"Hi, Silena. And, uh, Nar." I mumbled, greeting them.
"Hello, Percy. How's Min? Is Annabeth here?" Silena asked, not even looking at me while tossing her large, heavy purse at me. (In that way I knew for sure she was related to Athena.)
"No, you just missed her. She went out to get something. She'll be here in another hour or so." I replied as I balanced the purse in one of my hands. "Cecelia and Laurel are here, though."
Silena nodded. "Good, good. Now, Nar, go play with your little friends. And play nice."
The scowling grandson of Aphrodite mumbled something that sounded just vaguely like, "Yes, Mother." and quickly escaped into the next room. I sighed. (Man, I'd been doing a lot of that lately.) Now I had to deal with stupid Narcissus Beuragard. I had to say, the name suited him. (AN: To find out what his name means, look at the OC list!)
"See ya, Percy!" Silena crowed, and breezed into the kitchen where Cecelia and Laurel were.
Part of the reason they were excluding me from their little chat was that I was a man. Silena had recently organized the Demigods' Women Association, also known as the DWA. Annabeth, Cecelia, Laurel, and just about any female half-blood age eighteen or older were members. I didn't see what the use of having that stupid organization was, but nobody dared cross the dreadful females. Nico had jokingly proposed the DMA (Demigods' Men Association), but that didn't generate enough interest to be passed. (Although we were talking about a Young Demigods' Association.)
I really wouldn't have cared except for one thing. One teeny little thing. Let's see, if a bunch of rabid women, most of them mothers, spent a lot of time here, what would happen to their children? Of course they would bring the little brats here. (Just like Silena did with Nar.) And who was left to care of them while the warrior females sipped coffee and discussed whatever they had to discuss?
Yeah. You guessed it. Me.
It was annoying, troublesome, and a source of big headaches. The two most troublesome kids were Nar and Ian. Nar was horribly conceited and rude but clever enough to avoid trouble. Ian was outright sulky and whiny. Even if his parents punished him, his attitude never changed. I hated it whenever they visited here. When both of them were here at the same time, oh dear me. Was I going to need painkillers.
They were both here at the same time right now.
I went to the playroom. Chaos was at full swing around here. Like always. Min and Sonia Stoll were busy ganging up on Paul Nelson and beating him at chess mercilessly. I don't think that Paul even knew the rules to the game, but was still being brutally killed by his cousins. Harry Mars, a grandson of Ares, was chasing around Gabriel Granger, who was wailing in fear and anger. Lily Greene was busy balancing a bunch of books in her hands and looking on helplessly at poor Gabe. Nar smirked, looking on approvingly at the scene. Ian Javenson was busy tossing a small but bouncy ball that zinged all around the room and hit several objects, knocking a majority of them off.
I put both my fingers in my mouth and whistled. Everyone stopped and turned around. Nar stared dumbly at me. Heh. Just like his brain. Get it? Dumbly? Dumb brain? Ha ha ha! (AN: Give it up, Percy. Your jokes are so lame.)
"How'd ya do that?" Harry Mars asked, looking impressed. That is, for an Ares kid. He had finally left the poor son of Demeter alone. "I wanna learn how'ta whistle like that!"
"Tough luck, brat." I snarled. After Nar and Ian, Harry was the one who gave me the most trouble, always picking fights with everyone, even with the only two people (besides his parents and other Ares kids) that he partially got along with. (They were Nar and Ian.) Once I had caught him ripping off the brown hair out of one of Lily's dear dolls, and causing her to cry until hell froze over.
"What do you want, Jackson?" Nar sneered. He was pretty intelligent and could talk like his mom or any other adult demigods. That was saying a lot for an Aphrodite brat.
"Shut up, Beuragard." I snapped at him.
Nar responding by shaking his head with in an almost sorrowful way and saying, "Tsk tsk, Jackson. Adult shouldn't act that way. Keep your temper in control. You should take anger management classes or something."
I suppressed by urge to cave his head in, or at least slash him open with Riptide, and ignored him. Turning to the other children occupying the room, I announced in a loud and clear voice, "Anyone who doesn't behave today won't get a treat."
"What's the treat exactly? We won't behave until you tell us." Nar quipped up, and the other brats murmured agreement. Damn him! Take a deep breath, Percy. He is just a little kid. He can't get to you.
"Chocolate." I replied. "Pure, solid milk chocolate."
This was very agreeable deal, and all the brats fell silent and stopped teasing each other. Ian still had that fixed scowl on his face, but didn't really do anything. Then again, he almost never does anything except sit around and look grumpy. Jeez, demigods were different than in my day.
I sighed, this time in relief. Peace had been restored, at least temporarily. There was just one problem.
I didn't have any chocolate.
Well, that really sucked. After this incident, the whole bribery thing would go down the hole, and I wouldn't be able to get them under control. Unless I got some real chocolate for them.
"Where are you going, Percy?" Cecelia asked when she saw me leaving the house through the back door. She was the only who noticed. Silena and Laurel were busy arguing about the price of peanuts in Peru. Or something along those lines.
"Timbuktu." I snapped at her, still a little angry, and instantly regretted it. Cecelia was always kind and quiet, and very timid and shy. I remembered once that she shared her bow and arrow set with me during my first year at Camp Half-Blood when I forgot one.
"Sorry about that, Cecelia." I sighed. (AN: Percy is sighing too much!) "It's just that, well…"
Then I poured my heart out to her. I told her about Annabeth's pregnancy troubles and temper, and my worry about that. I told her about how the mini-demigods were annoying. I told her that I was extremely worried about the war with Uranus, and how he was more powerful than he seemed, and how the Olympians seemed rather depressed of late, and how it was nearly impossible that Athena, my insufferable mother-in-law, still hadn't escaped or been rescued even though she was the goddess of wisdom.
Bless Cecelia. She didn't even interrupt once, but patiently listened through all of it with a thoughtful expression on her face. When I finished with, "And now I have to run to the nearest store and by some chocolate or I'll never get those brats under control!"
She spoke in her quiet voice, but this time there was firmness to it. "You're trying too hard, Percy."
"What do you mean?" I protested. "I'm just doing my part!"
"But you just hold all your worry and trouble inside of you." Cecelia replied matter-of-factly. "You're worried about the people close to you, but you're obviously not worrying about yourself, Percy. I bet you never told anyone about all of this, except for me. Am I right?"
I nodded grudgingly.
"A certain woman once told me," Cecelia began. "That sometimes when you seemed overwhelmed, you should take one deep breath, and go one step at a time. You should try that. Don't let everything overwhelm you."
I nodded, but this time gratefully. It was a good piece of advice, given to me by a daughter of Demeter I half-knew. Who would've thought of that? You would expect something like that to come from a daughter of Athena, like Annabeth. But I guess that just because you were smart didn't mean that you knew everything. Or something like that.
"Well, I have to go now." Cecelia finally broke the silence. She silently stepper out of the house, and was walking away when I called out, "Wait!"
She stopped, hesitated, and turned around with a curious look to her face.
"Who was that woman who told you that?" I yelled. "Who?"
Cecelia' face broke into a smile, and she said, "Annabeth Chase."
Oh jeez. Now my wife even affected me indirectly in this kind of way.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Taking up Cecelia's advice (kind of Annabeth's advice), I took a deep breath and went one step at a time.
The first thing I did (after taking a deep breath, that is) was to enter my study, which was actually Annebeth's library and my study combined, and research.
Now usually, I don't research. That's Annabeth and the other Athena's children's area of expertise. But since half of the usually cold-blooded Athena children were almost thrown into some sort of panic since the disappearance of their mother, the research went at a much slower pace. Besides, research was not being appreciated at this time. Right now, it was time for sharpening of swords and clashes with the enemy.
Athena was right in a way. Sometimes brute strength kept us from seeing the truth. She once told me that. (In a snotty voice, too. At the time, it was just one of her many little comments that she made to make me mad.) Because I found out something crucial that later helped me that day.
After I finished browsing through some dusty old tomes that were a small part of Annnabeth's vast book collection, I finally hit upon a book about Athena. I've already read several myths and legends about Athena, but not entire book. Purposely, of course. I never really wanted to have a nice friendly chat with her.
I'll be blunt. The book was dense, overcomplicated, and boring. Blah blah blah. Athena. Blah blah blah. Daughter of Zeus. Blah blah blah. Goddess of wisdom. Blah blah blah. From that book (which was obviously written by some mortal), I learned everything possible about Athena. I learned about her potential mother (some goddess name Metis), how some prophecy said that if she was a boy, she would overthrow Zeus (Metis's son), about her relationship with her father and the other Olympians, her powers and symbols, descriptions of her physical and mental attributes, and blah blah blah.
After about an hour, I was so frustrated that I slammed the book shut.
Okay. That step didn't work.
A little discouraged, I decided to rest and take a nap. Surely it would be better if my mind was refreshed and my body rested before tackling the books again to find a way to defeat Uranus. Most of all, I wanted to find out why Athena had been kidnapped. Why Athena? Why her? Surely she was a good prize, but weren't there better immortals? Zeus, for example. Even my own father seemed better to kidnap.
I don't know how long it took to drift on into sleep, but I dreamed. About the young god. Again. This time, though, I remembered the crucial thing.
There he was again, in the same dark, shadowy place. Where was it? I had the feeling it was in the Underworld, because it had that sense of gloom. This time, there was a big difference. A motionless figure lay unconscious at his feet. I didn't know who it was.
"Back?" the young god snarled. Again, I could not see his face, but I had the feeling that he was smirking.
He stepped out of the shadows. He really was smirking. And his eyes…
"Oh, is the half-blood concerned? Fear not, for we will give you three chances to join us. You will see your opportunity soon…soon…soon…"
His voice echoed ominously around me. Then I woke up.
As brief as that dream segment was, I was positive of one thing. His eyes…were the same as Annabeth's, Min's, and Athena's. A cloudy, stormy, all-knowing gray. And then I remembered something else.
Damn. I had forgotten to get the chocolate.
I actually finished the OC list first, but I felt cheap just updating with that list, so I waited until this was finished. Enjoy!
