I DO NOT OWN THE PERCY JACKSON SERIES
Approximately 13 hours after departure.
Roughly 6-7 am the next morning.
Off the Amalfi coast.
PERCY
Percy looked at the sight of the Amalfi coastline.
They were 400 miles off the coast, 3500 miles in the air.
From this position, the people looked like crazy little ants bustling around gigantic, beautiful, not so brightly colored Lego bricks that were seemingly imbedded into the rough hilly coastline.
Percy looked at Annabeth. Excitement and happiness oozed out of her. Her grey eyes were dark with sheer wonderment at the sight before her.
He smiled as she bit her lip in excitement, sighing inwardly; contentment was erasing the stress of the last few days...or months considering he had been asleep for a few months.
There was a feeling though, that he was forgetting something important.
Something he meant to tell Annabeth, but every time he came close to remembering it, it vanished, because there was always some other pressing issue to attend to.
"oh look..." Annabeth practically shouted his ear off, pointing to something in the distant coastline, bouncing excitedly up and down on her feet.
Percy didn't know exactly what she was excited about, nor did he care, he was just happy to be with her.
"er...guys...I think we have a problem" Frank's voice drifted over to everyone. There was this calmness in his voice that sounded forced.
They all went over to him and Hazel, who were both standing as though frozen.
"whats wrong?" Percy and Jason said at the same time. They looked at each other with a mixture of embarrassment and acknowledgment
Technically both of then were the leaders of this quest; but ironically, since Jason couldn't remember his reign as praetor, he wasn't use to shared leadership.
Frank nodded towards a section of the coast line that was really a stack of cliffs with the lowest drop of approximately 500 feet.
It was entirely deserted by mortals, presumably because of the unevenness of the terrain.
About 300 feet inland, on the grassy ground of the third highest cliff; a 20 foot giant sat in the classic meditation pose. It was focused on activity on the ground where hundred of earth born rushed around.
Everyone on board the Argo 2 simple stared in silence.
Percy, Annabeth and Jason, seasoned heroes, began mentally assessing and dissecting.
Piper, Leo , Hazel and Frank, novice compared to the other three were, dumbstruck.
Percy broke the silence.
"how nice a welcoming party" he said cheekily
"er...cancel the vaca to Italy...anyone?" Leo asked shakily.
Annabeth, Percy and Jason looked at each.
"find a spot easy to land on, but hard to find." Annabeth said.
"ready your weapons soldiers" Jason said and walked off.
"lets surprise the surprise welcoming party" Percy said, pulling raptide out of his pocket.
He smiled at Piper an Leo, as he and Annabeth followed Jason, while Hazel and Frank walked off, leaving Piper and Leo to stare at each other.
ANNABETH
It had taken exactly one hour to find a suitable place to land the Argo 2, since it was necessary to find a place that would allow them to have easy access in case they needed to flee in a hurry, and it needed to be well hidden from the earth born, and of course the giant.
'wouldn't want to spoil the surprise' Percy had said to Leo as Annabeth tried to explain this to Leo.
So Leo had landed the Argo 2 about 6 miles away from the giant's camp.
Now, 2 hour after having landed, Annabeth, Percy and Hazel were creeping along the the border line, Jason, Piper and Leo were further along.
Frank had taken to an eagle form and was staking out the encampment from up above.
Annabeth settled behind a large rock that hid her entire form, as well as Percy's. She peered out form the side, while Percy did the same on the other side.
A small gasp escaped from Hazel's mouth.
In front of them hundreds of earth born were milling around, carrying rocks, branches, and tree trunks. Some of them were sharpening axes, while others were starting fires.
In the middle of the camp, sat the giant.
It's snake feet were folded, and seemed to be entangled with each other, his hands were resting palm down on either of his sides. A large wooden club with silver metal spokes jutting out all over it.
It's hair was a colorful array of vines braided down his back, a terrifying scowl shaping it's already ugly features, as he stared in deep concentration at a commotion o the ground.
Annabeth followed it's gaze.
About 500 feet from him, a few dozen or so earth born were operating a contraption.
Annabeth stared at it.
It was a pulley system. A very large one.
There were 4 pulleys and at least a dozen earth born was attached to each pulley.
"they're pulling something up that's really big..." she whispered to Percy and Hazel, who both nodded.
"maybe Frank will have a better idea what it is..." Hazel offered, even though they all knew what was going on.
Another giant was being raised.
"we need to get back and..." Annabeth didn't finished, because the tip of a sword was pressed into the middle of her back.
Percy and Hazel looked at her, then slowly they looked at the sword, and their gazes followed it until it rested on the owner.
Annabeth slowly turned around and looked at the person holding the sword.
He was around 29 give or take a year. He had brown hair and light olive skin, with dark brown, almost black eyes.
"who are you?" he asked, his voice slightly tainted with an accent.
"we're...er...bird watchers" Percy responded smiling, and Hazel nodded briskly.
Annabeth rolled her eyes and groaned inwardly.
He's holding a sword Percy...a sword.
The man did not respond. Instead he stared intently at Annabeth.
"can you see them?" he asked hesitantly.
"er...who?" Percy asked in mock curiously, or so Annabeth hoped.
The man glared at Percy.
"the birds..." he replied and Percy smiled grudgingly.
He then looked at Annabeth again. "you have a dagger, and the other girl has a sword..."
He looked at Percy with an eyebrow raised.
"you're either suicidal or extremely powerful..." he said to Percy.
"yes we can see them..." Annabeth blurted out.
The man looked stunned, slowly he lowered his sword, his face being overcome by relief.
"oh...I...I've never met anyone else who could see them..." he said.
Annabeth felt a strange sensation at those words, she remembered a time when she was all on her own on the streets, fighting monsters, not knowing that there were others like her.
Until she met Luke and Thalia.
"its okay...there are actually a lot like us..." she said encouragingly.
"oh...that's good...that's great..." he sounded as though he was having trouble accepting it.
"er...I'm Lucius...Lucius Augustus..."
Annabeth smiled, "I'm Annabeth...this is my boy friend Percy and Hazel..."
"hey...duck" Lucius said as a couple of earth born passed by their rock.
Lucius sighed, "wouldn't it be great to be immortal?" he asked.
Percy looked at him with raised eyebrow.
"I mean...there would be no fear of death...so we wouldn't be hiding behind this rock. We won't need to worry about our loved ones either..."
Percy shook his head " yeah but then the annoying people won't die either..."
Lucius smiled.
He turned to Annabeth.
"what about you Annabeth...would you accept immortality?...I mean if it meant not loosing the ones you loved..."
Annabeth thought about this, she thought about how it felt to lose Luke...that wound still hurt despite everything. She thought about her conversation with Gaea.
She looked at Percy, but he wasn't looking at her.
She remembered a time when she had turned down immortality so that she could be with Percy...now if she had the opportunity, would she accept it if it meant being with him?
Annabeth nodded, not looking at Lucius, and thus missing the the evil little smile that crossed Lucius lips. His eyes started to burn with evil intensity at her answer.
"good" he thought.
Lucius reached down to the ground and scooped up a hand full of dirt.
"well...that was easy...my work is done my patron..." he thought, and he could hear Gaea's half sleepy, half maniacal laugh.
please review...this chapter may not be as exciting as a fight scene, but it's important for the later development of the story...i promise...so please review.