermes was on his phone, Athena was feeding an owl and Apollo was listening to music on his iPod.
'Uncle, father please,' Athena said. 'We just want some time to relax.' Then thunder boomed and in a flurry of golden light four figures appeared and they seemed to be having an argument.
'Nico, if you ever stalk/shadow travel me again, I will personally see to it that you won't get across the Styx for free!' One of the girls yelled. She had a silver tiara on top of her black spiky hair and dark eyeliner around her electric blue eyes.
'It was an accident!' One of the boys yelled. He had messy brown hair and dark brown eyes. The others just rolled their eyes. The girl had blonde hair and startling grey eyes. The boy had jet black hair and sea green eyes.
'Guys,' the blonde said looking around. 'We’re not in Camp Half-Blood anymore.
The gods, who had their weapons out figured the children were Demigods and lowered their weapons.
'Who are you?' Zeus asked.
'We're-' The blonde started but another golden light filled the room and when it died three more figures appeared.
'I can't believe you were late again!' The first girl yelled. She had black shoulder length hair and dark green eyes. 'Seriously, you could get something like, oh, I don't know, an ALARM CLOCK!'
'Give me a break!' The guy said. He had long black shaggy hair that hung in his electric blue eyes and a thick white scar that went across his cheek, all the way to the bottom of his jawbone. 'I don't have Thalia to wake me up anymore and Percy doesn't do any better.'
'Guys, shut it!' The other girl yelled. She looked almost exactly like the first girl except she had blonde hair and she was a few inches taller. She looked around. 'This-this isn't the movies.'
The others looked round. 'Aww man,' The guy moaned. 'We're missing the new Harry Potter movie.' He looked at the three people in front of him until he stopped at the Goth. 'Thalia?' The guy asked. The trio turned round. The guy with green eyed smiled, as did the guy with brown eyes, the blonde rolled her eyes and the Goth smiled hugely.
'Ryan?' The Goth said in disbelief. They ran into a hug, they were either siblings or dating but the gods decided the latter. The guy who was called Ryan went around and did a handshake with the other guys and then went to the blonde.
The blonde shook her head. 'I still haven't forgotten when you put fake spiders in my room.'
'Aww, come on Annabeth, that was months ago.'
Annabeth managed to ignore Ryan for about 30 seconds until she couldn't take it anymore.
She opened her arms. 'Come here.' They hugged.
'WHO ARE YOU?' Zeus bellowed, which made the Demigods jump.
'Wow, Olympus is so much different.' Ryan muttered.
'That's because Annabeth designed the new one, Bolt Head.' Thalia reminded him.
Annabeth came forward. ‘I’m Annabeth,’ she said. ‘This is Percy, Thalia, Nico, Ryan, Caliga and Lux.’ She gestured to each of the kid, ‘We’re from the year 2011.’
Then from out of nowhere, a book came and hit Ryan in the face.
‘OW!’ He yelled. He then looked at the title. ‘What the Hades?’ He murmured.
‘Why must everyone use my name?’ Hades asked.
Ryan read the title out loud. ‘Heroes of Olympus: Rise of the Earth.’ Thunder boomed and a girl appeared; she looked about 16 with red hair and green eyes, she looked around the room and her eyes stopped at Ryan.
‘Ryan?’ She asked.
Ryan’s eyes were full of horror. ‘J - Jess?’ He stuttered.
Thalia looked like she was trying hard not to laugh, the gods, except for Aphrodite, looked very confused and the others, minus Caliga, were just smiling madly. Caliga crossed her arms across her chest, looking at Ryan for an exclamation while Ryan averted his eyes from Caliga to Jess nervously.
Annabeth took the book from Ryan. ‘Well seeing as you, Jess and Caliga have some catching up to do, I’ll start reading.’
She opened the cover of the book and inside was a note, Annabeth read it out. ‘Dear demigods, gods, hosts and mortals, if you are reading this then you have been sent back in time to read with the gods to make the future less horrible, we also put it in the point of view of our two favourite heroes, have fun reading, the Muses. PS: Once you have finished this book you will read the next one.’
‘Well that makes sense,’ Thalia said. ‘That quest was horrible.’ The people who were there nodded their heads in agreement.
‘And there’s another book,’ Ryan said, remembering the letter. ‘The next one in the series.’
His eyes widened as he realised what their next adventure was, Caliga noticed Ryan’s expression and realised as well and she turned beet red.
‘Well, we should read.’ Annabeth said, opening the book and hoping Caliga won’t kill Ryan in the process.
‘Wait,’ Zeus said. ‘Before we read, who are you godly parents?’
Ryan and Thalia stood. ‘Our Dad is Zeus,’ Ryan said, ‘I’m also the saviour of Greece.’
‘And I’m the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis.’ Thalia said.
Caliga and Lux stood. ‘Technically, we’re not demigods,’ Lux said. ‘In our time the gods only claimed people.’
‘So who claimed you?’ Zeus asked.
‘Jupiter and Venus,’ Lux said. The gods noticed that they used the Roman names for the gods instead of the Greek ones.
‘Gaia,’ Caliga grumbled. The gods stared at her but decided not to ask questions because they were sure it would be mentioned in the book.
Nico stood. ‘Hades,’ He grumbled.
Annabeth stood. ‘Athena,’ she said. ‘I’m also the designer of Olympus.’
Percy stood. ‘Poseidon,’ He said. ‘And the saviour of Olympus.’
Jess stood. ‘Jess, clear sighted mortal.’ She mumbled.
‘Summon all the Olympians!’ Zeus yelled.
‘Uhh, Father?’ Apollo said.
‘What is it Apollo?’ He asked.
All the Olympians are here.’
Then a girl came in, she looked almost exactly like Jess except she was older.
‘Hey guys, what are you reading?’ She asked.
‘Ryan’s myth,’ Annabeth answered.
She nodded, sat down and motioned for Annabeth to read.
Annabeth opened to the first page. ‘Okay, the first chapter is called, ‘I receive a rude awakening’.’
‘Chapter 1: I receive a rude awakening’ Annabeth read and then she raised an eyebrow. ‘Is this when –‘She asked and Ryan nodded.
Life was fair, my Dad abandoned me when I five,
‘I did not!’ Zeus yelled.
My brother disappeared when he was 2,

‘You have a brother?’ All the Olympians, minus Zeus and Hera asked.
Ryan and Thalia nodded sadly but then a huge grin formed on their faces and the gods looked at them funny.

My sister ran away when she was 10 and my mom died a while later.

Everyone was now looking at Ryan, who was now glaring at his shoes, thunder rumbled outside and Thalia and Zeus looked up. Knowing what will happen if her brother didn’t calm down, Thalia whispered something only Ryan could hear, the thunder died and Ryan looked up.
‘Read,’ He grumbled.

I was a normal kid.

Thalia smirked and Ryan glared at her.

I played basketball, played video games; the usual but the true is, I’m not normal;

‘See, even you agree with me!’ Thalia said and everyone else gave her a weird look.

I’m a Half-Blood, half human, half Greek god. Now, I know what you’re thinking; aren’t the Greek gods a myth?

All the gods were now glaring at the book.

You could say that, but the gods are still alive and they come down to earth and have kids. I have two cousins; Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon

Percy smiled.

And Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades.

Nico pumped his fist in the air. ‘Oh yeah! I’m in the book!’
‘Nico,’ Thalia said. ‘You’re not in the book, you were only mentioned.’
‘Then why am I here?’ He asked.

I also have a brother and sister, Thalia and Jason Grace. My name is Ryan Grace, I’m 17 years old and my dad is Zeus: God of the Sky, King of Gods, all of the above.

‘Was that supposed to be a complement or an insult?’ Zeus asked.
Ryan shrugged, he honestly didn’t know.

My life was miserable, I lived in a foster home with Nate and Patty Nelson and their older son, James, they were slobs, messy and their apartment always smelled of stale beer and rabbit and pigeon stew.

Almost everyone crinkled their nose.
‘That is...DISUSTING!’ Annabeth yelled as she ran to the nearest bush to throw up.
‘Please not on my flowers!’ Demeter squeaked.
‘Eww... too late... sorry.’ Annabeth grumbled.
‘Well... that just made my day! Thank you Annabeth!’ Ryan happily cheered, Annabeth glared at him and everyone just burst out laughing.

I wanted to leave, I got kicked out of five schools in the past five years but the only good thing about it was I was going to the same school as Percy
Percy smiled at this.
But I haven’t seen him in three months.
Percy bowed his head.

The school bell rang for the end of school, and I had the slightest urge to go back to camp Half-Blood, a training ground for half-bloods, I turned back to Goode High School and then I ran. It wasn’t too long a journey because I have ADHD and then I saw Half-Blood Hill, memories flushing through my mind. I walked towards the entrance; I saw a purple-scaled dragon snoring in Thalia’s pine tree. Yeah, my sister died when she was twelve, or at least I think she’s dead.

‘You didn’t tell him?!’ Thalia shrieked.

Percy shrugged. ‘I only got time to tell him my first quest; he only knew you got turned into a tree.’

I figured I’d go around the dragon just to be safe, everything was going to plan when SNAP! I stepped on a twig and the dragon woke. He lashed at me, I yelled in pain then I felt a surge of pain from below my chest, I felt drowsy, I blacked out and I heard hooves coming towards me.

There was a long silence until Thalia said, ‘Do you still have the scar?’ Ryan nodded, rolled up his t-shirt to reveal four bite marks just below his chest. Most of the Olympians winced but some of them were too shocked to say anything.
‘Oh my God!’ Aphrodite shrieked which made everyone jumped out of their seats. ‘Those are some nice abs.’ the gods just rolled their eyes but Ryan looked at her funny, rolled down his t-shirt and motioned for Annabeth to read on.

When I woke up a satyr was standing next to my bed, the room looked like it was in the Big House, the ceiling fan turned slowly as flies buzzed around the dimly lit lights. The satyr had short, brown, curly hair with a goatee hanging from his chin, and I recognized him immediately.

‘You let that Satyr search again, after what happened?’ Zeus bellowed.
Dionysus looked up from his wine magazine. ‘Don’t look at me; I don’t even know this has happened yet.’

‘Grover?’ I asked with a croaky voice.
‘Yeah, you were bitten by Peleus the guard dragon.’ He said.
A girl came in, she had long, curly, blonde hair that was tied messily in a ponytail,

Thalia gasped dramatically. ‘Annabeth! You have a guest; don’t you take pride in your appearance?’
‘And since when did you care about appearance?’ Annabeth asked her.
‘Since I saw the Stoll brothers after they pranked the Aphrodite cabin.’ Thalia murmured.

And stormy, grey eyes that looked like the mist outside. She stared at me and her eyes widened. She came up to me and drew her knife.
‘How did you recognize me?’ Ryan asked Annabeth, amazed.
She shrugged. ‘Percy showed me a picture of you after a basketball tournament; he said you were a Half-Blood and that you were good friends.’
‘Where is he?’ She asked.
‘Who?’ I said.
‘I’m going to ask you again,’ she said, gripping my shirt. ‘Where. Is. He?’
‘Look, I don’t know who you’re talking about –‘

‘Oh my gods Bolt Head, It’s obvious that she’s talking about Percy!’ Thalia said, face palming herself. Zeus smiled at the nickname Thalia gave her brother.
‘Well how should I know that Annabeth was close to Percy?’ Ryan asked.

‘PERCY!’ she screamed. ‘Where is Percy?’ An ‘Oh’ formed around my lips, Now I realised who she was talking about.
‘Don’t ask me,’ I said. ‘I haven’t seen him in three months.’ Her eyes were red and tears were streaming down her cheek; she screamed in outrage and stormed out the room.

‘Wow Annabeth, he just got there, give him a break.’ Nico mumbled but then he ducked as the book flew over his head.

‘What’s with her?’ I asked Grover.
‘Don’t mind her,’ Grover said. ‘Annabeth’s just mad because her boyfriend is missing.’
‘You mean Percy?’ I asked. He nodded.
‘Drink,’ He said. ‘And meet me outside.’
I drank the Nectar and met Grover outside. We walked towards cabin 1.
‘So, I heard Gaia is awakening.’ I said.

Everyone looked at Caliga when Annabeth read that.
‘Wow, even before you two meet, you’re thinking of her.’ Nico mumbled and Ryan and Caliga glared at him.

‘You shouldn’t talk that way.’ Grover said. ‘Not while Percy is missing and Jason with his amnesia...’
‘Wait, who’s Jason?’ I asked.

Nico gasped. ‘Ryan! You don’t know your own brother?!’
‘I just didn’t know if he was talking about that Jason or some other Jason.’ He grumbled.
Grover put the question aside. ‘Just get inside; we have lights out in 20 minutes.’
‘Home sweet home.’ I murmured. I went inside and found a boy sorting out his camp trunk.
‘Jason?’ I asked. He turned around and a big grin formed on his face. Yep, it was defiantly Jason, the same scar just above his lip, the same electric blue eyes and the same blonde hair.
‘Ryan, what are you doing here?’ He asked.
‘You remember?’ I asked. ‘But Grover said –‘
‘Juno left me enough memory to recognise you and Thalia.’
‘Don’t you mean Hera?’ I asked.
‘No, I prefer the Roman names for the gods than the Greek names.’ He answered.
‘So if you’re Roman and your here –‘I stopped myself. ‘Were you a big hero at your old camp?’
‘I think so, I think I defeated a titan –‘He rubbed his temples. ’Juno said something about an exchange of leaders; I think I was the leader at the other camp and if Percy was the leader for this camp –‘His eyes widened. ’that means he’s at the other camp and doesn’t remember who he is and who his friends are.’
‘So we have 20 minutes until lights out, what do you want to do?’ I asked.
‘I know, follow me.’
I followed Jason out of the cabin and into the woods. We arrived at a cliff face and Jason knocked on the front, it sounded hollow.
‘Leo!’ Jason yelled. ‘Open up!’
‘What’s the magic word?’ said a voice from behind the rock face.
Jason sighed. ‘Please.’ He mumbled. The cliff parted, revealing a boy about Jason’s age, with short, brown, curly hair, brown eyes, he kind of looked like a Latino Santa elf.
‘Ryan, this is Leo son of Vulc – I mean Hephaestus,’ Jason said. ‘Leo, this is Ryan, my older brother.’
We shook hands. ’Hi, Ryan, Jason, Piper and Annabeth want to talk to you about the engine.’ We walked into the cave and I saw a large long boat; On the side, written in Ancient Greek was the name; “Argo II” Next to it were two girls, who were looking at blueprints; the first girl was the girl I met at the Big House, Annabeth, the other girl looked a bit younger than Annabeth, she had short choppy, brown hair and blue – brown eyes.
‘We can’t have a fuel powered engine,’ Annabeth was saying. ‘It will take too much time to get it filled up.’
‘Then why don’t you just use electricity instead of fuel?’ I asked.
‘That –‘Annabeth begun. ‘Is actually a good idea.’
‘Who is this guy?’ The girl asked. Annabeth made quick introductions; the girl was called Piper, she, Jason and Leo were taken to camp last summer and she was one of the seven from the prophecy.
‘Hey, Leo,’ Jason said. ‘Do you know when the Argo II will be ready?’
Leo shrugged. ‘It depends; it might take a day, maybe up to a week if we’re behind schedule.’

I didn’t sleep that night, even though I hated the place, I missed my old room in my foster home, my guitar leaning against the bunk bed and my older foster Brother, James snoring in the top bunk. But in cabin one, all you had was the angry – looking statue of Zeus glaring down at you.

Thalia nodded her head in agreement with Ryan while Zeus just glared at her.
‘What?’ Thalia demanded. ‘Your statue is quiet scary.’

I was thinking about Percy and how he just disappeared without telling anybody, even his girlfriend.

Percy bowed his head and Annabeth put her hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s okay; I never blamed you for disappearing, and Ryan doesn’t either.’
She then kicked said boy in the shin. ‘Yeah, no-one blames you Percy, if you did know that we were looking you, you would have come back to Camp Half-Blood.’ Which he could of said without the kick.
Percy smiled at him. ‘Thanks Ryan, that – that means a lot to me.’

Then I did the only thing I could think of; I got out of bed, put on some clothes and went outside.
I was about two in the morning; mist snaked around the commons area, the Golden Fleece glowed faintly from the lowest bow of Thalia’s Pine tree. I was just about to go past Half-Blood Hill when someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around but no–one was there.

‘It’s Annabeth, isn’t it?’ Thalia asked but she just sighed as no-one answered her.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ The air shimmered, and in front of me was Annabeth who was holding a navy blue New York Yankees baseball cap.
‘Uhh... out.’ I said simply. She gave me a sceptical look. ‘Okay, maybe I can expand on that; I’m going to San Francisco to pick up some of my stuff.’ I wasn’t lying and I wasn’t telling the whole truth.
‘Yeah, you weren’t telling the whole truth.’ Annabeth grumbled.
Ryan sighed and put his head in his hands, he should have just told her everything.
‘I’m sorry.’ He mumbled.
Annabeth nodded but she didn’t seem completely convinced. ‘If you’re going to San Fran,’ she said. ‘If you see Percy, could you bring him back?’

‘Why did you ask him that?’ Thalia asked Annabeth. ‘If you weren’t completely convinced, you should have gone with him.’
‘I couldn’t have gone with him because I couldn’t leave Camp.’ She said matter of fact way.

‘Annabeth, I don’t think –‘
‘Please?’ She begged. ‘You know how much he means to me and I can’t leave camp, Thalia hasn’t been heard of in months and Grover’s busy with his “Lord of the Wild” stuff.’
I sighed, rubbing my temples in the process.
‘Fine.’ I grumbled. She smiled, gave me a quick hug and jogged down to her cabin leaving me to wonder, why did I just do that?

‘Yeah, why did you just do that Ryan?’ Caliga asked.
‘I absolutely have no idea.’ He said.
‘Bird Brain,’ she grumbled, the gods raised their eyebrows at the nickname she gave him.
‘That was the end of the chapter, who wants to read?’ Annabeth asked.
‘I will.’ Thalia said.
‘Chapter 2: I go shopping with a Hellhound’ Thalia read, and then she raised an eyebrow. ‘Who would want to go shopping with a Hellhound?’
‘I would.’ Nico said.
‘That’s because you’re Nico.’
Have you ever arrived at a shopping centre early in the morning and there are lots of people milling around?
‘Uhh... no and it does sound a little creepy.’ Caliga said.
‘Says the girl who was claimed by Gaia, can control the four elements and read minds.’ Ryan smirked and Caliga glared at him.
‘Says the guy who can talk to birds!’
‘Says the girl who has a weird glowing sign on her forehead!’ Ryan retorted.
‘Says the guy-‘
‘GUYS!’ Lux yelled and the two went silent. ‘Thank you.’

Well, I half expected there to be at least a handful of people but there were as many people there as there were on Friday nights. I looked around, trying to find Percy and then I caught a glimpse of sea–green eyes. I pushed through the crowd and there he was, just staring at me. I would have been glad to see him but something was wrong; He looked at me like he recognised me but couldn’t remember my name.

‘What did you see when you saw me?’ Ryan asked Percy.
‘I saw a glimpse of Thalia, but then I couldn’t think why you two were connected or how I knew you.’

He turned to a girl who was calling his name and left. I was just about to follow him but then I froze, there right in front of me was a Hellhound; It wasn’t the biggest of Hellhounds but it scared the Hades out of me,

‘What’s wrong with Hellhounds?’ Nico asked.
‘Okay, maybe not all Hellhounds are bad.’ Ryan smiled.

I had no weapons and no plan. The Hellhound jumped at me, its claws ripped through my clothes and then I heard a THWAK! Like pencils going through paper. The monster’s body went ridged and it dissolved into gold dust.
A girl ran up to me; she was about thirteen, with long brown hair, blue eyes and was holding a bow.
Artemis smiled. ‘Ahh, I see you’ve met Phoebe.’
‘Oh my gods!’ The girl yelled. She was franticly looking all over my body for any injuries. ‘Are you okay? Are you hurt?’

‘Someone likes you...’ Nico smirked but when Artemis glared at him he sunk back into his seat.

‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ I answered, trying to swat her away but she held on. She looked at my face with a quizzed look.

‘She probably thinks you look like Thalia.’ Annabeth said.
‘I know that...’ Ryan grumbled.

‘Who are you?’ She asked.
‘Ryan, who –‘
‘Phoebe,’ she turned, as if trying to look for someone in the crowd. ‘Follow me.’
I followed Phoebe out of the shopping centre and towards a bunch of tents and stopped in front of the biggest one.
‘Stay here.’ She told me.
‘It’s not like I’m going to go anywhere.’ I mumbled but Phoebe just rolled her eyes. She went into the tent and for about five minutes I heard a conversation going on.
‘I found a boy, about seventeen and he was attacked by Hellhound.’ Said a voice, which was probably Phoebe’s.
‘He’s probably from Camp Half-Blood.’ Said another voice, it sounded much older than Phoebe’s but vaguely familiar.

‘That’s because it’s –‘ Nico began but he ducked as a lightning bolt flew over his head.
‘Nico,’ Thalia said.
‘Yeah?’
‘Shut up,’

‘He said his name was Ryan.’ Phoebe said. There was silence.
‘Where is he?’ The second voice asked.
‘He’s outside.’ Phoebe said. I backed up so it didn’t look like I was eavesdropping. Phoebe was the first to come out.
‘Who was the girl you were talking to?’ I asked her.
She stared at me. ‘Were you eavesdropping?’
‘No!’ I snapped.
She sighed. ‘She’s the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis.’ I nodded. I couldn’t believe I’d run into the Hunters, I bet the lieutenant is really mean, hates boys...

‘You know you’re talking about your sister, right?’ Rachel asked. Ryan just glared at her; hopefully there won’t be any more stupid comments.

The tent’s curtains opened, snapping me from my thoughts and I nearly fell backwards because standing in front of me was my sister, Thalia. Thalia was just staring at me, just looking straight into my eyes.
Phoebe snapped her fingers in front of Thalia’s face. ‘Thalia, do you know this guy?’
Thalia sighed. ‘Yeah, he’s – he’s my brother.’
‘Wow, I’m learning something new every day.’ Phoebe mumbled.
‘We have to leave.’ Thalia said, grabbing my arm. ‘Phoebe, you’re in charge until I get back.’
‘But what if you don’t get back?’ Phoebe said. ‘Artemis said –‘
Thalia turned towards Phoebe and smiled. ‘I will get back. It’s just camp.’
And on that happy note, Thalia left, dragging me behind her.
‘Well, that was a short chapter,’ Thalia said. ‘Who wants to read next?’
‘Chapter 3: We take a trip to Rome’ Artemis read.
All throughout the journey Thalia kept asking me where I’ve been and how I got to San Francisco. So reluctantly I told her everything, right up until I made that promise to Annabeth...
‘You promised Annabeth you would bring Percy back?’ Thalia asked. ‘Did you see him?’
I stayed silent but I got the feeling that she knew I did.
‘Do you know that a child of Athena never forgets promises?’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘But have you ever made a promise to someone but you have a feeling that if you fulfil that promise it would make their lives worse?’
‘Is that what you thought, that if you didn’t bring back Percy, I would be happy?’ Annabeth asked.
Ryan nodded. ‘Would you be able to live with someone you love and they don’t remember who you are?’

Thalia stared at him. ‘I never knew you cared for Annabeth!’
‘I never knew you cared for Nico.’ He retorted which then earned a smack upside the head.
‘Thalia!’ Artemis said; her voice was stern but soft. ‘Is that the way to treat your brother?’
Thalia slumped in her seat and grumbled something that sounded like sorry and Ryan just smirked.

‘I’m not following you.’
I sighed. ‘When I saw Percy something was wrong, he saw me but it looked like he didn’t remember me, I think he may have amnesia, like Jason.’
We walked the last few miles in silence and arrived at the foot of half-blood hill and leaning on Thalia’s pine tree was Chiron who was reading a novel, he looked up and smiled.
‘Thalia, nice to see you again, Ryan, any news about Percy?’
That question caught me off guard. ‘How did you –‘
‘Annabeth told me, you answer?’ I shook my head and Chiron hung his. ‘Well, I’ll be holding a war council to tell everyone the news, Thalia could you get Rachel?’
She took my arm and led me into the woods towards a cave which had purple curtains with embroidered snakes. She pocked her head inside and gestured me to follow her. When I went inside I nearly caught my breath because the inside looked awesome, a home theatre system was sitting in the corner and art easels were scattered all over the place. At one of the easels was a girl about my age, with frizzy red hair, sea green eyes and marker covered trousers. Thalia coughed to tell her we were here and she looked up from her painting.
‘What was she painting?’ Ryan muttered to himself.
‘I’m right here you know!’ Rachel said and Ryan ignored her.
‘Oh, hey Thalia!’ She said in a cheery voice, she then turned to me and a quizzed look formed on her face. ‘Who’s this?’ She asked.
‘Rachel, meet Ryan, Ryan this is Rachel, the camp’s oracle.’ I nodded but as far as I knew, the camp’s oracle was a shrivelled up, million year old mummy living in the Big House attic.

Everyone just burst out laughing.
‘So, you’re calling Rachel old?’ Nico said between laughs. Ryan glared at him and thunder rumbled outside and everyone was silent.
‘Thank you, Lady Artemis, you may read on.’
‘So you tell the future?’ I asked.
‘It’s more like the future mugs me from time to time.’ She said. ’It gets annoying, sometimes I – Oh no –‘
She dropped her paint and brush, her green eyes started glowing, and the same colour smoke billowed around her. I looked towards Thalia, who was acting like this was perfectly normal. She then started talking but it sounded like there were three Rachel’s instead of one.
‘Oldest brother of Zeus’ claim,
Will find a hidden camp and even the game.
He will take four half-bloods and lead them west,
But ignore the sleeping one’s one request.
He will find true love in Rome’s old land,

’

When Artemis read that the Demigods looked at Caliga.
‘What?’ She asked, but her face was a deep shade of red. ‘That could mean anyone.’
‘Anyone meaning you.’ Ryan said with a smile.
‘Shut up!’ She growled.

‘Put aside your differences and must withstand,
The might of the earth queen and giant king,
The child of lightning will destroy everything.
Before winter’s light, before all is lost,
Will preserve Olympus or pay the cost.

’
At the last word she doubled over but I caught her.
‘What was that?’ I asked.
‘What was what?’ She said, puzzled.
‘We don’t have time to find out.’ Thalia said. ‘Chiron is holding a war council and he said you need to be there.’

If you haven’t been to a war council at camp then you haven’t seen anything so weird, first off it was around the ping pong table which was in the Big House rec room and secondly, Mr. D, the camp director, was there and I knew that this was serious because he never even bothered going to war council.
‘Well, well, if it isn’t Brian Chase,

‘Why is he calling you Chase?’ Lux asked. ‘It’s not like you’re related to Annabeth.’
Annabeth smirked. ‘Like he could be a child of Athena, he doesn’t even understand the battle plans for Capture the Flag!’
‘Hey!’ Ryan protested. ‘I can understand the battle plans, I just choose not to.’ He then received identical glares from both Athena and Annabeth.

‘I thought I kicked you out a couple of summers ago.’ He said, that’s Mr. D for you, doesn’t even bother to remember your name.
‘It’s Ryan sir, and I’m not related to Annabeth.’ I grumbled, taking my seat between Katie Gardener from the Demeter cabin and the Stoll brothers from Hermes. Katie gave me the evil eye. ‘What are you doing here?’ She asked.
‘Same as you I guess; war council.’ I answered. She rolled her eyes. I guess I have to explain why Katie hates me so much, you see a couple of years ago, the Stoll brothers set me up to prank her and her cabin; Since their cabin was one of the neatest, the Stolls told me to burn their roof,
‘You did what?!’ Demeter shrieked.
‘So that’s what that was!’ Annabeth exclaimed. ‘I was wondering why Demeter’s cabin roof was on fire!’

Katie got really mad at me and well, I ended up getting a log over the head.
Percy and Nico snickered and Lux and Annabeth glared at them.

Just then, there was a golden glow and when it died there was a man in his mid twenties, with salt and pepper hair and he was holding a caduceus.
Everyone then looked at Hermes and Percy, Annabeth and Thalia couldn’t help but sigh at the mention of their old friend’s dad.
‘Dad!’ The Stoll brothers remarked.
‘Hello Connor, hello Travis.’ Hermes said but his voice sounded worried.
‘What is it brother?’ Mr. D asked.
‘I’m afraid I have some grave news,’ Hermes said. ‘Gaia has awakened.’ There was lots of murmuring from lots of campers, even Chiron looked nervous.
‘That’s why Zeus has closed Olympus, so that the gods wouldn’t scare their children but now he needs your help to stop her.’
‘But how?’ Annabeth asked. ‘We don’t even know where the Roman camp is.’
‘I think my little brother could help you with that.’ When Hermes said that, everyone looked at me.
‘Why did you all look at me?’ Ryan asked. ‘It’s not like I knew anything.’
‘Well, you came to Camp just after Jason, Leo and Piper came, we thought that you knew were Percy was.’ And to no-one’s surprise Annabeth said that.
‘What?’ I said. ‘Don’t look at me, I just got here.’
Hermes sighed. ‘I mean my other brother.’
Jason looked uncomfortable but he told us what he knew. ‘It’s in San Francisco, near the bay area, I might know where it is if I saw it.’
Chiron nodded as if he had made a decision. ‘May I remind you, when you go to visit Rachel that the Oracle’s words often have double meanings, do not dwell on them too much.’ I had the feeling he wasn’t just saying that to anyone. ‘Leo, is the Argo II ready?’
Leo nodded. ‘The Argo II will be ready by dawn tomorrow.’
‘We all know that Annabeth will be joining Jason, Leo and piper on the quest we just need 2 more to accompany them.’
‘I’ll go.’ Thalia and I said at the same time, we looked at each other and smiled.
Chiron nodded. ‘Then it is settled, Ryan, Thalia and Annabeth will accompany Leo, Jason and Piper to Greece.’
Everyone began to file out and I walked with Thalia to our cabin. ‘So how’s hunter life treating you?’ I asked her.
‘It’s been good, the immortality, the archery skills, going into the mortal world.’
I nodded. ‘So you like being a hunter?’
‘Yeah, I mean sometimes –‘ She stopped near the volleyball court, staring at her tree. ‘- sometimes I wish I was just a Half-Blood for once, going on quests or playing capture the flag, just to have some fun, you know?’
‘Do you really think that?’Artemis said, but her voice was soft and comforting.
Thalia nodded. ‘I mean I like being a Hunter and all, but sometimes I just want a break from all the monsters and be with friends and family.’
Artemis nodded. ‘I will sort something out so you can spend more time with your family and friends.’
‘Yeah, like how I’m going to beat you to our cabin.’ I said. A playful smile appeared on her face.

‘You really know how to cheer people up.’ Lux said. ‘How do you do that?’
Ryan shrugged. ‘I just know people.’

‘You’re on.’ Then we ran past the volleyball court, pushed past a couple of confused looking campers and ran to our cabin.
I woke up to someone shouting in my ear. ‘RYAN MAXIMUS GRACE!’
There was snickering coming from a couple of Demigods.
‘You’re middle name is Maximus?’ Nico said, trying and failing to hide his laughter.
‘Yeah, got a problem with that?’ Ryan said, glaring at him.
‘N-n-no...’ He stuttered.
I hate it when Thalia uses my middle name. ‘GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND GET DRESSED, WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE!’
‘Uhh, come on Thalia, just five more minutes...’ I groaned, waving her away.
‘You are so lazy.’ Athena said.
Ryan shrugged. ‘That’s who I am.’
‘We don’t have five minutes Bolt Head now GET UP!’ She said, pulling away the covers. I sighed, got out of bed and put on some clothes.
‘The others are waiting at the beach,’ Thalia said. ‘I’d say you have about five minutes to pack.’ Thalia left and I started to pack; I packed some extra clothes and some extra nectar and ambrosia. Once I was ready I went to the beach and everyone was staring at me. Annabeth was tapping her foot. ‘Where were you?’ She asked.
‘I overslept and why are you so impatient?’ I asked.
‘Athena always has to be on time and –‘She looked at her watch. ‘- you’re five minutes late.’
‘Well sorry but Thalia woke me up a little late.’ I said.
‘Well it’s not my fault that you have a rare laziness disorder.’ Thalia smirked.
At that comment everyone burst out laughing.
‘Oh, shut up.’ I grumbled.
Then Chiron trotted up calling my name. ‘Ryan, thank the gods I caught you, your father wanted you to have this.’ He handed me one of those push-pencils. ‘Its name is Slashbolt, it can return to the owner’s pocket when you need it and is very powerful. I wish I could help you more but Zeus has forbidden me to interfere more with this quest and remember help comes in the most unexpected places,
‘Very unexpected.’ Ryan said as he smiled to Caliga and Lux.
Your role in this quest is bigger than you have ever imagined, the Fates have chosen you to determine the fate of Olympus.’ We said our goodbyes, boarded the ship and took off and I had a feeling we wouldn’t be seeing camp Half-Blood in a long time.

On the ship everyone was doing their own thing, Thalia and Annabeth seemed to be having a serious conversation; Annabeth was pacing in circles and was looking really agitated and Thalia was trying to calm her down.

‘I never knew you were so observant.’ Annabeth said.
Ryan shrugged. ‘I surprise people.’

Leo was at the helm with Jason and Piper who were laughing at Leo’s goofiness and I was just sitting in the corner fiddling with the push-pencil Chiron gave me. He said that this push-pencil was very powerful and I wondered how. I then clicked it and it began to get heavy in my hands until I was holding a metre long bronze sword.
‘Celestial Bronze.’ A voice said. I turned around to see a guy in his twenties with sandy hair and blue eyes. He looked familiar, like an old memory from the time before my life went downhill.
‘A – Apollo?’ I stuttered.
He smiled at me. ‘Hello Ryan, how’s life?’ I frowned and he seemed to realize what he’d just said. ‘Look Ryan, I’m sorry about your mom, but that’s not why I’m here.’
‘Then why are you here?’ I asked.
Apollo looked over the horizon. ‘I want you to do me a favour, I have a daughter at the Roman camp, her name’s Reyna, and she’s been having a tough time since your brother disappeared from her camp and she might – how do I put this? – Over react about seeing him again, so I want you to try and keep Jason away from her until she gets settled about being around Greeks.’
‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Why is she having a tough time?’
Apollo smiled. ‘The answers will be told in time, but for now, I think you have arrived at your destination.’ And sure enough Jason looked down at the city skyline below and shouted, ‘LAND HO!’
I turned to ask Apollo about the prophecy I had but he was gone and all that was left was a pile of ash.

Once we left the ship we started looking for the camp. We walked near the highway which was near the San Francisco Bay Area and I was sure the mortals from the cars would be asking questions about six teenagers walking near the highway late at night.
‘You know that the Mist will just obscure Mortals vision?’ Athena asked.
‘I know, I just thought it would funny if it did happen...’ Ryan grumbled, wishing the stupid comments would stop.
‘Why are we doing this again?’ Leo asked Annabeth.
‘Hermes said that Jason knows where the Roman camp is so we’re following him.’ Annabeth explained.
‘Do you think the mortals would pay any attention to us?’ Piper asked.
‘See, even Piper agrees with me!’ Ryan said. Everyone gave him a weird look.
Annabeth considered the question. ‘Probably not, with this heat they would probably think we would just be a mirage.’
We stopped in a clearing that was near a bunch of trees. ‘We should rest here,’ Jason said. ‘Thalia do you have the camping stuff?’ Thalia nodded and in less than five minutes she set up two tents, one for the girls and one for the boys and a pile of sticks for the campfire and how she did it I had no idea.
‘It’s enchanted.’ Thalia whispered quietly to him.
‘Leo, would you be so kind?’ She asked him.
I watched in awe as Leo set his hand on fire and set fire to the pile of sticks.
‘You’re a fire user?’ I asked him. He nodded. ‘But a fire user hasn’t been born since like the fire of London in 1666.’
‘I must be special then.’ He smiled. I stared at the fire and started to realize I was hungry and my stomach began to grumble.
‘Hey Leo, what are you cooking for us tonight?’ Jason asked. Leo started to pull out some cooking ingredients and a small grill and he put five hamburgers and one veggie burger on the fire.
‘Who’s vegetarian?’ I asked Leo. He gestured towards Piper who smiled. ‘I became vegetarian after I dove past a steakhouse in Ohio and the smell was so bad it made me want to puke my insides out.’

Most of the girls in the room crinkled their noses.
‘Okay, that is just disgusting;’ Lux said. ‘I can see why she’s a veggie.’

After we ate the night grew colder, the cold wind blew past us and Annabeth shivered. She moved closer to me to get warm and I kind of felt uncomfortable, I mean my cousin’s girlfriend sitting close to me? I was pretty uncomfortable.

‘Annabeth!’ Nico gasped. ‘Are you cheating on your boyfriend?’
‘If you say anything about me cheating on Percy, you fate is going to be worse than this.’ She said to Nico who was lying unconscious on the floor.

‘Why are you shivering?’ I asked her. ‘It’s not even cold.’
‘Easy for you to say,’ she grumbled. ‘You don’t feel the wind.’
‘Actually, I can feel it but it doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers you and I have a jacket on.’ I said. She glared at me, with her stormy grey eyes and blonde hair; she looked almost exactly like Athena when she’s annoyed with Ares.

‘And you are saying this because...’ Annabeth said as she and Athena glared at the son of Zeus.
‘Umm...’ Ryan said. Artemis decided it was best to continue reading.
(And if your godly parent asks you if you want to go to Olympus, say no.)

‘If you weren’t giving me warmth and you weren’t my best friend’s brother, I would so hit you right now.’
Apollo laughed. ‘Like hitting him would resolve all your problems! And anyway, you wouldn’t smack him when Thalia’s around!’

Artemis smirked as she read the next line.

I laughed. ‘Yeah, like hitting me would resolve all your problems! And anyway, you wouldn’t hit me when Thalia’s around, she’d –’
‘That’s just plain creepy.’ Apollo mumbled.
Then from behind me, Thalia whacked me upside the head. ‘Just because Annabeth can’t hit you doesn’t mean I don’t have to help her.’ She said.
Annabeth smiled at me and said in a sweet voice, ‘what were you saying Ryan?’
‘- She’d hit me because I made you angry.’ I grumbled.

Everyone burst out laughing again.
‘Wow Annabeth, I knew you could violent but not this violent.’ Percy said.
Annabeth glared at him. ‘Do you really want to be like Nico?’ Percy stayed silent.
Leo, Jason and Piper started to snicker and when Thalia and Annabeth joined in the snickering turned into laughing.
Jason started to calm down. ‘It’s getting late; someone should be on guard duty just in case anyone tries to ambush us.’ I didn’t know what he meant but everyone looked at me.
‘Why do I have to be on guard duty?’ I asked.
‘Because you’re the oldest.’ Thalia replied.
‘I’m not the oldest,’ I said. ‘You’re five years older than me.’
Leo and Piper stared at Thalia in awe.
As were the gods doing at that moment.
‘You’re five years older than him?’ Leo asked, and then he started counting on his fingers.
‘...21, 22, that means you’re 23, if you’re not counting the years when you were a hunter, but that still doesn’t make sense, if you became a hunter when you were 15 then you should be at least 18 but Ryan said you are five years older than him which means you should be 23, how does that work?’
Thalia took a deep breath. ‘That’s because when I was twelve, Zeus turned me into a pine tree because I was dying, I was a tree for the next six years until I was poisoned and Clarisse revived me with the Golden Fleece, I still grew in the tree but more slowly, the closest Chiron could figure was that I was about fifteen. Then a day before my sixteenth birthday, I pledged myself to the hunters of Artemis, making me immortal.’
Leo nodded slowly as if he understood. ‘But Ryan still has to be on guard duty, right?’
‘Why do you always pick on me?’ Ryan asked.
‘Because it funny when we pick on you.’ Thalia said like it should be obvious.
Everyone nodded in agreement and before I could protest Leo and the others stood up, extinguished the fire, went into their tents and left me alone in the dark.

I’d like to say I stayed up all night and looked out for ambushers but went you stayed up all night the night before; I managed to stay up for about ten minutes.

‘Idiot...’ Athena, Annabeth and Artemis grumbled.

I woke up to find a sword at my throat; I looked around to find the campsite ruined and my friends being held captive.
‘Ouis es ? Quid agis hic ?’ The guy who was pointing his sword at me said. He was about fifteen with short, spiky brown hair with blonde highlights and red-brown eyes. I didn’t know why, but he reminded me of some of the campers at camp Half-Blood.
‘He’s a son of Ares isn’t he?’ Athena asked.
‘Don’t ask me,’ Ryan said. ‘You are the wisdom goddess.’ She then glared at him.
‘I don’t –‘ I started but then the guy lowered his sword and sighed.
‘You speak English and don’t understand Latin; I said who are you and what are you doing here?’
‘I’m Ryan, and we need to speak to your activities director.’
The guy led us into the woods and into the camp. The camp looked just camp Half-Blood but there was something wrong, people stopped what they were doing and stared at us as the ambushers led us to a large building. On the porch were two people, they were both boys but one looked older than the other. The older boy turned round so I could see his face; Sea-green eyes and messy black hair.
‘PERCY!’ Annabeth cried.
‘Annabeth don’t –‘I tried to warn her but she didn’t listen.
‘You should have.’ Athena said.
Annabeth hung her head. ‘I know.’
She got loose of the grip of the girl who was holding her and ran to hug Percy and when she did, Percy looked at her a little surprised and then she backed up, shaking her head.
I put my hand on her shoulder. ‘Annabeth, he doesn’t remember.’
She turned around and looked straight in my eyes. ‘You saw him, didn’t you?’ I stayed silent. ‘You promised! You promised you’d bring him back!’
Ryan sighed, putting his head in his hands and Annabeth put her hand on his shoulder.

‘I don’t blame you anymore.’ She said quietly.
He sighed. ‘I know.’
‘Did you mean mentally or physically?’ I asked but I knew it wasn’t helping her mood.
Thalia sighed. ‘Ryan, you make any dramatic situation over dramatic just by saying something stupid.’ He glared at her.

‘I can’t believe I trusted you!’ She cried, her eyes were now welled with tears. ‘I can’t believe I was stupid enough –‘
‘SILENCE!’ Shouted a new voice, then from out of the shadows came a wolf, it was about the size of a horse, with black and white fur and amber eyes. ‘Legion One members, newcomers; my office NOW!’ It snarled. We went inside the big building and Annabeth slumped into the corner.
‘For people who don’t know me, I am Lupa,’ the wolf said. ‘What are you Greeks doing here?’
‘We’re here because we need four Romans for the next great prophecy and you have one of our campers.’ I said.
‘And who are all of you?’ Lupa asked.
‘I’m Ryan, this is Thalia, that’s Annabeth, that’s Leo and Piper and you already know Jason. Who are these guys?’
One of the girls came forward. She had long brown hair and hazel eyes. ‘I’m Hazel, daughter of Ceres, this is Dakota,’ she gestured to the big boy who had his sword at my throat. ‘Son of Mars and Gwen,’ she pointed towards a girl with red hair and brown highlights, green eyes and freckles sprayed across her nose. ‘Daughter of Mercury.’
‘Look, Lupa,’ Thalia said. ‘We need four of your best campers to come with us to Greece –‘
‘- Because Gaia is rising, yes, I know, we’ve all heard the prophecy.’ Lupa said. ‘Dakota, Hazel and Gwen will accompany you; can someone tell Reyna that she will be going too?’ When Lupa said that name I remembered the promise I made to Apollo, I had to keep her away from Jason.
‘So we can leave right now?’ I asked.
Lupa shook her head. ‘Gwen, Dakota, Hazel and Reyna need to pack and I can’t let you leave with a forgetful quest member. I’ll give you some time to try and receive his memories, I suggest starting now.’ And then she left us with a forgetful Percy and not much time.
‘Who called?’ Asked a voice. In came Gwen, Dakota, Hazel, Reyna, Leo, Piper and Jason.

‘What are you reading?’After Nico recovered and they told the newcomers what had happened they started reading again.
‘Who wants to read?’ Artemis asked.
‘Ryan hasn’t read yet.’ Caliga said. Artemis handed him the book.


‘Chapter 4: I save a guy with an identity crisis’ Ryan read and Caliga glared at him.
‘I do not have an identity crisis!’ She yelled.
‘Then what do you call a girl who cross – dressed as a guy and barely talked to the same sex she dressed up as?’ Ryan asked.
‘Weird?’ Leo suggested.
‘Mentally disturbed?’ Dakota offered. But Caliga just glared at both of them.
‘Okay, let’s try this again.’ I grumbled.

I was pacing the room and was getting very annoyed because for the past 2 hours I was trying to convince Percy that we were his friends but he didn’t believe us.
‘That was really annoying.’ Ryan grumbled.
‘My name is Percy Jackson,’ I said, Percy repeated what I said. ‘And my dad is Poseidon.’

‘Do you really think that that would help?’ Athena asked Ryan.
Ryan just shrugged. ‘It was worth a shot.’ Athena rolled her eyes.

‘And my dad is – is...’ He stuttered on the last line.
‘O zeu kai alloi theoi!’ I mumbled, hitting my head on the wall.

‘You know hitting your head would make you lose more brain cells?’ Athena asked Ryan.
‘Like Ryan has any brain cells to spare!’ Reyna laughed. ‘He doesn’t even know the simplest Latin!’
‘Uhh, Reyna, most of us here don’t even know Latin.’ Rachel pointed out.
‘So?’
‘That doesn’t mean Ryan’s stupid; he’s just too lazy to learn Latin.’
‘Thank-‘ Ryan said but then realised what she just said. ‘Hey!’

Then I heard Percy mumble something, I stopped.
‘What did you say?’ I asked.
‘I’m beginning to remember.’ Percy said. ‘When you cursed it jogged my memory, you’re Ryan, and I met you at Goode last year.’ He then turned to Thalia. ‘You’re Thalia, I healed your tree and you came back.’ He finally turned to Annabeth but his face was like when I saw him in San Francisco. ‘I don’t remember you.’ Percy said, Annabeth started to cry, Thalia asked if she wanted some company but Annabeth just shook her head and ran outside.
‘What’s with her?’ Dakota asked. Me and Thalia exchanged looks. ‘We can’t tell you.’ Thalia said. Then we heard a scream coming from outside and lying on the grass was Annabeth and standing over her was one of the girls Hazel introduced use to, Gwen.
Everyone glared at said girl.
‘What?’ She demanded. ‘It’s not like I meant to hurt her, it was my Roman instincts!’
‘Out of the way!’ A girl yelled as she pushed past me; she was about 15 with curly brown hair and sky blue eyes. ‘Daughter of Apollo, coming through!’

‘Reyna, just because you’re a daughter of Apollo doesn’t mean you have to be so rude.’ Dakota said and Reyna glared at him.
‘Just because you’re the son of Mars doesn’t mean you have to beat up every new kid you see.’ She retorted. Ryan decided it was best to read on before another fight between the son and daughter of Apollo and Ares started.

She knelt beside Annabeth and touched her head.
‘She has a minor concussion, but she will be up and running by tomorrow.’ She said.
‘And who are you exactly?’ Thalia said. The girl seemed to realize for the first time that she hadn’t introduced herself.

‘No surprise,’ Dakota grumbled and Reyna glared at him.

‘My name is Reyna, daughter of Apollo.’ She said.

I was pacing up and down the infirmary; Thunder boomed from outside and the smell of ozone filled the room.
‘What does ozone smell like?’ Nico wondered.
‘Want to find out?’ Thalia said.
‘N – n – no...’
‘Then shut up.’
‘Great, just great...’ I mumbled. ‘The one quest that could save the world and my best strategist is knocked out by some – some redheaded, kleptomaniac girl!’
There was some snickering coming from the boys.
‘Are you talking about Gwen, Rachel or Jess?’ Nico asked. But no-one answered.
‘Hey!’ Gwen shouted. ‘The redheaded, kleptomaniac girl has a name you know,
The snickering then turned into laughing and then the girls joined in.
‘Does that answer your question?’ Ryan asked between laughs.
And it wasn’t my fault!’
‘I don’t care whose fault it was!’ I yelled. The thunder boomed even louder than before. ‘I just care about saving the world.’
‘And you don’t care about me?’ Annabeth asked, glaring at Ryan.
‘Uhh...’
‘And you don’t care about the girl whose unconscious?’ Percy asked.
The sound of thunder subdued and I sighed. ‘Yes, I do care about Annabeth.’ Just then a horn blew. Everyone went out to have dinner and Thalia turned round. ‘Are you coming?’ She asked me.
‘Yeah, I’ll catch up with you.’
I sat opposite Percy who was just staring at the sleeping Annabeth.
‘Who was she?’ He asked. ‘I mean, how do I know her?’
Annabeth winced, she spent all that time looking for him and all that time she had been thinking he would still know her. Thalia noticed her sad face and hugged her.
I pursed my lips. ‘Percy, I shouldn’t –‘
‘Please,’ He said. ‘You know who she was, tell me.’
I sighed. ‘Well, her name is Annabeth, I don’t know her last name, she was with you on your first quest to get my dad’s master bolt from Ares and to get you mom back from Hades.’
‘So, your dad is Zeus?’
I smiled. ‘Yep, my dad is the lord of the sky and my full sister is Thalia.’ Percy’s mouth dropped open. ‘Thalia is your sister?’ I nodded and then the horn blew again, signalling lights out and Percy looked like he didn’t want to leave Annabeth.
A small smile formed on Annabeth’s face.
‘Get some rest,’ I said. ‘I’ll stay here with Annabeth.’
I don’t remember going to sleep but I knew I must have been dreaming because in my dream I was standing on the edge of a deep pit.

Everyone including the gods shuddered, that pit had made their lives miserable for the past five years.

I looked down and felt a wave of nausea come over me because I couldn’t see the bottom. Sprits of the dead floated past me and were whispering, ‘No! Stop!’ But I heard something other than the whispering sprits, I heard chanting, ancient chanting even older than Greek and then the chanting stopped.

Everyone was silent.

I then heard something that made my hairs stand on end; a voice, an old raspy voice that said, ‘You will never stop me child of lightning; I am the earth that you stand on. I am the mother of everything!’

‘Gaia! Gaia talked to you in your dream! Why didn’t you tell me?!’ Annabeth shrieked.
‘If you’d just wait ten seconds...’ Ryan grumbled.

The spirits began to get restless, they whizzed past me whispering, ‘Beware! Traps, betrayal, destruction!’ The voice began to laugh and everything went black. I woke up screaming, ’No!’ and turned to see Annabeth with her face full of concern.
‘Ryan, are you okay?’ She asked. I just nodded but that dream seriously freaked me out, the spirits and the voice in the pit, what was that voice? And where was that pit?
‘Happy now?’ Ryan asked Annabeth.

I decided not to think about it too much because I was sure I would have more dreams like that. I followed Annabeth to the Argo II and everyone was ready to set sail. The ship took off, leaving the Roman camp as a little dot on the horizon.
Hey guys, look at this!’ Annabeth said, we were flying over New England and she was pointing towards an assortment of stone slabs. ‘Stonehenge, it was built by –‘
‘The cavemen,’ I finished. ‘Then it was used by the Greeks and then the Romans.’ Annabeth just stared at me.
As were everyone doing to him at the same moment.
‘What?’ I demanded. ‘I can concentrate in class if I want to.’
‘We should land,’ Leo said. ‘The engine needs time to recharge and we need a place to crash.’ Everyone nodded in agreement.
We walked around the square, looking for any sign of a hotel until we stopped in front of an old restaurant. I looked up to see the name but with my dyslexia, it just looked like meaningless spaghetti.
‘What does that say?’ I asked, pointing to the sign but everyone just shook their heads.
‘I don’t care what it says!’ Dakota said. ‘I’m hungry and I want to chow down!’
‘You’re always hungry.’ Reyna and Gwen said.
‘I don’t know guys,’ Annabeth said. ‘This place is giving me bad memories.’
‘I’m with Annabeth on this one,’ Percy said. ‘There’s something weird about this place.’
I could smell hamburgers and fries from inside and my stomach started rumbling.
‘See! It’s not just me!’ Dakota said.
‘Let’s go inside and see what it’s like and if Annabeth’s right we’ll leave.’ I suggested and everyone nodded. Annabeth and Percy exchanged nervous looks but they followed us inside.
It looked like your average pub, tables with menus on top and the smell of hamburgers filled the room.
‘Hello,’ Said a woman, she had long brown hair and icy blue eyes. ‘Welcome to the Triangle, how may I help you?’

‘The woman just said the name of the restaurant, and you still go?’ Athena said, shaking her head.
‘We were tired and hungry!’ Ryan said. ‘Why would we have payed any attention to the name?!’

‘Uhh... We’d like a table.’ I said.
‘How many?’ She asked.
‘Uhh... Eleven.’
‘Right this way.’ She led us towards a booth and took our orders. When she came back she had eleven plates of fries and hamburgers which looked tasty but something was bothering me; why was there only us in this place?
‘Finally you notice!’ Athena grumbled.
Dakota was the first to dig into the food,
‘Typical,’ All the Romans muttered and Dakota just glared at them.
He had food all over his face and it was dripping all over Reyna, who happened to be sitting next to him and we just stared at him.
‘I seriously didn’t like that.’ Reyna muttered.
‘What?’ He demanded. ‘I’m a growing boy!’
‘Boys...’ All the girls in the room grumbled.
‘And apparently a pig.’ Reyna said, picking the food off her shirt.
I was sitting opposite Thalia who noticed that I wasn’t eating. ‘You okay?’ She asked.
‘Yeah, I’m just not hungry.’ I said, picking on my fries.
She raised an eyebrow. ‘Your stomach was rumbling outside and now you’re saying you’re not hungry?’
‘She does have a point.’ Annabeth said.
‘It’s just, haven’t you noticed that we’re the only people in this place?’ I asked. ‘I think Annabeth’s right, something is wrong about this place.’ Thalia just shrugged.
Once we were finished with our food we went upstairs to our rooms. The room was a housekeeper’s worst nightmare; Cobwebs filled every available space possible, a thin layer of dust covered our beds and it smelled like a weird combination of stale beer and rabbit and pigeon stew. (Trust me; I know what I’m talking about.)
Annabeth, Thalia and Piper shuddered.

‘I really hated that room.’ Annabeth grumbled. Everyone who was on the quest nodded their head in agreement.

Leo swept the dust off his bed and coughed. ‘This place has a major housekeeping issue.’
We didn’t do anything because we were tired so we just crashed on our beds.
As usual, I couldn’t sleep; I tossed and turned but I couldn’t get comfy and I couldn’t help thinking about how weird this place was. I needed to clear my thoughts, so I decided to have a late night walk. I walked around the street; the wind blew in my face and the street was dimly lit by the street lights. It was quiet until I heard voices coming from my left.
’Get back!’ Said one voice.
‘Gaia will destroy you!’ Said another.

‘Who said that?’ Ryan asked Caliga. ‘You or the Hyperboreans?’
She shrugged. ‘To be honest, I don’t know.’

My hand crept instinctively to my pocket, were I kept my deadly push-pencil Slashbolt

‘You know when you say ‘deadly’ it just makes you sword sound lame.’ Ares said.
‘Yeah, but it is deadly.’ Ryan said.

And when I clicked it, it grew into a metre long, celestial bronze sword. Were the voices came from were 10 figures, 7 of them were human but the other 3 were huge with blue skin, Hyperborean Giants. As I got closer the scene got clearer; the group of 7 were fighting off the Hyperboreans, and in front of a girl who was about my age with blonde hair and green eyes

Everyone then looked at Lux.

There was also a guy about the same age as the girl but I couldn’t see his face because it was hidden underneath a black hood.

They then looked at Caliga.

‘I didn’t know you dressed up as a guy!’ Nico said between laughs. He then ducked as multiple fireballs flew over his head.

I knew the guy wasn’t a mortal because he was fighting the giants with air, water and earth which didn’t do any damage to the amused looking giant who, at the touch, froze the guy in solid ice. I crept out of my hiding place and stood a good distance were no-one would see me. I closed my eyes and prayed to my dad that this would work.

‘And did it work?’ Leo asked Ryan.
‘Well I’m still here aren’t I?’ He said.

I raised Slashbolt over my head and thought of the thunder of lightning and then I heard the crack of lightning, I felt weak and my vision started to blur.

‘I had it under control!’ Caliga yelled.
‘I wouldn’t call being frozen under control,’ Ryan said. ‘I would call it being helpless.’
Caliga glared at him. ‘Do you really want it to be like the ball?’ She asked. Ryan stayed silent.

I tumbled backward, fell on my back and just before I blacked out, the guy who was frozen was looking at me, his hood had fell, revealing dark green eyes, black shoulder length hair and a weird glowing sign on his forehead. I tried to focus on the guy’s face and I started to realise that the guy, wasn’t a guy at all, his features were more feminine, the guy was a girl.

‘Well that’s the end of the chapter.’ Ryan said. He turned the page and when he did, he smirked. ‘Seems like the next few chapters are going to be in Caliga’s point of view.’
Caliga grabbed the book from Ryan. ‘WHAT?!’ She yelled, flicking the pages. ‘Oh great,’ She mumbled. ‘You guys get to know how I first thought of you. But this chapter starts in mine and Lux’s time, before we meet up with Ryan and all of them. This isn’t going to be fun at all.’
Ryan just laughed and handed the book over to Caliga who started to murmur curses underneath her breath, but she started reading anyway.

In the hustle and bustle of a market place in Rome, a shadow from behind some trees watched the group of 16 year old, giggling girls walking along their way, chattering and laughing...the person looked on with those dark green eyes fixed on one pretty blond girl. The black hooded figure could not and would not dare to keep his eyes off of her...that pretty longhaired lady with those dancing green eyes.

‘You know that makes you sound stalkerish.’ Nico said and Caliga just glared at him.

He scanned the area for anyone else hiding, seeing no one he decided to back away a little. Just in case one of the girls saw him. The group of friends seemed like they were having a lot of fun. Being able to enjoy each other’s company, playing around and joking together, seemed like a lot of fun. Something the person hiding had never had and never would.

‘But you have us and Ryan.’ Leo said.
‘That was before I knew how fun it was to hang around with you guys.’ Caliga answered.

The main girl in the middle, long blonde hair, tall and fair skinned her name was Lux. She was surrounded by a huge group of girls.

‘You were very popular back then.’ Annabeth said and Lux nodded.
‘I make friends very easily.’

They were all holding very full shopping bags, at least 2 in each hand. They all had smiles on their faces, but Lux was the only one with blonde hair. They turned a corner and the guy followed them. Lux stopped at a very large villa, said goodbye to her friends and walked inside. Servants came and took her bags off of her and put them in her room. The hooded follower came in through that back and slide quietly into a very large and bright room. In the room was filled with shelves of books and expensive looking things. There was a desk in the far left corner filled with papers and pens. In the chair next behind the desk was a very strict looking middle-aged looking lady. She looked sternly at the hooded person and asked, ‘How was Lux today? Did anything happen to her? Answer fast and quick Caliga, I don’t have spare time for you.’

‘And I thought my foster parents were strict.’ Ryan said, shaking his head.

The hooded person standing in the middle of the room took off his hood. But underneath wasn’t a boy, but a 16 year old girl. She had black, shoulder length hair. She had dark green eyes and tanned skin. On her forehead was a red star surrounded by 2 circles and spikes on the outside circle.
She looked up at the woman talking to her while answered, ‘She is fine. I will continue to watch her and keep her save.’
‘Very well. Just make sure you don’t blow your cover. Need I remind you what will happen if people find out who you are? You’d be dead before dawn. Leave now, you presence here is disturbing me.’

‘What a b-‘ Thalia started.
‘Language!’ Annabeth yelled.
‘-Basketball.’ Thalia sighed.

Caliga bowed, put back on her hood and left the room.
The woman sighed and stared out the window. ‘Sister, why did you leave me with problems like this? I want to protect these two but that is proving to be harder than I thought. Jupiter help us.’ She thought to herself.

In the other room on the other side of the villa Lux was trying on all the jewellery and clothes that she had bought that day. Caliga walked in sat down and turned to look at her twin sister.
‘Oh there you are.’ Lux said, ‘I’ve been wondering where you were today.’

‘She was stalking you...’ Nico said in a mysterious voice and Caliga punched him.

‘I had to finish finalizing something for the trip. It’s very soon so you better get ready.’ Caliga answered.

‘What trip?’ Almost everyone in the room asked.
‘You’ll find out later.’ Caliga replied.

‘Oh packing? I’ll just get some of the servants to do that for me. No need to do unnecessary work.

‘You were such a spoilt brat!’ Ryan said but ducked as a bolt of electricity flew over his head.

‘It wouldn’t do for me. Do me a favour and help me get dressed. I’m going to a party tonight. I’m the guest of honour! People are so nice here.’ She said.
Caliga stood up and helped her younger sister with her outfit.

‘Who’s older?’ Ryan asked. ‘I mean, I know your twins but one of the twins can be like 15 minutes older, like the Sprouse twins from the Suite Life.’
Caliga and Lux looked at each other. ‘Caliga’s older by like 5 minutes,’ Lux said. ‘But we don’t care.’

An hour later someone came to pick up Lux. Caliga got ready and followed them silently, as to make sure her sister didn’t know about her being watched. At the party everyone seemed to be having a good time. Lux was laughing with her friends and everyone seemed to love her. Caliga just sat in the nearby tree and watched her sister enjoying herself. It was about half way through, almost midnight when Caliga heard Lux walking out with some boy from the town to the back garden. She slipped in and out of the trees, keeping a close eye on them. They walked around the garden, just talking and laughing.

‘Were you two dating?’ Ryan asked.
‘No!’ Lux yelled. ‘He’s just one of my guy friends!’
‘Right...’ Ryan said, not believing her. ‘I believe you.’

But something in the bushes to the far left caught Caliga’s watchful eye. It was someone sitting in the bushes…Caliga quickly and quietly snuck over and behind the hiding person. But before she could get there, the guy who looked like he was in his early 20’s jumped out and grabbed Lux while holding a knife to her neck.

‘Why is someone threatening you?’ Annabeth asked.
Lux shrugged. ‘Maybe he knew who I was.’

‘Now don’t you move, or I will kill her in the name of Mars.’ He shouted.

‘Why does it have to be my name?’ Ares asked. ‘Couldn’t it be in Athena’s name?’
‘I wouldn’t be in my name, idiot,’ Athena said. ‘I am the goddess of wisdom, why would they sacrifice to the goddess of wisdom?’

Everyone from the party turned to look at the kidnapper. Most of the girls screamed and ran to hide. The men were hesitant to help because the man might kill Lux. Caliga quickly scanned around for something to help her attack. She saw a broken wooden bar hidden under leaves and dirt by the tree next to her.

‘Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?’ Thalia asked.

She pulled it out of the ground, snuck behind the kidnapper and hit him with all her strength on the head.

The Demigods and Mortals cheered.
‘Go Caliga!’ Dakota yelled.

He instantly dropped the knife and fell to his knees. Caliga grabbed the knife and put it safely away. She walked over to Lux and asked someone to take her inside. But Caliga was so busy with Lux and she didn’t realize that the guy behind them had gotten up and was about to grab her. She realized a little too late, the man had pulled off her hood.

‘You are always in a dramatic situation, aren’t you?’ Ryan asked Caliga and she shrugged.

The mark on her forehead glowed in the lights of the torches all around the garden. Everyone backed away; someone grabbed Lux away from her. There were shrikes and screams as everyone started to run. Some men took out their sword and shouted, ‘Demon! Be gone from here.’ They spat on her then left to get their weapons from inside.

‘Wow, your time is very rude and racist.’ Rachel said.
‘I prefer your time,’ Caliga said. ‘Even though there are some who are still racist.’

Caliga put back on her hood and quickly disappeared. She ran as far all the way back to her house, but before entering, she looked around to make sure no one had followed her.
Caliga ran into the house panting and tired from having to run so far and so fast. She grabbed her bag which she had packed, while quickly stuffing a few things in for her sister. She wrote a note to her aunt saying sorry but people found out about her; also that Caliga and Lux had to leave the night before they found out where they were hiding. Laying the note down next to the sleeping lady she snuck out and waited for her sister to come home. Half an hour later her sister arrived. Caliga jumped down from the tree and told her that they were leaving.
"Why? I want to stay here. They will understand if you explain it to them....." Lux complained.
Caliga took of her hood and looks directly into Lux's eyes and said
"No. We are leaving now. If they find out that I am hiding here they will burn this whole place down. It will ruin Aunt's life forever. I've already gotten a servant to alarm everyone to meet us there so don't worry."
She grabbed her sister's arm and they both quietly ran for their lives.

Caliga and Lux ran straight through town to the other side. The walls were large and were impossible to climb over without professional gear but that didn’t stop Caliga. She raised her hand and concentrated, and just as she did, a hole just big enough for them to fit through crumbled away from the wall and put itself back together when they had both gotten through. Outside the walls was a huge forest, but the girls just ran straight into it.
It was a good ten minutes of running as fast as they could before they reached the meeting spot. Already waiting there were 5 people, all had huge backpacks on their backs and hoods over their faces.
‘Is everyone here?’ Caliga asked while turning around counting everyone.
When she had made sure that they were all there she took a stick and draw some very large markings on the ground, and in the middle, a small circle to fit them all inside. When she was finished drawing it everyone stood in the circle and Caliga did a very fast hand motion and chanted something in Latin. Everything was quite for a second but then the markings on the floor and on her started to glow. Everyone held their breath as the lights came closer to them and finally, the circle started to glow very brightly. A few trees caught on fire from the small sparks that were flying everywhere. The ground where the circle was caved in and everyone fell down through the hole.

It seemed like they were falling for a few hours, but in reality there were just going down for a minute or two. And when they landed, I think everyone of them still wished that they were falling. Because they had landed on some very annoyed Hyperborean Giant. It wasn’t the best of places to land.
The Hyperborean Giants started to attack the small group, and most of them being normal humans, of course couldn’t defeat the giants, so Caliga summoned up the last of her energy and sent everyone except for her and Lux back home. It was just then when one of the Giants touched Caliga and she completely froze. Lux screamed but just after that there was a very loud sound of thunder and the giants just fell to the ground.
Caliga unfroze herself and ran to Lux,
‘Are you okay?’ Caliga asked
‘I’m fine. What about you? You were frozen...and do you have any idea where that lightning came from?’
‘It’s fine, I’m just a bit cold. And I think I saw someone right over there, let me go and check. Stay right there, don’t move.’ Caliga’s voice was stern.
When Caliga had finally arrived at the place where Ryan was laying he was just about to pass out, the only thing he saw her take of her hood. Caliga called for her sister telling her it was safe, that it was just some dumb boy who attempted to be hero for one day.
‘HEY!’ Ryan yelled, ‘Is that really what you thought that I was trying to do?’ ‘Never mind just keep on reading.’ Caliga complained
Caliga was about to leave him there when Lux begged her to bring him back with us and just watch him until he woke up. Grumbling Caliga agreed and carried Ryan on her back, the whole time while the twins searched for a safe place to camp.

‘And you were freaking heavy as well Ryan.’ Caliga slapped Ryan on the back.
‘What was that for?’ Ryan asked.
‘I just felt like hitting you then.’ Caliga gave him a cheeky smile as he rolled his eyes and told her to continue
‘Chapter’s finished now. Finally.’ Caliga was relieved.
‘Who’s turn is it to read next?’ Annabeth asked,
‘Let Ryan read again, since it’s his part now.’ Caliga replied while dropping the book into Ryan’s hands.
‘Fine I’ll read.’ He complained

The morning after Ryan had save Lux and Caliga, when Ryan woke up, he was laying inside a tent. It was a very small tent, just big enough to sit up in and lie down. He turned over and thought about where he was. He suddenly remembered about the giants, the girl, and everything else. He sat up as fast as he could and walked out of the tent.
‘Oh you’re awake now?’ Ryan saw the blonde girl from last night was sitting near the tent, eating some fish.
‘Who are you again?’ Ryan asked,
‘Oh my name is Lux. What’s yours?’
‘Ryan. But wasn’t there another person with you? One that was frozen or something...?’ Ryan was cut off by someone behind him saying,
‘You mean me?’
He turned around and saw the hooded girl again, but this time her hood was down and her hair put back in a pony tail, showing her markings on her forehead and neck.
‘I swear you were frozen last night?’ Ryan asked.
‘Pah, you think something as little as that would kill me? You’ve got to learn a few things about someone before you judge them idiot.’ She walked over to Lux and sat down next to her, resting her head on a tree.
‘Sister be nice. Ryan this is my sister Ca...’ Lux started,
‘My name is Acario.’ Caliga covered up.
‘Oh ya. Acario this is Ryan he’s the one who saved us last night.’ Lux introduced Ryan to her sister.
‘Ya, ya I know. I was the one who had to carry that heavy dork all the way back here from the hill.’
‘Nice to meet you too.’ Ryan complained.
‘You must excuse my sister. She’s not in the best of moods today because she’s annoyed because she almost lost last night.’ Lux turned to her sister, ‘I’m thirsty, do we have any water?’
‘I think there’s some still some fresh dew, let me check and see how much.’
Ryan had a puzzled look on his face as Caliga jumped up and stood still a few inches away from the tree she had been leaning on. She took a deep breath in, closed her eyes and started to move her hands. Then it happened. All of the leaves started to move, there was a slight breeze of wind started blow. Ryan felt some drips of water but when he looked up to the sky, there weren’t any rain clouds. But what surprised him was that there were millions of little droplets all falling off of the leaves and collecting into huge bunches of water. Caliga twisted her right hand a bit and gracefully moved her left hand around as if she was tracing some pattern in her head. All the water slowly moved down to the ground and straight into a small water container that Caliga had brought from her Aunt’s house.
‘Thanks.’ Lux said as if it was the most normal thing to see that happen. All Ryan did was just stare at Caliga in amazement.
‘Is your face broken or something?’ Caliga rudely said while walking off to go find some more food.
‘Is she always like this?’ Ryan asked Lux,
‘Oh this is her on a good day. You got lucky. But I guess she is a bit down because she couldn’t save the rest of our group yesterday, she used too much energy sending them back to our old time before the giants killed them. I guess that’s how she got herself frozen.’ Lux finished her fish, took another gulp of water, she offered Ryan some and he took it.
‘Do me a favour Ryan? I have to pack everything up so we can move on but can you bring this bag to Acario? She’s going to need it if she’s looking for more food. Thanks.’ Lux walked off and started to pack down the very small tents down and put out what was left of the fire.
‘What strange people.’ Ryan thought as he ran after Caliga.
He ran for ages, but he just couldn’t seem to find anyone, and it seemed to him like he was just walking in circles and circles. When he finally stopped and made a mark on a tree, he walked around for another five – ten minutes, but somehow he ended up next to the same tree.
‘Wait a second...’ Ryan started to say when he heard laughing in a tree above him.
‘Took you long enough you idiot!’ It was Caliga, ‘I put this trap up to catch dinner, but it seems I’ve caught someone rather annoying instead.’ She raised her hand and the ground started to shift underneath Ryan and it started to climb up the tree and when it got up to the branch that Caliga was sitting in, the mud moulded into a set of stairs that she walked down.
‘Damn, you can control the earth as well.’ Ryan was intrigued by this odd girl.
Some of the Demigods started to giggle at this comment and someone wolf whistled. Ryan just glared at them and it all quieted down quite fast.
‘Now, now. Let’s not forget about fire and wind as well.’ Caliga’s hands lit on fire and she created a fireball and started to juggle it between her hands. The wind picked up a little bit as the earth moved back to its original shape.
‘I really shouldn’t ever get on your death list should I?’ Ryan moved back a bit, that fireball was a bit too close to his face for comfort.
Just as Caliga was about to say something when she quickly extinguished her fireball and stood up straight, looking extremely stiff.
‘What are you doing?’ Ryan asked,
‘Shut up!’ Caliga hissed.
Everything was quite for a few seconds but then Caliga started to run.
‘If you value your life you wouldn’t follow me!’ she shouted behind her.
‘Ha! And miss all of this fun?’ Ryan laughed and ran after her, why was she so interesting?
They didn’t stop running for a good fifteen minutes and by that time Ryan was completely tired out.
‘How the hell can you run this fast?’
Caliga looked extremely pissed off that he was still there. ‘I thought that I told you to go away. Oh shit, too late.’
A heavy wind started to blow; it was so strong all the leaves started to blow in a circular pattern around the two. Then some of the leave all flew in front of Caliga and formed into a girl, Gaia.
‘Look who tried to run away again.’ Gaia stroked the side of Caliga’s face before slapping her. ‘Bitch tried it again didn’t she? You should learn you can never hid from me, tried it before, never works, never works. Oh, what’s this? There’s someone else here isn’t there? I can smell him; you’re hiding something from me aren’t you?’ Gaia walked around in the circle of leaves trying to find Ryan. It was just then when Ryan realised that there was something barely visible surrounding him, a protective shield.
‘Remind me Ryan why almost every time there is a fight that it’s Caliga saving your sorry ass?’ Thalia asked.
‘Shhh, just listen to the book for at least a full minute without anyone interrupting please!’ Ryan pleaded.
‘Well, I don’t care I you hid him. The more energy you use putting up that dumb protective field, the weaker you get. And you’ve already spent too much energy last night.’ Gaia started to smile and walked back towards Caliga. ‘Awww, does my little slave hate me?’
Ryan slipped his hand into his pocket and felt Slashbolt. As if Caliga had read his mind she kept her eyes on Gaia but shouted, ‘Don’t you dare move you asshole!’
Gaia’s eyes looked like a hungry bear searching for its meal. ‘So there is someone here. I wonder where it is?’
The small rumble of thunder was heard just as Ryan grabbed his Slashbolt and drew the sword, but by doing so he broke Caliga’s concentration and the protection shield disappeared.
‘Found him.’ Gaia giggled like she was a little girl who had just found her favourite toy.
‘Ryan stay back, she isn’t someone you can fight.’ Caliga warned.
Gaia run up to Caliga slapped her again and screamed for her to shut up. When this happened Ryan charged without thinking, but it turned out to be a good thing because he managed to stab Gaia on her side.

‘Took you long enough to man up!’ Annabeth laughed. Ryan just glared at her but she insisted that it had already been a minute, so technically she could talk already.

‘You!’ She screamed, but when she reached out for Ryan, she suddenly stopped and disappeared.
‘Damn she pissed me off.’ Ryan said casually as he put Slashbolt back into his pocket. ‘And now a thank you is usually said around now, don’t you think?’
‘Really, cause I don’t.’ Caliga was really annoyed now.
‘Okay then maybe I won’t save you again...’
‘Fine by me, as long as you go away I’ll be MUCH happier.’ Caliga stomped off back in the direction of her camp and Lux.
‘Wait!’ Ryan called.
‘What you annoying boy?’ Caliga complained.
‘I’m sure your sister will be very worried about you if she hears about what just happened. I think she might freak out, you know?’ Ryan said smugly
‘Tell my sister what happened here and I swear to Mars I will slit your throat in the night.’ Caliga turned around and walked back to where Ryan was standing.
‘Well, you never know. It might just slip out of my mouth by accident, I can’t help it.’ He shrugged while Caliga just glared at him, ‘Unless..’
‘You little bastard!’
‘Now, now be nice. As I was saying, it might slip, UNLESS, you help me with something. Then I’ll be out of your hair and we shall never see each other again, deal?’
‘Hmmm, are you sure you’ll take you and your annoying self and leave me and Lux alone for good?’ Caliga grumbled yes while Ryan cheered himself on his accomplishment. ‘Oh Ryan, one last thing...’
‘What?’
It was just then when 3 large fireballs were launched at his head, he dodged them all, but not without giving him a huge shudder down his spine when he saw her face. She was actually enjoying his pain. The only smart thing he had done that day what not bring up what had happened with Gaia.

Ryan explained the whole situation to while they walked, and they walked for a good while. Finally they arrived at the Triangle Hotel.
‘You couldn’t have guessed that this place was fishy just from the name? You really are one of the dumbest people I know!’ Caliga complained
‘It’s not my fault! I have Dyslexia, it makes me unable to read anything but ancient Greek.’
‘Sorry I don’t speak idiot, English or Latin please.’ Caliga retorted, ‘So what’s your plan to get them out?’
Ryan answered in earnest, ‘Honestly, I have no idea.’
‘So basically, you blackmail me to come here, talk all the way, and still you have NO idea about how to get them out?’ There was an ice cold wind that hit Ryan just then as Caliga glared at him. ‘Excuse me for thinking you were able to use your brain.’
‘HEY!’ Ryan pouted.
‘Never mind brainless dope, I’ve thought of something.’ Caliga moved in closer to whisper in his ear.
Caliga then moved up to the side of the very old and broken down hotel. She sighs and shook her head on why she had to help this idiot save his friends. But she just moved her right hand up and the ground from underneath her rose up to the open window above her. When she was up and through the window she motioned for Ryan to come up as well.
When both were inside the hotel it was very dark. Most of the windows had been blocked up so they didn’t let barely any sunlight in. All they could really see was a bunch of metal doors.
‘Sure, and if it wasn’t just from the name, to the look of this place, and you all still didn’t think it was suspicious at all?’
‘We were too tired to be picky about where we stayed. Anyway, the girls are staying on that side of the hotel. And no need to know which door their behind. My sister is in there so there will be the very loud sound of snoring. Oh but once you get in there, I should tell you to wake up the blonde first, Annabeth. DON’T under any circumstances wake up my sister, you’ll probably be electrocuted or punched.’
A lightning bolt just flew over Ryan’s head when those few comments were made.
Caliga and Ryan separated ways to go get the rest of the group. Caliga lit one of her fingers to have some light to see where she was going. She walked around the hotel for a while looking for the door, but in the end she gave up and just sent some wind into all the rooms and see which room had the least vibrations. Finally after passing at least ten or fifteen doors, there was one room which sounded like it was much fuller than the other ones. Caliga walked up to the door, took some dirt out of her pocket and flicked her left hand. The dirt started to mould into the shape of a key which fitted perfectly into the lock. Inside was everyone, but they were all asleep, unaware about what place they were staying in. Caliga looked around the whole room, but she couldn’t find anyone that was blonde. ‘That stupid idiot Ryan.’ She mumbled underneath her breath. After going around the room about 3 times Caliga just woke up the first girl that was next to her, which of course, was Thalia. And she wasn’t too happy about being woken up in the middle of the night. She fired two punches, and the first one hit Caliga straight in the jaw.
‘Piss off and let me sleep!’ Thalia complained, but she got up very quickly when she smelled smoke. Her bedding was on fire. The fire woke everyone up and they were all very bewildered to see some random girl in their room, hands lit on fire, and Thalia preparing to throw a lightning bolt at her.
It was at least five minutes before all the girls and boys meet up at the open window.
Ryan looked at the red mark across her cheek. ‘What happened?’ He asked and then he looked at his sister who had a very annoyed look on her face.
‘Oh.’ He said.
‘What do you mean, ‘oh’?’ Caliga asked.
‘I’m guessing that you completely ignored what I said about waking Thalia.’ He said.
‘Well, I couldn’t find the girl that you said for me to wake up so I woke the first person I saw.’ She said.
‘How could you not find a girl with blonde hair?’ He asked.
‘Well seeing as her head was hidden underneath the covers...’ She thought but seeing as the girl was standing in the hallway, she decided to pass it over and Ryan was being really annoying so a fireball erupted out of her hand. Ryan ducked as the fireball flew over his head and into a room. On the door was a sign that said something like, ‘Gas room’. They heard a clunk and a small poof coming from the room.
‘EVERYONE OUT!’ Ryan shouted as everyone ran out the window and down the dirt stairs to get out of the hotel. The Triangle exploded behind them and Ryan landed next to his sister.
Ryan’s sister turned to lie on her back. ‘You know, next to being woken up by a complete stranger and having her light your bed on fire, blowing up a hotel owned by an evil sorceress wouldn’t have been high on my ‘to do’ list.’ She grumbled.
Caliga got up and dusted herself off. ‘There,’ she said. ‘I helped your little friends, which you could have done on your own without blackmailing me.’
Ryan and his friends got up and his sister looked at him.
‘Seriously Bolt Head?’ She said. Caliga figured ‘Bolt Head’ was Ryan’s nickname. ‘You blackmail her even though you could have gone by yourself?’
‘But that hotel was freaky Thalia!’ He protested. ‘And she was the one who brought it up in the first place!’
‘You know, for someone who’s turning eighteen in less than two weeks, you are so immature.’ Thalia muttered.
‘Says the older sister who hits her brother just because he teases her.’ Ryan retorted. Thalia glared at him, her electric blue eyes were now dark blue, she looked like the girl you would not like to have on her bad side.
‘Wait, you’re older?’ Caliga asked. Ryan burst out laughing while Thalia grumbled, ‘Great, now he has an even bigger ego.’ The others laughed. Acario counted eleven altogether, five boys and six girls.
One of the guys came over and put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder. He had curly brown hair and brown hair.
‘So aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?’He asked.
‘She’s not my friend Leo.’ Ryan mumbled.
‘Right... I believe you.’ He said and Ryan just rolled his eyes.
‘Guys, I like you to meet Acario.’
Then two of the people burst out laughing, a boy and a girl. The boy had brown hair with blonde highlights and red – brown eyes. The girl had red hair with brown highlights, green eyes and freckles sprayed across her nose.
‘You – you know in Latin ‘Acario’ means ungrateful?’ The boy said between laughs.
Ryan started laughing. ‘Yep, that describes her in one word, doesn’t say thank you to me for saving her front the Hyperboreans!’
Then when Ryan wasn’t looking she set Ryan shoe on fire.
‘Uhh, Ryan...’ Thalia said.
‘Yeah?’
‘Your foot is on fire.’
Ryan looked down and his eyes widened. ‘AHHH! MY FOOT IS ON FIRE!’ He yelled, hopping on one leg and trying to blew out the fire with the other. She had to admit, it was funny watching Ryan jump up and down like an idiot.


Thalia got a bucket from the nearby well and threw it at Ryan. Ryan stopped jumping, the fire was extinguished, but Ryan was soaking wet.
Ryan spat out some water from his mouth. ‘Thanks Thalia, I needed that.’ He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Thalia smiled sweetly and said, ‘You welcome dear brother.’
‘So now that your all one big happy family again, leave me alone!’ Caliga was about to walk off when Ryan called after her, ‘What do you want this time?’ Her fingers started to twitch as she turned around.’
‘We have no food or any were to stay right now. Could we, you know, maybe stay at your camp for a bit?’ Ryan’s voice grew very quiet at the end of his request.
‘Hmmm let me think about it. NO!’
‘Charming friend you have there.’ Jason pointed out.
‘Remember what your sister might do if she found out?’ Ryan tried one last time.
‘Do what you want, but you can only stay for one day.’

When they arrived at the campsite, Lux was lying on a small bed that she had made while waiting for Caliga to come back. Caliga ran up to her sister and shook her.
‘Were have you been?’ Lux asked and as she sat up she saw the new eleven strangers behind her. ‘Since when have you been this sociable?’
Caliga laughed at her sister and told her that they were just staying for one day then they would be gone.
It was getting dark by now so Caliga started a fire and cooked everyone a meal, however, she herself didn’t eat with them. She hid herself in a tree right above them, and kept watch all night.
The next day everyone pitched in to help pack up the camp site.
‘So where are you travelling too then?” Ryan asked Lux as they were packing up a tent together.
“We are going to....” Lux was cut off by Caliga telling her, ‘No need to tell them everything you know.’ Lux sighed, rolled her eyes and continued. “We are going to Mount Olympus...I’m not allowed to tell anymore than that. My sister might yell at me again.” She laughed and handed him some nails that had been in the ground to support the tents. “Wait...do you mean Mount Olympus, the one in Greece? The meeting place of the Gods? That Mount Olympus?” Ryan asked, but he couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice. “Of course, what other Olympus is there?” Lux answered. Ryan went on to tell her that they were going there themselves. She seemed surprised and didn’t believe him at first but in the end they both came to the agreement of going there together. When Caliga found out about this she was furious. Ryan just smiled evilly and decided to get back at Caliga for throwing multiple fireballs at his head. And almost killing him a few times with them. When they were all packed and ready to go everyone headed to the ship. As the huge ship loomed ahead of them Caliga looked around as if to make sure something or someone wasn’t following them. She acted all agitated and worried, even when she got the boat she wouldn’t calm down until it had taken off the ground. Caliga told Lux to go to her room to get some rest and when she did Caliga went to organise their belongings. Ryan was busy for the rest of the day helping all around the ship and he didn’t go to bed until very late. He headed down to his room, eyes half closed and feet dragging on the floor. But when he opened his door and walked in just to feel water all over his feet. His room was flooded with water. Everything was soaking wet. And in the middle of the floor written in mud in ancient Greek were the words, ‘mess with us, and you’ve got Hades to pay. From Acario and Thalia.’ Ryan yelled at the top of his voice for them both to come. When they got there he demanded an explanation about what they had done to his room. But they both denied having anything to do with it. He told them to look at the writing on the floor; it had their names on it. But when they looked down Caliga had already gotten rid of the writing and all that was left was a pile of watery mud on his floor. Fuming he just walked into his room and slammed the door behind him. But the sound of thunder outside was very clear. Caliga laughed and walked back up to the top deck where she stayed all night.

For the next couple of days Ryan didn’t talk to Caliga, and barely talked to his sister. Everyone asked what had happened but all Ryan would tell them was, ‘be warned. Never ever get on the bad side of Acario. You probably won’t live if you do.’ When everything finally quieted down and everyone from Rome had gotten used to the flying ship, Annabeth proposed to everyone that they take a break and stop off at the Eiffel Tower, in France. They all agreed and everyone was very excited about France. To celebrate them all getting together Gwen and Reina organised a barbeque. The smell of roasting meat drifted throughout the whole ship. Bringing whoever smelled it to the top deck, following the smell.

‘Next chapter!’ Lux yelled.
‘Since you’re so enthusiastic, you can read next then.’
The book was handed to Lux and everyone quieted down for the next chapter in these unlucky peoples adventure.

Demigod dreams suck.

All the Demigods nodded their heads in agreement.
See, they’re not like mortal dreams, we don’t dream about bunnies or race cars,
‘Why do you think we would dream about bunnies or race cars?’ Rachel asked.
Ryan shrugged. ‘It was the first thing that popped into my mind.’
we dream about the past, present, even the future, and it’s usually about how you or other people are going to die.
‘You dreamed of how I was going to die?!’ Caliga asked, horrified.
‘It implied you were going to die.’ Ryan said, trying to calm down his girlfriend.

This dream was like the first dream I had on this quest, it included Gaia, but this one was much, much scarier.

Nico opened his mouth to say something but closed it again when Ryan glared at him.

I was surrounded by total darkness; I couldn’t see anything but the faint bronze glow of my sword.

‘I hate that kind of dream.’ Percy mumbled. The Demigods nodded their heads.

Then a flash of blinding light filled the room and when it dimmed, Caliga was standing in the middle, her back turned towards me.
‘This is bad.’ Athena muttered.
Then she doubled over, like how Rachel does when she’s about to sprout a prophecy,
‘I hate it when that happens.’ Rachel mumbled.
And I realised she was being possessed. I tried to run towards her, but I couldn’t move.
‘Hate that kind as well.’ Percy muttered.
I then I heard a laugh that I couldn’t forget, that cold, raspy voice of Gaia.

Both Ryan and Caliga shivered, she hate made their lives worse for those couple of weeks.

‘Give up your little quest, child of lightening,’ She then came into view, her face was cracked, as if made out the Earth itself, her eyes and mouth were closed but she still spoke clearly. ‘Everything you ever cared about will be destroyed, even this girl will be no more.’
I wanted to shout, ‘But I don’t even like this girl!’
Caliga glared at Ryan.
But what she said almost made me long for the Hyperboreans.
Thalia smirked. ‘Gaia is much worse than the Hyperboreans.’
She laughed again and everything went black.

‘NO!’ I woke up, breathing hard.
I got out of bed and started to walk to the crow’s nest, my thoughts were clearer when I was near the sky.

‘I wonder why.’ Hera muttered, looking accusingly at her husband.

As I climbed up the ladder I could hear the blowing of wind and the splashing of water. When I got up Caliga was standing there doing some of her fancy water and air bending.
She stopped abruptly. ‘Can’t you leave me alone for one minute?’
‘No,’ Ryan smirked and Caliga glared at him.
‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I just – just need to think.’
She then slumped down and leaned against the wooden mast, obviously not liking as me company.

‘It was that obvious?’ Caliga asked while slightly blushing.

I sat down next to her, and I began to realise that every time I saw her unexpectedly, she didn’t have her hood or gloves on. I wondered of that was just a coincidence or the Fates had been planning this.

‘Probably they had been planning this,’ Annabeth said. ‘Or it would have been Aphrodite.’

We sat in awkward silence until Caliga said, ‘How did you know about Gaia possessing me?’
I stared at her. ‘H–How did you –‘but then I remembered she could read minds.
‘Can you still read minds?’ Ryan asked.
Caliga shrugged. ‘I don’t really know.’
‘Well, I had this dream.’
Caliga raised an eyebrow and I then blurted out about my dream and Rachel’s prophecy, stupid ADHD.
’Yes, like ADHD is stupid.’ And to everyone surprise, Dionysius said that.
‘You’re actually listening?’ Ryan asked with mock horror.
I found myself staring at the weird markings on her hands; I had always wondered how she got those, maybe the same way she got that sign on her forehead.
‘No,’ Caliga said, as if remembering something unpleasant. ‘It’s very, very different.’
‘What’s with the markings?’ I asked, gesturing towards her hand. She followed were I was pointing to and she quickly covered her hand with her sleeve.
‘Why do you even care?’ She asked coldly. ‘It’s not like we’re going to see each other after this quest.’

‘I would beg to differ.’ Thalia said.

I shrugged. ‘We have 2 more weeks until we’re at Greece; I just thought we should get to know each other a bit more.’
She stared at me. ‘Are you trying to... flirt with me?’

At that comment, everyone burst out laughing.
‘Why would Ryan flirt with you?’ Thalia asked between laughs. ‘You are so out of his league!’

‘What? No! Why would you think –‘ I paused, if she thinks I’m flirting with her when I’m not, that means... A sly smile slowly formed on my face. ‘You like me!’ I said.

‘Is someone being a bit hopeful?’ Thalia asked.

‘You totally –‘
‘NO I DO NOT!’ She yelled. ‘Why on Earth would I like you?’
‘Well seeing as you were accusing me for flirting with me, which I wasn’t even doing in the first place,’ I shrugged. ‘I would say you like me.’
She then went to punch me with her left hand but I grabbed it easily. She then tried punching me with her right hand, but like before, I grabbed it easily.
Ryan smiled. ‘I think ADHD has some good things about it.’
‘LET GO!’ She screamed, trying to get free.
‘Look, let me make a deal.’ I said. She stopped fighting and looked at me cautiously.
‘A deal?’ She asked.
I nodded. ‘If I let you go and you tell me what’s with those markings, I’ll answer any questions you have about me.’
She glared at me. ‘Fine.’ She hissed. I let go of her fists and she leaned against the mast.
‘I had it since I was a baby,’ She started. ‘Every time she tries to take control, they get thicker. The sign on my forehead,’ She pulled up the hair that fell over her dark green eyes to reveal the glowing sign. ‘It’s to brand that I’m a demon, claimed by an evil god.’
I nodded. ‘Like how Dyslexia and ADHD brands that I’m a Demigod.’
‘What is with that anyway?’ She asked.
‘Our ADHD means our senses are sharper than regular Mortals.’

‘Hey!’ Rachel and Jess protested.
I explained. ‘The Dyslexia, the Greek gods prefer Greek than English.’
‘Wouldn’t it be easier if you read English?’ Jess asked and the gods just shrugged.
She nodded. We looked at each other, and when Acario wasn’t all agitated and jumpy, she was... what’s the word, different?
‘No, the word is nicer.’ Thalia said.
No, that’s not it. The word was nicer.
Thalia narrowed her eyes.

She didn’t try to kill me and she didn’t say any mean comment about me.
‘Anymore,’ Ryan said. ‘Except for that one time...’ He trailed off.
She quickly looked away. ‘So you know some of my family, my long lost sister, what about your family?’
‘Isn’t that a touchy subject?’ Jess asked.
‘Yeah but he was willing to do it for Caliga.’ Nico smirked.

‘Well, you already know my siblings, Thalia and Jason, you know who my Dad is...‘ Thunder rumbled overhead. ‘Well you know, and you can’t meet my Mom...’ I trailed off, looking at the floor.
Like he was doing right now.
‘Because?’ She prompted, looking a bit more interested.
‘She’s dead.’ I mumbled.

The gods bowed their heads in silence, Caliga was comforting her boyfriend and Thalia was doing the same.

‘What happened?’ She asked.
I took a shaky breath. ‘Five years ago, my mom and I were driving home one night; it was dark and misty so my mom couldn’t see where she was going. We heard a horn honking and everything went black. When I woke up, the car was burning and I had a huge gash across my cheek. I asked the people where my mom was, they –‘ I stopped, looking over the horizon, my eyes were stinging.
Ryan was trying hard not to cry, everyone was now looking at him and Caliga said, ‘Well, what are you waiting for? Read!’
Everyone decided to do what they were told, seeing as she could burn you to a crisp.

‘They said she was dead.’ I tried to keep my voice from cracking. ‘They said I was lucky, they dragged me away, kicking and screaming, but they took me knowing that she was gone, in the Underworld with Hades.’
‘What is her name?’ Hades asked.
‘Linda.’ Ryan mumbled.
‘I think I have seen her before,’ Hades said. ‘She asked if her children were all right, I said her sons were all right but I didn’t mention anything about Thalia, if that makes you feel any better.’

We were silent for a couple of minutes until Caliga said. ‘You said something about a prophecy you had, what was it?’
I sighed.
‘Oldest son of Zeus’ claim,
Will find a lost camp and even the game.
He will take four Half-bloods and lead them west,
But ignore the sleeping one’s one request.
He will find true love in Rome’s old land,
Put aside your differences and must withstand.’ I stopped, trying to decide whether or not to tell her the next two lines, the two parts of me were fighting and the part which wanted to lie to her won.
‘You should have told her.’ Athena said.
‘Before winter’s light, before all is lost,
Will preserve Olympus or pay the cost.’
Caliga didn’t say anything for a while; she just sat and stared into space.
‘Two at a time shall never be,
One god, one soul shall rule.
When she rises things will never be the same,
The earth shall rise in the black haired child.’ She said calmly.
‘What’s that?’ I asked.
‘A prophecy that was said a long time ago.’
I thought about what she said. ‘It’s about you, isn’t it?’
She sighed. ‘I don’t know.’
‘It has to be!’ I said. ‘It adds up doesn’t it? The black haired girl, the earth will rise. It makes perfect sense!’
‘Oh! So just because I have black hair and have been claimed by Gaia you just assume the prophecy means me?’ She snapped.
‘I didn’t say that!’ I yelled.

‘Actually, you did.’ Annabeth pointed out and Ryan just glared at her.

Caliga just turned to face away from me.
Then I heard someone coming up the ladder, it was Lux.
‘Uh, Ryan, Annabeth said that we are making a stop in Paris, she said something about seeing the Eifel Tower.’
‘Yeah, I’ll be down in a minute.’ I said, getting up. ‘You coming?’ I asked Caliga. She just shook her head, put on her hood and walked off.
‘Like I said,’ Thalia said. ‘Overdramatic.’
‘That was the end of the chapter,’ Hermes said. ‘Who like to read next?’
‘I will!’ Apollo sang. Hermes handed him the book.

I woke up with someone knocking on my door. I groaned and sank back in bed but the knocking became louder. I sighed, got out of bed and opened the door to find Piper who had a big grin on her face.
‘Ryan, I – where’s your shirt?’ She said, blushing a bit. I looked down and realised that I didn’t have a shirt on, so I went back into my room and put on a shirt that was on the floor.
‘You were saying?’ I prompted.
‘There’s going to be a ball!’ She squealed, which wasn’t like her. ‘It’s going to be tonight!’
I gave her a second look, she was wearing mascara and lipstick which she hated and she was getting excited because of some ball.
‘Piper, is it that time of the month again?’ I asked.
‘What? No! What makes you think it’s that time of the month?’ She asked.
I guess I have to explain what Piper’s ‘time of the month’ is. Once a month her ‘Aproditiness’ kicks in, so she acts like a Aphrodite chick, wears make-up, gets excited about anything to do with love or beauty.
‘Well, the Piper I know doesn’t wear make-up and she doesn’t get excited about some ball.’ I answered.
‘It’s not just any ball,’ she said. ‘It’s the Aphrodite Ball, the most popular ball in France.’
‘No way am I going to a ball.’ I said.
‘Come on, it’ll be fun.’ Then before I could answer, she grabbed my arm and dragged me outside in front of Thalia’s room. Piper knocked on the door and a voice that was defiantly Thalia’s yelled, ‘Can’t I just have one day when I don’t get interrupted while I’m sleeping?!’
She then opened the door and saw me and Piper. ‘What do you want?’ She grumbled. So Piper told her about the Aphrodite Ball and how she wanted everyone to go.
‘Nu, uh. No way. I am not going to any ball on this quest.’ She said but like she did to me, Piper dragged Thalia out of her room and took me and Thalia shopping.

‘- And the best part about a ball is that you get to find your special someone!’ Piper squealed. Piper, Thalia and I were at the shops looking for something to wear for the ball. Piper looked through the clothes rack for tuxedos and brought out a blue and black suit.
‘Hmm... Black or blue?’ She muttered to herself. She looked between me and the suits. ‘Black,’ she decided. ‘It brings out your eyes.’ She gave me the black tuxedo. ‘Try this on while I go find Thalia a dress.’
‘Wait, a dress?’ Thalia yelled. ‘I wouldn’t wear a dress if the gods forced me to!’
I snickered at Thalia’s misfortune but I hated balls, especially ones that involved dancing, I wondered if Acario was having as much fun as I was. I went into the changing rooms and changed into the suit. I had to admit, Piper sure knows what to wear, the suit was perfect, I wondered if I looked like a younger version of my dad, I had blue eyes and black hair, but I will not under any circumstance grow a beard. I stepped out of the changing room and Piper squealed. ‘This is going to be great! Just wait until you see who your date is!’
‘You chose our dates?’ I asked. Piper nodded. Just then Thalia came out of the changing room and I had to say I almost didn’t recognise her; she was wearing a purple dress that stopped at her knees; that I thought she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing, the dark eyeliner she usually wore was gone, making her eyes more visible and her hair was straightened, so it reached to her shoulders.
She saw me staring at her. ‘One word of this Bolt Head, and I swear you will be sorry you ever lived.’ She threatened.
Piper was looking at me like there was still something wrong. ‘We need to do something with that hair.’ She said.
‘What’s wrong with my hair?’ I demanded.
‘Nothing, it just needs a wash and some straightening.’ Piper replied.

Once we were done with the shopping and Piper making us look good for the ball, Piper dragged me and Thalia to the ballroom. I was standing next to Thalia next to the punch bowl and Thalia elbowed me, I looked up to see Lux and Caliga, Lux was wearing a white dress that spread out at the bottom and Caliga, all I could say was wow. She was wearing a black sleeveless dress which reviled the markings on her hands and her hair flowed down to her shoulders so you could see her dark green eyes.
Thalia whacked me in the arm. ‘Close your mouth,’ She said. ‘It’s rude to stare.’
I closed my mouth and walked up to Caliga. ‘Wow,’ I said. ‘You look –‘
But Caliga interrupted me. ‘If you finish that sentence, I will beat the hell out of you.’ She threatened. I slowly closed my mouth and looked around to find everyone dancing; I glanced at Piper who was dancing with Leo and she gave me a, ‘go-out-there-and-strut-your-stuff’ look. I shifted uncomfortably, not just because I have ADHD but because I was really nervous. I looked at Caliga; she looked like she wasn’t enjoying this much either. I decided to take Piper’s advice, I would dance with her.
I grabbed Caliga’s hand, ‘Come on let’s dance.’ I said trying to pull her on to the dance floor.
‘NO!’ She yelled, staying put.
‘Aww, come on, it’ll be fun.’ I said, dragging her towards the dance floor but she pulled me back.
‘NO! I mean, I can’t dance.’
I looked her up and down; she looked like the type who would dance, athletic looking, and strong hands. I was going to make her dance, whatever it takes... A mischievous grin formed on my face. I grabbed her by the waist and put her over my shoulder. My knees buckled a bit, she was heavier than I thought.
‘RYAN! PUT ME DOWN!’ She screamed as I carried her to the dance floor. She pummelled and kicked and she was punching my back, did I mention that?
‘RYAN!’ She screamed again. ‘I SWEAR YOU ARE THE MOST-‘
I put her down and put on my sarcastic smile. ‘I’m the most what?’ I asked. She glared at me.
‘You are the most annoying, immature, idiotic person I have EVER MET!’ She yelled.
‘You know, you remind me of Thalia,’ I said. ‘She yells at me when I say something stupid –‘
‘I’m not dancing.’ Was all Caliga could say.
‘That’s fine with me,’ I said. ‘We could just stand here and look like total idiots...’
Acario glared at me. ‘I hate it when you’re right.’ I put my hand on her hip and she put her hand on my shoulder.
‘You’re welcome.’ I said.
Acario looked at me suspiciously. ‘What do you mean, ‘You’re welcome’?’
‘You’re welcome as in, ‘You’re welcome for saving you from the Hyperboreans.’ I answered.
She then stepped on my toe, and seeing her dance, I didn’t know if it was on purpose or by accident.
‘I had it under control!’ She yelled.
‘I wouldn’t call being frozen ‘under control’.’ I said. ‘I would call it being helpless.’
She then kicked me in the place where it really hurt, ‘OW!’ I yelled almost an octave higher. I fell to my knees, holding the spot where Caliga had kicked me and put my head against the wooden floor.
‘Who’s helpless now?’ She whispered in my ear.
I looked up and glared at her. ‘I hate you!’ I growled.
‘That’s just what I wanted to hear.’ She said. She then turned on her heel and walked off. Everyone who was standing around me, mainly my friends and siblings, stared at me in awe. Leo came up to me, bent down and whispered in my ear, ‘Dude, if you don’t want ‘the kick’, don’t insult the girl.’
I looked up at him. ‘Yeah, thanks for the warning.’ I grumbled. Leo put out his hand and helped me up and I limped towards the elevator.
Caliga stormed out of the ball room and into the garden, her face was bright red, her fingers twitching.
‘Shit!’ she yelled as her fist punched at the tree trunk to her left, making it shake violently.
This wasn’t one of her best ideas because her hand hurt like hell afterwards. Caliga clutched her hurt hand as she stomped back to the ship.
A few hours later Caliga walked to her bedroom, she was bunking with Lux and Thalia, she didn’t mind Thalia, she thought she was fun to hang out with and talk about how idiotic her brother was. When she walked into the room she was blinded by a light, when she looked up, the light was hanging on the ceiling.
‘Okay, how am I going to do this?’ She mumbled to herself. ‘The candle is high up so how am I going to put it out?’
‘There’s a switch.’ Said a new voice. She turned around and standing in the doorway was Thalia, who was smiling. She flicked a switch on the wall and the light turned off and she flicked it again and the light turned on.
‘Wow.’ Was all Caliga could say.
Thalia smiled. ‘You’re not from this time, are you?’ She asked.
Caliga shook her head. ‘Nope, I’m from the time of the Romans.’
Thalia nodded. ‘I’m guessing you still don’t like my brother.’
‘Oh please,’ Caliga scoffed. ‘I wouldn’t like him if he was the last boy on earth.’
Thalia laughed. ‘He’s nice once you get to know him; you just have to get past the sarcastic comments and pranks.’
Caliga smirked. ‘Easy for you to say, you’ve known him all your life.’
‘So I know him the best.’ Thalia said, getting up and switching off the light. ‘Goodnight.’
Then they heard the door opening, a crash and someone squealed.
‘Who blew out the candle?’ Lux asked.
Caliga got up, looked for the light switch and switched on the light and Lux looked at her amazed.
‘Can I try?’ Lux asked. Caliga stood aside and let Lux have a go. She flipped the light switch and the room went dark. Gasping, she flipped it back up and the room became illuminated. She flipped it back up, then back down. She started flipping it as fast she could, laughing to herself at the sudden change of light and Caliga and Thalia couldn’t help but laugh at her childish antics.
‘You know if you keep playing with it like that, you’re going to break it.’ Ryan was leaning on the doorframe, a smirk on his face.
Lux blushed. ‘You should try this!’ She laughed as she started flicking the switch again.
Ryan grabbed her wrist before she started playing with the light switch again. ‘No seriously, the bulb might explode.’
‘What are you doing here Ryan?’ Thalia asked.
‘You forgot this.’ He threw Thalia her silver bracelet, she caught it easily. ‘You left in the changing room.’ Caliga found that she was staring at Ryan, his electric blue eyes changed different shades of blue depending on his mood, that night they were a light blue colour, like the colour of the sky on a hot summer’s day, which meant that he was relaxed. Ryan started talking to Thalia and Lux; she had to admit she was a bit envious of Lux; it wasn’t because she liked Ryan or anything but Lux and Ryan got along just fine, they talked together and laughed together. Thalia noticed Caliga staring at her brother, but she didn’t say anything.
‘Well, I got to go,’ Ryan said. ‘Jason, Leo, Dakota and Percy are waiting for me; we’re going to prank Piper, Reyna, Gwen, Hazel and Annabeth.’
‘Yeah, if you want a herd of girls chasing after you, yelling curses in ancient Greek and Latin, go right ahead.’ Thalia said sarcastically and Ryan just smiled at her. ‘Later.’
The girls watched as Ryan left and Thalia looked at Caliga.
‘Someone’s falling for my brother.’ She said in a sing-song voice.
‘I AM NOT!’ She yelled, hitting Thalia with her pillow. ‘What makes you think that I would ever like Ryan?’
They heard footsteps running along the corridor and a voice that sounded like Annabeth’s shouting, ‘RYAN! I SWEAR TO HADES, IF YOU EVER PUT FAKE SPIDERS IN MY ROOM AGAIN, I WILL BIND YOU IN CHAINS, BEAT YOU SENSELESS AND PERSONALLY DRAG YOU TO OLYMPUS!’
Then from somewhere down the corridor, Ryan’s voice yelled, ‘MY DAD ISN’T GOING TO LIKE THAT!’ There was more shouting and cursing coming from Annabeth and then the footsteps and voices disappeared down the corridor.
Thalia smirked and yelled, ‘RYAN, NEXT TIME YOU PRANK ANNABETH, REMEMBER SHE ISN’T GOING TO BE EASY ON YOU!’
There was more yelling and Ryan yelled something that sounded like, ‘I ALREADY KNEW THAT!’
Thalia chuckled and turned her attention back to Caliga. ‘Well seeing as you were staring at him when he was leaning on the doorframe, I would say you like my brother.’
‘OH MY GODS!’ Lux squealed. ‘Thalia, you are totally right!’
‘NO SHE IS NOT!’ Caliga yelled.
‘Someone’s getting it on with a Demigod.’ Thalia snickered.
Caliga threw her pillow at her. ‘You are SO immature! Gods, you are so acting like Ryan right now.’
‘You’re making a reference!’ Lux pointed out. ‘You are totally falling for him!’
‘And I would be acting like him,’ Thalia said. ‘He is my brother.’
Caliga crossed her arms and glared at them but she knew she would lose the fight because a) Thalia could shock her and Jupiter could punish her for hurting his daughter and b) Lux was her sister and she didn’t want hurt her.
Caliga huffed. ‘You guys are so annoying.’ She grumbled.
Thalia and Lux laughed. Thalia got up and switched off the light and the girls closed their eyes and went to sleep.
The next day Thalia and Lux were no better. All day they gave Caliga nudges and giggles...to the point where Caliga got so mad, her whole body lit on fire and Thalia and Lux had to run from a shower of fireballs falling at top speed towards them. Of course Caliga didn’t want to hurt them, but just scare them enough so that the teasing would stop. She just chased them all around, until they were all were out of breath and panting. Caliga finally caught up when Thalia stuck her foot out, tripping her...however she didn’t expect Caliga to grab both herself and Lux down with her. They landed in a fit of giggles.
‘Why Acario, you almost looked like a girl then.’ Lux shouted while pointed at her sister.
When that remark was made Caliga’s face grew solemn and cold, just like it had been before the twins had meet Ryan and everyone else. She quickly stood up, dusted herself off, and walked off.
‘What happened to her?’ Thalia asked
‘I have no idea...I haven’t seen that face for a long while. She’s angry; I’m going to go check on her.’ Lux tied back her hair with a hair elastic and ran to find her sister.
Just after the two had left, Ryan walked around the corner and asked what had happened.
‘I don’t know. One second Acario was laughing, the next she just stormed out.’ Thalia explained, ‘Go and check on her for me will you? I need to go ask Annabeth something.’
Ryan nodded, turned and walked in the direction of the twins.

Meanwhile Lux wasn’t having any luck. Caliga was completely ignoring her. Her hood was pulled over her head, just like the old her. Long, strong steps that made her look like a boy when she walked, this wasn’t good.
‘Please talk to me! I really don’t know what I did.’ Lux pleaded, and quickened her pace to keep up with her sister.
Finally when they reached their room, Caliga turned to Lux and said,
‘You didn’t do anything. All you did was remind me of what we are doing here and what our real mission is. And it’s not playing around here with these people. We are running against a timer, the second it runs out, it’s over, we both don’t exist anymore! Now, go away, I need some time to prepare, we are going leave soon and travel on our own, like it was supposed to be. If Aunt found out that about what we were doing, I’d be in so much trouble right now.’
‘WHY?! I like it here. Just because you’re the manliest girl in the world doesn’t mean we both have to be alone!’ Lux yelled
‘And whose fault do you think it is that I ended up this way?’ The air around Caliga got so hot that Lux had to take quite a large step back. ‘It’s because your such a spoilt brat who think everyone is nice and that life is easy, well have a wake up check! It’s not! Especially not for me.’ Caliga slammed the door in Lux’s tear stained face.
‘Fine be that way.’ Lux screamed and stormed off to go find Thalia. She bumped into Ryan, but didn’t say anything as she stormed off.
‘What the hell did that girl do?’ Ryan shook his head as he knocked on Caliga’s door.
‘Go away! I’m tired.’ Caliga yelled through the door.
‘I’m coming in...’ the door creaked as Ryan weighed his odds about going in. First option was to turn tail and run, but then Thalia would probably be mad and he’d have hell to pay. Then there’s entering the room where it would most probably rain fire...but sister made him shudder more, so in he went.
The room was in complete darkness, the curtains closed and Caliga was hiding underneath her blankets, as quite as ever. If Ryan hadn’t heard Caliga yell at him before he entered the room, he wouldn’t have known that she was in there.
As he walked into the room, Lux had left her large rucksack in the middle of the floor, and of course, Ryan tripped over it. So down he fell, straight on top of Caliga. She yelped from surprise as she shot a fireball at his head, which just missed him.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ She asked impatiently, ‘get out now! I want to be alone.’
Ryan just sat up quickly, and rooted himself to the end of her bed.
‘I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s wrong?’ Ryan asked as confidently as he could, but in his brain, he was hoping that he would get out of this alive, and preferably without burns.
‘Why do you care you stupid person?’
‘Why not?’
Not one of his best moves, because the second he said that, another fireball was thrown at his head.
‘Man, you’re an angry girl today.’ Ryan complained while rubbing his head from another almost hit to the head.
‘Just go and annoy someone else, I’m not in the mood today. And if you piss me off anymore, I swear to the Gods that I’ll toast you alive and then revive you, then toast you again because once wasn’t enough.’
And anyone that knows Caliga knows that her threats are all 100% real.
Ryan flinched a bit, but he didn’t move. Eventually after much pointless arguing between the two, Caliga let Ryan stay for a little bit.
‘So are you going to tell me what’s wrong then?’ Ryan asked again, but with more confidence that he would come out if this one alive.
‘Nothing’s wrong.’ Caliga demanded
‘Please, we all know that you’re the world’s worst liar. When you lie, you start to look in all directions and your fingers twitch. So are you going to fess up or not?’
‘Let’s go with NOT! Now please for the love of the Gods, go away!’ Caliga begged.
‘I think not, not until I have my answer.’ Ryan smiled smugly.
‘Take that stupid grin off your face, you may have been able to stay in my room, but you haven’t won this battle yet.’ Caliga grumbled.
She then stood up, and walked towards the door. However Ryan wouldn’t let her go before he got her answer, he grabbed her wrists and pulled her down so they ended up lying down, facing each other, on the bed, Ryan’s face staring straight at Caliga. He took off Caliga hood that was hiding her face, and underneath, were tears trickling down her face.
‘I’m not allowed to do this. I’m just born to protect Lux, nothing more, nothing less. I should have never been born. If I hadn’t none of this would have ever happened.’ Caliga whispered.
‘Shut up you idiotic woman!’ Ryan yelled.
Caliga was to stunned that Ryan had actually raised his voice that it brought her back from the back of her mind and realised what was happening.
‘Get off of me Ryan.’ She growled
‘No.’ Ryan said defiantly.
‘Ryan.’ Caliga said again, ‘Get off of me now.’
‘Make me.’
But Caliga couldn’t move. Something made her unable to get up from the bed. She turned her head to the side and started to cry again.
‘Now look at me.’ Ryan ordered.
And slowly but surely, Caliga moved her head until they were looking straight at each other. It was quiet for a few seconds, and just as she tried to get up again, Ryan held her down.
‘Please just let me go, please.’ Silent tears dripped down her face.
‘I can’t take this anymore!’ Ryan said.
The before Caliga could do anything, Ryan leaned forward and kissed her. But oddly, she didn’t mind it. It was like the feminine side of Caliga pushed its way out into the open and took over. Her body just followed his lead. It took a few minutes before she realised what they were doing. She quickly came back to her senses and kicked him off of her.
‘What the hell was that?’ Caliga yelled, her face a very bright red
‘It was called a kiss my dear, if you didn’t know.’ Ryan just smiled and walked straight out of the room, but not before another fireball was thrown at his head.
After he had left, Caliga buried her head in her pillow, embarrassed as ever.

The lunch bell sounded and the rest of day went on as usual, except for the awkward silence when Caliga and Ryan were both late for lunch and they ended up sitting next to each other. Thalia and Lux just looked and gave a quick smile at each other, they were going to have so much fun terrorising Caliga tonight about what had happened.


‘So, you going to tell us what happened? Or are we just going to have to force you to say anything?’ Thalia questioned Caliga when they were all back in their room.
‘Nothing happened.’ Caliga lied
‘Ha, as if we’d believe that!’ Thalia smiled and called for Lux to help her.
‘Please tell us my dear wonderful sister...’ Lux tried to pull the sweetest face that she could, her voice dripping with sugar coated words.
‘Don’t try to pull the sister thing here Lux. I’m only your protector technically, I don’t exist.’ Caliga smiled one bone chilling smile and went to lie down in her bed.
Lux whispered that she didn’t think that they would get anything out her tonight, so they all tucked themselves into bed and fell asleep.

The small alarm clock struck 1’oclock in the morning, and everything on the ship was quite. Nothing moved, nothing creaked, and it was as if time had stopped. The silence was broken when Ryan started to do his rounds around the ship. He heard someone walked around behind him, but when he turned his head to look over his shoulders, nothing was there. But the sound didn’t go away, every time Ryan took another step forward, the other person took two. Eventually, whatever it was, caught up with him. All he knew what that someone, or something, was taking deep, heavy breaths behind him. Ryan turned around as quickly as he could, but it wasn’t something that was behind him, it was Gaia. But just as Ryan pulled out his sword and tried to attack Gaia, it just went straight through her, and she just kept on walking forward as if nothing had happened. Ryan tried to hit her again, this time with his fist, but that didn’t work either. Gaia just kept on moving forward, towards Acario’s room. Ryan was puzzled but ran after Gaia, however, by the time he reached the girl’s room, Gaia was gone. Ryan looked around, puzzled, but then he just shrugged and thought that he had just imagined everything. But the second that he left the room, he looked back just the make sure that Gaia wasn’t there. She wasn’t but what he did see was Acario sitting straight up in her bed, eyes glowing a bright green. She got up out of bed, and started to walk towards Ryan.
‘Acario? You awake?’ He asked while taking a step back.
Caliga didn’t say anything, but just walked past him, eyes still glowing and her face was very pale. Ryan tried to get her attention by grabbing her wrist and asking her what was going on, but when he tried, she just glared at him and lit herself on fire. He quickly let go and just decided to follow Caliga to where she was going. They walked up the stairs and up onto the top deck when Acario just stood still in the middle of the floor. Ryan, like an idiot, almost bumped into her when she stopped walking, but he slowed down just in time. All was quiet for around three seconds when Ryan felt the air getting hot, really hot. The wind started to howl and the floor was slowly being covered in ice. All the plants started to over grow and twist and turn around everything until the top deck was just plants and ice. It was all except for where Caliga was standing. And every time she took a step forward, she would leave a trail of clear patched behind her. Ryan had to follow in her footsteps because if he took one foot out, it would be covered in ice and vines. Not regarding anything that was happening around her, Caliga stepped up onto the side of the ship, and started to chant some words in a language that Ryan couldn’t understand. But all he knew was that the second that she stopped speaking, the deck turned back to normal.
Ryan ran up and caught Caliga as she fell backwards towards him. Her eyes were closed now but even more markings had shown up on her arms, and they all had turned a shade darker. Ryan was about to carry her back to her room, when Caliga grabbed his face and pulled him in closer, whispering
‘Gaia didn’t hurt anyone did she?’ her eyes still were closed shut.
‘No she didn’t.’ Ryan answered
Caliga let out a sigh and said, ‘Thank the Gods. But she’s going to come again, I need to leave before I hurt someone again.’
‘You’re not leaving anywhere unless I say so. Now can you stand up or shall I carry you back to your room?’
There wasn’t an answer. So Ryan lifted her up and took her back to the room where Lux had just woken up and was looking around for her sister.
When Ryan saw Lux he called her over and asked if he could have a word with her after he put her sister down. When Lux turned around and saw Caliga’s pale face she ran over and asked what happened. As Ryan tried to explain what happened, Lux’s eyes grew wide and told him to wake up Thalia and they all had to get out of the room. He could tell from her voice that it was urgent.
Unfortunately Thalia was in no mood to be up before the sun had fully risen.
‘LET ME SLEEP RYAN!’ she shouted and aimed a random punch which hit him straight in the arm. Ryan wasn’t too happy about that but he kept on trying to wake her up anyway.
‘That’s it!’ Ryan shouted while pulling his unwilling sister out of her bed and dragging her out of the room. It was just after they closed the door when Lux told them not to go back in there until night.
‘Why what’s wrong?’ Thalia asked while rubbing her eyes and giving a quick punch in the arm to her brother for waking her up so early.
‘It doesn’t matter as long as you don’t go in there.’ Lux looked down to the ground as if she was hiding something.
Ryan wouldn’t take no answer so he went to open the door but when his hand neared the door handle, it was emanating heat. But to make it stranger, ice crystals started to form all around the door, sealing it shut.
‘Well, she did warn you.’ Thalia said while taking Lux to go get some breakfast, but Ryan was determined to get inside the room.
He tried all sorts of things, but every single time he got near the door or cracked a piece of ice off, more ice would appear and he would be hit with a huge black of wind. So our stupid and stubborn Ryan stayed by the door all day. Random people from the ship came to help, but the second they saw the door, turned right around and knew it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with this one. It was just around half six in the afternoon when Ryan tried one more time, but this time, all the ice broke away when he hit the door with the hammer he had been using. There was a cold blow of wind, but it was quite weak in strength, so Ryan walked straight in. Lux had just turned the corner then and shouted for Ryan not to go inside, but he had already gone inside and the door shut.
Inside was not something Ryan expected to see. There was ice everywhere, in every corner. He looked around the room, surprised that Caliga was still in the same spot as she had been when they had left, even though she was in a box of ice. However, when he walked up to her and said her name, the ice box melted and she lit on fire. And in one split second, Gaia’s face was in the flames, but she was trying to take over Acario’s body. Ryan looked surprised for a bit but then he realised what Gaia was doing and attacked her. Gaia jumped back in surprise from the large sword that was swinging towards her face. She let go of Caliga and the flames dyed down a bit. Gaia turned to face Ryan and moaned,
‘What the hell are you doing here?’
‘I’m just looking around...’ Ryan answered
‘It’s not nice to stick your nose into other people’s business,’ Gaia moved up closer to Ryan and whispered in his ear, ‘Your mom was no exception.’ A dark smile spread across her face as she moved slowly backwards just so she could take a good look at Ryan’s stunned face. ‘You really don’t think your dad would hate me so much for nothing do you? Such a naive little boy. And just think, at this rate, Caliga, oh sorry I mean Acario, won’t exist for much longer, and it’s all thanks to you.’
‘Wait what?! What the hell did you do to my mum, and who is Caliga?’ Ryan shouted
‘I guess you’ll have to ask Acario yourself.’ Gaia started to fade just as Ryan angrily charged at her screaming. But she disappeared laughing before he could reach her. And just as she disappeared, the room returned to normal and Caliga woke up.
‘Shit! My head.’ She complained as she sat up in bed, hands clutching her aching head.
Ryan walked straight up to her and yelled,
‘You have some questions to answer before I let you out of this room.’
‘Not now, leave me alone. I need some sleep.’ Caliga lied back down and turned around as so she didn’t have to see Ryan. But Ryan wouldn’t take no for an answer so he shouted,
‘What does Gaia have to do with my mum.’
‘Why would I know, and if I did, why would I tell you? It’s not like Gaia tells me everything, she just used my body.’ Acario complained
‘Then who the hell is Caliga?’ Ryan took a deep breath in and let it out.
Acario jumped out of bed the second that she heard the name. She raised her hand and all the water from the floor flew towards Ryan and pinned him to the wall.
‘Where did you hear that?’ Caliga hissed
‘I don’t have to tell you anything.’
Caliga was angry at this answer so she sprayed more ice on him. There was so much it was almost suffocating him, only his head wasn’t covered in ice.
‘I’ll ask you again once more nicely, where did you hear that name?’
Ryan knew that this wasn’t a battle that he could win this time so he told her if she let him go he would tell. Caliga agreed and melted the ice.
‘Damn I’m freezing cold now!’ Ryan complained as he ran to the bed and wrapped himself in the blankets.
‘Tell me now Ryan.’ Caliga’s foot started to nervously tapping and she twitched her fingers.
‘It was Gaia who told me. And now since I answered your question, answer some of mine.’
There was no response. Caliga just stood there wide eyed and she looked as if someone had just shot her. It was just then when Lux had finally opened the still frozen door and rushed over to her sister.
‘What in the Gods name did you do to her?!’ Lux screamed while trying to get her sister back to normal
‘Nothing, I just asked her something.’ Ryan stuttered, surprised at Lux’s fierceness.
‘What did you ask her?’ Lux asked
‘All I was ask who Caliga was.’ Ryan said defiantly, ‘I did nothing wrong here. It’s you guys who are keeping some very important secrets from us.’
Lux was too surprised when he said that. But she snapped back to after a few seconds and shouted,
‘There are some things that people want to keep secrets. I’m sure you have at least one as well. Oh dear Gods what the hell did you do.’ Lux sat her sister down on a chair. ‘Get out now!’
Ryan got up and walked straight out of the room and shouted, ‘Man, you both have anger issues don’t you?’
‘You don’t understand a thing about us!’ Lux screamed, while crying for her sister to come back.
‘Lux?’ Caliga finally said
‘Shhhh, don’t waste your energy. Just go to sleep.’ Lux whispered while patting her sister’s hair when she laid down.
‘She told him. It’s out, they’ll all find out. Oh my Gods Lux, I gotta get out of here. They’ll all hate me.’ Acario was shaking.
‘They didn’t find out, they never will. Now just go to sleep.’
‘I’m such an idiot to not think that they would find out.’ Caliga started to cry and Lux stormed out of the room to go find Ryan.
It didn’t take long for Lux to find him because he was waiting outside with Thalia.
‘WHY DID YOU GO INO THE ROOM WHEN I TOLD YOU NOT TOO?!’ Lux screamed at him.
‘You can’t keep us in the dark forever, so you might as well tell us now. And don’t say this doesn’t involve us, ‘cause it does. It has something to do with our mother.’ Ryan said defiantly.
Lux looked around worried, as if she was looked to see if someone was there. She opened the door to make sure that Caliga was sleeping when she told them that she would tell them, but not there, they needed a safe place where she wouldn’t be overheard. But the only agreement was that she wouldn’t tell Ryan, only Thalia. Ryan, of course, refused and insisted that he hear it as well, but all Lux did was shake her head and say,
‘My sister doesn’t want you to hate her.’
Ryan pleaded so much that Lux gave in, but he had to promise that once he heard it that he wouldn’t tell Caliga that he knew, Thalia too.
So they went to a quite room where no one was near, Lux put a protective barrier around it just in case someone walked past and over hear.
‘Are you going to tell us or what?’ Ryan complained.
‘You two might want to sit down for this one.’ Lux explained. She took a deep breath in and started.
‘Acario wasn’t always like this. She used to be normal, and used to act like a girl. And Caliga is her real name. Acario is just a cover up.’
Ryan and Thalia’s mouths dropped open in surprise, and Lux continued.
‘ It all started 5 years ago...’

________________________

‘CALIGA! WHERE ARE YOU?’ Lux shouted, as she ran around the trees looking for her. ‘Aunt says it’s time for our lessons.’
‘I’m right here!’ A voice called from the tree behind her. Mud steps arose from the ground and out of the tree came 11 year old Acario, except, she was wearing a dress and had long hair, and she wasn’t Acario, but herself, Caliga.
‘I’ve been looking for you for ages Caliga!’ Lux complained as she tried to catch her breath from running so much.
‘I was just enjoying watching the people pass by our villa. I wish we were allowed outside, it looks like so much fun.’ Caliga sighed.
‘If I let you out you’d probably disappear for good, and I don’t want you too, you’re all mine.’ A kind voice said from behind them.
‘Aunt!’ they both shouted.
‘Caliga, where have you been this whole time? You’ve had me and the maids worried about you this whole time!’ The twin’s aunt gave her a light tap on the head.
‘Sorry, I was just in that tree there.’ Caliga pointed to the tree.
‘What am I going to do with you two?’ She laughed and walked back towards the villa, ‘Oh it’s lunch time girls. And you have a lesson soon Caliga so go and quickly eat so otherwise you’ll be late, again. And I can’t have an impatient teacher waiting around the house for you.’
‘Yes Aunt.’ Caliga replied while daring her sister to a race to see who can get inside faster.
‘But you always win...’ Lux complained,
‘That’s because you’re too slow. Think of this as training.’ She smiled a mischievous grin as the twins got ready to race. But of course, Caliga won as usual.
Lux complained a bit but they both just laughed it off in the end as they went to the kitchen to ask the cook for something to eat.

Later on that evening the two were back outside, lying in the field behind the house, staring at the stars.
‘I wish I could go on a long adventure. One that includes going outside of the villa.’ Caliga said
‘Good luck with that, we aren’t ever going anywhere. Aunt said that normal people without powers don’t understand our kind.’
‘But that is our kind? All we can do is things that others can’t.’ Caliga complained.
‘Look! A shooting star!’ Lux pointed and both made a wish.
‘What did you wish for?’ Caliga turned to Lux,
‘I wished to be able to master my powers.’ Lux replied
‘How boring, I’ve already mastered mine.’ A smile spread over Caliga’s face, ‘I wished to be able to go out of the villa and have an adventure.’
It was just then when they were about to go back inside when they heard someone behind them. Both girls jumped up and turned to see a young looking girl stumbling towards them.
‘You two...’ she said, ‘Can you help me please. I’m looking for a girl, that should be around your age called Caliga. I need her urgently, please help me.’ The girl pleaded. She was very unusual looking. Her hair was green and her clothes looked like it was the colour of mud. She had flowers and vines tangled into her hair as she reached out for the twins to help her.
‘Should I help her?’ Caliga whispered to her sister,
‘No, just leave her alone. We don’t know who she is and Aunt said not to talk to anyone who we don’t know so can we please just go?’ Lux begged
‘No, I think might help her. Look, if anything goes wrong I do have my powers to rely on, don’t worry I have this covered.’ Caliga walked straight up to the girl and said, ‘I’m Caliga, what do you want?’
The girl let out a relieved smile and bent down to look at Caliga straight in the face.
‘It is you Caliga, oh you don’t know how many eras in time I’ve searched to find you.’ Suddenly a wicked smile appeared on her face as she took her hand and placed one finger on the star in the middle of Caliga’s for head. Lux screamed as the mark started to glow and the young girl seemed to melt into Caliga’s body.
‘This girl has much more power than my other hosts.’ An unfamiliar voice came out of Caliga’s mouth as she turned to look at Lux.
‘Caliga!’ Lux screamed.
‘Your sister isn’t here anymore. Go and run away, tell your Aunt that Gaia has paid her nieces a nice visit.’
Lux ran as fast as she could,
‘I need to get help, I need to get help, I need to get help.’ She just kept on repeating.
Gaia turned around a few times and walked in a circle so she could get used to her new body.
‘A little small but it will do.’ She complained. ‘Now I can finally get rid of that troublesome woman for good.’ And with that, Caliga’s body disappeared.
She didn’t show up again in Rome though, not even in the same era. Where she arrived was in the present, well, the 5 years ago present. She was standing in the middle of a road, but there weren’t any cars, it was perfectly quiet. She just stood there, as if she was waiting for someone to come. It was a good ten minutes before the faint sound of a car arrived. Inside Caliga could see a mum and her son, who didn’t seem too much older than her. They looked like a very happy family of two, and she just stared as the car drove past her. But then Gaia took over her body again and she created a large sheet of ice underneath the car. The car did a very sharp swerve to the right, but there was just more ice waiting for them there as well. The car flipped over and rammed into a tree. Gaia then left Caliga’s body and let the young girl run up to the car to see what had just happened. Inside wasn’t a pretty sight. The mother was dead, and the kid had a huge cut across his cheek. The boy was unconscious and Caliga had to use a lot of her energy trying to get him out of the car. It was just as she got him out that she suddenly disappeared and arrived back in her own time. When she arrived her aunt and Lux were both franticly searching for her. When her aunt saw her, she walked straight up to her and slapped her.
‘How dare you scare us like that?!’ Her aunt screamed, ‘ Now she’s found you, the both of you have to go into hiding again.’
Caliga didn’t say anything as Lux ran up to her and gave her a big hug. She didn’t actually say anything for a long while after that. The only person who knew what had really happened that day way Lux, because she as the only one Caliga trusted. After that day, they were sent away to another villa; Caliga was disguised as Acario and became Lux’s protector.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬____________________________________

Ryan and Thalia both were extremely shocked to hear this news.
‘So let me get this straight? It was Acario, Ii mean Caliga who killed our mum?’ Thalia almost seemed afraid to say it out loud, for fear of the answer.
‘Yes. She was the cause of the car crash, your mother’s death and Ryan’s scar.’ Lux sighed and warned them not to say anything to Caliga, otherwise...
‘Shall we go check on the others Lux? I think Ryan needs to be alone after what he’s just heard.’ Thalia led Lux out of the room.

It was a good hour before Ryan came out of the room. He had been too shocked to do anything but just sit there. When he left the room he just wandered around the ship, just thinking about everything. He turned a corner and by accident walked into someone, and just to prove his luck, it was Caliga.
‘Oh sorry.’ She just kept her head down and walked past him. But Ryan didn’t say anything, he just stood there until she had walked away and you couldn’t hear her dragging her feet. In the background you could hear Lux scolding her sister for being out of bed. But Ryan just kept on walking.


‘I told you to stay in bed. You’re not rested enough yet.’ Lux complained to her sister,
‘I’m fine, there’s no need to worry.’ Caliga tried to give her sister her best reassuring smile but guess it didn’t go very well because Lux was still worried.
‘If you’re so fine then why do you have to walk holding on to something, and even then you don’t have enough energy to barely lift your feet of the ground. Now go back to bed.’ Lux stared sternly at her sister. ‘You are not allowed out of that room for at least a week. I’ll find a place for Thalia to sleep, since your powers go haywire when you’re week.’
‘Don’t bother them, I’ve done enough to ruin their lives.’
Lux helped Caliga walk back to the room, and Thalia walked in just then and helped the girls, Caliga was much too heavy for Lux who had never had to do any real work her whole life.
When they had Caliga lying down and the two girls went to go talk outside.
‘Is she going to be okay? I’ve never seen her like this before. You’d never guess that Acario, oh I mean, Caliga could be this weak.’ Thalia seemed really concerned for her friend who seemed to even have enough strength to breath.
‘This has happened before, but it’s never been this bad, but I guess our time is almost up. If we don’t get her healed and have Gaia thrown out of her body, she won’t be able to resist the next attack. Oh, I need to ask you if you have somewhere else to sleep because her powers start to go a bit out of control when she’s weak. And I don’t feel like waking up to find you either frozen or burned to a crisp.’ Lux sighed
‘Ya sure, I can just bunk with Annabeth, Piper and all of them. For how long?’
‘At least one week I should think she would be better after then. As long as she doesn’t get out of bed.’
The two girls walked off whispering to each other about what they could do to help Caliga when she recovered.


A few weeks later Ryan and Caliga still weren’t talking. The closed they had gotten to talking was bumping into each other in the hallways, or changing over to watch the ship at night. Lux was still had to help her sister when she walked around for more than a few hours, she was still very weak. She didn’t eat much, and if she did, it was by herself in her room. In fact, Caliga didn’t talk to barely anyone anymore. Only really to Lux and Thalia, who were both extremely worried about her health. She had lost so much weight, it was scary.
‘You’re going to get so skinny you’ll disappear!’ Thalia would always say, but Caliga would just shrug it off and only take a few bites of her food.
Ryan wouldn’t even take a second glance at Caliga; he just ignored everything and made sure not to have any necessary contact with Caliga.
‘This has got to stop Ryan! You have to talk to her, even if you hate her, at least make the effort to talk to her. Just think how much pain you’re in now, she’s feeling it ten times worse.’ Thalia pleaded after it had been 3 weeks already.
‘I can talk to who I want to.’ Ryan said defiantly.
‘Please, she already knows that we know, and what you think. She’s probably read your mind. So this shouldn’t be too hard. Just at least say hi, it will make BOTH of you feel much better.’
‘Fine, but just because you asked nicely without firing anything at me.’ Ryan grumbled and headed over to Caliga’s room, dragging his feet of course.
When he got there he felt suddenly embarrassed and didn’t know what he was going to say, but he went into the room anyway.
‘Acar...I mean, Caliga, or whatever, you here?’ Ryan called.
There was no answer, and not being too pleased about having to be there he was just about to leave the room when Caliga walked past him and into the room. She didn’t say anything, but just got a jacket and hurried out of the room as fast as she could. Ryan decided he might as well try and talk to her so just as she walked past him out of the room he caught her wrist.
‘Damn, was she always this skinny?’ He thought to himself.
‘You don’t need to try and be nice; I’ve read your thoughts already. You can tell your sister than its pointless trying to get us to talk if you don’t want to. Now please, just leave me alone.’ Caliga shrugged him off and walked as fast as she could in the other direction from him.
‘So how did it go then?’ Thalia walked up behind him.
‘Why is she so skinny? She wasn’t always like that was she?’ Ryan asked, his hand was still in the tiny shape of Caliga’s wrist.
‘This is all your fault you know. She thinks you hate her.’

That night it was Caliga’s time to be the first watcher. Everyone had already gone to bed when Ryan got up and went to go and try to talk.
He found Caliga sitting with her feet dangling off the side of the ship, her head leaning on the ropes that were dangling around her. She was softly singing to herself to keep awake. Ryan walked straight up behind her and sat next to her. She just ignored him, and looked the other way. Her singing stopped immediately.
‘Look, you’re going to have to talk to me sooner or later, so why not now?’ Ryan asked.
‘Because we both know that it would just turn into an argument idiot.’ Caliga said. You could just tell from her voice that she was very weak.
‘We can at least try, if not for us, for everyone else. Your sister worries about you so much, even Thalia is worried.’
‘Look,’ Caliga turned to face Ryan, she stared dead straight at him, ‘We all know you hate me okay? No need to force yourself.’
‘There you go again, always making assumptions on your own. How do you know that I hate you? And even if I did, I do have a reason. You killed my mother and gave me this scar.’ Ryan said defiantly.
‘I killed your mother? You mean Gaia did! Look here Ryan, just because Gaia has claimed me doesn’t mean I’m anything like her. It’s because of her that I’m stuck on this damn boat talking to one of the most annoying people in the whole entire universe! And who the hell saved your life that day. I was so tired from dragging you out from the rubble that I slept for 2 days straight afterwards.’ Caliga turned around and started to walk off. ‘My shift is over now. You take over.’
‘We haven’t even finished talking yet, come back.’
Caliga was obviously piss off because her hands started to glow with little sparks of fire jumping around everywhere off of her body.
‘You call this talking? Really? Because all I can hear is you telling me about your stupid damn mother!’
‘It was my stupid damn mother who you killed!’
‘Well maybe this wouldn’t have happened if I had never lived! That’s it!’ Caliga ran and jumped straight of the side of the ship. She used wind to break her fall and she ran into the streets of France.
It was just then when Thalia walked up the stairs and said that it was her turn to watch. She was yawning, and when she looked up, she saw Ryan.
‘What you doing here?’ She asked.
‘Oh my Gods, I may have messed things up more than before.’
Thalia rushed up to her brother and demanded to hear what had happened. Ryan explained, but he got some very painful punches during and after he had finished explaining.
‘You’ve done it this time Bolt Head! This is probably is, no not probably, it IS the most stupidest thing you’ve ever done! You have no idea how weak she is right now. She won’t be able to survive on her own. You’ve basically just written her death sentence, nice going. I’m waking up everyone and we’re going to look for her!’ Thalia ran off to go wake up Lux and tell her what had happened.

Caliga ran through the dark, damp alleyways of France. She was crying, not just because her sister had decided to stay with Ryan and his friends, but Ryan had also blamed her for his Mom’s death. She slumped to the ground, leaned against the wall and threw a rock across the street.
‘Stupid Ryan,’ she grumbled, throwing more rocks across the street. ‘Stupid quest, stupid Olympians.’
‘All alone and away from the ship,
Cold and wet it is,
Why are you so upset?’ Said a new voice. She turned around and out of the shadows came a guy of about 17 with sandy hair and blue eyes, and when he smiled; his smile looked a bit like Ryan’s smile.
‘Apollo?’ She asked.
He smiled and held out his arms. ‘In the flesh-‘He paused, realising what he had just said. ‘Oh wait, that’s a terrible pun.’
‘What are you doing here?’ She mumbled.
He sat down next to her. ‘I just came to give you some pep talk. Why are you away from the ship?’
She looked at him, she heard Thalia, Percy and Ryan talk about Apollo, and they said he makes really bad haikus but they said he is really wise.
‘Ryan and I had a really big argument.’ She mumbled.
Apollo nodded. ‘Look, I may not be the goddess of love-‘
‘Wait, who said anything about love?’ She demanded.
Apollo glared at her and she became quiet. ‘Heck that’s my sister’s job! But I am the god of prophecy, and life is like a rollercoaster, it has its ups and downs, it can make you happy, sad, angry, even fall in love, but there will be always be someone there, holding onto you, so you will never fall off.’ He then got up, dusted himself off and started to walk away.
‘Wait!’ Caliga yelled. ‘I don’t understand! Who is the person next to me?’
Apollo turned and smiled at her, she had the feeling the smile was a hint. ‘See you later Caliga, and remember; you can’t understand a prophecy until events come to pass.’
‘How do you know my real name?’ Caliga asked. ‘No-one knows my real name.’
Apollo turned and spread out his arms. ‘Like I said, I’m the god of prophecy, I see and know all.’
Ht started to walk away, and in a flurry of golden light, Apollo was gone, leaving her to wonder, who is the person next to her?


‘What’s happen if we don’t find her soon?’ Piper asked, just after they had all gathered together on the front deck to figure out a plan to find Caliga.
‘If we don’t find her first, Gaia will. And I don’t think she has enough energy to fight her off this time.’ Lux looked like she was worrying so much that she was shaking.
‘Don’t worry, we’ll find her first.’ Thalia comforted Lux and straight afterwards shot a deathly glare at Ryan.
Everyone spit up into teams of 2 or 3 and each took different roads to search.
‘Since this is Ryan’s faults, he can be a team all by himself.’ Thalia yelled just as she and Lux ran down a random street.
‘Ah shit.’ Ryan said as he finally decided to look.
Everyone ran through each possible street that they could find. Through every alleyway, under every bridge, but it seemed as if Caliga had just disappeared into thin air.
After they had all been searching for hours, the sun had already come up and people from the city started to get up and go to work, soon the streets would be filled with people, making it impossible to find her.
‘Why don’t we just fly over and look for her from the boat?’ Someone from the group randomly shouted out when they all meet up again.
‘No, with so many people it would be too difficult to pick her out, and if we flew to low to the ground we’d hit the buildings.’ Annabeth said.
‘Man its hard finding someone in Paris...maybe we could put up lost person posters?’ Piper asked,
‘She doesn’t count as a missing person until she’s been gone for over 2 days, and by then it might be too late.’ Thalia said.
Every just shook their heads and thought about how they could find her. Ryan seemed to be the most restless out of the bunch of them, only second to Lux of course.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 01.10.2011

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