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Chapter 7

Annabeth

Annabeth trusted Percy with a lot of things. She definitely trusted him with her life and protecting the both of them until she could get her stupid everything healed.

Driving? Not so much. Driving when he was terrified, angry, and scarred? Not at all.

Percy had driven Annabeth around on plenty of occasions. None of them had been particularly pleasant. When they had just started going out, Percy always insisted on driving them places if walking wasn't an option. Once, Percy had almost wrecked Paul's new Prius by pulling out into traffic at the wrong time.

Another time, they had been going to Coney Island, and while they were driving, Percy looked off the road and verged onto the opposite lane. With a scream, Annabeth had lunged across the consol and grabbed the wheel, safely steering them back onto their lane before any cars played whack-the-demigods with them

This time was another one of those cases.

Annabeth had seen everything at had happened from afar. She remembered the Pegasus hitting their car. And the voice of Gaea taunting both of them. And the Pegasus dying right in front of Percy.

It was like some type of terrible joke. Annabeth didn't say it aloud, but she knew that Gaea had possessed the Pegasus because it was a sacred animal of Poseidon. She wasn't sure if Percy had realized that, but he was grieving too much for her to say anything.

Anything that was in their way, Percy was seemingly required to hit it. He took his anger out on everything. The normal, stupid Seaweed Brain Percy had been left behind with the dead winged horse, and the fuming, no nonsense Percy had appeared. Annabeth rarely ever saw this side of Percy; no one really ever saw it. But this was just one of those times.

Percy was hardly paying attention anymore to where he was driving. The radio was off, and Annabeth was still in incredible pain. She winced ever so slightly so that Percy wouldn't notice.

He noticed.

"Is it still irritating you?"

Well, that's a stupid question! Annabeth wanted to scream at him. Of course it was still irritating him. But she bit her tongue. "Just a little bit," she answered, lightly pressing her right hand to her side and took his hand with her left.

He groaned. "We need to find some place to get medical attention." He was looking at her now, not even bothering to look at the road. "Maybe there are some friendly people that somehow got stuck down here in Tartarus that would be willing to help us." It was wishful thinking, but Annabeth smiled. They could only hope now.

Annabeth looked at the road, and gasped. "What?" asked Percy, still looking at her.

Annabeth pointed at the road, unable to form words from the momentary shock. Then she yelped, "BREAK!"

Still not bothering to look ahead, Percy slammed down on the breaks, and they stopped.

"What's going- Holy Poseidon!" he said in disbelief.

The barren wasteland and merged into a thriving jungle.

Large leafed, hundred foot tall trees made an entrance. On the floor of the jungle, they were spaced apart. Near the roof of the forest, vines and plants made a giant canopy of no color. That wasn't right. Plants were supposed to be colorful and thriving. But these plants and trees were dark and rid of color, and not just because of the nighttime sky.

Annabeth realized she was mistaken. It was not thriving. It wasn't a normal rain forest. "It's all dead," whispered Percy.

And he was most certainly right. It was all dead. Most of the plants were brown, burned and shriveled. It was as if a giant raging fire had blown through the forest and killed all forms of light. It was so quiet.

"But this isn't right," Percy protested. He looked at her. "Annabeth, I can feel the water inside of there, in the roots of those trees. They should alive!" He shook his head back and forth like he wanted it to fall off. "No, no, this is so wrong!"

Annabeth caught his head in her hands. "Listen to me. Trying to shake your head until there's nothing left does not solve any of our problems. We'll get out and investigate what the problem is, and maybe you can fix it somehow."

"You're making us sound like superheroes. We're hardly superheroes. We're more like the ADHD sidekicks."

She rolled her eyes. "Let's just get out of the car and see what the problem is."

Percy set his hand down on her arms, maybe to restrain her. "Annabeth, you shouldn't-"

"What? Walk? Please, Percy. The damage has been done, and I refuse to sit in the car and let you do all of the work. We're doing this together whether you like it or not." It probably was best for her to stay in the car, but it was getting pretty old. Her butt was asleep, and she didn't even know that could happen. (Yes, you heard it here first. She didn't know.)

Percy didn't try to stop her this time, which was good, because even though she didn't have any weapons with her, she was 99.9 percent sure she could still take him out if needed.

Percy cut the car off but left the keys in the ignition. Annabeth popped open her door and stepped down on both of her feet. There was a dull throb in her ankle, and her heel felt like it was on pins and needles. She was still able to stand up without too much pain, even though most of her weight was on her good leg.

Walking was a whole different subject. The moment she tried to step down on her ankle, she screamed silently and fell to her knees. Percy rushed to her side. "Are you okay?" he asked immediately, trying to help her up.

She shrugged him away. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a little hard." And painful, she felt like adding, but zipped her lips.

Percy snapped his finger. "I know just what to do!" He rushed off into the dead forest and left Annabeth on her hands and knees.

Even though it was really hard, she managed to stand back up and hop to her seat in the car. She could feel a rush of blood escaping her side. Her breath hitched, and she began to sweat again. She searched the floor of the car for that ice pack. When she found it, it was warm, soupy water. She threw it back down in disgust.

About ten minutes later, Percy returned with a goofy smile on his face. He was holding something behind his back. "What's that?" Annabeth asked.

"Say the magic word," Percy said.

"Give it here, Seaweed Brain."

"Your wish is my command, Wise Girl." He pulled the object out from behind his back. "Happy Birthday."

Before her was a pair of crutches, much better than the ones she'd made before, but they barely resembled normal crutches. They were made from some of the dead wood and for her height. There were places to put her hands for support, and for something by Percy, they were pretty sturdy and didn't break when she used them. Kissing him on the lips, she smiled. "It's not my birthday," was her only comment.

"Well, I know that. But I missed you birthday while I was comatose, so I thought I make it up to you now!" He kissed her back, and for that short second, Annabeth was back on the Argo II in the stables with him.

She pulled away. "Yeah, crutches. Just what a girl wants."

"Don't mock me," he chuckled. "When we get out of here, I promise I'll get you a real present, something that's really good."

"Okay then." Annabeth began to crutch her way alongside Percy into the forest.

A smell like rotting meat mixed with spoiled milk filled up Annabeth. She stopped where she was and gagged. She could see that Percy was doing the same thing.

"What is that?" choked Percy, plugging his nose.

Annabeth pointed her finger. "That." There was a dead vulture like creature on the ground, and flies were crawling all over it. It had obviously been rotting here for a few days.

Annabeth and Percy went away from the vulture. To her surprise, the deeper they went in the jungle the brighter it got. The foliage above them got thicker, and soon enough, Annabeth and Percy could not even see the car.

The light was actually coming from the trees. They had a million little suns on them, glowing in a blue-ish color. "This is like a scene from Avatar," Annabeth muttered to herself. She laid her down on the tree and yanked it back immediately. "OUCH!"

"What?"

"It burned me!" The trunks were scorching hot. To add to Annabeth's list of medical problems, she now had blisters on her hands.

Percy's green eyes widened, and he put his hands against the tree. "PERCY? What in the world are you doing?" demanded Annabeth, flicking Percy's forehead.

"Quit that," said Percy. "Just watch. I know what I'm doing." Clearly, it was hurting him too. It was written all over his face. But he only grimaced. He didn't yank back. And then a little grin appeared on his face.

Keeping one hand in his pocket, Percy took out Riptide, uncapped it, and began cutting at the tree. He was making a small little hole. Annabeth finally realized what he was doing. "That's clever," she told him. She grabbed a large leaf from one of the dead plants and positioned it underneath the whole.

Percy closed his eyes and furrowed his brow with concentration. Then a little river of water began to pour out of the tree and onto the leaf.

It was a piercing blue and beautiful, obviously okay to drink form. Annabeth dipped her finger in the water. It was so cold, like it had been frozen.

Percy withdrew his hand, rubbing it. It was super red, but he didn't seem to care. "And now we have water to drink." He tilted it for Annabeth to drink, and it tasted divine. Once she was satisfied, Percy had some for himself.

"Well, we know a few things now," Percy said. "One, we have water that I can use to attack people. Two, it's fresh for us to drink. Which means: SURVIVAL! Booyah!"

"That's right!" Annabeth wanted to jump up with excitement. "Why don't we rest for the night- or whatever time it is?"

"That sounds great to me. Do you want to go back to the car?"

"Nah, here's fine," Annabeth said. She slumped against the tree and patted the ground next to her. Percy sat down and put and arm around her. She leaned into his warmth and put her head on his shoulder.

Sleep stole Annabeth. Her eyes began to flutter shut, closing off the luminescent blue light from behind her. She felt Percy press his lips to her forehead. "It's okay, Annabeth. Go to sleep. I've got you. We're going to be okay, you hear me? We'll be just fine."

After hearing those words, so optimistic, they really comforted Annabeth, she settled into a deep sleep, loving that her boyfriend was next to her, keeping her safe.


Sometimes you just need to have a happy ending!

I know what I'm saying when it comes to broken ankles. Mine is right now. I know, weird right? It broke RIGHT before I read the Mark of Athena and learned about Annabeth. O.o

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-BBH