Join Us - A Pirate's Life is Best

Chapter 28 : Towards the Isles of Fantasy

Leo's POV

Leo had spent the past few weeks since they'd left Atlantis wondering what the "camp" they were headed to would look like, even having a few debates with Jason about the topic.

In his mind, he envisioned a few small huts near a beach, one for each person in the pirate crew, perhaps a few less as some of the siblings might share, with a forest nearby. 

He'd overheard a few conversations from the pirates about someone named "Chiron", along with mentions of a bar, something called the "Fantasy Isles" and some sort of "Big House". 

His mind was so hyper focused on trying to imagine what the camp would look like, that every time the pirates mentioned it, he instantly focused on what they were saying, no matter what he was doing.

Why he so dearly wanted to know what the camp looked like he had no idea, but it did provide him some entertainment, and it was quite a fun game to him.

"You know, if you want to know what Camp is like, you could just ask me, right?" Piper's voice ripped Leo from his thoughts, which had once again wandered to the camp's design.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, how did you know I was thinking about that?" Leo asked.

"You were mumbling something about a beach, Camp and the Big House." Piper chuckled, sitting up on her bed.

The two were sat in her room, Leo on the couch and Piper on the bed, chatting and simply hanging out with one another, as Jason was busy trying to figure out his powers on an island near where they'd anchored for a few days.

"Yeah, I just want to get an idea of what it's like." Leo said.

"I'm not sure how I can explain it, to be honest, it's something you just have to see. Camp is just a few huts and the Big House. Beach on one side, forest on the other. The thing that makes that place so special is, other than it being our home when we're not on the ocean, it's part of something we call the "Isles of Fantasy", and those, you really have to see." Piper explained. "Camp is on one of the islands, along with the Brooklyn House and Hotel Valhalla, plus there's a bar nearby as well. There's six other islands, but I want those to be a surprise."

Leo made a noise that was a mixture of a groan and a laugh. Obviously, he was glad that he was partially right about what camp was like, but he didn't feel like waiting any longer. "How long is Sparky gonna take with his wind experiments?" He complained.

Piper laughed. "Honestly, I can't wait to get back to Camp, so I hope they hurry up as well." 

"Gods, is there anything we can do while we wait?" Leo groaned, purposely falling off of the couch, causing Piper to laugh.

"I mean, we could go upstairs and see what everyone's doing, maybe chat about some stuff..." Piper trailed off.

"Ugh, I thought being a pirate would be more interesting than this."

"Believe me when I say, it usually is." Piper replied with a sigh. "But it also depends on what you mean with interesting. Sometimes, we'll have trips where we run into redcoats almost every day, sometimes even multiple times in a day, then there's trips where we just fight through storms, and the days where we plunder other pirate ships."

"Yeah, speaking of that, did I hear you guys right when Reyna said we're avoiding other ships?" Leo asked.

"Yup, you heard right. On the way back to camp, we always try our best to avoid other ships." Piper replied.

"What? Why? Aren't y'all "the best pirate crew on the planet"?" Leo asked, half sarcastically and half a truthful question.

"We are, but the Isles aren't exactly common knowledge, in fact, we're the only ones that know about them who are allowed to leave." Piper cocked her head sideways slightly as she said that, as if she realised something she'd said was wrong. "Well... not really. The others are allowed to leave, as long as they don't talk about them or mention them to anyone, but they just don't."

"Why not? Doesn't that place get boring after a while?" 

Piper chuckled. "No, and you'll know why when you see it. In all honesty though, I don't know why they don't leave."

"Huh? You haven't asked them before?" Leo was truly dumbfounded.

"Ehh... yeah, about that..." Piper looked slightly embarrassed. "We kinda... haven't met them yet. Or at least most of them. Any time people from different islands try meeting, really bad things happen. It's hard to explain."

"A lot is hard to explain, huh?" Leo chuckled. "Sounds weird, but oh well." He sighed, getting to his feet. "Let's see what the others are doing."

The two left Piper's room and headed up to the deck, just in time to see Annabeth judo flip Percy over her shoulder, her hair and face completely drenched in sea water.

"Ok, I probably deserve that." Percy muttered, getting up as Nico fell to the floor with laughter.

"Let me guess, you threw some water at her?" Piper laughed as well.

"Yup." Percy sighed, snapping his fingers. In an instant, Annabeth was totally dry.

"Percy, your girlfriend is amazing." Nico said, finally gathering himself, after having rolled around on the deck for a few moments.

Leo had to force down a laugh as Percy and Annabeth turned away from each other, blushing and muttering something about not dating.

They continued to tease Percy and Annabeth for a few minutes, until Percy created a tidal wave that was so massive it almost drowned the ship.  After that, Leo decided it was best not to tease Percy too much at once.

They continued to talk about other things for a few minutes, until Thalia, Reyna and Jason finally showed up. 

"Can we please leave." Piper instantly asked. "I wanna go home."

"Well someone's impatient." A familiarly sweet voice said from behind Leo. He swerved around and saw Calypso, who was smiling and seemed to be in a good mood. "But I want to get to Camp as well, so let's move."

Thalia laughed. "If I didn't want to get to Camp so badly as well, I'd probably purposely stay here, just to annoy you."

"Why does that not surprise me at all." Percy chuckled.

"Probably because she's done exactly that before." Nico replied.

"Oh shut up you crybabies." Thalia smiled. "But let's gloss over that. Come on, let's get moving people, this ship won't move itself!"

"I mean..." Percy began.

"Zip it, Jackson." Thalia interrupted, shaking her head. "Move people!"