The Court Going to Camp Half-Blood

Chapter Seven

After the fire and demon ant debacle, Percy was ready to crash even though it was noon. Noon, he thought. Lunch.

Lunch was fish, and the fish were really dry. He just crinkled his nose, gave some of it to Poseidon, and said "sorry it's dry," ate it, and then looked at the sea and decided to check on the fish. He knew it wasn't the fish's fault it was dry, but he hadn't checked in on them in a while and they have abandonment issues.

So he started wading into the water after lunch, relishing the cool feeling surrounding him. He wasn't getting wet, but the water rejuvenated him in a way that was hard to explain. Like getting shocked after you heart stops, or being in pain and not noticing until it's gone. Like that, but magical feeling. Again, hard to describe.

"Here, fishy fishy fishy. I know you're here Matilda," he said, speaking to the striped bass he knew was lurking somewhere. His stomach gave a rumble and he wondered if he just ate his friend. Gods, he hoped not. He would feel just awful, especially because Matilda should go out on a bang and not as some dry summer camp fish. He was urging her along, and he felt her in the currents, so he knew he didn't eat her, and knew she was coming closer, when a young voice said, 

"What are you doing?"

It was the girl. The one with reddish hair who they didn't tie up. She seemed really close with Celaena and Kyllian and Gavriel especially, but often looked up at the clouds for some unknown reason. Maybe they had another flying birdy friend. Evangeline, I think Celaena called the hawk that squawked at her when she killed those demon assassin people.

"Oh, um. Looking for a friend."

"Down there?" She sounded skeptical and sassy, especially for what looked to be a twelve-year-old.

"Yeah. She's a fish."

"Oh. I have a fish friend."

"You do?"

"Well, kind of. She can be a fish if she wants."

Didn't know what that meant. "Okay." Then he remembered, "Hey, what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Bronwen."

* * * 

Bronwen. Oh, how Evangeline wanted to be a Crochan witch. She would have said Lysandra, but Lysandra was flying overhead and Evangeline did not feel like getting pooped on in the slightest.

* * *

"Okay. Hi, Bronwen."

"Hi."

Then a voice called out over the hills, "I'm going to kill you Kyllian!" Celaena. Kyllian's cousin, or sister, or twin. They were definitely somehow related, given they looked the same.

Bronwen's eyes widened, and she said, "I need to keep Ae- Celaena from killing him." She looked nervous, but Percy had no idea why. 

"Yeah probably smart. Tell your fishy friend to say hello to me, okay?"

"'Kay! Bye!" and she ran up the hill to stop a murder.

* * *

Oh no. Evangeline almost said Aelin. she almost called Aelin Aelin. Good thing Percy didn't seem to notice her slip-up, but she still felt guilty. She went to Aelin and touched her arm and asked,

"Why are we killing Kyllian?" Making sure not to say Aedion.

"He ate my chocolate!"

"Well, that merits perhaps a pinch. No murder."

"But-"

"Celaena."

"Okay. Fine," and she went over and pinched her cousin. Hard, if his shriek was a hint. But then they both laughed and Evangeline knew all was forgiven. The Ashryver cousins had an unbreakable bond. except by the consumption of chocolates.

* * *

Percy was underwater again once he saw there was to be no murder on Half-Blood Hill.

Matilda was updating him on the life under the sea. Everything was good and healthy, except that patch over there by the forest, so no fish goes there, and who does don't come out. Except for one fish who came back all black and weird smelling and then was snatched up. Percy guessed that was the dry fish he had for lunch.

That doesn't sound good and healthy Matilda.

Yeah, well I'm trying to be positive here Mr. Cranky.

Show me the spot?

Sure, it's this way.

Percy knew as soon as the saw the impenetrable blackness at one in the afternoon that they had a problem. One probably relating to the demons in Celaena's stories.

* * *

He rushed up to the pavilion where everybody as still eating lunch, and seemingly oblivious to his frantic behavior. He scanned the hill, and nothing seemed out of place. The strawberry fields were blooming, all looking red and almost ready to pick. The people seemed happy and good while eating their lunch, people were training outside given the good weather, and Chiron and Annabeth were talking at Chiron's table, most likely about the demons and new guests.

Celaena and crew were all sitting at their table, well the table they had adopted, and were all leaning in to talk in a huddle in hushed whispers. Their faces looked scheming and plotting, serious and worried. Everyone was talking except Celaena who was sitting back, looking lost in thought, probably planning herself. She looked at the fish on her plate, the dry fish, and out onto Long Island sound. She narrowed her eyes, and whispered something into Gavriel's ear before kissing him quickly on the lips and walking back to their sleeping quarters. 

Percy followed her in the room, where he caught her securing a sword at her back. Without turning around she said, "What is it Percy?"

He gave a little cough, a little mortified at being caught, but just said, "What are you doing?"

"Why are you following me?"

"That's not an answer."

"Never said I would give one," and she gracefully and silently slinked out of the door and within one second vanished. He looked around the cabin for her but it was like she melted into the shadows. Or was really good at being fast and sneaky. He went back to the water, not knowing what else to do, and saw her crouching at the side of the blackness.

He went over to her, and just sat down next to her. She grunted a greeting, and he said hi. He went to wade his hand through the black, but she smacked his hand away and hissed, "What are you crazy?"

"I don't prefer to think of myself that way, no."

"If you put your hand in there you either lose it or it turns black and infect your body until you are a walking corpse possessed by a demon."

"Or?"

She didn't answer, just shook her head and started muttering things in a language he couldn't understand. She drew a circle on the ground, leaving a small part incomplete, and then drew an equilateral triangle inside it so the points stuck out. She sighed, looked at him, and said, "Don't be stupid," and completed the circle. The whole thing glowed and then liquified into what looked like liquid light, and slivered into the blackness which was creeping up onto the shore. 

When it hit the black it disappeared into it, like it was snuffed out or absorbed. Celaena cursed, and started sprinting through the woods with that creepy silence and agility, and the graceful way she moved made her look like wind given human form. He had to learn how to do that. He looked back at the black, and stared at the part contaminating the water. 

He tried to control it, move it, sense what was under it, what it was, but it was like it wasn't water anymore. And by the ragged edges that creepily reminded him of fingers of demons reaching out to grab him and pull him into the depths, it was slowly growing with every passing second.