I was sitting at the campfire with Grover, waiting for Percy to show up. The 'scary stories' time was long since finished, and the sing-along looked about halfway over.
He was nowhere to be seen. As far as we knew, he'd gone up to his cabin for inspection. I couldn't help but worry a little bit. Or be very annoyed at his absence. I couldn't decide.
"Annabeth, chill out. He probably just fell asleep or something!" Grover exclaimed.
I hadn't realized that I was impatiently tapping my foot.
"Yeah, you're right. Stupid Seaweed Brain just fell asleep." I agreed.
We sat there for a little while longer until I got too impatient, stood up, and dusted my jeans off.
"Where are you going?" Grover questioned.
"Just going to go get Percy" I responded and bounded off to Cabin Three.
When I was about twenty feet away, I saw a bright flash of light inside the cabin, and Percy's agonized scream filling the air made my steps falter.
Then the screaming stopped and the light died down and there was only silence.
Very worried now, I sprinted towards the cabin. When I got to the door, I wrenched it open and burst in the room.
What I saw made me very confused, though. There was a very large…dog? No, a wolf, about the size of a Buick, give or take a few inches. And not as long.
It had jet black fur and when I entered the cabin it looked up at me and I saw startlingly familiar green eyes.
Realization washed over me, but it was quickly replaced by horror.
The wolf titled its head to the side a little as if confused, or possibly worried, and barked.
I gasped and ran towards it—him—oh, whatever.
I knelt beside him and whispered, "Percy?"
He looked down at himself, as if just realizing for the first time that he was no longer human, but a furry beast.
He grunted, or barked, or made some un-recognizable sound that in human form might have been a gasp.
He looked back up at me, and both of our eyes were wide and scared.
"Percy?" I repeated, only a little louder than before.
He nudged my knee with his nose.
"Can-can you understand me?"
He tilted his head slightly to the side and grunted.
"Is that a yes?"
He nudged me again.
"Oh my gods." I whispered. "What happened to you?"
He whined as if to say 'I was hoping you would know.'
"Oh gods." I said. "This is not good."
His green eyes looked up at me, concerned. I could practically hear him asking if I was alright. Considering the situation, that was a very, very stupid thing to ask.
The thought almost made me laugh. Him being concerned about me when he was… this.
I took a deep breath and said, "Come on, we need to tell Chiron. Now."
He grunted in agreement and followed me out the door.
Pretty much everyone was at the campfire, so we didn't have to deal with unfortunate, oh-my-gods-Percy-Jackson-turned-into-a-wolf-let's-all-freak-out sort of encounters. Much to our dismay, Chiron was at the Amphitheater, too.
When we were a couple yards away from where everyone was, I turned to Percy. "Stay here. Don't want to attract more attention than necessary. Will you be okay for a few minutes?"
Standing on all fours, he came up to a little lower than my shoulders.
He nudged my back in the direction of the campfire.
"Okay, okay. Jeez. I'll be back in a minute. Don't do anything stupid." I said pointedly.
He made a sound that was most likely a laugh.
I rolled my eyes, turned, and ran towards the campfire.
Chiron was in the middle of the circle, making an announcement about some change in Capture the Flag teams, but no one was really paying attention.
I ran to the middle of the circle to Chiron and he stopped talking and he looked at me in question. Everyone else did too.
I whispered in Chiron's ear, "Help. It's Percy."
He pulled away and looked in my eyes for a minute and he must have seen in my eyes that something was wrong because he gestured for me to lead.
"Continue with the sing-a-long, tell stories if you wish. Curfew is extended an extra hour." The camp cheered, Chiron's Capture the Flag announcement momentarily forgotten.
I lead him to the shadows, where Percy was waiting for us.
"What is it, child? You look very upset. Wh—" He stopped mid-sentence when he saw the wolf in front of us.
"Oh, my." He muttered. "How...?"
"I don't know. I found him like this in his cabin. There was a bright light and then he screamed. I got there as fast as I could, but by the time I got there the light was gone, and Percy was…well, look."
"I see. We should get him to the Big House before anyone sees. Come along, you two."
When we got there, Chiron told us to sit, so I sat on a chair while Percy sat on the ground next to me.
After much pondering, Chiron decided to IM Olympus to see if they knew anything. I was sitting with my head in my hands, worried.
What had happened to my best friend?
Percy noticed my mood and whined softly. I lifted my head to look at him.
He titled his head to the side and grunted.
"I don't know what you're saying." I whispered miserably, massaging one of my temples with my hand.
He rested his large head on my lap and sighed.
Chiron came back in then. "I talked to Athena and—"
"My mom? What does she have to do with this?" I questioned.
"She said that she believes it actually has to do with…you, my dear."
"Me?" I asked, shocked.
"Yes, she said she believes that Hecate has recovered and—"
He stopped talking when I gasped loudly. I didn't want to admit it, but I was terrified. She would kill me in a heartbeat if she ever got the chance.
"What about her?" I motioned for him to continue.
"Well, she said that you and Hecate weren't exactly on good terms," I grimaced "And that she wanted revenge, and that maybe, maybe she went to Percy looking to make you pay, but that he may have refused…." He trailed off and looked at Percy. Those were a lot of maybes, too much possibilities.
Percy's wolf head came off my lap and was flailing around vigorously.
I gasped again, then looked down. He got punished because of me.
"Annabeth, what happened?"
I hesitated for a moment, biting my lip, but told them the whole story about how she had visited me and how I had cured her.
I had avoided eye contact with Percy, afraid that he would be mad at me, but when I finally looked over at the end of my explanation, he didn't look mad at all. He looked like he already knew about it.
"I'm so sorry." I whispered to Percy. "This is all my fault." I hate to admit it, but a single tear made its way down my cheek. I bit my lip again.
Percy whined softly then came in front of me and put his head between my shoulder an head. He was hugging me. He forgave me.
I put my arms around his big, furry neck, and more tears came.
When I pulled away to wipe some of the tears, Percy licked my face. I couldn't tell if it was his way of wiping my tears away or giving me a kiss, but either way, it was pretty gross. Sweet, but definitely disgusting on some level. What was I? A damn lollipop?
"Eww!"
I laughed and wiped some of Percy's saliva off my face. Woooow. Never thought I'd say that.
Percy made a sound that resembled laughter, and the corners of his wolf mouth pulled up into a smile.
"You better be glad you're cute, or you'd be dead."
He 'smiled' again, only wider this time.
Gods, I would never been able to tell that to human Percy. It was so much easier to talk to him when he couldn't talk.
We never noticed Chiron smirking at us from the other side of the room.
Ok, I know it's past Christmas, but this is still my gift to you, so all you have to do to thank me is REVIEW! plz and thx!
This is personally my favorite chapter so far, I had a lot of fun writing it, and I think it's really cute b/c i'm a hopeless romantic!
Oh, and not only do I not own PJO, and can anyone guess the show I'm getting the whole 'wolf' thing from? It's kind of a kid show, but I was babysitting my nieces, so it's okay that I was watching it ;)
It's not really like this show in any way, except him being a wolf, but when I was watching this certain episode of this certain show(does that make sense?), the idea of Percy being a wolf and licking Annabeth poped in my head. My head just works in tarded ways like that! lol
So don't forget to review peoples!