TO KARINA, LUNCH WAS ALWAYS THE HAPPY MEDIUM in the day. even if you've had the worst day of your life, or the best day, you will always be slightly excited for lunch. it's just something you could never be upset about happening. so, it's kind of like the in between part of your good or bad day. like a void between life and death, nothing can really go wrong there, or at least most of time nothing can go wrong.

but today, lunch felt like a funeral party. everybody ate. people talked in hushed tones. nobody seemed particularly happy. the other campers kept glancing over at percy like he was the corpse of horror, which he was far from.

karina stood alongside reyna has she made a brief speech wishing them luck. octavian ripped open a beanie baby ( much to karina's demise ) and pronounced grave omens and hard times ahead, but predicted the camp would be saved by an unexpected hero ( whose initials were probably OCTAVIAN ). then the other campers went off to their afternoon classes—gladiator fighting, latin lessons, paintball with ghosts, eagle training, and a dozen other activities that karina wished she could be participating in rather than venturing off on a suicide quest. karina walked with hazel, frank, and percy back to the barracks to pack.

karina didn't want to pack much, but not too little either. this was a reoccurring issue with karina—packing. she never knew what would be important and what wouldn't be important.

should she bring extra jackets incase the others forget theirs? does she want to bring yarn to knit a sweater when she's bored? should she bring her or burgundy colored head scarf or her dark green one?

these things spiraled through her head as she dug around her alcove in the barrack, trying to find a backpack of suitable size to bring.

she finally decided on her kankan backpack, that was a forest green around most of the backpack and then darker redish color on the straps.

she set down the backpack on her bed, and watched hazel as she peacefully packed simple necessities into her bag, finishing packing up in about eight minutes.

karina just stood there, staring at her backpack, dozing off into her own head, her thoughts drifting away from packing and onto other non-important things, like what color eyeliner should she try out next—light purple or red? which type of flower  should she make her signature smell—rose or peony? that's an extra ability of the ceres children, she can create what type of scent she gives off—but it is limited to only earth related scents, like cedar, or pine needles, which she would never let herself smell like. she preferred sweet smells, like fresh dew-covered orchids, or a honey suckle.

before karina could drift off even more, hazel was shaking her, saying her name louder and louder each time before karina finally snapped out of it.

"—yes!" karina belted, blinking rapidly.

hazel sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead, looking up to the ceiling with an expression that said, what am i going to do with this girl?

"karina, you have got to stop doing that." hazel persisted. "you've been out of it for at least five minutes."

karina sighed, her eyes still glossy from not blinking in her transe-like state. "i'm sorry, haz. i just— i can't pack." she said sheepishly, rocking on her heels.

"okay," hazel said. "let me help you then." she smiled, making her away over to karina's dresser, pulling out a loose green cardigan and dark denim mom jeans.

"here," she handed thrusted the clothes into her arms, making karina stumble back just a little. "change into these, it's going to be cold."

karina nodded and made her way into the bathroom to change.

when she was finished just about a minute later, she turned to her bunk to see hazel sitting crisscrossed and the edge of her bed, karina's bag sitting neatly in her lap, it being already packed to the maximum.

karina's mouth dropped. "how did you—" she lazily pointer a finger the bag.

hazel shrugged, a small smile on her face. "i told you, i'm good at packing."

karina just stood there, staring at hazel with envy. "you're good at everything, dude."

hazel laughed and stood up from the bunk, handing karina her bag, and then going to go get her's from the top bunk.

hazel looked to karina with a softer expression. "ready?"

karina didn't respond for a moment, thinking over the question. was she really ready? she's never been on a quest this big in her entire stay at camp jupiter. does she really know what she's doing?

karina figured that she had no other choice than to say 'yes', so she nodded and her and hazel made there way out of the barracks, hitching a ride on caelius to get to the border of the valley.

the little tiber snaked across golden pastures where the unicorns were grazing. the temples and forums of new rome gleamed in the sunlight. on the field of mars, engineers were hard at work, pulling down the remains of last night's fort and stetting up barricades for a game of deathball. a normal day for camp jupiter—but on the northern horizon, storm clouds were gathering. shadows moved across the hills, and karina imagined the face of gaea getting closer and closer. she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get the image out of her head.

they arrived at the border around the same time as percy and another camper names bobby got there, riding on hannibal.

karina smiled and dismounted from caelius, rubbing the top of his head and giving him a quick kiss on the same place, before he was gone in a flash of light.

percy turned to hazel and frank—who seemingly just got here as well, she had no idea how, though—and karina could tell he was trying to think of something upbeat to say.

a familiar voice said, "ID's, please."

karina groaned as a statue of terminus appeared at the summit of the hill. the god's marble face frowned irritably. "well? come along!"

"ever heard of patience?" karina grumbled. starting to roll up her sleeve to show to the cranky god.

"you again?" percy asked. "i thought you just guarded the city."

terminus huffed. "glad to see you, too, mr. rule flouter. normally, yes, i guard the city, but for the international departures, i like to provide extra security at the camp borders. you really should've allowed two hours before your planned departure time, you know. but we'll have to make do. now, come over here so i can pat you down."

"but you don't have—" percy started, but karina pinched his side, stopping him from finishing his sentence. "uh, sure." he said instead, rubbing his side.

he stood next to the armless statue. terminus conducted a rigorous mental pat down.

"you seem to be clean," terminus decided. "do you have anything to declare?"

"yes," percy said. "i declare this is stupid."

karina snorted out a laugh at that, turning her body sideways slightly and covering her mouth with her hand to try and make her laughs go unnoticeable.

"hmph! probatio tablet: percy jackson, fifth cohort, son of neptune. fine, go. hazel levesque, daughter of pluto. fine. any foreign currency or, ahem, precious metals to declare?"

"no," she muttered.

"are you sure?" terminus asked. "because last time—"

"she said no, terminus." karina interrupted, helping out hazel.

"ah! karina ashwood, daughter of ceres. praetor of the the twelfth legion, of course. originally from the fifth, okay. . . " his voice trailed off as he seemingly lost interest after saying she was from the fifth.

"any poisonous plants or berries to declare?" terminus asked.

karina rolled her eyes. "no."

terminus grunted. "well, this is a grumpy bunch. quest travelers! always in a rush. now let's see— frank zhang. ah! centurion? well done, frank. and that haircut is regulation perfect. i approve! off you go, then, centurion zhang. do you need any directions today?"

"no. no, i guess not,"

"just down to the BART station," terminus said anyway. "change trains at twelfth street in oakland. you want fruitvale station. from there, you can walk or take the bus to alameda."

"you guys don't have a magical BART train or something?" percy said. karina gave him an amused smirk.

"magic trains!" terminus scoffed. "you'll be wanting your own security lane and a pass to the executive lounge next. just travel safely, and watch out if polybotes. talk about scofflaws—bah! i wish i could throttle him with my bare hands."

"yep," karina nodded. "your bare hands."

"wait—who?" percy asked.

terminus made a straining expression, like he was flexing his nonexistent biceps. "ah, well. just be careful of him. i imagine he can smell a son of neptune a mile away. out you go, now, good luck!"

an invisible kicker them across them across the boundary, leading karina to stumble directly into percy's chest, catching him off guard.

"umph!" percy puffed out as he attempted to steady the two of them, his hands reaching out to grab her forearms and karina grabbing the front of his shirt, grasping it between of hands.

when they finally got their balance, percy looked down at her with an amused face, a playful smile tugging on his lips. "that's the second time since i've been here that i've had to catch you from falling."

karina blushed lightly and rolled her eyes, pushing herself off of him. "i can't help that i have bad balance! it's just natural." she said, readjusting the straps of her backpack onto her shoulders.

percy raised an eyebrow. "natural?"

"yeah, it's basically hereditary." karina said, shrugging her shoulders with her lips pressed in a line together.

percy nodded sarcastically. "whatever you say, rina."

after he said that, he looked to all of them. "any idea what terminus was talking about? watch out for. . . political something or other?"

"poh-LIB-uh-tease?" hazel sounded out the name carefully. "never heard of him."

"sounds greek," frank said.

"how can something sound greek?" karina asked. "do you just listen to someone's voice and say 'oh, nope! he's a greek one!" she pointed her finger in the air sarcastically, looking to frank with a playful expression.

frank just pursed his lips at her, smacking her hand down, giving a harmless glare in her direction.

percy sighed. "well, we probably just appeared on the smell radar for every monster within five miles. we'd better get moving."

karina grumbled. "i hate being a demi-god."

it took them two hours to reach the docks in alameda, but it felt much quicker than that. probably because karina took a nap for the majority of the train ride, only waking up when they had to get off and go on the next one. no monsters attacked, thank the gods, and nobody looked at the four of them like they were homeless wild children.

frank had stored his spear, bow, and quiver in a long bag made for skis. hazel's cavalry sword was wrapped in a bedroll slung on her back. together, the four of them looked like normal high schoolers on their way back to an overnight trip. they walked to rockbridge station, bought their tickets with mortal money, and hopped on the BART train.

they got off in oakland. they had to walk through some rough neighborhoods, but nobody bothered them. whenever the local gang members came close enough to them or to even just karina, one look into percy's eyes and they quickly veered away. karina couldn't decide whether it was extremely intimidating or extremely hot. probably both. he'd basically perfected his wolf stare, his look saying: however bad you think you are, i'm worse.

in the late afternoon, they made it to the alameda docks. karina looked out over san francisco bay and breather in the salty sea air. karina wanted to take in this moment as much as she could because back home, she didn't have oceans or lakes around her—she had plains. she had farms. she never got to experience this, so she just wanted to stay in this moment as long as she could.

karina knew that whatever they faced, they always had the upper hand with percy as long as they were at sea. this was his fathers domain, so obviously he's going to be more powerful on the water, there's no doubt about it.

dozens of boats were moored at the docks—everything from fifty-foot yachts to ten-foot fishing boats. she scanned the slips for some sort of magic vessel—a trireme, maybe, or a dragon-headed warship like she'd seen in movies.

"um. . . you guys know what we're looking for?"

"no idea." karina said flatly. hazel and frank shook their heads.

"i didn't even know we had a navy." hazel sounded as if she wished there wasn't one.

"oh. . . " frank pointed. "you don't think. . . ?"

at the end of the dock was a tiny boat, like a dinghy, covered in a purple tarp mx embroidered in faded gold along the canvas was S. P. Q. R.

karina's face slouched. "oh, you've got to be shitting me."

"no way." percy said, his confidence wavering.

he uncovered the boat, his hands working the knots like he'd been doing it his whole life. karina couldn't tear her eyes away the way percy's hands methodically unraveled the boat knots. she could see the veins straining in his hands as he pulled on the knots, and his fingers weaving through them like it was nothing.

she finally stopped staring once he uncovered the tarp completely, revealing a steel rowboat with no oars. the boat had been painted dark blue at some point, but the hull was so crusted with tar and salt it looked like one massive nautical bruise.

on the bow, the name pax was still readable, lettered in gold. painted eyes dropped sadly at the water level, as if the boat were about to fall asleep. on board were two benches, some steel wool, an old cooler, and a mound of frayed rope with one end tied to the mooring. at the bottom of the boat, a plastic bag and two empty coke cans floated in several inches of scummy water.

"behold," frank said. "the mighty roman navy."

"there's got to be a mistake," hazel said. "this is a piece of junk."

"yeah, well so is octavian. and he's the one who set this up." karina said bitterly. she imagined octavian laughing at them, but she decided not to let it get him down. the pax was still a boat.

percy jumped aboard first, and the hull hummed under his feet, responding to his presence. he gathered up the garbage in the cooler and put it on the dock. he willed the scummy water to flow over the sides and out of the boat. then he pointed at the steel wool and it flew across the floor, scrubbing and polishing so fast, the steel began to smoke. when it was done, the boat was clean. percy pointed at the rope, and it untied itself from the dock.

there still wasn't any oars, but it seemed like the boat was ready to move on percy's command, so it wasn't a problem.

"this'll do," he said. "hop in."

"dang, aquaman. at least i know we won't get stranded in the middle of the mediterranean." karina said, hopping into the boat.

percy smiled at her. "not on my watch we won't."

hazel and frank looked a little stunned, but they climbed aboard. hazel seemed especially nervous. when they had settled on the seats, percy concentrated, and the boat slipped away from the dock.

"holy moly." karina muttered, in awe of percy's abilities.

"get off my ship," percy suddenly growled.

"um, what?" frank asked.

percy waited for a moment, before answering. "nothing," he said. "let's see what this rowboat can do."

"yeehaw, partners. it's time for an adventure." karina in her most upbeat country tone as percy turned the boat to the north, and in no time they were speeding along at fifteen knots, heading for the golden gate bridge.

2709 words
sorry for the shorter chapter, not too much happened :(

but we're getting close to when things get really good, so i'm excited ✨