The Altered Seven

Piper's Dream

Piper was not feeling the love.

She'd been useless the entire trip so far. First, the dragons had attacked, and while she had done some damage to one of them, it took another dragon and Killian to really save them. Then they were faced with Hercules, one of the most powerful demigods to ever live, and she was forced to stay on the boat while Killian went and 'convinced' him to let them pass, even after Annabeth suggested she go to reason with the god.

She was even visited by her mother, Venus. She went on about how Jason was much better for her than Annabeth. 'He's so much dreamier than that owl spawn,' were her exact words. 'A son of Jupiter is much better for the likes of my daughter. You can do so much better, dearie.'

It didn't help that Annabeth had been distant ever since they had left the U.S.. She spent most of her time in her cabin, studying the bronze map she'd been given by Artemis before the goddess had left, or looking up information on the computer Killian's friend Charles Beckendorf had installed.

Whenever Piper stopped by to see her, she was so lost in thought that the conversation went something like this:

Piper: "Hey, how's it going?"

Annabeth: "Uh, no thanks."

Piper: "Okay...have you eaten anything today?"

Annabeth: "I think Leo is on duty. Ask him."

Piper: "So, my hair is on fire."

Annabeth: "Okay. In a while."

She got like this sometimes. It was one of the challenges of dating an Athena girl. Still, Piper wondered what he had to do to get her attention. She was worried about her after hearing her prophecy, and she didn't know how to help her, especially if she shut her out.

After leaving the Pillars of Hercules, the ship traveled by air for a few hundred miles.

Piper hoped the ancient lands wouldn't be as bad as they'd heard. But it was almost like a commercial: You'll notice the difference immediately!

Several times an hour, something attacked the ship. A flock of flesh-eating Stymphalian birds swooped out of the night sky, and Leo torched them. Storm spirits swirled around the mast, and Jason blasted them with lightning. While Ajax was having dinner on the foredeck, a wild pegasus appeared from nowhere, stampeded over the warrior's enchiladas, and flew off again, leaving cheesy hoof prints all across the deck.

"You foul beast!" Ajax called after it. "How dare you disturb my dinner!"

Finally around midnight, after the ninth or tenth aerial attack, Jason turned to her. "How about you get some sleep? I'll keep blasting stuff out of the sky as long as I can. Then we can go by sea for a while, and you can take point."

Piper wasn't sure that she'd be able to sleep with the boat rocking through the clouds as it was shaken by angry wind spirits, but Jason's idea made sense. She went belowdecks and crashed on her bunk.

Her nightmares, of course, were anything but restful.

Piper dreamed she was in a dark cavern. She could only see a few feet in front of her, but the space must have been vast. Water dripped from somewhere nearby, and the sound echoed off distant walls. The way the air moved made her suspect the cave's ceiling was far, far above.

She heard heavy footsteps, and the twin giants Ephialtes and Otis shuffled out of the gloom. Piper could distinguish them only by their hair-Ephialtes had the green locks braided with silver and gold coins; Otis had the purple ponytail braided with...were those firecrackers?

Otherwise, they were dressed identically, and their outfits definitely belonged in a nightmare. They wore matching white slacks and gold buccaneer shirts with V-necks that showed way too much chest hair. A dozen sheathed daggers lined their rhinestone belts. Their shoes were open-toed sandals, proving that-yes, indeed-they had snakes for feet. The straps wrapped around the serpents' necks. Their heads curled up where the toes should be. The snakes flicked their tongues excitedly and turned their gold eyes in every direction, like dogs looking out the window of a car. Maybe it had been a long time since they'd had shoes with a view.