Heroes of Olympus (The Throne of Stone)

Chapter 20 The Ants Go Marching

Chapter 20:

The Ants Go Marching

 

Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Pluto, 24 hundred hours, Marching currently 500 miles from Camp Half-Blood

Swamp. Mud. Mosquitoes. That annoying itching sensation in the back of your mind. I had been marching for Jupiter knows how long. Boredom, add that to the list of things that set my teeth on edge. Gaea. Dehydration. Octavian. That angry guy had taken on the appearance of an angry cat. I was super territorial and ready to shred, anything that moved, to pieces with a one way ticket to Tartarus. Not to mention the dude had a cough that sounded like he needed to dispose of a serious hairball.

“Hey, you still there?” Frank whispered. Why he was whispering I had no clue.

“Yeah. Do you have any clue where we are?” I had a habit of totally zoning out and not keeping track of where we were. However it wasn’t like Reyna would yell out every now and then and say, “Now we are in Kentucky!” or whatever.

“Um...I think we are somewhere in the Midwest.”

“Then...we’re close?”

“Sure...ish.” Marching was boring and tiresome. Somehow Octavian had convinced some stupid Mercury kids to carry him. The jerk. “I think we’re getting close to the East Coast.”

“What makes you think that?”

“More mortals and monsters. Signifying that we’re near a big city?” Frank said kind of unsure. That was a really smart observation for Frank though.

“Signifying, that’s a big word Frank. You shouldn’t try so hard, I like the way you talk just fine.” Frank blushed. He seemed to just be getting taller and taller all the time. It seems like I’m shrinking, it seems way too unlikely that he is getting that tall that fast, even if it is some weird blessing. I seem kind of tempted to ask if I could ride on his shoulders, just to be able to see better. I might be able to see New York from there. “I’m so tired of walking!”

“Romans! We’re taking camp here!” Reyna yelled.

“Ask and you will freaking receive.” I sighed, relieved. I worn out 4 pairs of shoes already. And I was rather becoming attached to this pair. Literally, my feet were sinking into the soles.

“Tell me about it.” Frank related. His armor was crooked, so I got up on my tip toes and fixed it for him. “You didn’t have to do that, you know?”

“Oh? Let you look like more of a doofus than usual? Unacceptable.” We simultaneously dropped our backpacks and weapons in exhaustion.

“SOMEONE FETCH ME A TENT!!!” Screamed Octavian. Me and Frank sighed. Ugh, who decided to make him praetor again? Thank the gods that we still have Reyna, or this all would have gone south real fast. This would not be a refugee attempt, we would be attacking them. Thank the gods for Reyna. “WHY ISN’T ANYONE GETTING ME A TENT?” Oh it’s going to be a long night.

~

I’m lying on my back on the hard packed dirt, looking at the cloudy night sky. Not much to stare at, the heat bugs here are keeping me awake. Frank is to my right, I know he’s awake because otherwise he’d be snoring.

“What are we going to do, Hazel?” Frank sighed. I had been asking myself that same question repeatedly for the past few days too. Our camp was destroyed, there was nothing to fall back on. Right now we were exposed, Gaea could take us down just by thinking about it. We’re at an all time low for weapons, all of them falling into the chasm at camp. We’re pretty much defenseless. And we came to a totally different conclusion, that we needed help from the Greeks. Which was basically a admittance of defeat from the Romans. We had basically nothing. Not even tents to sleep in.

“I don’t know Frank.” I sighed back. “But we’re going to need all the help we can get.” I turned on my side to look at him. His hair had started to grow past the Terbinus rule of hair length, and he was still getting taller, all the time. Soon I was going to need a footstool to appear presentable next to him.

“Copy that,” Frank muttered. He looked at me, “You know, I never thought I would start missing Leo.”

“Right? Now I just want to see everyone again. Piper and Jason, Percy and Annabeth, everyone. I feel, for some reason, that once I see them again I’ll feel more like myself.”

“I feel you.” Suddenly there was a low growl from the bushes that were near my left, I gave Frank a startled look, he looked terrified when his eyes shifted from me to the bushes. “Stay as still as possible,” He whispered urgently. I did as he said. He grabbed his bow and notched an arrow.

“Oh my gods is that-” Apparently we aren’t the only ones who are still awake.

“The lami!” They’re back for their second shot.