LAND & SEA

Chapter Two: ANNABETH II

He tried to scramble away from her, but it was hard since he had a fish tail. His sea-green eyes were wide with panic and his mouth dropped open. He seemed to be speaking, but Annabeth was deaf to it all. The only sounds she heard were the sounds of the roaring waves. She wanted to believe that that wasn't her best friend, but the eyes ruined it. Nobody had those sea-green that represented the..sea.

Suddenly, her body felt colder and goosebumps appeared on her pale arms.

"Percy?" Annabeth whispered.

She watched, wide-eyed, as he bowed his head slightly and nodded.

"No, no," she mumbled, feeling a bit numb; shaking her head. "B–but you have a tail!"

He lifted his tail up slightly and stared at her as if saying, Yes, I do have a tail.

Annabeth put her hands to her head. "I can't believe. I cannot believe it," she muttered over and over again. "My best friend is a mermaid!"

An offended look crossed his face. "I am not a mermaid! I am a merman," he corrected. "Big difference."

"But you're still a merperson!"

"Only half."

"How can you be half?"

"It–It's complicated," he said, trying to shift into a more comfortable position.

"Is this like The Little Mermaid?" Annabeth wondered. "You have something evil–Ursula–down there?"

Percy shrugged. "There's evil everywhere. I think there's more on land, though."

She bit her lip. A million thoughts were racing through her mind at the same time. She stared at a bracelet that somebody left on the beach. It was made of fake gold and faintly reminded her of the sun.

Sun. Sunset.

That was when she connected the dots.

Percy had always seemed anxious when it was around sunset. There was also the fact that Annabeth never saw him after sunset. Only in the mornings and the afternoons. Also, his room always looked neat and unslept in. More than often, she thought that that was unusual for a teenage boy, but she never gave it too much thought.

Also, according to the books she read from her enormous library in the castle, it was said that it was impossible for somebody like Percy to be born. Her mother had always tried to hide those books from her, but Annabeth found them anyway. Everybody in the castle knew that you could never hide a book from Annabeth for long. But thinking about it, there was only one reasonable answer for that and how Percy was...how he is. A half merman. "You're cursed," she breathed.

Percy's mouth twitched. "I like to think of myself as special. Not cursed."

Her gaze drifted toward his shimmering tail. Without realizing it, her hand reached out. "Can I touch it?" she whispered, amazement and curiosity shown in her eyes.

"Touch wha–oh...um," he hesitated. "Sure? But it's a bit hard for me to move."

Annabeth crawled over to his tail since she didn't quite trust her legs that much right now. Her fingers brushed on his tail and her hand immediately flew back. It was scaly and felt as cold as ice. Tentatively, her hand came back and she lightly touched his fin. Her eyes widened in surprise. Unlike the part above the fin, it was soft and smooth.

Completely captured by the beauty of his tail, her hands crawled upper and upper. His eyes were on her, watching her every move. She placed both of her palms on where his thigh should be if he was a human when he twitched and cleared his throat.

She brought her head back up and realized that she was close to his...well, thing. Immediately, she brought her hands back to her side, but just as quickly, she missed how his tail felt. It was cold and scaly, but for some odd reason, she liked it. Maybe it was because she never seen or touched anything like it because seeing merpeople tails weren't exactly things you saw on a daily basis. She enjoyed finding out new things.

A dark blush quickly filled her cold cheeks. A million apologies began running through her mind, but she couldn't seem to piece them together into one complete sentence.

"I–I–um...sorry!" she stammered. "I didn't–didn't–"

"It's okay," Percy interrupted shyly. "You didn't know."

Annabeth nodded. Her wet dress clung to her skin and the strong wind only made it worse. She got up on her legs and tried to brush the wet sand off her dress. She hoped that nobody in the castle would see her like this. They would tell her mother and there was no doubt that her mother would be furious.

"You should go. I think your mother's sending out a search party," Percy said.

Annabeth snorted. "Mother really needs to stop worrying."

He snorted. "Yeah, I know. But I have to go too. My father would be worried."

"You have a father?" Annabeth asked in surprise. "Isn't he dead?"

"Way to be blunt," Percy chuckled. "And yeah, I do. He's just not exactly human."

"Annabeth, dear, where are you?" called a voice.

Both of them recognized that voice, especially Annabeth. She could probably recognize it during a deadly war with cannons flying everywhere.

Percy quickly hid behind a small boulder. It hid him perfectly in the dark. "Your mother! You really should go," Percy hissed. Then he said thoughtfully, "And she didn't send a search party. She sent herself."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at his comment.

"Annabeth!" Queen Athena cried. She clutched her silver cloak tighter around her body, as a huge gust of wind nearly blew her away.

"Go!" Percy gestured toward the direction of the queen.

"But I have so much more questions! I need more answers! What's it like under the water? Is there a castle? What is it made of? How was it ma–?"

"I'll be back tomorrow and I'll answer everything," Percy promised, trying to get Annabeth to be quiet.

Hunger for answers were clear in her eyes. But she knew that her mother would find her soon and by that, Athena would find Percy. And that would not be pretty.

"Okay, fine; bye. You better tell me what and how things underwater are made of," she huffed.

"Finally!" Percy mumbled. "Thought she'd never leave. I mean, seriously, it's not fun being turned into seaweed!"

Luckily, the loud wind prevented Annabeth from hearing what Percy mumbled. If she heard that he got turned into seaweed, he'd never live it down. Actually, he might have to move to another kingdom if she found out.

With one more glance at the water and Percy's fin that was sticking out, she ran to her mother. If she stayed longer, she might stay there for the entire night since all these questions were popping into her mind. Plus, she doubt that merman Percy would like to stay on land for more than 4 hours.

"Mother! I'm here!" she shouted, finally reaching Athena.

"Oh, Anna–" her mother gasped in horror. "Annabeth! What have you been doing?!"

"Nothing, Mother." Her eyes flitted to the sea and back. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought that she saw a sea-green tail jump into the waters.

"If you did 'nothing,' you wouldn't look like this!" her mother scolded with a frown.

"I ran into the water and fell into the sand," Annabeth said absentmindedly. She twirled a wet, blonde curl with her index finger.

"You what?" Athena cried. "A princess does not–"

"–do those things," Annabeth finished. "I know, Mother. I'm sorry."

Her mother shook her head and ran her fingers through her neatly combed hair. Even with the weather, she still looked every bit like a perfect queen. It reminded Annabeth of those Disney movies, where more than half of the characters have unrealistic, beautiful, perfect hair.

"Let's just get back to the castle. Your maids are looking for you," her mother said.

Slowly, they trudged back to the castle. Many of the lights from the castle were flickering off. Her mother was ranting and listing things that Annabeth shouldn't be doing as a princess the whole time. Normally, she would try to make her mother be quiet, but she had other things on her mind. Like a certain half human, half merman and how exactly are things built underwater.

Or do they live in shells?

Nah, that thought was too weird. Just imagine Percy squeezing into a shell made her smile, but it went unnoticed by her mother.

As her mother called the guards to open the gates, Annabeth wondered why didn't her mother ask where Percy was? If her memory served correct, Annabeth did tell her mother that she was looking for Percy.

There was also the fact that she didn't even mention Percy at all. Usually when Annabeth did something that she didn't approve of, she would blame Percy and how Annabeth should just start distancing herself from him because apparently, the definition of Percy means bad and trouble.

Annabeth looked at her mother curiously, but she didn't comment on it.

Once they got inside, her mother said, "Go to your room and make yourself presentable."

"But nobody's even going to see me."

"A princess always looks her best. Especially an Athenian princess."

She sighed and bowed her head. "Yes, Mother. Good-night."

When she took her leave, she thought she heard her mother mutter, "Percy...boy...horrible...make a plan...Annabeth..."

It all sounded like nonsense to her, so she thought she was hearing things. Besides, a queen wouldn't mutter to herself. It's unprofessional and her mother was anything, but unprofessional.

The next morning in the dining hall, Percy wasn't there. For some reason, a little stuffed animal occupied his seat instead of him.

She was eating alone this morning. Her parents had to meet the Spartans today because they requested their presence. If Annabeth were them, she wouldn't bother to go at all. Looking at the history between the Spartans and Athenians, she doubt that they would suddenly make peace one day.

Annabeth rested her head against her palm and played around with her cold scrambled eggs. It was too salty for her taste and she would throw it out, but that would be a waste. She always wanted to donate things to the poor in the kingdom, but her mother would never approve.

All her life, Annabeth tried her best to please her mother, but now, 16 years later, that goal seems impossible. She knew she wasn't a perfect princess, but in all honesty, she thought that she was okay.

She heard loud footsteps running behind her and she turned her head slightly.

"Hey! No running in the castle, boy!" She heard a guard shout.

The boy who was running ignored him and focused his attention on a little, blonde princess. "Annabeth!"

Annabeth placed her fork down and crossed her arms as Percy sat in his chair. She straighted her back and held her head up high.

"You–"

"Are those blue cookies?" An excited look replaced Percy's glum face and he quickly grabbed two cookies in each hand. As he leaned back into his chair, he finally noticed the look on his best friend's face. He gulped, but still had the nerve to take one huge bite of a cookie.

"You're late," Annabeth said flatly, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I know, I know, but–"

"I even specially requested the chef to make blue cookies! Just for you!"

"Oh. Uh, thanks."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and leaned forward. She rested her elbows on the glass table. "So," she started excitedly, "are there buildings, houses, a castle in the–um...down there?"

A few guards who were standing by the door that lead to the dining hall gave her strange looks, but she didn't care. She was finally getting some answers and nothing was going to stop here. Plus, the architecture underwater must be amazing! It has to be really strong in order for it to survive in the sea.

"Of course," Percy said. Crumbs were beginning to decorate the corners of his mouth.

Her eyes widened. "What are they made of? How are they made?"

He blinked at her. "With bricks, of course. Just like up here."

"Bricks? As in normal, ordinary bricks?" she asked incredulously. Surely the things underwater would crumble and fall.

"Yeah. Like this castle," he shrugged, as if he didn't find it fascinating. Well, he probably didn't, but he could at least show a bit more excitement.

Annabeth bit her lip. "You look sad. Did–did something happen? Do they know that I know and they're...punishing you?" she asked.

"Oh," he shook his head, making his hair even more messy. "No! No, of course not. As if I could get punished," he mumbled.

"Then what happened? You look sad," she noted.

"Nothing...nothing happened. Want me to tell you more about the amazing, wonderful, great bricks the castle is made of?" he asked weakly, trying to change the topic.

"No," Annabeth said firmly. "I'm your best friend and I always know when something's wrong. Also, there's also the fact that I'm never wrong."

"But there's nothing wrong," he insisted. "Besides, aren't you full of questions about the fantastic architecture?"

She raised her eyebrows. "It's not working. And you also look like those knights when they're about to leave the kingdom to fight."

Percy cleared his throat and pushed his chair back. He squeezed the stuffed animal behind him. "Sorry, stuffed animal," he apologized. "Look, I gotta go. I promised uh, my friend that I would teach him sword fighting today. I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Wait–what!" she cried, standing up. "You can't just leave! You can't just take my blue cookies and leave! And I have still have so much to say!"

But Percy was already out the door and rushing down the corridors. The guards exchanged bewildered looks, but since the princess wasn't telling them to stop him, they decided to do nothing.

"Percy!" she shouted, annoyed and frustrated.

Her eyes darted out the window and saw a dot of black sprinting past the place where people trained for sword fighting and out of the castle walls.

She sighed and hugged her body. Suddenly, she felt like she didn't know her best friend as much as she thought she did.

I am so, so sorry for such a late update. I've been busy with multiple tests, projects, and getting all my stuff ready for graduation. Wow, it's going to be so scary entering high school in a few months, haha.

But anyway, I'll try my best to start updating faster when summer starts since I would have quite a lot of free time! :D

Also, a big thank you for all that reviewed, favorited, or followed! I wouldn't mind if you reviewed here too. :P