Crossroads of Two Worlds

43-The Storm

"Five degrees West!" Maya shouted out, standing at the front of the ship, her hair blowing in the sea breeze.

Through an interesting and entirely unforeseen series of events, our small army had acquired a ship big enough to fit all of us on it, above and below deck. It was more of a pirate ship than a battle ship but we didn't intend to do our fighting at sea.

We'd traveled by bus and by any means necessary to get to the bottom, southern most tip of Florida, but after that, we knew we had to find some other way of transport to get to the Keys. Many of the campers were not favored by my father, and we therefore couldn't take a plane, especially since there were over fifty of us. I wished Zeus would just set aside his personal issues for two hours and let us fly but, even I couldn't control the old man.

As we'd been standing on the beach, contemplating how we were going to get off the continent and onto the ocean, Adrian had stopped us from leaving.

Adrian stood, one foot in the tide of the ocean, his hand reaching out to the open sea while his eyes were shut. His face was set in concentration and the group of us standing behind him didn't speak, including his chatter-mouth of a sister.

"There's a ship out there."

I squinted, trying to see what my friend spoke of, but failing, even with my eagle-like vision. I stepped toward Adrian, "Are you sure? I can't see any-"

"It's not above the water," he interrupted me, "It was sunk, years ago, but is still in good condition."

I glanced at Maya and she shrugged unhelpfully.

"If it's in good condition, how did it sink?" I inquired.

Adrian shook his head, his eyes finally open and meeting mine, "I don't know. But don't you think you could fix whatever is wrong with it really quick?"

I tilted my head in confusion, "How would I-"

Maya bumped me with her shoulder and tapped my leg with her hand. She tapped my wand that I had hidden in my jeans.

I simply nodded and looked back at Adrian, "Can you bring it up to the surface?"

He nodded and turned back to the ocean and closed his eyes again.

And here we were.

I'd fixed the ship with a few quick repairing spells while the rest of our group worked on cleaning up the deck of the ship, and then we went on our way. It was surprisingly easy to make everyone believe that I'd just used a hammer and nails and duct tape to repair the damage. In all reality, the ship had a huge hole in the left side and we'd never have been able to get anywhere if I'd only use nails and duct tape.

The two grandchildren of Poseidon had natural ocean navigation skills, and had taken over the duties of guiding the ship while the rest of the campers did the deck work as they commanded. I felt like a pirate in the movies I used to watch with my grandmother. I actually quite enjoyed the sea breeze and the gentle waves. I was raised in Hawaii, after all, the ocean had always been a part of my life. I'd learned to surf at an alarmingly young age, not that surfing would be of any use to me now.

I wondered why Poseidon didn't knock me out of the ocean like my father knocked people out of the sky. Less petty, maybe? Who was I to judge?

It hit me about two hours after we procured the ship that it might have been the exact ship that Kaley had seen in her vision, months ago in Hogwarts. It had a mermaid at the hull, and seeing as we were a bunch of demigods and my friend was a seer and a witch, not much seemed impossible these days.

As difficult as it was to make ourselves admit, the trip to the Keys wasn't a single day venture, especially since we'd started rather late in the day. Though it was tempting to skip sleeping and just continue sailing, it was important that we all were rested and healthy so that we could fight to the best of our ability. So, when the time reached ten o'clock, three of the campers hefted the anchor over the side of the ship and we all bunked down for the night, most of us on deck in the open, as the cabins were quite moldy.

We woke as the sun rose and continued on our journey. We reached Key West by noon the next day, with a little help from Adrian and Maya coaxing the ocean waves. The beach was beautiful, no doubt, but even as I gazed at the picturesque rocky shores, I couldn't help but think of the battle that would occur near here, sometime very soon. The exact day was unknown to us.

Three days later

As it turned out, Typhon was apparently not in nearly as much of a hurry as we were. None of us had any horrible feelings or bad dreams to signal the army headed toward us. I'd even gone so far as to call Kaley from a phone booth to check that we had the right place. She insisted that sometime soon we'd encounter a great battle on the very beach we'd arrived on.

So, as the days passed with no sign of the impending doom, we spent our time mostly on the rocky beach shore, training some more. Every so often, a group of campers went to purchase food and we would eat and sleep on the boat, which we'd shielded from the world with the Mist.

The first sign that the battle was approaching came on the third day. All sixty of the campers woke at dawn with a horrible feeling and the sky was grey and gloomy. In the days we'd been here, the weather had not veered away from perfect, so we all knew what the looming storm clouds meant.

This day, we did not train.

We ate breakfast, and then we all sat on the deck of the ship and waited.

Then we ate lunch.

And then we waited.

The storm hit us around four o'clock that afternoon. The lovely trees surrounding the beach blew in the wind and the sea breeze was ice cold. Rain started falling lightly, but it soon turned into a downpour. Adrian managed to keep us all out of the rain, with whatever powers he possessed.

But the battle didn't start when the storm started.