Lost In Memories and Curses (PJO HOO STORY)

CHAPTER 3: HORSES CAN'T THROW UP SO I BECOME A HORSE

Frank POV

With all of us gathered together at the Doors of Death, we knew that we had to get back onto the Argo II, and fast. The blessing of Mars had already worn off and I felt unnaturally tired and weak. If a wave of monsters came and attacked us, I wasn't sure how well we could hold them off, considering that Annabeth and Percy were out cold and needed someone to protect them.

Nico and Hazel offered to shadow travel us. Jason and I held onto Percy and Piper and Leo got Annabeth while Hazel and Nico worked on transporting us back to the ship.

Shadow traveling is already really weird for me. The rush of cold that trickles down my spine is a feeling that I'd rather not experience frequently. It's an awkward mix of rushing down a rollercoaster and being dunked in a cold lake.

Not my favorite thing in the world.

When we finally got back onto the ship, Coach Hedge was already waiting there for us, swinging his bat and making stupid remarks about blowing things up.

"About time you guys came back! I was going to come there and beat up all the monsters myself because you were taking so long!" Hedge was shouting, waving his baseball bat over his head. He continued shouting until he actually caught a glimpse of Percy and Annabeth and their state.

Gods, Percy and Annabeth...

How were they even alive?

They were covered head to toe with blood and grime. It seemed like not even an inch of their skin was spared from wounds and burns. They both looked like they lost a lot of weight. Percy especially, since I was the one carrying him. To think that he used to be so filled out and muscular before. I could count all of his ribs now.

As for Annabeth, I can't even imagine the level of pain she must be in. her entire leg looked horrible. I wasn't even sure if she could ever walk again, it was that bad. When I looked closely at Percy, though, I realized that he was in a much worse shape than Annabeth.

I take back what I said.

Annabeth's leg was at least just broken. Percy's leg... it was as though someone plunged a sword three inches into his shin and dragged it downward.

I wanted to throw up.

We all worked quickly to give them some sort of care. The 5 of us worked to carry them down to the med bay. We kept them in beds close together because, well, we thought that if they wake up and not see each other, the reaction won't be pretty.

We couldn't do much.

The girls worked on Annabeth while Jason and I focused on helping Percy. Leo had to go back up and tend to the ship because we had to get going to Greece. I honestly didn't blame him. He looked so uncomfortable down there, I told him to go up. This wasn't his forte and now wasn't the time to tease him about it.

Jason began to remove Percy's shirt while I went to fill up a bucket of water and got a cloth. We both started to scrub off all of the dirt from his body, all of a sudden revealing many more scars and wounds under the layer of dirt.

What had happened down there?

The water wasn't even healing him, which was really weird. We tried to pour some water on his wounds, but it wasn't getting better. In fact, for some reason, it seemed to irritate the wounds even more.

Again.

What is happening?

"Hey, is the ambrosia and nectar being weird with Annabeth? We tried pouring water on Percy's wounds but it wasn't working, but the nectar wasn't working either!" Jason said, turning to Piper.

"Wait really? It's not working for Percy either? We thought there was just something wrong with Annabeth!" Piper exclaimed.

"What do you think the issue is?" I asked the girls. "How do we treat them now? With mortal medicine?"

"I guess so, we have to do whatever we can," Hazel responded. I reached over to give her a quick hug as I noticed the tears in her eyes. It hurts to see our friends in this state.

We finished cleaning up Percy and wrapped up all of his wounds. We flipped him over, just in case, to check if there was anything on the back, and then all of a sudden...

I turned into a horse.

Not the best decision (I turned back in a few seconds, embarrassed that I let my power lose control again) considering that there was hardly any space in the med bay in the first place but... Gods.

Percy's back... it was...

"Oh gods!" Hazel cried, choking back tears. She all of a sudden just left the room, running upstairs to get away from this. I can't blame her, none of us did. As much as I wanted to go comfort her, I knew that Percy needed me right now.

There were thick scars wrapped on top of each other. Hundreds of lashes coating his back. Some became thick white scars but the newer ones stayed as puckering red scars.

What had happened down there?