Percy pushed Annabeth to the ground. "What's your—Oh my gods!" Annabeth screamed.
An arrow had embedded itself in Percy's forearm, right next to his elbow. An "Ow!" escaped his lips
"Oh no, oh no!" They heard someone say. Annabeth got up and chased the voice, almost tripping over the two crossbows on the floor—one loaded, the other not. A man in a black cloak stole the tan horse and was riding off with it.
"Hello there, Miss," Chiron said.
"Chiron! Thank the gods! You're a doctor, right?" Annabeth asked.
"Yes, why?"
"Percy's hurt, an arrow, right here," Annabeth said, tracing a circle on her arm.
"Get him, and bring him to my office in the castle," Chiron said. Annabeth nodded and flew up the stairs to where she had left Percy.
The adults were up. Piper and Jason stood next to Percy as Athena and Poseidon screamed at each other, blaming the other for hiring an assassin to kill their own child.
"Oh, yeah, well where's your 'perfect daughter'? Probably off getting rid of the evidence," Poseidon asked.
"Are you suggesting that I told my daughter to kill your son? Your son probably lured her here so the assassin you hired could kill her," Athena shot back.
"If I had hired an assassin, which I didn't, why is my son the one injured here while your daughter has disappeared?" Poseidon countered.
They were too busy arguing with each other to notice Annabeth reappear. "The point is that Percy's injured! You're going to lose your son if you don't take him to a doctor!" Annabeth yelled at Poseidon in an "idiot" tone.
"Bad aim," Athena yelled at Poseidon as he led his son to Chiron. "Get dressed girls, we're leaving this instant," Athena said, disappearing into her room.
Once they were both dressed, Piper asked, "Annabeth, are you okay?"
"Thanks to Percy, yes," Annabeth replied.
"You were with Percy?" Piper asked.
"Yes," Annabeth replied.
"Why?"
"Does it matter?"
"If he kidnapped you, then yeah, it kind of matters!" Piper said. Annabeth frowned at Piper's silliness.
"He wouldn't have kidnapped me," Annabeth said.
"How do you know that?" Piper asked.
"He's not the kidnapping type," Annabeth replied.
"Don't you remember what happened the first time you met?" Piper asked.
"What happened the first time she met whom?" Athena asked in the doorway. Annabeth's and Piper's eyes widened in fear.
"Percy," Piper answered honestly. Don't worry, that's as far as the honesty stretched. "Earlier today, Percy was hitting on her," Piper said slowly.
"What?!" Athena gasped in shock.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Wow, Mom. A teenage boy my age flirted with me. Surprise!" she muttered under her breath. Thankfully, this didn't stop Athena from making them leave.
All throughout the carriage ride home, Athena was muttering about the fake incident while Frederick assured her that it meant nothing and that teenage boys did that. A lot. Annabeth tried to sleep, but all she could see under her eyelids was Percy with the arrow in his arm and blood squirting everywhere. She had trouble sleeping that night.
A week later, a carrier pigeon appeared with a letter from Percy. Many words were misspelled and the handwriting was atrocious, but Annabeth managed to decipher it into:
Dear, Annabeth,
Pleae exus the mistaks. I am dislexick.
Annabeth sighed. Here we go.
I miss you with a burning passion that I fear will roast me alive if I never see you again. Sadly, I fear that will be the case, since after the fiasco that had nothing to do with either you or me, our parents will never see an end to this war. I'm going to find out who shot that arrow, and arrest them.
Besides that, unless I have something that needs my attention, my thoughts are always turned to your beautiful grey eyes and blonde hair. My friends think I'm in a daze because of the injury, but really I'm constantly daydreaming about you. The injury stopped hurting three days ago. It didn't heal though. I'll be fine, though.
I miss you.
Love,
Percy
Annabeth sighed happily at the message. Piper tried to snatch it from her hands, but Annabeth kept it out of her reach.
"Why can't I see it? Who's it from?" Piper asked.
"No one important!" Annabeth complained. She then pushed it into her mattress.
"Why are you hiding it? Is it from a suitor?" Piper asked wiggling her eyebrows. Annabeth blushed red and shook her head.
"He can't be a suitor," Annabeth said.
Piper's smile dropped. "Is it Perseus?"
"Did you ever stop to consider the letter was blank?" Annabeth asked, trying to throw Piper off.
"No!" Piper sighed, mocking Annabeth's earlier, happy sigh. Annabeth scowled at her. "So, Perseus was writing to you? I don't suggest you write back. Your mom will be furious if she finds out," Piper said.
"Well, the carrier pigeon hasn't left yet," Annabeth said.
"Annabeth!" Piper warned. But it was too late. Annabeth had already sat down to write her letter.
Suddenly, they heard a bang at the drawbridge.
Another servant barged in the room. "Princess, Piper, come with me."
"What's going on?!" Annabeth asked.
"Apaisios's army is attacking!" he said. He led Annabeth and Piper to meet her parents. Annabeth felt upset that Poseidon's army was attacking, although she was surprised they hadn't attacked sooner.
"Where are we going?" Annabeth asked.
"To the secret staircase. We're only supposed to use it in case of emergency; it leads down to a basement where everyone can escape to the countryside if the castle is ever attacked," Malcom explained.
"Oops," Annabeth mumbled as they climbed down the spiral staircase, which she happened to use often.
Down in the secret bunker, almost everyone who occupied the castle was waiting.
Just waiting around for other people to protect her felt wrong to Annabeth. The army had begun to fight, but it was smaller than Apaisios's.
Suddenly, a warrior from their own army came down and warned them that the invaders were approaching. Annabeth was near the back of the group, and she felt a cold set of hands wrap around her—one around her waist and the other around her mouth so she wouldn't scream. She tried to, though as she watched her castle leave without her.
One of the three Apaisios warriors that occupied the room shut the iron gate tightly.
The king turned around. He saw Annabeth struggling against the man who held her down while another sneered at him through the bars and the soldier who had warned them that the others were coming fought another enemy soldier.
The one by the door took off his helmet, revealing curly brown hair, blue eyes, and an untrustworthy, elfish look. He made rude, childish faces towards the ones outside. The soldier form Athena's army soon was overpowered.
"If you ever want your daughter back," the warrior by the door said as he started to take a knife to the rope.
"Too bad, because you'll never get her!" the warrior holding Annabeth finished. Their voices were identical, and they laughed simultaneously
The warrior who had overpowered the soldier joined in.
"Kill her, Travis!" the one by the gate cheered. He moved back so none of the ones outside could reach him, especially not Athena.
"Connor," the soldier not holding Annabeth warned.
"Don't worry, Reyna. I wasn't going to kill her," Travis said.
"DARNED RIGHT!" Athena screeched, trying to lift up the gate. Connor, the one by the gate, held the rope tauntingly a foot from her arms.
"Not here, anyway," Travis said, obviously through laughter. Connor dropped the rope to the gate out of reach from the outside and moved to tie up Annabeth. In the thirty seconds it took to put the gag on, she uttered every curse word she could think of, twice. She bruised her knuckles trying to knock the lights out of her captors while they tied her up. They were trained for this though and they laughed loudly.
Finally, they had her unable to move her arms or legs. Travis hoisted her on his shoulder. "Careful, sweetheart. If you wiggle around like that I may drop you," he warned.
That's the point, dumbass, Annabeth thought. She wiggled violently, and Travis "accidentally" dropped her on her head, which put her in a bit of a daze. Travis picked her up again in the same position.
Connor put his helmet back on and he and Travis moved up the staircase. Reyna opened the gate and then bolted to the staircase.
Everyone had gotten in, just as she had hoped, and then she slammed the door and tied a heavy-duty sting to it. She tied the sting to the banister as taut as she could get it without snapping. Hopefully that would hold for a while. She had heard cursing in the room as she assumed the rope to the iron gate had snapped.
"Good work, Connor!" Reyna said.
Connor and Travis both fake gasped in shock; Travis dropped Annabeth on her head again. "Wow, Reyna, I didn't you had it in you," Connor said.
"Shh…there may be soldiers hiding up here," Reyna said, ignoring the compliment.
But there were not. Travis tied Annabeth to the back of his horse. It was a bumpy ride all the way to the palace of Apaisios. King Poseidon told Connor and Travis to put her in the dungeon, and they didn't bother to untie her.
YES! PLEASE, FALL OFF THE OH-MIGHTY ANTHILL-HANGER I HAVE PRESENTED FOR YOU! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm busy!
