PIPER II

Piper woke up sweating and shivering, her covers were in a tangled mess around her legs, the result of a restless sleep. She closed her eyes in an almost painful manner and tried to remember what had jerked her awake.

All she could remember as always was a flash of light and an evil cackling laugh. She ran her hand through her hair stopping at the ends to twirl it through her fingers, a habit she'd picked up ever since the horrible nightmares started plaguing everybody.

She could remember the night it had all started very clearly almost like it had been burned into her mind...

(Flashback)
It was a week after the Greeks had arrived in their great battle-ship glory. As everyone had predicted the Romans had taken a while to adjust to the idea of their forever thought enemies roaming around their camp and eating at their table. Octavian, a creepy skinny dude who'd always seemed to be holding a stuffed toy and a knife while muttering in a creepy way every time she passed, had been trying to convince everybody in the camp that the Greeks had set up a skillfully planned inside attack, much like the Trojan horse of Troy the Graecus would sneak into their barracks in the middle of the night to slit their throats, cut out their spines and strangle them with their shoelaces before they could reach their swords. As much as the idea repulsed her, Piper had to give the guy props for his imagination.

She had been trying to ignore Reyna's dirty looks at her for the past week and Jason's face arranged in a way that one could only recognize as guilt. She didn't understand why he looked guilty. It's not like they were going out or in any relationship other than a hardly platonic friendship.

She was walking through some soggy grass up to the ship; it had hardly been a very cheery dinner. You could almost see the awkwardness in the air as well as the spirits flitting around to serve food. With Reyna staring at her with looks that could kill, Jason fidgeting uncomfortably, Percy with his head down muttering something to Annabeth who was somberly nodding, even more surprisingly Leo wasn't cracking his usual stupid joke just fiddling with something in his lap. In the end Piper decided that she couldn't take it anymore, she stood up mumbling the stupid excuse of being tired and walked out feeling Jason's eyes on her back.

She could see Festus's head glinting in the light of the sun-setting and smiled a small rare smile. She walked at a faster pace ignoring the damp grass soaking the bottom of her jeans and making her shoes squelch slightly. Grabbing the stick from the sleeping guards (They were pretty useless in her opinion their snores could drown out anything in a 100 mile radius), she tapped the solid wood impatiently and leaped up on the ramp before it even touched the ground.

She marched down the narrow hallway, reaching her room door she wrenched it open and walked slowly to a table beside her comfortable looking bed. What she would've given to just leap under the sheets, close her eyes and forget everything about Jason and the quest to save the world(and most likely kill them). But her faithful demi-god alter-ego kicked in, telling her to shut-up, stop moping and kill some monsters, she couldn't very well fight against that.

Piper unclipped Katoptris's sheath from her belt and gingerly placed in on her bedside table. As if on a second thought she drew the dagger from its comfortably fitting leather pocket and stared at the reflection before her, a tired worn out girl who looked at least 10 years her senior stared back. Trying to ignore the reflection she flipped the comfortably fitting handle in her hand and traced the slight markings on the wood. Suddenly, from the corner of her eye she saw something stir behind her in the reflection. Lurching round in a semi-circle Piper held the dagger out to the seemingly empty room.

There was nothing there…but she could've sworn she saw shadows moving in the reflection and her gut instinct told her it was definitely not a mouse. Still in a somewhat defensive stance she spoke in a wobbling voice hoping her hunch was wrong "Hello? I-Is anyone there?" A deep voice rumbled from every corner of the room talking in a jeering voice.

"All you humans are so stupid…it's not like your mortal enemy is going to shout out, Why yes I'm right here under the bed! I'm here to kill you but don't worry I'll do it quickly!" I told the gods you humans were a waste of time but no one listens to me!"

Piper whirled around trying to find out where the voice was came from and put on a bolder voice than what she was feeling, forcing out a convincing voice. "Who are you? What do you want?" The voice chuckled "Ahhh Child, your mothers powers aren't going to work on me I've made the best of minds insane with fear with MY voice your petty powers are nothing on me! I'm your worst nightmare!" There was a snap and as if on cue the Shadows from every corner came to life with huge empty eyes and sharp fingers, dragging themselves across the floor and walls closing in on her, as they got closer they unstuck themselves from the floor and walked with their arms out towards her.

Too scared to even scream she pointed her knife at them trying to ward them off, they seemed slightly nervous at the sight of it but at a rumble of encouragement from their master they quickly went forward and enveloped her in a huge black mass. Piper felt cold and heard a cackling laugh before she collapsed. Her last thought being, "He definitely wasn't under the bed."

(End Flashback)

Piper found herself staring out the window lost in the recollection of that horrible night. She remembered waking up afterwards and going to breakfast still shaking. From the whispering and hushed voices as well as the purple and black shadows under everyone's eyes she decided they didn't exactly have a fun night either. She chose not to mention the voice, it was just too horrible. It had gotten slightly better during the last three weeks but no one had forgotten that night. It was a warning, what had happened could be made to happen every day until everyone was delirious and mad with lack of sleep and the horrible nightmares.

Piper thought of the lighter side of those weeks with the Romans, who had seemed shocked at how the Greeks lacked much discipline and the Romans generally power-hungry demeanor. She placed her cheek beside the cool glass of her window and gazed across at the scenery before her almost going cross-eyed as she caught glimpses of the rarely quiet streets of New Rome-a beautiful city with an OCD god that guarded it- she could easily the huge temple of Jupiter as well as the teeny Neptune shed beside it, grinning she remembered Annabeth's face when Percy showed it to them, and her snort of laughter at the sad looking building.

The sun had just started to poke its head up from the horizon and the sky glowed red and orange with pink fairy-floss clouds. Far-beyond the limited scenery her window showed, she imagined the miles of grass, angry wheat cherubs and smatterings of towns and farms with innocent people going on with their normal lives, while close-by she knew there would be horrible monsters beyond their wildest and freakiest dreams hidden from view but very much there.

Deciding to push that depressing thought out of her mind, Piper looked away from the window and to her room. The Voice had left her feeling vulnerable and weak and decidedly more scared of corners, she still hadn't told anyone about it, not even Annabeth who would probably know something of it right away, but she wasn't mean enough to burst her happy little bubble of being with Percy. They were so cute together, she saw the hope they held in their eyes when Percy showed everyone New Rome. Piper wished she could one day live there too with or without Jason; she quickly pushed that thought out of her mind, No Piper! Jason liked Reyna they were the perfect power couple with their golden thrones and dogs who could detect lies and wanted to eat her if they could.

Shaking her head from the rest of the disturbing thoughts trying to weasel their way in, she stood up from the bed and arched her back, stretching. She stifled a yawn and clumsily walked to her wardrobe to pick some clothes to change into. She grabbed one of her multiple orange shirts and non-designer ripped jeans that probably would've made Drew faint. After assembling her clothes together she stuffed them into near-by bag and grabbed her toiletries bag to stuff that in too as well as her towel. She glanced at her night-stand where her knife was balancing and picked it up, Better safe than Sorry, she thought.

Rubbing her eyes from any sleep she pulled her door open and walked slowly down the ship's hallway to the exit door. Hopefully she could get to the baths before they got too full. As much as some Romans annoyed her, they sure knew how to make a bath, the first time she'd tried the baths she almost died and went to Elysium. They were just so amazing; she made a note to mention something like that to Chiron for Camp Half-Blood if or when they went back.

Reaching the exit she thumped the wood with her fist once and the outline of a door appeared complete with a bronze colored handle. Grasping the handle she opened the door and sighed happily, there was hardly anyone around except for some really keen campers who woke up at the crack of dawn.

She breathed the cool clean air in deeply regretting it almost instantly when a morning fly flew up her nose making her cough, splutter and sneeze until it shot out her left nostril. The fly had distracted her from the view above the camp and she glanced just about where Jason's Praetor House was. Something caught her eye and she gasped in shock. A huge tree had burst right through his roof and a blond-headed boy who looked very much like Jason was waving one hand around while his other was holding a bucket with colorful looking beads spilled out onto the ground near his feet.

The tree suddenly…talked or rather shouted, "You! You made me HIDEOUS! I'm a TREE!" pointing one of its branches at Jason. Yep. She'd gone mad; all the nightmares had finally made her go mad. Because of this she'd have to be separated from civilization and far, far away from Jason once they found out she saw a tree talk and move it's "arms" around. Then the world would end but she'd stay in a deep dark hole still babbling about some talking tree…great.

A shrill cry kicked her out of her semi-conscious state and she noticed all the campers had started running towards the tree shouting and brandishing their swords. Leading the campers she saw Reyna. She wasn't mad! There was a talking tree there! Deciding that Jason would need more help she made her voice bellow through the door of the ship.

"GET UP EVERYONE! There's an Attack of the Leafy kind! Grab your weapons Jason needs help!" Obviously her screaming had worked and she heard confused shouts coming from deeper inside the ship. Piper heard the clip-clop of Grover's hooves and saw a flash of Annabeth's hair before she ran down the hill at full speed shouting to wake the guards out to help her. She knew everyone else was following her already by their shouts behind her.

Just before she reached the bottom, Piper stopped her brain finally analyzing why Jason had flown higher to match the tree's height, just like everyone else she stopped in mid-shout as they saw Jason dive into the giant tree's mouth. In the corner of her eye she saw Reyna with her mouth gaping open looking just how Piper felt.

After what felt like an hour, cries of "What in Hades/ Pluto just happened? And, Did he just get eaten by a tree?" started to pierce through Piper's ears as she stared up at the tree who had just become silent, un-doubtedly in shock as well. She felt Leo bump shoulders with her, still wearing his oil stained orange t-shirt and magical belt looking like he'd spent all night working in the forges, which he probably had.

"Errr…I just got here, did I miss something? What's up with that tree in Jason's Cabin? PLEASE don't tell me the dude can warp into a tree cos' that's just so unfair…" Piper barely heard him and just stared in a dazed sort of shock. Suddenly strangled cries abruptly rang through the air and everyone backed up in horror as the tree started shudder and cry out in surprise. It's branches started writhing and folding in on itself and at a last resort the tree took in a gulp of air letting out an ear-popping burp that not only let out a horrible smell of fertilizer but a dazed and mossy looking Jason, who fell with a thump onto the ground.

Pipers mouth flew open and her eyes bulged as the tree started to shrink and its branches started to fall through the already destroyed cabin until it finally disappeared. Everyone still in a state of shock inched closer to Jason as he got to his feet and stared dazedly at everyone "Wha..what just Happened?" Of course Leo being the ultimate ice-breaker shouted out "DUDE you got barfed out by a tree! That's so awesome you gotta teach me!" Everyone including Piper groaned.