Annabeth's POV
June 20
4 Days until the Feast of Fortuna
Life just sucks right now. I had finally gotten Percy, I had officially made him mine and now he was gone. He'd been missing for months now and I was going CRAZY. Was he alive? Did he leave on purpose? Did someone kidnap him? Those were just a few out of the hundreds of questions I asked myself daily.
I spent countless hours roaming around looking under every rock and between every crack, just to find him. There were no notes, there were no phone calls, nothing that would put me at ease. At first it seemed like people understood that but now I wasn't so sure.
Leo had lost his mind giving people time off from the Argo but at least his lazy girlfriend Maya finally finished throwing her little hissy fit. I swear this whole time she's been a distraction, I mean she was always complaining and whining about something! And Leo, he just doesn't know what to do with himself, he tries to make her happy and ends up pushing back his plans even farther. And right about now we should be halfway to Camp Jupiter but we are barely packing up to leave by tomorrow, hopefully.
As I approached the Big House I noticed Maya, Jason, Leo, and Piper quarreling about something. Chiron was sitting in his chair rubbing his temples and trying not to blow up.
"What's going on?" I ask. Everyone calmed down and gave me a blank look.
"Nothing," Maya said before plopping down into a seat beside Chiron.
Leo gave Maya an angry look before sitting at the opposite side of the table.
"Annabeth take a seat. Now that the bickering has ended, we can finally get down to business," Chiron says motioning me forward.
"Well what is she doing here?" I ask in reference to Maya who was looking a little flushed.
"She will be joining you all on your quest," Chiron answers. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Why!" I blurted. Maya rolled her eyes which I found I didn't find strange at all. She was still pretty new to me, even though she's been around for a little more than a year now. I just hadn't really taken the time to get to know her, but she never ever gave me attitude about anything.
"She is one of the 9, and she's recieved a prophecy on her own, which I think will be fulfilled on this quest," he explained. He looked at Maya and sighed.
"I still don't think she should go," Leo said in protest.
"It's been decided so too bad," she says angrily.
"Don't start you two," Chiron warns. Jason exchanged looks with Piper who clearly looked irritated.
"So is that what this was about? Just about adding on Maya? Are we cleared to leave by tomorrow?"
"Yes, you will part at dawn, be ready," he gives in,
"So we're dismissed?" Jason asks as he takes hold of Piper's hand.
"Not yet, I have one more thing to announce," he says.
Maya shifted uncomfortably as if she knew exactly what he was about to say, and as if she knew it would be something bad.
"Maya is pregnant, which means her condition needs to be monitored heavily throughout the trip. It would be best if she didn't fight but that is highly unrealistic due to the nature of this quest. But I do expect for you all not to be insensitive to her, regardless of personal feelings about the situation,"
My jaw dropped and I looked between Maya and Leo. And I was a little disturbed by the fact Jason and Piper had guilty expressions on their face, they knew she had been pregnant yet everyone had clearly forgotten to tell me this information.
"Why am I just now finding out about this!?"
"Because it really isn't any of your business. The only reason you know now is because of safety concerns," Maya says angrily. She crossed her petite arms and looked down at her grey sneakers.
I glared at her for a moment and clenched my fist. If she only knew what was racing through my kind right now. One of these days she is going to seriously regret how she's acting towards me.
"Maya, stop being rude," Leo says in my defense.
"Are we excused now?" She said impatiently.
"You may go Maya," Chiron gives in. Maya definitely didn't need to be told twice, she quickly stood up and left leaving only
Jason, Leo, Piper and I. We stayed behind and discussed other details of the quest and all of the worst case scenarios.
1. Maybe we wouldn't make it on time to help Camp Jupiter
2. They might want to blow us out of the sky
3. Percy may not be there, even though we are nearly definite that he is.
Now I had a major headache and all I wanted to do was go to my cabin and sleep. I was so afraid. Afraid that we could fail this quest, afraid that I won't be reunited with Percy, and worst of all that I wouldn't have a future with him.
Ody
June 21st
3 days until the Feast of Fortuna
The limnatides surely didn't hesitate before fleeing from the danger we had faced. We were attacked by these hideous heavily tatted cannibals, that decided they would look good in a two peace leather ensemble that resembled a Gothic torture outfit I'd seen in a movie once, that gave me traumatizing mental images that still burned in my mind as we ran out of the park. After a few miles of running I finally looked over at Lexi who looked like she was ready to pass out. She was limping from being tossed aside like a rag doll, her shoulder was gashed and her arm was scraped up pretty badly from a huge boulder that was thrown at her.
"Lex, we need to stop," I grab her hand and pull her towards me. Her chest rose and fell heavily while her face was flushed and sweaty. I cupped her face in my hands and tried to look her in her eyes. She pushed my hands away and started limping away from me.
"We don't have time, we only have a one day to get back to camp and the cannibals are still after us,"
"You're hurt. We just need to catch our breath, check our supplies, and fix ourselves up. If we keep running like this, we won't be able to fight the next monster that attacks," She groaned as she sat down at the base of a tree.
I looked around at how the deeply forested terrain we were just on was now a less dense, and colder area. If I listened carefully I could hear one or two cars pass by, meaning there must've been a highway nearby. Moon was rising, and from looking at it's position I'd say it was around 7 or 8 PM, and according to Lexi's compact it was June 21st which meant there were 3 more days and we needed to make it back before the battle begins.
The blew strongly and I saw Lexi shiver as she looked through what was left of her pack.
"Do you have any nectar or ambrosia left?" she asked softly.
"I uh, don't know," I sat next to her and opened up my dirty, mud encrusted blue back pack. Inside was a shirt, a small bottle of water, and a small plastic bag with an ambrosia square.
"I have one square left. You can have it," I say as I hand her the bag that held the small square. She slowly took it from me and I watched as she opened it and broke the square in half and held it out to me.
"Come on, take one," she encouraged. I looked down at my aching body and really took notice of my own wounds. I had a few scrapes plus a huge cut on my left leg, the bleeding had stopped but it still looked pretty bad. I had been so busy trying to survive and making sure that Lexi was okay that I hadn't paid much attention to my own health….but that's just how it was when I was on quests.
I accepted the square and we both quietly ate the ambrosia. Mine tasted like the tamales Lexi and her sister would make during Christmas time, which was a little strange considering that it usually tasted like pizza or chocolate cake.
"What does yours taste like?" I ask, slightly catching her off guard. Her big green eyes looked over at me in slight confusion. " The ambrosia…"
"Oh, it umm tastes like Ferrero Rocher," she says as she licked her lips. I smiled as she mention her favorite type of chocolate. I remember when I had made her a heart shaped sculpture out of Ferrero Rocher last Valentines day. We had literally spent the whole evening under the bridge feeding each other pieces of it and watching the sunset over the camp. Next thing I knew I had woken up in the infirmary with a very concerned Lexi beside me. I still didn't remember what had happened and why I ended up where I was. But after leaving the infirmary Lexi had told me that it was because she had kissed me. I remembered being angry because I couldn't remember what it felt like and it's been burning me inside ever since.
Now looking at her I couldn't help but really admire the beauty she radiated even though her hair was like a birds nest, she was extremely dirty, and her clothes were ripped and tattered. I wanted to kiss her, I wanted to just tell her how much I wanted her but…I couldn't. Then I thought…wait a minute!
I replayed what the Queen had said to Lexi as she gave her the vials," the blue one is for your…intimacy issue."
"Lexi, remember what Queen Diane said about our umm problem?"
She shifted uncomfortable before nodding. "Yea,"
"Well how is the vial going to solve that problem?"
"Can we not talk about this right now? I have a really bad headache right now," she says gently as she reached back into her backpack and pulled out her compact and grimaced at her reflection.
"How convenient," I say sarcastically. She shot me a look that told me that I had ignited a spark.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, just seems to me you always happen to have an excuse not to talk to me about things like this,"
"Wow…" she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. And opened up her compact.
"Yea…just wow," I mutter bitterly.
"Ody, this is not the time to pick fights. I really need you on my side right now, don't piss me off,"
"I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. I just want answers, do you know how frustrating it is to not be able to kiss you? Do you know how scared I am right now!? This curse can take you from me, and I want to do something but you're not telling me what I can do! You're being secretive and keeping things from me! And I've been at your side too long for you to be so distant from me!"
"Ody, please I'm already stressed out as it is. I promise I will sit down and talk to you later but right now we need to get out of here and find a safe place to sleep for the night, or at least get some rest. Please," she begged.
She gave me a pleading look and took my hand. I knew the prophecy and her curse scared her, I'd seen her break down and cry. As a matter of fact she was about to cry right now. "I love you,"I blurt.
"I love you too Ody," she said softly. I hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek feeling her warm body against mine. It was really cold my face and hands were starting to freeze. I looked into her eyes and gave her a warm smile before apologizing, but she knew how frustrated I was.
She looked at her compact and set it onto its GPS setting, and we found that we were half a mile away from a highway that would lead us to a small inn near a gas station. I gave Lexi my worn and extremely tattered ,but still usable, Berkeley sweatshirt, and she put on a beanie she had packed in her bag.
We held hands as we quietly walked toward the highway. I really hoped that we would be able to seriously get some rest, but I never really did have good luck.
Suggestions for the next chapter? Comments? Please, leave a review, I'd totally appreciate it :)
