Chapter 1
Percy
Loud fanfare blared through the cabins, what a way to wake up! As if I could not get enough sleep already with the constant nightmares, and waking up at the bright and early hour of 4:30 a.m. every morning. I hauled myself out of bed--perfectly aware of what was happening on this very "special" day--not bothering to change or brush my hair it wasn't worth it for the Olympians, most of them at least. The camp was in a bit of a frenzy "preparing" for the events to occur later, I stopped by Cabin 6 hoping to catch Annabeth before she had to corral her siblings to the amphitheater. No luck.
"Yo Perce" Jason Grace, just the person I wanted to talk to this fine morning.
To spare you the boredom of swapping formal pleasantries with Jason Grace, let's just say clarification he needed … on a disclosed topic. Back to now, I am squished in between what I would call an awkward sandwich. This lovely sandwich consists of Me, a very awkward Jason, a confused Piper, and Leo. Leo was sitting above me fiddling with some gadget and muttering about philpershead screws or something like that. Whilst Jason and Piper were sitting on either side of me both shedding an in-humanly amount of sweat despite the heat.
I just started considering shimmying out from between them and leaving them to their own devices, when I stopped Annabeth shoving her way through the hoards of people. My saving grace.
"Hi" She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek "Sorry I'm so late Malcolm had a bit of an accident."
"It's fine and thank you for saving me"
"Wait what?" Right on cue, 12 thrones appeared in the center of the amphitheater, each throne had a glowing insignia carved on the top. One by one the Olympians started appearing atop their thrones, excluding Artemis and Hera. The entire amphitheater fell silent, Hermes strode to the center of the green.
"As most of you know, today is the day we each pick one of our demigod children to live on Olympus with us for the year." Hermes looked right up at me and winked, classic god of cheeseburgers. "I would like to make this quick so the chosen demigods include the following Perseus Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Piper McClean, Jason Grace, Thalia Grace, Frank Zhang, Leo Valdez, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano…" Crumbs from the croissant she had been eating fell out of her mouth, Hermes cleared his throat and continued. "Nico Di Angelo, William Solace, and more to be disclosed later." Just as Hermes finished, Mr. D's loud and annoying voice rang through the speakers.
"Ok little annoyances anyone who was picked please report to the Big House."
"Well, I guess us little annoyances should head to the Big House." Leo popped up behind sprinkling tiny pieces of metal in my hair.
"Yay, we're annoying!"
Mr. D was less than pleased to have a whole bunch of annoying half-bloods, and Hermes in his office. Chiron was also there but I wouldn't class him as annoying.
"So little half-bloodians today begins your journey to Olympus, you all need to be packed and ready by tomorrow morning when I come to pick you guys up." Hermes was lounging on top of Mr. D's desk munching on a cheeseburger. "Any questions?" he asked while wiping burger crumbs from his hands.
One kid in the back's hand shot up, I had never seen the kid before but he looked like he was from Tyche Cabin.
"Will we get to see our mortal families at all?" Hermes bobbed his head from side to side.
"Depends," The kid nodded sorrowfully. "Any more questions?" Everyone shook their heads. "Well, you all best get packing then."
I 100% did not pack enough. My shoulders didn't feel like they were going to pop out of their sockets which was a clear indicator. We had been told Hermes was picking us up in groups based on age, which meant I was one of the first to go, whoopie. Hermes arrived after a couple of minutes of uncomfortable waiting.
"Ok so first I am taking Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Elizabeth Conway, Keiran Graves, Gillian Madison, and… some other kids." Hermes motioned for us to follow him, we filed into a van then we were off.
The empire state building looked even more intimidating than usual, the guy at the front desk was still reading the same Harry Potter book as the last time I had been to Olympus.
Hermes drummed his hands on the front desk. "Yo Frank, we need the expanded version and let Perle know we're coming up.
"Will do sir"
Surprise, surprise, the "Piña Colada" song was playing in the elevator. I needed to give Apollo a serious talk.
"Who's Perle?" Hermes had never mentioned her before.
The elevator bell rang as the doors opened, the vast landscape of Olympus spread out in front of us. A girl was sitting on the steps of the spiral staircase leading up to Olympus. She had thick black hair pulled back into a ponytail, her eyes were a cold shade of blue but they were kind and crinkled at the edges. Most likely from smiling. Hermes turned to me and smiled.
"This is Perle." Hermes gestured to her, she smiled slightly in response. "My daughter."
"Hi." Her voice was bright and bubbly but also strained like she didn't want to be here. "You must be Percy Jackson, it's nice to meet you."
"You too"
"I'll be showing you guys around then escorting you to where you all will be staying."
"I guess I should get going." Hermes walked up to Perle, kissed her on the forehead then quickly left.
"Shall we begin?" Perle turned on her heel and began walking up the steps whilst the rest of us followed.
She started by showing us the courtyard which was filled with dozens of flowers and cherry blossom trees, and a whole bunch of mingling pedestrians, satyrs, and nymphs. Next, she showed us the gardens, some temples, and the armory. After that, she showed us pretty much everything else in between. To end the tour she brought us to the throne room.
"I am now going to individually show you where you will be staying and I am warning you now there might be some people other than you godly parents that you will have to… deal with."
What the hell was she talking about?
"I am taking you first"
I pointed to myself.
"Yes you, now let's go everyone else just wait here."
Perle led me through a maze of halls and doors until we eventually reached a tunnel of some sort of tunnel carved out coral and other sea materials I could not identify.
"This is the entrance to Atlantis from Olympus." She stepped up to the entrance of the tunnel and spoke some kind of password. The tunnel lit up and whirred to life… with water, Perle put her hand out toward me. I wasn't sure what was about to happen but I took her hand. She grabbed me by the forearm and yanked me into the water, the fast-moving water yanked up the skin on my face. We were moving at such a fast pace I barely realized that we had landed, we were standing on a dock overlooking a shipyard.
"Welcome to Atlantis."
I looked out across the surface of the deep blue water taking in the buildings made of abalone and fine coral. The vast city was lit by sea glass lanterns filled with greek fire, the whole city was encased in a bubble of oxygen allowing its people to breathe but still travel into the water.
"It's beautiful."
"Isn't it? I always love coming here. Come one I'll show you to the palace."
Perle basically just led me in a circle then up a whole bunch of steps, what I hoped was the final flight of steps was lined with fountains. The hall or throne room or whatever it is was huge, and the fact that there was a giant statue of my dad at the end of it did not help with how overwhelming all this already was. Perle had also disappeared which meant I was all on my own.
"Percy!" My dad. He looked the same as he always did his tanned skin, sea-green eyes, and smile lines.
"Dad!"
He came up behind me, clapping me on the shoulder "How are you doing with all this son?"
"Eh..."
"Hm ok, um before she gets here I just want to-"
At that moment a girl who looked all too much like dad and me strode into the room. She was tall, really tall, with platinum blonde hair and light sea-green eyes.
"You didn't tell me he was going to be here."
"I'm sorry Penn, I meant to tell you beforehand, Percy, meet your older sister, Penny."
At the mention of her name, her green eyes narrowed at me as if I had wronged her in some way.
"I gotta go feed the horses, it was nice to meet you I guess." Dad turned to me apologetically as Penny stalked out of the room.
"I'm sorry she will come around eventually."
"It's ok pop, I get it, it's a lot for her having someone she has never met barge into her life." He sighed.
"You're right, let's go meet some horses."
