Camp Half Blood: One "Salty" Adventure

Chapter Twenty

Rose's POV:

The last day I would wake up to the sound of my brothers welcoming voice. "Hey, Rose." He said softly shaking me awake. He sounded sadder than usual. Not like his happy self. I knew why. Today was the day of the quest. I would be leaving bright and early. I looked at the clock and it read 7 o'clock sharp. Percy looked tired as I smiled at him, getting up into a sitting position at the edge of my bed. I could tell he didn't get much sleep last night, but for some reason I slept really well. Better than I thought I would, actually. I didn't think I would be getting much sleep in a proper bed for awhile, so I guess my body just naturally wanted to savor those last moments of the night. He soon sat down next to me. "Ready?" I was beyond nervous, but I put a confident visage on. My words didn't match my facial expression, but I wasn't going to lie to him either.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I let out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, but don't worry. Honestly, I know it's a lot of pressure, but you can do it. You're prepared for this, and your instincts and fate will be on your side."

"You think so?" I asked him hopefully.

"Totally. And when you come back afterwards, I'm making a cake. What's your favorite color so I can frost it?" I laughed.

"Well it's kinda odd, but I try to eat things that are blue as often as I can. It's usually just sweets though." I admitted shyly.

"Oh my gods, that's the exact same way with me! We are siblings!" Percy said excitedly as he pulled me in for a giant bear hug. I giggled as he did so.

"Well, I mean if there's cake involved, then I have no choice but to come back." He laughed and we started to just think for a bit, the room becoming silent.

"We should gather up your pack and head over to grab something quick to eat. And then..." I cut him off before he could finish.

"Yeah, let's go Perc." And then we headed over to the Pavilion.

Ben and Myra were already there, eating in silence. I don't think anybody wanted to mention the quest in vast detail right now. Just as we were walking, I remembered my secret weapon. My blue knife was, hopefully, still where I kept it. I kneeled down and checked my boot. It was still there, thank the gods. I grabbed a plate of food with Percy and then headed to where Ben and Myra were sitting. Percy said I should go with them alone because one of them might want to discuss something about the quest. I said I'd see Percy afterwards and then sat down next to Ben. Myra was sitting across from Ben which seemed like a good sign. Maybe? Once I sat down, Myra looked up and said, "Finally, we need to talk about the direction we should be headed in."

"Alright, start talking then."

"We have two options. There's the fast route and there's a slow route. We need to pick which one to travel on, but Ben insists on stalling." She glared at Ben for a moment as she said the last part, but soon turned back to me.

"Well, which one do you think we should take? Wouldn't the faster route be the best choice?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I knew, Rose. The faster route goes directly through the Great Lakes. There is a rumored colony of sirens there. It's much faster, but our chances of survival are down by 50 percent at least. So yeah, I like the faster route."

"What about the slower route?" I asked wanting to know where it was and the level of safety it was at according to Myra.

"If you and Ben want to trek your way around the Great Lakes be my guest." She retorted.

"Well, obviously we're staying together. If you want to take the one where we die before even getting close to our destination, then whatever." I said getting tired of this conversation.

"Don't give me attitude, Rose. Unlike you two I actually think ahead. If we travel quickly I may be able to freeze over some of the water for us to cross." I can't believe her, she's the one that started with the attitude! I let it go, and became more caring towards her.

"Well I don't want you to strain your powers either in case we come across monsters or something along the way."

"In case? We will most definitely come across monsters and obstacles. But we either face a few monsters we can slay or the gods are angry at us for taking the slow way around. Their punishments are far worse than death. At least if we die on the way we die heroes." Why was she speaking about death? Usually avoiding death would be the obvious choice.

"We can't die heroes along the way if we didn't do anything."

"Three heroic adventurers lost on their way to greatness! I can see it now! Funeral pyres will light up the sky! I personally want some nice fireworks at mine." She said completely ignoring me, fantasizing about the thought of dying.

"Not if the world ends, then it'll be everyone's funeral." I replied darkly.

"Gonna be a sick party then."

"There won't be a party if everyone is dead, Myra. Can we stop talking about this? We're not going to die, alright? It'll be fine and we'll complete the quest. The fast route will do, but just try not to strain your powers because we're going to need you to fight too." I said getting rather annoyed with her.

"I'll be fine, Rose. Water is your element anyways. Besides, dying is the least of my worries." I didn't reply, and just continued to eat my breakfast in silence. Ben hadn't talked one bit during our conversation. I think reality might have just hit him that we were all going to be in pretty close quarters for a while. I sure realized that. I realized it from the second I knew I'd be going on a quest with Myra and Ben.

I thought a bit more about crossing a lake for the route we took. Even if Myra strained all of her powers, I'd be in my element, just as Myra said. I could use the water in the lake, my dear friend, to fight with me. Plus, Ben would be there, and he's a really experienced fighter, at least from what I've seen him do. I became more confident about everything the more I thought to myself.

After breakfast, I took a quick shower, and then everyone gather at where we would go off. This is where we would say our goodbyes. I hugged and said goodbye to Annabeth, Leo, Jason, Piper and a few other people before I said goodbye to Percy. He pulled me in for a long hug. "Remember, I'm making that cake for your return. So... you better return."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. Love you Perc, I'll be back soon."

"Love ya too. See ya, Rose."

"See ya Percy." After we said these words, we hugged one more time. I saw that Cole came, he seemed nervous. He hugged Myra and they exchanged a few words. He seemed super nervous and saddened by all of this. He then went up to Ben and shook his hand saying "good luck." And after he came over to me.

"Hey, Rose."

"Hey, Cole."

"Oh, come here." He said pulling me into a hug. "Good luck out there. And keep Myra out of trouble for me, ok?"

"I'll try," and then I remembered something. "Cole what happened with that conversation with Myra? What'd she say?"

"Well, we talked for a bit, but overall she said she'd come back."

"Genuinely?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"That's good then, Cole! We'll all be back soon, ok? Don't worry too much about it."

"Ok, good luck again to you guys. See ya."

"Bye, Cole."

After our goodbyes, Chiron led us to this tall tree which was at the border of the camp.

"Ben, Rose, and Myra. Although you have not been here at Camp for long, you have all made astounding progress and I am proud to have met you each. I have high hopes that you will all succeed and bring peace back to Olympus. I wish you the best of luck." And with that, we were off on our quest. The phrase "now or never" seemed more intimidating than I had originally thought it was right about now...