Chaos Descends

Not Another Giant Bird

We spent nearly the entire night looking for possible lakes that Nico could have been at but there were so many in California it was almost impossible to know which one he had gone to off of the little information I had on it. Night 8 came and went in frustration and it wasn't until the middle of day 8 that Axel said,

"How do we even know if he went to s lake. It was just a dream guys."

"Dreams have meaning." I grumbled, a little agitated.

"Well next time could you ask your dream for more specifics?" Axel demanded with a scoff, throwing up his hands. He was fed up, but so was I. We had been in this damn library looking up the names of lakes and checking their meaning against anything mythological and so far, nothing.

"Didn't you grow up around here? Can't you think of anything.. A lake you used to go to? Weird things happening at lakes around here?" I sighed and shook my head to Percy's questions.

"No nothing of importance... Except a kid drowning once." I sighed. "I didn't live here long enough to know anything." I groaned, running my hands through my hair.

"Wait.. Wait. I think I have something but it's.. It's not much.. Actually it might be nothing." I got up and moved towards Hazel's computer. She was on the website for a lake called Morus and as I stared at the picture I realized that this was it, the lake I had seen Nico at. I pointed aggressively at the picture.

"This is it!" I exclaimed. The librarian shelving books nearby glared at us. I leaned down next to Hazel and whispered, "This is it."

"Are you sure? We've been looking at a lot of lakes and you could just be hoping this is the right one." Percy said slowly.

"No I'm positive. The mountains are familiar. It must have been taken right at the entrance of the lake where Nico was. This is it.. It has to be." I finished in a quitter tone.

"So why do you think it has ties to mythology?" Axel asked Hazel, leaning against her chair.

"Morus, it's a type of bird called Gannet and there was this sea goddess, she can turn into a Gannet. I remember the story from something around the camp fire back at Half-Blood. It was one of those myths with like a moral to not piss off the gods."

"Yeah we all know that's not something we should not do." Percy said nodding his head.

"Well what about her? Why is she so special?" Axel asked. "And if she's a sea goddess why is she at a lake?"

"Well, Poseidon is the God of the sea and it's going to sound bad but he doesn't want competition so there are some sea goddesses' but some are reduced to just inhabiting lakes." Percy shrugged and I shook my head.

"No offense to those guys but that's not what matters right now. Where is this lake?" I asked, scanning the website. It was by Long Beach. I sighed. That was nearly two hours away on a bus. "Looks like we'll be boarding another bus." I said with a sigh.

"Fine, lets get out of this damn library." Axel grumbled grabbing up his backpack and logging out of the computer. Everyone else followed suit and we were on our way.

We walked out of the library and headed back across the park we had slept in for the night on our way back to the bus station. The police officer who had found us asleep in the grass gave us dirty looks. He thought we were runaways but we explained we were all 18 and he couldn't do anything about it.

Since we couldn't get a direct bus route to the lake, we opted out for the closest district to it and decided to walk. According to the map, it wouldn't be far from third street. This time, we switched up bus partners and I sat with Percy while Axel was with Hazel. They seemed to be talking in a civil manner so I wasn't worried.