Daughter Of Lightning - Book 2 (A Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)

CHAPTER 29

(Ella's POV)

I wasn't dead. Now that was a first...

“Nora, wake up.” A voice said.

Salt water splashed on my face & Percy was shaking my shoulder. I was on a hippocampus with Percy which I hadn't noticed right away.

In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline. I saw a beachside highway lined with palm trees, glowing storefronts, & a harbor filled with sail boats & cruises.

“This is Miami, I think,” Annie said. “But the hippocampi are acting funny.”

Sure enough, our fishy friends had slowed down & were whining as they swam in circles, sniffing the water.

They didn’t look happy. One of them sneezed.

“This is as far as they’ll take us,” Percy said. “Too many humans. Too much pollution. We’ll have to swim to shore on our own.”

None of us was very psyched about that, but we thanked Rainbow & his friends for the ride & got off.

Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he’d made, which contained his tool kit & a couple of other things he’d salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck, gave him a soggy mango he picked up on the island, & said goodbye.

Once the hippocampi’s white manes disappeared into the sea, we swam for the shore. The waves pushed us forward, & in no time we were back in the mortal world.

We wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish & tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed us-five kids dripping wet & looking like they’d just had a fight with a monster-they didn’t let on.

Now that we were back among mortals, Tyson’s single eye had blurred from the Mist. Grover put on his cap & sneakers.

Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-&-gold high school jacket with a glitter Omega on its pocket.

Annie ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the Miami Herald. She cursed. “June eighteenth! We’ve been away from camp ten days!”

“That’s impossible!” Clarisse said.

But I knew it wasn’t. Time was different in monstrous places.

“Thalia’s tree must be almost dead,” Grover wailed. “We have to get the Fleece back tonight.”

Clarisse slumped down on the pavement.

“How're we supposed to do that?” Her voice trembled. “We’re hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is like the Oracle said. It’s your fault, Jackson! If you hadn’t interfered-“

"How is it-" Percy started to say.

“Percy’s fault?!” Annabeth exploded. “Clarisse, how can you say that? You are the biggest-“

“Guys, shut up!” I said.

Percy just looked away. Clarisse put her head in hands. Annie stomped her foot in frustration.

“Clarisse,” I said, “what did the Oracle say?”

She looked up. I thought she was going to tell me off, but instead she took a deep breath & recited her prophecy:

“You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,
But despair for your life entombed within stone,
And fail without friends, to fly home alone.”

“Ouch,” Grover mumbled.

“No,” Percy said. “No..wait a minute. I got it.”

He searched his pockets then said.

“Does anybody have cash?”

Annie, Grover & I shook our heads. Clarisse pulled a wet Confederate dollar from her pocket & sighed.

“Cash?” Tyson asked hesitantly. “Like green paper?”

I looked at him. “Yeah.”

“Like the kind in duffel bags?”

“Yeah, but we lost those bags days a-g-g-“

Percy stuttered to a halt as Tyson rummaged his saddle pack & pulled out a Ziploc bag full of cash that Hermes had included in our supplies.

“Tyson!” I said. “How did you-“

“Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow,” he said. “Found it floating in sea, but only paper inside.”

He handed over the cash to Percy. Fives & tens, at least three hundred dollars.
Percy ran to the curb & got a taxi that just let out a family of cruise passengers.