Piper's POV
I hate birds. I mean, usually they're okay, but right now... I hate them. A lot. Not only because seagulls were
laughing at me from a distance away. All safe and cozy. But because this griffon was digging into my shoulders
and bringing me who knows where. I knew Leo was behind me, but I guessed aside from that we were alone.
Annabeth probably got away and Percy, Jason, and Sam were too important.
Usually I'm not that mean from just meeting someone, but Sam after seeing both Jason and Leo making goo-
goo eyes at her, I instantly hated her. She wasn't even Aphrodite's daughter and yet she was so pretty that
she would probably make Aphrodite herself jealous. And even better she was so important, and was treated
like a delicate little flower when fighting, even the monsters seemed to hold back from her.
Jealousy didn't usually come this much for me. But I sure felt it now, and it was starting to scare me. Almost as
much as the birds.
The griffin screeched and started to descend. I looked around, consequently making my choppy hair fall into my
eyes. I blew up at it, impatiently, jealousy still boiling in my veins, making me want to scream and let all heck
broke loose.
Below us was a small town, with the good ol' country vibe. We were heading towards a white cliff overlooking
the ocean, where I guessed the griffins nest was.
Suddenly, I started to shake. And it wasn't from the cold wind blowing off of the sea. Oh no, my life isn't that
simple. Far from it, actually. It was from the sudden fear of not knowing what was in the future for me. What
lay before me was unknown, and i was sick and tired of not knowing. Never knowing what dangerous
adventure you were going on... or the thing that scared me the most: Never knowing if i would die that day.
I heard a loud girlish scream, great I thought Leo's awake.
"HEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP" he yelled, the griffon flinched at how high his voice was.
"Leo!" I hissed at him. "quiet down! You'll scare the griffons and they might drop you!"
Leo shut his mouth immediately. We flew in silence after that, my head was so full of jumbled thoughts and
fears I barely even noticed how warm and... Nice it was getting.
Leo sniffed the air.
"Do you smell... Perfume?" he asked me. I nodded, it wasn't me wearing perfume, and whatever was reeking
from the griffons was everything BUT perfume. I couldn't remember a day where I didn't wonder if Leo took a
shower at all. I looked around me, trying to find the source of the rose and strawberry smell.
I gave up, only seeing clouds and the sky. Maybe I was imagining things, I think I heard once that in a scary
situation you can hallucinate. Ghost stories, back at camp, were always about demigods driven to insanity and
the the see ants crawling all over their bodies, their dead members of family alive (hunger games anyone?)
again. So maybe that was it. I am going to end up haunting this place (wherever we are) for eternity.
Finally, after I realized that I lost my lunch while I was unconscious. And some of it was on my shirt. We
started to descend into a rocky clearing. Pine trees were everywhere, well now I know where to be during
Christmas. The griffins dropped Leo and I into a cave, I quickly pulled myself to my feet, and ran around the
small area, searching for a way out. Light leaked in from the entrance, where the griffons stood outside, I
wondered where the third one was.
Leo was pacing, muttering under his breath about something. I had to hold in a laugh at his appearance; his
hair stuck up straight, and i guess he lost his lunch too while we were in the air. I didn't even want to think
about who the unfortunate person was to be underneath it.
The griffins squawked and flew off. I nervously walked towards the entrance, they must have a lot of trust in
us to let us be alone. Haha. Sunlight streamed through the tips of the trees. A lake sparkled in the distance, I
thought of Percy and smiled. They would come to get us. They always did.
Then I looked down. And my stomach flipped over. I was standing on top of a cliff that probably went down a
hundred meters. No wonder why they left us, I thought, I would have to be suicidal to escape.
"Piper! I found something!" Leo screeched. I turned around and headed back into the cave.
"What did you find?" I asked, squinting in the darkness, following the sound of his feet shuffling on the
floor.
"I dunno. It's like... stuff." He said.
"You're a lot of help." I said, finally finding him in a dark corner of the cave. "Can you light a fire so I can
see?"I asked.A few seconds later, my eyebrows almost got scorched as his fingers erupted in flames.
"Whoa there, Repair Boy... don't need to get feisty." I squatted down to the "stuff" on the cold cave floor.
Behind a boulder, was a slightly rusty and slightly old trunk.
Leo pulled a paper clip out of his tool belt and skillfully unlocked the trunk. We both wrestled the trunk
open and leaned forward to see what was inside.
"Cool!" Leo exclaimed pulling out a metal box that had all kinds screws and nails and batteries.
I dug through the mess of keys and locks, and found what I was hoping for. A box about eight inches long.
It was covered in purple velvet. I crossed my legs on the stone floor and lifted the lid.
I smiled at what I saw. It was filled with old letters and pictures. Even from the dim light of Leo's pinkie I
could see numbers on the back of each of the letters. I leafed around the box, searching for a letter with
the back labeled with a one. I didn't like spoilers. I wanted to start at the beginning.
"Story time!" Leo exclaimed, as I rolled my eyes.
I finally found the first letter and opened it slowly, it was yellow with age, and some of the ink was
smeared throughout the paper. I bit my lip, ready to have my dyslexia take a hold of me and not let me
read it. But weirdly, it was in ancient greek.
I've noticed your weird behavior. I glanced over my shoulder as if the person was staring right at me.
"Paranoid much, Pipes?" Leo asked. I rolled my eyes and continued to read.
Don't think I haven't, who are you really?
"Is this a loooovvveeee story?" Leo asked, leaning towards the paper, I yelped as one of the flames on his
finger about burned my nose.
"Sorry" He mumbled, moving away from the paper. I started to read again.
Meet me in the same place. I want answers.
Well, that was mysterious wasn't it? Maya's at camp right now so... you're just gonna have to wait a while for some more of us! :D but I'll start the next chapter for ya, so don't go jump off a cliff. That would be bad.
You know what to do! Review! (that rhymed!)
