Daughter of the Sea || HoO

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

The Hercules Guide to the Mare Nostrum didn't help much with snakes and mosquitoes. If the snakes and mosquitoes weren't enough, Tori yelling at Jason didn't make the situation any better.

"We had it under control!" Tori yelled 

"I know," Jason sighed.

"For once I didn't fuck anything up!"

"I know."

"And I didn't piss anyone off!"

"I know."

"I could have sang that One Direction song in a mediocre Shakira impression, and we would have been through the pillars by now!"

"I know."

"But you just had to mention Hera!"

"Tori," Jason sighed once again, "I know. Can you please stop yelling."

"No!" Tori narrowed her eyes at the taller blonde. "Now thanks to you we have to go on an extra hard quest just to get through! And I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitos!"

"She has a point," Piper grumbled, "If this is a magic island why couldn't it be a nice magic island?" 

"I get it," Jason said. "I messed up. You can yell at me all you want when we get back to the ship, but right now we have a job to do."

"Fine," Tori grumbled.

They tromped up a hill and down into a heavily wooded valley,careful to avoid the black-and-red-striped snakes sunning themselves on the rocks. Mosquitoes swarmed over stagnant ponds in the lowest areas. The trees were mostly stunted olives, cypress, and pines. So far they hadn't found any river.

"We could fly," Jason suggested.

"We might miss something," Piper said. 

"Besides, I'm not sure I want to drop in on an unfriendly god. What was his name? Etch-a-Sketch?" Tori added.

"Achelous." Jason was trying to read the guidebook while they walked, so he kept running into trees and stumbling over rocks."Says here he's a potamus." 

"He's a hippopotamus?"

"No. Potamus. A river god. According to this, he's the spirit of some river in Greece."

"Since we're not in Greece, let's assume he's moved," Piper said. "Doesn't bode well for how useful that book is going to be. Anything else?"

"Says Hercules fought him one time,"Jason offered.

"Hercules fought ninety-nine percent of everything in Ancient Greece," Tori said.

"Yeah. Let's see. Pillars of Hercules..." Jason flipped a page. "Says here this island has no hotels, no restaurants, no transportation. Attractions: Hercules and two pillars. Huh, this is interesting. Supposedly the dollar sign—you know, the S with the two lines through it?—that came from the Spanish coat of arms, which showed the Pillars of Hercules with a banner curling between them."

Great, Tori thought. Jason finally gets along with Annabeth,and her brainiac tendencies start rubbing off on him.

"Anything actually helpful?" Piper asked.

"Wait. Here's a tiny reference to Achelous: This river god fought Hercules for the hand of the beautiful Deianira. During the struggle, Hercules broke off one of the river god's horns, which became the first cornucopia."

"Corn of what?" Tori asked.

"It's that Thanksgiving decoration," Jason explained. "The horn withall the goodies spilling out? We have some in the mess hall at Camp Jupiter. I didn't know the original one was actually some guy's horn."