The moment you've all been waiting for is coming up fast. Percy and Annabeth's first real meeting. Not this chapter, but the next one for sure. There may be some foreshadowing in this one...
Annabeth's POV
"You blew him a kiss? Seriously?" asked Thalia, her eyes wide.
"Yeah, I guess I did." I answered quietly, turning a little red.
"Why? He's a gladiator, he kills people."
"He's a slave, not a gladiator, and I've never seen him kill anyone." I said defensively.
Thalia held up her hands. "Well sorry, but I didn't know that did I? And I still don't get why you blew him a kiss, you don't even know him!"
She was right of course; I didn't know him. I'd never met him, never spoke to him; I don't even know his name. He just seemed different.
I had remembered that he was the slave I saw in the square, the one who refused to bow down, and that made me want to meet him even more. There were most likely only a handful of people who didn't care for the whole idea of royalty, myself included, and Thalia was the only one I'd met so far. If only I could've met someone like that sooner, before I had been betrothed to Luke, I might be happy. The handsome slave from the colosseum is just the kind of guy I had been looking for, and maybe if he had come along a year ago, I wouldn't be marrying Luke.
I decided not to dwell on those sad thoughts; it would only bring me down. My betrothal party was in a few days, and since Thalia and Katie would be there, it might actually be fun. That reminded me; I still had to pick out my mask.
"Hey Thals? Weren't we going to pick out masks today?" I asked her.
"Oh yeah, we should probably go do that." she said, but didn't move.
I got up and nudged her.
"Let's go."
"Just give me another hour," she mumbled, "I need a nap."
Thalia closed her eyes and rolled over on my bed, but I pulled the blankets out form under her and she toppled to the floor.
"That's wasn't very nice." she said from the floor.
"If you don't hurry up I'll do it again, now come on." I said seriously, and headed out.
We took a carriage into town, and found a cozy little shop that sold masks. After looking around for a bit, I picked a beautiful owl mask with real feathers and a little beak that covered my nose. It would go perfectly with my dress. Thalia picked one with black and pink tiger stripes, which seemed a little strange, but it looked fine with her spiky black hair and electric blue eyes.
We paid for the masks, well I did; Thalia had no problem spending my money, but that was fine, 'cause I didn't either. We were just walking out of the store when a thought hit me.
"Oh shoot," I said, "we should've gotten Katie to come with us."
Thalia looked disappointed that we hadn't thought of it earlier.
"I hope she has a mask, maybe we should go ask her? If not, we could take her to find one." she suggested.
That was a good idea, so we headed over to the flower shop. We walked to the door, but had to jump out of the way as someone flew through it. The person landed on the ground and rolled over a few times, then sat up, grinning mischievously. His clothes were in tatters. They looked like someone had taken a pair of scissors to them. Katie appeared in the doorway shaking a pair of pruning sheers menacingly.
"And if you ever try to steal from me again, I'll cut off more than just your clothes!" she yelled angrily.
The boy's carefree smile disappeared and he scrambled away quickly.
"Don't try to pretend you don't love my company Katie!" he shouted as he rounded a corner. "And don't worry, I'll be back soon!"
The boy was lost in the distance, so I turned back to Katie. She had lowered the sheers, and the angry scowl was replaced with a little smile.
"Hey guys! Sorry about that, but he needed to be taught a lesson." she said.
"So you tried to cut off his clothes?" asked Thalia, confused.
Katie rolled her eyes.
"Never mind, just come in." she said dismissively, and we followed her inside. "So what's up?"
"First I want to know what's up with mister cut up clothes. Who is he?" said Thalia.
Katie sighed. "I actually don't know his name, but he's been coming in every day for the past few weeks."
"So why is he running through town half naked?" asked Thalia, still not understanding anything.
"He comes in and we start talking," explained Katie, "he seemed really sweet at first, but then he tried to take my purse. Several times."
"Oh." we both said.
Katie picked up a flower and snipped a few branches.
"Yeah, I'm not sure why I don't just kick him out as soon as he comes in." she said, smiling affectionately.
I knew why.
"You like him, don't you?" I said, more a statement than a question.
"I do not!" she shouted, cheeks turning red.
"Of course you do, why else would you want to talk to him everyday?" asked Thalia.
"Oh my gods I do not like him. He tries to steal from me, everyday." Katie said seriously, but her face was still bright red. "Enough about that, tell me why you guys came by."
"We went to get masks for the party, but forgot to ask you to come. Do you already have a mask?" I said.
"Oh! Yes, I do! I'll show you it, it's perfect."
We followed her to the back of the store where he showed us a colourful mask made of flowers.
"Are those real?" Thalia asked.
"Mhm." answered Katie proudly. "Made it myself too."
"That's amazing. You're going to look great." I told her.
The three of us chatted for a little while, but soon Katie had customers and Thalia and I had to leave. We said good bye, and told her we'd pick her up the night of the party, then left.
As we strolled through town, I noticed a big group of people gathered around a little stand. Thalia and I walked closer, and saw that it was a puppet show.
"Then he climbed the mast, not an easy task, that mast was easily thirty feet tall." said the puppeteer, who was hidden behind a curtain.
I realized he was re-enacting the battle in the colosseum from a few days ago. There were two large ships on either side, and several puppets danced around on deck. One dark haired puppet climbed up the mast of the right ship, and it swayed back and forth.
"Then the mast snapped, and vaulted him over to the other ship!" he said, as the mast broke in half, and the little puppet tipped towards the other boat.
The rest of the battle was acted out perfectly, and Thalia and I started to enjoy it. This was much better than watching then events unfold in the colosseum. There wasn't any blood, and the little puppets looked hilarious.
The gladiators boat sunk, and everyone watching cheered. The slaves started to dance around on deck of their ship celebrating, which I don't think actually happened, but it looked really cool. Their boat sunk down too, and when it was out of sight everyone applauded.
"Wait! You still haven't seen the best part!" shouted the puppeteer cheerfully.
The little black haired puppet that was unmistakably the mysterious slave I was so interested in. He looked towards the too of the curtain, and started to wave. A little balcony popped out near the top of the curtain and there I was, in puppet form waving. The people around us laughed, and then my puppet raised a hand to its lips, and blew the other puppet a kiss. He caught it, then did a little happy dance and walked of the stage. The balcony disappeared, and then every puppet from the show popped up, all of the gladiators in bandages and crutches, and they took a bow. I clapped just as loudly as the people around me, that was great.
"Come back in a few days to watch everyone's favourite hero take on the Triathlon of Champions." he said, and everyone in the crowd whispered excitedly.
"Remember, it's a free show," said the man behind the curtain, and a big bucket extended out, "but if I can get a little money, the next show will be even better."
A few people in the crowd threw a coin or two in, but most of them were kids. They left, and Thalia and I walked over the bucket. It started to go back in, but I caught it, and filled it with gold coins.
"Thank you very much!" said the man happily, "you've just made a lot of people very happy."
Thalia started to walk away, but I wanted to see how he managed so many puppets all at once. I crept forward and pulled the curtain aside, revealing the puppeteer. He was a huge African American man, young, but probably a few years older than me. He had his hands in a pair of gloves that had little metal arms and strings attached. The man had a dozen puppets on each hand, and he had made a little assembly line with them. His fingers danced around quickly, and the puppets responded to his movements. They picked up the good coins from the bucket, passed it along the line until the last one dumped it into a little bag. The mans fingers continued to fly around, and they kind of looked like spiders. That made me shiver; I hate spiders.
Shutting the curtain, I caught up with Thalia and told her what I saw.
"Really, like spiders? That is weird, but awesome." she said. "And what did he say about that triathlon of champions thing? I've never herd of that before."
I wasn't exactly sure, but I think my father had made it up to single out the better gladiators. If you could get through it alive, you were entered into a tournament to choose the new champion, which happened once every two years.
I explained this to Thalia.
"So they have to do three challenged in a row? That sucks."
"Well not all in a row, they get a day in between to rest." I explained. "While they're taking the challenge, they're given medical supplies, like a needle and thread, so they can patch themselves up."
"Ok, that makes sense." said Thalia, nodding her head. "What are the challenges?"
"I don't know." I answered truthfully. "I've never actually seen one happen, but I guess I could ask my father."
"Don't bother, no sense making him think you're actually interested in it." said Thalia dismissively.
Honestly though, I was pretty interested in it. If the slave you blew kisses to was entered in some event that had a really good chance of getting him killed, wouldn't you be interested? I mean, I at least wanted to meet him, to talk to him, find out what he was like, but now I might not get the chance.
"Let's go," said Thalia, "I'm hungry."
So we went in search of some place to eat. And since I preferred something other than huge slabs of meat on a stick, it took a while. Eventually we found a place to eat, and then headed home.
The next few days were quite; I hit to stay home during my fathers trips to the colosseum, because he thought I needed more time to get ready for the party. He would always come home and tell me fantastic tales about the dark haired boys triumphs in the arena, so I decided to go with him the morning before the party.
My father was really excited about something, so finally I asked him what was going on.
"Oh Annabeth, I forgot, I haven't told you! Today we are starting the Triathlon of Champions, it will be so exciting!" he said, practically counting in his seat.
"Who's taking the challenge?" I asked, though I already had a pretty good idea.
"That one slave, the one who is so- Oh! There he is now!" said my father excitedly, pointing into the arena.
The boy walked out into the middle nothing but his breast plate and sword, and looked up at us. He still limped a little from the crocodile bite, but he seemed have it under control. I could see in his eyes that he was nervous, but he didn't show it. He had his head held high, and stood tall with a hard look on his face, waiting for instruction. I caught his eye, and gave him a reassuring smile. His expression stayed the same, but I thought I noticed his eyes soften a little, and for some reason that made my heart beat a little faster.
My father stood, and addressed the audience.
"My friends!" he called out. "Today is a very special day. One of our favourite warriors has agreed to take the most grueling challenge. The Triathlon of Champions!"
The crowd cheered like crazy, an it was a few minutes before they calmed down.
"Yes, yes, I am as exited as you. And to throw in a little twist, I will tell you this. As it stands, this noble warrior is a slave. But should he complete the challenges successfully, he will be freed of his slavery, and will go on to compete in the tournament to crown our new champion!"
The crowd cheered again, and I looked down at the boy. His eyes were wide, filled with hope and thoughts of freedom.
"The rules are simple!" announced my father, and held up a red clothe bag. "This bag contains fifty different challenges, all of which are equally difficult and dangerous. We will randomly select three, and the rest, you will find out yourself."
I could see the people in the crowd, silent with anticipation, waiting for my father to say more. He beckoned me over, and then held out the bag.
"Care to do the honours?"
I reached my hand into bag, dug right down to the bottom, and pulled out a slip of paper. It was folded shut, so I handed it to my father. He opened it, and his face lit up like a child on Christmas.
"Wonderful. The first challenge is, The Ring of Lions!" said my father, barely containing his joy. "Your opponent will be the other man taking this challenge. Good luck to you both."
My father sat back down, and we watched as a gate opened and a much larger, and very much hairier man walked out. He had a helmet with long bull's horns jutting out the sides, but he didn't have any other armor on. He wasn't wearing any other clothes for that matter, just a small white loin cloth. A massive, double bladed axe was slung across his back, which he took off and held in front of him.
A horn sounded, and every gate leading into the arena opened. When they were fully open, lions started to bound out into the arena, charging straight for the two warriors. I thought that they would pounce and maul them, but the long chains around their necks stopped them short. The lions continued to pull at their chains, eager to get a piece of the two men, and their bodies created a crude ring.
The huge hairy man raised the axe over his head, and brought it down at his opponent who leapt back, out of the axes path, and straight into the waiting jaws of a hungry lion.
Ok so if you've read this before the rewrite, you know what happens. It's a little different though. Who can guess what monster Percy's hairy opponent is modeled after?
R&R.