Static

XIII

One this was for sure: Jason did not sleep like a rock.
     He was up all night thinking about the quest. He was too scared to fall asleep because he knew what was coming, and he didn't want to confront it.
     When he finally fell asleep, he slipped into a nightmare.

     He woke up, sprawled on sand. He thought he was back on Long Island Sound, but that thought abandoned him when he saw where he was.
     Of course, it was a dream. He knew that this wasn't real, but still. Then, he saw a multi-headed serpent. He backed up towards the sea, desperate to leave immediately. His left foot skimmed the water's surface. He continued to walk back, letting his feet emerge into the water. When he was up to knee height, the monster disappeared as if it was a mirage. He heard some men talking amongst each other in Latin. Fortunately, he knew Latin.
     In English, they are saying:
     'I know, George! Stop telling me.' One said. He was tall and had a sharp beard, dark skin and wore baggy clothes.
     'Then act like it!' The other said, probably George. He was the complete opposite of the other dude. He had light skin, a bald head and he was squat. He, too, wore baggy clothes.
'Anyway, we need to stop those two demigods!'
     For a moment, Jason thought they were talking about him and Jake and Clarisse, but there where three of them.
     'What are we going to do?' The tall was asked.
George said, 'We will watch over them so we know what they are doing, with the spy, of coarse.'
     'I see.' The tall one said.
     George said, 'Yeah. And we will know their plan, and we can thwart them!'
      Then, the two men jerked their heads towards Jason and yelled, 'Jason!'
     He felt like collapsing when he realised that the men were speaking in English.
     'Jason!' They beckoned again, but he soon realised that the voices weren't theirs.
     'Jason!'
     Jason's eyes flew open. His threw himself out of the bed and started to look around. He noticed Jake standing at the edge of the bed.
     'Bad dream?' He said.
     'Yeah.' Jason didn't want to talk about it. 'So, what's for breakfast? I'm starving.'

They gathered at the Mess, waiting for the nymphs to serve them food.
Jason sat with Jake and Clarisse, of course, but he also sat besides the two praetors, Frank and Reyna at the end of the table.
'Hey, Jason, what brings you here?' Frank asked.
Jason answer hesitantly. 'Uh, just a quest.'
'What is it about?' He asked.
'To be honest, I don't know. Vulcan told me to go on the quest, not telling me what about.'
'So, your on a quest that you don't know what about. With...' Frank nodded at Jake and Clarisse.
'Oh, this is Jake, a son of Vulcan. And this is Clarisse. She's a daughter of Mars.'
'It's Ares, but go on.' Clarisse said stubbornly.
'Okay. Anything interesting happening at Camp Half-Blood?'
'Nothing much. You know, Leo died. Nothing else, really.'
Frank stared at Reyna, who said nothing, which is unlike her. He continued. 'Well, everything's fine here without Octavian, am I right?'
'I guess.' Jason replied with a smile.
At the end of the table, where Jason was sitting, a conch horn blew, nearly bursting his eardrums.
Frank glared at Reyna again before yelling over the whole Twelfth Legion, 'You shall begin!'

Jason only had a waffle and some pancakes for breakfast. For some reason, he didn't feel as hungry as he did when he woke up.
He jabbed his fork at the waffle, letting the butter melt slowly, spreading onto the waffle. The only things he really ate were blueberries and the strawberries. He didn't have a thing for fruit, but he didn't feel like waffles and pancakes.
'What's wrong?' Jake asked, greedily scoffing down his toast. 'You said you were hungry.'
'Not any more.' He said.
'Why? Something on your mind?'
'No. Just the quest, I guess. I still don't know what we're here for. Vulcan said that I would know what it is by now.'
'Oh,' Jake said. 'Maybe try to think about, I don't know, where we need to go next.'
Jason has the urge to tell him about his dream last night, but he didn't. 'Mr D said we would find the answer here.'
     'You know Mr D, always miserable and cranky.'
     'So?' Jason asked.
     'What are you punks chatting about?' Clarisse butted in.
     'Nothing. Why?' Jake said.
     'Of course, it's something.' She said.
     'We were just talking about, er, something Mr D said.' Jake replied truthfully.
     'Well, include me!'
     'If you insist.' Jason said.
     He vaguely heard Reyna speak to him, but he ignored for some reason. Reyna became so irritating that is felt like being stabbed. Finally, he turned.
     'Finally.' Reyna said.
     'Sorry.' Jason replied.
     'Anyway, I need to tell you something.'
     Jason stared at her. He asked why, but all he got was a simple shake of the head.
     'You'd better follow me.' She said as she stood up and started to march towards the Fields of Mars.