Disclaimer: You know what it is.
Anyway, folks, here is the next chapter. Enjoy it, because I made it long just for you!
Chime
It had been a while since Chime was able to fly without a remote, and it was definitely a wonderful experience. One day she would fly laps around the Hephaestus cabin with her automaton friends, the next wow and stun all of the kids of Aphrodite with her stunning elegance. (Well, all except Drew. Chime now knew why Piper spoke so badly of her.)
But other than wings, Leo had added a few extra capabilities to Chime's list of amazing features. She hadn't tried any of them out yet, but she was just dying to. But, unfortunately, he hadn't added a speaking option. The largest sound Chime could produce was a short whistle. She'd have to ask Leo to fix that one day… somehow.
"Come on, Chimmy-Chimmy-Chip-Chap," said Leo, calling her down from a perch in the Hephaestus cabin while stuffing a few sheets of paper into his pocket. "We're gonna go visit Aunty Piper. You wanna do that?"
Chime couldn't actually understand him—she didn't know the language any of these humans spoke in—but she recognized the words as they were from memory, and so flew down and balanced herself on Leo's shoulder. At first Chime had thought of Piper and Leo as masters, like owners or something. But she reasoned they were past that. They were friends.
They headed into the camp's school, much to Chime's displeasure. She didn't like that place. No fun in there. But she didn't object either.
They found Piper seated at a desk, studying for something. After a short talk between Leo and Piper, Chime realized something bigger than a study date for an upcoming test was going on. Not sure exactly of what but being unable to ask, she remained perched on Piper's shoulder, trying to read the jumble of letters on the paper in front of her. Another thing Chime couldn't do—read. But she knew better than to ask Leo for that. It would make her seem as if she were ungrateful, which she most certainly was not. Just being that old toy in some guy's shop at the train station was way boring. (Speaking of that, she might go visit her siblings one day, and tell them stories of Camp Half-Blood once she got that speaking option set into motion.)
For a few minutes Chime amused herself with pecking Piper's ear, until Leo finally began to pack up his papers. At last, thought Chime. We're leaving.
She noticed someone else come in. He was one of the bigger Ares campers, who were all bulk and grunts. Chime twittered nervously, but her chirp was drowned out by the big guy's words. He was speaking to Piper and Leo, but they didn't know he was there. Now, what was he doing…?
Oh gods.
Now crumpled lifelessly on the floor, Leo and Piper were oblivious of what was happening around them. Chime flew up and pecked furiously at the big camper, trying to hit the weak areas of a human, such as the neck and face, but he easily swatted her away easily, as if she were simply a stupid automaton in his way, which she was.
Chime landed on her left wing on one of the desks. Fortunately for her she was only a machine, because had she not been one she would have sprained it for sure. But when she tried to flap it in unison with her right wing, nothing happened. All the bird could do while her friends were kidnapped was watch powerlessly.
She tried to hop down to the ground and tail the big camper on foot, but her tiny bird legs was no match for his long strides. He was gone and out of the doorway before Chime had reached the edge of the desk.
But Chime didn't give up hope just yet. She tried flying once more, and although it took lots of effort to keep flying straight and not off to the left on a steep barrel-dive, she managed.
She flew out of a window and headed straight up to where she could see for farther distances. She turned around in three circles, trying to spot the large kidnapper with her expert implanted bird vision.
There. Headed into the forest. Chime flew down and in his direction. Her dive gathered up her momentum, and she set a horrific mental picture of herself crashing into that big bully and sending him flying five feet into the air and causing him to crash on the ground out cold, and then Leo and Piper would pop back to life, and they'd all celebrate, and they'd thank her by giving her the power of speech and ability to read, as well as get ice cream.
What actually happened was everything she had predicted but happening to the wrong person. Chime fell back against a nearby tree, tangled in its branches. She felt next to nothing, but a wire inside her metal workings had snapped.
He's getting away! she thought drowsily. Leo had programmed her mechanical body to repair itself for minor injuries and technical difficulties such as this. But it took up lots of battery life, and the only way for it to actually work was if she powered down an hour or two, depending on how severe the problem was. And that was happening right then. Chime was falling asleep.
I'll get him, she promised herself. Just after a nice, short nap…
-o-O-o-
Chime reawakened with a start. Somehow, she was in a tree, cradled in its branches, the terrain beneath her deserted. How did she get there? What...?
Then it came back.
Fortunately the auto-fix had healed her wing along with the snapped wire (or at least made it flyable again). But only Leo would be able to fix her completely, and that couldn't happen if he was killed, now, would it?
Chime pumped herself up for some extreme flying. She then realized with a start that she had no clue to where she was going.
So much for that rescue.
But she did know that that big camper was part of the Ares cabin. So she'd start there.
Outside the cabin, Christine was explaining what was happening to a misunderstanding Hazel. Chime hid on the roof of the cabin, perching herself on top of a skull.
"We're going to call camp tonight to get the execution permission," Christine was saying.
"And this is just because they know too much?" Hazel asked. For a second her eyes flitted up to where Chime sat, but she didn't notice her.
"Well, what do you think would happen if they told someone?" replied Christine. "The attack would be countered, and maybe their cursed horse-men would even win the battle for the Greeks. Our fears would be realized."
"Don't you mean Octavian's fears?" asked Hazel.
Christine furrowed her eyebrows together in incomprehension. "No. Our."
She wasn't convincing anyone.
"Well, I gotta be going," she said. "See ya later?"
"Maybe," said Hazel, though she knew that Christine would be avoiding her as much as possible.
Of course, Chime didn't recognize any of these words, except execution, know too much, attack, Greeks, and fears. This was enough to realize what was going on, but not enough to tell her where Leo and Piper had been taken to.
Once Christine left, Hazel turned to Chime. "You can come out now," she said.
Chime was bewildered. She had known she was there?
"I sensed you," explained Hazel as if reading the bird's thoughts. She pointed her finger right at where Chime sat. "You have a Celestial Bronze heart. I saw the metal in you."
Chime still wasn't convinced, mostly because she had no idea what Hazel had just said.
"I don't want to do this attack any more than you want it to happen," Hazel continued. "It's pointless, really. And you Greeks aren't actually that bad. I'm willing to bet that half of my camp doesn't want to do it either, but since Octavian's leading it they'll follow his suit." Hazel sighed. "Your friends are behind the forest. At the beach."
Chime twittered. It sounded truthful enough, from what she had understood. She cautiously hovered down, ready to dash off if need be. Hazel let her land on her open palm.
"I'll take you to them," she offered.
Chime tweeted, which was her way of saying yes.
-o-O-o-
The forest was not fun. Chime had never actually been in there, but she picked up bits of the conversation that she understood from Piper and Leo when they talked about it. It was spooky, she decided. Hazel had brought a weapon to defend herself, and Chime was glad for it.
In total, they encountered five monsters. Two were easily defeated. They hid from two more. But the last one was a very big drakon.
Hazel muttered something that Chime didn't have on her list of English words. She probably didn't want to know what it meant anyway.
So, of course, Hazel ran. Chime decided to fly. The drakon was way faster, but they were near the end of the forest. Just a hundred meters and they were free—so basically a short sprint.
They combat-rolled out of the forest and fell on their faces in the sand. The drakon snarled angrily, but retreated back into its home.
"Next time, we go around the forest instead of through it," Hazel decided, picking herself up.
Chime twittered.
They started to walk along the sand, waiting to run into Piper and Leo. After a minute or two, they rounded a corner and spotted them up ahead, sitting back-to-back on the sand, another girl guarding them to make sure they didn't run off.
"Hide," Hazel whispered to Chime.
Hey, I know what that means! the bird thought excitedly, realizing that she knew the word. She wants me to put myself of sight. I can do that.
She flew into the forest trees, but concealed herself behind the first one she came across. No way was she re-entering that noxious wood.
"Hey, Marcy," Chime heard Hazel call out.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the other girl, Marcy.
Chime imagined Hazel shrugging. "My cabin is on a break. You were guarding these guys for like, four hours. I can take it from here."
"You sure?" Marcy sounded skeptical.
"'Course I am," replied Hazel.
"Well, I did want to try that rock climbing wall again… All right. I'll be back in two hours."
"Two hours. Got it."
Chime watched Marcy disappear back into the forest, twirling her dagger around her fingers. Up ahead, she spotted the drakon she and Hazel had run from. Without flinching, Marcy cart-wheeled to the side and sliced her dagger along its side. In less than five seconds, it had turned into a fine yellow dust. She walked on without looking back.
Yikes, thought Chime, a word she had picked up from Leo. She then flew out from her cover and landed on Hazel's shoulder, who had seated herself on the rock.
"So…" she said, crossing her legs and peering at her prisoners. "How's life?"
"Great," Piper replied. "The highlight of my week has been when Romans with intentions of destroying my camp marched in and kidnapped me."
"That's excellent," Hazel commented. She pulled out a dagger from her boot and hopped down from the rock.
"What are you going to do with that?" asked Leo nervously.
"Chime?" asked Piper, catching sight of the bird on Hazel's shoulder for the first time.
Chime fluttered down to her master's ear and nuzzled her crest against her neck. Piper laughed uncertainly. "What?" she asked with an unsure smile.
Hazel knelt down next to Leo and cut the bonds around his wrist. When she was done sawing, she moved on to Piper.
"But you're a Roman," said Piper once free.
"So?" asked Hazel. "Not all of us are power-hungry maniacs like Octavian. I'm Hazel, by the way."
"I'm Leo, and she's Piper. Is Octavian that blond guy in the Iris Message?" Leo asked, rubbing his sore wrists.
"That's the one."
"I didn't really like him."
"No one really does."
"I do," said a new voice. The three demigods plus the bird turned to see who it was.
Well, apparently Marcy hadn't completely left, because she had heard them talking and headed back. "He's one of our camp's leaders," she finished.
"Hey, Marcy," said Hazel awkwardly. "What's up?"
Ooh! Cliffhanger!
They're all going to die.
Anyway, how did you enjoy that in the bird's perspective? I wanted to try something different, so I went with that.
-o-O-o-
BookFreak: Yes, Nico shows up in the story. (Why does everyone want the characters from PJatO to show up in an HoO fanfiction...?)
Guest: I'm sorry but I have no idea what 'ERMAHGERD!' means.
Demigod1996: Yes, Percy and Annabeth will show up more.
Donavin: Thank you for loving me! I love you in a not-weird-I-don't-actually-know-you way too!
elliefs: She doesn't actually have it. I just made it like that so the chapter would be funnier.
klc1-25: o_o I forgot about that... ...I made a mistake... ...This has never happened before... ...I don't know what to do...! ...I'm just going to end with that...
LIPERFAN101: This is the best story on FanFiction, I know. (No offense to other fanfictions too!)
Gabsters: Don't worry, there won't be, because Piper and Leo aren't together yet. They're all friends right now.
-o-O-o-
Review! Check out my other story 'The Lost Tales of HoO' or something like that. It would be really appreciated, because unlike this story that has OVER 250 REVIEWS (YAY CONGRATULATIONS!), that one isn't so popular.