No demigods... well, not really. This is a six-chapter story.
It was just an ordinary trip, just like all the rest she had been on. All the men in the crew tried to hit on her or grab her butt, and she would say something witty to confuse them. They're really not very bright.
She sews her own clothes to occupy her time. Every time she makes this trip, she can make three skirts and two shirts. This time she decides to make one elegant dress. This trip was in the Summer, while most of her visits to her parents took place in the Spring because she absolutely adored the sights of the kingdom at this time, but her parents had sent mail to her not to visit during the Spring because of an attack from a rival kingdom. Poseidon, king of Atlantis and the man who seemed to never get older, had attacked her kingdom. They deemed it not safe for her to visit and asked her to wait patiently until it was.
She was irritated by this, especially because her parents were always concerned for her safety. When she lived with them, they had signed her up for many sword fighting lessons. Although she was trained with a sword by her trainer, Luke Castellan, she preferred to use a knife, one which she kept strapped to her leg at all times for safety.
Annabeth Chase, daughter of Frederick and Athena Chase- the king and queen of Athens- could take care of herself.
She was very smart. Once she learned how to talk, her parents got her a tutor to start teaching her how to read. She learned before any of the other kids she met did, and she was proud. While they were still learning, she was reading books from the castle library. She made it a goal to read them all someday. She never did due to the ongoing war with Poseidon's kingdom and her parents sending her away to keep her away from harm, but she aspires to. Gaining more wisdom, more than she already had, was an addiction to her. She could never learn enough.
Pulling another piece of thread to stick through a needle, she is glad she got on this ship. No, her parents didn't know she was coming, but she made herself believe that they would be forced to keep her there and she would be able to stay until it was safe and her parents made her leave.
She hadn't actually considered that they would be attacked on the way to Athens until she heard the clear sound of a cannonball hitting their ship.
Rushing up onto the deck, the crew was rapidly preparing to defend themselves. Shouts were coming from the crow's nest trying to point out where the ship was in the late summer's fog. Men ran all around trying to pull their boots on from sleeping. Several were only wearing their night clothes, rather they fight than get dressed.
One ran past her and had to walk backwards to talk to her. "You have to get below deck, mistress. We don't want you getting hurt up here."
"And what am I supposed to do while you stay up here and fight for your life?"
He grunted. "I dunno. Go back to sewing your dress." He ran back to whatever he was going to do in the first place as she turned to grumpily walk down the stairs.
"I finished it already."
...
Trying her best to ignore the sounds of men dying above her, she decided to model her dress. It had only been on her mannequin, and she had never tried it on to see how it looked on her.
After climbing into it (hey, no one ever said dresses were easy to put on), she turned to look in the large mirror. Her eyes widened.
It was beautiful. The strapless, gray dress made her look tan. The silver gems covered the bodice except for the grey straps across her upper stomach and lower stomach. The bottom part of her dress was flow-y, her preferred dress style. The colors mixed between dark and light grays in the folds. The outfit matched her eyes to a tee. If only she could put on a pair of shoes to match it...
Was the battle over? She stopped looking at herself and listened. There were no more cries of agony. Did we win? She hadn't gotten to see the ship or any of its people to know what crew was trying to overtake them. She didn't know what their fighting level was.
The door that once concealed her below deck was kicked in not moments later. A burly girl with brown/red hair put her foot down. She had just kicked the industrial door off its hinges in one kick. A blonde boy stood over her shoulder.
"Well," she girl snarled. "What do we have here?"
She stood still in shock. No amount of training could count for the fear she felt right then. As they approached her, she tried to back up as far as she could to get away, but they grabbed her and shoved a sack on her head. She felt rope tie around her neck, not tight enough to kill her, but uncomfortable enough to make her weep silently into the cloth.
She was dragged up the set of stairs to the deck and pushed in a direction she hoped wasn't overboard. "Annabeth... no..."
Turning towards where she heard the voice, she heard footsteps walk over towards it and then the sounds of a sword meeting a body. She winced. She couldn't escape if she tried because a pair of hands where still holding her firmly on the shoulders.
"Let's go, Jason," she heard the girl's voice as she walked passed her.
...
"Why'd you keep the girl?" another male voice greeted her as she stepped down onto what she assumed was the enemy ship. "You know the captain doesn't take prisoners."
"Look at her dress," she's thrown to the floor as the male holding her points out her clothing. "No ordinary girl has a dress that nice."
Several new voices join the conversation, boys and girls alike. They continue to talk for a few more minutes, probably about her, but she is too terrified to care. She can't see through the bag and she can't get it off with her hands newly tied behind her back. She was a prisoner.
"Why don't we just kill her? She can't be worth anything good enough for the trouble of keeping her."
"And how would you know, Thalia?"
The whole crew turned silent. I held my breath, uncomfortable with how this new voice silenced the crowd.
"Who do you have there?" She heard one pair of footsteps come from the direction of the new voice. His steps were slow and carefree. He seemed to have control of the whole situation. Maybe he was the captain. The one that didn't take prisoners.
"I don't know, but one of the men called her Annabeth."
Silence again. She was confused. Why was the captain silent now? Then there was a pair of footsteps that quickly walked up to her. She could see a shadow through the bag and knew that the captain was right above her. She could hear the sound of a knife being drawn and bowed her head to bite back her sobs. Then the captain leaned forward and cut through the rope around her neck. The sack was yanked off of her head and she had to adjust to the minimal lights around her. It was nighttime, after all.
Looking up, she couldn't quite make out any of the people just yet, but looking up, she could clearly see the sail in the moonlight. It had the symbol of The Tartarus. Oh this was not good. She has heard many stories about him. Read books about his legend. The legend of Perseus Jackson.
She looks around at the crew as her eyes adjust to the light and she is able to make them out. And more importantly, the captain. He looks nothing like his picture. First of all, he was not old like he has been described as. The beard on his face is nonexistent, and he has no wrinkles. He only looks to be about 17; her age.
His dark hair was not the white it has been pictured as. The one thing the books got right were his eye. Singular. A dusty, black eye patch covered his left eye. The other stared back at her in all of its sea-green glory.
He smiled without showing his teeth and stood straight, still looking at her. "Annabeth Chase."
Suddenly the crew started to shout. She was able to pick up phrases like, "This is a Chase?" and "Let me gut her!" The captain did nothing to stop their yelling. At first. He only stood there, looking over his crew with a stoic expression. She knew she was done for. They all wanted to kill her.
Then, Perseus raised his arms and pushed them towards his crew. Water rose out of the sea on the right side of the ship and followed his actions, dousing the entire crew. They all stopped yelling, only to complain and ask what that was for.
How did he do that with the water..? That couldn't be possible, and all of the crew acted like it was nothing.
The captain stood silent, watching them again until they all stopped talking. "You will not harm this girl. She is your new crew-mate."
Everyone, including her, screamed out, "What!?" The crew then began to complain. She couldn't help but let her mind wander to the crew. They were all about her age, give or take a few years. The Tartarus crew in the books were all older men and women who dedicated their lives to their captain.
"We all know you want to kill her too," they all silenced as soon as the curly brown-haired boy started to talk. "After what her father did to you... and us."
The captain nodded. "This much is true. But she is not her father, now is she?"
No one dared to speak against the captain. This wasn't a question he wanted an answer to.
"Anyone want to comment?" No one spoke. "Good. Piper."
One girl's eyes widened and she slowly stepped forward. Her dark brown hair was braided to the side with a beautiful pink feather tied to the bottom. "Yes?"
"I want you to show Ms. Chase to her room. Get her some new clothes. That dress will certainly not do." With that, the captain turned and stalked his way into what she assumed was the captain's quarters. She was alone with the crew that wanted to kill her.
Slowly, Piper walked over to her. "This way." The meek girl walked across the deck towards the staircase to take them below deck. Annabeth cautiously followed after her. She didn't trust anyone on this ship, and she had every right to be cautious. Once she reached the bottom, Piper pulled out a knife. Annabeth tried to run right back up, but Piper stopped her.
"Hey, hey," Piper tried to settle her down. "I'm not hurt you. I'm going to cut the ropes off your wrists." She hadn't even noticed that they were even still there. Her fear pressed to the front of her mind; the pain was pushed to the back.
Piper gave her a look that said 'May I?' and Annabeth turned her back, still making sure to keep an eye on the girl. The ropes fell to the floor and Annabeth rubbed her wrists. They hadn't cut into her skin, but they were red.
"This," Piper opened a small door to a closet-sized room. "Is your room." The only thing inside was a small, twin-sized bed, and a tiny porthole. She would not be able to escape out of that.
"And this," Annabeth turned to see that Piper was holding a folded pair of used clothing. "Is two sets of clothes for you to wear. When one is dirty, you wash it yourself."
She dumped the clothes in Annabeth's arms. "We serve a light breakfast at dawn. If you are not there, you do not get any. Lunch is served at midday. If you are not there, you do not get any. Dinner is served at dusk. If you are not there, you do, not, get any. Got it?"
Annabeth nodded meekly.
"You are expected to clean up after yourself and I would advise to not get in the crew's way. You'll need to carry your own weight, so what can you do?"
Annabeth paled. She had to work for these people? With these people? "I don't know. I sewed this dress."
"Alright," Piper nodded. "You can be our tailor. Gods know we need to patch up holes in all of our clothes."
"I can fight, too."
Piper gave a small laugh and then a smile. "Sorry, but there is no way Percy... captain will let you fight."
Annabeth wondered about the nickname, but passed it off.
"I'm the cook, and could use some help during meal preparation. It'll give you something to do when you're not sewing. If you ever have any free time, I would wipe down the deck. I don't mean with a rag, but at least a mop and bucket. Stay away from the crew during these times."
Annabeth nodded to imply that she understood.
"I'm sorry that you got roped into this. It's probably not what you wanted." She began to walk away and Annabeth was tempted to let her, but she couldn't hold it in.
"You have a beautiful knife." Not the smartest thing to say when she could stick it in her guts at any time. Piper turned and gave her an incredulous look. She pulled out her knife again and Annabeth thought that maybe she would just stick it in her guts.
"Thank you. It's called Katoptris." She smiled and then walked up the stairs.
Annabeth let out a large breath and then began to cry. She was trapped with a crew of pirates that want to kill her, hosted by the most known captain for his reputation as a killer. Laying down on her bed, she curled into a ball.
One thing she began to think of puzzled her. How did the captain know who she was?
...
Just a little, JSYK... this story takes place several thousand years after the books do. Camp Half Blood doesn't exist.
In case you wanted to see the dress...
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