Author's Note: First Chapter. Just want to point out the story doesn't exactly follow on from the end of The Last Olympian. Parts of the ending of the book occur slightly differently and will be revealed throughout the story.
Chapter 1 – Peace:
15 MONTHS EARLIER:
It had been two weeks since his Birthday and Percy Jackson couldn't decide whether he liked being sixteen. In reality he was pretty sure his age had very little to do with how he was feeling. His birthday had turned out to be a rather momentous occasion – certainly not something most people would complain about, but then again not many people had had to deal with The Lord of Time choosing their birthday as the start of a new age.
Regardless, the world had changed irreparably that day, and Percy wasn't sure he liked that. He at least wished someone else would acknowledge the change that had taken place, but no one seemed quite willing. It was like the floor had suddenly tilted on an angle yet everyone insisted floors had always been angled, what are talking about Percy?
He knocked an arrow, sighted a target 50 metres away, drew back the string and released. It was a clumsy shot. He knew it as soon as he released. The fact that the bow string continued on to slap him in the forearm was an unneeded reminder. He looked up to see the arrow sticking out of the ground several metres away from the target. It was one of his better shots that day.
"Percy, are you even trying?" Will Solace called out, staring disapprovingly at the results of his last six shots. Somehow Will had not yet reconciled himself to the fact that further improvement in this particular subject area was beyond impossible as far as Percy was concerned. Instead he had spent the past two weeks attempting to achieve something the rest of the Apollo Cabin and even Chiron had long given up on. Despite Will's disappointment, Percy was secretly glad that he still sucked at archery. He was better than before; a fact Chiron's tail was no doubt thankful about. But relatively – especially when compared to the Apollo kids or the Hunters he knew he knew that such improvements meant little. At least some things never change.
Unfortunately he couldn't say the same for the rest of his life. While the improvements brought on by curse of Achilles were somehow apparently insufficient to improve his archery – his swordsmanship was another matter. After his battle with Hyperion and his duel with the Lord of Time, it would be an understatement to say that the other campers were reluctant to spar with him. Heck even Clarisse would find some excuse as to why - as much as she would love to cream him she unfortunately had something else to do.
He knew that really he should just be flattered and move on – after all there were always training dummies. It was just that he desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were before the war. Before all his friends had died. The sound of the conch shook him from his sombre thoughts as he headed for the dining pavilion.
As he picked up a plate of food and headed to the brazier, he glanced at the Athena table and realised that not everything was that bad. If there was one thing he was glad about – you know other that the fact that the world hadn't ended, it was that the awkward tension that had permeated their relationship since Mt Saint Helens had evaporated after their underwater kiss. He assumed that it was the relief of winning the war had thrust them together -but part of him thought their relationship's blossoming may have had something to do with a certain Oracle. Regardless he couldn't help but feel that after over a year of awkwardness it was about damn something went his way.
Annabeth spent the afternoon attempting to teach a bunch of the first year camper's about the functioning of the mist. To say that she was not having much success, she felt, was a blatant understatement. Having spent their first year at camp having to deal with the realities of The Second Titan War it appeared that the kids had taken it upon themselves to catch up on all the fun they had missed out on. Today, apparently that meant acting like a bunch of smart alecks.
"The mist is an all permeating force under the control of the goddess Hecate-" She began.
"Why is it called the mist!", yelled a young Hermes camper from the back of the group.
"Maybe because it's so mystical." An daughter of Aphrodite said in a spooky voice.
"As I was saying because it is an all permeating force – it is spread over the entire earth like a thin mist." Annabeth said attempting to refocus the group on the matter at hand.
"Well why don't we call it a fog then –fog spreads too"
"Because fog sounds dumb – kind of like you actually."
"Ooh burned!"
"Maybe we should call it the Aether"
"Yeah. That sounds way cooler!"
"Yeah –plus then we can invalidate the results of the Michelson Morley experiment!"
"Can we start a petition to the gods to change the name of the mist to Aether?"
The interruptions were coming so fast now that Annabeth couldn't even keep track of who was saying what anymore – although she was quite sure that second last comment had to be a sister of hers. Deciding that a normal lesson was of the cards she pulled out Daedalus' laptop and began working on her plans for a new statue of her mother as part of her plan for the redesign of Olympus.
When Annabeth heard the her siblings leaving the dining pavilion she realised she had been so engrossed in her project during that she hadn't even finished her dinner. She looked up and over at the Poseidon table – she couldn't see Percy, but she figured he must have already left for the campfire. When she arrived however, he was nowhere to be seen.
Author's Note: I would be interested to hear your opinions on chapter length. More frequent but shorter chapters or longer less frequent updates? Feel free to drop ad feedback, comments or questions in a review.