Eleutheromania

6)

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT getting tar would happen to be so fucking difficult.
As Annabeth and Percy were getting the tar. Frank and I were fighting tar monsters.
"I didn't even know these stupid things existed!" I yelled swing at a tar monster.
"Stop focusing on that!" Annabeth yelled at me.
"How am I not going to! These stupid shits are annoying!" I looked down seeing that I am filled with tar. "I'm covered in this shit."
After that was over, Percy and I carried a bucket of tar on Franks back and we landed on the deck.
Annabeth, Percy and I came running down the hall. Percy and I were 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. I had some on my face and hair. My pants were filled as I was the one killing the stupid tar monsters.
"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.
Frank stumbled up behind us, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.
"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 and I almost spilled his bucket of tar.
"Uh, what was that?" Percy 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. Alister, com on!"
"On it!" Frank promised.
"I would love a break," I muttered following Percy.
The four of us ran off.
Percy was making waves shooting the nymphs as I grabbed a bow and arrow shooting them. I didn't want to kill nymphs so I shot in front of them to have them back off. When they yelled in surprise, Percy would splash them with water.
After what seemed like hours, the engine began to hum. The oars creaked and groaned, and I felt the ship lift into the air.
The rocking and shaking stopped. The ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. Finally Leo emerged from the engine room. He was caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. His T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. Leo's T-shirt  read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO, but the TEAM LEO on his chest now read: AM LEO. But he grinned like a madman and announced that we were safely under way.
"Meeting in the mess hall, one hour," he said. "Crazy day, huh?"
         Leo then ran off with the biggest grin on his face.
Percy looked at me. "I'm not surprise you chose him."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
After everyone had cleaned up, Coach Hedge took the helm and the demigods gathered below for dinner. It was the first time we'd all sat down together—just the eight of us.
The tension in the mess hall was like an electrical storm brewing, which was totally possible, considering Percy's and Jason's powers. In an awkward moment, the two boys tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table. Sparks literally flew from Jason's hands. After a brief silent standoff, like they were both thinking, Seriously, dude?, they ceded the chair to Annabeth and sat at opposite sides of the table.
The entire time I was trying not to laugh. Theses idiots.
The crew compared notes on what had happened in Salt Lake City, but even Leo's ridiculous story about how he tricked Narcissus wasn't enough to cheer up the group.
"So where to now?" Leo asked with a mouthful of pizza. "I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there's still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic."
Percy was eating a piece of pie, which was completely blue—filling, crust, even the whipped cream. "We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter," he said. "Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."
That didn't improve the mood around the table.
"I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans? Maybe—maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charmspeak."
Jason took her hand. "It wasn't your fault, Pipes. Or Leo's," he added quickly. "Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."
"Maybe if we could explain that, though—"
"With no proof?" I asked. "And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."
"He's right," Hazel said. She still looked a little queasy from seasickness, but she was trying to eat a few saltine crackers. The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies, and I was pretty sure they hadn't been there at the beginning of the meal. "Reyna might listen, but Octavian won't. The Romans have honor to think about. They've been attacked. They'll shoot first and ask questions post hac."
I bit my pizza making eye contact with Percy.
The conversation kinda went like this:
Percy: You should say something about what's going on with you.
Me: And risk all I have right now, no thank you.
Percy: This is the best shot. Later it would get worse.
Me: Not now. There too much on our plate.
Percy looked away conceding.
"You're right," Piper decided. "We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry."
Hazel nodded. "Nemesis said we have only six days until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed."
Jason frowned. "You mean Rome Rome, not New Rome?"
"I think," Hazel said. "But if so, that's not much time."
"Why six days?" Percy wondered. "And how are they going to destroy Rome?"
No one answered.
"There's more," Piper said. "I've been seeing some things in my knife."
The big kid, Frank, froze with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth. "Things such as... ?"
"They don't really make sense," Piper said, "just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins."
Annabeth stared at the magical video feed from Camp Half-Blood on the wall. Right now it showed the living room in the Big House: a cozy fire on the hearth and Seymour, the stuffed leopard head, snoring contentedly above the mantel.
"Twins, like in Ella's prophecy," Annabeth said. "If we could figure out those lines, it might help."
"Wisdom's daughter walks alone," Percy said. "The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth, that's got to mean you. Juno told me...well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she's wrong."
Annabeth took a long breath. "Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend among the Roman praetors—something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along."
Leo and Hazel exchanged nervous looks.
"Nemesis mentioned something similar," Leo said. "She talked about an old score that had to be settled—"
"The one thing that might bring the gods' two natures into harmony," Hazel recalled. "'An old wrong finally avenged.'"
Percy drew a frowny face in his blue whipped cream. "I was only a praetor for about two hours. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?"
"I...uh, I'm not sure," he said. "I'll give it some thought."
Percy narrowed his eyes. "You're not sure?"
I frowned. He is hiding something.
Jason didn't respond.
Hazel broke the silence. "What about the other lines?" She turned her ruby-encrusted plate.
"Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death."
"Giants' bane stands gold and pale," Frank added, "Won through pain from a woven jail."
"Giants' bane," Leo said. "Anything that's a giants' bane is good for us, right? That's probably what we need to find. If it can help the gods get their schizophrenic act together, that's good."
I nodded. "We can't kill the giants without the help of the gods."
Jason turned to Frank and Hazel. "I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god's help, just the two of you."
"Alcyoneus was a special case," Frank said. "He was only immortal in the territory where he was reborn—Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but..." He shrugged. "Alister's right, we'll need the gods."
The other lines of the prophecy turned in my mind. What was a woven jail? How could twins snuff out an angel's breath? The key to endless death didn't sound very cheerful, either.
"So..." Leo pushed his chair away from the table. "First things first, I guess. We'll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs."
"Someplace close to a city," Annabeth suggested, "in case we need supplies. But somewhere out of the way, so the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?"
No one spoke.
"Well," Piper ventured, "how do you guys feel about Kansas?"

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