Born to Die (Percy Jackson x reader)

10⭒ Sea of Monsters

━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━

 Y/N sat up. Sure enough, there was a line of blue and brown in the distance. Another minute and she could make out an island with a small mountain in the center, a dazzling white collection of buildings, a beach dotted with palm trees, and a harbor filled with a strange assortment of boats.

The current was pulling the rowboat toward what looked like a tropical paradise.

"Welcome!" said the lady with the clipboard.

She looked like a flight attendant- blue business suit, perfect makeup, hair pulled back in a ponytail. She shook the demi-gods' hands as they stepped onto the dock. With the dazzling smile she gave them, you would've thought they'd just gotten off the Princess Andromeda rather than a banged-up rowboat.

Then again, their rowboat wasn't the weirdest ship in port. Along with a bunch of pleasure yachts, there was a U.S. Navy submarine, several dugout canoes, and an old-fashioned three-masted sailing ship. There was a helipad with a "Channel Five Fort Lauderdale" helicopter on it, and a short runway with a Learjet and a propeller plane that looked like a World War II fighter. Maybe they were replicas for tourists to look at or something.

"Is this your first time with us?" the clipboard lady inquired.

The three exchanged looks. Annabeth said, "Umm.."

"First time at spa," the lady said as she wrote on her clipboard. "Hmm. Let's see.."

Y/N gasped softly. "Spa?"

The lady looked at Y/N and smiled brightly. "Well, aren't you a lovely little girl. You won't need much work, no." She then looked at Annabeth and Percy up and down critically. "Mmm. An herbal wrap to start for the young lady, perhaps? And of course, a complete makeover for the young gentleman."

"A what?" Percy asked. But the lady was too busy jotting down notes to answer. From beside him, Y/N was snickering a little.

"Right!" The lady said with a breezy smile. "Well, I'm sure C.C. will want to speak with you personally before the luau. Come, please."

"I guess it couldn't hurt," Annabeth muttered.

Of course it could, but a luau sounded so good that they followed the lady anyway.

The place was amazing. There was white marble and blue water everywhere Y/N looked. Terraces climbed up the side of the mountain, with swimming pools on every level, connected by watersides and waterfalls and underwater tubes you could swim through. Fountains sprayed water into the air, forming impossible shapes, like flying eagles and galloping horses.

They passed all kinds of tame animals. A sea turtle napped in a stack of beach towels. A leopard stretched out asleep on the diving board. The resort guests, only young women, lounged in deck chairs, drinking fruit smoothies or reading magazines while herbal gunk dried on their faces and manicurists in white uniforms did their nails.

As they headed up a staircase toward what looked like the main building, Y/N heard a woman singing. Her voice drifted through the air like a lullaby. Her words were in some language other than Ancient Greek, but just as old- Minoan, maybe, or something like that. Y/N could understand what she sang about, moonlight in the olive groves, the colors of the sunrise. And magic. Something about magic. 

They came into a big room where the whole front wall was windows. The back wall was entirely covered in mirrors, which gave the illusion that the room seemed to go on forever. There was a bunch of expensive-looking white furniture, and on a table in one corner was a large wire pet cage. The cage seemed out of place, but they didn't think about it too much, because just then they saw the lady who'd been singing. She sat at a loom the size of a big screen TV, her hands weaving colored thread back and forth with amazing skill. The tapestry shimmered like it was three-dimensional—a waterfall scene so real you could see the water moving and clouds drifting across a fabric sky.