chapter X

🌷  Daphne should've been paying attention to not falling out of the boat. But truthfully, all she could think was: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Although, it wasn't the stupidest thing that she'd said. She thought Percy was crazy when he yelled, "Thermos!" as they hurtled toward the water.

"What?" Daphne screamed, thinking he'd lost his mind. She was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, her hair flying straight up like a torch. Her head was whipping round with the wind.

But Tyson understood. He managed to open Percy's duffel bag and take out Hermes's magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat.

Arrows and javelins whistled past them, narrowly avoiding skewering their heads off.

Percy grabbed the thermos and hoped he was doing the right thing. "Hang on!"

"I am hanging on!" Daphne yelled. It was true - her arms were curled around Annabeths torso, hands clinging to the boat beneath her.

"Tighter!"

She hooked her feet under the boat's inflatable bench, and Tyson grabbed Annabeth, Daphne and Percy by the backs of their shirts. Percy gave the thermos cap a quarter turn and instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled them sideways, turning their downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing.

The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free. As they hit the ocean, they bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in their faces and nothing but sea ahead.

Daphne heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind them, but they were already out of weapon range. The Princess Andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.

"Oh, no," Daphne moaned and fell down on the boat, pressing her back as far as it would go. "No, no, no. This is so - I can't-"

Annabeth glanced at her, carefully removing her hands from gripping onto her arms and interrupting her blood circulation. "Daphne, it's okay! We're smooth sailing now-"

Daphne groaned. "No. No, if I sit up I'll vomit... you guys just... do whatever."

As they raced over the sea, Annabeth and Percy tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron as Daphne curled up in the boat. They all figured it was important to let somebody know what Luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust.

The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight-perfect for an Iris-message - but the connection was still poor. When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show them Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

They told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on their end, Daphne wasn't sure how much he actually heard. With every bump of the sea she turned a darker shade of green and hid her face in her arms, eyes squeezed shut.

This was like her own little horror film. In her head, she repeated to herself that she was okay about a thousand times, but it didn't do much to help.

"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for-"

His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him - a bunch of voices whooping like Comanche warriors.

"What?" Percy yelled.

"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. "Annabeth, you shouldn't have let Percy or Daphne leave the camp! But if you do get the Fleece-"

"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woo-hoooooo!"

The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made their boat vibrate. "Oh, Gods," Daphne groaned.

"Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watch-"

Their misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone.

An hour later of sad whimpers from Daphne and loud yawns from Tyson, they spotted land - a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on their starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look. She guessed it wasn't every day they saw a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by four kids.

"That's Virginia Beach!" Annabeth announced as they approached the shoreline. Daphne sat up to take a look, but her head was wavering so much that she had to lay back down again. It made her feel better seeing actual land, though. "Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That's like-"

"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," Percy blurted out.

Daphne winced her eyes open and stared at him. "What? How did you know that?"

"I-I'm not sure."

Annabeth thought for a moment. "Percy, what's our position?"

"36 degrees, 44 minutes north, 76 degrees, 2 minutes west," he said immediately. Then he shook his head. "Whoa. How did I know that?"

"Because of your dad," Annabeth guessed. "When you're at sea, you have perfect bearings. That is so weird."

"That's so cool," Daphne corrected, laying back down on the boat again.

He didn't seem so sure about that, like he didn't want to be a human GPS unit. But before he could say anything, Tyson tapped his shoulder. "Other boat is coming."

He looked back. The coast guard vessel was definitely on their tail now. Its lights were flashing and it was gaining speed.

"We can't let them catch us," Percy said. "They'll ask too many questions, and they'll think we kidnapped Daphne."

"Sorry," she said weakly, trying to push herself up but failing at the motion when she saw the ocean lapping beneath them. "I didn't know I got this seasick."

"Keep going into Chesapeake Bay," Annabeth instructed. "I know a place we can hide."

He didn't ask what she meant or how she knew the area so well, but risked loosening the thermos cap
a little more and a fresh burst of wind sent them rocketing around the northern tip of Virginia Beach into Chesapeake Bay. The coast guard boat fell farther and farther behind and they didn't slow down until the shores of the bay narrowed on either side, and Percy realized they'd entered the mouth of a river.

It was as though Percy could feel the change from salt water to fresh water. Suddenly he was tired and frazzled enough to fall down beside Daphne, like he was coming down off a sugar high. He couldn't tell where they were anymore, or which way to steer the boat. It was a good thing Annabeth was directing them as usual.

"There," she said. "Past that sandbar."

They veered into a swampy area choked with marsh grass, and Percy beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress.

Vine-covered trees loomed above them. Insects chirred in the woods. The air was muggy and hot, and steam curled off the river. Basically, it wasn't Manhattan, and Percy really didn't seem to like it. Daphne, on the other hand, was immensely grateful from the switch to land, and shook as she took Annabeths hand to stand up. She wobbled a bit coming off of the boat but shook her head out of her illness.

"Come on," Annabeth commanded. "It's just down the bank."

"What is?" Percy asked cluelessly.

"Just follow." She grabbed a duffel bag. "And we'd better cover the boat. We don't want to draw any attention."

After burying the lifeboat with branches, Daphne seemed to form a realisation of where they were. "This place-" she started.

"Yeah." Annabeth interrupted her like she was begging her not to reveal anymore. "I know."

"Oh," she said softly. "Okay."

Daphne said nothing more, but Percy frowned. "Have you been here before?"

Neither of them responded.

They followed Daphne and Annabeth along the shore, their feet sinking in red mud. A snake slithered past her shoe and disappeared into the grass.

"Not a good place," Tyson said. He swatted the mosquitoes that were forming a buffet line on his
arm.

After another few minutes, Annabeth said, "Here."

All Percy saw was a patch of brambles. But Daphne, struck with a memory once buried, stepped forward to take charge. She moved aside a woven circle of branches, like a door, and Percy realized he was looking into a camouflaged shelter.

The inside was big enough for four, even with Tyson counting as two. The walls were woven from plant material, but they looked pretty waterproof. Stacked in the corner was everything you could want for a campout - sleeping bags, blankets, an ice chest, and a kerosene lamp. There were demigod provisions too - bronze javelin tips, a quiver full of arrows, an extra sword, and a box of ambrosia. The place smelled musty, like it had been vacant for a long time.

"A half-blood hideout." Percy looked at Annabeth and Daphne in awe. "You guys made this place?"

"Thalia and I," Daphne said quietly. "And little Annabeth. She was so small, but she knew how to structure the whole place, taking charge. And... Luke helped."

Percy frowned. He knew that it shouldn't have bothered him. He knew that Daphne, Thalia and Luke had taken care of Annabeth when she was little. He knew the four of them had been runaways together, hiding from monsters, surviving on their own before Grover found them and tried to get them to Half-Blood Hill. But whenever Daphne talked about the time she'd spent with them, Percy kind of felt ... he didn't know. Uncomfortable?

No. That's not the word.

The word was jealous.

"So..." he started. "You don't think Luke will look for us here?"

Annabeth shook her head. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are. Or cares."

She threw herself down on the blankets and started going through her duffel bag. Her body language made it pretty clear she didn't want to talk.

"Um, Tyson?" Daphne coaxed. "Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness
convenience store or something?"

"Convenience store?"

"Yeah, for snacks. Like powdered donuts or something. Just don't go too far, okay?"

"Powdered donuts," Tyson said earnestly. "I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness."

He headed outside and started calling, "Here, donuts!"

Daphne sat beside Annabeth and tried to talk to her. "Hey-"

"I'm going to stay with him," she interrupted her, standing quickly. "Make sure he doesn't get too lost."

She left before Daphne could open her mouth to argue. Daphne frowned and leaned back on the bed she'd once slept on.

Once they were both gone, Percy sat down across from Daphne and shuffled closer to her. She still stared at the entrance Annabeth had disappeared through.

"Hey, I'm sorry about, you know, seeing Luke."

"It's not your fault." Daphne sighed. "You didn't know what was going to happen. So don't blame yourself, okay? You always do that."

"What?" he frowned. "No I don't."

Daphne chuckled. "Okay then."

"I don't!"

"Okay! I believe you."

She laughed quietly again, but was quickly back to her sad sighing.

"He let us go too easily," Percy mumbled.

Daphne hoped she'd been imagining it, but when Percy brought it up she just nodded. "I know. But what we overheard him say about a gamble, and 'they'll take the bait'... I think he was talking about us."

"The Fleece is the bait? Or Grover?"

She was still laying down, but turned herself to look at Percy from her side. "I can't tell. Maybe he wants the Fleece for himself and let us go to grab it for him. I just..."

"Just what?" Percy shuffled closer.

Daphne sighed, and he was surprised to see a small tear tracing down her cheek. "I just can't believe he poisoned her."

Percy was going to use this moment as a chance to ask her about what Luke was talking about, since he was using the words 'second chance' and all. But he knew now wasn't the right time.

"I know," Percy supplied. He wasn't sure what to say.

"I mean," Daphne started, sitting herself up and hugging her knees to her chest. "I'm alive, aren't I? I always thought that if I survived then there's a chance... that she..."

"Luke doesn't care about that." Percy shook his head.

"But he used to," Daphne muttered and took out her lip gloss from her pocket. The gloss was a shiny pink shade, and she uncapped it into her sword and started to sharpen the blade with a knife she slipped out from under the pillow.

A few awkward seconds passed.

"What did he mean," Percy asked quietly, interrupting the awkward silence. "that Thalia would've been on his side?"

"He's wrong."

"You don't sound sure."

Daphne turned to glare at him, and he started to wish that hadn't asked her about this while she was holding a sword.

"You remind me of her so much, Percy." Daphne shook her head and kept sharpening her sword, trying not to look back up at him. "When we first met, I kept - just looking at you like you were her. I mean, you would've been best friends or you would've strangled each other."

"Let's go with 'best friends.'"

"Annabeth was too young to remember it all, Percy, so if you ask her she won't know. But I was with Thalia for longer, and... Thalia got angry with her dad sometimes. Well, a lot of the times. But so do you. Would you ever turn against Olympus because of that?"

Percy stared at the quiver of arrows in the corner. "No."

"Alright, then." Daphne said softly, wanting to repeat the words he told her earlier: 'you don't sound sure'. "Then neither would she. Luke's wrong."

Daphne stuck her sword blade into the dirt, still humming over what she should call it.

"My prophecy." Percy started hesitantly. "Have you heard it?"

Daphne glanced at him. "No. I'm not allowed to. They won't tell me anything."

He drew a deep breath. "I think that's because... you're in it."

Her eyelashes fluttered. "What-"

She was interrupted when the door of the hut creaked open. Tyson crawled in.

"Powdered donuts!" he said proudly, holding up a pastry box.

Percy and Daphne gawked at him. "Where did you get that? We're in the middle of the wilderness. There's
nothing around for-"

"Fifty feet," Tyson beamed. "Monster Donut shop-just over the hill!"

Annabeth burst into the hut behind him, breathing heavily.

"Guys," she said in-between short intakes of breath. "You need to see this. Now."

Minutes later, they were crouching behind a tree, staring at the donut shop in the middle of the woods. It looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a parking area, and a little road leading off into the forest, but there was nothing else around, and no cars parked in the lot. Peeking through the brambles, Daphne could see one employee reading a magazine behind the cash register. That was it. On the store's marquis, in huge black letters that read: MONSTER DONUT!

A cartoon ogre was taking a bite out of the O in MONSTER. The place smelled good, like fresh-baked chocolate donuts.

"This shouldn't be here," Annabeth whispered. "It's wrong."

"What?" Percy asked cluelessly. "It's a donut shop."

"Shhh!" Daphne scolded him. "Keep your voice down! Gods, where are your survival instincts?"

"Why are we whispering? Tyson went in and bought a dozen. Nothing happened to him."

"He's a monster, idiot!" Annabeth hissed.

"Aw, c'mon, Annabeth. Monster Donut doesn't mean monsters! It's a chain. We've got them in New York."

"A chain," she agreed. "And don't you think it's strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods?"

"It could be a nest," Daphne added worriedly. At the look on Annabeths face, she could tell she agreed.

Tyson whimpered. She doubted that he could understand what Annabeth was saying any better than Percy, but her tone was making him nervous. He'd plowed through half a dozen donuts from his box and was getting powdered sugar all over his face.

"A nest for what?" Percy asked.

"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast?" Annabeth interrupted. "One day there's nothing and then the next day - boom, there's a new burger place or a coffee shop or whatever? First a single store, then two, then four - exact replicas spreading across the country?"

"Um, no. Never thought about it."

"Percy, some of the chains multiply so fast because all their locations are magically linked to the life force of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950s. They breed-"

She froze. Daphne looked at Annabeth from where she'd been surveying the donut shop and saw her face an unusual ashen white. "Annabeth?" she whispered.

"What?" Percy demanded. "They breed what?"

"No-sudden-moves," Annabeth said, like her life depended on it. "Very slowly, turn around."

Finally, she heard it: a scraping noise, like something large was dragging its belly through the leaves.

Daphne and Percy turned to see a rhino-size thing moving through the shadows of the trees. It was hissing, its front half writhing in all different directions. She couldn't understand what she was seeing at first, and then scolded herself and made herself look closer. Quickly, she realized the thing had multiple necks - at least seven, each topped with a hissing reptilian head. Its skin was leathery, and under each neck it wore a plastic bib that read: I'M A MONSTER DONUT KID!

She whimpered and took out her lip gloss. With a warning glance from Annabeth which read not yet, she sat frozen.

A lot of monsters have terrible eyesight. It was possible the Hydra might pass them by, if they were lucky enough - so they waited.

The Hydra was only a few feet away. It seemed to be sniffing the ground and the trees like it was hunting for something. Then Daphne noticed that two of the heads were ripping apart a piece of yellow canvas - one of their duffel bags. The thing had already been to the campsite. It was following their scent.

She swallowed tightly and tried not to feel too relieved that she'd kept her backpack with her, disposable camera tucked safely inside.

But her heart still pounded. She'd seen a stuffed Hydra-head trophy at camp before, but that did nothing to prepare her for the real thing. Each head was diamond-shaped, like a rattlesnake's, but the mouths were lined with jagged rows of sharklike teeth.

Tyson was trembling. He stepped back and accidentally snapped a twig. Immediately, all seven heads turned toward them and hissed.

"Scatter!" Annabeth yelled. She dove to the right, Daphne following not far behind as she rolled into the mud on the ground.

Percy rolled to the left. One of the Hydra heads spat an arc of green liquid at him that shot past his shoulder and splashed against an elm. The trunk smoked and began to disintegrate. The whole tree toppled straight toward Tyson, who still hadn't moved, petrified by the monster that was now right in front of him.

"Tyson!" Percy tackled him with all his might, knocking him aside just as the Hydra lunged and the tree crashed on top of two of its heads.

The Hydra stumbled backward, yanking its heads free then wailing in outrage at the fallen tree. All seven heads shot acid, and the elm melted into a steaming pool of muck.

"Move!" he told Tyson. Percy ran to one side and uncapped Riptide, hoping to draw the monster's attention.

It worked.

The sight of celestial bronze is hateful to most monsters. As soon as the glowing blade appeared, the Hydra whipped toward it with all its heads, hissing and baring its teeth.

The good news: Tyson was momentarily out of danger.

The bad news: Percy was about to be melted into a puddle of goo.

One of the heads snapped at him experimentally. Without thinking, he swung his sword.

"No!" Annabeth yelled.

Too late. He'd sliced the Hydra's head clean off. It rolled away into the grass, leaving a flailing stump, which immediately stopped bleeding and began to swell like a balloon.

In a matter of seconds the wounded neck split into two necks, each of which grew a full-size head.

"Percy!" Annabeth scolded. "You just opened another Monster Donut shop somewhere!"

He dodged a spray of acid. "I'm about to die and you're worried about that? How do we kill it?"

"Fire!" Daphne finally said, completely frazzled. "We have to have fire!"

She remembered the story. The Hydra's heads would only stop multiplying if they burned the stumps before they regrew. That's what Heracles had done, anyway. But they had no fire.

Percy backed up toward river. The Hydra followed.

Annabeth moved in on his left and tried to distract one of the heads, parrying its teeth with her knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked her into the muck. Daphne blocked the green acid from being shot at her by distracting the same head on his right.

"No hitting my friends!" Tyson charged in, putting himself between the Hydra and Annabeth. As Annabeth got to her feet, Tyson started smashing at the monster heads with his fists. But she didn't give herself a second to marvel and scrambled over to help Annabeth up before Tyson realized he couldn't fend off the Hydra forever.

They kept inching backward, dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but Daphne knew they were only postponing their deaths. Eventually, one of them would make a mistake and the thing would kill them.

Almost as though she'd imagined it, there was a strange sound coming from the distance: a chug-chug-chug that at first she thought was her heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.

"What's that noise?" Daphne shouted, keeping her eyes on the Hydra.

"Steam engine," Tyson said.

"What?" Percy ducked as the Hydra spat acid over his head. Then from the river behind them, a familiar female voice shouted: "There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!"

She didn't dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who she thought it was behind them, she figured that the situation just became a whole lot more awkward.

A gravelly male voice said, "They're too close, m'lady!"

"Damn the heroes!" the girl said. "Full steam ahead!"

"Aye, m'lady."

"Fire at will, Captain!"

Annabeth understood what was happening a split second before Daphne did. She yelled, "Hit the dirt!"
and they dove for the ground as an earth-shattering BOOM echoed from the river.

There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the Hydra exploded right in front of them, showering them with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do.

"Gross!" screamed Daphne, who was the closest to it and seemed to get hit with a lot more of the green gunk.

"Steamship!" yelled Tyson.

She stood, coughing from the cloud of gunpowder smoke that was rolling across the banks.

Chugging toward them down the river was the strangest ship she'd ever seen - not that she'd ever seen many, though. It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck plated with iron. In the middle was a trapezoid shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons. A flag waved from the top-a wild boar and spear on a bloodred field.

Lining the deck were zombies in gray uniforms - dead soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls, like the ghouls she remembered seeing in the Underworld guarding Hades's palace.

The ship was an ironclad. A Civil War battle cruiser. She could just make out the name along the prow in moss-covered letters: CSS Birmingham.

And standing next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed them, wearing full Greek battle armor, was Clarisse.

"Losers," she sneered. "But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."

౨ৎ ˖ ࣪⊹𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
🌷🪷🌊

What should I name Daphnes sword???????👀👀👀

ʚɞ Ps. Hi hope you're having a nice day :)