Island on Uncharted Waters

Percy's POV:

I took in the smell of the salty ocean and the smell of the salt water fish. It was a smell that I have grown accustomed to. It was something that I could never get sick of.

I loved walking down the beach. I loved the feeling of the sand between my toes when I walked down the coast barefoot. As well as the warm sun's ray beat down on my face as it started to set. It was a great place to be after returning from a hard worked quest. I couldn't wait to see Annabeth, to be able to look into her cloudy grey eyes. The ones that made me want to melt. I even missed her boring hour long architecture lectures. I missed Wise Girl. I was gone for two weeks with Nico on a quest. We had to rescue a young half-blood from the Lotus Casino. Gods, I hated that place. A place infested with citizens that didn't know that they were trapped. Trapped forever. I was glad to be back.

"Hey Perce"

I turned to find Thalia trudging up to me, kicking up the beige sand as she walked.

"Hey Pinecone face. I thought you were with the Hunters." I replied.

"I quite."

"Why? Did you get your butt kicked by a manticore?"

"No idiot. I quit because I fell in love and I couldn't love if I was still with the hunters." she said sadly.

"What? Tree-Head fell in love? With who?" I asked stunned.

"Nico." she muttered.

"Well, I can't complain. He's pretty nice. Well, after you get past the dark emo death side, he's pretty cool."

"Yeah. It's good to be home. Sometimes it's nice to get away from the action once in a while. Slaying monsters gets boring after a while."

"Have you seen Annabeth? I haven't seen her yet."

"Did you check her cabin? She's probably working on blueprints for the redesigning of Olympus." Thalia asked.

"Uhh… no. I didn't think of that."

"Gods, no wonder she calls you Kelp Head." Thalia said while rolling her eyes.

I blushed. "It's Seaweed Brain"

"Whatever. It's the same thing."

"So she's in her cabin?"

"I don't know. Just because Annie's not here on the beach doesn't mean she's not at camp."

"Thanks Thals!" I called over my shoulder. I took off into a sprint towards the Athena cabin. I knocked on the gray slate door. It matched Annabeth's eyes, as well as Athena's. However, I've only seen Athena when she's mad so I can't really compare. A few moments later, Malcolm appeared in the doorway.

"Oh hey Percy. How did the quest go? You guys were gone for a while. Is Nico ok?" he asked.

"It was a success. Nico is fine. The half-blood turned out to be a descendent of Apollo. No wonder, he kept singing his lungs off in the shower. Even in the car. Not bad though. Even though Nico wanted to rip his head off, since it got kinda annoying after awhile."

"Oh that's cool" he commented lamely.

"Yeah. Hey uhh… is Annabeth in there?" I asked, while rubbing the back of my neck nervously.

Malcolm's face darkened. He looked down at his shoes nervously. "Percy… Umm… uh- You see uhh. Well, Annie's not here."

"Well uh… do you know where she is?"

"It's not really my position to say. I think it might be best to ask Chiron." he replied looking away.

"Thanks"

I closed the door and started walking towards the Big House. Where could she be? Maybe on a quest or something. She couldn't be hurt. No, I would know. How come Malcolm didn't know where she is? For a son of Athena he was pretty stupid. Or… maybe he did know. Was Malcolm hiding something? Was Thalia? I shook my head trying to get rid of the thought.

I entered the Big House and found Chiron and Grover playing poker on the ping pong table. Grover was chewing on empty Coke cans and was spraying Cheez Wiz on Club Crackers

"Hey guys"

They both glanced up from the game and gave me a small smile.

"Hey listen Percy. Here's a tip for when you gamble. Always split the eights and never the tens."

"That's good to know" I rolled my eyes.

'Percy, I must congratulate you and Nico on your success." Chiron grinned.

"It was nothing. But hey, where's Annabeth?"

Both Grover and Chiron shared a painful look.

"I think you need to seek the oracle" Chiron replied softly.

I went up into the attic and found Rachel Dare sitting on a three legged stool looking bored out of her mind.

"Where's Annabeth?" I asked using no effort to hide my frustration.

"Percy. Two days after you went on your quest, Annabeth and Grover went on a quest as well. They were ambushed by a group of hippogriffs-"

"Wait! Hippogriffs? Isn't that from like, Harry Potter?"

Rachel rolled her eyes.

"No one knows where she is. The Gods refuse to tell us anything. I'm really sorry Percy. But, we have all begun to believe that… Annabeth Chase is dead."

AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Cliff hanger! Sorry for being short. Don't forget to Review please! Thanks!

-A