Chapter Nine
I do not own any of the Percy Jackson references and stuff in this fan fiction it all belongs to Rick Riordan. Some of the characters and the plot up until now have all been mine, the rest is Rick's.
Hey guys, little piece of advice…don't piss off your teachers -_-. Today my math class was being rowdy as usual and like that class doesn't know how to shut their mouths and I have everyone except for like two people who are my friends all the other kids can go to hell. So like my teacher does this point system thing and we had earned 17 points today, but he took them all away because ppl were being stupid. And he got so mad he added more questions to our homework and said that he wasn't going to teach us the lesson tomorrow we have to learn it ourselves and the test next week is gonna have more problems and is going to be worth even more points…ugh. Anyway enough about my personal life lets get back to Katherine and the gang ;).
It had been three days since Percy's disappearance. Yesterday Annabeth had a dream about where she might find Percy. The dream led Annabeth, Katherine, and Butch (a kid from Iris cabin) to a Wilderness School for delinquents, but right now they were on a field trip to a museum. There was a satyr there watching two demigods and Katherine and the others were on their way to pick them up and, hopefully, find Percy. The dream also said something about a kid with one shoe.
Annabeth and Butch were in a chariot and Katherine was the third Pegasus pulling it (there wasn't really room in the chariot and it made them go faster). Hunter had stayed behind at camp because, while looking for Percy, had broken his left leg and was still healing. As Katherine neared the school she saw a skywalk and decided she would land on that. She also saw three demigods standing on the skywalk.
The skywalk was right over the Gran Canyon which was pretty cool. Katherine touched the two other pegasi minds and told them where to land. They landed and Annabeth jumped off the chariot and stormed to the three demigods. They met her halfway and Katherine turned back into herself, her harnesses fell to the ground. She noticed the skywalk was unstable.
"Where is he?" Annabeth demanded. Katherine caught up to her and her heart stopped. It was Jason, but that was impossible. Jason was at Camp Jupiter, he shouldn't be in a school for delinquents. Jason and the two other demigods looked at Annabeth, confused.
"Where is who? And did one of the Pegasus just turn into that girl?" One of the kids asked. He looked like a Latino Santa's elf, with curly black hair, pointy ears, and a cheerful babyish face. His long, nimble finders wouldn't stop moving—sweeping hi hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket, and pulling things out of his jacket and making something out of them. Katherine figured he might be a son of Hephaestus because he was making things and wouldn't stop moving.
"Actually opposite way around, I turned into a Pegasus." Katherine said. The kid just looked at her like she was crazy. Annabeth frowned. She turned to Santa's elf and a girl.
"What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?" She asked.
Santa's little helper cleared his throat. He got taken by some…tornado things."
"Venti," Jason said. "Storm Spirits." Annabeth arched her eyebrow and looked at Katherine.
"You mean anemoi thuellai? That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?" Annabeth asked. Jason started explaining about how they had got attacked by Storm Spirits and how they had taken Gleeson Hedge. About halfway through the story Butch came over. He stood next to Katherine, glaring at the three demigods, his arms crossed. When Jason had finished his story, Annabeth didn't look satisfied.
"No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."
"Annabeth," Butch grunted. "Check it out." He pointed to Jason's feet. Jason looked down as if just realizing he was missing a shoe. His bare foot looked like a lump of charcoal.
"The guy with one shoe," Butch said. "He's the answer."
"No, Butch," Annabeth insisted. "He can't be. I was tricked." She glared at the sky. "What do you want from me?" She shouted. "What have you done with him?" Katherine put her hand on Annabeth's shoulder. Annabeth looked at her. The skywalk shuddered, the horses whinnied urgently.
"Annabeth," Katherine said. "we gotta leave. Let's get these three back to camp and figure it out there. The storm spirits might come back."
She fumed for a moment. "Fine." She fixed Jason with a resentful look. Katherine resisted the urge to smack her and tell her to stop looking at her brother like that, but she felt this was a bad place to reveal that Jason was her brother. "We'll settle this later." She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.
"What's her problem? What's going on?" The girl shook her head and asked. She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. She had chocolate brown hair that was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides. She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't work. Katherine had to admit, she was pretty. Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, and green. Katherine figured she was a daughter of Aphrodite.
"Seriously," the elf guy agreed.
"We have to get you out of here," Butch said. "I'll explain on the way."
"I'm not going anywhere with her." Jason gestured towards Annabeth. "She looks like she wants to kill me." Butch grunted and Katherine laughed.
"Annabeth? Oh she probably does." Katherine said. Jason looked scared and Butch punched her in the arm. "But you have to cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to our problem."
"What problem?" The girl asked.
"She and Katherine here have been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing three days," Butch said. "She's going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he'd be here."
"Who?" Jason asked.
"Her boyfriend and my adopted brother," Katherine said. "A guy named Percy Jackson." Annabeth called out to them that they should leave. Katherine, Butch, Jason, and the two other demigods started for the chariot. Jason grabbed Katherine's arm and pulled her back, the others kept walking.
"You've been staring at me this entire time," He said. Katherine realized she had been.
"I-I'm sorry." She said. He gripped her arm harder.
"Do you know me?" He asked. Katherine was taken back by his question. "Please, I've forgotten everything, if you know me you might be able to help." It all became clear. Jason didn't know her, he had forgotten her. But it still didn't explain what he was doing here. At least Katherine knew now how to handle this situation with her brother.
"I'm sorry, no I don't." She lied.
"Please, when that bald guy said your name, Katherine, something clicked in my brain, but I still can't remember anything. I just know I know the name Katherine." Jason said. Katherine didn't know what to do. She was going to pretend like she didn't know Jason until he got his memory back, but now she couldn't.
"Please, right now isn't the time. I'll tell you when we get back to camp," she said and pulled away from him. Then they walked over to the chariot. Jason, Leo (elf boy) and Piper (the girl) stood in the back of the chariot. Butch was checking the harnesses and waiting for Katherine. Annabeth adjusted the bronze navigation device. Katherine turned into a Pegasus (which really freaked out the new demigods) and Butch attached her harness. Then they took off, heading for Camp Half Blood.
"This is so cool!" Leo yelled and spit a Pegasus feather out of his mouth. "Where are we going?"
"A safe place," Annabeth explained. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."
"Half-Blood?" Piper asked. "Is that some kind of joke?"
"She means we're demigods," Jason said. "Half god, half human."
Annabeth looked back. "You seem to know a lot, Jason." Of course he knows a lot he was a demigod at Camp Jupiter, Katherine thought. "But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Katherine, the one who turned into the lead Pegasus," Katherine whinnied and tossed her head. "is the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods and god of the sky. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."
Leo choked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"
"Got a problem with that?" Butch said.
"No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows. Very macho."
"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said. "He gets along great with the pegasi."
"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.
"I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch warned. Katherine laughed to herself.
"Demigods," Piper said. "You mean you think you're…you think we're—"
Lightning flashed, blinding Katherine for a second. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, "Left wheel's on fire!" Katherine looked back and sure enough, the wheel was burning white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.
The wind roared. Katherine glanced behind them and saw dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot—they were in the shape of a horse.
Piper started to say, "Why are they—"
"Anemoi come in different shapes," Annabeth said. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic. Hold on. This is going to get rough."
Butch flicked the reins. Katherine and the other two pegasi put on a burst of speed and the world around her blurred (she loved flying this fast). Soon they were in a totally different place.
A cold gray ocean stretched out to the left. Snow-covered fields, roads, and forests spread to the right. Directly below them was Camp Half-Blood. Katherine saw the cluster of buildings that looked like ancient Greek temples, but were really the cabins, a blue mansion (The Big House), ball courts, the lake, and the climbing wall. Suddenly the wheels came off and they dropped out of the sky.
Annabeth and Butch tried to maintain control. Katherine and the pegasi labored to hold the chariot in flight pattern, but they were too exhausted from their burst of speed, and bearing the weight of the chariot and the weight of five people was just too much.
"The lake!" Annabeth yelled. "Aim for the lake!"
BOOM
The biggest shock was the cold. Katherine was underwater, so disoriented that she didn't know which way was up.
She started thrashing around, but she was still hooked up to the chariot and it was bringing her down. The other pegasi's harnesses had become unattached to the chariot when they hit the water. Katherine was too unfocused to change form. Luckily some naiads found her and helped her out of her harnesses. They lifted the chariot up to shallow waters. Katherine changed form and burst out of the water, gasping and coughing.
"Katherine!" Annabeth yelled, swimming out to her. "Are you ok?" She said once she had caught up to Katherine. Katherine nodded.
"Yeah, just cold," She said. Annabeth smiled.
"Hey, does this count as me jumping in the lake?" She asked.
"Psh, no. One, you are not just in your underwear, and two, the lake gets way colder in the mornings." Katherine said with a smile. Annabeth sighed and together they made their way to shore. Some kids dried Katherine and the others off with big bronze leaf blower things. There were at least twenty campers milling around.
"Annabeth!" Someone yelled. Katherine saw Will Solace pushing through the crowd with a bow and quiver on his back. "I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!"
"Will, I'm sorry," Annabeth sighed. "I'll get it fixed, I promise."
Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and Jason. "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed yet?"
"Claimed?" Leo asked.
Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, "Any sign of Percy?"
"No," Annabeth admitted. The campers muttered. Another girl stepped forward. Katherine grumbled, it was Drew. She was tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and perfect makeup. Drew was able to make jeans and an orange T-shirt look glamorous. She glances at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason like he might be worthy of her attention, then curled her lip at Piper like she were a week-old hotdog that had just been pulled out of a dumpster.
"Well," she said. "I hope they're worth the trouble." Katherine resisted the urge to smack Drew across the face and send her flying into the lake. The thought made her laugh.
Leo snorted. "Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?"
"No kidding," Jason said. "How about some answers before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?"
"Jason," Katherine said, "I promise we'll answer your questions. And Drew"—she glared at the glamour girl—"all demigods are worth saving…except for you. You were a mistake." Drew fumed at Katherine's remark and Annabeth gave her a dirty look.
"Knock it off you two," Annabeth said. "But I'll admit, the trip didn't accomplish what I had hoped."
"Hey," Piper said. "we didn't ask to be brought here."
Drew sniffed. "And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?"
Piper stepped, obviously read to smack Drew, but Annabeth said, "Piper, stop." Piper did.
"We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome," Annabeth said, with a pointed look at Drew. "We'll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they'll be claimed."
"Would somebody tell me what claimed means?" Piper asked. Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. Katherine realized their faces were bathed in a strange red light, as if someone had lit a torch behind her. She turned around and smiled.
Floating over Leo's head was a blazing holographic image—a fiery hammer.
"That," Katherine said, "is claiming."
Ok guys sorry for the hecka long chapter I just had a bunch to write and I didn't want to stop! Haha so yeah, have a good day, till next update! Oh and I know this is familiar I am kinda going on the plot line of the Heroes of Olympus series but PLEASE DON'T STOP READY BECAUSE YOU THINK ITS GOING TO BE LIKE READING THE SERIES AGAIN TRUST ME ITS NOT. I'm going to put my own stuff in it and there is A LOT of stuff to write like WAY later on and I'll get more into Katherine's powers and stuff and the shape shifters but like maybe the next couple chapters (next two or three?) I'm kinda gonna be going off of the Heroes of Olympus series, but don't worry, it won't be like rereading the series…I PROMISE.