I've had so much writer's block lately that it's not even funny. This is what I mean: we found a way to fix the internet two days after my last update. Haha, oops. But then the WRITER'S BLOCK OF DEATH set in, so I cold-filed and kept the story on hiatus.

But recently, I found inspiration (Hah, like in November...)! And yesterday, even more inspiration! So I finished chapter ten for y'all! *bow-no, curtsies, because I'm a "lady"*

Percy went to bed. The next morning when he rolled out of bed, the sunlight wasn't shining through his window as usual. Percy realized it was after 10 am. Oops.

He hurried down to see if breakfast was still being served. Probably not.

His mom stopped him. "Good morning, Percy."

"Morning, Mom."

"How are you today?" she asked.

Percy yawned. "Good. Is breakfast still being served?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't go down there if I was you. Your father's going on about how the prisoner escaped last night and stole another horse. He's quite angry."

Percy cleared his throat and said in a bit of a high-pitched voice that he hoped his mom wouldn't hear, "She did?"

"Yeah. You're up late. Late night last night?" she asked.

Percy swallowed. "Yeah."

His mother smiled a knowing smile. "Ah. Well, go on down to breakfast, why don't you. I imagine that you're quite hungry." Percy nodded and went down to breakfast, where his father was yelling about Annabeth getting away.

Percy wolfed down his breakfast, trying not to look guilty in front of his father. King Poseidon didn't notice, or if he did, he didn't say anything.

Three days later, Mataris's army attacked. Percy assumed it was revenge, but they were demanding the return of their princess, which confused Percy, because the ride to the castle of Mataris was only a few hours away.

With only a few dead, his army managed to fend off the opposing army.

About a week later, sitting next in his room, Percy received a letter from Annabeth.

Hey, Percy!

I heard about the retaliation attack on your castle. Heh, yeah… I kind of didn't return to my castle the day you helped me escape.

Percy looked down at the long story of her travels through Mataris with dread. "Why do girls write so much?"

After a while, Annabeth got used to the rocking of Buttercup. The starry sky was mesmerizing, and Annabeth soon fell asleep on Buttercup's back.

That was her first mistake. She woke up in an irrigation ditch in broad daylight. She found it hard to get up, and when she did, Buttercup was grazing on some crops in the field.

"Buttercup!" she chastised. Second mistake.

Buttercup started running through the field, trampling the crops. Annabeth couldn't discern what crops they were, but she was pretty sure that a horse running over them wasn't good.

She dragged herself out of the ditch and started to stumble after her. Falling off a horse isn't fun. Annabeth was surprised she hadn't been seriously injured.

"Thank you, gods," she mumbled as she ran. "Come back!" she shouted.

The owner of the farm had come out, and had managed to stop the horse. He looked at Annabeth with a little less than happiness. Annabeth smiled apologetically. "Um, I'm sorry, I was trying—" She stopped, being glared at by the farmer.

His wife, or daughter, or sister stood next to him and clicked her tongue. "Dad, let's hear her out before we get angry. We don't want your blood pressure rising too much."

The man turned around to his daughter's pleading eyes. He sighed. "Fine. Go on."

"Well, you see, I was kidnapped by the army of Apaisios, and I escaped on the prince's horse, and I fell asleep, and woke up in the irrigation ditch. My name is Annabeth. I'm the princess," she explained.

The farmer frowned when she mentioned that she was the princess, but he bowed nonetheless. "Interesting story. The Apaisions aren't known for their mercy," he said.

"Most of them were just awful," Annabeth agreed. "One of them tried to kill me," she added.

"Well, your parents aren't so nice either," the farmer said bluntly.

"What?" Annabeth asked in an accusing tone.

"I'm just saying that they could run the country a little better, that's all!" he said, sensing Annabeth's anger.

"I bet you think you could run the country much better, don't you?" his daughter asked.

"No," the man lied.

Annabeth thought about the way her parents ran the country. She looked off into the distance to think more clearly. They wouldn't let her do anything, and out of sheer stubbornness, they kept a war waging for twenty years. Sure, that wasn't too long compared to other wars, but it was still too long.

"Well…you are sort of right," Annabeth said after a minute.

"Wha—I'm sorry?" he asked.

"Well, my mom could run the country better. By the way, what's your name?" The farmer hesitated. Annabeth realized how badly she had timed that question. "Sorry, I'm only curious. You are the only civilians I've met so far," she said.

The farmer still stayed silent. His daughter rolled her eyes and held out her hand, saying, "My name's Katie Gardner. This is my father, Dustin Gardner. Would you like some tea? I'm sure my father would love to talk about political issues."

Annabeth shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I would love to have some tea." She held her hand out to Dustin. "Mr. Gardner?"

Dusting sighed. "Well, I do have some suggestions.

They went inside for tea. Annabeth sat through Dustin's suggestions.

A couple of hours later, Annabeth was riding home. All of a sudden, Buttercup became extremely frisky. She jumped and jumped and started to run the other way. For the third mistake of the day, Annabeth held on tight.

Buttercup ran for three hours. Then, she collapsed from exhaustion. Annabeth managed not to be under the horse, which soon stood up again and fell asleep. Annabeth would have taken off the saddle, but she didn't know how to put it back on.

Annabeth nudged Buttercup awake and tied her up to a nearby olive tree. Both Buttercup and Annabeth fell fast asleep.

She woke up in a cart, tied up. Without thinking, she screamed. They had forgotten to gag her.

"The girl's up," a gruff man's voice said.

Annabeth was quiet as another man said, "I heard." The man not steering looked in the back. The two had rough accents, unlike any Annabeth had heard before.

"Who—who are you?" she asked.

"That's none of your business, little lady."

Annabeth scowled back at him. "Where's my horse?' she asked dangerously.

Her captor thought nothing of it. He laughed, in fact. "Tied to a tree somewhere in the countryside, lass."

"I demand to know your names," Annabeth said.

"Or what?" the second man asked.

"I'll hurt you!" Annabeth screamed. "What did you think I was going to do? Sing to you?"

"I'd like that. Sing to me, girlie!"

Annabeth stayed silent, slowly working at the knots. The knots were horrible—for her. In fact, they were actually quite intricate. Annabeth cursed. Her captors laughed.

"Okay, girlie, I've got a deal: you tell us your name, and we'll tell you ours," the first one said.

Annabeth thought for a moment. She would heft a large ransom from both her parents, and Poseidon. If they found out that she was the princess, they would, without a doubt, sell her to whoever offered more. Giving up her name would be a risky choice.

"See, why should we give you our names, if you won't give us yours?"

"So, are you two sailors?" she asked.

"How'd ye guess?" the second one asked.

"Well, you're certainly not civilized. I'd guess, if you're sailors, you're also pirates," Annabeth guessed.

"Aye, girlie," the first one said.

"Let me guess, Sciron and Chrysaor," Annabeth continued. Her mom was constantly complaining about these two causing havoc in river towns.

"She's a smart one, 'ay Chrysaor?" The one not driving asked.

"Shut up, you twit!" Chrysaor shouted.

"Well, she already knows our names," the other one, Sciron, Annabeth assumed, mumbled.

"Aye, and now she knows who's who! And if she escapes, she could report us, twit! Now shut up or I'll gag ye."

"Why didn't you gag me?" Annabeth asked. "I'm just saying. If I were to capture someone, I'd definitely gag them."

"Aye. Sciron, if you had gagged her, maybe she wouldn't know our names, or that we be pirates," Chrysaor accused.

"Ye told her stuff too!" Sciron complained.

"Not as much as ye!" Chrysaor pointed out irritably.

The two started to bicker. Annabeth looked around for anything useful. The pirates had a lot of stuff lying around.

Annabeth wasn't able to grab anything—anything sharp that is. She had managed to grab hold of a metric ton of hay and a rum bottle, which had spilled and stained the back of her dress red (although she wouldn't find that out until later).

"We're here, girlie!" Chrysaor shouted.

"Where's 'here'?" Annabeth demanded.

"Don't you worry. Ye'll find out soon enough," Chrysaor replied. He and Sciron started cackling.

Annabeth struggled all the way onto the boat. She wiggled and squirmed, screamed for help, and bit their hands when they attempted to cover her mouth.

Despite this, no one seemed to notice that their princess was being captured.

Once aboard the P. S. Triton—"Ain't she a fine ship?" "Shut up, idiot!"—Chrysaor and Sciron threw her in the bilge.

"And ye've got extra time for spillin' the rum!" Sciron shouted through the trapdoor. "Ow…what was that for?"

"It was for being an idiot! Now come on!" Chrysaor yelled. Annabeth pressed her ear against the wood, but all she could hear were hints of a pirate accent and receding footprints.

She stood on the ladder leading out of the bilge and banged on the door, but it didn't do her any good. She got distracted by the squealing of rats and ripping of cloth.

Annabeth jumped and splashed into the slimy bilge water. She felt something gnawing at her hands and legs. She squealed and got a stand, shaking off the rats and squealing in pain.

She got backed up into a wall and she kicked blindly at the rats. "Curse you, pirates!" she screamed.

She heard laughing and someone banging at the wood above her. "Me pets aren't hurting you none, now are they?" she heard Chrysaor shout down.

"Yes!" Annabeth shouted. "They are! Please let me out!"

She heard footsteps above her and she ran to the ladder. When it opened, the rats scurried away from the light.

She saw Chrysaor's amused face above her. "Let you out? Let you out? Ho, ho, girlie! It's amazing one as smart as ye be can also be so naïve!" he guffawed. Annabeth felt a rat bite her foot. She shrieked and pushed her way out of the bilge and

Chrysaor chased her down and threw her over his shoulder. "Now, now. We must treat our hosts with respect," he chastised, taking her back to the bilge.

"As must the host treat his guests with respect," Annabeth strained.

Chrysaor stopped. "Aye, ye're right, girlie. Instead of leaving ye all alone in the bilge, we'll let ye spend yer journey with Sciron."

Annabeth didn't like the sound of that idea either. But it couldn't be as bad as flesh-eating rats, could it?

"Thank you," she said warily.

"Oi, Sciron! I got a gift for ye," Chrysaor shouted, banging on the door. "Open up."

Sciron opened his door. "For me? 'Ay wait a wee minute. Why ain't she in the bilge?"

"You know, brother? I've been thinking: the girlie be our guest, and throwing her in the bilge with the rats isn't right, especially for a girl of her ranking. So I decided to give her some company." Chrysaor winked at his brother.

"But—" Sciron paused as Chrysaor glared at him. "Ye know, ye be right. Bring 'er in."

Chrysaor deposited her on a chest and left the room. Sciron closed the door after him and turned around with a seductive look on his face. It scared Annabeth more than it turned her on.

"Bonjour."

"Hi…" Annabeth said, glancing at the porthole. She wondered if she could fit through it.

Sciron started to unbutton his shirt. Annabeth backed away.

So this is why Chrysaor left me with Sciron…

Sciron kicked off his boots. Annabeth felt the room spin. The light filtering in from the porthole turned a sour green and she involuntarily fell to her knees in order to vomit up what little food remained in her stomach from her visit with the Gardners.

No, this is why Chrysaor left me with Sciron. That thought flew across her brain, toppling over Sciron's distorted voice.

Sciron lifted her up to her feet. "Girlie!"

"Don't you bathe?!" Annabeth gagged.

No, she wasn't hallucinating, she decided. The air really had turned green. Annabeth took shallow breaths.

She leaned as far back as she could, but it didn't stop Sciron from kissing her. His scratchy facial hair made her sneeze.

The smell of him was making her dizzy. Annabeth jumped when Sciron put his hands low on her waist. She tried to slap him, but her arms wouldn't cooperate.

Do not lose consciousness. You'll wake up in his arms naked with no recollection of what happened, she coached herself as she fought to remain conscious.

"What's wrong, girlie?" Sciron asked in his ridiculous "seductive" voice.

"Well, I'd get to know a guy before letting him…" she gulped, "um…do whatever it is you're doing to me. You don't even know my name!"

"Don't ye believe in love at first sight?" Sciron asked her, laughing.

Not really, but if it did exist, this definitely isn't it, Annabeth said.

He grabbed the back of her head and made it harder for her to dodge his kisses. Annabeth kneed him in his soft spot and bolted out the door.

She stopped dead when she noticed that the door to the bilge was thumping up. Those freaking rats had gotten a taste for blood. They'd taken good chunks out of Annabeth's legs.

"This could work," she mumbled. She opened the trap door and ran up top. The rats were fast on her trail, but they didn't wish to follow her into the water.

Annabeth didn't know how to swim (thanks Mom), but she doggy paddled all the way to shore on the adrenaline rush she had gotten escaping from the ship. The salt water stung her bites, but she pushed that out of her mind in her quest to escape.

She flung herself on the beach, and passed out from exhaustion.

She woke up in someplace warm, covered in blankets. She had a new dress on, and her legs and arms were bandaged.

A young girl who looked an awful lot like Piper sat next to her. "Oohh! Dad! She's awake! Annabeth's awake!"

Annabeth wondered how the young girl knew her name.

"Hi, I'm Lacey! Piper's talked a lot about you!" Lacey, apparently, said.

"Hi, Lacey. Are you—"

"I'm Piper's sister! A couple of years ago, Piper left for Mataris to look for work. She got a job at the castle as your servant. In her letters, she says you treat her with a lot of respect. She says you consider her as a best friend rather than a servant. When I found you on the beach, I noticed you looked a lot like Piper had described, so I decided to take you in."

"That's—I—thank you," Annabeth said, going slightly red.

"You are Annabeth, right? Because if you're not, then this is very awkward indeed." Lacey blushed.

"I am," Annabeth said. She sat up.

Piper's dad, Annabeth guessed, came in and shook her hand. "Hello. I'm Tristan McLean. We sent a letter to your family telling them we found you on the beach. Piper's spoken highly of you."

Annabeth blushed. "Thanks."

"So, what brings you to Asemantos? Piper's told us that you're not allowed to leave the castle grounds. You know, except for once on a peaceful mission," Tristan asked. Asemantos was Mataris's southern border, and most faithful ally.

"Didn't exactly end peacefully…" Annabeth mused. "Well, our castle got raided and I was kidnapped, but some—" Annabeth stopped, blushing. "Uh…I escaped and then on my way back home, I took a wrong turn, ended up by the river, and the pirates captured me. I literally just escaped the pirate ship."

"Piper said you have a crush on the prince!" Lacey teased her. Annabeth went scarlet.

"What about the weird injuries? When we found you, you had chunks taken out of your legs and arms, and your dress was tattered," Tristan asked, ignoring his daughter.

"They threw me in the bilge with the rats. I had no idea rats liked blood. But I used them to my advantage, and that's why no pirates had followed me," Annabeth answered.

"The rats around here aren't like that," Lacey said.

Tristan agreed. "Lacey is right; that is strange…" He shook his head. "Oh well. What's past has past. Would you like some supper? You must be starving."

Right on cue, Annabeth's stomach growled. "Yes please," she said, giggling with Lacey.

"Good, it's almost ready."

Lacey led Annabeth out of the room. "The guest-of-honor sits here!" she said enthusiastically.

"Okay," Annabeth said, smiling down at Lacey.

"That's Piper's dress you're wearing. And you're about to sit in Piper's seat," another sister of Piper's said, walking in the room.

Annabeth recalled that Piper had two sisters: Lacey and Drew. Piper had told her that Lacey was a sweetheart and Drew was a bit moody. Annabeth assumed that this was Drew.

"You must be Drew," she said. "Pleased to meet you."

Drew grimaced. "Nice to meet you too, I guess."

Annabeth sat down. Drew sat at her chair next to Annabeth. Lacey sat across from them.

"Is it true that you're—"

Drew was interrupted by her mother coming in from the kitchen. "Girls, it's time to set the table! Lacey, I believe it's your turn."

"I'll do it, Mrs. McLean," Annabeth said.

"Oh, no, your Highness. That's not necessary. You're our guest."

"I know, but it would be my honor. Piper's been such a good friend to me, and you've been so kind to me since I got here, that it's the least I could do," Annabeth said.

"Oh, no, I can't—"

"I insist," Annabeth interrupted.

Aphrodite sighed. "Oh, alright."

During dinner, Annabeth kept quiet, as the McLeans talked. They asked her how Piper was, and what Mataris was like, and how her parents were, and what life in the castle was like. Annabeth kept trying to dodge the question of whether or not she was having an affair with Percy (although, they referred to him as the Prince of Apaisios), but it kept coming up.

"It's not like it matters. I'm never leaving my room after this," Annabeth said finally.

"Wait a second, you escaped the dungeons of a palace…" Mitchell, Piper's brother, mused. "Did someone help you escape?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Annabeth blushed and sunk in her seat. "Maaayyyybeee…"

"And was this someone your Prince Charming?" Mitchell asked.

Annabeth wanted to escape the house. "Maaayyyybeee…"

"Hah! So she admits it!" Drew said.

"I am going to die of embarrassment right now," Annabeth muttered.

"Oh, don't worry sweetie. Love can be embarrassing at first, but if you two truly love each other, you won't let anything get in your way," Aphrodite told her.

"Are you sure? Our kingdoms are at war," Annabeth replied.

Aphrodite sighed lovingly across the table at her husband. "Love is strange like that, Annabeth. It makes people do strange things."

Annabeth stared glumly at her plate. She wasn't so sure. Tristan patted her shoulder in a fatherly manner.

The next day, Annabeth was put on a wagon and sent home. The journey took three days, but at least nothing bad happened. She was much tanner when she got home than before she left.

When she got home, she was almost smothered by her parents. "Oh, Annabeth, we missed you so much!" her father said.

"If you ever pull a stunt like that…" Athena warned.

Annabeth remembered the dream she had when she was in the dungeon. She squeezed her parents. "Even though I didn't mean to run away, I won't run away again," she promised.

"Good."

And that, love, is why it took me so long to return home. I think those pirates are dead... I'm certainly lucky I didn't die.

I've probably got permanent marks on my skin from those rat bites. They've been healing up, though. Will (our doctor here) says they'll probably completely heal in about a week.

I really miss you, Seaweed Brain. (I'm going to call you that from now on. Don't be too offended. If you do get offended, then you certainly deserve the nickname.) But after what happened, I'm probably not going to be let out of my parents' sight again.

I'm thinking that I'll probably try to sneak out in a couple of months when this all blows over. Knowing my mom though, that'll probably be never…

Love,

Annabeth

Percy didn't even bother to try to read the flourish that was Annabeth's signature at the bottom of the paper.

He felt a mixture of anger at the pirates, thankfulness to the Gardners and McLeans, anger towards Sciron for making a move on his girl, anger to Chrysaor for locking her up with the rats, and just relief that Annabeth had survived her trials.

The door opened. Percy crumpled the letter trying to find a place for it. He moved to sit on it, and then he ended up stuffing it under his pillow and leaning on the pillow.

"Oh, hi, Mom. What are you doing in my room? Not that I'm upset—"

Queen Sally shut the door behind her and sat on the end of the bed. "Your father was planning an attack on Mataris for the disappearance of their princess, but I vetoed the idea. Now he's mad at me. Do you mind if I hide in your room?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure," Percy said. He moved so he was sitting on his pillow.

Queen Sally looked around at the piles of dirty laundry and dust and half-finished letters that littered Percy's floor. Percy had refused to let any maids in, for fear they might find out that he was trying to write to Annabeth.

"You need to clean your room, young man," Sally told him.

"What?"

"Well, I know you're not letting the maids come in. If you aren't going to let them clean your room, then you'll have to do it yourself," she told him.

Percy sighed. "Oh."

Sally laughed.

"You know, your father's mad at you too," she said.

"What? I didn't do anything!" Percy said automatically, adjusting his perch on the pillow. He cleared his throat. "Why's he mad at me?"

Sally shook her head. "Someone let the princess out, Percy. Of course he's mad."

Percy went red. "Wait, but I didn't do that," he coughed.

"Just be glad that's what your father thinks," Sally said. Percy cleared his throat. "And I know it was you."

"How?" Percy asked.

"First, I know everything, Percy. Second, you can't lie to me. I know that when you get flustered or embarrassed, you clear your throat a lot." To prove her point, Percy cleared his throat.

"No I don't," he squeaked. He cleared his throat and repeated it in a deeper voice.

Queen Sally laughed. She ruffled her son's hair and kissed his cheek. "I won't ask to see the letter that you're sitting on, if it makes you feel better."

"How do you know I'm sitting on a letter?" he asked.

"I saw you stuff it under the pillow when I walked in, Percy," Sally told him. Percy cleared his throat.

Sally went over to the pile of half-written letters. "I hope you didn't plan to send these! Your penmanship is horrible!" she said.

Percy coughed. "I wrote those with my left because my right is messed up."

Sally peeked out in the hallway and asked a passing servant, Jason, where her husband was. "He went into town to calm down," Jason answered.

"Thank you," Sally said. Jason bowed and walked off. Sally watched him go with a pitiful look.

She turned to her son. "Good day, Percy. While I'm gone, I expect you to clean your room. I will not have my son living in a pig-sty."

Sally left. Percy sighed and started picking up the half-finished letters. Maybe he'd throw them in the ocean or something.

One of the reasons this chapter took so long to write was because I had ideas for what should come next, but I wanted to write this part. I feel it really needed to be in the story. Also, this chapter probably would have gone up yesterday, but my dad made me do dishes and when I came back, the computer had been turned off. Mom wouldn't let me turn it back on...

And I felt like developing Jason's character because I wanted to put Jasper in this story. That's why I have Sally looking at Jason in a pitiful way.

I started reading this book, Assassin's Apprentice, which gave me the idea for Jason's character. If you've read that book, you probably have a little clue of why Jason's a servant... :-) (The book also gave me a theory of why Eugene FitzHerbert [a.k.a. Flynn Rider from Tangled] was an orphan...)

***SPOILER ALERT***

Both Piper and Jason are from Asemantos (which Zeus is the king of...)

***END OF SPOILER***

Wanna hear something sad? I was cold-filing for so long that I kind of forgot the ideas for the next part of the story. *Facepalms for me!*

If you want to know where Silena Beauragard [I can not spell her last name of the top of my head...:(] was, I already have plans for her, so she isn't even related to Piper.

Beraguard...Beauraguard...Beauragard...

Nope. At least I tried. Whatever.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HANUKKAH! HAPPY KWANZAA! HAPPY NEW YEARS! (BTW, if I forgot any, I'm sorry...)

I cannot, for the life of me, come up with a title for this chapter.

SO, ONE LUCKY REVIEWER GETS TO COME UP WITH A TITLE! (Actually, I don't want to get yelled at for breaking rules by a critic, so please PM me or I won't be able to use it...)

Please make it 1-2 words, and relevant to the chapter.

I WILL NOT name it something silly like "I Like Waffles."

If any of you try that...

REMEMBER! PLEASE PM ME SO I'M ALLOWED TO USE IT!