I find it so hard to write in third person...

Percy didn't know where it was when he resurfaced. It was grey overhead and misty, not quite rain. Ahead of him was an embankment covered with trees.

Percy stretched, waved goodbye to Rainbow, and set off up the embankment, into the trees. He had only walked for about five minutes when he came to a clearing.

There was a couple of logs in the middle, and the remains of a campfire. It was pretty recent, as there were still embers glowing in the centre. Off to the side something glinted. It was Annabeth's phone.

At least he knew Annabeth had been around here, but he was still worried. Anything could have happened to her, especially considering she could have landed here by herself.

There was a disruption of the bush at the edge of the clearing, which Percy would never have recognised if he wasn't soaking wet. He'd allowed the water to soak him because it sharpened his senses.

He set off along it, eyes picking out minute details as he set along it. The trees grew thicker, and then thinner again. Finally, he came out onto a tarmac road. He was glad, because the water was starting to dry, despite the perpetual dampness, and he'd have no hope finding his way out of a forest. That was for Demeter's and Priapus's children.

The road stretched in both directions as far as the eye could see, but to the left side was a collection of houses, or Percy assumed they were houses, and other buildings. However, there was one building that caught his eye. It was on fire, or part of it anyway, smoke streaming out, fighting against the mist that made an audible sizzling sounds as it touched the flames leaping from the roof.

Percy set off towards it, having a feeling that's where Annabeth, at least, was.

"Oi, Jakob. Wake up." The voice was loud in my ear.

"Mmmph," was my highly articulate response. "Alright. I'm getting up."

It was dark outside, and the lamps were on, casting a warm glow throughout the room. Nico was standing next to the bed beside me, and Annabeth had just come out of the bathroom.

"Dinner time!" Nico said, cheerfully, but he had his sword of Stygian Iron sheathed underneath his clothes, and Annabeth was tucking her knife into her sleeve.

"You think if they're going to try anything, they'll do it tonight?" I whispered.

They nodded, and Nico said, "Do you have a weapon or anything?"

I got out of the bed, and opened the window. It was raining again, the drops splashing against the windowsill. I thrust out a hand, and the individual drops began to bind together, rippling and elongating and hardening into a sword of ice, pale blue in the dying light.

"I do now," I said.

Nico looked at it dubiously. "Won't it melt? And how are you going to conceal it?"

"No it won't melt. Er, hang on." I concentrated, and it shortened, water dripping onto the floor. The blade became thinner, and it sharpened to a point.

"There," I said, sticking it in my pocket.

Nico rolled his eyes, and turned to Annabeth. "Ready?" he asked her.

"Yes, we just have to wait for Giac."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"I'm right here," he said, sliding back into the door, shutting it behind him. "You take forever in the bathroom, Annabeth."

She blushed, and muttered something I didn't hear.

A hesitant knock on the door interrupted what I was about to say. I opened it and saw the same Asian girl from before.

"Dinner is served," she said in a quiet, meek voice. "Follow me."

She walked away, down the hall, and we followed her, down the stairs, through the hall, and into the dining-room.

"Hello, dears!" LeBarbera said, placing the last fork down on the table. The dining room had crimson wallpaper, and the floor was chequered wood. It was hard to believe something bad could happen in a place like this, but as a demigod, you learned not to take things on face value.

"Please, seat yourselves," she said, smiling. "Dinner will be out in a minute! You, come with me." She grabbed Lily's hand and hefted her out of the room.

We sat there in silence, waiting for the woman to come back. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling like a deadly sculpture, teardrops of crystal sharpened to deadly points, hanging straight down. The table cloth was the colour of blood, and golden candlesticks lined the middle, mingling with clear crystal bowls of flower petals. The effect was rather ostentatious.

"Dinner is served!" LeBarbera said, walking back into the room carrying a large serving platter with a lid on top, like a chef's platter. Lily trailed behind with another, smaller platter.

LeBarbera dropped it on the table, and opened the lid with a flourish. Heaped on the platter was what appeared to be pork, glazed with a rich liquid that smelled of plum sauce. My mouth watered.

Lily set hers down next to LeBarbera's, and took the lid off. It was fried rice, with shallots and tiny prawns. It looked really good too.

She sat ladled generous amounts of food onto plates—none for Lily, I saw—and set them down in front of us. Then she plonked herself down at the head of the table and gestured with her hands.

"Eat up!" she said in her melodic voice.

I stared at my food. It looked inviting, with the steam curling off my plate and sending the scent of it up my nose. Like, it smelt really good.

I peered at LeBarbera, who still hadn't touched her food. Instead she was gazing at us with interest bright in her eyes.

"Er, as the host, I think you should have the first taste," I said to her, laying on the charm. I don't know whether it worked or not, but she smiled at me, with her oddly broken, very white teeth, and put a large spoonful in her mouth.

"Delicious, if I do say so myself," she said, in a good mood. Her eyes were bright, though, and I didn't trust her or her food for a second.

"That's good enough for me," Giac said, digging in. After a minute, so did Nico, and then Annabeth reluctantly joined in, all three of them gaining enthusiasm as they dug in. I still didn't trust it. I looked at it cautiously, picked up a small spoonful and put it in mouth.

It was good. Like, really good.

We ate quickly, except for me, and they were all done in ten minutes except for me. I only ate that spoonful, instead pushing the rest of it around my plate. If it proved fine, I would just go hungry for the night. I didn't trust her and I'm sure she would soon give me a reason not to.

I was right. The instant we finished eating, LeBarbera clasped her hands together, in an almost bored way.

"Any second, now," she said in an impatient voice, the harsh tone marring her beautiful voice.

The first one was Giac.

"I, uh, don't feel so good," he said, patting his stomach suspiciously. "Maybe I shouldn't have—"

That was as far as he got before his eyes rolled back and he went limp in his chair.

"Giac?" said Annabeth, whose chair was the closest to his. "What...?"

She went limp too. As did Nico, after a minute of fighting.

"Finally," LeBarbera said, and then seemed to realise I wasn't asleep.

A claw extended from her fingernail, and she played with it absentmindedly.

"You, Jakob, are becoming a problem," she said, in a tone indicating that I had done that I had done something wrong.

More claws grew from her fingers, and her face became reptilian, until I was staring at the reptilian thing from the gym. And I was terrified.

Her voice was wrong though, because it was still beautiful and high, like wind across glass wine flutes, but it somehow added to malevolence.

A fireball erupted from her hand, which hardly seemed fair, and she hissed at me.

"Die, Jakob." Then the fireball was flung at me and I was under the table as the fireball set my chair on fire. The others slept on.

"Stop trying to escape!" she said, throwing another fireball.

It was incredibly bizarre; three sleeping guests, a small girl cower in a corner, a reptilian monster throwing fireballs at me with still hot Chinese food on the table. I would have laughed if the last fireball hadn't singed the back of my hair.

I managed to pull my sword out of my pocket, but the ice was melting even as I reformed it. It wouldn't last long even if a fireball didn't hit it square on.

Which, of course, it did, so I was left with a hand of dripping water, smoking hair and a reptilian monster who probably wanted to eat me.

Instead, I made the entire fixture in the kitchen come alive, flooding the dining room.

She howled, and lobbed another fire ball at me as she inhaled a gob of water.

I ducked down, the fireball tearing through the wall as though it was made of rice-paper.

I instructed the ice to freeze, and it did. LeBarbera was trapped, but she was glowing, and around her the ice was melting.

She spat a large chunk of ice out of her mouth and yelled at me.

"You're going to die for that! And your puny friends with you!" I couldn't believe they were still sleeping, but they were out of the count, reclining in their dining chairs that were tipped slightly backwards, frozen in the ice.

She glowed so much it hurt my eyes to look, and then the ice shattered, razor sharp needles travelling around the room. I sent them towards her, but they melted on contact.

I suddenly felt woozy, which worried me greatly. Perhaps I should stop doing all this water-bending.

I need a weapon, I thought.

But weapons were all out, and unless I wanted to die, I had to keep using my powers.

She leapt at me and I rolled aside, sliding on the ice. She twisted and threw another fire ball at me. It missed, barely, and as I threw myself right I ordered the ice to rise as a shield between me and her.

The house was on fire, gaps in the roof letting the rain in. I felt better as it touched my face, but the blackness pressing at the edge of my vision wasn't a good feeling.

Instead of going around the ice, she simply jumped over it, wrecking part of the ceiling in doing so. I ran to Annabeth, the black closing in. He knife was in her pocket and I barely had time to pull it out before LeBarbera was at me.

I simply struck out, completely unsure what to do. Her talons raked my arm, blood immediately welling up and running down my arm.

But the knife touched her, and she recoiled, hissing. It wasn't a direct hit, but her arm was hissing, putrid yellow sand sprinkling across the ice as her arm disintegrated. Unfortunately, it stopped when it reached her neck, but she was at least unbalanced and missing an arm, so I supposed I now stood sort of a chance.

"This is madness!" she said, and I swallowed back a 300 reference. Now was hardly the time. "I will rent you limb from limb!"

She spat a fork of flame, and jumped at me, good arm poised, talons gleaming.

So, I did all I could. I stood and thrust the knife in her heart.

She screamed, the sound inhumane and gut-wrenching in my ear.

Then she was gone, and simple dust spread over the ice.

I dropped the knife with a clatter, sinking down. Red stained my vision, and there was a dull pain in my cheek. I touched it and my hand came away with blood.

It was too much to handle at the moment, and my brain shut down for repairs.

Where am I?

That was my first thought. The last thing I remember was killing LeBarbera. And that was somewhere rainy and cold.

This new place wasn't anything like this. I was in a place sort of like the dining pavilion; only the pillars had walls between them. It was open to the sky, and I could see the moon and a sprinkling of the stars.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said a voice behind me, making me jump.

I turned around, and forgot my name, my face, my friends, everything.

This woman was utterly, breathtakingly, heartbreakingly beautiful. But I couldn't remember anything about her appearance, afterwards, only that she was beautiful.

"Aphrodite," I breathed.

She nodded, and then frowned. It disrupted her power long enough for me to look down, which made my mind a bit less scattered.

"You aren't the right one!" she exclaimed, and I fought the urge to look up.

"I'm...sorry?" I asked, unsure if this was the right thing to do.

"Oh, you'll do," she said, her voice a bit more down to earth. She strode over to a throne on the other side of the room, seating herself.

I still looked at the ground, but I turned to face her general direction.

"You wish to know about your parents?" she asked me.

This got my attention. I found that if I squinted slightly, her appearance didn't have such an effect on me.

"Yes, very much," I said.

"Unfortunately I'm not allowed to tell you," she said, in a huffy voice. "I've been... forbidden. The nerve!" she exclaimed, voice getting higher. "But, no matter, I will tell you what I can."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously. From what I've heard, the gods and goddess don't exactly do things for us out of the goodness of their hearts.

"Because you're a very handsome boy! Well, you were," she said delightedly. "You look very much like him!"

"Er, right," I said. Perhaps it's better not to ask.

"All I can tell you." She paused dramatically, "Is that three years ago, Annabeth and Percy came to Mt. Olympus."

I waited for more, but there wasn't.

"Is that all?" I said.

"It is, unfortunately. And because you're dreaming, we have such little time together." She sighed."In fact, you're about to wake up, Jakob."

"What?"

"Jakob." The tone was firm, female, and very familiar. I opened my eyes and found myself staring at Annabeth. She hissed her breath between her teeth, and her grey eyes looked at me concernedly.

"That looks like it hurts," she said.

So, there you go. Sorry for the wait, I've had writer's block, my last few days of school, and I got my learner's licence. Nearly ran over some people, but that's okay...

So, yeah, that's it. It's my birthday on the first of July, so expect an update a little after that. Thanks, as always, to my AWESOME beta for doing an excellent job (and fast too!).

Reviews are very much appreciated. :D

Oh, and I need more RPer's on my forum. Gettin' very lonely.