Piper III

Piper had decided she would sit with Annabeth at the campfire that night because of the way she had acted earlier, but as she looked around the many faces glowing from the light of the fire, she couldn't find the one that belonged to the curly-haired daughter of Athena. Piper was still looking for her when Jason slid in the seat next to her. He nodded at her and she smiled back, glad he had come to sit with her.

The Apollo cabin was leading the sing-along tonight, as always, but Piper wasn't really in the mood. After the first song, Chiron stepped up and quieted them all.

"Good evening, heroes! You all know that today is June seventh, two weeks before the summer solstice, when the gods will have their semi-annual meeting on Olympus."

The campers muttered an assent.

"But more importantly, the summer solstice is the day when the Argo II will set sail for the Roman camp of heroes." Chiron continued his speech while the campers listened intently. "The progress of the ship is… still being worked on."

"Probably not even close!" One of the campers said, loud enough for everyone to hear, while a few of the other campers just scoffed.

Leo stood up to protest. "We're working on it! Just because we're a little behind schedule, doesn't mean…" When he couldn't finish his statement, many more scoffs came from the crowd.

Chiron spoke up. "Leo is right. We cannot afford to think negatively. The Hephaestus cabin is working as fast as they possibly can. But now, on to other matters. The next capture the flag will be tomorrow night, a Friday. The Ares cabin currently holds the laurels."

A lot of cheering came from where the children of Ares were sitting.

Chiron rolled his eyes. "Right. Anyways…"

Piper looked around one more time, but Annabeth was still nowhere to be seen. She leaned in close to Jason and whispered in his ear, "I'm going to the Athena cabin to look for Annabeth. Just to make sure everything's alright."

"You want me to come with?" was his reply.

"No, I promise I'll be back before it's over."

Jason nodded and Piper stood up and quietly made her way out of the crowd of campers. She sure hoped nothing had happened to Annabeth. Annabeth almost never missed a campfire, because it was the time when all announcements were made and she wanted to make sure she was in the loop.

When she reached the Athena cabin, Piper found the door locked. She pulled out her dagger and picked it with no problem. She had expected to find Annabeth in her bed, possibly still not feeling well from earlier. But as she walked through the doorway, she found the cabin vacant. The lights were out; all the beds were empty, and no noise could be heard. Piper panicked. Where was Annabeth?

She ran out of the cabin, slamming the door behind her. The first place she thought of was the bunker in the woods. Annabeth went there often times to study the architecture to help with her design for the new Mount Olympus. Although, Piper knew she shouldn't have been able to enter the bunker without Leo, but maybe he had gone before the campfire to open it for her.

The bunker was deep in the woods, and it took her a several minutes of sprinting to get there. The large stone doors were closed. Annabeth wasn't here either.

She tore back through the woods the way she had come but stopped at Zeus's Fist. It was tall enough to have a pretty good view of the camp, so she climbed it to see if she could see Annabeth somewhere. But she couldn't.

Piper decided to give up. Maybe Annabeth was hiding for a reason. If she didn't show up by morning, then Piper would worry.

As Piper stepped out of the woods, she noticed how beautiful the sunset was that night. She decided to walk down to the beach and enjoy it before it went away.

As she was walking along the shore, she heard footsteps behind her and turned around immediately, unsheathing her dagger as she did so.

Annabeth's hands shot up and she held them on either side of her face. "Whoa! Calm down. I surrender."

Piper put her dagger back in its place and smiled. "Sorry! I thought you were a monster or something. I didn't see anyone on the beach when I came down here. Why weren't you at the campfire? I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Annabeth sighed. "I know, I'm sorry. But, this afternoon, I had a dream... about Percy. We were running along this beach, and he looked at me and asked, 'Are you real?' I told him to stay where he was and that Tyson would find him soon. I was really happy at first, because, you know, we haven't been able to reach him in months, but then they just hit me all over again, the emotions, like re-opening a wound. I came down to the beach, because that's what Percy and I used to do on most nights. I miss him more than he will ever know."

Piper tried to imagine Percy and Annabeth on a normal night at camp, taking a walk on the beach, holding hands and smiling as they made jokes about whatever had happened that day. The picture made her smile. "You'll see him again soon, I'm sure."

"Yeah, I hope so. I just can't imagine what it will be like, though. I mean, eight months with amnesia; he may not even remember me. Or worse… maybe he got a new girlfriend…"

"Annabeth! Don't even say that! From the way you talk about him, you guys must have had something so special that there is no way Hera could have taken that memory from him."

At the mention of the queen of the gods, Annabeth scowled. "Come on, it's getting late. We should probably get back."

At that, they walked together back to the cabin area, where Piper found Jason running around in a frenzy.