Annabeth's POV
That afternoon was honestly one of the happiest I'd ever spent at camp, which maybe goes to show, you never know when your world is about to be turned upside down. Again.
Grover announced that he'd be able to spend the rest of the summer with us before resuming his quest for Pan. His bosses at the Council of Cloven Elders were so impressed that he hadn't gotten himself killed and had cleared the way for future searchers, that they granted him a two-month furlough and a new set of reed pipes. The only bad news: Grover insisted on playing those pipes all afternoon long, and his musical skills hadn't improved much. He played "YMCA," and the strawberry plants started going crazy, wrapping around our feet like they were trying to strangle us. I guess I couldn't blame them.
As for Tyson, the campers treated him like a hero. I would've been happy to get to know him better for the rest of the summer, but that evening, Chiron had gotten some surprising news from him and he relayed it to us:
Poseidon had sent Tyson a dream message the night before, wanting him to visit him in his underwater palace and learn to work at the Cyclopes' forges. He called it an internship. And he would have to leave right now. Jasmine and I worried about what Percy had to say about that.
She, Grover, Toothless and I went down to the beach where we spotted Tyson and Percy sitting on a sand dune together, and I assumed Tyson was telling him the news. I know he would've liked to have also gotten an invitation to visit his father in his own home territory. He wasn't the jealous type, but I would certainly understand why he would be in this case.
I couldn't hear what was said from the distance I was, but the conversation seemed to go well. Tyson patted Percy on the back so hard he almost knocked him down the sand dune. Then he wiped a tear from his cheek and stood to go.
They said one last thing to each other and he headed down to the beach and whistled. Rainbow, the hippocampus, burst out of the waves. I watched the two of them ride off together into the realm of Poseidon.
Once they were gone, we headed down towards Percy to give him some comfort. He pressed the button on his new wristwatch and the shield spiraled out to full size. Hammered into the bronze were pictures in Ancient Greek style, scenes from our adventures this summer. There was me slaying the Laistrygonian dodgeball player, Percy fighting the bronze bulls on Half-Blood Hill, Tyson riding Rainbow toward the Princess Andromeda, the CSS Birmingham blasting its cannons at Charybdis. Percy ran his hand across a picture of Tyson, battling the hydra as he held aloft a box of Monster Donuts.
I could tell he was sad. We all were. We were going to miss his fascination with heroes, the way he could fix chariots or crumple metal with his bare hands, or even tie bad guys into knots.
"Hey, Percy," Grover said.
He turned.
We had reached the top of the sand dune. I guess Tyson leaving affected him more than I thought because he was blinking a lot.
"Tyson . . ." he told us. "He had to . . ."
"We know," I said softly. "Chiron told us."
"Cyclopes forges." Grover shuddered. "I hear the cafeteria food there is terrible! Like, no enchiladas at all."
"That's horrible," Jasmine agreed. And she meant that too. Toothless nodded alongside her.
She went over to Percy and gave him a hug.
I held out my hand. "Come on, Seaweed Brain. Time for dinner."
We walked back toward the dining pavilion together, just the five of us, like old times.
A storm raged that night, but it parted around Camp Half-Blood as storms usually did. Lightning flashed against the horizon, waves pounded the shore, but not a drop fell in our valley. We were protected again, thanks to the Fleece, sealed inside our magical borders. Lucky for me and Jasmine.
It was our turn on guard duty that night to protect the Fleece. I was in full Greek armor while Jasmine refused to wear any of her armor, so it was hard to tell which of us stood out more. Probably her.
We sat on the hill a few feet away from Thalia's tree, overlooking the camp, as Toothless took the guard duty a little too seriously. He took turns watching both the ground and the sky for any attacks, staying alert and moving at the slightest sound. Since he was black all over, we couldn't seem him at all, and he easily snuck up on me without even meaning too. But he did laugh his ridiculous laugh every time he startled me.
I did suggest that he should be the Fleece's permanent protector, but that would mean staying with it 24/7, and Jasmine wasn't going to have her dragon be used like that and kept from being able to do anything with her ever again. They could find their own dragon to do that, but they weren't going to take hers.
"So . . ." Jasmine said as we watched Toothless take a little break to chase around a firefly. "What do you think about Percy and Grover's empathy link with each other?"
"Uh, nothing," I replied. "Absolutely nothing."
"Well, what do you think about if we—"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because, Jasmine, it's dangerous. If something were to happen to either of us, it would affect the other as well, no matter where we were."
"Would that be such a bad thing?"
"Yes."
"Well . . . what if I told you I already—"
"Jasmine!"
"Come on, Annabeth. I could not imagine continuing to live in a world where you no longer existed in it. Best friends stick together no matter what. Besides, if one of us were to die, the other would probably be there and die anyway, so it's a win-win."
"I love how you try to make sense of your utter crap reasonings."
"Why thank you."
"And you're incompetence to sarcasm."
"Oh, I'm fully aware wherever you're sarcastic, I just take it as a compliment."
I rolled my eyes. "What about your family, Jasmine? And Will and Toothless?"
"I will miss them dearly," she said. "But I don't want to miss you."
"When did you even do this?"
"After the chariot race."
"I was wondering why I didn't see you for a while."
"Well, it only took a few minutes. After the race, I had to go to the damn infirmary because somebody knocked my boyfriend into me, off a moving chariot, and onto the tracks where I got a bad scraping." She showed me her bandaged arms, legs, and forehead.
"Did you break Will's fall?"
"We broke each others. And Beckendorf was such a bitch."
"He was. Thanks to Tyson though, we beat him."
"Yeah."
Toothless decided to take a little break and relax on the grass between us, resting his head on Jasmine's lap.
"Are you still thinking about that dream of yours from last night?" Jasmine asked.
"That nightmare," I corrected. "And not until you brought it up right now. I was having a good day."
"Did you tell Percy about it?"
"No. I was thinking about telling him before the race, but he seemed distressed about something. And you seemed to know what it was about considering you sat with him at breakfast."
"Yeah."
"What happened?"
"It's not really for me to share, Annabeth. If you want to know, you're going to have to ask him."
"After all we've been through together?"
"Yes."
I sighed. "Fine. But do you think I should tell Percy?"
"No," Jasmine replied.
I stared at her. "Really?"
"Yes, really. I've been watching Percy since we brought him to camp at the beginning of this summer. He seems to have grown a strong hatred for Luke since last summer, and with good reason, because he did try to kill him at least twice before and then a couple more times since then. He challenged him, and I was so worried about Percy because I know he was out of shape and practice with his sword while I knew Luke was not. Percy also knows about our history with Luke."
"So, what, that means he doesn't trust us?"
"No, I don't think it's that. I'm not even sure what it is, really. But we don't need to fuel that anger towards him more than it already is. Or make him feel more guilty for someone else getting hurt because of what they did for us. And I know you want to save Luke."
I looked at her. She looked at me.
"That's what the Sirens were showing you, right?"
I had shown her what the Sirens showed me on their island last week the night we got back to camp. It was clear what they were trying to tell me.
"I hadn't considered it until that day," I admitted. "Luke's done a lot for us, Jasmine. Wouldn't you want to do the same for him?"
"Of course, Annabeth, but at what cost?"
"I don't condone anything he's not, especially to that girl."
"I hope not."
I hope not, I repeated in my head. Jasmine seemed to be doubting where my loyalties lied. I wondered if Percy felt the same way . . .
We remained silent and walked around the Fleece in Thalia's tree, watching for any possible offenders that would try and steal it.
The storm had broken sometime later and the sky was bloodred with dawn approaching. That's when our world turned upside down.
Toothless had been patrolling in the air, gliding in circles so many times that I lost count. He decided to take a break from that and patrolled with us on the ground when suddenly his ears perked up. He was watching the tree for a moment, and when he caught sight of what got his attention, he ran right towards it. Was something wrong with it? From where I was standing, the tree itself looked perfectly fine, whole and healthy, suffused with the essence of the Golden Fleece.
Toothless was looking down at its trunk. Jasmine and I were watching and waiting, slowly walking towards him until he called out in distress and we ran. When we were about a foot away and Toothless moved aside for us, we froze.
There at the base of the tree, a girl was lying unconscious. We quickly knelt down at her side. She had short black hair and freckles across her nose. She was built like a long-distance runner, lithe and strong, and she wore clothes that were somewhere between punk and Goth—a black T-shirt, black tattered jeans, and a leather jacket with buttons from a bunch of bands that I doubt even Jasmine had heard of . . . exactly what she was wearing on that last day so many years ago.
Jasmine and I made eye contact. We both agreed that it had to be her. But how? How was she here? And what would it mean for us and the whole camp now? Tears streamed down both of our faces. We didn't really care about that now. What we cared about was getting our friend back.
"Toothless!" Jasmine called. "Distress signal. Now!"
He raised his head toward the sky and shot his plasma blast into it, as fast as he could.
Within minutes, campers were already making their way toward the hill, satyrs and nymphs and heroes in a weird mix of armor and pajamas. A small crowd had started to gather around the tree. I spotted Chiron, Percy, who was riding on Chiron's back, and Grover, among them and ran towards Chiron.
"It . . . she . . . just suddenly there . . ." I tried to say.
Percy leaped off Chiron's back and ran toward the unconscious girl.
"Percy, wait!" Chiron called after him.
He knelt by her side. Jasmine was kneeling by her other side.
"This is what he meant, Percy," she told him.
I wasn't too sure on what she was referring to, but I bet it had something to do with what they talked about at breakfast yesterday. But I don't think Percy understood. Yet.
"It's true," Grover said, panting from his run up the hill. "I can't believe . . ."
Nobody else went close to the girl.
Percy put his hand on her forehead. "She needs nectar and ambrosia."
He took her by the shoulders and lifted her into a sitting position, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Come on!" he yelled to us. "What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House."
No one moved, not even Chiron. We were all too stunned.
Then the girl took a shaky breath. She coughed and opened her eyes.
Her irises were startlingly blue—electric blue.
The girl stared at Percy in bewilderment, shivering and wide-eyed. "Who—"
"I'm Percy," he said. "You're safe now."
"Strangest dream . . ."
"It's okay."
"Dying."
"No," he assured her. "You're okay. What's your name?"
He didn't know. Even I thought he would've without needing to ask. Well, he was about to learn. I think we all understood what the Golden Fleece quest had been about. The poisoning of the tree. Everything. Kronos had done it to bring another chess piece into play.
We, who should've been celebrating this moment, were too shocked, thinking about what it might mean for the future. And Percy was holding someone who was destined to be his best friend, or possibly his worst enemy.
"I am Thalia," the girl said. "Daughter of Zeus."
Second chapter this year! I'm already making progress! Lol.
What do you think about the empathy link between Annabeth and Jasmine now? Not gonna lie, I kind of forget about it sometimes (except during one specific period [that I haven't written just yet] later on where it will be important, if any of you may be able to guess when that is [there was a little preview in a previous chapter]) that I don't include it where it probably would make sense to do so, except when it changes the outcomes of the original books.
Please review, and please check out my Discord server! at discord . gg / bMFV9g6 (no spaces). Make sure you let me know who you are!
