Anthízo, Percy Jackson

III. wine dude undergoes an identity crisis

SO, IN CONCLUSION, karina is never agreeing to collect tar ever again.

at first, it was fine. her, percy, and annabeth flew into town on frank (who was a dragon) and they went to go find the nearest roofing-supply store, which was only a couple blocks away.

everything was fine, until the tar monsters came.

just as they were about to enter the store, about twenty large, black, sticky tar monsters come barreling from behind the store, tar dripping off the them at all different sizes and shapes.

and just like that, they were sucked into a battle between four demigods and a bunch of gross black blobs of tar.

it was a pretty sticky fight, but after a while, they managed to collect enough tar to supply the argo II, and right as they got what they needed, frank immediately transformed back into a dragon, and flew them back to the ship.

karina could feel the tar in her hair, and there were splotches of it all over her clothes. percy had some smeared across his chest, and annabeth also had a piece of it dried into her hair. this was going to take forever to get out. even with her magical detangler.

once they got on deck, frank landed with a big THUMP, and karina, percy, and annabeth came running down the hall. percy was toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. and karina and annabeth were both trying to get the tar out of each other's hair.

"roofing tar?" piper guessed.

frank stumbled behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods.

"ran into some tar monsters," annabeth said. "hey, jason, glad you're awake. hazel, where's leo?"

she pointed down. "engine room."

karina whipped her head toward piper's room, and saw the fully conscious form of jason grace sitting on the bed.

she stalked over to him, and dragged him into a bone-crushing hug, catching him off guard as he stumbled into her, letting out an umph!, as she closed her arms around him. "you are an idiot, you know that?"

jason groaned slightly, her tight grip on him making it hard for him to breath, and he wrapped his arms around her. "i think you've told me enough times for it to sink in."

"good." she muttered, pulling away from him to examine his forehead, which looked significantly better than it did from before she left.

"it healed really fast," karina pointed out, and jason nodded.

"ambrosia." he informed, and karina nodded.

suddenly, the entire ship listed to port. the demigods stumbled, and jason held karina's arms to steady her. percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.

"uh, what was that?" he demanded.

"oh . . . " hazel looked embarrassed. "we may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. like . . . all of them."

"great." percy handed the bucket of tar to frank and annabeth. "you guys help leo. i'll hold off the water spirits as long as i can." his line of sight drifted to karina, his eyes glancing at jason's hand placement, and he looked at her with a slightly hardened look, saying, "i need your help too, rina. can you use the plants in the water to keep the nymphs off the ship?"

karina hesitated. "i— i mean, i can try. i don't know how much good it'll do, but— "

"you do great." percy interrupted, quickly walking over and grabbing her hand, and she could've sworn she saw him send a glare to jason as he dragged her out of the room and brought her above deck with him.