Chapter 4

The Princess and the Discovery

Percy didn't know which was more painful, listening to two full hours of Hudson lecturing him on all the rules in the kingdom and his opinion of each one or this. Poseidon knew him too well. This was probably the worst punishment he was ever given. You see, Percy was allowed to still have a banquet in his honor since everything was already planned out and it was too late to cancel it on such short notice but now, his father made it torturous. Percy was forced to meet every mermaid at the banquet (and there were thousands of them!) and kiss their hand and talk to them. He noticed most of the mermaids there could not help but highlight his beauty and his nobility and it got boring fast. Usually every conversation went:

"Nice to meet you, are you enjoying the banquet?" he was forced to start the conversation.

"You're hot." The mermaid would say and scurry off and giggle with her friends probably about him. Luckily, Grover got over his fainting and tagged along with him for most of his misery.

"Hey cheer up, Percy!" Grover encouraged "It's not that bad. Every mermaid is complimenting you for your looks that cannot be that bad right?"

"Do they have anything else to say to me besides of how I look?" Percy sighed. He flopped to a chair at a table in the farthest corner of the circler dome that held the dining hall/ballroom. He handled as many giggling mermaids he could take for one day. Percy slammed his head down on the table and started to sleep, Grover didn't stop him. For just closing his eyes Percy realized he sapped all his strength today and that must be why he didn't want to deal with fussy mermaids.


Percy woke up in his room. The coldness of the water told him it was probably midnight. Riptide was still attached to his side like it was glued to him. He wondered if he slept through the whole thing or not.

"The banquet is still continuing," said a voice as if reading his mind.

"Wha—?"

His younger brother, Triton was in his room. He had his usual disgust look for Percy. Triton was different than most merfolk. He had green skin and two tails. Triton did have good looks, long glossy black hair and stunning blue eyes but he was always considered a freak next to Percy, the future king.

"Father insisted that I drag you back to your room. He said you needed the rest or something like that. It makes no sense to me why a banquet for you should not have you there but I don't make the rules around here." He shrugged.

"Where's Grover?" Percy asked, totally ignoring the hatred in Triton's voice.

Triton rolled his eyes "I don't know why you insist to hang around such a sardine of a fish."

"Where's Grover?" Percy asked again.

"I don't know where he is." Triton left the room and mumbled curses probably about Percy. Despite how many times Percy tried to get his younger brother to like him, it never worked. Triton despised him even when they were little. Grover said that he wanted to be the one to inherit the crown, not Percy, and Triton spent a lot of times in the outskirts of the kingdom trying to convince sea creatures that he was the rightful heir to the throne but Grover said almost every sea creature loved Percy and wanted him to be king. Triton was too full of anger and jealously to become king but Percy wasn't that much of a leader either.

Instead of moping around thinking about how much anger Triton had for him, Percy swam out his open window. He needed to find Grover, he hadn't seen his buddy in months and Percy just wanted to spend time with him. He peeked into the dining hall but he didn't see a goldfish partying. Maybe Grover didn't find the banquet fun without his best friend there so Percy figured he could only be in one place that he did kind of feel safe, their hiding spot.


"Grover!" Percy yelled happily when he entered the cave. His friend was staring up at the small hole. The shadow over the cave was still there. Percy figured the ship was going to be docked over their cave for a while until they get enough fishes but something seemed wrong. The sea was too quiet. Usually Percy could hear fishes swimming around or the plants ruffling against the water but everything was quiet. The water also felt warmer and underwater, it is never warm.

"Percy…" Grover swam quickly to him, holding onto his neck. He was trembling.

"What is it?" Percy was confused.

Grover gripped the side of Percy's neck with his slippery fins "There's a storm. A bad one,"

Percy looked at the small hole. The ship above still provided a shadow but there was something orange glowing against the surface of the sea. Percy had no idea what the orange glow was but it really did not look good. He had to investigate.

Percy swam through the small hole at the top of the cave despite Grover's protests. He broke through the sea again and once he did that, Percy regretted he did. He hadn't disobeyed his father once but twice on the same day. He had no time to sink back in the comforts of the water because wind whipped him violently and it took all his concentration just to stay in one place. Grover immediately dove back into the water and watched in horror at his friend's position. Percy watched in horror as the ship was producing the orange glow but it seemed to cause horror to the humans on board too. The wind violently tore through the sky in sync with loud clashes of light. Percy never witnessed one until today. He was in a storm.

Percy watched the humans jump from the orange glowing ship and onto a smaller boat. There was about half a dozen smaller boats circling the orange glowing ship. Percy was captivated by the orange stuff that came from the ship, he never seen this stuff before but what he saw of it, it was destructive. Even humans seemed scared of it because of its destructive power. Also, the storm was raging, taking no mercy in its path. Violent waves splattered the humans on the boats and it took Percy with it. He never been so scared of water before but this water was not gentle, it was angry. The wind assisted the waves to grow higher and higher. They seemed to try and drown the poor humans who wanted to flee. Percy was powerless to stop the waves. Usually he could control the current but this wasn't usual water he played with. He did not possess the great power his father, he could not control this merciless waves.

"Annabeth!" one human screamed from a boat that was rocked brutally from a fuming wave. Percy watched a human be tossed off a random boat and thrown fiercely into the water. Percy fought against the merciless sea and the wind and dove back into the sea. The sea was not like the surface for it was calm but the human that got thrown off the boat was sinking rapidly. Percy had sympathy for the human. He thought an innocent soul should not die from a storm so Percy raced after the mortal. Grover followed him and yelled at him for trying to save a human, a fish-killer.

The human was beautiful, Percy could not deny that. She had perfectly curled golden hair that floated against the water so effortlessly. The girl had on a stunning jade green silk dress and she clutched tightly to a bunch of pages like it was her lifeline. She opened her eyes just a tad to see Percy, and Percy marveled at her gray eyes but the light of life seemed to be fading from them. Percy grabbed her by the waist, the ever first time he ever touched a human, and adjust her so he could hoist her up by her arms. He made sure the girl could not see his tail so she had her back turned to him.

"Percy! Let her die! What if your father finds out you helped out a human?" Grover yelled nervously "He'll have both our necks!"

Percy ignored him. He couldn't let someone die like this even if it was a human. Humans seemed to be exactly scared as he was in the storm so they did have feelings. Humans seemed to just have the exact same struggle to survive as merpeople do and for that, Percy hoisted the human girl to the surface.


Percy found land where he could set the girl on. Hopefully she could find help on the land, the place where humans belonged. She did not seem to have consciousness but she rested her head on Percy's chest all the way there. She seemed to find comfort on him but Percy wasn't sure why, they didn't know each other at all. It took a long time to find land because Percy did not know where to go but he kept his head above the water so the human could breathe but if he could swim underwater, the journey could have gone faster.

Finally, Percy found shore and decided to rest the girl upon it. She was soaked to the bone and shivering but at least she was alive. The sun was rising and Percy assumed it was morning, he had to go home before his father finds about his whereabouts.

"Prince Perseus!" an annoying familiar voice squawked "You just love saving people don't you?"

Percy turned his head to find Scuttles perched on a rock "How are you here, Scuttles?" but really he didn't care. Percy knew birds could fly anywhere but Percy was in a silent fight with the human girl, she did not want to let him go.

"It seems the girl has a liking towards her savior." Scuttles mocked "A human and a merman, now there's a story!"

Percy managed to rip the girl's arms off from his sides and placed the human on the sand. Percy dragged himself onto the shore too for he was tired trying to find land to get rid of the girl. The sand and the sun was warm, it made him realize how exhausted he was.

"Perce, we should go!" Grover begged.

"In a minute…" Percy wheezed.

Scuttles flew next to the girl and opened her eyes forcibly, examining her "Hmm… she doesn't seem dead…" he put his feathery head to the girl's chest "Her breathing seems scarce though…"

"Well, she's breathing! Yay! Let's go home!" Grover pleaded.

Scuttles shot up "Oh no! You can't leave this fair maiden here in this condition! You should sing to her, Percy!" he commanded.

"Sing?" he hated that word. Merpeople were known for their alluring voices but it's not like Percy liked to sing. Also, he was forced to do all kinds of shows with his singing voice when was little and it was embarrassing. "Why should I do that?"

"Because!" Scuttles shouted his one word of explanation like it was obvious enough.

Instead of getting pecked to death by Scuttles, Percy started to hum. It was a lullaby he heard when he was a baby. He had no idea who sang it to him but it always soothed him. Scuttles was dancing and flapping his wings totally not in rhythm with Percy's lullaby. Grover stayed silent and sank deeper into the water.

Suddenly the girl opened her eyes slowly. She turned her head and smiled dreamily at Percy who was too busy humming to notice she was awake. Her vision was blurry and she couldn't really move but she could marvel in her savior's beautiful voice and looks.

"Annabeth!" a person yelled from higher land.

Percy stopped humming and dove back into the water with the girl yelling "W-wait!"

When he was hiding behind a good size rock, Percy peeked slightly to see if the girl was safe.

"Annabeth!" a boy with tan skin and curly black hair paced up to her "Where have you been, girl? First you were thrown of the lifeboat like a rag doll and now you just suddenly show up out of nowhere, do you have expert swimming skills or something?"

The girl he saved, Annabeth was helped up by him "A boy… he brought me here… he saved me…"

"Sure," the boy rolled his eyes "And I was saved by a whale just a minute ago."

"No, Leo, he was real… he was singing to me… he had the most beautiful voice... and his black hair…"

"Look, Annabeth, I think you got a little off the deep end—"

"Annabeth!" another voice yelled.

"She's over here Sally!" Leo yelled back.

A woman scurried over and Percy almost jumped out and hugged her. He had no doubt on whom it was. The woman was fairly older than the two. She had messy brown hair with gray streaks that mixed into it. Also, she wore an old dusty dress with a messy apron. She was a servant and that angered Percy. At least she was safe and alive though, that counted for something.

"Annabeth swallowed too much salt water so she might be telling you about this boy that saved her but she'll be alright in an hour or two." Leo put Annabeth's arm around the servant "Other than that, she's fine. Now if you excuse me, I have some swords to make." Leo walked away in the direction of a castle. Percy never noticed it before but there was a whole village behind the shore and to the left was a brightly painted castle. This palace looked different than the one under water. The castle sparkled so many colors like it was gem and could be easily spotted far away.

"Stupid bird!" Leo yelled in frustration as he saw Scuttles. Scuttles was making really rude gestures at Leo so Scuttles and Leo had previous conflicts with each other.

"Let's get you back to the castle, Princess Annabeth. You're soaking wet." The servant dragged Annabeth in Leo's direction.

Okay, apparently Percy saved a human who is a princess of this land and the servant named Sally was his mother. His head spun in confusion.