by Amy Laine
In a long story short, we made it to Albany without attracting too many monsters. We had a run in with a flock of stymphalian birds, yes the same ones Herakles (that’s Hercules’ Greek name) fought.
We tried fighting at first, and then Kara surprised us by singing. Let me tell you- she will never make a living singing. Her voice was hoarse and raspy, she sang, “I’ve Been Working On the Railroad” and she was WAY off key.
Too my surprise the birds flew away. “One summer,” She said hands on her legs, panting, “We had a run in with the stymphalian birds. Percy and Annabeth scared them away with Chiron’s set of CD’s and a CD player.” I could see why the birds didn’t want to listen to that junk. Even Chiron’s music was too old fashioned for me.
“So, is that you’re normal voice when you sing?” Xena smirked. They were back to their normal fighting selves.
“No worse than you’re regular voice.” Kara retorted.
After that, we went into the first Starbucks we saw, which wasn’t hard. Coffee places littered the streets.
We walked in and ordered some drinks. I got a vanilla steamer, and we paid with the mortal money. I had a feeling they didn’t except drachmas here. The cashier reminded me faintly of somebody.
I should have realized this earlier, but it seemed like she had a serpents tongue, a leafy thin strip, like a snakes tongue. Her eyes were like a cat, only more intense. I had the feeling that she was into trickery. I felt like something was slithering up my back, but nothing was there. Her white T-Shirt had the picture of a spindle on it, like the one Sleeping Beauty touched. It was hard to tell exactly, because of her green Starbucks apron though.
I had a hard time ordering my drink. She seemed to sense my discomfort and smiled at me. Maybe it was my imagination but I thought I saw her change into a woman holding a spindle in one hand and a torch in the other. I would have thought she was the statue of liberty, except she had a spindle for one, and she whispered, “What do you need girl? What is you’re necessity…this is you’re fate.” In a kind, but also cruel voice. (Don’t ask how that worked, it just did.)
I blinked and then she was just a 27 year old woman, at the cashier waiting for me to order what I wanted to drink.
I described to Xena and Kara what I saw. “Are you sure?” They asked me uneasily. I nodded. “I don’t know who it is...maybe it’s a monster?” Kara sounded terrified.
Xena nodded in agreement which was rare. I pulled out my book of Greek Myths. “Maybe this will help.” I said, sipping out of my cup.
We spent several minutes trying to find something about a women like a serpent talking about fates, necessities and stuff like that. We landed on Ananke, goddess of inevitability, destiny, necessity and fate. We looked back at where the goddess stood, smiling at a young man who was getting a blueberry scone.
“What is she doing working at Starbucks?” I broke the silence. Xena shrugged. “Beats me.” Kara nodded. “Maybe one of us should go ask her?”
We voted that Xena should go, because number one, I ordered our drinks, and Kara was still injured despite the nectar I had given her. She’d had a hard time getting here.
When Xena came back, Ananke came with her. She was a pretty goddess but her serpents tongue made it hard to concentrate on her beauty. “Hello young godlingssss,” She slurred.
“Why are you working here?” I blurted out before I could contain myself. The (minor) goddess laughed. “Why not?” My face turned red.
“I am the goddess of necesssssitiessss as I am fatesss and dessstiny. Is coffee and chocolate not a necesssssity?” She asked waving her hand around the restaurant. It was hard to understand her exactly with all the ‘sssss’.
Kara nodded. “Because chocolate is-” Ananke finished the sentence with Kara, “Universal.” They both intoned.
“Ares and Hephaestus said you would help us.” Xena put in, leaning against the table easily.
Ananke’s face grew brighter, literally. “I always had a sssoft ssspot for Hephaessstusss. What does he want me to do?” I ignored the fact that she had dissed Ares. Xena looked angry for a moment.
“Um…well we have a prophecy. And we’re kind of on this quest. So…if we told you the prophecy could you help us?” Kara asked, picking up her chocolate frappe.
Ananke blew on her fingernails. “If you’ll tell me the prophecy of course I will.” This seemed too easy. Ananke wasn’t known for being evil, but she wasn’t known for being overly kind either. Her husband was Kronos at the beginning of time anyways. They represented time and fate together. I think they divorced though when he got overthrown.
“Two halfbloods thy will take
Failing quest the camp will quake
Losing one in the mighty lake
Everything is now put to stake
A sign released from above
Calm from the word of the head Dove.”
I recited from memory. Ananke frowned. “I see now. This could be very dangerous…you know that one of you is going to die.” As the goddess of fatesss and dessstiny, I was sure that she knew which of us.
“Do you know the Fates?” Xena asked.
“Yes, we are very close. In fact, sssometimes we play cardsss together to determine ssssomeone’s fate together. It’s actually quite fun.”
She plays cards to determine someone’s fate? Was what my mind was thinking. What kind of freak was she?
“I will help you.” She decided. “It is the leassst I can do, to help you demigodsss after what my ex husband did last sssummer.” She led us to the back of the Starbucks. A word glowed on the wall, next to the dusty espresso maker.
Πύλη. “Portal.” Kara read, automatically switching over to Greek.
Ananke smiled, her pearly whites flashing us. Her serpents tongue flicked in and out of her mouth. “Yesss, dearsss. This is a portal to the heart of Albany. There you will fail your quessst.”
We all did our best not to ask how we would fail our quest but it came out anyways. “Fail our quest?” Xena asked uncomfortably. She looked like she was holding back information.
“I am restricted to tell you how.” Ananke sighed wistfully. “I do wish I could help you more…but remember. Words are the ssstrongest weapon. The Earth itself uses words.” She looked directly at me. I had no idea what she meant, but I nodded.
“I can only tell you- you will sssucceed…in a different matter. Your quessst wasss in…vain. Head East. That isss all I can tell you.” And then she disappeared in a wisp of smoke. “Well that was helpful.” Xena said.
Kara touched her hand to the Πύλη (Portal) symbol. It glowed even brighter and then we were sucked into a huge black void.
We flew through darkness, and I didn’t dare open my eyes. I heard huge gusts of wind flying by my ear and the sounds of people talking. I couldn’t figure out what they were saying but it sounded like we were going fast.
“Clean your room for thousandth time…”
“I told you Mr. Homer we are not giving jobs at this time.”
“I didn’t mean too!”
“Apologize right now punk, or you’re lunch is gone.”
“Mary, don’t leave me. Please...”
“I’ll be there in 10.”
Those were the tidbits I caught as we whirled away through space. It was overwhelming, the darkness and I thought- was it possible Ananke was actually evil? What if she was trapping us here in this black hole forever?
Then we landed. I don’t know how, and I’m not anxious to try that again. I landed on top of a large white boulder, Xena clung to a tree and Kara was the luckiest. She was sitting in the Runway II which somehow came with us. I thanked Ananke but, I didn’t think we seriously needed it anymore.
Kara snapped her fingers and the boat folded up into a small hand bag. “it comes with pockets too.” Kara grinned like the genius she was.
“Where are we?” Xena asked, flipping off the tree branch. (Show off). As if on cue we noticed a sign. Center Square, New York. I’d heard of
Times Square but not Center Square.
We were looking at some weird looking houses on Lark Street. The people who walked by us, didn’t seem to notice anything weird going on. We headed off doing our best to guess which direction to go.
“Is it morning?” Kara asked us. I looked around. “Yeah. Why?” Kara pointed to the Sun. “Ananke said to go east. We head that way.”
So we set off.
Xena and I talked about the Prophecy while Kara held back playing with her boat/pack. “Lee, there’s something you should know.” She shifted her feet uncomfortably. “It’s me.” I got what she was saying. “Maybe…we can avoid it? Or…it doesn’t mean you’ll die or anything.” I said quickly. (Right?) “Maybe it means you’ll get lost, but you’ll find you’re way back.” That pretty much ended our conversation.
It was well past noon when we found our first Olympian sign. It was a lake- with the mark of a trident in it. As far as I knew, there were no lakes around Center Square. (Not that I knew much.)
The mark of the trident was swirling around the top of the lake, changing into crashing waves and surfer dudes, and then always back to the figurine of a trident. Huge rocks erupted from the lake staying up for about five seconds and then disappearing under the waves. In the center of the lake was a little island, big enough to hold about three boats as big as the small Runway II.
It didn’t seem coincidental that we ended up there. We broke out the snacks and ate a hearty lunch before exploring. Xena stood up, fear in her eyes. “I..Um…I’m going to go check out the lake now. You guys stay here. Maybe there is something on that island that could help us.” She took her dory with her.
We watched as she jumped from rock to rock, timing it just right. She was like a jaguar, so graceful and stealthy, but also very dangerous. It must have been hard wielding her spear.
Then she made her fatal step. I thought I saw Ananke in like a cloud of mist playing cards at her table, watching Xena. “You must lossse one in the mighty lake, to fail your quessst…” Ananke whispered from her little table. “No! Stop! Xena!” Kara and I screamed to Xena. She couldn’t have heard us over the crash of the waves. I knew what was happening now. By the gods, Xena and I had just talked about it!
She slipped on the rock that was just going down. Her hands flailed wildly, trying to grab on to anything to lessen her fall. Her head turned toward us, a silent plea forming on her lips. And then she disappeared under the lake with the rocks.
“It isss done.” Ananke said solemnly from her mist cloud. A million ideas flashed through my mind at once. I wanted to grab the nearest can of Sprite and hurl it at the cloud image. I doubted it would do anything though. The next was thinking, “Oh my gods, Xena was the one we would lose!” and the third thought was screaming in panic.
Ananke disappeared again and Kara and I sat there, blinking. “Xena…” Kara said hoarsely setting down her coke. I wasn’t hungry either. I stared at where she’d disappeared. “She died…because…because I let her go out there. Alone.” I cursed myself. Tears came to my eyes- what would dad said? I’d failed him. It was weird, because I was sad, but not as sad as I wanted to be. Like, for some reason the grief was too much.
Kara looked at me. “It wasn’t your fault.” She said with difficulty. “I wish we could make a time traveling machine. I could make one in a couple years.” She said wistfully. “I’d go back, and Xena and I would be friends.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. Her bandanna had come off her head, but she made no move to adjust it. We were failures.
I don’t know how long we sat there, grieving over Xena’s loss. Maybe…thirty minutes at best. As we got up and packed our things away, I wondered who would make such an evil lake and why? Whoever it was they are a monster.
I shuddered to think it was Poseidon, he wasn’t like that. I’d never met him but I was sure of it. But the trident…all the sudden a blast appeared in the clearing. An old man hobbled over to us. He had the looks of a fisherman who’d fallen out of his boat and been devoured my sharks, and then spit out. In other words he was really not that good looking.
“I am Oceanus.” He said an (evil?) glint in his eyes. “I will not stay long, for 99% of my essence is trapped in Tarturus. You should know this is my lake. The Little Sea of Many Deaths. It summons arguments to your home- which in your case is Camp Halfblood. This will only strengthen the arguments already beginning at your precious camp.”
“Why are you helping us?” Asked Kara.
Oceanus stroked his beard. “I ask myself that question all the time. I bring you a small bit of information- I chose wrong in the second Titan War. Your opponent this time is greater then we are. The Earth itself-” Whatever he was going to say, he stopped and tilted his head, like he was listening to someone else.
“I can not tell you that. But I will say, you must get back to your camp. This quest is failed- because it was in vain. You should have stayed there. Chaos is starting.” And then with a strangled gulp the old man vanished, as if someone was telling him, “Get back into Tarturus. You didn’t get permission to leave.”
“I’ve had enough help from the gods.” Kara muttered spitefully patting her Runaway II bag. I nodded in agreement. They seemed a little too helpful. “Kara, how fast can we get to Camp Halfblood from here?”
She grinned despite the fact that we were still sad. “I thought you’d never ask.” She snapped her fingers and the Runaway II turned back into a boat. “This might be the best flying boat ever. Just don’t lean over the side.” She advised. “You might fall out.”
I got into the boat and didn’t lean over the sides, for my health.
The bad thing about that boat ride, you ask? Well, for one, it took about an hour to get to Camp Halfblood. This means, it gave me plenty of time to think. Kara didn’t talk to me, she was busy manning the wheel and fixing stuff up.
I’d tried not to dwell on the prophecy. Chiron had told me not to think about a Prophecy too greatly, but you would know the answers to everything about the Prophecy after it happened. This wasn’t particularly helpful.
I’d told myself, that maybe losing someone meant, like somebody get’s lost, or they make a mistake and turn evil, or they ‘die’ and somehow heroically make it back. Just like in the movies. But I knew Xena was dead. I could feel it. The Camp will quake part still bothered me.
We reached Camp and sailed right through the magical boundaries. When we landed a bunch of kids had gathered around. Most of them looked angry. There were about ten around us, all arguing and fighting amongst each other.
Chiron was trying to break up a fight between Apollo and Ares, while Aphrodite’s cabin spat insults at Cabin 6 (Athena). Even Demeter and Hecate were fighting. I didn’t get it and Kara looked stupefied as well. Hephaestus was allying with Demeter, or so it looked.
“Why is everyone fighting?” I asked getting out of the boat before it touched down on the soil. Instantly my thoughts turned into rage. “Him.” A guy from Aphrodite’s cabin pointed at a girl from Athena’s cabin. “They started it.” Apollo’s kids accused my siblings from Ares cabin. They all blamed one another for stealing things, breaking things or just being rude or something like that.
Kara and I looked at each other. She hadn’t gotten out of the boat. Words are the strongest weapon... A voice whispered in my mind. I tried to tone out the anger inside of me to hear the voice. Kara seemed to hear it too. “STOP!” We yelled as one. “We’re all like family here!” Kara insisted. “You love on another.” I added helpfully.
“Someone is manipulating you’re minds, making you argue.” Kara said with wisdom beyond her years. I saw Percy and Annabeth in a tree. (???)
“As long as you touch the ground, you’re fighting with each other.” Percy said from his tree. I don’t know how they figured that out but I felt a sense that I should be pulverizing the Apollo cabin. I fought against the feeling, but jumped back into the boat to be safe. Instantly, the anger faded.
The half-bloods still look
angry but they moved to get on top of things. The roof of their cabin, on top of a log, a tire, anything. One demigod stood on top of a horse’s salt licking block. The horses whinnied in protest like “Hey!”
The campers asked how we would move around without touching the ground. I just knew we couldn’t touch the ground without. Chiron was the only one, not affected (or so it seemed) when he was touching the ground.
Drew from the Aphrodite cabin fluffed her hair. “This is stupid.” She declared, her feet dangling over the roof of her cabin. Annabeth seemed to be thinking. “Drew, charmspeak us.”
The leader of the Aphrodite’s cabin looked surprised. No one ever asked her willingly to do that. Lacy made sign language motions at me, but I didn’t get it so she just mouthed, “Are you okay?”
I nodded and gave her a thumb up.
“I don’t see how that’s going to help Annabeth.” Drew rolled her eyes. The two weren’t close, but they talked on occasion. Dionysus strutted out of his office. He blinked when he saw us all hanging up in the sky. (Well you know what I mean.)
Mr. D sighed. “Looks like she is up to her old tricks? My goodness, the camp is sure going to quake. And let me tell you, I control everything that happens here, and someday soon…Romans.” He didn’t look worried he was too lazy to be angry. But he did stiffen when he said Romans. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I didn’t care.
Chiron paled. “I would speak with you later Mr. D.” He looked completely miffed. I felt bad for the centaur; because Mr. D isn’t someone you would have tea and chat with.
Drew had been talking to Annabeth. Finally she sighed and said, “Well now look. The camp needs me. Isn’t that a sorry sight?”
Finally Drew said, “No more arguing. You will all be peaceful and the ground will not affect your emotions. And all the boys will fall in love with me for today. The girls will bring me gifts, one at a time.” Her words held power.
I had the sudden urge to run and get Drew a nice present. Stop that. I told myself. I attentively poked my foot outside of the boat. All clear.
Calm from the word of the lead Dove. It made sense, the whole thing.
I told Kara my reasons. She nodded and we talked for a while longer. Everyone had gone down to eat at the Pavilion. “Can we go eat now?” She complained, pushing the hair out of her face again. “I’m starving.” I grinned. “Yeah me too.”
As we headed down I looked seriously at my friend. “I’m not going on a quest for a good long time. Okay?” She nodded with me. “Neither am I.”
The ghostly form of Xena flickered as she watched her two friends walk away. She smiled. “Good luck my friends.”
