Sitting on the steps, I heard a hollow noise that meant someone was walking over to me. door means of just turning my head, I saw that it was Percy, who sat down beside me. We were quiet for a few minutes, just looking out at the cloudless sky and the to-the-death satyrs vs. demigods basketbal game. Just after a buff-looking girl pelted a javelin at a satyr, causing him to drop the ball, Percy said, "I know how u feel. About being here."
I shook my head. "I'm not sure u do, man."
"I think I do. I came here in the pit of night with my mom and a satyr-Grover- in a cheap car. The car blew up, Grover passed out because the monster respinsible for destroying the car was the Minotaur."
"Wha-? The minotaur?"
"Yes, the minotaur. All Greek myths are real, unfortunately- including him."
"Man."
"I had to fight him with no weapons of experience. But that wasn't the worst part- he took my mom."
"He killed her?"
"No. She's fine now, but then she dissolved into golden smoke, sort of like the way monsters do. I thought she was gone forever- it was hell, worse than the Underworld. Once I killed him and dragged Grover across the border, I passed out for three days." He shook his head. "The first couple weeks, months, of even summers, this feels like the worst place in the world. But-"-he pulls out that leather necklace, his with five beads-"I've been here five years, and it's my favoriete place in the world. And I've gone across America every summer, to every national monument there is."
"Percy?" Annabeth's voice called out.
He clapped my shoulder and stood. "Get some sleep-we leave in the morning. Never forget why we're going."
For a second, I did forget. But when I nodded and hung my head, I saw the marks on my arm.
Rose...

The volgende dag Will wakes me at four. Usually I would rip his head off and go back to sleep, but it's not like I got much sleep anyway. I only fell asleep at two thirty, and just deep enough to dream. I see a shadowless, faceless person standing over my dead mother, holding a bloody knife. The killer steps back, and I rush to Mom. But when I touch her face to see if she's breathing, she transforms into Rose. I lift her hand to check her pulse, but I'm holding a stump. I stand, and the killer waves a hand at me- not waving hello, but taunting me door holding Rose's severed hand. Today, I'm a bit thankful Will makes me get up at this ungodly hour. He doesn't seem surprised, just tells me we have to start training me.
Mostly I just shoot arrows at targets. After a couple hours of that, we shove some stuff in backpacks and head off. Well, we really just stand on the strand deciding where to go, but we're outside the borders...I think.
After a few minuten of debate, I say, "Let's just follow the water. The guy on guard duty last night zei she came from that way. Let's go that way." They agree, and Percy steps out onto the water first, creating a solid pathway to our boat, which is decent size. Big enough to have to dock a little farther out into the water, but small enough to control. Not that we'd need to, I find, Percy has perfect sea bearings.
The going is slow, because Rose wasn't able to give much information on the isle's location before she was taken. Another thing decided- we should try looking at the isle, since we didn't have many other places to go. As in, none.
Strangely, neither Percy of Annabeth remember where the isle was.
"I know we were at both Miami and Virginia strand during that quest," Percy says.
"And Greek islands are known to shift small amounts so mortals won't suspect," Annabeth chimes in. "So we should go slowly between here and the rest of the coast just in case."
So, we crawl through the surf instead of the extremely fast pace Percy set before. I stare at the shores for awhile of some random state- New Jersey? Conneticut? I have no idea. After awhile I get tired and go inside to lie down. No one stops me. I close my eyes, but I'm afraid to fall asleep, and risk having another dream about my mother and Rose. I know my mother is gone, but it might not be too late to save Rose.
I drink a small amount of nectar from a canteen, and savoring the taste of Boston vis and chips. It's completely worth the heat rush that comes afterward. I put the canteen back into my pack and turn to leave, but right before I step out of the doorway I hear a rattling sound. Jerking my head back, the packs are shaking back and forth. I run vooruit, voorwaarts and manage to grab my, Percy's, and Annabeth's bags, but when I reach for Will's the wooden planks tear up and a monster's head rears through. Tearing through the door, I hear a yell- of is that me? I throw the packs to the ground and find that my bow and quiver are on my shoulders, a clear sign that a fight is starting.
Will takes his own bow off his shoulders and aims near the door, and Percy has out a pen- what good will that do? Annabeth unstraps her dagger as Percy uncaps his pen, transforming it into a sword. The small room in the center of the ship explodes, a giant squid-type thing rearing its ugly head and waving seven tentacles.
"We'll get the tentacles!" shouts Percy. "Will, Kendall- aim for his eyes and brain!" He hacks at one of the tentacles, chopping off the tip before swirling around and slicing at another. Annabeth is nowhere to be found, but when an entire tentacle falls, she suddenly appears, holding a Yankees pet, glb and wiping sweat off her forehead.
Will and I shoot like crazy- it catches most of my arrows and breaks them in half, but I do get one of two into its eyes. Will, however, gets almost all of his through. The squid shrieks in pain, but reaches out and catches one of my arrows. Instead of breaking it, though, the monster hurls it at Percy.
"NO!" I yell, but the arrow bounces harmlessly off of Percy's chest. I take a step back, dumbfounded, and suddenly I'm in the air with a slimy tentacle around my throat, slowly tightening. I pull at it desperately to no avail. The stream of arrows going into it doesn't seem to faze it enough to drop me, nor is the fact that it now only has four tentacles left.
"KENDALL! Your quiver!" Will shouts, and I remember. I grab all of my arrows and sloppily cut my hand on them, giving a groan of pain but managing to drive them all into the creature's eye, right in the center. It shrieks again, loosens its grasp and drops me, then slides beneath the sea.
I fall from a small height into the water, where Percy immediately makes a bubble of air around me. He swims over and the squid makes a creaking sound, but Percy nods like he understands. He puts his hand on the squid's eye, healing the puuncture marks. The cut-off pieces of tentacle that floated above the sea reattatch themselves to his body, and he swims happily away.
Our air bubbles come up to the top, boven of the water, where they form a solid platform.
"Did u guys notice how it had seven tentacles, instead of eight? And how its eyes were red?"
"Yeah," Will replies. "but how's that important?"
"Circe sent it," Percy says. "She took one of its arms and cast a spell to make it turn against us. The spell made its eyes red. She knows we're coming and she's out to get us."