Prologue – Percy
Word Count: 666
"Percy! Percy, you promised! Percy, where are you?! You promised!"
Percy jolted awake with a shout, flailing in his sheets and falling off his bed, cracking his head on the sea stone floor of his cabin. "Ow," he moaned, cradling the wound. Whimpering sounded above him and he crawled his way back onto the bunk, wrapping his arms around Annabeth before her nightmares could take a firmer root. "Wake up, Wise Girl," he whispered. "It's not real; I'm right here…I always will be." He placed a gentle kiss beside her messy blond curls and buried his nose in the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent. Before long, she started to stir and her hand flew back, smacking soundly into his nose.
"That tickles, Seaweed Brain" she murmured sleepily.
"No, that hurt," he amended, rubbing his maimed appendage. Grinning wickedly, he grabbed her leg. "This tickles." His fingers attacked the bottom of her foot ruthlessly, sending her into a fit of giggles.
"Noooooo! Stop!" Annabeth tried to squirm free, but Percy held on, even when he got kicked between the eyes. Cackling, he tickled his way up her legs and stomach until he reached "the spot" right behind her ears. It was an odd place to be ticklish, but it was like Annabeth's Achilles heel. She became helpless when he attacked there.
Mostly, he reminded himself as she elbowed him in the ribs, sending them both tumbling back to the floor, landing in a tangle of limbs. "I hate you, Seaweed Brain," she teased, poking him in the chest. "You know tickling isn't fair."
"Hey, you gave me the idea. Practically begged me to-" She cut him off with a kiss, smiling at his dazed look.
"I can fight dirty too, Percy."
"I admit defeat. You win, Wise Girl." He moved to reward her victory, but was interrupted as his cabin door swung open. Both teens jumped guiltily; they didn't exactly have permission to share a cabin, nightmares or not; but relaxed when they realized it wasn't Chiron or Mr. D.
Instead, Rachel zombie-shuffled across the floor, halting in front of them. Her flame red hair was in a tousled ponytail and her feet were bare, draped with her long silky pajamas and bathrobe. Glazed eyes stared down at the couple, lighting up with a green glow as the spirit of Delphi spoke through her.
"When allies turn and friends betray, an enemy in darkness seeks light of day. Discord and Chaos join hand in hand, veteran heroes must rise and stand. Against this foe, the winter moon, shall prove a brilliant and potent boon."
As the last words of the prophecy fell silent, Rachel's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed, flopping across the bed Tyson used when he visited camp. She snored a few times before coming to, pushing herself upright blearily. "Where…Percy? Annabeth?" She rubbed her head, looking at them in confusion. "Did we have a sleepover or something?"
Percy and Annabeth exchanged looks of concern, dread settling in their stomachs. "You brought us a prophecy," Annabeth explained, grabbing her shoes from under Percy's bed. She jammed them on and smoothed her hair, standing up. The teasing, romantic mood from before was gone and Percy followed her lead, as did Rachel…at least as best as she could, considering she had no shoes. "We should go tell Chiron."
"I'm sorry, guys," Rachel mumbled quietly, fiddling with a strand of hair. "Was it bad?"
"No worse than any other prophecy," Percy assured, pulling her into a one-armed hug. "I'll bet it's nothing to worry about."
"Yeah. I mean, we defeated Gaia…what could be worse than that?" Annabeth added, throwing an arm around the other girl's shoulders as well. Rachel seemed to relax at their words, but as she walked out in front of them, both demigods shared another look. Even if they hadn't both heard the prophecy, they would have known the other was lying. Both knew there was always something worse.