Catching Water (Discontinued, rewrite in progress)

What a Waste of Time

Bethany’s POV
Percy is Mad. And when I say mad, I mean REALLY mad. I don’t blame him. Ares set us up, and now, we had to take the embarrassment. At least he kept his promise. He provided a car and a blue backpack full of fresh clothing. We climb in the back of the truck which says it’s ‘Kindness International humane Zoo transport. Warning: Live Wild animals. Inside, my heart nearly stops when I see the saddest looking animals ever. An antelope, a zebra, and an albino lion. I shudder.
‘help’ The zebra says to me. I am startled, but I know that I can talk to horses since daddy created them.
‘I’ll try to help you out of there in the morning.’ I say back. The zebra bobs its head as if it’s nodding, and I can’t help but smile.
I walk over to Percy. “Ello bro!” I say cheerfully.
“Hi, sis.” He answers glumly. I can tell something isn’t right.
 
Percy’s POV
 
“What’s wrong?” Bethany asks her grin dropping.
“I just am kind of......” I say. “I don’t know how to say this. I feel like all the pressure was put on my by dad, even if you have some of the blame too.”
“Oh.” Bethany says. “I can’t imagine how you’re feeling. I guess I’m just too young to understand so much. And that’s saying a lot, considering I don’t even know how old I am.”
“You look like a ten year old.” I smile. “Although you act like a 15 year old.”
“Really?” Bethany asks. “I didn’t know I was capable of acting like I was fifteen.”
“Maybe you were just raised right, and you grew up to be a little more mature.” I smile. Bethany snorts.
“Oh really?” She says playfully. She pokes my belly and I jump. She giggles.
“Excepting times like that.” I say. We both go off to sleep.
 
Bethany’s POV
 
*dream*
A women with blond hair and brown eyes comes into my view, holding a baby. But there’s no smile on her face. She frantically searches and finally finds a little wicker basket. Taking a piece of roughly hewn paper, she scribbles down something with a feather sort of writing utensil. I look at what she’d written.
Bethany Peridot Rose
She places the paper in the basket, and turns to the baby. That’s when realization hits me. The baby is me. The woman..... Is my mother. I watch as my mother hugs baby me, and kisses my cheek. There’s a sound outside, and my mother looks up, startled, before tenderly placing me in the basket. She rushes past people, and makes it to the shore of a beach. She pushes the wicker basket into the water just before a hooded silhouette comes into view. The dream changes.
            “Do you now see what your mother did?” a voice says. I’m in a dark place, and a bottomless pit is before me. “She sacrificed herself for you. Because of this, you can do great things. You can embrace your mother. It’s what she wants you to do.” The voice is booming. Realization hits me.
            “Kronos.” I say, bitterly.
            “Yes.” The voice sneers. “I am Kronos, titan lord of time. I shall leave you now. Tell your brother to bring me the master bolt.”
            “We don’t have it, and we would never bring it to you if you did!” I yell.
 
            *End of dream*
 
            I sit bolt right up. I look at Percy and Annabeth, who look quite pale as well.
            “Demigod dreams suck.” I say. They nod in agreement.
           
            Annabeth’s POV
 
            It looks like we all had dreams. I don’t blame them for being pale. In fact, I think I’ve gone pale too. The worst part about being a demigod is that all your dreams are “This is how you’re going to die,” “This is your ugly history!” and “You have to join my side or else!” Otherwise we have dream messages from people, and they can be either happy or sad..... depending on who is messaging you.
           
 
            Bethany’s POV
 
            I see the trunk being lifted, and the animals are in complete horror.
            ‘Please help us, mistress!’ The zebra says in complete horror.
            Realization comes over me. This is no friendly Zoo truck. They’re going to kill the animals for entertainment.
            “Percy-“ I say, but he stops me.
            “-I know.” He replies. I smile in spite of myself. Great minds think alike.
            I walk over to the cages, and open them while the drivers aren’t looking. We all jump out of the truck and run. Suddenly, we come to a dead end. I look up at a huge doorway. The Lotus Hotel and Casino. The doorman kindly invites us in.
            Immediately I am blown away. There is an enormous game room with every kind of game you can imagine. A bellhop approaches us, and gives us casino credit cards.
            We are informed that the cards are unlimited, and we have a room on the top floor. After we’re done talking to the bellhop, we go up to our room, shower, and eat. I’d never been treated so nicely in my life, besides when I met the mysterious ice cream man.
            We decide to go down to the game room. I find the most amazing game, a surfing simulation. But after playing it for what felt like 20 minutes, I started to get a nagging feeling. Then Percy comes up to me.
            “Bethany, we need to get out of here.” He says.
            “Why?” I ask.
            “Bethany, I was just asking people what year they’re from. Someone was from 1977.” He says. I clap a hand over my mouth before calmly walking away from the surfing game.
            “Okay. Let’s find Grover and Annabeth.” I say.
            We find Annabeth playing an architecture game, and Grover playing a game called catch the hunter. It’s very difficult to lure them out, but we finally talk some sense into them. On the way out, the bellhop offers us platinum cards, but we run out as fast as we can, saying we have to leave, which is true.
            When we are back outside, it’s very stormy, telling us Zeus and Poseidon are getting ready to battle each other. I look at a newspaper, and my heart drops. It’s June 20th.
            “Percy, the summer solstice is June 21st, right?” I ask.
            “Yeah, why?” He responds. Annabeth sees it too and gasps. She points to the paper.
            “Percy, we were in the casino for 5 days.” I say, panicking. “Our deadline to have any chance of survival is tomorrow.”