We were on the edge of the dock at Camp Half-Blood when the seahorse attacked.
Now, okay, I'll admit it sounds kind of stupid, for Annabeth to be attacked by a seahorse. But mark my words, this was no ordinary seahorse. It was the type with glowing red eyes and six inch fangs, a curled spike at the end of its tail and bulletproof scales. And it jumped my girlfriend.
"Percy!" Annabeth started to shout, before the seahorse dragged her underwater. It took me a moment to comprehend what had just happened – how had a monster gotten past the borders? My first thought was the Stoll Brothers playing a practical joke, but they'd stopped being counselors years ago. We'd all grown up – after all, Annabeth and I were twenty now. We'd just been stopping by camp for a visit. Of course, just my luck, we got attacked by a rabid seahorse. But if it wasn't the Stolls...
Then I remember another thing: Annabeth was in danger.
It took me a second to dive into the water, and another second to search the murky deep of the lake for Annabeth. Soon I spotted her near the bottom of the lake. She was quickly running out of air, trying to fend off the evil seahorse. I dove towards her, drawing Riptide from my pocket and uncapping my trusty sword. Normally, Annabeth would have been able to easily defeat the monster, but she couldn't breathe, and she didn't have her knife with her. Bubbles floated from Annabeth's mouth. I only had a few seconds. Oh, c'mon! This was supposed to be a monster-free vacation.
I pried the seahorse away from my girlfriend, quickly found the chink in it's armor, and killed it. It exploded into dust, which quickly died down underwater. I pulled Annabeth toward the surface.
We made it out of the water and onto the edge of the dock, panting. Annabeth coughed some water and lay down on her back, sucking in fresh air. I turned on my side, looking at her. Her hair had come free from its usual ponytail, and she was soaking wet and miserable.
"Marry me," I blurted.
She gave me a sidelong glance, then turned to see if I was serious. After a moment she burst out laughing.
"You'll need to try better than that, Seaweed Brain."
"I'm serious, Annabeth. Marry me." Annabeth had never looked more beautiful to me than she did right then, right there.
She stood up, wringing out her hair, and started to walk off without helping me up. As she reached the end of the dock, she turned back and smiled at me.
"Sure, Percy."