The next few days were uneventful. The people had mostly calmed down; supplies were bountiful and casualties were low. Repairs were well underway, some already finished. Jason insisted that they fill Thalia in on the elementalists. At first, Percy protested, but Thalia was strangely acceptant. It was also nice to have a third person checking Pearl Cove. The Olympians were forced to stay at Pacificantas for two extra weeks, as damage to the roads was heavy. Jason and Thalia weren't too brokenhearted.
Percy was busier than ever. Nobles flooded in, despite travel conditions, to discuss who knows what. Percy was forced to sit through endless, boring meetings, usually about the same thing-dealing with the hurricane.
Percy had just gotten out of one of those meetings. He was walking back to meet Jason when he was stopped by a huge clamor in the great hall. People were whispering, trying to get a glimpse at something in the center of the room.
"Excuse me, please let me through." Percy pushed his way through the crowd. His crowd controlling skills remained as frustratingly absent as he struggled.
"Percy, there you are!" He heard Thalia exclaim from where everyone was mobbing. People parted as they finally noticed him, and he made his way to Thalia's black hair.
"Trust you to make a..." Percy trailed off in shock. Thalia was struggling under the weight of a very familiar blonde. "What are you doing, she needs..." Percy's hiss was cut off when Thalia shifted the cloak wrapped around Annabeth to reveal feet. Belonging to Annabeth. "U-uh, you better come with me." He gathered Annabeth into his arms, as Thalia was about to drop her. They sprinted to Percy's room. "Oh, Annabeth, what did you do?" He asked the unconscious girl.
"I found her at Pearl Cove, she matched your description minus the..." Thalia gestured to Annabeth's legs.
"Ye-yeah. Why don't you grab some of your clothes, she's probably your size." Thalia nodded and walked out of the room.
"No peeking." She said before closing the door behind her. Percy felt his face grow hot. Thalia was quite adept at embarrassing him. He heard a groan behind him.
"Where am I?" Annabeth groaned. Percy whipped around. She was sitting up with the cloak still wrapped around her. "Hmm, it worked." She stuck out a foot and wiggled her toes. "You never told me feet were this weird."
"Hey, feet are a perfectly natural part of the human body." Thalia chose that moment to interrupt. She shooed Percy out of the room. He sat down on the floor in the hallway.
"This is too weird." He said to himself.
"Tell me about it, Thalia burst past me yelling for a dress." Jason appeared beside him. "I never thought I'd see the day she'd willingly touch one."
"Annabeth has feet." Percy mumbled. It blew his mind.
"Uh, no she doesn't. Mermaid, remember." Percy just stared at the opposite wall until the door to his room opened.
"I think Annabeth needs to talk to you Percy." Thalia hauled him up. They entered his room together.
"Fascinating." Annabeth was sitting on the bed, one foot on her lap. She was playing with her toes. "You never told me how interesting feet were." She said without looking up.
"Yeah, uh, Annabeth, what, how, uh..." Percy wasn't exactly sure how to ask her.
"I suppose you deserve an explanation." She sighed, tearing her attention away from her new limbs. "Well, there are...rumors...about certain transformations. These require a large amount of magical power, and...a sacrifice." Annabeth held up a pendant hanging around her neck that Percy didn't notice before. "The magic comes from this. Recognize it?" It was a faintly glowing blue stone, the same color of Annabeth's tail.
"Is that one of the glow stones? From the cave? But I thought they only glowed underwater." He said.
"They do. But there is a way to...increase their power through..." She trailed off. "Once amplified, they grant the wearer powers-if you wore it it could possibly increase your elementalist powers. For me, it gives me legs."
"Cool!" Thalia burst out. "So what happens if you take it off?" Annabeth sighed.
"Are all of your friends this oblivious Percy?"
"Not all of us are as enlightened as you are. I was about to ask the same question myself." He admitted.
"What do they even teach you. Fine, if I take it off, I turn back, which would be very bad in case you needed that cleared up." Percy and Thalia glared at her, and she responded with a grin. "Kidding. Anyway, here I am. What now."
"What do you mean 'what now'? You're the one off sacrificing things for magical abilities!" Percy exclaimed. "I'm coming back to that later." He added after a moments thought.
"Why don't you ask your major strategist, he seemed pretty clear when he said it. Although, he was pretty waterlogged too…" Annabeth trailed off. Thalia snorted.
"You actually took something Jason said seriously? Ha!" She was in hysterics by now. "Jason! We found you a girlfriend."
"Who said anything about getting me a girlfriend." Jason grumbled. Percy hadn't notice that he slipped into the room. "And I'm not that terrible at planning."
"Anyway." Percy interrupted. "Clearly we need to sort some things out, like your backstory. My dad probably knows you're here by now. Ideas?" After some arguing, they finally agreed on a simple story.
"I was traveling by ship when we got caught in the storm. The ship sunk, I managed to escape. We were traveling to Atlantis from the kingdom of Owtopia. I am the captain's daughter. Is that right?"
"Yeah, lucky for us, it's in our ledgers. That ship never got to Atlantis, the real captain's daughter is most likely dead. It helps that I was filing those papers. Atlantis is one of our biggest trading cities, so it's not like my dad will immediately notice something is up." Percy stood up. "We better bring you to meet him, he feels responsible for the safety of everyone caught in the storm." He hauled an unsteady Annabeth to her feet.
"Walking is hard!" She complained.
"And you aren't even wearing shoes." Thalia muttered.
"We can just put it up to fatigue, but you have to learn fast Annabeth." Jason warned. Percy lead the way to the throne room, where he seemed to be spending a lot of time lately.
"Ready?" He asked his accomplices.
"As I'll ever be." Annabeth replied.
"This will be one heck of a story." Jason pushed the massive doors open.
*Hides behind Percy* If you want to kill me, you'll have to kill your main character first (That's actually not a bad idea)! Anyway, yeah I haven't updated. Yeah I haven't been writing. There goes my promises. Eh, who cares. But seriously, this was a long wait. I feel like this story has been deteriorating since chapter two, so maybe this one will be better. Leave a comment and let me know. You guys are awesome for all the support. I guess that's all, peace out!