Children of The Big Three, Book 3: Titans Curse

Chapter Four: Loveable Idiot

This dream was nothing like the one Thalia had on her last quest.

That one had a very clear image, and message that wanted to be conveyed. This time, Thalia couldn't tell where she was, if she even was anywhere. The best she could tell, she was stood in a This grey, soupy, fog. The Daughter of Zeus tried to move her hand through it, and it turned out to be rather thick substance, because it took substantial effort to even get her arm back into its starting position afterward. Moving was off the table, it felt like her legs were stuck inside jello. Cherry Jello to be specific. After a while, Thalia could swear that she could see things out of the corner of her eyes, only for them to disappear when she looked directly at it; or she could hear voices, loud enough for her to know that they were there, but faint enough to not be able to make out what they were saying. That was until she heard, clear as day, right in front of her, a child say:

"Hiya!" Thalia was a bit taken back, what with the fact that there was nothing in front of her; but she'd had weirder Demi-God dreams, so she decided to just roll with it and see where it took her.

"I don't think I've ever heard someone say 'hiya' in real life before."

The voice chuckled in its high pitched, kiddy tone. It seemed to like the fact that it was a first for her. Of course, given that it was a kid, it never stayed on one topic too long. "You wanna see this picture of my family that I drew? It's really good!"

Thalia chuckled. "Lay it on me, kid." She heard the sound of a bag unzipping, and the ruffling of paper.

"Okay, okay! This is me, right?" She nodded. "And this, is my mommy! Okay?" Thalia nodded once more. "Now this one," the boys tone seemed to sour a bit, "Is Gabe." Thalia's eyes widened. Her best friend was just kidnapped, and suddenly she had a dream about a kid with a guy named Gabe? Thalia got angry just thinking about the scum bag. Percy had told her that he was in jail these days, a fate to merciful if you asked her. The boy didn't seem to notice, and continued talking. "I don't like Gabe. He's smelly! I call him Smelly Gabe! Funny, right?" Thalia did her best to answer; what with her brain being a few minutes in the past.

"Uh.. Yeah dude." She nervously laughed. The boy then said, in a voice that was most surely not its own:

"Sea spawn, hidden away."

The fog around her seemed to change color and morph shape, until she was in a room. It was run down, with the windows drawn and the doors locked. Police sirens were audible, but in the distance. Two figures entered the room, the details of them being hidden inside the fog. One was the size of a full grown male, the other the size of a child. She couldn't make out the words, but from the body language; they were having an argument. Or perhaps a lecture, given the way things looked. The adult grabbed the kids shoulders, which was a bit of a red flag to Thalia, and in a maneuver that shocked her to the very bone, the adult began to shake the child. The Daughter of Zeus tried her best to yell at or move to make the man stop, to demand he unhand the small one, or better yet, just stab the guy. Her voice was lost in the sudden, piercing sound of a boys scream. The two seemed to distort more and more, she couldn't make out what was going on. Suddenly, the scene dissipated until nothing but the child remained. Thalia could feel her feet becoming more free, and she rushed to the kids side. The boy was sobbing, but he seemed to notice her approach, and stopped abruptly. The closer that she got, the more solid the boy appeared. Skin color, hair, eyes, face; eventually his clothes even became visible. The ten year old looked at her, and wiped his nose. He looked embarrassed, ashamed even, that she saw him like this. Now that Thalia got a good look at the kid, who looked around ten, her earlier suspensions were confirmed. She muttered to the boy, who raised an eyebrow upon her singular utterance: