Ok, last chapter before I leave on my RV trip to Oregon! I'll be back on Friday, but I won't be able to update until then. (sry!) Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter 4: Percy
Percy didn't understand. Who were these people? Why had they tied him up? Where was he? Bobby was trying to get answers out of Percy, but Percy continually kept saying that he didn't remember anything, which was true, but of course Bobby didn't believe him.
"Look, for the last time, I don't know!" Percy yelled at the guy crouching in front of him.
Bobby stood and started pacing, waving his bow around wildly as he spoke. "Why do you stick to that story? I know it isn't true! So tell me now, or I will kill you!"
Percy sighed. He could tell that Bobby would stick to his word, and so would everybody else here. But Percy was fed up. "Then kill me already!" he yelled. "Why do you need information out of me anyways? I don't have any information to give away! Why not just get rid of me and be done with it?"
Bobby stopped pacing and looked curiously at Percy. "How do I know you don't have an army of people out there waiting to attack our camp, or free you or something?"
"Because if I did. They would have freed me long ago, while you were the only one guarding me." Percy answered quietly.
Bobby was studying Percy's face. Percy could tell that Bobby might be starting to believe him, believe that Percy really was an amnesiac and that he had just stumbled upon their camp on accident. But then Bobby shook his head and said, "When you're ready to tell me who you are, feel free." Bobby sat down next to a tree a few feet away, facing the woods on Percy's left. He took the quiver of arrows off his back and started sharpening them against each other.
Meanwhile, Percy took a proper look around. He was in the middle of a forest. Past Bobby, through the trees, he thought he could see a wall, maybe the back of some house, but that was it. The rest of his surroundings were trees.
Bobby and Percy sat there for what seemed like an endless amount of time. Every once in a while, Bobby would glance at Percy to make sure he wasn't doing anything to try and escape. Percy didn't see how he could escape. He was sitting on the ground, his hands tied together in front of him, his arms and body tied to the tree behind him.
Eventually, Percy began to nod off. He tried to stay awake, but sleep took him over, and he was washed over with dreams. He dreamed that he was in a huge room, with twelve huge thrones making a U around a hearth. None of them were the same, some of them a little ruined, and the whole place was shaking. Percy saw a blonde girl trying to get up off the floor next to one of the thrones, a satyr making his way towards her while playing reed pipes. Percy looked and saw himself battling a guy with sandy hair and golden eyes. The sandy haired guy radiated power like a only Titan or god could.
Percy immediately knew that this was Olympus. He realized that this must be his past, because memories of how he felt then came rushing back to him. He knew the Titan he was battling was Kronos. He knew the blonde girl's name was Annabeth, and her mother was Athena. He knew the satyr's name was Grover. And he knew that he was watching himself during the Titan War. The dream Percy nearly collapsed as all this came rushing back to him.
Dream Percy looked back up at himself, but it must have been a few minutes later, because there was a huge hole in the floor, and he and Annabeth and Grover were all standing, and Annabeth was pleading with Kronos. Then Percy handed Kronos a dagger, and Kronos stabbed himself at a place under his left arm.
The place shook so violently that Percy's dream shattered. He woke up still tied to the same tree. He opened his eyes and looked around. Hazel had taken Bobby's place. She saw him wake up, but didn't say anything. Percy thought about his dream and realized that the Titan had also been Luke. Luke… son of.. Hermes? Suddenly Percy's right hand started aching as if he had a bug bite there.
The more Percy thought, the more started coming back to him, first he was battling the Minotaur on a bridge, then he was talking to Annabeth on the balcony of a hotel, then he was sitting at a picnic table with Thalia and Grover standing behind him, with a guy in a suit sitting across from him. Then he was battling a Titan on the surface of a reservoir, and finally he was back in the throne room, handing a dagger to Luke. All this came back to him in about two seconds, and it was so much to take that he gasped.
A few feet away Hazel called, "You make up you mind about telling us something?"
Percy looked up at her and said, "No, nothing. I just think- never mind."
Hazel looked at him curiously. Then she got up and walked over to him. "What did you remember?" she asked, her brown eyes studying his face as if trying to see into his brain.
"Nothing important." Percy said, not meeting her eyes. "Just a few people."
"You're lying." Hazel said. "Now tell me what you remembered, or I'll call the whole camp to come over here and you can tell everyone at once."
Percy sighed. He knew in his gut that he wasn't the greatest liar, but if he claimed he remembered something then they would try to get all the information out of him they could get. "All I remember is a girl named Annabeth and a guy named Grover." Percy said. "That's it." he didn't mention that the girl's mother was Athena, or that the guy was a satyr. Percy had immediately known that Grover was a satyr when he saw his fury legs and goat hooves, and for some reason, it didn't surprise him.
Hazel continued to study his face. Percy met her eyes, thinking that he would be more convincing that way.
"Fine." Hazel decided. "If there's anything else you want to tell me, feel free." She went back over to sit by her tree.
Percy nodded. He looked at the house he could barely see through the trees. His skin tingled. His body told him that he was enemy ground. Well, no wonder they were treating him like one. That was when Percy decided that he needed to get out of here. Fast.
He moved around to see how tightly the ropes were tied around him. Hazel noticed his movement, stood up and said, "What do you think you're doing?"
Percy looked up at her and said, "What, I'm not allowed to try and be comfortable?" Hazel sighed and sat back down. But Percy had realized something. At first he had thought that he was sitting on a stick, but now he realized that Riptide was still in his back pocket. They had taken the sword that Percy had gotten from the telekhines, but not Riptide. If he could somehow free his hands, then he might be able to reach his back pocket and cut through the ropes tying him to the tree. But Hazel would notice. Or anybody else who would be keeping watch on him.
The ropes around his hands were tied pretty tightly. He tried to get his wrists out of the ropes, but got nowhere. That's when a boy he hadn't seen before came into the clearing. He glanced at Percy, then said to Hazel, "Lupa sent me to keep watch. You should go train."
Hazel nodded and got up. "Thanks, Dakota. See if you can get any information out of him. I still don't know if he's lying about the memory loss thing."
Dakota nodded and walked over to Percy, while Hazel ran through the trees towards the house.
"So," he started. "They say you don't remember anything. I'm guessing that's not true. Am I right?" Dakota's tone was soft but dangerous, and Percy could tell that this was not somebody he would want to make an enemy of.
"No." Percy said. "What I've told your fellow campers is true. I don't remember anything from my past life. I just woke up in the forest a few days ago. The only thing I knew was my first name." Percy was getting tired of saying the same thing over and over again.
Dakota sighed. "Fine. Can you tell me what happened to you since you woke up then?"
Percy nodded. He told Dakota everything that happened. He didn't see any point in hiding it. The only part he didn't say was his strange ability to breathe under water and the scene he saw at the airport, with that girl Piper and her friends. He still needed some time to think about that, and he didn't think that Dakota would want to help him with that much.
Dakota listened intently. "Well." he started when Percy had finished. "You're obviously a demigod if monsters were chasing you. And you 'supposedly' don't remember that? Or your godly parent?" Dakota said.
"No I don't." Percy said. He really needed some time to think about what was going on. Maybe if he could reason with these people..
Dakota gave up and went to sit next to a tree with his back to Percy. Percy immediately started trying to wriggle his hands out of their ropes. He could feel the ropes getting a little looser, but it would take too long, and these people would notice something was different before he had time to get free.
Every time Dakota turned to face him, Percy would stop moving and pretend to be staring off into space. Thank G-d, it wasn't that often. Thank the gods. Something said in Percy's head. Gods, not G-d. Then a thought struck Percy. That girl at the airport, Piper, had said that her mother had Aphrodite. Aphrodite was one of the Greek gods. Now Percy was sure that the Greek gods were real, and that one of his parents was one. That was also who Dakota and the rest of the people here were. Demigods. Half-god, half-human. And that's who he was. And he knew in his gut that his father was Poseidon, especially since the weird breathing underwater thing.
At some point that day, the ropes around Percy's hands hadn't gotten much looser, but he continued wriggling his hands, even though they were starting to scratch his wrists. Then a blonde girl, Reyna, Percy thought, came and replaced Dakota. She didn't say anything to him, but she sat down facing the woods on Percy's right. For some reason, she reminded Percy of somebody.
Percy racked his brain for the memories that should have been there, but weren't. But then, suddenly, that same blonde girl that was with him on Olympus, Annabeth. He was being reminded of Annabeth. Annabeth, daughter of Athena. And if this girl looked so much like her, was it possible that her mother was Athena too?
Percy decided to take a chance and see if he could find anything out about the place. "Do you know Annabeth?" he asked Reyna.
Reyna immediately got up and walked over to him. "Who's Annabeth?" she asked, immediately curious.
"Ok, obviously not. I just remembered her." Percy replied. "Just what she looks like and her name. She looks kind of like you." Looking into Reyna's gray eyes, Percy confirmed that this girl was also a daughter of Athena. But why was she here, instead of.. instead of.. Percy couldn't put a name on the place he was thinking of, but he could remember what it looked like, with cabins in the shape of a Greek omega, an archery range, a sword arena, a pavilion, and a four story house. He also faintly remembered some sort of lava climbing wall, and a lake. As he thought, the image became clearer and clearer, but he still couldn't remember where it was, or the name.
Reyna was still standing over him, her eyes narrowed. "So," she said coolly. "Suddenly you're remembering people. People who may also be demigods."
"I don't know who she is." Percy said. "And I don't know about the whole demigod thing, but I remember her face."
Reyna started pacing. "Ok, look here, boy," she said, crouching next to Percy. "Either you tell us exactly who you are, or we kill you now, because you just proved to me that you're not really an amnesiac."
"Look," Percy said, though he wasn't particularly scared. He knew he couldn't be hurt easily. "I remembered something, and for me that's progress. But I still don't know who I am. I don't even know my own age, or where I live!" But as soon as he said it, he knew. New York. Percy wasn't sure where in New York, but the place seemed important to him. Manhattan, maybe? Long Island?
Reyna looked like she wanted to kill him, but she went back over to her tree to sit down. She put her back against the tree and fixed Percy with her calculating gray eyes. But Percy was too busy thinking. Manhattan- Titan War- Empire State Building- Olympus! Olympus was in Manhattan, over the Empire State Building! But Long Island seemed important too. Maybe that was where those cabins Percy had remembered were. Was it some sort of camp? The name was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't remember it! It was so frustrating!
Percy tried not to think about it too much more. He couldn't work at the ropes now, with Reyna staring straight at him. His stomach rumbled. Percy realized that he hadn't eaten anything since a few days ago, the night he had started walking out of the forest towards the city. It had been, what, three days? And the people here hadn't given him anything either.
He looked at Reyna, who was still studying him. "How about some food?" Percy called. Even his throat felt dry. He realized that he hadn't drunk any water for about the same amount of time. He'd been eating blackberries off a bush that was close to where he'd woken up, and there had also been a tiny creek close by.
Reyna raised her eyebrows. "Not until you tell me what you're planning," she called back, "and who you are."
Percy put his head back against the tree and gritted his teeth. "I already told you," he said, looking back at Reyna, "I don't remember. All I do remember is Annabeth and Grover. You can ask Dakota. I told him about them."
Reyna sighed. "Well," she muttered. "You won't do any good to us dead." She got up and walked backward towards the house. When she was almost out of sight, Reyna called, "Don't try anything!" Then she turned and ran past the house, and Percy couldn't hear her anymore. He struggled with the bonds on his hands. He could hear Reyna shouting. She probably didn't want to leave him alone too long, thinking that someone would come free him or he'd contact the allies he didn't have.
Finally, he was making some progress with the ropes! They were almost off, Percy just needed another minute. But Reyna, or somebody else would be back by then. He heard somebody running back towards him. Percy quickly put his hands in his lap and waited. Reyna came back into the clearing. She narrowed her eyes at him, but all she said was, "Hazel's gonna bring you something in a few minutes. But you'll tell me who you are now, otherwise you're not getting any food." She stood there with her arms crossed, looking at him expectantly.
"I already told you, I don't know!" Percy shouted at her. He was getting tired of saying the same thing over and over again, and he was really hungry. He knew that if he told Reyna about the place with the cabins, she still wouldn't let him eat, but try to get out of him what the place was. The problem was, he didn't know. He didn't remember.
"All right." Reyna decided. "Hazel's coming with Cory, maybe he can get the truth out of you."
Cory? Percy wondered. Why would Cory be able to get anything out of him? Who was Cory anyways? The way Reyna said it, Percy wasn't sure he wanted to find out.
They waited a few minutes, until finally Hazel appeared, followed by the guy that Reyna had asked last night if Percy was telling the truth. Hazel's brown hair was pulled now into a pony tail and she was carrying a tray, and she asked Reyna, "So? Do you think he's telling the truth?"
Reyna shrugged. "That's up for Cory to decide." she said, gesturing for Cory to decide if Percy was lying or not.
Cory approached Percy. He had brown hair and eyes, and he looked like he could be Hazel's sister. "By the way," Reyna called to Percy, "Cory's mother is Veritas, goddess of truth. He'll be able to tell if you're lying or not."
"Exactly," Cory said, his voice cold. "So, do you want to tell me who you are? Should I even bother trying to find out whether you're lying or not?"
"I'm not lying. You can tell them that when you see that its true," Percy said, nodding towards Reyna and Hazel.
Cory sighed and stared at Percy, a concentrated look on his face. He closed his eyes then opened them again, a confused look on his face. Then he closed his eyes again and opened them. He sighed and bit his lip. Then he turned back to Reyna and Hazel.
"He's not completely lying." Cory said, and both Reyna and Hazel opened their mouths in surprise. Cory raised his hand and they stopped asking how that was possible. "He's just not telling the whole truth." Cory continued, looking back at Percy.
"All right, now listen here," Reyna had come up and grabbed Percy by his shirt, "tell us exactly what you remember, or you're not getting food or water any time soon!"
Percy just told them that he remembered being on Mount Olympus fighting Kronos. ("Impossible!" cried Hazel) and that he knew he lived somewhere in New York. He told them about Thalia, who was a hunter of Artemis, Annabeth, and Grover. Percy didn't see the point in hiding this any longer, as the demigods could help him figure out something from his past.
When he was finished, Hazel said, "How could he have been on Mount Olympus, fighting-" she paused looking at him. "Wait a minute. You said Kronos. Not Saturn, Kronos. And you said your friends were kids of Zeus and Athena, not Jupiter or Minerva. And you didn't call Grover a faun. You called him a satyr."
"Hazel, Lupa already told us that he's Greek." Reyna said.
"Oh. Right." Hazel looked a little embarrassed for a moment, but then she continued, "But how could you have been on Mount Olympus? There were no demigods there. The gods sunk Typhon, then rushed to Olympus and defeated Saturn."
"No, I- he was using somebody's body, stabbed himself, I gave him the dagger…" Percy tried to remember what had happened, but the memories were still fuzzy.
Reyna, Hazel, and Cory studied him, trying to figure out what else he remembered. "Is that the whole truth, Cory?" Reyna asked.
"I think so." Cory said, studying Percy's face. "He's a hard one. Its difficult to tell, but I think so."
"Fine." Reyna said, though it was obvious she wasn't satisfied. "Here's your lunch." Reyna gave him a small tray. There was a small grilled cheese sandwich and a small plastic water bottle. It wasn't much, but Percy's stomach rumbled.
"Thanks." he said. Hazel nodded, and she an Cory left, leaving Reyna on guard duty again. Reyna sat down, drawing shapes in the dirt with her gold knife as Percy ate. Once he was done, Percy continued wriggling his hands out of the ropes. Thankfully, Reyna wasn't looking in his direction. He finally managed to get his hands free, but he kept them in his lap, trying to figure out how to reach his sword.
Riptide was in his back right pocket, but his arms were tied to the tree at his sides, and, unfortunately, his arm didn't bend backwards. At one point, Reyna stood up with her back to him, as if waiting for someone to come take her place. Now's my chance. Percy thought.
Thankfully, the ropes binding him to the tree weren't too tight. With a lot of difficulty, and a lot of close calls, when he thought Reyna was going to turn around, he reached his back pocket and managed to pull Riptide out of his pocket. He put his hands back into his lap with the ropes just as Reyna turned around. He dropped the pen in his lap and buried his hands among the ropes. She didn't seem to suspect anything.
"If you remember anything else," Reyna said, "feel free to tell me. Or Gwen."
Percy noticed another girl coming through the trees. She had unruly reddish-brownish hair and fierce dark eyes. "Hello." she said, looking Percy over like he was some sort of machine. "I'm Gwen, daughter of Vulcan. I hear you're the new Greek around town."
Reyna muttered something to Gwen, and she nodded, keeping her eyes on Percy. When Reyna left, Gwen said, "Try anything, and you'll have my sword to say hello to." she said, raising a long golden sword in the air. It had steam coming off of it, like it was newly made.
Percy nodded. Gwen sat down in Reyna's spot and took a bunch of random scrap metal out of the pockets of her army jacket. She started fiddling with it and making random little things. She had her back to Percy.
Percy quietly uncapped Riptide. Gwen didn't hear anything. He titled it so that it rested against the tree behind him, but he was still holding it. Slowly, he began sawing through the ropes that held him there. Several times, Gwen started to turn around, and Percy would have to quickly cap the sword and drop it into his lap. At one point, Percy suspected that he looked like he was hiding something, because Gwen raised her eyebrows at him, but didn't say anything. She turned back to her fiddling and didn't mind Percy.
Gwen didn't turn around again. Finally, with half the ropes cut off, Percy managed to pull the rest off with his hands. He quietly stood up and walked to the left through the forest, hoping Gwen wouldn't notice. But she heard him and yelled "Hey!" she picked up her sword. Percy ran, but she caught up with him and they fought. Gwen wasn't much of a match for Percy. Soon he had disarmed her and had his sword pointed at her neck. Gwen was on the ground, and Percy had her sword in his other hand.
"Say anything, and you're dead." Percy muttered to her. The last thing he wanted was for her to do was call for help. Percy took one cautious step back, and Gwen screamed, "HELP!" rolling out of the way just as Percy's sword hit the ground where she had been a moment before.
It hadn't been that loud, but Percy hadn't gotten that far away from the tree. In fact, he could still see the house behind Gwen. She stood up and tripped Percy as he tried to run. As he fell, Gwen was able to get her sword back from him. Percy allowed Gwen to push him farther and farther from the clearing he had been held captive in, so that Gwen would wear herself out before any help could come, and so that they couldn't hear her.
Finally, Percy turned and ran… straight into a wall. Gwen laughed. "That's our border wall, you fool!" she yelled, and started battling him again. Percy turned right and ran along the wall, Gwen sprinting after him, yelling defiantly. Finally he came to an opening and ran through it, completely startling the three guards that were standing there. Percy recognized one of them as Marcus. He heard Gwen yell "Get him!" in the distance, and the three took off after Percy, Gwen behind them.
Percy ran until he couldn't run any longer. He collapsed on the ground, his head spinning. Eventually he sat up and looked up in the direction he'd come from. Nobody came out of the trees. They probably didn't want to leave camp. He had escaped!
Plz review! Ill read the reviews when I get back, so do it!
