PROLOUGE

The figure stood at the top of the hill waiting on one knee. She knew she had gone too far, but the crime was already committed. She would have to flee leaving her village unprotected. It was the darkest part of the night, and she stayed perfectly still, not wanting to get noticed. In one swift movement her hand shot up in the air and an owl landed gracefully on it and dropped an object into her hand. She smiled gravely and stashed the item in her bag underneath her cloak. "C'mon Grey." She whispered as she turned and took off into the night.

IN THE MORNING

"You will find the thief and bring him to me dead or alive!" the king bellowed.

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Chapter 1

ANNABETH

She woke up to her step brothers yelling at each other from down the hallway in their tiny cottage. She lived in a small kingdom with a king, queen, and prince. The king and queen were nice, but hardly paid attention to the village since it was so small on the map.

The village was in a forest not far from the palace walls. It only had about fifty people living there, but the people loved the village for that reason. No one ever really bothered them. Sadly no one knew the financial crisis that was going on either. People were earning the minimum of the minimum, and prices for everything kept going higher and higher. The small village would eventually go bankrupt and no one would notice.

"Annabeth!" Her step mother shouted, bringing her out of her thoughts. "Go to your shop and don't come back home until you've earned at least twenty five drachma."

Annabeth didn't complain, because if she did the step monster would make her work at the tiny bread shop until she got at least four hundred drachma, and that was almost impossible if they sold the bread for one drachma per loaf, which sadly, they did. She grabbed her brown cloak and put it over her commoners dress. She grabbed her coin pouch and dashed out the door, glad to escape the fury of Helen, her step mother. Annabeth's real mother was banished after being caught drawing plans to break into the palace. She never finished so Annabeth never knew what she was planning once she did break in.

As she reached her tiny shop set up in the center of the town, she noticed something unusual. There was a teenage boy with a black cloak covering most of him. He was just slowly walking around and staring at everything with awe. Before she knew what she was doing, she went over to him.

"Hey" she started. "You aren't from around here, are you?" He turned slowly and a small smile appeared on his face.

"How'd you know?" he laughed, slightly uncomfortable.

"Your cape. It's black. No one here has a black cape. They're too expensive." She laughed at his unease. "So what village did you come from?"

"Well that depends, what village is this?" he asked.

"So you aren't from this village obviously, but I didn't think that anyone outside the palace could afford things nice." Annabeth ignored the question, but the mysterious boy still stood his ground.

"Well I live in the village right by the palace, and my father works for the king, so he does get a good income…" he said quickly.

"So you live in the spoiled village? The one where the king and queen get all their servants and then spoil the rest? Yeah I know that village." Annabeth's liking of the boy vanished as she learned of his life. He probably never had to try and provide for his sick father who couldn't afford his medication anymore and was slowly dying from it!

"Whoa what's wrong with it?" He asked, seemingly sincere.

"You have no clue the struggles of this village. We earn less in a day than a single meal costs! The king and queen don't even know this village is slowly dying!" She started to yell, causing some of the vendors at the other shops to send her some disapproving looks. "Do you want bread? I'm selling one loaf for a drachma." She calmed down, walking behind the counter.

"Only one drachma?" He asked amazed. "But-"

"Yeah I know everything is more expensive there." She cut him off. "Now are you going to buy something? Because I have to stay here until I earn twenty five drachma's and you are wasting my time."

"I'll take twenty five loaves please." He smirked and left Annabeth's face awestruck.

"Are you serious? You really don't have to do that-" Annabeth's words caught in her throat. Why did she care if this idiot wasted his money? He was from that village. He had enough money to drown the entire village here.

"I'm very serious. Then you can stay here and earn as much as you wish after that and not have to worry about a goal for today." The boy lifted his head just the slightest bit and she was met with deep sea green eyes. All hatred for this boy was lost as his kind eyes stared at her. "And now, I must get back to the palace before they realize their prince has gone off again. Before I leave, what is your name?" he had whispered this in Annabeth's ear so no one would hear. The question was simple enough, but her words wouldn't come out. This was the prince!

"Annabeth." She eventually managed to speak. "Have a nice day Pri-"

"Percy. No formalities here. I'll see you soon Annabeth." And with that, the prince left her stand and waltzed off towards the edge of the village. She wasn't sure what he had meant with 'See you soon' but she was absolutely sure that he was beyond gorgeous. She pocketed the change he had given her, and realized he had given her fifty drachma.

"Wait! You accidentally paid double!" She yelled out, and as he turned he smiled at her, waved, and kept walking.

She ended up selling twenty five more, just so she could give that amount to Helen and spend the money the prince had given her. She set off to go back to her cottage at the edge of the shops.

As she left the shop plaza she went to the path that lead to her house, and found an owl laying on the ground, barely moving. Terrified, she ran up to it and picked it up very gently. Upon further inspection, she realized that the poor creature had a broken foot, so she ran into the shops and got the cheapest cloth she could find. When she got back the owl hadn't moved just as she had hoped. Carefully she wrapped up the foot and carried to owl back to her cottage. She needed a hideout for this bird, because surely her family would kill it and eat it for supper. So instead of taking the path any further, she ventured into the forest.

She hadn't been walking long when she came across a cave. It wasn't that deep so she wouldn't get lost, but it had a curve about thirty feet in that she could easily make a home for the owl, and maybe even herself. She set the owl down on a smooth rock and saw the owl look hungrily at a scurrying object. Sighing, she went and snuck up on the mouse, and grabbed it before the mouse could run.

"I am so sorry little guy." She whispered to the mouse as she walked back over to the owl and held the squirming mouse over the owl. She didn't look as the poor mouse was eaten by the hungry owl. She didn't know how long the owl had been without food and decided she would take care of it.

After spending so much time with the owl she ran back to her cottage and went inside, stopping by Helen to give her twenty five drachma.

"I'm going over to Thalia's. I'll be back." Annabeth said to no one in particular.

"Sure." She heard as she was walking out of the door. She started on the path to Thalia's house, but then quickly ran over to the shops. She went up to the vendor who sold her the cloth earlier, and bought some dark purple velvet cloth, thread, and some needles.

As she was leaving the shops she heard commotion behind her. A man was running from two shop vendors with a bag in his hand. He was running towards her and she knew she had two options: 1. Get out of the way and let the crime be committed, because the two men had already slowed down, or 2. Stop him and run. She liked the second option better since crime happened too much in this poor village. She quickly kicked out in front of her as the man ran by and successfully tripped him. He landed flat on his face as Annabeth took off, since she didn't want publicity at all.

She made it back to the cave in record time, and walked to the spot she left the owl in. What she saw surprised her. The owl was sleeping on a stone that jutted out from the wall five feet above where she had left it, and, to her disgust, mouse carcasses littered the floor.

Now that the owl was mostly healed, she got to admire its beauty. It looked like a snowy owl with beautiful white feathers and grey spots on its wings.

"I'll call you Grey." She whispered quietly as she started sewing the purple fabric together.

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So… 1600 words later… what did you think? Good? Bad? Leave a review and tell me your thoughts! They are appreciated!

Quothe the raven,

Nevermore

Swimmerstar415