Alrighty! Here's the next chapter. The anticipation builds and the storm fades! :D

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Chapter 2

The Storm

Thank the gods I was alive.

I woke up feeling much better than when I had gone out. I opened my eyes to a dimly lit room. Through a window I could see a really bad storm, but it parted around us thanks to the magical boundaries. A lone candle stood in the center of the room on a small table. The shadows danced on the walls. In the relatively small room were a small dresser, a mirror, and the bed I was resting on. There was also a chair next to the bed, and it was occupied.

Once I recognized that I was in the guest room of the Big House, a farmhouse painted blue, I checked to make sure my body worked. I raised my arms, moved my hands, and shifted my legs. I turned my head to the person sitting in the chair next to me and recognized who she was. She was reading an architecture book and had not noticed me up yet because her head was buried in her book. She had on her camp t-shirt, like the rest of the campers, and blue pants with her blond hair in a ponytail. Outside the door I could hear voices talking.

It felt so good to know that I was back at familiar old camp. The Greek marble buildings and my friends and the creek and everything just felt so right. I couldn't wait for tomorrow so I could see it all clearly.

I decided that I was done lying around and went to get up. As I used my elbows for support, the blond girl looked up clearly relieved and angry, and said, "Aran you bonehead. What were you thinking? You could've gotten killed!" I tried to get up but she told me, "Oh no you don't. Not until you are checked out. If it was up to me I would keep you here for another day, but Chiron wants you up and going as soon as possible."

After I lied back down she called in Clarisse. My eyes widened and I said, "Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill me? She's gonna run me through a wall!"

Annabeth shrugged and said, "Chiron wants to make sure you're fully healed. Clarisse has had a couple of her ribs broken, so she can tell when they're healed better than anyone. Just relax and let her check you."

The thought of Clarisse caring or listening to anyone, especially Annabeth, was really weird. I decided I'd ask her later. However, I could tell Annabeth was glad I was ok. She was my favorite half-sister. She was the smartest out of all of the Athena kids and was a brilliant architect and strategist.

"Wait Annabeth. Why are you here? Shouldn't you be up on Olympus watching the reconstruction?" I asked because I remembered that she was put in charge of the reconstruction for valor in combat. I watched the progress and told her what went up and what needed to go up. I thought that she'd be up there more often, but here she was.

"Well I put someone else in charge. I gave him strict orders and told him that if he messed up there'd be major problems. I wanted to enjoy my summer after all at my favorite place in the world." She told me. I nodded and brought out my Blackberry and checked up on the reconstruction before handing it to Annabeth to check. She gave it back and then someone knocked on the door.

When Clarisse came in it was like a drakon had walked in she was that terrifying. I wouldn't even dare to talk to her, much less make eye contact. Her long brown hair was hanging loosely and her blue jeans, black shirt, and brown biker jacket could scare the heck out of a hellhound.

Clarisse looked at Annabeth and she nodded back. "Alright punk, lie down and don't move or I'll re-brake your ribs." That was a pretty serious threat and I knew she'd do it if I didn't listen. What she did though made me want to huddle in a corner.

It hadn't occurred to me that when Annabeth said check I thought it involved her making me move around or something. Clarisse didn't do that. She felt, FELT, my chest. I was so scared I forgot how to breathe. Nothing hurt, so I figured I must have healed, but that still didn't remind me of how to inhale and exhale. Only after Clarisse said I was good and walked out the door calling me a punk on the way out did I finally breathe.

Annabeth thought this was funny and let me up. I was really anxious to get up, so I jumped out of bed and stood up… not before falling back down again when I got lightheaded. "Oof, I hate it when that happens." Then I stood up again, slowly, and walked out of the room. Annabeth looked a bit worried after I fell down but her angry face returned. Then we walked out of the guest room together

"I'm glad you're not dead you little runt," she said ruffling my already messy hair. "We need to talk after dinner about how everything happened."

"Sure sis," I said. I know that calling her "sis" bugs the heck out of her. I do it anyway, though, because it's fun to see her get angry. She glared at me then went over and joined Percy on the couch. He waved when he saw me and I bowed to Chiron who was staring out the window. Percy had the usual, jeans and camp t-shirt, and Chiron had a frayed tweed jacket on over a camp t-shirt in his horse form.

The rectangle room had a fireplace, a double door leading outside, a couch, and a big table in the middle. I turned a chair to face my sister and her boyfriend and sat down. I was a bit protective of Annabeth, but Percy was a good guy, practically a brother to me, so I just liked to annoy them.

Percy and Chiron asked how I felt and I told them I was fine, but as I looked at Chiron he had a worried look in his ancient eyes. In his horse form his head almost touched the ceiling. His tail flicked nervously on his lower white stallion half. I could tell he was worried but I didn't want to press him now.

It turns out I was out for a day. That wasn't so bad; I've been out for longer. I got hungry quick, so we decided to head out for the dining hall. Just then I remembered about Lauren. The last time I'd seen her she was looking pretty bad. "Hey, I think I'm gonna go and check on Lauren. I'll see you guys later," and I went off to the Apollo cabin. I found it, the glowing one in the evening sun with a lyre overhead and knocked on the door. Lauren answered and I took a sigh of relief. The color returned to her face and she looked like nothing even happened to her. "Hey Lauren! I take it you healed up alright?"

"Well duh, my father is the god of healing. I better heal up good!" she said. "You look better too! You sure you're not still broken?"

"Yep. Clarisse even checked." I said. Then my eyes widened. "Oh gods I need a shower." She laughed and we hugged. "You want to go to dinner now?"

"Yeah sure, I'm starving," she told me. "Race ya."

"You're on." And we took off towards the dining hall.

At dinner my brothers and sisters patted me on the back, some were envious and others were relieved. I was just happy to be in one piece. We offered to the gods and ate a dinner of pizza. I still couldn't wait to take a shower, so right after we finished I went back to the Athena cabin and showered, skipping the sing along. I tripped over someone's armor that was lying on the ground and put it on their bunk. Malcolm I thought to myself. I checked around the room filled with battle maps, books, and 3-D models of buildings to see if there was anything else out of place. Nope, so I went into the boys' bathroom. Annabeth had a pair of bathrooms installed in each cabin. It was a pretty cool idea, and my idea of making them colored marble was even cooler. Ours was gray because of Athena.

After the shower I went over and lied down on my bunk to read my architecture book. Eventually my cabin mates started coming back. When Annabeth and Percy came in, though, the whole cabin cleared except for me. I guessed that Annabeth had told them that she wanted to talk to me or something.

After I finished putting my book away we all sat on my bunk. My sister sat on Percy's lap on one end and I sat on the other. "Aran, how did you and Lauren take down that drakon?" Annabeth asked. She looked slightly ticked, but I could tell that she was glad I was back.

"Well, I distracted the thing while Lauren crept around back to shoot it with arrows and stuff. Why?" I said. Percy whispered something into her ear and she lost the irritated look.

"It's just that Percy and I fought one similar to that one a year ago and we thought that it was the only one brought back from Tartarus." She told me. I remember the trouble they had with the one last year.

"You've got guts Aran," Percy said. Hearing a great invincible warrior tell you you have guts was pretty awesome. "But still, we're worried about something."

"What's up?" I asked. If Percy and Annabeth, the best fighting pair ever, are worried then it must be serious.

They looked at each other then Percy said, "Well, we think there's still a Titan out there gathering forces to attack us. We think he's working solo, but already has gathered some deadly monsters on Mount Orthys in California."

My jaw dropped. I picked it back up then said, "But I thought there were no more Titans anymore. What could happen now?"

"Well," Annabeth started, "we think we may have to go out and stop him from getting to powerful. Mr. D went to Olympus to talk to the others about this." This had to be pretty serious if Mr. D, our camp counselor and synonymously the God of Wine, had to go to Olympus to inform the Olympians.

Then the door shot open and Malcolm came in panting. He looked terrified and exhausted.

"What's wrong Malcolm?" I asked him.

"There's a – she just showed up – the sea – needs help - beach," and he kept stuttering a couple more things not being able to complete a sentence. Percy and I looked at each other and immediately we took off and headed towards the beach.

"What do you think is wrong?" I asked him while running past the forest and rock climbing wall.

"I don't know. But that storm picked up before and now it's quiet so whoever it is must have something to do with it," he said to me.

We picked up the pace and heard Annabeth and Malcolm close behind us. Percy started slowing down while we kept going strong. "What's the matter Percy? You gonna let your girlfriend and her brothers beat you?" I said while jogging backwards. Annabeth giggled a bit, but Malcolm looked really worried still. Percy grinned and picked up his pace and caught up to me in no time.

As we started to catch our breath it was taken away again as we saw what was on the beach. It was a girl, about my age, with wavy brown hair and had a navy blue t-shirt on and sea green pants. Percy, Annabeth, and I ran over to her while a crowd of campers started to gather around us.

Cool. So I hoped you all liked and remember to review!