Forgotten prophecy

Chapter 25

The morning brought with it a much more somber attitude than the day before. Ryker awoke well before the others and quickly packed up his effects, slinging his bag onto his back and moving to the river's edge. The sky was slowly growing lighter, but the sun had not yet made its first appearance on the horizon. After his mother had disappeared Ryker had experienced such a feeling of restlessness that he was not able to get more than a few sparse hours of sleep. He wasn't tired, too many days of dealing with little sleep had seen to that, but he was mentally weary. His mother's parting words had circled around in his head until he had begun to see them in the few dreams he had managed to begin. He stooped down at the water's edge and splashed some of the cool liquid onto his face, dissipating the last effects of sleep from his body. From where he crouched at the water's edge he stared into the center of the river, silently willing the water to part so that he could see the door that Percy and Hazel had discovered on their exploration. The water, of course, refused to budge and continued to run through the canyon despite the demigod's wishes. Ryker scratched his chin absentmindedly, as he considered what they could face. According to what they had been told, Python was an earth dragon and a rather well-known one at that. In Ryker's experience, creatures that were well known had become so for a reason. On top of that, they had no idea what manner of monsters would be guarding their master's lair. For all Ryker knew it could be a massive horde of other earth dragons. That would be difficult. He admitted. He had faced only one dragon in his life, and that had been a young water dragon. Ryker had not won that particular battle, escaping into the woods before the beast could further damage him. The water dragon had been able to send blasts of ridiculously high pressure water from its mouth and Ryker had been keen to avoid them after a row of trees had quite literally been disintegrated by the dragon. An earth dragon would be undoubtedly even more difficult.

Ryker was so lost in his contemplations that he did not see when the others staggered wearily out of the tent, rubbing their eyes. Hazel and Will held cups of steaming liquid to their chests, almost as though the liquid was precious to them. Perhaps it was. "Morning." Percy grumbled, striding past Ryker and marching directly into the water. The son of Poseidon disappeared beneath the surface and Ryker lost sight of him. He blinked in slight surprise at Percy's abrupt disappearance.

Back at the tent, a crackling sound and the scent of smoke alerted Ryker to a fire. He turned where he crouched and saw a curl of smoke wafting up from the tent. He pushed to his feet and pursued the smell of fire, curious to see what it was that they were up to. Inside the tent Nico, Hazel, and Annabeth were sitting at a table while Will went about preparing food over a large rather ornate stove. Ryker ducked his head under the overhead and searched the cabin for their missing party member. Will, who strongly resembled a gold-haired zombie that Nico had summoned from the underworld, seemed to notice his search and nodded to one of the rooms. "Piper is still asleep." He said in a dead voice. He reached for his cup of steaming liquid as he simultaneously began cracking eggs with his free hand. Ryker took a moment to appreciate the change in demeanor that Will had exhibited. Ryker had never seen him so lethargic, moreover he had never seen him without the usual glow of cheerfulness that seemed to follow him around. In all honesty, the child of the Lord of the dead looked livelier than Will at that moment.

"You look awful." Ryker commented.

Will shot him with a glare that Ryker almost felt inclined to be intimidated by, mostly because he had never seen Will so much as frown angrily. "You are one of those people, aren't you?" He hissed through narrowed eyes. He took another long draft of his drink and at the same time, a bitter smell wafted over to Ryker.

"One of what people?" Ryker asked, covering his nose and screwing up his face as a second assault of the bitter smell attacked him. "And why are you drinking liquid death?"