sweet dreams • leo valdez

16

Ella turned out to be fairly good company. She knew almost everything about anything. Despite her sometimes incoherent babbling, the harpy was nice. Nicer than Delilah would have been if she'd been cursed to starve and be bullied by an old man for eternity. 

Near the end of the night, as the sun was beginning to rise and they were just passing Whidbey Island, Delilah remembered something that Ella had said back in Portland. 

"Hey, Ella?" Delilah asked the harpy cautiously. "Do you remember what you said to me back in Portland?"

"Ella says a lot." She chirped out, her hands fiddling with the books at her feet.

"About me. Lines from a prophecy." She tried to clarify. Ella somehow knew that prophecy, one which had always haunted Delilah. Where had she got it from?

"Oh." Ella chirped in realisation. "'Sleep will help to guide the way-'"

"No, no, not that one. The other one. 'Only he who in dreams draws near...'" Delilah prompted her carefully.

Ella nodded enthusiastically and continued, "'Shall bring the solution to save what is dear'." 

"Yeah that one." She responded, narrowing her eyes at Ella. "Where exactly did you hear that?"

Ella replied without even thinking. "Read it. Ella remembers everything she reads."

That just gave Delilah more questions. As far as she knew, the prophecy had only existed in her lifetime, and had never been written down before. But Ella was from Ancient Greece originally, so she had lived for millennia. 

"So you know it's about me?" She prompted her, leaning forward slightly. 

"Yep. 'A child born of the daughter of the-" Ella stopped talking suddenly and stared at something in the distance, saying loudly, "Space Needle! Built in 1961 for the Seattle World's Fair. 604 feet tall."

Delilah turned to follow Ella's eyes and saw she was staring at the building. She frowned, wanting to push Ella further for answers. However before she could get a chance, Percy started to shuffle around, stirring in his sleep. Ella must have woken him up with her exclamation.

"Morning." Percy mumbled as he sat up and stretched his arms out. He seemed very well-rested, which was definitely a good thing if he was about to meet Hylla and the Amazons today. 

Delilah was forced to forget about Ella's knowledge of the prophecy for the time being, and focused on Percy instead. "Good morning."

Once the boy had looked at his surroundings, his face brightened immediately. "We've arrived at Seattle."

"Yep. Those sharks were pretty fast." Delilah answered as Percy stood up and looked over the edge of the boat into the water. 

"I better take over from them." He told her, before looking over quickly to where Frank and Hazel were still sleeping. "Have you tried waking them up yet?"

"Not yet. I haven't felt anything off so I just left them to rest." She replied. She'd sensed that they were both asleep quite deeply and hadn't wanted to disturb them. "I'll wake them now."

Percy nodded and turned back to the sharks, having one of his telepathic conversations with them. Delilah walked a few steps over to the slumbering demigods. She sat down on the bench next to them, placing a hand on each of their shoulders and shaking them gently. 

"Hazel, Frank. It's time to wake up.  We've reached Seattle." She told them softly, adding some of her power to rouse them from their sleep.

Hazel's eyes fluttered and soon enough, golden orbs were staring up at Delilah, clouded with sleep. At that moment, they reminded Delilah of her father. It must be an Underworld trait rather than a familial one since through godly parents, there were few demigods who Delilah was closely related to. Not like how Hazel, Jason and Percy were actually first cousins, that is if the gods actually had DNA. Thank god they didn't, or Camp Jupiter would have been a cesspool for inappropriate relationships. Children of Nemesis, Discordia, any descended from Nox would be her cousin. Of course, she also had her grandfather's relations, though that was a generation removed and so she felt herself removed from them.