Started With A Dare - A POTHENA STORY ✔

Our Only Achievement Gets Robbed

ATHENA POV

  Throughout my entire adventure, or more like death trip with Poseidon, I marvelled at my ability to keep calm and collected even in the most ridiculous and dangerous of situations. Alright, maybe the sirens messed me up a bit, but Sinis' statement almost made me stumble backwards and fall on the very clean bottom of my trousers.

  As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. I never considered the Fleece in my hand as the one that was fake. It was the one that had hung on Thalia's pine, wasn't it? Did that mean there was a traitor in Camp Half-Blood?

  I forced the swarm of screaming thoughts in my head and tried to re-collect myself. "I see, Sinis. I‌ take that you haven't considered your own Fleece as the fake either." I‌ hoped I looked strong and confident there, but I knew I wasn't. Poseidon's concerned and anxious expression from the corner of my eye revealed how wavering and unconfident I seemed.

  Sinis stayed silent for a moment, but his devilish smirk still stayed unmoving. I‌ took a deep breath and arranged my thoughts quickly - and realised we had a number of reasons to suspect our Fleece in hand.

We didn't personally use our Fleece for healing at all before.The two Fleeces looked completely identical.Sinis used to be dead, and now he was alive and well, holding the Golden Fleece which could heal and was so powerful that it could resurrect the dead, standing before us.

  How do I get myself out of this one?

  I gritted my teeth. To Hades with this. I don't have any words to throw back at him - in fact, throwing words back at him is absolutely no point. I needed to trick him into handing over the real Fleece. But how?

  I wish I could make myself sound baddarse the next few seconds, but Poseidon was the one who saved us. "Oh, our Fleece is fake, what a lovely surprise." To my shock and horror, he leapt forward and grasped Sinis' throat menacingly. "So who's the traitor?"

  "Poseidon, no!" I was too late. In the split second, Poseidon must've forgotten how strong the Pine-bender was to bend pines. In fact, I'm surprised Sinis didn't immediately kill him - With a jerk of his head, Poseidon was knocked to the ground, his head falling square on my chest, causing me to tumble over as well. So much for looking baddarse...or even getting out of this alive.

  We got up, and to my surprise, Sinis didn't even try to attack us. He kept eyeing us with that arrogant, disgusting smirk, as if he'd already won everything he wanted. "I don't have to ask for anything else, you see, but the guy who revived me told me to get him your weapons, so it'd be wise to hand them over right now." He put back the Fleece into his backpack and stretched out both of his hands, palms facing up, as if nothing just happened.

  Poseidon glared at him with utter hatred - if I were to tell the truth, I wanted to as well. But what he said got me thinking. Someone revived him with the real Fleece? That would be the traitor of Camp Half-Blood, wouldn't it? These events all lead back to the same person. Even though he's the one with the Fleece, there's a bigger threat behind him and he's not the person we should pick a fight with. But what the prophecy said...

  I had to act fast before we actually got killed...or before Poseidon made another rash decision and got himself killed. The most logical thing to do would be to escape. Was there somehow a way we could cause a diversion, even only with our weapons?

  "You guys are after the prophecy, aren't ya? We can make an exchange if you'd like. Prophecy for weapons. That's my only offer." Sinis spoke again. A small burst of victory exploded in me when I realised that the prophecy was with him and our prophecy was basically fulfilled, even though it confused me even more with 'his to keep'.

  Poseidon wouldn't be dumb enough to immediately tell him our only advantage, would he? I seized the chance and got ready to change up the deal and give us the Fleece instead. As for the weapons...

  "Hah, good one. Have you realised the prophecy isn't with you yet?"

  POSEIDON!

  Great, my original plan was screwed. His big mouth ruined everything - why would he reveal that we've already completed the quest, anyway? I'd originally wanted to avoid interaction with this guy as much as possible - we were done with most of the prophecy, why bother to infuriate him more and screw us over? All my confidence and hope instantly went down the drain.

  A slight shock passed in Sinis' eyes, but it didn't show in his expression. "Well, now that you've revealed that, I suppose I have no business with you anymore." A cunning smirk stretched across his face. "I'd make 'boss' happier if I handed him the full package - prophecy, weapons and Fleece, though. SEIZE THEM!"

  At that instance, it felt like a strange force took over me and completely stopped me from moving. My mind started spinning so fast I completely lost control over myself. There was someone else? We're getting captured? Did we really screw up our one and only mission this new set of memories had ever seen?

  The wise move would be to run away, but my limbs froze and I couldn't do anything. Poseidon leapt towards me - I felt his arms collapse onto me but it was too late - I instantly lost my vision and I'd imagine Poseidon did too. My consciousness failed me as well and everything plunged into darkness.

  When I opened my eyes, I found myself tightly tied up, my weapon gone, next to an unconscious Poseidon.

  Of course that wasn't enough. We were also both stripped down to our underwear, which meant Poseidon was now only in his boxers and I believe I don't have to describe what I was dressed in.

  Trying to ignore that embarrassing fact, I looked around in our surroundings. We were trapped in a small, compact tent with absolutely nothing inside. I squirmed towards the entrance and groaned in dismay as soon as I saw it. It was closed up with a zipper, but the zipper was only accessible outside so all we could do was stare at the fabric and groan. I tried to claw at it with my teeth, but as expected, nothing happened.

  Just great. We were not only robbed of everything right after we'd completed the quest, but also trapped in this tent which would've been easy to break if we weren't tied up so tightly. There was strangely no place that let air in at all, so to top all that we also had limited time before we ran out of air and died. Not to mention the embarrassment we'd be in once Poseidon wakes up...

  I looked down to Poseidon. He suddenly shifted his position...then he opened his eyes.