The Beginning of the End (J. Grace)

XVII: I lose a fight to nose hair

Wow, how many times am I going to almost die on this quest?

Finding myself back on the ship wasn't strange at all. Finding myself still alive? That was just incredible.

"You need to stop scaring me like that." Dove's face swam into view as I struggled to sit up, my head pounding, my mind a blur.

I managed to grin at her despite the pain I was experiencing in my screaming lungs. "Water and fire are quite different things."

"I thought I was going to have to perform CPR on you." She admitted, hugging me tightly.

I laughed weakly, embracing her back before looking around us and finding everyone gathered around the mast with Hedge at the wheel, Guineapig and Lightning Boy slumped against the mast in exhaustion. How long had I been out? Where are we now?

"How long- ?" I was about to voice my questions, but Piper seemed to know me well enough to have the answers prepared as she helped me to my feet, her arm steadying me.

"Two hours." She stated softly, helping me walk over to the gathering. Looking down, I found a bandage wrapped around my chest... why was my chest bandaged? I don't remember it getting hurt.

"And where- ?"

"About an hour from the Mare Nostrum." She sighed. Is she a mind reader? Is that a child of Aphrodite's power? "But we're still in the Atlantic."

I nodded, not having any words to say. Gods, since when did I run out of words? That's an equally strange and scary prospect.

We were quickly in earshot of the others and I just caught the end of something Leo was saying: "Until then, we're not flying anywhere."

"Fine with me." Seaweed Brain flexed his shoulders and winced; his sea-green eyes bloodshot. "The sea is good."

"Speak for yourself." My daughter muttered, looking to the setting sun, reminding me of her sea-sickness.

"We've just burned another day," Lightning Boy started, looking up at all of them, his expression holding pure exhaustion... what happened to those two? "And my son only has three left. We need to hurry up."

"We can do it." Iron Man promised and I really hoped he was right.

"Only three days?" I asked, leaning on Dove as we came to a stop. "Gods, it's gone by fast."

"Lara!" Jason's voice was suddenly lighter as he looked up at me. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." I lied, smiling. "What about you? What happened?"

In response to the first question, Percy doubled over, groaning. So... not good. "Did the world just turn upside down?"

"Yeah, it's spinning." Lightning Boy grunted, grimacing and placing a hand to the side of his head. "It's also yellow... is it supposed to be yellow?"

Wise Girl looked down at them with concern etched into her features. "You've got to rest." She decided firmly. "Frank, can you help us gey them below decks?" She then turned to me to answer my second question. "We managed to get away, those two summoned a storm which really seemed to zap their strength."

Looking back at them now, I understood. It must've been a lot and, from what I've gathered, they've been holding up a major storm for two hours now. That's incredibly impressive, really.

"Come on." Teddy Bear decided, going over and picking Jason up with Annabeth.

"No." He groaned, twisting slightly, making it harder for them to carry him. I scrunched my eyebrows at the sight, not quite understanding till his eyes locked on mine and I suddenly understood why he wasn't letting them take him below deck so easily.