𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐲; 𝖺𝗇𝗇𝖺𝖻𝖾𝗍𝗁 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗌𝖾

Yay! Ariel didn't die (Phineas' version)

Percy already felt like the lamest demigod in the history of lame. The purse was the final insult.

They'd left R.O.F.L. in a hurry, so maybe Iris hadn't meant the bag as a criticism.

She'd quickly stuffed it with a bunch of stuff that were supposed to help them. Then she'd shoved it at Percy.

He felt like the bag was a comment on his mas sive, incredible uselessness. At first he had thought maybe it wasn't so bad because it could've gotten Ivy to make some joke, but the girl had been extremely quiet since she'd woken up.

As they sailed north, the only thing she'd done was sit crossed legged while she drew something in a notebook she had taken from her backpack.

Percy couldn't believe how he'd broken down when his friends had needed him. When Ivy needed him.

What he didn't know is that Ivy didn't blame him. The opposite really. She only blamed herself.

First, she'd been dumb enough to leave Hazel and Frank alone only because she didn't want to thirdwheel, and Hazel had gotten kidnapped.

Then she'd watched that army marching south and had some kind of nervous breakdown that ended on her hurting the people that had done nothing but help her.

Embarrassing? Yeah.

But she couldn't help it. When she'd seen the earthborn, those evil centaurs and that female Cyclops, it had seemed so wrong but so familiar, that she thought her head would explode.

And with that whole dying thing, she just lost it.

Iris's medicinal tea had helped her body feel better, but her mind still hurt, or more specifically like her missing memories were hurting.

Now she was scared of her own powers and of dying again, but what scared her the most was that the farther north she went, the more those few memories she still had faded.

She'd started to feel better at Camp Jupiter, remembering some stuff. But now even Annabeth's face was getting dimmer.

At R.O.F.L., when she'd tried to send an Iris-message to Annabeth, Fleecy had just shaken her head sadly.

'It's like you're dialing somebody', she said, 'but you've forgotten the number. Or someone is jamming the signal. Sorry, dear. I just can't connect you.'

She was terrified that she'd lose Annabeth's face completely when she got to Alaska. Maybe she'd wake up one day and not remember her name.

That's why she she had taken out her drawing stuff.

She wanted to draw Annabeth before it was too late. Then, even if she forget her face (which she hoped wouldn't happen), she only had to look at the drawing and she'd remember.

It also helped her distract from the sight of that enemy army and all that came with it. Especially her possible death.

It was early in the morning of June 21, now. They had to get to Alaska, find Thanatos, locate the legion's standard, and make it back to Camp Jupiter by the evening of June 24. Four days.

Meanwhile, the enemy had only a few hundred miles to march.

So she kept drawing. She was still very far from finishing, mainly because she would only be satisfied when it was perfect, but she was happy with how she was doing.

For a second she had thought that maybe the notebook wasn't hers. Maybe she was only keeping it for someone else and she didn't have any drawing skill at all. But that was luckily not the case.