Chapter 1- Crash Landing

Percy's POV

"I am NOT always worrying!" Annabeth shouted at me. "That scale could be dangerous! You should really turn it into Chiron."

We were standing on the beach at Camp Half Blood. It was well past dinner, and Annabeth and I were having a... Small disagreement.

"C'mon Annabeth, it's just a scale... Maybe it came from a-"

"Dont say it! It could be many things, and..." She faultered, a flash of fear crossed her face.

"And what?" I asked raising my eyebrow.

"And... And I don't want to find out!" She said in a hurried tone. Her fear turning quickly into anger

"Dont want to find out what?" a familiar voice said from a short distance away.

I squinted against the setting sun, and made out a tall figure with curly hair, and hooves instead of feet.

"Hey Grover." I smiled "What's going on?"

"Nothing much, now what is it that you two were argueing over?"

I glanced at Annabeth, she didn't look happy, but she looked at me, as if to say if you must

"Well" I started. "I found this scale by the border the other day, and

I held onto it. But Annabeth here, thinks it could be 'dangerous', and wants me to turn it into Chiron."

"Shouldnt he?" Annabeth asked.

"Hmm." Grover thought. "Well... Has anything strange happened since you found the scale?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Grover, we're half-bloods. A lot of strange things happen."

Annabeth gave me a 'seriously?' look, then said to Grover, "What he means is that nothing out of the ordinary has happened. But that doesn't mean-"

"Then there's nothing to worry about!" Grover cut her off.

Annabeth crossed her arms, still unsatisfied.

Grover sighed. "Look Annabeth, as of right now, the scale is perfectly harmless. Once something happens that we know would trace back to it, then you can turn it in to Chiron. Okay?"

Annabeth thought for a while.

"Alright." she finally said. "But you both promise that once something happens, you'll go strait to Chiron!"

"Promise." Grover and I said at the same time.

We had a brief moment of silence before clapped his hands together.

"Now that that issue is taken care of." He said putting his arms around our shoulders "Are you two demigods ready for some Capture the Flag?"

"You know it G-man." I replied

"Of course." Annabeth said cassually

"Well then, let's go!" he exclaimed, taking his arms off us, and started up the long, sand covered hill toward camp.

I started walking up after him, but Annabeth stayed put, looking of into space with a worried expression.

"Hey Annabeth," Grover called from halfway up the beach, "you coming?"

"Huh?" she said looking up, as if coming out of a daze.

"I said: Are-you-com-ing?" he said cupping his hands around his mouth.

"Oh... Yea." she called back as she started walking up. She still looked really worried.

"Look." I said turning around and walking backwards up the hill. "You heard Grover, as of the moment, it's comletely harmless. I mean... it's a scale, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You could say that." Annabeth mumbled.

"What did you say?" I asked defensively.

"Nothing." was all she replied.

I turned back around to stomp up the rest of the hill, but we were already at the top.

As we made our way toward the woods, my brain became full of statistics for the upcoming game.

The teams were: the Apollo cabin, the Athena cabin, the Posidon cabin, and the Hermes cabin vs. the Ares cabin, the Amphrodite cabin, the Hephastus cabin, and the Demeter cabin. Annabeth and I had already come up with a stategy. We knew where the other team was hiding their flag, (Lets just say some people in the Hephastus cabin don't know what the word 'wisper' means) and we had devised a plan to get to it.

Their flag was going to be crammed in a rocky hill by the eastern border of camp. The plan was the Apollo cabin was goin to stand back and guard our flag, in a hollow tree a few hundred feet off of the creek, the Hermes cabin had set up traps around the flag, and they were all going to try and distract the other team as much as they can, giving the Athena cabin and I an easy way to get to the flag. The Ares cabin will most likely be guarding it so it's my job to prevoke them as much as I can (seeing as they already hate my guts) and Annabeth would make a grab for the flag.

We finally reached the dining pavilion and we put on our battle armor.

I was just ajusting the straps on my horse-haired helmet, when Chiron's horn blew.

We then all walked over to the edge of the woods to where he was standing, and gathered in a large semi-circle around him.

"Alright." Chiron's voice boomed. "I assume you all know the rules.

The game is over when one team has stolen the other's flag, and made it across the boundry line." and with that, he waved us off to get into forest to get into our positions before the horn blew.

I walked off into the woods the shadows from the trees passing over me as I went.

Annabeth caught up to me "You'd better not mess this up Seaweed Brain" she smiled. Then she ran off to get into her spot.

I had just had just made it to my position when the conch horn blew.

There was a loud screaming and a lot of running feet as both teams raced across the boundry line.

Trees wizzed passed in a blur as I raced toward the eastern boarder of camp. If I looked hard enough, I could make out Annabeth and the rest of the Athena cabin through the mass of trees.

When we arrived at the flag, we surrounded the area. 6 members of the Ares cabin stood guard around their red flag with a wild boar painted on it. The closest person to the flag would be none other than Clarisse. In her hand, she clutched a brand new electric spear.

Great I thought. Just the person I wanted to make mad. Oh well, might as well have some fun with it.

I looked at Annabeth who was half a dozen trees over to my right, she gave me a nod, encouraging me to go ahead.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then took a step out from the shadows, and into the bright sunlight.

I walked casually down into the ditch. As I approached the Ares cabin stiffened, lookin at me with hateful eyes.

"Hey guys what's up?" I asked.

One broader boy farthest to my right called "Dont listen to him, he's only trying to distract you."

I looked at the boy, acting as if I was genuinly hurt. "Now that hurts man. That hurts me deeply. You know I thought we were friends."

"We would never be friends with you." spat Clarisse.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annabeth put in her invisibilty cap.

I walked over to the girl nearest to me, and she growled. "Oh my gods, I know you really like eating like savages and everything, but have you guys ever hear of a breath mint? Or you could at least use the tusks of the boars have hanging on the wall to clean your teeth out!"

I knew I had hit a nerve because The girl half lunged at me. They then remained silent. I was sure that all i really needed was one more comment, and they would come chasing after me.

My eyes wandered over to Clarisse's rod, and I came up with the perfect insult.

"Ah Clarisse" I said. "I see you got a new electric rod. And this one seven uglier than the last one... Your daddy must've made it himself."

Clarisse ran at me. I uncapped Riptide, and blocked her thrust, and we held or weapons there, testing our strength. At that moment, Annabethgrabbed the flag. She took off her invisibilty cap, and fled towardthe woods.

As soon as she disappeared behind a tree, I pushed with all my might,and threw Clarisse off balance. I then turned around and made a runfor it, but she wasn't far behind me.

I raced through the trees, Clarisse and the rest of the Ares cabin a few meters behind me, and Annabeth a few yards ahead of me.

I was panting when the creek was finally in our sights. I heard a growl of frustration come from behind me. I turned my head to see whoit was, but was distracted by a bright line of firey light descendingfrom the sky.

I had just enough time to say "What the-" when the comet collided with the ground, creating a humongous impact. I was thrown off my feet andslamed into a tree, and my eye-sight went my vision cleared, I saw that Anaabeth had been pushed to theground, and Clarisse and the others had been knocked off their feet.

"Annabeth!" I cried running to her side.

"Im alright." she answered shakily as I helped her to her feet. "What

was that?"

"I don't know, but let's go find out." I said.

We walked off toward the direction of the exploasion, and when we got there, a large crowd had already gathered just outside the boarder around the smokey area.

We made our way to the front, and when the smoke cleared, what we saw shocked us.

What we saw was a ten foot deep crater... And in the center of that crater, was the broken, damaged form, of a girl...