Much to my surprise, the worst never came. I opened one eye then another. I realized I was being suspended in the air, only seconds away from landing face-first onto the ground. My body was turned around 180 degrees so my face was no longer facing the ground. Then I fell into a woman's arms.
"Are you alright, little one?"
"I'm fine. Thanks to you." I slowly answered. "Who are you?"
"I'm no enemy, young demigoddess." She looked at the top of the mountain. "Your friends are up there, right?"
"They are."
"Then I will take you to them."
She teleported us to the top of the mountain. The woman carefully placed me on the ground. All of my friends were there, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Annabeth! You're alive! Thank the gods!" Percy exclaimed. He turned to the stranger. "Who are you?"
"I'm Eos, goddess of the dawn." she answered. "I don't expect you to kneel for me. Not too many people know about me."
Eos was a very kind person, and she was a beautiful titaness. Her tanned skin blended with her chocolate colored hair and green eyes. She wore a long white dress and had her hair in a braid. She stood nearly seven feet tall, but that was because she wore black heels.
"I sense that this young girl needs some emotional reassurance." she said.
"Annabeth, what happened?" Percy asked.
I didn't want to think. I didn't want to feel. I felt like crying... "Phobos.. he showed me..." I started sobbing. "Several... visions... So many... fears..."
"Those fears are irrational. They're all in your head."
"Not all of them are."
"Tell me what you saw."
"The first fear was showing a vision of me suffering from a miscarriage. I was sobbing uncontrollably, feeling that it was my fault."
"That is an irrational fear. The chance of that happening is low. Even if Hera was on your bad side, it would still be unlikely. In fact, since Hera actually likes you now, the chances of a miscarriage should be minuscule. You have nothing to worry about there. What was the next vision?"
"The second vision was of me making a decision that caused my friends to be in danger and/or die in the process. It showed visions of Calypso suffering from blood loss and Piper suffering from the Chimera's venom."
"That's irrational. You couldn't have possibly known that Calypso was going to be mauled by wolves or that you, Hazel and Piper would encounter the Chimera. No mortal would have known. Unless you're Nathan or Rachael Elizabeth Dare. What happened next?"
"The third vision was Gwen, failing her quest and drowning in the Sea of Monsters."
"That's actually understandable. She's all alone on a highly dangerous quest in one of the most dangerous areas to demigods. But we must have faith in her. She's a tough cookie. Next?"
"The fourth vision showed Camp Half-Blood's barriers falling and the camp being invaded by Lamia and her army of monsters."
"That unfortunately is very real and could happen any moment. We don't know how long Lou Ellen's protection will last. I'm worried about this too. We all are. Even those of us that never stayed at Camp Half-Blood for a very long time. But we must have faith in our friends and believe that they will come through. Is that all?"
"No, there's three more. The fifth vision is Camp Jupiter's curse continuing forever and eventually destroying the camp in the process."
"I'm not sure on that one. Camp Jupiter has been cursed twice in a row, which according to Gwen, has never happened before, but it doesn't mean that Camp Jupiter is doomed. Next?"
"The sixth vision was losing you."
"Not going to happen. And finally?"
"The evil maiden had succeeded in her plans. She was standing on Olympus alongside her allies and said, 'Finally, the universe is ours!'"
"We will stop her. No matter how bad things get, we'll stop her and her allies." He embraced me, and I threw my arms around him.
Hazel looked at the goddess curiously. "What brings you here? Did you know that Annabeth was in trouble?"
She smiled warmly. "I had no idea she was going to fall off a cliff. It was just a fortunate occurrence that I happened to be there. Truth be told, I was just being a tourist trying to get away from a warring Mount Olympus."
"Warring Mount Olympus?" Frank asked in alarm.
"Khione told us that Mount Olympus was in shambles, but she didn't tell us what was happening." Leo said.
"She told you nothing. Everything's in complete catastrophe." Eos said. "Despite the fact that nobody blamed Dionysus for the corruption of Athena, Pheme started a rumor that he is responsible. What's worse, some people believe that deranged lunatic. What's worse is that Athena somehow escaped from her jail."
I gasped. "What?!" me and Percy exclaimed in unison.
"I know. It took all of the gods by surprise. Now several people are trying to blame one or more gods for this outbreak. Ares blames Hephaestus, as he's the one who built her prison. Dionysus blames Hera, who thinks that creating the sound-proof barrier weakened the bars of her jail cell. Everyone's pointing fingers at each other, but the truth is, no one knows who's responsible for what anymore. The peace on Mount Olympus is shattering into pieces, and it looks like no one can stop it."
"What about Hera?" I asked.
Eos' face turned sorrowful. "She's disappeared when we need her the most. No one knows where she is."
"Hestia?" Percy asked.
"She's also disappeared."
"This is strange. Two major goddesses disappearing..." Piper said.
"This has the evil maiden written all over it." Jason said.
"Artemis is also gone." Eos said.
"She's been kidnapped." Hazel said.
Eos gasped. "What?! This can not be true!"
"Unfortunately it is." I said. "I saw her and she spoke of how an evil maiden tricked her into taking Atlas's burden. For this, and several other reasons, me and my friends are seeking to find this rogue maiden and put an end to her evil ways."
"I guess that would explain why Apollo is not on Mount Olympus. He's searching endlessly for his sister." Eos gathered. "I know this isn't a relevant question, but are any of you men single?"
"Nope." Leo replied.
"Negative." Frank responded.
"Engaged." Jason said.
"Taken." Percy answered.
She sighed. "Oh well. I'll live."
"Why was she asking if any us were single?" Leo asked his fellow men.
"It's because Eos was cursed. Several millennia ago, she slept with Ares, facing the wrath of a jealous Aphrodite. She cursed the goddess with a constant passionate fire in her heart, so she sought out mortal men, sometimes even running away with them." I answered.
"So you know of my story." she said. "Not too many know about me. I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't faded like my two siblings did."
Piper slowly started backing away. Jason noticed. "Pipes, what's wrong?"
"Are you... still mad at Aphrodite?" she asked Eos.
"I used to be. For the first ten years, I was very angry at her. But overtime, I've learned to live with it and make the most of this curse. I bear no ill-will towards her." Eos answered. "Why do you ask? Are you a daughter of Aphrodite?"
She nodded slowly. "Are you going to hurt me?"
"I won't hurt you. It's not your fault that I'm cursed to pursue handsome young lads." she answered.
"So... On the topic of facing the evil maiden, what now?" I asked.
"I don't know. Phobos escaped and took Calypso as Annabeth fell." Leo said.
"If it weren't for the fact that Phobos is immortal, I would kill him." Percy stated.
I heard a noise. Deimos, who was chained up, was waking up, moaning. "Oh, and we have a captive god." Jason added.
Leo sighed. "It was not easy chaining him up."
"Let's get him back to Camp Jupiter. Then we'll see what we knows." I suggested.
"Good luck young heroes." Eos said. "You're gonna need it."
She disappeared in a flash of white light.
"Now for the real question; how are we going to get Deimos from here to Camp Jupiter?" Frank asked.
