"HAZEL, HAZEL!" frank shook hazel's arms in a desperate panic. "come on, please! wake up!"

karina licked her lips nervously, her hand shaking as she ran it through hazel's hair comfortingly, whispering soothing words to try and coax her awake, unlike frank's method of screaming in her face until she woke up.

karina wouldn't let on that she was internally freaking out about hazel not waking up— not around frank. she needed to look under control, to help show him that everything will be okay.

they were on a cliff overlooking a beach, and about hundred feet away, the ocean glittered in the moonlight. the surf washed gently against the stern of their beached boat. to her right, hugging the edge of the cliff, was a building like a small church with a searchlight in the steeple. a lighthouse.

but before frank could jostle hazel again, she opened her eyes, a flash of coppery gold filling up karina's vision, letting a feeling of relief flow through her. she slowly untwined her hand from hazel's thick curls, and sat back onto the rough dirt, her hands supporting her as she leaned back on them tiredly, craving sleep.

"where are we?" hazel asked.

frank exhaled. "thank the gods you're awake! we're in mendocino, about a hundred and fifty miles north of the golden gate."

"a hundred and fifty miles?" hazel groaned. "i've been out that long?"

"yeah," karina chuckled. "you must've been having some exciting dreams."

percy knelt beside her, the sea wind sweeping his hair. he put his hand on her forehead as if checking for a fever. "we couldn't wake you. finally we decided to bring you ashore. we thought maybe the seasickness—"

"it wasn't seasickness." she took a deep breath. it seemed that hazel was having an internal battle with herself in that moment, but karina didn't know what it was for.

"i— i haven't been honest with you," she said. "what happened was a blackout. i have them once in a while."

karina furrowed her eyebrows in concern and looked to percy, who was wearing the same expression on his face, staring at hazel.

"a blackout?" frank took hazel's hand, which took karina by surprise by the bold action, and hazel seemed to be startled as well. . . pleasantly startled. "is it medical? why haven't i noticed before?"

"i try to hide it," she admitted. "i've been lucky so far, but it's getting worse. it's not medical. . . not really. nico says it's a side effect from my past, from where he found me."

karina felt a small pit form in her stomach, feeling awful not knowing that hazel was going through this. she felt sort of disappointed that hazel felt she had to hide that from karina, knowing full well she can trust her with anything. karina had told hazel some of her deepest points in life, and hazel had always been there supporting her through it. so the fact hazel hadn't told her this and had to fight through it all my herself made karina want to cry, knowing she'd help her in an instant.

"where exactly did nico find you?" percy asked.

percy's intense green eyes were hard to read. she couldn't tell whether he was concerned or wary.

hazel paused, seeming like she couldn't find the words to say what she wanted to tell them. "i'll explain," she promised. she clawed at her pack. "is. . . is there anything to drink?"

"yeah." percy muttered a curse in greek. "that was dumb. i left my supplies down at the boat."

wait— greek?

karina didn't have time to dwell on that at the moment, knowing hazel's needs were her top priority at the moment.

hazel shouldered her pack and sword. "never mind. i can walk. . . "

frank and karina almost immediately sprung into action.

"absolutely not."

"don't even think about it," frank said at the same time as her. "not until you've had some food and water. i'll get the supplies."

"no, i'll go." percy glanced at frank's hand in hazel's, and so did karina. then he scanned the horizon as if he sensed trouble, but there was nothing to see— just the lighthouse and the field of grass. then he looked straight to karina, as if speaking with his eyes to leave with him.

karina subtly nodded. "yeah, i'll go too. you two stay here. we'll be right back."

"you guys sure?" hazel asked feebly. "i don't want you to—"

"it's fine," said percy. "frank, just keep your eyes open. something about this place. . . i don't know."

"i'll keep her safe," frank promised.

karina smirked knowingly at the two, and got up and followed percy out to the boat.

"i know what you did there, perc." karina said knowingly, a smile forming onto her face

percy chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, the wind continuing to mess it up, which karina didn't mind about, though.

"i needed to initiate it at some point, or else neither of them will act on it."

karina nodded in agreement. "oh, trust me, i've been trying to leave the two alone together for a month and one of them always leaves. it's so annoying. i'm basically carrying their whole relationship."

percy nodded sarcastically. "oh, i know. you work so hard all for nothing."

"oh, whatever," karina chided, slapping his arm playfully, scowling at him. he just laughed and knocked his shoulder into his.

"i didn't take you for the sensitive type, ashwood."

she rolled her eyes at the use of her last name, but couldn't deny the warm feeling she felt in her chest when she heard it come of his mouth.

"i'm not sensitive. but when you question my work ethic for their future relationship, i get a little defensive."

"okay, sure."

karina raised her eyebrows, looking at him with a proud smile. "hey, don't hate. appreciate."

percy shook his head, a small smirk on his lips. "oh, i'm appreciating it. even though i haven't seen your relationship skills in action before."

karina shrugged her shoulders. "they will come out when they are needed. but you just haven't seen my full potential. i bet i could make you fall in love with a tree if i wanted to."

percy raised an eyebrow skeptically. "so your saying you could make me fall in love with you?"

karina stopped, her feet halting in her step. she felt a blush begin to crawl onto her face. "i. . . are you calling me a tree?" she said exasperatedly, trying to divert the subject.

percy shrugged his shoulders and choked out a laugh, looking at her amusedly. "i mean, you are a daughter of ceres. and ceres is all about trees and nature and leaves— blah, blah, blah. so technically, you could could be part tree."

karina just looked at him dumbfounded. "that makes. . . literally no sense. how could i even be related to a tree— you know what? never mind."

after she said that, they settled into a soothing silence, the only sound being the blowing of the wind and the distant crash of the waves approaching them.

"you cursed in greek earlier." karina pointed out, breaking the deep silence they were in.

percy sighed, bowing his head. "i know. i don't know why, though. everything is just so confusing. i don't even know who i am."

karina stopped walking, and grabbed percy's arm, making him look to her in confusion.

"you need to stop beating yourself down for something you can't control." she said sternly, getting tired of him blaming himself for everything that's happened.

"what?"

karina rolled her eyes. "you keep thinking that this whole thing is your fault. going into camp jupiter, losing your memory, summing two gods at your accord. but you can't control any of that. hell, you don't even know why all of this is happening. so stop putting the blame on yourself, or else i'll have to start smacking it out of you."

percy let out a breathy laugh and smiled at her. "thank you. it means a lot that you don't see me as a freak."

"psh." she scoffed. "the only person i think is a freak is octavian, and he's a borderline psychopath."

percy nodded in agreement, his smile widening. they were still standing in the same position that they were in before, karina's hand on his arm, and percy's head dipping down slightly to look at her, so their faces were about five inches away from each other.

neither of them moved, not wanting to break up the position they were in. percy's head dipped further ever so slightly, getting closer to karina's face. she could basically feel his breath on her face, the smell of mint gum filling up her senses.

this is the closest she had ever been to percy, and the bad part was that she didn't want to move away. she wanted to stay in this moment for as long as she could. but, it also scared karina. it scared her that she could get so attached to percy so fast, knowing that the last time she got attached to someone— they left. but karina wanted to push the thoughts out of her head, and wanted to live in the present, not dwell on experiences and memories of the past— but it got hard when the past seemed to always be repeating in the present.

after a few more beats of the two demigods staring at each other, both wanting the same thing, but neither of them acting on it, karina suddenly got snapped out of her dazed trance as she felt a pit in her stomach again, only this time it was from the feeling of danger.

"percy," karina whispered nervously, her eyes widening as she looked directly into his eyes.

percy, hearing the nervous tone in her voice immediately went into high alert, concern filling his sea green eyes.

"what is it?" he said, backing away slightly.

karina shook her head, squinting her eyes. "i feel something here, something dangerous. this place. . . you were right about it. something's off."

percy swallowed and clenched his jaw. "what do you feel? or. . . what sort of danger is it?"

"i only feel danger when it is of something from my mother's realm, so it would have to be something in that category." karina replied, running a shaky hand through her hair, her nerves seeming to get worse ever since they got on to the island.

percy seemed to notice her slightly labored breathing and shaky hands, and took into account how sweaty she suddenly was, and how she now avoided any sort of eye contact with him now that she had felt this danger.

now seeing how much she was getting affected by this feeling of danger, he took it into his responsibility to calm her down. so he decided to take a risk and slowly reach his hand out to grab her hands, enclasping them into his, trying to stop them from shaking.

karina looked to him unexpectedly, shocked at the new feeling of warmth she had flowing into her hands, seeing them now wrapped inside percy's.

"what. . . what are you doing?" karina mumbled, feeling the warm feeling she felt in her chest earlier now spread to her whole body.

"your hands are shaking." he said, as if stating the obvious, looking up from his hands to her face, which was coated in a light pink blush— either from the cold or the fact that percy was literally holding her hands in his.

karina rolled her eyes, a small smile growing in her lips. "yeah, no shit." she tried laughing, but all that came out was a shuddered breath, her nerves still in overdrive.

"what can i do to help you?" percy asked quietly, his hands squeezing her's comfortingly.

karina looked away, taking deep breaths to try and calm down her racing heart. she hadn't had a panic attack for a while now— not since the times where her nightmares of her father were so realistic that she forgot she was dreaming. so this feeling was almost foreign to her now, but she knows that if she doesn't get it together soon— it'll just get worse.

she swallowed. "um— usually when i have panic attacks hazel is there to calm me down. she— she sometimes sings to me, and that helps me." she said the last part in an almost-whisper, feeling sort of embarrassed that that was the way she was calmed down.

percy smiled comfortingly, noticing the slight embarrassment she felt, and he took one of his hands and lightly drew it across her cheek, sending tingles wherever he touched her.

karina closed her eyes contently, percy's touch seemingly making her body more relaxed.

"don't stop," she whispered, opening her emerald eyes to lock with his sea green was, feeling his stare right on her face even before she opened her eyes.

"does it help?" he spoke, matching the same level of quietness in his voice as karina's.

she nodded, and hummed softly, making percy's breath catch in the back of his throat. he had always thought her voice was beautiful, but hearing her voice in such a calm, soothing state, merely took his breath away.

as percy continued to trace his finger along the crevices of karina's face, he started to notice the small features of her that he hadn't noticed before.

he saw the small freckles that were dotted along her temples, separated from the more prominent ones on the upper part of her cheeks. he also noticed that she had a small white scar lining the top of her right eyebrow, that was only noticeable if you were specifically looking for it. he noticed that she had very long, natural dark brown colored eyelashes, and that she smelt of vanilla and honeysuckle— his now favorite smell.

percy finally stopped caressing his finger along karina's cheek when she suddenly gasped, gripping his hand tightly, her eyes widening in fear, backing up slightly.

"what?" percy asked frantically. "what is it?"

karina looked to him with a startled expression. "hazel's in trouble, and i know exactly what's causing it."

after telling percy the problem, her and percy ran as fast as they could back to where frank and hazel were, only to see neither of them there.

"oh gods," percy muttered, looking to karina for guidance.

karina looked straight ahead of her, determination and anger set in her eyes. "follow me."

after that, karina grabbed percy's hand and began dragging him through the grass, that now seemed to moving without the wind, worrying percy, but it only seemed to make karina more determined.

when they both heard the loud screams of hazel, they looked at each other, both of them thinking the same thing, sprinted off into the wheat.

after merely a minute of running through the knee high wheat, they stumbled into a clearing, where they saw something that made karina want to set the whole field on fire.

straight ahead of them, was hazel, who was surrounded by dozens of karpoi— karina's least favorite creation of her mother.

and to their left, they saw frank slowly getting up off the ground, his expression holding pure anger in it.

frank finally seemed to notice percy and karina's presence, and ran over to them, catching them up on what was happening.

"frank," karina started. "you take the first shot with your bow and arrow, then we'll all charge in together." after karina finished her sentence, she clasped her hand that wasn't occupied in percy's around her necklace, breaking it off her neck, making it transform into her imperial gold gladius.

frank nodded and readied his arrow and the bow, squinting one eye down to assure that he hit the target.

he counted down from three, muttering the words to himself before releasing the arrow— hitting his target perfectly.

immediately after that, everyone charged.

frank, karina and percy burst into the open and began to massacre every source of fiber they could find. frank shot an arrow through barley, who crumbled into seeds. percy slashed riptide through sorghum and karina charged toward millet and oats, ripping them to shreds. hazel jumped down and joined the fight.

within minutes, the karpoi had been reduced to piles  of seeds and various breakfast cereals. wheat started to re-form, but percy pulled a lighter from his pack and sparked a flame.

"try it," he warned, "and i'll set this whole field on fire. stay dead. stay away from us, or the grass gets it!"

"damn, that's hot." karina muttered.

frank winced like the flame terrified him. karina didn't understand why, but then she heard hazel yell at the grain piles: "he'll do it! he's crazy!"

the remnants of the karpoi scattered in the wind. frank climbed the rock and watched them go.

"what a disgrace to breakfast cereal." karina said disappointingly.

percy extinguished his lighter and grinned at hazel. "thanks for yelling. we wouldn't have found you otherwise. how'd you hold them off so long?"

she pointed to the rock. "a big pile of schist."

"excuse me?"

"guys," frank called from the top of the rock. "you need to see this."

percy, karina, and hazel climbed up to join him. as soon as karina saw what he was looking at, she inhaled sharply. "percy, no light! put up your sword!"

"schist!" he touched the sword top, and riptide shrank back into a pen.

down below them, an army was on the move.

the field dropped into a shallow ravine, where a country road wound north and south. on the opposite side of the road, grassy hills stretched the horizon, empty of civilization except for one darkened convenience store at the top of the nearest rise.

the whole ravine was full of monsters— column after column marching south, so many and so close, karina was amazed they hadn't heard hazel shouting.

she, hazel, frank, and percy crouched against the rock. they watched in disbelief as several dozen large, hairy humanoids passed by, dressed in tattered bits of armor and animal fur. the creatures had six arms each, three sprouting from either side, so they looked like cavemen evolved from insects.

karina snorted. "gee, didn't know the traveling circus was going to be passing through here."

"gegenes," hazel whispered, completely ignoring karina. "the earthborn."

"you've fought them before?" percy asked.

she shook her head. "just heard about them in monster class at camp."

karina had never liked monster class— reading pliny the elder and those other musty authors who described legendary monsters from the edges of the roman empire. karina believed in monsters, but some of the descriptions were so wild, she had thought they must be just ridiculous rumors.

only now, a whole army of those rumors was marching by.

"the earthborn fought the argonauts," she murmured. "and those things behind them—"

"centaurs," percy said. "but. . . that's not right. centaurs are good guys."

frank made a choking sound. "that's not what we were taught at camp. centaurs are crazy. always getting drunk and killing heroes."

karina watched as the horse-men cantered past. they were human from the waist up, palomino from the waist down. they were dressed in barbarian armor of hide and bronze, armed with spears and slings. at first, karina thought they were wearing viking helmets. then she realized they had actual horns jutting from their shaggy hair.

"are they supposed to have bull horns?" hazel asked.

"probably not." karina replied.

"maybe their a special breed," frank said. "let's not ask them, okay?"

percy gazed farther down the road and his face went slack.

"my gods. . . cyclops."

sure enough, lumbering after the centaurs was a battalion of one-eyed ogres, both male and female, each about ten feet tall, wearing armor cobbled out of junkyard metal. six of the monsters were yoked like oxen, pulling a two-story-tall siege tower fitted with a giant scorpion ballista.

percy pressed the sides of his head. "cyclops. centaurs. this is wrong. all wrong."

karina looked at him confusedly. the monster army was enough to make anyone despair, but karina realized that something else was going on with percy. he looked pale and sickly in the moonlight, as if his memories were trying to come back, scrambling his mind in the process.

karina reached her hand out onto his shoulder, squeezing lightly. "hey," she whispered. "what's wrong?"

he didn't respond, only looking at her with a weakened expression, worrying her even more.

"we need to get him back to the boat," hazel said. "the sea will make him feel better."

"no argument," frank said. "there are too many of them. the camp. . . we have to warn the camp."

"they know," percy groaned. "reyna knows."

a lump formed in karina's throat. there was no way the legion could fight so many. if they were only a few hundred miles north of camp jupiter, their quest was already doomed. they could never make it to alaska and back in time.

"come on," hazel urged. "let's. . . "

then they saw the giant.

when he appeared over the ridge, karina couldn't quite believe her eyes. he was taller than the siege tower— thirty feet, at least— with scaly reptilian legs like a komodo dragon from the waist down and green-blue armor from the waist up. his breastplate was shaped like rows of hungry monstrous faces, their mouths open as if demanding food. his face was human, but his hair was wild and green, like a mop of seaweed. as he turned his head from side to side, snakes dropped from his dreadlocks. viper dandruff— gross.

he was armed with a massive trident and a weighted net. just the sight of those weapons made karina's stomach clench even more that it already was. she'd faced that type of fighter in gladiator training many times. it was the trickiest, sneakiest, and most evil combat style she knew. this giant was a supersize retiarius.

"who is he?" frank's voice quivered. "that's not—"

"not alcyoneus," hazel said weakly. "one of his brothers, i think. the one terminus mentioned him, too. that's polybotes."

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