Hello my lovelies, sorry for not updating sooner,
I had so much to study and I don't know, I'm having some problems
writing this at the moment.
But on the bright side, I had a good idea today, so hopefully I'll be back
to updating really often again.
Thanks to all of you for supporting me, please tell me what you think!
I still don't own PJO/HoO, and I still hope you enjoy this chapter
Oh, and Catching Fire? Ngaah, so gooood!

Chapter sixty-five: Confusing Otis
~Annabeth's POV~

Fighting their way up the mountain was slow work.
Annabeth and the rest of the Argo crew had landed out of sight of the giants, and had then slowly
proceeded to follow the huge ugly figures, climbing up the mountain.
But not only evading being spotted had proven difficult, no, the ground itself seemed to be putting up a fight.
Every time Annabeth or any of the others stepped on grass, it started to curl around their legs immediately, thickening into bond like vines, which rooted the victim to the spot.
It had taken several slashes of Riptide for Percy to free himself of the stuff the first time, and the second time, Hazel had almost disappeared behind a muddy green veil before Frank had wrenched her free.
Luckily, the mountain side was covered in rocks and bolder-like parts of ground, so they had a way
of scaling it without touching actual earth.
It was difficult and dangerous, and also too loud for Annabeth's liking, as some giants weren't extremely far ahead of them.
So far, they hadn't been spotted however, and they were about to take down their first giant, or rather, try to slow him down.
"So, are we all clear on the plan?" Frank asked. Everybody nodded, though they were all looking a little queasy. They had decided on attacking the slowest of the giants first, thus hoping none of the others would notice.
Luckily for them, the slowest giant was Otis, whose twin was way ahead of him and still too upset with his brother to wait for Otis to catch up.
Jason held out his arm to Annabeth, who took hold, gripping tightly. She shot an apologetic look at
Piper, but her best friend didn't seem to mind. On the contrary, Piper was trying hard not to grin as she looked at Percy, whose mouth was set in a thin line, and whose sea green eyes flashed at Jason.
Annabeth laughed at her boyfriend's jealousy at a time like this.
"Ready?" Jason asked her, and Annabeth concentrated on the plan again.
"Yeah."
"Okay then. See you all in a bit."
Jason summoned the winds and let them lift himself and Annabeth into the air.
Flying with Jason was actually pretty awesome, though of course Annabeth would never tell Percy that.
They sailed up the slope, until Otis was almost directly beneath them.
The giant was grumbling to himself, throwing dirty looks at the back of his brother.
"Hey, Ephialtes, wait up!" Otis yelled, but the other twin was too far ahead to hear.
Annabeth looked at Jason, and they shared a look of agreement.
It was now or never.
Quick as a flash, Jason set Annabeth down a little to the right of Otis, on top of a tree just at the edge of a cliff, and flew away to hide.
Annabeth knew she had only one chance to get this right.
With a loud a yell as she could muster, Annabeth called "What do you mean, Swan Lake it the worst ballet ever?" She was looking at the tree limb beside her, pretending to be talking to some one.
Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth saw Otis halt, turning his head to the sound of her voice.
"No, the dance isn't ridiculous!" She said again, loudly, actually pointing a finger at the air in front of her, to make it seem like someone was sitting there.
Otis was now jogging towards her. Okay, calm down. Annabeth told herself, as the giant got closer.
With an exasperated sigh, she said, "Oh, I wish there was someone here who actually understood entertainment, cause you sure don't!"
"Oi!" Came a bellow beside her, much louder than she'd anticipated. Keeping a calm face, Annabeth turned around, to find herself almost eye to eye with the giant, her tree being as tall as the monster himself.
Otis was looking at her with half anger, half confusion in his face.
"What?" she asked, lifting up an eyebrow "Are you here to insult Swan Lake as well?"
The giant was taken aback. "Ey? Insult Swan- No I love it, why would I? What're you doin' here, demi-"
"Oh good!" Annabeth cried, flinging her hands in the air, interrupting the giant, who still looked surprised. "Finally someone who understands entertainment! I keep telling him, he shouldn't have taken the job if he has no clue whatsoever.."
"What job?" Otis asked, perplexed, but Annabeth could see him fingering his spear, and she knew she only had seconds before he realised what she was doing, or where they were standing. She only hoped Jason had had enough time to build up some energy.
With the same lofty air, she continued talking as if Otis hadn't said anything.
"I mean, there were so many better qualified contestants, don't you think?"
Now the giant was starting to get angry.
"Listen here, demigod. I wanna know who you are and who this is you're talking about!"
"Alright, I'll tell you" Annabeth said, and actually leaned towards Otis, although she was really shifting her weight into the correct position.
Just as she had anticipated, Otis subconsciously leaned towards her as well, and when they were only about a metre apart, Annabeth said "The person I'm talking about is – NOW!"
She yelled the last word and leaped into the air, as high as she could.
Otis barely had time to grunt "Now? Who's that?" Before a wall of wind slammed into his back, propelling him into the tree. The poor plant had no chance whatsoever against a creature that size, and it ripped out of the ground, sending itself and the giant tumbling down the cliffs, accompanied by yells of anger from Otis, which echoed far more loudly than was good.
In the mean time, Annabeth was falling toward the ground, which was rushing up to meet her a little faster than she liked.
Just as she was sure she was about to become demigod mush, strong arms wrapped around her and Jason and she flew back into the sky, scanning the ground for their friends.
"It worked! Thank Zeus Otis isn't exactly smart." Jason said happily, and they high-fived, which almost made Jason drop her.
"Oops, sorry." he said, catching her by the shoulder.
"Let's find the others. There're still at least nine more giants left."
Jason nodded and soon they set down where they'd left the rest of the crew.
Percy hugged Annabeth and Piper gave Jason a quick kiss.
"Did it work?" Hazel wanted to know, and Annabeth nodded.

"Yeah, but we have to hurry up if we want to stop any of the others from reaching the temple."
The rest murmured in agreement and they started back up the mountain-
"Hey, Annabeth" Piper said, jumping onto the bolder beside her. Her friend's face had a strange look on it, and Annabeth asked "What's up?"
"There's something I've seen-"
But suddenly the ground started to shake and a voice rang around them, clearer than ever before, and so anciently evil it made Annabeth's skin crawl.
Too late demigods, too late.
You have failed Olympus, I am afraid.
I am awake and soon I shall destroy the gods and take what is rightfully mine.
In the mean time, I will start by killing you.
Annabeth barely had time to register Gaia's words, before the first avalanche raced down towards them, a deadly mass of earth and stone.