YO! MY PEEPS! *jumps into laptop and gives everyone reading this a high-five*
Disclaimer: I do not own this.
I'm super excited because school ends in a week! YAY!
Oh, and before I forget, HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER, EVERYBODY!
(I'm listening to Gangnam Style while writing this... Fail. That's all I can say to myself right now.)
Leo
Leo finally had time to work on Chime that evening, while the rest of his cabin was getting ready for bed. He snuck into the forges quietly, just in case, and closed the door behind him slowly. He sighed in relief when he found that no one had followed him, and turned on the lights. The vast room was illuminated, and he wandered down the aisles until he came to an empty table free of anything. Leo pulled of his bag and took out Chime, laying her on her side on the table counter. He laid her remote next to her. He hoped that by the end of next week she wouldn't need it anymore.
Leo went to work. His hands flew everywhere, fixing, tightening, rearranging, adjusting, replacing. He scarcely knew what he was doing, but by the time he was satisfied with his progress, nearly three hours had passed. That meant curfew had passed over half an hour ago.
Leo quietly tucked Chime and her remote into his bag again, and cleaned up his worktable as best as he could. Then he crept over to the lights and turned them off quietly. He wondered if he should just stay there the night so the cleaning harpies wouldn't find him. (Jake had told him about them too.) But then he realized that would be a stupid mistake, seeing as the harpies went into all the buildings to clean them up. He'd be caught unless he hid somewhere even monsters wouldn't smell him.
So Leo decided to risk it. He peered out the window to see if the coast was clear, and nearly had a heart failure. A harpy stood right outside the pane, so close Leo could reach out and touch her if the window glass didn't prevent it. Fortunately, the harpy had her back to Leo, and hadn't noticed him slink back down underneath the window out of view.
He sat there, waiting for the harpy to leave. It was only fifteen minutes later that he had the nerve to look out again to check if the coast was clear. It was. He shouldered his bag and opened the forge door quietly, slinking out and closing it behind him.
"And then the stupid kid was all like, 'hey, you better not kill me', trying to sound all macho and stuff with his rusty old piece of junk that he called a sword. But I got him good. That's what pests get for sneaking out past curfew," a harpy said to her friend, rounding a corner toward the forges. Leo's heart stopped beating for two seconds.
No time to ponder. Leo dodged into the shadows of the building and quickly prayed to his dad that the harpies would go inside the forges and not around them.
And they did. Still jabbering loudly, the two harpies started inside. Leo sighed in relief.
"Wait," one of them said. "I smell demigod."
"No, really?" asked her friend sarcastically. "I thought I smelled, oh, yeah, maybe a hundred of them. We're living in a camp full of half-bloods—what did you think you'd smell?"
"No," he friend said. "I mean I smell a demigod nearby. Like, right around the corner."
Leo strangled down a terrified squeak.
"Like last week when you thought you heard two half-bloods sneaking out toward the beach and it turned out to be just two wind nymphs playing hide-and-go-seek?" her friend asked. "And the week before that, when you swore a demigod was hiding out at the mess hall to practice sword-fighting? Come on. We have machinery to polish." And with that the second harpy dragged her friend inside the forges, leaving Leo to safety.
He waited five minutes before moving from his safe spot on the side of the forges. Finally, Leo shouldered his bag and tiptoed his way back to the Hephaestus cabin, disabling the seven and a half alarms before entering. (The half is courtesy of Harley.) Without bothering to change or even brush his teeth, Leo collapsed into slumber as his head hit the pillow, tossing Chime's bag beside his bed.
Tomorrow he'd continue his work. But not past curfew. Never again.
Piper
That night Piper couldn't get to sleep. She stared up at the bunk above her at the Hermes cabin, thinking about many things—how incredibly awesome and terrifying this all was, how come this truth she was living in was actually real, and why she got stuck in the oldest and smelliest cabin in the entire camp. As much as she wanted to close her eyes and give in to slumber after this second exhausting day, her brain kept telling her, No, stay awake!
Piper wondered what her father was doing right then at that moment. Probably asleep, she decided. Did he even know she left the Wilderness School? Was he awake with worry, not knowing where his little girl was? Or was everything normal in his life? Piper had no means of knowing, though she hoped that her father was completely clueless of her transfer. He would be better off that way, she reasoned. She wanted to call him, just to hear his voice, but what would she tell him?
Oh, hey, Dad! Guess what I learned today? It turns out that Mom is actually some Greek goddess from three millennia ago, which makes me half mortal, half god! Isn't that fun? But on the downside, monsters attack us a lot, like Wednesday for instance, when my jerk of a classmate turned into a wind monster and tried to kill me! But luckily my gym teacher is actually a goat-man and helped us defeat the wind monster! And now we live in this place called Camp Half-Blood for other kids like us to train to kill monsters, and all the Greek myths are true events that occurred a long time ago, and the kids here won't shut up about this Percy Jackson guy, saying that he's the reason I should be claimed or whatever! Well, hope you're having fun at your place! This phone call probably just sent up a smoke signal to all the monsters in a twenty-mile radius of my whereabouts, so I gotta hang up now! Bye!
Somehow, Piper had a feeling her dad wouldn't buy it. That, or it would only succeed in completely freaking him out.
She also thought about other things, like what Chiron had told her the day she and Leo arrived at camp. Piper wasn't quite sure exactly how their conversation had gone, seeing how confusing the whole concept was, but she remembered the important bits on the subject.
-o-O-o-
"So, Piper," Chiron said to her, wheeling himself along in his wheelchair on the path. "What do you think of this new life of yours so far?"
"It's…new," Piper decided. "Definitely impossible."
"Good," said Chiron. "We like impossible, eh?" He chuckled.
Piper just nodded. They passed by a few other demigods, who waved hello to Chiron. Chiron nodded to acknowledge them back. They talked a little longer, him asking normal questions that Piper expected him to ask. But then they stopped near the stables, where no one except a few winged horses stood nearby.
"Piper, I need to tell you something important," he said. "I have a feeling you might not be claimed like your friend Leo was."
"What do you mean?" asked Piper. "Are you saying I'm not a demigod? After all this? Man, this is depressing in a good way." She paused. "Is that possible? Being upset but extremely glad at the same time?"
"Eh, not sure," said Chiron. "And you are a demigod. You wouldn't have been able to enter the camp if you weren't."
"Dang it," Piper said, snapping her fingers.
"Actually, what I'm about to tell you is much more…complicated. You see…eh, we have an oracle at camp."
"An oracle?" Piper asked dumbly, having no clue what that was.
"Yes, yes, yes," said Chiron. "Her name's Rachel. She's a mortal, has red hair, et cetera et cetera. Knowing the consequences of phoning camp with a modern-day phone for more than five minutes, she's flying herself over to New York in a few days to tell us the prophecy she had spilled in the middle of her Social Studies class."
Piper allowed a smile. "That must have been embarrassing," she said.
"Indeed," said Chiron, nodding. "I won't confuse you any more than I have to, but the prophecy was four verses long and said something about damaged time. I will have her repeat it to the camp after capture-the-flag on Friday."
"What do you mean, damaged time?" asked Piper.
"Well, Piper," said Chiron. "What I'm thinking is that somehow time was supposed to go one way, but something happened and it has been changed. Damaged time. And, well, the last time something like this happened was millennia ago, before even I was born. And even that was just a legend."
"Wait," said Piper, eyebrows furrowing, looking more closely at the handicapped man that probably wasn't even handicapped. "How old are you?"
"Unimportant," Chiron dismissed easily. "But I've heard stories, though," continued Chiron without skipping a beat, "that in damaged time…well…to keep balance and the entire universe from exploding—"
"Exploding?" demanded Piper, horrified.
"—every promise ever made throughout history is broken," finished Chiron. Piper relaxed a little.
"Oh," she said.
There was a pause.
"I didn't want to be the one to ask the most obvious questions, but it appears I will have to make due. So?"
"So?" asked Chiron, seemingly outraged. "It means that even the unbreakable promises are now breakable! Including the ones on the River Styx!"
Silence.
"I have no clue what you mean, old man," Piper said.
"The faithful and, well, good gods would keep their promises just because it is the right thing to do," explained Chiron. "But to the disloyal, they'll take advantage of this problem and break their solemn swear. Now, there once was a boy, Percy Jackson, and he made all the gods swear on the River Styx that they'd claim their children."
"So what you're saying is that my mom won't claim me?" demanded Piper, unable to believe it. "This is just...this is just mean!"
"It is, but there is always a possibility that she is one of the good gods and will claim you," said Chiron. "I just wanted to tell you this just so that you aren't as disappointed at the campfire tonight if nothing happens. And I said if. But the gods haven't exactly been talk-active to us ever since the and of the Second Titan war, so this just may be for those reasons, and there is nothing wrong with time. Or perhaps there is nothing wrong at all and you will be claimed as usual."
"Hopefully," Piper said, hugging herself and averting the gaze of the man.
"There is hardly a chance that she wouldn't claim you," said Chiron. "You are a marvellous young girl, Piper. I wouldn't be surprised if your mother claimed you before the campfire, like Hephaestus did to your friend Leo."
-o-O-o-
But she hadn't.
Piper fidgeted with her fingers, willing herself to fall asleep. After a minute or so, she turned over in bed and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to sleep and not dream about evil god parents and red-headed oracles.
So now the story actually gets somewhere...FINALLY!
Now reviews!
-o-O-o-
Gabsters: I love the suggestion! I can add it in somewhere in the future, maybe somewhere where I have a break in the plot. And I would love to do a story with you! May the gods be ever in your favour! (See what I did there? SEE IT!? *pause, then sigh* I get too overexcited over nothing...)
Batmanpotterhead: Thank you for reviewing the first three chapters! And just so you know, one of the reasons I started this story was because there weren't too many fanfictions out there about Leo and Piper at the Wilderness School, and at CHB, but WITHOUT Jason.
Ajain: You bet I'm planning to continue!
Galena of the Night: OHMIGODS YOU JUST MADE MY DAY WITH THAT SIMPLE TWO SENTENCED REVIEW. THANK YOU!
elliefs: You really want Percy and Annabeth in here, don't you. (That wasn't even a question, just a fact.) They'll be mentioned and make minor appearances, I promise, but I'm not too sure they'll be a big thing. Maybe I'll add them in near the end, just for you. :D
-o-O-o-
Now you must review...if you want to see if Piper will ever be claimed! (...But didn't I already tell you she was going to be for sure...? ...But...hmm... Okay, forget what I said in the previous chapters. PIPER WILL NOT BE CLAIMED IF YOU DO NOT REVIEW.)
They don't suspect a thing...
...OPPA GANGNAM STYLE! (Still listening to it.)