Mom was so happy to have me home she couldn't even hide it. We had a party with entirely blue food, and I told mom all about the Siren and suggested that we should all go on holiday at Christmas somewhere nice. Paul was intrigued at the mention of a real frigate from the eighteenth century and was entirely up for a voyage. He was just getting better and better. Totally a far cry from Smelly Gabe Ugly-ano. I was so happy for mom and cried at her wedding which made Paul our step-dad. Since he knew all about the other world outside the mortal's understanding, he often asked Percy and I questions so that he could keep up with us all, and considering he was still fairly new to all this and he'd even fought in a war, he was dealing with this like a champ. For a while I'd suspected that maybe he was a monster in disguise, but Tyson assured me that he smelled mortal and that he liked Paul too. If Tyson liked him, then that was more than enough for me. Things started to turn around, and soon enough it was like we were an almost normal family leading very ordinary lives.
Since I basically failed school and missed graduation, I took up night classes in order to get my GED and worked hard to catch up so that I could apply to college in order to start a career working on the ocean. All the while I wore the Golden Fleece, and little by little it pieced me back together. Meanwhile, Luke had vanished. He sent me word about where he was like he promised in the form of postcards with pictures of the places he was at only he didn't write anything on the back other than my address. It made me sad, but I pushed such thoughts and feelings to the back of my mind, because honestly I was so exhausted from two years of war and struggle that a relationship with Luke was the last thing on my mind. I mean, I'd be happier than anything if he suddenly realised he had feelings for me too, but I wasn't about to wait around for him like some tragic princess. I have my own things to worry about and a lot of time to make up with mom. I hoped he would have found his head and come back by the winter, but so far no sign of him was to be had. I worried about him, but I decided that I couldn't continue obsessing over whether or not he was okay because I had my own life to live now, and with a ship full of treasure we could afford some luxuries now. Mom had only used a little of the treasure that had made its way to her from the backpack I had given to Percy when I'd challenged Luke on the Andromeda, enough for her to get by but I insisted that we sell the rest of the gems and buy a house in a nicer part of town, where we might even be able to have a garden and a pool. The pool sounded particularly good, and after moving house, Percy made sure to bring with him this glowing silvery plant he'd gotten from Calypso when he'd been dropped on her island by Hera after he'd almost gotten himself blown up in a volcano.
I had hoped that life would continue to go well from then on, that our roles as heroes would be over in the more dynamic sense of the world, but Percy had the most rotten luck in the world, and when he went missing in December just before Christmas, I dropped everything in order to go looking for him. It was like he had completely vanished, and no matter who I contacted, no one had heard word of him. Not even Grover could find him with their empathy link, which made me worry all the more. He wasn't dead, otherwise Nico would know, so he was alive somewhere and probably in a whole load of trouble knowing him. Dad didn't answer my prayers, none of the gods did, which only made me worry all the more as I gave up everything in order to go looking for Percy myself, I'd even asked the naiads and nereids about Percy but they too had not sensed the presence of the son of Poseidon. I was practically ready to tear my hair out, and mom was stressed like crazy. First me vanishing, and now Percy. We really were awful children. With everything in such an uproar, I decided to head back to camp in order to see what was going on. Percy had been missing only three days, but still it was enough to cause most people to panic.
When I arrived, everyone rushed me at once demanding if I knew anything, Annabeth full-body tackling me almost to the ground as she practically had to fight to hold back her own tears. I'd switched to sight for today so that I could see everybody, shouting over the noise to tell them that I hadn't heard from Percy either, but I would definitely find him somehow because he was my little brother and once I did, I was probably going to kill him. Annabeth couldn't stay long because she had had a dream telling her to go somewhere to look for a guy with one shoe where she would find out what had happened to Percy, and seeing as this was the first real lead we'd had since he'd vanished, I wasn't about to hold her back. She went by chariot with Butch and I flew with them on Snowstorm, armed and ready to fight whatever we might meet because honestly, there was no way this was going to be an easy pickup mission. Whoever had taken Percy had spirited him away from camp right under everyone's noses without any trace of him being left behind and no signs of a struggle. I was so on edge with worry that I had to wonder if this was how Percy had felt when I had been trapped on the Andromeda and unable to leave. If this was his sick way of getting back at me, then I was definitely going to murder him.
Anyway, we knew where we were going because not only were we looking for answers about Percy's whereabouts, but because one of the senior satyr protectors had called up for help to extract these two kids he'd found, demigods, though apparently they were a little older than the normal sort you'd find. Around sixteen, which shouldn't be right because if that were the case they should have been claimed last summer according to the new rule set by Percy that all gods, both major and minor, were required to claim their kids by the age of thirteen and have them sent to Camp Half-Blood for training. Instead of two, we found three kids looking a little windswept and worse for weather, one guy only having one shoe, and no sign of Hedge, their protector. Annabeth was so eager to find the answers that she was off that chariot before it had even stopped moving whilst Snowstorm landed directly in front of the three kids, rearing and trumpeting rather magnificently as she swept her wings before then tossing her glimmering mane. "You are such a show-off, you know that right?"
'I have no idea what you are talking about, Lady Lily, I merely had something in my hair.' Smirking with brief amusement, I swung myself down and patted her neck as I now looked at the three kids in front of me. Most in particular, I looked at the taller boy with blond hair and a scar upon his upper lip, because for a few moments, I thought of Luke when I looked at him. My face panged with sharp emotion but I quickly overcame it as Annabeth demanded to know where Gleeson Hedge was. All three of them looked back at us dumbly, probably not too sure what to think of the fact that there were three flying horses in front of them with three probably rather odd looking strangers. Opening my mouth for a moment I tasted at the air and felt a strong sense of static electricity, meaning that someone had been playing around with lightning not too long ago, and for a moment I thought maybe it had been Zeus until the taller and more muscly kid spoke up to explain that Hedge had been taken by the monster that had attacked them.
"Venti, storm spirits." The Latin immediately drew my attention, so I studied him a little more closely as Annabeth corrected him.
"You mean anemoi thuellai? That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?" The same guy spoke again because the other two just didn't seem up for any kind of communication, seemingly rather in shock and after listening to the boy explain what had happened with the storm spirit and their coach, Coach Hedge as he referred to him, I wasn't surprised. I learned that the girl had been thrown over the edge of the skywalk into the grand canyon and had only survived because somehow, this dude could fly. Pretty impressive, so I thought maybe he was a child of one of the wind gods, and I sympathised with Piper, the girl as we learned her name, because that sounded like a really sucky experience. Having fallen from great heights myself, I knew it was no picnic. Sheathing Amaryllis I shifted the folds of the fleecy coat I wore, which of course was the actual Golden Fleece, still working on healing me. I looked across to Annabeth when the explanation was over and saw her face contort. "No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."
"Maybe she was just toying with you, Annabeth. We know what she's like." I reasoned softly, reaching out to grip her shoulder firmly to offer her comfort. The dream she'd received had been from Hera, of all people. Someone who was least likely to contact Annabeth of all people because of the fact that Annabeth had insulted her a couple of years ago. I had no idea what was going on, but when Butch pointed out the fact that Jason only had one shoe, it confirmed that this was the person we were meant to find. Not my brother, but this dude. I was more than a little angry, because I had been hoping that for once things would be simple, but of course, things never were. "Answers or not, we can't stick around here much longer. Those storm spirits might come back, and any minute now the mortals are going to start waking up from the Mist and wonder what happened. We need to go." I instructed, taking charge because Annabeth was too distraught to really do anything, so I tentatively guided her back onto the chariot as she begrudgingly agreed, though she shot the blond kid a rather aggrieved glower as she did so.
"What's her problem? What's going on?" The girl finally spoke up and I glanced her way after making sure Annabeth was on the chariot. She was rather cute looking, with choppy and uneven hair that had two braids hanging among the loose snips of hair, subtle features but rather lovely eyes. Her scent was strangely a lot like my mom's, peppermint and liquorice though no one else would be able to tell this. My nose was very sensitive after all. The other boy agreed with her, looking nervous and uncertain, constantly glancing at Butch with a look that seemed to convey the worry that Butch was going to squish him like a bug. Butch was one of our newer residents at camp, and although he did look rather intimidating, we both got on extremely well because of the fact that the horses and pegasi loved us both.
"We have to get you out of here. I'll explain on the way." Butch assured them, but the taller guy immediately backtracked.
"I'm not going anywhere with her." He announced with a look towards Annabeth who was currently gripping her head in her hands. "She looks like she wants to kill me." True as this was, I couldn't blame Annabeth for looking that way. I kind of wanted to strangle the kid myself out of frustration. We'd come here hoping to find Percy, but all we found was this kid instead. I wanted to know what had happened to my brother, so this wasn't exactly improving any of our moods around here, and I wasn't about to mess around waiting for these kids to decide to do as they were told. Butch told them that Annabeth was okay and that they should cut her some slack as I went over to the smaller boy and grabbed his shoulder, turning his face this way and that because he seemed to have a couple of injuries all over him.
"She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem." Butch continued before then glancing to me as I all but shoved a half square of ambrosia into the kid's mouth so that he'd heal up even as he protested but when he tasted it, immediately stopped fussing and chewed it eagerly because of how good it must have tasted. "Well, their problem." Piper spoke up, asking what our problem was so I sent Butch a level glare which made him blush slightly before muttering. "They've been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing for three days. They've been going out of their mind with worry. They hoped he'd be here."
"Who?"
"Annabeth's boyfriend and Lily's little brother. A guy named Percy Jackson."
"That's enough." I snapped quickly, not wanting to hear about my brother right now because of the pressure his name brought down upon my head. "We're leaving. Now. Come on you three, unless you want to die here, I suggest you get on the chariot." I practically ordered, ushering them forwards though the littler kid, Leo I think his name was, piped up.
"Can't one of us fly on that horse? The chariot would be a little crowded." A tirade of indignant insults fluttered through my mind from Snow as she tossed back her head and snorted angrily, pounding her hoof and scraping it at the ground as she flapped her wings at Leo who quickly changed his mind. "You know what? Never mind."
"Snowstorm is my pegasus. When you get your own pair of wings, then you can fly. Until then, she only lets me ride her unless there are extenuating circumstances. Come on, quit your fussing and hurry up. There's plenty of room in the chariot." Once they were all on board, even the guy who was rightfully wary of Annabeth, I noticed a tattoo on his wrist which was visible because the sleeve of his windbreaker had pulled back which made me stop and blink for a moment. There was an eagle with twelve lines below it, managing to count them quickly but most significant of all were the letters SPQR. Now, I'd learned enough Latin from Chiron over the years to know what those initials stood for. Senatus Populusque Romanus, or in English, The Senate and the Roman people. It was an Ancient Roman thing, so to see such a tattoo on a boy who quite frankly reeked of strangeness and oddness, I had to wonder what it all meant. Finding him here with two other half-bloods, being able to fight off the storm spirits on his own and having a strange tattoo of Roman design? I think the gods were messing with us again. I could barely keep my head straight as I mounted up and flew on Snow into the air to take point on the chariot, making sure that nothing else came after us whilst letting my vision fade into blindness because to be honest, as much as I loved flying with Snow, I didn't really want to see the gorgeous views of the world around us right now. I tried to think about what to do next but I was coming up short, only getting as far as talking to Chiron to maybe get some answers. If he didn't have an idea then…well I just hoped that wherever Percy was, he was alright.