The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

three

DINNER WITH THE
GANG

Their little mission hadn't gone terribly wrong - they had been in worse situations.

Or maybe Ariana just barely did anything and let the other three do all of the work whilst she sat by a nearby tree and spent the time relaxing.

The moment they landed back on the Argo II, Ariana, Annabeth and Percy came running down the hall.

Percy was toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Annabeth had a patch of black sticky stuff in her hair.

Percy's shirt was covered in it.

"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.

Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.

Out of the four of them, Ariana was the only one who didn't look like a mess. Her black hair cascaded down her back, no sigh of tar in it.

"Ran into some tar monsters." Annabeth said. "Hey, Jason, glad you're awake. Hazel, where's Leo?"

She pointed down. "Engine room."

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. The demigods stumbled. 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."

"On it!" Frank promised.

Ariana asked. "Do you want any help?"

"Nah. I'll be fine." Percy told her.

The three of them ran off, leaving Hazel at the cabin door. The ship listed again, and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick.

"I'll just...." She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway and ran off.

Jason and Piper stayed below as the ship rocked back and forth. For a hero, Ariana felt pretty useless. Waves crashed against the hull as angry voices came from above deck - Percy shouting, Coach Hedge yelling at the lake.

Festus the figurehead breathed fire several times. Down the hall, Hazel moaned miserably in her cabin.

"I'm gonna go look at my room." Ariana told Piper.

The girl nodded and grinned. "Yours is next to Percy's, it's easy enough to find."

"Thanks, I'll see you later?"

Piper nodded and Ariana set off to find her new room.

Sure enough, the room wasn't hard to find - her door had a ghost on it and was labelled, 'Ariana Parker - Death Girl'. Rolling her eyes at Leo's antics, she pushed open the door revealing the inside.

When stepping into the dark cabin, Ariana was greeted with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

A warm crackling fire in the center of the room invited her further in, the sound of a crackling fireplace was music to her ears.

Thick wooden bookshelves line the walls, filled to the brim with all sorts of volumes. Ariana caught glimpses of shadows and darkness beneath her, as if the floor was an illusion of some kind. (Knowing Leo it probably was.)

In the corner of the room, a large double bed was covered with a deep purple duvet and blankets.

The sheets and pillowcases match the duvet perfectly in color. In the center of the bed is a stack of pillows, soft to the touch, with some dark pillows mixed in.