Chapter 16: Setting a Course

Chapter 15

Max

At this point, I was tired of funky dreams in the middle of a rather unusual life. Unfortunately, the dreams were not tired of me. I woke up on a rickety old boat next to, if I heard correctly, a vortex in the water. Great, another one.

“Wake up silly boy,” said an irritated voice next to me. My eyes snapped open to a rather beautiful, if upset, woman. She had green eyes and dark hair that was long and braided.

“My aunt is on a silly quest to try and get her father back. It will not end well, especially if your father and the rest of the Gods decide to get off their buts. I do not know why she cannot find out where you are, nor do I really care. I want my island back, and the only way to do that is to help her in what she is doing, possibly inviting the wrath of the Olympians, or help you and invite her wrath. Seeing as she and I are on the same level most of the time, I think I will chance pissing her off, so listen closely. As long as my island is like this, hiding under the ocean, it serves as a gateway to where she has gone. Come here and take this gateway to her, stop her plans. Now, go away.” She waved her hand, and I ended up flying off of the boat and hitting the water.

I sat up with a start, butting my head against Duke’s.

“What the hell was that for Max?” He asked, rubbing his forehead.

“Dream talking, know where to go.” I said in a rush, then I told him, and Julie who was right behind him, about what I had just seen in my dream. After I finished I realized that Duke and I were soaked, while Julie was dry.

“Why are we wet and she isn’t?” I asked.

“Daughter of Poseidon thing,” Duke replied. “So we need to head to whoever that was’s Island?”

“Apparently,” Julie replied, rather full of herself. “I’ll try and figure out where that is, fresh water is down below to clear the sea water away from you two.” She then turned and stood at the helm, chewing on something she was holding in her hand. As Duke and I went downstairs he handed me something, which turned out to be a piece of the shark that was killed by my electricity earlier. Duke had cooked it up. We had fed, cleaned up, and were back on deck within half an hour. Julie was pacing by the tiller at the aft of the boat.

“Whats wrong?” I asked.

“Cannot figure out who the heck gave you the hint,” she said in a growl as she did an about face and continued her pacing. Duke looked at me and shrugged, then he reclined against the railing of the boat and looked at us. I sat next to him.

“What was with that wave?” I asked, still not understanding anything.

“You know how you have the lightning thing?” I nodded. “Depending on who our Godly parents are, we get some powers in the area of influence. Children of Ares, like me, are good with weapons and fighting. Athena’s kids are really smart, Demeter’s kids make anything grow (but they are better with grains), Dionysus’s kids are good with juice bearing plants, your siblings have power over the air and lighting, your cousins from Hades play with the dead and the earth itself. Children of Poseidon, anything to do with water (the saltier the better I guess), and horses,” he added as an afterthought,” they are the ones to go to. You pissed her off with the water in the face wake-up, so she replied ten fold. Why she got me too, I dunno.” He started grumbling at that.

“So wait, that whole water to ice thing at camp, that was her?” He nodded, “and the mud at the arena?” He nodded again. “This thing with the boat?”

“Probably the old sail style boats are under Poseidon’s control too yeah, what are you getting at?” I was thinking too hard to respond to him, which gave me a headache considering that I really didn’t get much sleep.

“Julie, can you tell if there are disturbances in the water?” I asked. She looked at me like I was stupid, then pointed back the way we had come.

“Yes I can Thunderhead, and its back that way, which isn’t helping us.” She went back to her pacing.

“Can you find any other disturbances?” I asked.

“Of course I can what are you -” Then it hit her. She immediately folded her legs under her and closed her eyes, after a few seconds she opened them up again.

“Found a similar disturbance ahead of us,” she said, the boat tilted to the side and then righted itself. “We are on our way now, good thinking Sparky.” She said as she got up, then walked past me and towards the captains quarters. Before I could respond she was there and slamming the door, which was followed by a loud thunk as she locked it from the inside.

“You both are tired, you from the lightning wall and not killing us all when she hit you with the water, which I thank you for by the way, and her from fighting the pull of the vortex and keeping this ship on a very narrow path back there. You should get some sleep too, I will keep watch.” Duke said, then he jumped onto the main mast, the one with the damaged sail and climbed up to the crows nest. I saw that someone, I assume Julie, had fixed the sail. I shrugged and took his advice, climbing down into the crew quarters and hoping to various Gods that nobody was going to interrupt my sleep again today.

Chapter 17