Red Skies at Morning | Clarisse La Rue x OC | Percy Jackson AU

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I'd just like everyone to know I spent nearly two hours just figuring out where Clarisse might've boarded the Birmingham and how long it would have taken Wren to walk there. Only to realize that my original guess of just under an hour was correct. 

Then it occurred to me that Clarisse might've gotten the ship after traveling a bit further on foot for a while since the ship that the CSS Birmingham was based on was sunk in North Carolina... 

Anyways, I realized that in the Sea of Monsters, Clarisse catches up to Percy, Tyson, and Annabeth within a day anyways. I will be choosing to ignore this information because I was way too tediously plotting out Wren's path before realizing that it didn't even line up with the timeline of the book. This is the first in probably many times I will intentionally change the timeline for plot convenience. I am sorry, my siblings in timeline-consistency.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter. 

I have no idea where I'm going. 

I followed the tracks of Mr. D's SUV up to the paved road and could make out that he'd begun turning left onto the road before their tracks disappeared into the pavement. Not sure what else to do, I walked along the road hoping to stumble into another indicator of where Mr. D and Clarisse were going.

After saying goodbye to Selina, it was actually pretty easy to pack everything of value into my old backpack. I hadn't exactly gained much clutter since coming to camp, there wasn't enough space in Cabin 11 to hoard, and my bag's contents were virtually the same as when I was on the streets. The only real change was that I had a few new sets of clothes and some golden drachma mixed in with what was left of my stolen cash.

Eventually, after taking two wrong turns into the same neighborhood and having to backtrack, I came across a sign that said there was a marina nearby. It dawned on me that Clarisse would probably have taken a boat to get to the Bermuda Triangle, which meant I would have to as well if I wanted to catch up to her. My stomach was already churning at the thought. 

After about an hour of following signs, I finally made it to the Orient Point Ferry, right next to the marina. With a sigh, I found enough money in my bag to buy a ticket before anxiously waiting for the ferry to return to the marina.

It took almost ten minutes for the cars and trucks to board the ferry, which I was grateful for since that was another ten minutes that I could stand on the shore without actually boarding. But when the cars were secured the staff made the last call for passengers to board, and I finally had to step foot on the ferry. From that moment it was like hell on earth.

Well technically, would that be Tartarus on Earth? Eh, who cares, it's a figure of speech anyways.

The point is, Nausea hit me the moment I felt the rhythmic waves begin rocking the boat. I gripped the railing for dear life as the boat took its sweet time crawling across the terrifying deep. My anxiety was only made worse by having to stare directly into the endless blue while losing my breakfast. 

After a while, a kind older woman offered me a seasickness pill. In pretty much any other situation I would have been suspicious of a random stranger's kindness, especially an old lady due to past experiences, but I was in no position to refuse. The hurling did subside after accepting the pill, and she never turned into a giant bat or something so I'd consider myself quite lucky.

But I guess one good thing did come out of that scenario because if I hadn't been hanging over the railing, I never would have seen the strange, low-riding iron ship. It was a few hundred feet away from the ferry and obviously old, in fact, it looked like it'd been to hell- Tartarus? Tartarus and back. Its age and strange style had been what caught my attention, but the flag waving from the top was a dead giveaway to who was onboard.