Anthízo, Percy Jackson

XIX. late night conversations hold the most memories

AS THE BOAT SPED DOWN THE COLUMBUS RIVER, karina and hazel had begun to help ella make a makeshift nest out of old books and magazines they'd liberated from the library's recycling bin.

they hadn't really planned on taking the harpy with them, but ella acted like the matter was decided.

"friends," she muttered. "'ten seasons. 1994 to 2004.' friends melt phineas and give ella jerky. ella will go with her friends."

now she was roosting comfortably in the stern, nibbling bits of jerky and reciting random lines from charles dickens and 50 tricks to teach your dog.

percy knelt at the bow, steering them towards the ocean with his freak mind-over-water powers, which karina found extremely fascinating. she had realized over the journey they'd been on that her and percy's powers were sort of similar— at least, in the way they work. as karina can control plants and some aspects of the earth, percy can control the ocean, or bodies of water ( and horses, which she found kind of amusing. )

she sat on the bench just behind percy as he crouched at the front, seemingly getting lost in thought as he watched the horizon, his eyes glazed over in a dreamy sort of state.

karina scooted off the bench and sat beside him, leaning back on the front it and pulling her knees to her chest, turning her gaze to percy.

"how did you know you were going to survive?" she asked percy quietly, so only he could hear.

percy averted his glossed gaze from the horizon, and instead directed it to karina, who was staring at him with a calm expression, her facial featured relaxed.

he swallowed. "i didn't," he admitted, carefully positioning his body to where he was sitting beside her, his legs pulled up into his chest in the same position as her. "i just had a lot of hope that my gut feeling wouldn't fail me for once."

karina scoffed, her head drooping down slightly. "are you saying your gut feeling's have failed you in the past?"

"oh, yeah. almost every time," he replied honestly, nodding his head as a small laugh escaped him. "now that i think about it, trusting my gut in a life of death situation probably wasn't the best idea."

"ya' think?" she said sarcastically, and watched as a real belt of laughter escaped him, his eyes closing for a moment before opening again to meet hers.

"hey, i never said i was smartest one here," he said, his shoulder brushing over hers as he scooted closer to her.

karina, not fully realizing the closeness of them two, leaned in closer to his side as well, her voice dropping lower as to keep the conversation between them only heard between the pair. "you sure make it seem like you are."

"what's that supposed to mean?"

she sighed, turning her line of sight to the open river they were passing through. "you always seem to have a plan every time things go to hell, and never seem terrified of the outcome of the plan if it goes wrong, like the rest of us are. it's quite irritating, actually. it makes you seem like you're not human."

percy looked to her with an amused, but slightly somber expression, his eyes shining in the fading sunlight. "well, technically, none of us are completely human, rina."

karina turned to him with a deadpanned expression, her eyebrows raised in a way that spoke, really? percy laughed at her reaction and proceeded to raise his hands in surrender.

"okay, okay, i'm sorry," he said through small fits of laughs, but then cleared his throat, getting serious. "i guess i never show that i'm scared because i feel as if i'm not supposed to be. i mean, i'm getting recognized by all these gods, saying how i'm special in some way, and they need me most to fix some sort of huge disaster that's in the making— and i have no idea why. they make it seem as if they see me as some sort of powerful god-in-the-making that's supposed to be strong enough to fix everything that's gone wrong, and i'm just supposed to go along with it, with memories or not."