And then Percy woke up, his dreams of mythology fading into gray.
But the gray itself stubbornly stayed in his vision until he realized he was looking up from Annabeth's lap, her silvery eyes silently teasing him as she said,
"You drool in your sleep."
His voice gravelly from drowsiness, Percy responded,
"W-what happened?"
"You passed out, man. The counselors told us not to get dehydrated. And I thought you said you were good at capture the flag...eh, I'm just teasin'."
Sitting up, Percy saw all of his friends approaching as Leo grinned at his remark, each bedecked in the same gold-painted plate armor as well as blue and red-feathered helmets.
"What's with the outfits?"
Hazel replied, her brows slightly knit in concern,
"You really were out, weren't you? We voted to change our team uniforms from colored shirts to this battle gear, remember? Makes me feel like an Ancient Greek god going to battle...cool, right?"
Percy shook his head as if to get water out of his ears, saying,
"Yeah...cool."
Was it all a dream? Percy wondered. As he mused, Annabeth stood up from the bench she and Percy had been sitting on and dragged him up with her, saying as she kissed him on the cheek,
"Come on, Seaweed Brain. You need to get some water, and maybe we could all go to the lake so you can live up to your nickname as a decent swimmer."
"Just decent?"
Percy's voice was fake-arrogant but playful as his friends gave their assent to the idea, and they began trooping towards the lake past the summer camp's woods.
His friends. They were the most real part of his dream, and the best of reality.
As the throng of teenagers walked past the shadowy forest, Percy thought he saw through the branches a little girl, maybe nine years old, tending a small fire and winking at him. When he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't still dreaming, she disappeared.
.
.
.
Must have just been his imagination.