A/N: Alright then, I thought I'd give it a shot at creating a multi-chapter story. I'm just kinda going with the flow right now, with a pretty vague outline. I can't determine how long it'll be just yet, but stay with me here. I'm just testing things out for now, because I never wrote a multi-chapter story except some really short ones. Hope you can like this!
note: For some reason I can't write Mr Brunner's name with a period, so I just left it blank.
/
The monster was gone.
Percy was dead tired, but he couldn't stop here. Grover was still moaning and passed out nearby. His mother…
Percy hauled Grover up and staggered down the valley, slowly making his way to the lights of the farmhouse. Percy's body was screaming with pain, and all he wanted to do was to lie down and cry until everything bad just went away. But Grover needed him, so Percy couldn't stop here. Not yet.
Before Percy knew it, his knees gave in as he approached a wooden porch. Everything was fuzzy, moths flying around a yellow light, and faces. A girl with beautiful curled hair that matched the glowing light, and a familiar-looking man. They both looked down at him, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."
"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."
xxx
Percy's eyes opened, very slowly, but he didn't move. Or rather, he couldn't move. Percy felt like his body would creak and shatter if he so much moved a finger, and his tongue felt like a limp beanbag. His throat felt dry and scratchy, that saying anything would feel like fire down his throat. Strangely, he felt like he knew what that felt like. He was laying in a bed, with his back propped up.
He moved his eyeballs, blinking so he can get a sense of the world a little better. He was in a room. Well, a room with a few cots in it, with potted plants in a corner here and there. Photos hung on the wall, with kids in orange t-shirts in them.
He looked down, and realized there was a person. A girl. She was gripping his hand, and it felt warm. Her head was resting on the edge of the bed, her hair in a messy curtain around her head. He recognized her blonde curls, he…
He remembered. Two faces were looking down at him, at a porch after he dragged Grover in. This girl were one of them.
Percy was suddenly curious. He tried to move his hand. Percy winced, and his hand felt like wood when he moved slightly.
The girl flinched, but kept her head down. Percy tried again, with his other hand this time. He felt his arm crack in about a million different places, but he eventually moved his hand to caress her head. Her hair was surprisingly silky, even when it looked so wild creating a halo of golden curls around her head on his bed. The girl suddenly froze under his touch.
Abruptly, she got up, and met his eyes. They were a stormy type of gray, with intelligence gleaming behind them. She seemed to be thinking a million different things, all racing with incredible speed through her brain. She seemed older too, like maybe seventeen or eighteen. Having a pretty girl like her staring at a little runt like Percy was nerve-wracking.
Percy wanted to say something, wanted her to say something to explain to him what had happened-
The girl suddenly attacked him with a fierce bear hug, and Percy dryly wheezed due to her crushing force. She immediately pulled back, and Percy tears gleaming in her eyes.
"You still drool when you sleep, moron." the girl said softly. Percy's face grew warm. Not only did this pretty older girl stay next to him while he was passed out, she had to see him when he was drooling like a five year old. Perfect.
"Percy? Can you speak? Are you okay?" the blonde's eyebrows furrowed together in worry.
Percy's throat still felt incredibly dry, so he nodded. The girl took his hand, and Percy jolted in surprise.
"Here, drink some," the girl offered. She got a cup filled with a liquid and held it to his lips. Percy still felt flustered at all this attention, but he didn't have much strength at the moment. As he drank the strange drink, he felt adrenaline surge through his veins. He felt much better than before, but he still felt pretty weak from sleeping for who knows how long.
"Percy. Say something, will you? Can you?" the girl tried again.
"Yeah… Sorry." Percy spoke, and it felt like he was listening to another voice. Maybe it was because he had been out for so long, but his voice felt a lot deeper than usual. "Where...am I?"
"Idiot, we're in the Big House." the girl said. The Big House?
"What? Wait, what kind of big hou-"
"Perrrrcy!" he suddenly heard a familiar voice, and he looked away from the girl and saw Grover, his best friend. Grover was crying again, and he hurried to Percy's bedside.
"Stop crying, you're not a baby." Percy weakly laughed. Grover wiped his eyes and attempted to laugh. He looked different, somehow. Older. How long has Percy been out?
"Chiron! Percy's awake!" Grover called out.
And then walked into the room. Except it wasn't him. It couldn't be. Percy gawked at the man that should have been his teacher, but wasn't. "Mr… Brunner?" he cautiously said.
That response caused quite a reaction from all of the three people who were there. Or Percy thought they were people.
Mr Brunner's torso and up was normal, it was when he looked down things got weird. The body of a white stallion was where his legs were supposed to be. His head almost touched the roof because of this added height. He heard stories about these, they were… centaurs. "Percy? Boy, are you feeling alright? Do you remember me?" Mr Brunner said.
Percy squeezed his eyes shut, maybe it would help. "Sorry, . I don't know, I think I'm hallucinating. I… I'm seeing things."
"What exactly are you seeing?" Grover asked. The girl was quiet for a while now.
"Just… It seems like I'm imagining that Mr Brunner is a ...centaur, I guess. I know, I'm going crazy, it's because I just woke up." Percy tried for a laugh, but everyone looked dead serious.
"Percy, what is that last thing you remember?" Grover asked urgently.
Percy tried to rack his brain to remember. "Uh, well…" He remembered the dark stormy night, and grimaced. "You were there, Grover. We fought with… a monster, or something, and then…" he remembered his mom, and felt like breaking down. "My mom… Is she here? What happened? I'm not going crazy! I'm not imagining things, she disappeared in a golden light!"
Mr Brunner didn't say anything for a moment. "No, I'm afraid she's not here." Percy was about to feel his heart shatter, but continued. "She's waiting in Manhattan for her son to wake up."
"Oh.. Oh, thank God." Percy sighed. "But wait… Something doesn't add up. What happened that time before I passed out? Grover was there, my mom disappeared. How is she fine? How long was I sleeping?"
"Percy…" Grover said with a sad look in his eyes. The girl gazed at Percy with an empty look in her eyes.
"Why? Have I been sleeping for a really long time? How much of my life did I miss?" Percy worried. What if he missed his entire teenhood and grown up into a scrawny man? His mom… How long had she been waiting for him? How long had she been forced to be alone with Gabe? They wrecked his Camaro. It physically hurt Percy to think about what could have happened afterwards. No...
"About a month." Mr Brunner answered. Okay. Not too much. But his mom was still back there, she still had to go back to Gabe-
"But that's not important, Percy. She's fine." Percy heard Mr,Brunner add.
"No, Mr Brunner, you don't understand, my stepfather will-"
"Percy. Look at me." said. This whole time, Percy had been avoiding looking at him because he believed he was still making things up. Percy had to be going crazy. Slowly, he looked back at Mr Brunner, and sure enough, his horse legs were still there.
"Okay… Mr Brunner, the legs are not going away. They should've by now… What's going on?" Percy tried not to freak out. For some reason, it wasn't that hard. He felt that this wasn't that out of the ordinary. But that didn't mean he was still semi-freaking out.
"Percy, I am a centaur." Mr Brunner said sadly.
"What?" Percy really didn't know how to go on from there. He looked around, waiting for some to crack the practical joke they were playing on him. Nothing happened.
"And… I'm not Mr Brunner, my boy. You know this. I'm Chiron." Mr Brunner added.
Percy felt confused. "What? How are you not- you look just like him!" So Percy could accept the fact his Latin's teacher look-alike had freaking horse legs, but he couldn't understand why this centaur looked like his teacher? Alright.
Grover started crying again. "Perrcy…" Grover laid his head in Percy's lap, and Percy noticed something. In his curly head of hair, Percy reached over to feel horns that popped out of it.
Grover looked up, and Percy stared at him. "You… have horns?"
"I'm dreaming. Okay. I'm done now, I'll go back to my blank dreamless state. Goodbye." Percy started leaning down and close his eyes, but Grover caught his arm.
Grover stood up without saying anything, and Percy's eyes caught on… his donkey legs. Wait, he remembered this. They were goat legs. So Percy wasn't hallucinating that night.
"I'm a satyr. Remember?" Grover shakily said.
"Uh…" Percy's mind was muddled, not able to process what was happening. "Okay… wait. Satyrs and centaurs… It's like a Greek myth."
Mr Bru- Chiron nodded gravely. "Percy, this might be news to you, but I'm afraid it isn't. The Greek gods and all those myths exist, and you know it."
"What do you mean?" Percy asked.
"You seemed to have lost your memory." Chiron said.
Percy paused. He lost his memory? How much? How old was he? Percy gazed around the room, and saw a mirror a little distance away.
"How much do I not remember?" Percy murmured. He was staring into the eyes of an older boy, probably seventeen. This boy had messy black hair much like his, but was tanner than him. There were muscles on his arms even if they probably went soft after being in a coma, and his jawline was defined, unlike Percy's pale skinny arms and baby fat on his cheeks. But...this boy was him.
"You… From what I can tell, your memory is reverted back to when you were twelve, right before you came here." Grover explained.
"Where is… here?" Percy asked.
"Camp Half-Blood," his head turned to the girl, who spoke for the first time in a long time. "A safe place for half-god, half-humans, like you and me. Demigods." Her gray eyes were so dark they almost looked black. Percy recalled his mother mentioning something about a camp. Somewhere she didn't want to let him go to.
"And…" Percy felt somehow rude to ask this question. "Who are you?"
The silent became heavy and unbearable. Grover and Chiron exchanged looks, and Percy was afraid.
Tears traced the beautiful blonde girl's cheeks, and she said, "It's me. Annabeth, your… best friend."
Annabeth. Annabeth. Annabeth. It rang in his head, but it didn't ring a single bell. He had no idea who this was.
So why did Percy suddenly feel like crying?
TBC
