Okay, bus might have been an understatement. It looked like a typical tour bus on the outside but once you walked up the stairs and stepped inside it was easily five times bigger than it should have been. The center isle was a hallway that branched out into at least a dozen different rooms. I felt my eyes go wide in shock even though the magic bus probably wasn’t even the strangest thing I’d seen so far- maybe the most impressive.
Euterpe motioned for us to follow her to the third door on the left. It opened up to reveal a giant bedroom that reminded me of the cabin back at Camp Half-Blood. The six beds looked unbelievably comfortable and I was ready to pass out even after my nap on the train. “You children can use this room for the duration of our trip. The dining room is two up toward the driver. Bathrooms are down the hall marked. The theater is at the back of the bus. We should be arriving in a little less than ten hours.”
My eyebrows rose from surprise. I was a world traveler and I knew that to get to Seattle by road should have taken at least a day and we were cutting the trip by almost two-thirds. “Thank you,” I said. “I honestly don’t know what we would have done without you.”
The muse smiled. “It’s no bother at all, my dear. A young talent such as yourself deserves a little pampering.”
I blushed bright red so that my freckles disappeared.
Grover dropped down onto one of the beds the second Euterpe closed the door. “This is by far the most relaxing quest we’ve ever gone on.”
Annabeth’s bright blue eyes narrowed at him. “Don’t jinx it. We still need to be ready for anything. And since we don’t have to worry about travel anymore, we should probably start strategizing.”
Percy and Grover groaned. They obviously knew how Annabeth’s mind worked and didn’t like whatever she was thinking. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know but I carefully asked, “What do you mean ‘strategize’?”
“Usually we have to wing it. But right now we have time to come up with a plan to save the Fates. Naida, you’ve dreamt about them. What kind of security is there?”
I cocked my head to the side and wracked my brain. “I’m actually not sure. Whenever I dream about where they are it’s always dark and all I can hear is them bitching at me. But there’s got to be like some monsters or something holding them hostage, right?”
Percy nodded. “Most likely.” Seriously, how was he so calm about that?
“I will take care of monsters,” Tyson exclaimed excitedly. He kept tinkering away on something and didn’t look the least bit worried about taking on any monsters in our way. Sure, he was a Cyclops and technically my older brother but he just seemed so innocent that I didn’t like the thought of him going up against any monsters on his own. “I will sense them and make sure all the bad monsters go ‘bye ‘bye.”
I bit my lip but kept my mouth shut. They’d all don’t this kind of thing before so I had to trust their judgment. “And what do I do? Climb the tower and rescue the hags?”
Annabeth nodded. “Pretty much. We’ll get you a clear shot and you can go take care of business.”
“You’re not going by yourself,” Nico barked out.
I blushed a little and had to admit I was flattered he was so worried. “I think that I have to. It’s my quest for a reason and I’m the one they keep coming to. My mom said to trust my instinct and right now my gut’s telling me that I have to go on alone.”
“No.”
I took a deep breath and forced my tone to be calm. “I’ll be fine. I promise,” I said although I wasn’t sure how well I’d be able to keep my word.
Annabeth pulled out a laptop computer from her backpack and pulled up several pages to diagram different battle strategies and maps of Seattle. Everything she said went right over my head. Damn, that girl was smart. I honestly tried to pay attention but it was like she was speaking a different language- and it wasn’t Greek. The boys seemed to know what she was talking about but I think that had more to do with knowing her so well and actually having some real training under their belts. Since none of it pertained to me, I stopped listening after a while. We knew my part in this plan.
Nico wouldn’t talk to me after I’d insisted on going to look for the Fates alone. I’d be lying if I said his brush off didn’t hurt but I wasn’t backing down on this. Since I wasn’t involved in Annabeth’s planning and Nico was ignoring me I decided to walk around for a bit and get away from the craziness that had become my life. I grabbed my book and ended up in the dining room. I stared blankly at the pages for a while but for the first time it wasn’t because I couldn’t understand the words.
“Is something the matter, my dear?”
I jumped and turned toward the woman standing by the pantry. She had a granola bar in her hand and I hadn’t even heard her come in. She looked younger than Euterpe with light brown hair that fell in gentle waves around her shoulders and bright green eyes that didn’t seem to miss anything.
“I’m fine,” I replied.
She cocked her head to the side studying me. I thought she would call my bluff but instead she nodded at my book and said, “That’s one of my most popular works. The author was simply fantastic, so open to my ideas. And all because I ran into her on a train. You look confused, young Naida,” she added seeing my blank expression. “I am Calliope. I was once known as the muse of epic poems but writing has come so far that novels and the like fall under my jurisdiction as well.”
“Oh. That’s cool.”
She nodded. “Indeed. Now what’s troubling you? You look like you have some stories to tell. I’ve been told that I’m very inspirational and a good listener. Bounce some ideas off of me.”
I didn’t know what to say. Nico’s being mad at me immediately jumped to my mind and I wanted to tell the beautiful Muse about that. I opened my mouth to spill what had happened back in the room.
“I just want to talk to my mom,” I admitted without meaning to.

Notes

a million thank you's to: tmcar1 and Evil espresso drinks and Thalia grace
on a random note, i am re-reading the heroes of olympus series. um, is anyone as excited about house of hades as i am? two weeks from tuesday and i will be one happy camper!