Whoopdie-doop, chapter ten is here.
Please review, so I know what to do better.
Do you guys think I should do a Penelope's POV?
Tell me what you think!
Only own Penelope and my other OCs :)
~thegirlwiththetrident
Chapter ten: A place to sleep
When they got back to camp, they decided the first thing to do before telling Penelope anything was to consult Chiron, who had a lot of experience and always had some good advice at hand.
Annabeth led the way to the Big House, her blonde curls glinting in the sunlight.
The old centaur was sitting in his favourite spot outside, his horse body enclosed in the magic wheelchair.
"Leo, Annabeth. " he said, eyeing them kindly "What is it?"
"Chiron, we think we know who the second part of the Great Prophecy meant" Annabeth told him in a rush.
He raised his dark eyebrows and said "You do?".
Somehow Leo got the impression that Chiron wouldn't be very surprised at what they were about to tell him, and he was proven right.
When Annabeth said "We think it means Penelope" the centaur didn't look astonished at all, simply continued to listen intently.
They explained all about their theory, and how they were planing on testing it and when they were finished, they stood there for a minute in silence, looking expectantly at Chiron.
Their teacher took his time responding.
"Well," he said, slowly "I think you might be right. And I would advise you to go ahead with your test. But" and now he regarded them with a piercing stare "do not forget that what you tell her might very well frighten Penelope. Zeus knows she has had enough to deal with lately, and to be told about this quest... Perhaps you should wait and see if your theory proves to be right first. Simply invite her for a night in the Argo II, you may sleep there as well. I believe she was rather impressed with the ship?"
Leo nodded, his cheeks burning a bit. He was still hesitant to load all of this on his new friend, but he knew that it couldn't wait.
"Report back to me when you know more" Chiron told them, and they walked back across the grass, passed the strawberry fields and the lake.
"Annabeth" Leo said, turning towards her "What if Penelope isn't who we think she is?"
"Then she can stay here, and try to live a normal life" she answered, though at the word normal her expression turned doubtful.
A sigh escaped Leo's lips, and he looked around "Where is she anyway?"
Annabeth shrugged her shoulders and proposed that they start looking for Penelope in the Hecate cabin.
When they knocked on the door, a pale boy opened it. Leo knew this was one of Pen's half-brothers, but he had forgotten his name.
The boy looked at them in a scrutinising way, an expression all of the Hecate lot seemed to have mastered. He had white, almost translucent skin and equally fair hair, though his dark eyes contrasted this. They were so dark brown, they seemed almost black and he had a scar next to his right ear.
"Hello Cal" Annabeth said, and even her normally confident voice sounded a bit unsure facing this creepy guy, whose whole name was Callister as Leo now recalled.
"Hello, Annabeth and Leo" Cal nodded at them. The way he said their names alone, sounded like a dark spell, and Leo's spine shivered. Poor Pen, having to live in the same cabin as this guy.
Cal gave Leo an angry look then, as if he had read his mind.
Uh oh, Leo thought. Telekinesis...
"We were wondering if we could talk to Penelope?" Annabeth asked, smiling a very forced smile.
Callister didn't answer immediately. "No." he then told them.
"What do you mean, no? If we want to talk to her, we will" Leo snapped, irritated.
A sneer played around Cal's mouth.
"You can't talk to her, Leo Valdez, because she's not here at the moment. So unless you are able to summon people with your mind, I would advise you to go look for Pen elsewhere."
with that he shut the door in their faces.
"Well" Annabeth spluttered, affronted. "How dare he talk to us like that!"
Leo knew that pride was one of the main characteristics of the Athena children, and Annabeth's had obviously been hurt.
But he didn't want her to cause a scene, so he grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the cabins.
"That guy can read minds" Leo told Annabeth, but she just shook her head, as if this information didn't interest her at all.
"Of course he can. That's a major power of Hecate's. But that still doesn't give him the right to talk to us like that!"
"Yeah, well, next time you fight him in class, you can kick his butt. For now, let's just focus on finding Penelope, okay?"
Annabeth huffed, but nodded.
They searched the whole of camp, even the Big House and the beach, but Penelope wasn't anywhere.
Night was already falling, and Leo was getting worried. Had Pen's dark assumption that at some point she would just fall over and not get up, become true?
They had asked everyone, though no one had any idea where the daughter of Hecate was.
When Leo asked Jason and Piper for their help searching the forest, they immediately said yes.
So, the four of them made their way to the woods, and Annabeth explained all about their idea on who Penelope was to Jason and Piper.
"Gods, how could we have been so stupid?" Piper muttered, and Jason nodded in agreement.
"At first I thought that she might have gotten here the same way I had, but I couldn't think why Hera would send her. I didn't think of the second part of the prophecy at all."
"Yeah, well" Leo said, as they started to make their way through the woods, calling Penelope's name. "We haven't known about it for long."
"No" the others agreed, and silence fell.
Leo was sure they were all thinking of the day two months before, when there had been a counsellor meeting to discuss some details of the Argo II.
Jason had just said "So are all of the eight rooms ready then?" when Rachel, who had only joined them because she'd been bored, had gone mysterious-prophecy-mode and spoken those lines that now kept running wildly through Leo's mind
The lost one shall join the seven,
a child of the light in heaven
though the source of mighty power-
and then their oracle had simply stopped, and fainted.
It had been a very cryptic message and at the time Leo had been super annoyed. The message had meant that he would have to rethink some of the interior of the Argo II and plan in an extra room.
"So, do we split up?" Annabeth asked, making them all return back to the present.
"Makes sense" Leo said, and Jason added "I'll go with Leo" which surprised Leo.
Normally, Jason and Piper would have been a team, but now his best friend turned right with him, while the girls turned left.
"So" Jason said after a while, in which they'd seen nothing but a lonely chicken, running around.
"Penelope might come with us."
Leo nodded, wondering why Jason's voice sounded so strange.
"What's the deal between you two anyway?" he asked, and Leo was glad that it had gotten dark so his best friend wouldn't see him blush.
"We've only known each other for a week" he answered, evading the question.
"Yeah, but you spend a lot of time together" Jason pushed.
But Leo only shook his head. "Let's just find her and tell her about this mess, okay?"
After some hesitation, Jason nodded.
"We need light." he said, and Leo automatically reached for his tool belt.
But it wasn't there.
"Hades!" he cursed, "I left my tool belt in Bunker nine!"
"Why don't you just make a little fire?" Jason asked, and Leo did so, a bit embarrassed that he hadn't thought of this right away.
"I still want to go fetch it" he told Jason, who nodded and so they set of towards Bunker nine.
Coincidently, they ran into the girls, only a few minutes before they reached the Bunker.
"Found anything?" Annabeth asked, but the boys shook their heads.
"Only a chicken" Leo added and to his surprise Annabeth rolled her eyes and muttered
"That dam chicken."
Just then they reached the bunker, and Leo was about to open it when he saw that the entrance already stood open.
Immediately, Leo reached for the knife he had taken only as a precaution.
"Wait here" he hissed at the others and carefully creeped inside the door.
There was nothing inside which posed an immediate threat, so he motioned to the others to follow him.
They spread out, looking for the thing which had entered the secret place.
"I definitely locked up" Leo murmured.
"Look!" Piper hissed, and pointed towards the Argo, which was situated in the middle of the room.
Leo saw what Piper meant: A hatch, the same one he and Penelope had used, stood wide open.
"There's something in there" Jason whispered, and one by one, they quietly entered the ship.
Without the usual glow of the lamps, the inside was dark and Leo could feel the others shifting uneasily.
He himself had no problem finding his bearings, he had built this place after all.
They checked every room, though they didn't find anything.
Only when they passed the door of the lost room, did Leo notice something strange.
"That door was closed" he whispered to his friends, pointing towards the now wide open door.
Annabeth raised her eyebrows at him, and Leo nodded, silently moving into the room, his knife held at the ready.
There was something inside the bed, something that was making the blankets rise and sink, as it breathed in and out.
A dark haired, slim-fingered something.
Unable to stop himself, Leo let out a sudden loud laugh, and he heard the others jump and something hit a wall.
"Ow!" Piper yapped, as Jason came rushing into the room, his sword at the ready.
"What is it?" he said, looking around and brandishing his weapon.
"Put that down" Leo told him, still laughing, as the girls came in as well, Piper rubbing her head.
"I think Annabeth," Leo said, as he lit a lamp on the bedside table "That your theory has just been proven right."
Annabeth looked at him confusedly for a moment, but when Leo motioned to the person lying there, her expression cleared up and she smiled, as well.
On the bed, fast asleep and her hair tangled around her face, was Penelope, oblivious to the fact that she'd just sealed her own destiny by the simple act of falling asleep.