Daughter of Neptune, Book one

III

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series, just Tori.

Chapter three- Camp Half-Blood

Tori pov

After a crazy morning of storm spirits, goat men, flying friends, I thought I was losing my mind. Instead, all I felt was dread. I was standing in the back of the chariot with Leo, Piper, and Jason, while Butch handled the reins, and the blond girl, Annabeth, adjusted a bronze navigation device. We rose over the Grand Canyon and headed east when I suddenly remembered my fear of heights. Behind us, more storm clouds were gather. The Chariot lurched a bumped. It had no seat belts and the back was wide open, so I wondered if Jason would catch me if I fell. Piper was standing next to Jason, she studied his face longingly. He just looked out toward the horizon.Meanwhile, Leo was being annoying, as usual. "This is so cool!" He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"A safe place," Annabeth said. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."

"Half-Blood?" Piper was immediately on guard. "Is that some kid of bad joke?"

"She means were demigods." Jason said.

"Half god. half mortal." I added.

Annabeth looked back. "You seem to know a lot, but, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."

Leo choked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"

"Got a problem with that?" Butch said.

"No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows. Very macho."

"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said.

"He gets along great with the pegasi."

"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered. "I'm gonna toss you off this chariot." Butch warned

"Demigods," Piper said. "You mean you think you're... you think we're--" Lightning flashed. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, "Left wheel's on fire!"

Piper stepped back. Sure enough, the wheel was burning with white flames lapping up the side of the chariot. The wind roared. I glanced behind me and saw more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot--except these look more like horses than the storm spirits from before, and I never felt more scared in my entire life, well since I woke up on that bus. Piper had started to say, "Why are they--"

"Anemoi come in different shapes," Annabeth said. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on. This is going to get rough." Butch flickered the reins. The pegasi put on a burst of speed, and the chariot blurred. MY stomach crawled into my throat. My vision went black, and when it came back to normal, we were in a totally different place.

A cold gray ocean stretched out to the left. Snow covered fields, roads, and forest spread out to the right. Directly below us was a green valley, like an island of springtime, rimmed with snowy hills on three sides a water to the north. I was a cluster of buildings like ancient Greek temples, a big blue mansion, ball courts, a lake, and a climbing wall that seemed to be on fire. But before I could really process all I was seeing, the wheels came off and the chariot dropped out of the sky.

Annabeth and Butch tried to maintain control. The pegasi labored to hold the chariot in a flight pattern, but they seemed exhausted from they're burst of speed, and bearing the chariot and the weight of six people was just too much. "The lake!" Annabeth yelled. "Aim for the lake!" And then--BOOM.