I was in the woods, just standing there. I didn't seem to mind. But, hey, I was pretty sure it was a dream. Weird things happen in dreams. So I was just standing there, when there was a flash of bright light. The woman, dressed in full armour, looked a lot like Annabeth.
"Lady Athena" I whispered. This wasn't the first time I'd dreamed about Annabeth's mother reducing me to a pile of ashes. But, somehow, I knew this wasn't just a dream. "Yes, son of Poseidon." She said Poseidon like it was a dirty word.
"How can I help you, Lady Athena?" She glared at me, and I knew what was coming.
"How, Perseus Jackson, did you think you were going to get away with dating my daughter?" When I didn't answer, she continued. "I, out of generosity, let your little friendship happen. And you think you can push your luck by dating her?" She was on a roll, now "And Annabeth, don't think I haven't talked to her, too. She remained stubborn, and she told me she didn't care what I thought." She stopped and her voice turned dangerous and low. "Do you realise, son of Poseidon, that the only things stopping me from turning you into a pile of ashes are your father and Annabeth's love for you?" Wait, love?
"Lady Athena, I like your daughter. A lot. I promise to never hurt her, and protect her, and make sure she is happy. That's all I can promise. But please, please let us be together." I thought she was going to kick me in my tender place, the way she was looking at me. But instead, she sighed. "You had better keep that promise, Perseus Jackson, or else…"
****
I groaned, and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep. Not that I wanted to have THAT dream again, but still, it was inhuman to be awake at 4:30am. Just wrong.
Giving up, and deciding it wasn't worth the risk of meeting Annabeth's furious mother again, I got dressed and left my cabin, only to almost knock Annabeth off the stairs. "Hey! Watch it!" She cried. Oops. I apologised, but she just smiled. I sat down next to her and said "So watcha here for, Wise Girl? Miss me?"
"Ha! You wish, Seaweed Brain. Nah, I, uh, was visited by my mother last night. She told me she would be 'talking' to you, too" She looked slightly uncomfortable.
"Yeah, she did. I never want to re-live that ever again." I smiled when she laughed. She got up and took my hand and dragged me to breakfast. We'd only really been 'going out' for two days, and we were STILL the main subject of gossip. Seriously, it was getting on my nerves. So many stares. Just to show I wasn't bothered by them (even though I was) I gave Annabeth a soft kiss on the lips. She smirked, knowing what I was doing. Smiling, she walked over to her table, where they were STILL giving her the looks they gave her that first dinner after we became a 'couple'. I walked over to my table, grabbed food, walked over to the fire, threw in a decently good sized slice of pizza and walked back to eat. The Aphrodite table were glancing at me, then Annabeth, then me again. When it finally became to much, I got up walked over and said "Will you guys PLEASE stop looking at us like that. Get. A. Life. All of you." And with that I smiled at their shocked faces, walked over to my table again, and continued eating, feeling good about myself. Annabeth caught my eye and grinned. I returned it.
****
The water always calmed me. I mean, I was a son of Poseidon. Go figure. So, it wasn't exactly a shocking sight to see me walking along the beach, kicking the sand up.
Without realising, I found myself walking to the rock where Annabeth and I had kissed. I was surprised to see she was already sitting there, like she was waiting for me. Perhaps she was. I sat down next to her, and she looked up, her eyes brightening. "Hey. Way to go with the Aphrodite girls. Gods, I nearly went up there and slapped each and every one" She smiled, like she was imagining how awesome it would be. It would be very awesome.
Just for the sake of it, I kissed her. Not softly, like at breakfast, but deeply I felt her hands weave themselves into my hair, and my hands went to her waist. After a couple of minutes we parted for breath. But Annabeth wasn't finished. She grabbed my hand and half dragged me into the forest. When we got deep enough in, she stopped and I pinned her to a tree, our lips meeting again. She parted them slightly and allowed my tongue to enter her mouth. Her arms were around my neck and I slowly slid mine down her back, making her shiver. We ignored the tree nymphs' giggles. We continued like this for a while, until we heard people shouting for us, there voices getting louder each time they called our names. We reluctantly broke apart, and Annabeth tried to make her hair a little less messy, as did I. Apparently, it didn't work, because when the campers finally came into sight, they took one look at us and either shook their heads or stifled giggles. There were four, even though only one was needed. One I vaguely recognised as Julia something-beginning-with-G from the Apollo cabin, but the rest were just, meh. I didn't know them.
"Percy? Annabeth? Chiron has been looking for you for at least 20 minutes. I think you'd better get to the Big House." A boy I had never seen before addressed us. We thanked them and ran to the Big House, slightly embarrassed that we had been making out when someone was looking for us. When we got there Chiron and Mr D were on the porch. Chiron smiled slightly when he saw there appearance, and Mr D looked disbelieving.
"Oh, Chiron we're so sorry we were, uh-" Annabeth was cut off by Chiron.
"Please, Annabeth, I do not need to know what you and Percy were doing. But I do need your help." He waited for us to respond. We nodded, our faces bright red.
"Okay, I'm not sure how much of this I can tell you, but…" He glanced at Mr D. Who completely ignored him. Then he looked at me with a looked of sadness in his eyes "Percy… You're mother has been kidnapped."
I stopped breathing.
