Son Of Darkness

Chapter-11

The campers who had been awakened by the storm slowly returned to their cabins and began to get ready. They had been awoken in the early hours of the morning, earlier than they would have planned, but still too late to try going back to sleep.

Soon, all the ships were packed with supplies and demigods, and they were ready to go.

The Argo II led the fleet of sorts, and pulled out of the harbor first.

Just as they expected, they hadn't sailed far when a huge stream of water shot up and onto their deck, carrying Percy with it.

He seemed to be in a better mood than he was in before, the scowl and confusion in his eyes gone, replaced by the almost childlike happiness that took over him whenever he went into the water.

"Feeling better?", Annabeth asked, smiling as she saw her boyfriend's better spirits.

"Yeah", he crossed the deck and pulled her in for a kiss before walking up to the helm to speak with Leo.

"Hey, Leo, how long do you think— Oh. Sorry, Lord Hephaestus".

Percy walked to the control room of the ship to ask Leo how long the trip would be, but when he got there he was only greeted by both his friend and his father who were underneath the control board on their backs looking at something.

Leo seemed to be explaining something to his father, but when Percy walked in he wiggled out.

His face was smeared with grease, and his father came up behind him and put out the fire that had lit on his shirt.

"Whoops".

"What's up?".

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to come by to ask how long it would be until we arrived, but you're busy, so I can come by later".

Hephaestus was standing a little ways away, eyeing Percy curiously like he was a new piece of machinery, and it made him slightly uncomfortable.

"No, no, no. That's okay", he turned around to the control board and started typing on a few things.

"Normally, we would get there in about four days, but your father said that he had some tricks up his sleeve to get us there faster, and I'm not completely sure what he was going to do".

"Okay, thanks", he was about to go leave and find his father to see if he could help somehow, but Leo looked at him like he wanted to say more, so he stayed and looked at him expectantly.

"You good now?", he finally asked after his father cleared his throat uncomfortably behind him.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just a nightmare, you know?".

Leo wanted to say that he understood, that he did 'know'. But he didn't. Talking to people wasn't his forte to begin with. Talking to people who had gone through so much like Percy had? Forget it.

"Percy, that wasn't just some usual nightmare", he started, not sure how to, but sure that he had to talk to him somehow.

The shadow of a grin that had been hovering around Percy's face since he had gotten out of the ocean began to fade. Replaced by a guarded look, and then just one of simple exhaustion.