The Forgotten Grace

"Someone! Help!" I woke with a start in the cabin. Had I just imagined someone screaming? I looked around the cabin. It seemed like everything was normal. The little fountain in the corner of the room was still. i was still wearing the watch Tyson had made me around my wrist. It was a special watch that could spiral out into a full shield. It was sort of like Thalia's Aegis. I looked towards Tyson. Tyson hadn't stirred either. Tyson didn't show that he had heard anything; of course any screaming (or Greek fire explosions for that matter) would have been drowned out by his snoring. Tyson was my baby brother cyclops that I had met a few years ago. He was supposed to be younger than me but that guy was huge.

I sighed. A year had passed since we had defeated Kronus and scattered his ashes across world (gross). If anybody asked me I would say I was glad that all of it was over. In many ways I was. We had lost so many people in the war last year. We had lost Beckendorf, one of the best craftsmen from the Hephaestus cabin on a mission on Luke's death ship The Andromeda. I had gotten off the ship but Beckendorf didn't make it. In some ways I almost missed getting attacked by monsters every other breath. Almost. After defeating Kronus last year I've been a bit on edge. I probably just imagined the yelling but dreaming of random screaming wasn't unheard of amongst demigods...

"AH! Giant lizard!" I heard the screaming voice again. I jumped out of bed and instinctively reached for my pen. Yes, I said pen. I still remembered the day Chiron had given my Anaklusmos. It was supposed to turn into a Celestial Bronze sword, perfect for jabbing some monsters. It was supposed to return to my pocket no matter where I lost it. I remember when i got it I was notorious for losing pens. I jumped out of bed with the pen in my hand, ready to uncap. I rushed over to Tyson's bed and shook him.

"Tyson, did you hear that?" I asked him. He just snored again. I shook him again, harder this time while screaming "PEANUT BUTTER!" Peanut butter was Tyson's favorite food, and sometimes the only thing that could wake him. He seemed to be awake, or at least half awake. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and said "Girl screams about giant lizard and peanut butter?"

"Yes, let's go check it out. I'll go wake Annab-" I stopped. Tyson had fallen asleep again. I shook my head and went outside myself. I shivered in the wind. It was summer but it was still this cold?

I looked around and saw a shadowy figure with messed up blond hair and in Camp Half-Blood PJ's running towards the camp border. She placed something onto her blond mess of hair and she disappeared. Annabeth!

I looked at the border to see exactly what she was running towards. Standing a few meters away from camp borders I could see a huge dragon. It had folds of leathery skin and wings that were flapping in the air as it hovered above its victim.

I could see Annabeth suddenly reappear next to it.

"Annabeth!" I ran towards them with my pen uncapped. It grew into a full sized sword with deadly Celestial Bronze.

"Percy?" The one tenth of a second she was distracted, the dragon flew away from the person on the ground and towards Annabeth. It blew flames into her face and I thought she was done for. i ran faster and rolled down in front of her while my shield spiraled out. The flames hadn't completely scorched us at least.

Annabeth still had a bit of smoke curling from the end of her hair. I pointed at it and she quickly batted it down.

Annabeth ran towards the girl in the fields. Annabeth helped her sit up and I could see and tangle of dark hair. She looked about my age, which is weird that she was just coming to camp now. For a second I thought it was Thalia. That was a second I couldn't afford to lose.

I was able to bring my sword up just in time to be able to keep the dragon from slicing me to Percy-ribbons with its claws.

"Get her into camp boundaries!" I told Annabeth as I fought of the dragon. I was a little out of practice. We practiced sword fighting everyday in camp and I could do it pretty well without dowsing myself first but it was nothing compared to fighting the real thing.

The dragon sliced at me and was able to tear apart a good chunk of my T-shirt. Not cool, this was from my mom.

I tried one of the first feints that I had learned at camp and was able to get a good jab at the side and the dragon just hovered in the air for a second with an 'ouch!' expression on its face before disintegrating into monster dust and scattering into the wind.

I was breathing hard and I felt the familiar adrenaline pulse that I had gotten for so many years before.

I could hear voices and realized that they were coming from camp. After all the noise we made they chose now to come out and help. I could see a few campers outside their rooms with the magical items gifted to them from their parents, or the kids who didn't have magical items, baseball bats and stapler guns.

"Percy!" Grover bleated as he ran up to me. Grover was my best friend ever since sixth grade. My enchilada loving, bunny phobic, Cyclops phobic best friend. He took me to Half-Blood Hill and save me from as giant mutant bull: the Minotaur. I hadn't seen him for weeks because he was now the new Lord of the Wild after Silenus died in battle last year. He just returned for a small part of the summer.

"Percy, what happened?" He asked.

"We found a Half-Blood trying to cross the boundary but got attacked by a dragon." I explained.

"Where is the camper now?" Chiron asked as he galloped up to us. Chiron was the trainer of all the great heroes, so naturally his lower half is a horse.

"She's with Annabeth in the infirmary, I think," I had never actually seen where Annabeth and the girl had gone. I hadn't even seen if the new girl actually made it I thought with a shudder.

"We should probably go give them a visit, shouldn't we, Percy?" Chiron asked as he turned back towards camp.

Grover, Chiron and I went to the infirmary as Chiron warded off the other curious campers to see the 'newbie.' I still remembered my introduction to camp by the Ares cabin on my first day here and I hoped the new girl didn't get the same treatment. Unless she was an Ares camper…

Chiron had to get back into his wheel chair because he said he didn't want to scare the new camper but I really knew it's because the ceiling was too low for him to be in horse form. Grover put on pants because I remembered that it really was creepy to see a boy walk up to you with goat fur covering his legs and hooves.

Inside the infirmary Annabeth was on the chair next to the bed of the girl and she was feeding her ambrosia, the food of the gods. It could heal demigods and give us a warm fuzzy feeling inside us but that warm fuzzy feeling could burn us to death if we ate too much of it.

I was able to get a good look at her now. Her hair was black and curly. It spilled over the pillow underneath her head. She looked very thin but it looked like all the meat she had was muscle. She didn't look like a good sword fighter but I had thought that about a few people when I first came to camp. They ended up kicking my butt later.

With her eyes closed she looked very tired. Her eye lids were colored a little bit purple from lack of sleep.

"Do you know what's her parentage?" I asked her. She definitely looked over thirteen and I remembered what I had made the gods promise last year on Mount Olympus. They would claim all of their children by age 13.

"I wasn't able to ask her. She stumbled with me to the infirmary and then passed out immediately," Annabeth explained while shoving another spoonful of ambrosia into her mouth.

"We'll question her in the morning," Chiron said. In his wheel chair he had a compartment in it that fit his huge horse half. I had gotten used to seeing it, but the first time I did I was a bit incredulous.

"Her demigod scent is really strong. Even stronger than yours was, Percy," Grover said. I was suddenly afraid of Poseidon's promise last year. He said that he would send me the other brothers and sisters that I had. I half to admit, life was good with only me and Tyson in a cabin.

"That should be enough, Annabeth. Don't want her to spontaneously combust, now do we? We'll leave and let her rest the night. We'll wake her in the morning, or a few hours, should I say," Chiron checked his watch. It was pretty late, or early depending on how you're looking at it.

I cast one more glance at the new camper. There was something about her that seemed familiar to me. I couldn't exactly explain it.

For a second I thought i saw her lips twitch and then whisper an almost inaudible "Thank you."

I was probably imagining it. I was ready to get a good half-night's sleep.