Still don't own book blah blah blah.
CHAPTER THREE: HOME IS WHERE THE TOLIET IS
After Leo calmed down the grumpy guard-dragon, the Argo II finally landed in camp Halfblood. As the seven got out, they were a little spooked. No one was there. They all cautiously got off the ship and agreed to split up to look for the one person they knew had stayed behind.
"Chiron? Chiron?!" The camp remained eerily silent. Leo checked the big house, and found the silent house creepy for the first time in his life. Hazel wandered in behind him. Leo tensed up. The two of them hadn't been alone together since… Leo preferred not to think about that. Hazel stood behind him awkwardly. Obviously she wanted to say something. Her hands twisted nervously at her stomach. Leo couldn't take the silence anymore. Maybe dead girl was used to it, but he hated it.
"What?" He asked, perhaps a little harshly. He had convinced himself that he forgiven her, but he realized that he hadn't really. Hazel flinched at his tone.
"I told you I was sorry Leo." She looked at the ground. Leo took the chance to look at her. Her cinnamon hair caught his eye again, and he hated himself for even thinking about it.
"I know." Leo really wished this conversation didn't have to happen.
Hazel bit her lip. "Frank is still mad at me…" Leo believed that. Frank was mad at him too. It wasn't his fault though. It never was. Stupid Amor. He cursed the god for the thousandth time that day.
"Hazel don't worry. I'm not mad you or anything. You were just being honest. That's all."
"No Leo-."
"No sign of him here either?" Jason asked, striding in the room with his golden hair and pretty boy face. Sometimes Leo was just a bit jealous of his best friend. He got to be macho looking and awesome with a sword, plus he had a great girlfriend.
"Nope." Jason looked worried.
"This is bad. I hope nothing happened to him. Maybe monsters attacked and he couldn't fight them off alone… we should've known better than to leave him here alone!" Jason examined Hazels face, and then Leo's. He finally seemed to catch on to the atmosphere. "Was I interrupting something?"
Frank walked in, and Hazel quickly said; "No, no! We were just looking!" Frank rolled his eyes and looked anywhere but at the two of them. Chiron clopped into the room shortly thereafter, looking slightly caught off guard.
"Chiron!" four demigods chimed at once.
"Sorry were you looking for me? I was just using the bathroom." Leo paused and wondered where exactly Chiron went to the bathroom, being half horse, but quickly shoved the thought aside.
"Chiron they're here." Jason said quietly. His expression visibly brightened. Chiron's two favourite students were alive and free.
"Where?" He didn't wait for an answer- he galloped out of the house and began to frantically search.
Percy and Annabeth weren't too worried about Chiron. When Piper had suggested they split up and look for him Percy had spotted him heading for the bathroom immediately, but decided not to mention it. Instead, he grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her into the strawberry fields. They lay in silence, simply relaxing in the sun, absorbing its warmth and appreciating the brightness of the strawberries around them. Percy twisted a strand of Annabeth's hair around his finger. He always loved her princess curls. Now her hair felt thin, but that was okay with him. Annabeth shut her eyes and leaned into his touch.
"What do you think Persephone wants us to do about Demeter?" Percy asked suddenly. Annabeth frowned.
"Shut up seaweed brain." She rolled on to her stomach and stared at him with unreadable grey eyes. "No monster talk."
"But we're not prepared-." Annabeth kissed him, and he lost his train of thought. When she pulled away, she rested her head on his chest.
"Talk about anything else. Anything." Percy smiled at the top of her head.
"What do you want to talk about Wise girl?"
"What about what you used to whisper in my ear before I fell asleep?" Percy pulled her away so he could see her face. She was smirking. "Did you think I was asleep?"
"Well you never answered me so… what was I supposed to think?" Percy's palms became very sweaty. Every time it was Annabeth's turn to sleep Percy would wait until she was 'asleep' and he would whisper everything he could see in their future if they got out of there. He would say it mainly to himself, to remind himself that he had to get out of there. He told her about all of his ideas; The Roman camp, going to college like the everyday teenager, eventually marrying Annabeth after a probably incredibly awesome proposal, and finally having kids. He always found himself stuck on everything before kids. That seemed like an impossible thing to him as a teenager. Once he whispered that it wouldn't matter if it was a girl or a boy because they would be awesome either way. He blushed. Annabeth was not supposed to hear all that. "Okay so what- what do you think?" Percy asked nervously. He waited for Annabeth to laugh at him or mock him for being a sap. Instead she grabbed his hand.
"Are you kidding me? Of course I want to!" She stared at his hand and started to draw circles with her fingers.
"I love you." He said dumbly, like the thought had just busted out of his mouth. His face was so shocked looking Annabeth couldn't help but shove a strawberry in his slightly open mouth. His eyes bulged.
"I already knew that Seaweed brain." She said between laughs.
"You two look fine…" Chiron muttered.
"Chiron!" Percy spat out the strawberry in his mouth and faked surprise. Chiron was lying. Fine. The two demigods in front of him looked sickly. They both had dark circles under their eyes and looked closer to skeletons than people. It pained the old mentor to see his students in such bad shape. Still, they were laughing and he took that as a good sign.
Loud arguing could be heard from somewhere far away. Chiron sighed.
"I guess they're back."
"If you try to go that again, I will slit your throat in your sleep!" A random Roman girl was screaming at Connor Stoll. He was laughing, but there was a tiny flash of fear on his face.
"MY SPEAR IS OBVIOUSLY SUPERIOR!" Clarisse and a very tall Roman boy were comparing spears, and for once, Chris seemed just as battlethristy as Clarisse. The boy did have very muscular arms. (Probably from all the spear throwing). Reyna was glaring at Octavian who was smirking at the whole thing.
"Everyone calm down, calm down." Chiron tried to quell the arguing halfbloods, and the kids from camp quieted down for a moment, but the romans did not, and the campers kept on arguing with them.
"Everyone shut up!" Percy walked out from behind Chiron. He looked like he was about to explode. "Is this what Annabeth and I almost died for?!" He glowered at all the halfbloods, daring them to speak. Everyone was silent. "Everyone needs to shut up and listen. This isn't over yet. Gaea can still be awoken. The prophecy hasn't been fulfilled yet. We have only managed to get right back to where we started. We solved one thing! Annabeth sacrificed everything for that stupid statue so you idiots could stop fighting, and now you're just going to ignore her efforts? We're screwed if we don't stop fighting each other!" No one made a sound. They couldn't exactly argue with Percy. He had just come out of Tartarus after all. Plus, he was right and they knew it. Annabeth stepped forward before Percy blew his top.
"We need to find Demeter- Ceres. Persephone told us something was going on with her."
"I'm going to assume you mean the seven by 'we'." Octavian drawled. Annabeth really hated Octavian sometimes. Scratch that- most times. She didn't understand why he kept being so difficult. He had lost; the Romans and Greeks were working together.
"I'm not sure if this is part of the prophecy, but probably. We still don't know where Demeter is. Actually I was going to ask- any children of Demeter or Ceres got anything? Dreams or feelings or a message, a sense?" Nobody spoke up. Katie stepped forward.
"Sorry Annabeth no one's heard from mother in, well, since Percy disappeared." Annabeth nodded, she knew it was a long shot. She hated to ask him for anything, but she knew it had to be done. With gritted teeth she asked, "Octavian, you want to rip up some teddy bears and see if you can dig up anything?" Octavian didn't respond. He looked at Reyna and she nodded her approval. Octavian didn't look happy about it but he wandered away muttering something about ancient curses, so Annabeth figured he was giving it his best shot. She whirled around, pointed a finger at Katie and spoke in her most commando voice. "You, Demeter and Ceres halfbloods, try talking to the plants, or whatever you call it. Check up on them. If Demeter's out of business, who knows how the plants will be affected." Katie saluted with a half-smile on her face and led all the known children of Demeter and Ceres into the forest.
"We're going to have to figure out where everyone will sleep. Obviously the Roman campers will be staying here for at least one night." Chiron and Reyna walked away to discuss sleeping arrangements. Clarisse stomped off to her cabin and Chris pulled the spear guy towards the sword fighting space. Chris seemed fine with the guy when Clarisse wasn't around. Everybody slowly started to drift away, except now they were talking in calm voices and the Romans and Greeks appeared to be mixing. The seven all sat down on the big house's steps.
"Crazy day." Leo muttered.
"Understatement." Piper agreed. "How are you guys- I mean really." Piper stared at Percy and Annabeth. Her and Annabeth had gotten kinda close during the eighth months Percy wasn't there, and although she hadn't known Percy for very long she still feel quite close to him. They had shared quite a few near death experiences together. From Piper's experience, that tended to draw people closer.
"We're fine." Annabeth said. Piper almost believed her. The dark circles under Annabeth's eyes and ribs poking out of her stomach proved otherwise.
"How did you not starve?" Frank asked.
"In Tartarus you don't need food. If you did, all the monsters down there would die over and over again without even being tortured. You don't need food, but you still feel hungry and lose weight, except very slowly." Annabeth explained tiredly.
"What about sleep?" Hazel asked curiously. In the field of Asphodel Hazel didn't need sleep but she didn't get hungry either.
"You don't need sleep but if you don't your head gets fuzzy and you move slow. Sleep definitely helps." Percy said.
"Yeah moving too slow will get you killed." Annabeth agreed. Nobody really knew what to say to that.
The sun was only just beginning to set when Piper and Frank stood up simultaneously.
"I've got to get some rest after today." Piper walked off to her cabin, undoubtedly to yell at Drew.
"Me too." Frank started to walk off.
"Frank wait." Hazel got up and trailed behind him. Jason and Leo seemed to realize they were sort of unwanted.
"I should go fix stuff…" Leo grabbed Jason by the arm and pulled him away. Annabeth smiled at her friend's efforts to give Percy and herself some time alone.
"Do you really think that?" Percy asked quietly.
"What?"
"That we're okay? I don't always feel okay."
Annabeth grabbed his hand. "Me neither."
"I mean sometimes I just can't move and the sounds-." He stopped. They had heard so much screaming in Tartarus. It was the constant background sound of the place. You got used to hearing it all the time. The world sounded really quiet now.
"Hey." Katie ran up to them.
"Did you find anything?" Annabeth asked hopefully. She could use some good news right about then.
"Sort of. We got in contact with… I think he said his name was Bacchus, but he also keeps referring to himself as Mr. D so, I'm not sure which one we're dealing with." Percy rolled his eyes and groaned.
"Just what we need the most useless-."
"Pepper Jamieson I can hear you!"
"Yeah that was Mr. D."
Again, please correct me if I messed anything up.
