After a few minutes of waiting on the dark beach like this, Percy got to his feet. “We should get going. I think that I saw the ship come into the bay.”

Her backpack slung over her shoulders once more, and Foofy got his leash hooked back on. All together, they headed toward the rock formations that concealed Old First Pier from sight.

Val, Foofy, and Percy walked carefully around the rock face. Inside of the bay, a long pier made of decrepit stone was extended into the water. Many spots of this pier had crumbled away. The Old First Pier looked like something more akin to stepping stones than a pier. Beneath the dark, shaded waters, crumbled sections of rock made the water shallower from where the pier had fallen away.

At the end of the pier, a rowboat had been secured by a rope, seeming ready to take them to the next boat over.

Out in the bay, a large ship awaited them. All made of wood, the bow of the ship curved high into the air in the shape of a serpent’s neck. The aspect of a serpent’s terrorizing face was carved into the head of the wood, taking the form of a most dramatic figurehead. The Wooden Serpent was an apt name for this ship.

Percy pointed a long arm out to the Wooden Serpent. “The serpentine figurehead is said to ward off serpent attacks. The Summit of Ascension lies at the heart of the Serpent’s Circle.”

“Really?” Val’s eyes drew wide as her thoughts tumbled about quickly with her frayed nerves.

The Serpent’s Circle made for a region where no man-made vessel, be it water or air, could safely traverse the ocean. Any ship that entered the Circle went down by a serpent attack or so it was said. For certain, no ship ever returned from its voyage through the Circle. Even planes flying overhead were not immune, as serpents could supposedly shoot spouts of water miles into the air with the accuracy to strike a plane moving at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. From there, the serpent was said to leap into the air and catch an airplane on its descent, continuing to crush it with a single bite of its jaws. If a mere figurehead in the shape of a serpent could stop sea serpent attacks, Val suspected that mortals would have discovered that by now.

Percy shrugged. “Maybe a bit of Tavras’s will is at work there, too. Come on! We need to get our passes verified. You do have permission to go to the Summit of Ascension, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course,” Val said, though she had to wonder how many demigods from the mortal world had found their way here without knowing how to signal their intentions to Lady Margus. It had been fortunate enough that Ross had known what to do, and she supposed that they had their mother to thank for that.

Following Percy’s lead, Val and Foofy hopped over the pieces of the decrepit pier that were available for them to cross. She had to unhook Foofy’s leash to enable them both to safely travel far enough apart from each other. Jumping from rock to rock, Val arrived on the main section of the pier shortly after Percy.

Foofy tried to follow her lead in doggy bounds, but he hung back much farther than necessary. One last, large leap was required of him to join her on the platform. With his nails scratching against the edge of that last piece of rock, Foofy stood paralyzed with fear. His legs visibly shook while his head hung low, staring down into the frothy waters below.

“You are doing great, Foofy!” Val called to him. “You can do it. Come!”

By her words of encouragement, Foofy’s chest lifted with a deep breath. He padded back to the other edge of the rock and gathered some momentum in the quickest run that he could manage in the small space. His paws left the ground in a big leap, and Foofy’s claws tapped against stone, just barely having cleared the jump. All of his fear seemed to fear evaporate as Foofy took to celebrating at once with his wagging tail.

“Good boy, Foofy!” Val gave him all of the pets and praise for overcoming what looked to be his fear of water, and for making such a large jump.

Already, the attendant by the rowboat had checked Percy’s qualification to travel to the Summit. Before taking a seat in the boat, he turned back to her. “Hey Val, I have a joke for you.”

“Yes?” Her ears perked up. She found herself very much in high spirits, in the mood for a good joke.

“What does Tavras call his dick in the morning?”

Her brow creased together because she did not exactly find jokes about genitalia to be of a high quality of humor.

“The Wooden Serpent! Ha!” Percy jumped onto the boat, balancing against the rocking motion that he had created with a wave of his arms.

Val frowned in disgust at that joke. Apparently, Percy wanted the whole ship to be lost at sea given the way that he made genitalia jokes about the god of water, Tavras, also regarded as the Sea Itself. Percy’s choice in humor seemed especially crude to her, so Val would not mind distancing herself from him at least for the duration of this journey. When Tavras decided to capsize the ship, maybe he would send dolphins to rescue everybody except for this one, offending joker.

Once Val’s permission to travel to the Summit of Ascension had been verified by the ship attendant, she boarded the rowboat more carefully than Percy had. The boat still rocked, though in a very different way. The water seemed to roar beneath her, giving the boat a shuddering movement to it.

“Interesting,” the attendant said. “It is rare for the sea to react like that.”

Foofy joined them on the rowboat too, and since no others waited to board the Wooden Serpent, the attendant took his position at the back of the boat. He rowed for them and started up in some song about heroes being homeward bound.

“Gorro always sings this song,” Percy said with a whisper. “It gets old after a while.”

“Hush,” Val hissed.

The ship attendant Gorro was literally right there. Plus, he was doing all of the rowing so they ought to at least let him sing his song in peace. Besides, Val had never heard this song before, so she listened closely and found enjoyment in hearing his low voice along with the waves rocking gently against the side of the boat.

When they arrived alongside the ship, Val offered him her appreciation. “Thanks for rowing us out here, and also for the song.”

“I am glad that you liked it, missy,” Gorro said with a tip of his hat.

“Sorry about the other guy,” she added in a lower voice.

“No worries. I take no offense to that. I have learned that some people do not like my singing, just as I have also learned that some people would do better without having an opinion.”

Val had to smile at that. From the rowboat, they were lifted on board the ship. Val waved goodbye to Gorro who had to row back to pick up more passengers. From her vantage point on the ship, those other people who now dotted the pier looked much like how the decrepit pier dotted the shore.

Because night had already fallen, Val also parted ways from Percy with a wave goodbye. Admittedly, she limited the enthusiasm from her wave quite deliberately. If someone like Percy could reveal himself to be a jerk so soon after an initial meeting, Val would hate to know how he behaved around those he was familiar with. At any rate, she was escorted by one of the crewmates to the tiny cabin that would serve as her room for the duration of the trip.

That night, she laid in bed with Foofy just like the night before, but she could hardly sleep at all. This excitement all bundled up inside of her kept her awake, tossing and turning since she could hardly keep still. Val’s mood had increased one million fold. Here, she found herself on a ship bound for the Summit of Ascension at last!