Chapter 3

Annabeth's POV

The boom of the lightning bolt had woken up most of the camp by the looks of things. Even with the distance we got on the house before it exploded, I was definitely going to have burn scars in the morning. Percy had been a shield for Deryn, so all he would be was scared.

All I remember then is the sensation of running. This wasn't just regular running, though. It was more like slipping through water while everything outside of our little bubble slowed down. Then we were at the shore, and things seemed to go back to normal. He slung me over his shoulder (as I screamed at him, and punched him, I might add. It didn't seem to have much of an effect, though).

Once we were out on water, we hit speeds I thought jet-skis might envy. The water bubbled like it was boiling as we ran, me still freaking out.

After a while, I calmed down. We kept running, for what seemed like hours. Eventually I saw a little bit of land up ahead. Then it got bigger… and bigger.

I realized that a mountain was rising up out of the ocean in front of us. Then I passed out from exhaustion.

Time Compromised

I woke up on abed that, when I looked at it, appeared to be made of a sort of soft coral. The ceiling above me seemed to be in flux between the deep sea, and solid rock.

Percy was sitting in a chair next to my bed. He was staring at the ceiling, with a slight frown on his face, as though he where annoyed with something.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked.

Percy jumped a little. "Oh, yeah, sorry about the impromptu whisking away. But you're alive now and that's what counts."

"You didn't answer my question. Why did you take me here?" I was trying to put steel into my voice, with limited success, but Percy seemed to flinch every time I talked.

"To save your life." "From what?" "You're full of questions, aren't you?" He glared at me. "Well, I didn't want to tell you, until later, but fine. Apollo has issued a prophecy."

I sat there for a second, not quite believing what I had just been told. "Apollo issued a prophesy?" I said, my voice rising a little, as I sat up. "But that hasn't happened in hundreds of years! It hasn't happened since…"

"The war with the Giants." Percy finished.

"But what do I have to do with that?"

Percy's face took on a serious look I'd never seen before. "One of the lines from the prophecy says: 'the Olympians end, Athena's pride brings'. You're Athena's greatest child, without Daedelus' faults, and even more skill in battle. You practically rebuilt Olympus from the ground up! Athena points out what you do to everyone every chance she gets, especially to me." He looked down for a second, and then kept talking.

"The other gods think that 'Athena's pride' refers to you. They want you dead, before you do whatever you end up doing.

Percy and I sat there in silence for a few minutes before he started to hum something. The song filled me with visions of a paradise: a perfect garden that somehow felt like a prison as well. The sun shone, and the plants grew perfectly.

Before I realized it, I was the prisoner. Then something changed: warmth that had been lacking before. Time had come to the paradise.