Daughter of Hades

Chapter 14

  "Central Park?" Percy looked around with a confused expression. Off in the distance we saw smoke. Lots of smoke. "Over there!" He shouted with concern. "Cedar hill is on fire!" He ran towards the cloud of smoke, his pen at hand. Daisy seemed concern as she looked around. Something was a bit off about the fire. I looked around also and saw just what she saw. It made me panic. Luckily she spoke up.

"Why aren't any of the mortals panicking?" She read my mind. I saw Alex looking around too. I was pretty surprised we haven't noticed it earlier. This seemed too good to be true. This was probably a trap or something along those lines. I don't think any of the mortals realized the fire at all, in fact they avoided it. We ran behind Percy, he was far up. He didn't seem to hear Daisy talking. "Percy!” She shouted once more. “The mortals aren't reacting to the fire! What if this is a trap?"

Percy shook his head in reply. "It's a cry for help! A wood nymph!" Percy faced Daisy with panic in his eyes. Daisy managed to catch up to him in no time.

"A wood nymph? They make siren noises?" I shouted from behind the group. I happened to be the slowest out of all of them. I guess I wasn't fit to run? Maybe I never ran in my past because I was out of breath. I seriously need to run more after this. This was truly an embarrassing moment in my entire life. Well, I can't really say my whole life since I couldn't really remember my name. I managed to see Percy's head rock in a nodding gesture. I didn't know I had good eyesight. So that should definitely prove I don't really know myself as much as I want to. "How?" I shouted still out of breath though.

Once we finally got to where the fire was, a girl was running around screaming and shouting for help. The siren noise seemed to change into a girl's yell. "Help! My tree!! Someone please!" The girl seemed to get darker and darker as the fire progressed on the tree. It wasn't that big of a tree so it was burning quick. And the mortals near the area didn't seem to see the burning tree. They actually looked pretty disgusted. I couldn't help but wonder why. Percy looked around for a water source. His luck seemed to be very high right now since he found a water fountain.

"Relax." He tells the nymph and immediately she turned to us.

"Son of Poseidon! Please save my tree!" She cried and she got down to her knees. "Those horrible men!" She sobbed. Daisy walked to the nymph and began to sing to her. The nymph relaxed as Percy began to concentrate on controlling the water. It took a while for him to concentrate really hard. But thankfully the nymph was relaxed and under control or she wouldn't have let Percy do his stuff. I noticed Alex was thinking about something, I could tell by his facial expression and the way his body was tensed up. Once the fire was drenched, Alex walked to the nymph.

"Men? Who did this?" Alex said in a deep voice and calming voice. I'm guess this is his mature voice. It did make him seem more mature and older than what he really is. The nymph shrugged with a soft blush forming on her light brown cheeks. She actually seemed really pretty when she's calmer. I got to see her outfit clearly too. She wasn't wearing any of the camp's clothes, like the nymphs from camp did. She wore a dark green dress that flowed with the wind. It seemed to dance along side of it. But the bottom of the dress was covered in ash, and so was her hair. Her hair was now a dark brown color. She didn't seem to notice at the moment so she wasn't really going to make a scene just yet.

"I don't know.. But they did smell like the ocean.” She played with her hair a bit. With one hand on her hair and the other on her chin. “They were actually caring a small bag with water." She recalled the memory. Then suddenly she started to cry. “But when I asked them who they were.. They-They... they set my tree on fire!" She began to scream in sadness. Then she realized her hair and began to panic. “Look what they did to my beautiful hair! It's ruined!” Her tears were a different color than regular tears. But I tried not to focus on that. I was trying to analyze the information she just gave us.

'They smelled like ocean water'? I looked at Percy with puzzlement. He looked at me with an eyebrow arched. "Relatives of yours?" I asked and he shrugged.

"Possibly?" He looked down sadly. Not knowing the answer to the question.

"Want some fruit?" The wood nymph offered once her tantrum was gone and she was completely over what had happened. She gave us some green apples. "I found them in a basket nearby some mortals." She smiled generously. She basically stole them without realizing it and is giving away the evidence. "They are very juicy." She took a bite and handed Daisy one. Daisy thanked her and took the apple. She didn't eat it though, she only stared at it blankly. Percy and I, on the other hand, ate it up leaving only the core.

"That was delicious!" I replied with pleasure. I don't remember if I have ever had an apple, but I knew it was good. I actually recalled the taste, only in a different form. My mind began to race as I tried to think harder about it. The smell the apple gave off was familiar too. I wonder from where though. A blurred image appeared in my head and I suddenly felt dizzy. 'Don't try to remember.' I told myself as I shook the dizziness away. There's so much I wanted to remember about myself but I know now is not the time.

"So tell us about these men." Alex asked politely. He obviously knew we weren't going to ask so he gave it a shot himself. "What were they wearing? Where were they going?" Alex seemed more like and investigator than a son of Hephaestus. The nymph looked off to the side and stared into the distance.

"They wore black suits. One was shorter than the other too, but the shorter one would limp every other step." The nymph replied calmly. It was amazing how she easily didn't mind her new hair-do. "They were talking about an Island. 'The prisoner should be taken to the Island.' Is what they said."

"Which island?" Percy interrupted. The nymph shrugged but she pointed to a near by island.

"They headed in that direction." She said softly. Percy began to think.

"The closest island is Randalls Island." Percy thought out loud. Alex made a disgusted face.

"What's wrong?" I placed my hand on his shoulder. He spit out a piece of his apple.

"Mine was rotten." He continued to spit and we laughed at him.

"How about we go get some real food." Daisy smirked and gave the nymph a nod of appreciation. "Thanks." The nymph smiled in reply and melted into her tree.