Storm Rising

Chapter 24

Percy's POV

The familiar sensation that I'm drowning overwhelms me. For a minute, I panic and can't breathe. I use my senses to see what's around me. But there is nothing nearby that could help me.

I think back to what Lady Styx said about using the Styx. Closing my eyes tight, I attempt to summon the power of the Styx. Whether its because I'm on a different planet or because I gave up control over water, it's not working. My lungs are beginning to burn and I find my muscles beginning to hurt from the lack of oxygen. I rack my brains for what I can use to get out. What gifts have the gods given me that I can use? I gave up my powers over water. That's the only powers I had. No, wait I have my powers from being Hestia's champion. A plan begins to form in my head. I feel the moisture around me sucking me down. Moisture... Moisture! I close my mouth to safe the last bit of air in my mouth. Lighting myself on fire, I slowly evaporate the moisture in the muskeg, turning the perilous quicksand into flaky pieces on rock. I stop getting suck down, but make no progress upward. Shakily, I begin to push away the dirt that covers me.

My head breaks the surface of the dirt and I gasp for air. Slowly, I swim through the dirt to the area my friends are standing at. Frank reachs down and pulls me out. As soon as I'm out of the dirt, all the dirt in my clothes disappeared.

"Good job, Percy," Ananke says. "Who wants to go next?"

Ivory tentitively steps forward. Ananke nods encouragingly at her and Ivory steps into the white fog. I hear a splash and look to see Ivory's fallen into water. Her face is white with her emerald eyes wide like a dear caught in headlights. Her muscles are locked and she begins to sink. Nico lurches forward to help her but Hydros holds him back.

"She must pass on her own. The fleetorias wouldn't permanently harm her, but she must complete this on her own," Hydros tells Nico.

"Fleetorias?" Ricky asks.

"That's what the changing landscape is called," Ananke says, still not taking her eyes off of Ivory.

Ivory has sunk up to her shoulders. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. As a final effort, she thrusts her hands in the air. This only makes her sink faster. Her head goes beneath the surface. I count one, two, three... up to fifteen silently. Then green ropes extending in the water appear. They are taught as if they are pulling something. Ivory's head breaks the surface, the ropes slowly pulling her dripping wet body up. Nico sighs in relief as the ropes move and deposit Ivory next to us. Just like when I left the area, all the water evaporates for Ivory's clothes. The green ropes disappear. Nico rushes over and wraps Ivory in a hug. She hugs him back, laying her head on his shoulder.

"I didn't know you were afraid of water," Nico said, still hugging Ivory.

"My dad drowned in it when I was three," She whispered. Nico lets go of her and helps her stand up, but keeps an arm around her.

"I'll go next," Frank says. He steps out into the clearing. Immediately a blazing wildfire's flames leap at Frank. Even without his burning stick curse, I can tell he's still afraid of fire from the terrified look in his eyes. He begins to transform, changing into a huge dragon. But instead of being his normal green dragon that breathes fire, he is now a blue dragon. He opens his mouth, shooting out a jet of water like a fire hose. The fire died. Frank turned and walked back over to us, changing into a human as he went.

Triton successfully defeats his opponent and so does Amphitrite. Ricky battles police man and jailers, probably because they were going to put him in prison for accidently killing his dad when he was little. Nico battles what seems to be a manticore in the depths of tartarus.

Hazel has an odd opponent though. When she steps out into the clearing, instead of something coming to attack her, the scenery seems to flip like a camera zooming in. Now instead of being in a forest, we're in an old time city. Old architecture designs and buildings surround us. The name of this place comes to my mind, New Orleans. I see a little girl who's a miniature Hazel coloring on a pad of paper. Sitting beside her on the picnic bench is a woman who must be her mother. Though nothing challenges the present day Hazel, I can sense her mind going through a big mental battle. After a few minutes, the landscape fades. Hazel turns around and walks back to us.