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XX

Finding Favonius alone was like finding a needle in a haystack. Then they had to convince him to help them, which was almost impossible. And to just find Clarisse was an extra 30% of the effort. Finally, the god of the west wind gave in when he heard Jason would build a shrine in his honour at both camps.
     'Fine. But, only because I rarely get praised, recognised even.' Favonius agreed.
     'Thank you, West Wind.' Jason said with courtesy.
     The god frowned. 'So, would it be the Express Lane or the Tourists bene gradiuntur?'
     Jason tilted his head? 'Stride?'
     'Express or the bene gradiuntur?'
     'Er, whichever is faster.' Jason replied.
     'Okay. Buckle up, sit up and enjoy your ride on the Express Lane.' Favonius announced as if it were on the speakers on an aeroplane.
     Before Jason could argue about the seatbelts(there were none), Favonius waved his hand and the group went bolting through the air so fast that Jason's eyes felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets. Everybody screamed as their cheeks were stretched behind their ears. Clarisse's hair was flying into Jake's face.
     When they landed, Jake was the first to get off. He ran to the nearest rock and threw up. Dakota and Clarisse were stumbling, trying to gain numbness in their legs, and because he was a son of the wind god, Jason seemed unfazed by that experienced.
     'That was way better than the boat ride.' Jason said.
     Everyone glared at him as if saying, Are you serious? That was ten trillion time's worse.
     Once everyone gained numbness and stopped puking, Dakota asked, 'where are we?'
     Jake suddenly realised where they were. 'Camp!' He looked at Dakota as if embarrassed. 'Er, I mean, Camp Half-Blood.'
     'Oh. And is this where Bacchus is?' Dakota asked.
     'He is the leader here.' Clarisse chided.
     'Oh.' Dakota looked at Jake. 'And this would be?'
      'Half-Blood Hill. Just up there,' He pointed to the top on Half-Blood Hill. 'that's where the magic happens, quite literally.'
     They began their walk to the top of the hill.
'So, what is my dad like?' Dakota asked as they began walking.
'He's just cranky that he was exiled here.' Jake responded.
'Why?'
'He neglected to tell us.'
They walked in silence for a while.
When they reached Thalia's tree, Jason gestured to everyone to stop. He flew to the tree. On one branch hung a golden ram's skin - the Golden Fleece. Guarding the fleece was a dragon called Peleus. Even though he appears to be sleeping, he never is.
He signalled everyone to come.
Peleus opened his eyes he looked around and did nothing. When he saw Dakota, an outsider, he lunged. Jason forced him back with the wind.
'Peleus, he is with us. I assure you he is no threat. If he is, you can attack me, ONLY me. Got it?' Jason ordered. He let go of the barrier.
The dragon whimpered and went back to sleep.
     'Sorry about that.' Jason apologised. 'That was Peleus, he guards the Golden Fleece that protects the camp by putting up a barrier to fend off monsters. The only way they can enter is if someone inside camp lets it.'
     Dakota blinked. 'Right.'
     'And we're here.' Jake announced.
Spread in front of them was Camp Half-Blood. The amphitheatre was located right in front of them. Next to it was the strawberry fields where some demigods were planting and gardening. The Big House was a three-storey building behind the fields. Next to them, the Athena Parthenos- the giant statue of Athena grasping into the victory goddess, Nike- stood proud on Half-Blood Hill(some believe that that statue was the reason behind Athena also being called Athena Nike).
'This...' Dakota couldn't find the words. Even though he has been here to help fight Gaia, he didn't get to see it in its full glory.
'Beautiful? Amazing? Breath-tanking? Spectacular? Unique? Exotic? Perfect? Awesome?' Jake suggested.
'Yeah.' Dakota nodded dazedly.
'Not to ruin the moment, but should we go and do whatever?' Clarisse reminded everyone.
'Right.' Jason clapped his hands. 'Clarisse is right. We need to hurry.'
     They ran down the hill, not bothering with the one hundred eyes all fixed on them.
     'Follow me.' Jason told them.
     They followed him like a flock of sheep. They had no clue what they were doing until Jason stoop on to the amphitheatre's platform. In front of him sat hundreds of campers, all shocked by Jason's sudden appearance. He took a deep breath.
     He announced, 'Er, hello. Yes, I am back. And with some very bad news. There is an attack happening here. We all need to prepare for battle. The king of the gods and I don't mean my father, the original king, Uranus is rising and he has plotted an attack on us. It is our job to protect civilisation yet again. So, you all need to gear up and get ready for the fight of your lives!'
     The crowd was silent for a few seconds until the demigods started howling and screaming in agreement. Despite the world ending again, they seemed quite excited to fight. They all ran off to armour up.
     The three other questers looked at Jason. 'You could've told us earlier so, you know, we could've been prepared!' Jake screamed the last bit.
     'I know, and I'm sorry. But right now we have bigger problems to worry about. Like defeating Uranus and getting Dakota to Bacchus.' He nodded at Jake to lead Dakota to Mr D. 'Clarisse, you ready?'
     She seemed nervous, which is very unlike her, but Jason knew this was tough, fighting one of the strongest gods in the world. 'Yeah. Let's kick some ugly god butt!'
     'That's the spirit!' Now, get some weapons and armour up.'
     Without saying a word, Clarisse ran away to do what Jason requested.
     He exhaled. 'This'll be one tough battle.'