OMG! You guys are AWESOME! I can't tell you how much I just love reading your reviews. They're amazing.
And guys! We survived the end of the world! If I ever get kids, I would make them watch the movie 2012 and say that I survived that. That would be so funny.
So anyways, we last left off when Percy and Annabeth were about to go into the forest. We some action here.
And without further ado, on with the storryyyyy!
Percy's POV
Annabeth and I had been trekking tirelessly through the thick forest. I had uncapped my sword a long time ago to try and hack away at the trees and bush, but it didn't seem to be doing much. Annabeth had been helping me the entire time. She had her knife out and was slashing the bushes and trees to shreds, just so we could make a small trail.
There seemed to be no clearing in the forest at all. Every which way we went, there was forest, forest and more forest.
"How long do you think-unf-we have to-unf-do this?" Annabeth said between slashes.
I paused in my hacking. "I have no idea."
"Well that's enlightening." Annabeth huffed.
I ignored her and hacked at a poor tree particularly harshly.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" I asked her. She didn't give an answer.
"I thought so."
We walked on through the trees in silence. It was actually kind of dark in the forest. Because of the thick canopy, the harsh sunlight couldn't get through, making the ground cool. It was a nice change from the harsh sun of the desert.
As I was just about to slash at another tree branch, Annabeth stopped me.
"Look over there."
She pointed at the trees to the left of me. Rays of sunshine were peeking through the bush. I swung my sword at the branches to reveal a medium sized clearing.
Annabeth slashed some more at the branches obscuring our view and we got our first full view of the clearing.
"Wow." I heard Annabeth whisper. I hummed in agreement.
In the middle of the clearing was a crystal clear blue lake. It was the cleanest lake I've ever seen in my entire life. I could see little fish splashing around in the lake. It was so beautiful, it was almost comical. I could practically hear the cheesy music in the background.
That's when I realized just how thirsty I really was. I walked over hungrily toward the lake. I put my head under the water, gulping it down like it was the end of the world. Once I had gotten my fill, I lifted my head from the water.
I saw that Annabeth had her hands cupped and was slowly bringing water to her mouth. I leaned back on my knees and looked up at the sky. There were still trees blocking out some of the sky, but I could still a part of the sky. It was a clear blue, the same colour as the water. This was the first time since I had arrived here that I was actually at peace. It reminded me of when annabeth and I were at the lake before the black hole took us and brought us here.
I closed my eyes to fully enjoy the moment. A few minutes later, I heard Annabeth's voice.
"We should fill up our water bottles."
I opened my eyes to look at her and saw that she had one of our empty water bottles in the lake, filling it up.
"Okay," I said as I picked up an empty water bottle beside me and willed the water from the lake to flow into the water bottle. It felt good to be able to use my powers and see water again after being stuck in the desert. I never did like deserts of course. What with being the son of the sea god and deserts not having any water at all. Also, I remembered what happened about three years ago to Bianca. I shuddered inwardly. I never try to think about that if I could help it. That made my hate toward the desert even stronger.
I recapped the water bottle that I was filling, tightly, so that no water would leak. Annabeth was doing the same.
As I was filling up my second water bottle, I noticed something strange about the surface of the lake. The surface, until now, had been unnaturally calm. Now though, rings of water were spreading out from the centre of the lake, to the edges.
I stood up and slowly backed away. Something was wrong. Annabeth noticed this and took her water bottle out of the lake slowly. She soon joined me.
The rings of water in the lake suddenly got bigger as small waves appeared on the surface of the water. I didn't even think it was possible for waves to appear on lake, but apparently it was. At least it was here.
We both slowly walked away from the lake, suddenly very suspicious of the seemingly harmless lake.
Just as we were about to gather our things and leave, not wanting to risk any chances, a huge sea serpent burst from the lake. Water sprayed everywhere as I got my first look at the serpent. It was positively huge and had scales covering its entire body. It had a strange frothy green colour. There were huge spines going up and down its back. Its face kind of looked like how a Chinese dragon would look, complete with the whiskers. Even bigger waves appeared on the lake as the huge dragon thrashed around in the water.
I had no idea how something its size could fit in that small of a lake. Agh, curse my ADHD mind. I had to focus on the problem at hand, not how a dragon could fit in a small lake.
The body of the serpent was still in the lake as it brought its head eye level to us. I was looking into one of its huge, yellow eyes.
I heard Annabeth draw in a sharp breath as the dragon snorted and hot air hit us. Had it ever heard of toothpaste? The smell was horrible.
"If we walk away slowly, it might not attack us." I whispered in Annabeth's ear. She nodded vaguely and we both started to back away ever so slowly.
My plan didn't work.
As we were backing away, I heard a snap as I stepped on a twig. I cringed at the sound.
The serpent's head turned with lightning fast speed. I caught my breath and tried to stay as still as I could with a huge dragon breathing hot, smelly breath into my face.
Just as I thought that it wasn't about to do anything, the serpent let out an ear-shattering roar and lunged at me with its razor sharp teeth.
The dragon snapped at my side, but I rolled away in the nick of time and landed hard on the grass.
"Annabeth run!" I shouted as I uncapped riptide.
The serpent was now separating me from Annabeth. I couldn't see where she was, but I hoped that she had gotten away.
The dragon snapped at me again, and I quickly jumped to my right, dodging its sharp teeth. It snapped again in quick recession, but this time it found its mark.
"Aaah!" I screamed out as I clutched my left arm. I could see deep bite marks on my arm as it gushed blood.
"Percy!" I heard Annabeth shout my name. "Hey big and ugly! Over here!" She shouted right after that.
The huge dragon then turned on Annabeth.
"No!" I said through my teeth as I was clinging on to my left arm I had to get to the lake to get more power. The only problem was that the dragon currently inhabited the lake. That seemed like a pretty big problem at the moment. I had to get to the lake without the dragon noticing.
As I sneaked behind the serpent, I risked a quick glance at Annabeth and saw that she was expertly dodging all of its attacks.
"Yah!" She screamed as she stabbed her knife into the dragon's side when it snapped at her. Annabeth tugged at her knife, but it didn't seem to want to come out. The serpent hardly seemed to notice that there was a knife sticking out of its hide. It barely seemed to faze it.
"Annabeth, you need to distract it!" I shouted. "I need to get to the lake!"
I ran toward the lake, not waiting for an answer. Behind me, the dragon was snarling as it battled Annabeth. I looked behind me once again and saw that Annabeth was scrambling toward our backpack that was lying on the ground. I soon realized that she was trying to get the machine gun out of it.
I turned my attention back to the lake. I was now only a few feet away. Behind me, I heard gunshots mixed in with pained snarling from the serpent.
"Yes Annabeth!" I muttered.
When I finally got the lake I dived in, trying to avoid as much of the body as possible. I felt the water heal the bite on my left arm, slowly but surely. Soon enough, I couldn't feel much of it anymore and saw that it was just a thin, white line.
I swam deeper and deeper under the water, twirling as I formed a torpedo. I then swam like a bullet toward the surface and shot out of the water. I aimed toward the serpents head and hit its eye with a sharp jet of water. It roared in pain as it flailed around, its eye now bleeding a thick yellow liquid.
Meanwhile, I saw Annabeth still shooting her gun with rapid succession toward the dragon. She had gotten her knife back from the hide of the dragon as well.
I suspended myself near the serpents face on a plume of water. I slashed at it with my sword and the dragon drew back, snarling in agony.
I smirked at the dragon as I lowered myself into the lake once again. I willed myself to stand on the lake without going under. I had an idea about defeating the serpent, but it would sap a lot of my energy. So I naturally decided to go with it.
I concentrated on the water below me to turn slowly to ice. I had never tried this before so I didn't even know if it would work, but I tried anyways. My idea was to freeze this monster then smash it into a million pieces with Annabeth help.
I scrunched my eyes shut as I concentrated on turning the water to ice. I could hear crackling as tendrils of ice slowly spread throughout the entire lake.
A minute later, I opened my eyes to see that the entire lake was on ice. Now all I had to do was to extend the ice so that the dragon would become frozen as well. Piece of cake, I thought sarcastically.
I concentrated some more and another minute later, he ice was quickly spreading to the dragon.
It let out a loud screech as if it were surprised that it couldn't move anymore. It tried to thrash around, but I only made the ice thicker. Just as I had suspected, this was sapping a lot of my energy. I could see black spots in my vision now. I tried to shake my head clear. I couldn't afford to pass out now.
Just as I was about to engulf the serpent entirely with ice, it let out another defiant roar and shook free from the ice. I didn't know where it had found the energy to do that, but somehow it did. The head turned around and bared its razor sharp teeth at me as it snapped at my side.
"Aaah!" I screamed out. I lost all my concentration on keeping the water as ice and fell to my knees. Luckily I hadn't lost all the water that I had turned to ice. A small spot was still there underneath me. Though it wasn't enough to keep the dragon at bay.
"No…" I muttered as I tried to pull myself to my feet. I had turn this dragon to ice. My entire vision was filled with black spots. I could barely see, but I pushed myself.
I concentrated once more into making the water into ice. I used up what little energy I had left and somehow managed to turn the dragon to ice once again. This time I made sure that it was fully on ice and couldn't escape. Once I did that, I sank to my knees once again.
I heard Annabeth shooting at the serpent once again, trying to break the ice. It seemed that she had understood my plan. Though I knew that that wouldn't break the serpent on its own. I had to break it myself or it would never be dead.
I willed myself to get up once again. I used up all of my willpower and concentration to break the now frozen solid dragon. I heard a deafening crackling sound as the dragon broke up into a million pieces of ice. The ice rained down on me ad I swayed on my feet. I felt the lake turn back into water as the energy sapped out of me. I had just enough time to hear Annabeth yell out my name before black spots filled my vision and I sank into the water, knowing no more.
…..
White light flooded my vision. In the distance, I heard someone calling my name. It sounded strangely muffled, as if they were talking from behind a wall. My head felt like it was run over by a truck. My entire body was sore. I slowly shook my head to clear my vision, and I soon found the faint outline of Annabeth in front of me.
"Annabeth?" I croaked. My voice also felt sore-like I was talking through sand paper.
I tried to push myself up from my position on the floor, but Annabeth gently put a hand on my shoulder, pinning me down.
"Take it easy. You lost a lot of your energy doing that little trick of yours. That wound from the serpent didn't help."
I paused, letting that sink in.
"The dragon-"
"Is dead. You killed it. I fished you out of the lake." She replied.
I slowly allowed myself to relax into my position.
"We don't have any ambrosia, so it might take you a little longer to heal."
I silently agreed with her. Without ambrosia, it would be hard for us if we got any injuries.
Then I remembered that my healing would be faster if I could just get into the lake. It would fuel me with energy. I pushed myself up again despite Annabeth's protests.
"Help me to the lake." I told her.
She seemed to understand what I wanted to do then as she helped me get up. I swayed on my feet slightly, but she had me in a firm grip so I wouldn't fall. I leaned heavily on Annabeth. My side was still an open wound with blood gushing from it. I felt woozy and wobbly from what I had done.
It took us a while for us to get to the lake, but once I stepped in I felt immediate relief. I let the water course through my body, giving me power. I looked down at my side and saw that it was healing and the horrible wound was turning into a small scar. Annabeth watched from the edge of the lake.
After five minutes, I swan out of the lake, joining Annabeth. As I stepped out, I felt some of the power that I felt in the lake seep away.
"You good?" Annabeth asked.
"Yep."
There was a pause. The Annabeth said, "Never again."
"Definitely."
"We shouldn't trust anything that looks calm and beautiful unless we absolutely need to." Annabeth stated.
I nodded in agreement.
"Come on, we should keep moving." I said.
I went to pick up some of the things we left lying around the edge of the lake. Luckily our water bottles were not damaged from our fight with the serpent. I shoved most of our things into our backpack. Annabeth grabbed some of the other things that were lying around here and there.
Once we had done that, we started trekking back into the dreary forest.
…..
"We've been at this for hours and we haven't gotten anywhere!" Annabeth exclaimed.
I grunted as I felt a branch scratch my arm. "I know."
Annabeth and I were covered in nicks and scratches from the many trees, branches and bushes. We were both tires, but we hadn't stopped trekking since the serpent incident. We didn't want to risk it, but it seemed like we were going to have to stop anyways. It looked like it was going to get dark soon.
"Percy, you want to make it a day now?" Annabeth said with weariness in her voice.
I was actually glad she said it before I did. "Yeah" I said with a grim sigh. "But we're going to have to find another clearing."
"Yeah…that…" I heard Annabeth mutter.
…
It took us another twenty minutes to find a clearing big enough for the two of us. It was covered with trees on all sides, and this time there was no lake in the middle. It looked like a pretty secluded spot as well. The trees were really thick here, so I was pretty confident when I said that no one would be able to see us here.
Annabeth and I both drank from one of our water bottle. We still needed to find food-fruits or berries that grew on bushes or even a little harmless animal that was wandering around the woods. We had decided to look for those things the next day.
I took out our small blanket and pillow from the backpack I was carrying and I laid it on the ground. It was dark now. The thick tree canopy only made it darker, blocking out the moons light.
Annabeth and I were just about to settle down when we heard a loud cannon shot.
The sound ricochet in the trees, vibrating my bones. A bunch burds in the trees flew off, giving off loud screeches.
"What the hell was that?" Annabeth exclaimed as we both quicly got up.
"I don't know…" I said, confused. "You think someone found us?"
"I don't think so. Look." Annabeth pointed up at the part of the sky that we could actually see. In the sky was the figure of a person.
Nico to be exact.
"What the hell…?" I whispered. "Why is Nico's face in the sky?"
Annabeth relpied grimly, "I don't know, but I'm not sure I want to find out."
Wow even this chapter is long.
Oooooh cliffy! What happened to Nico? You will find out in the chapter after the next one.
So as I promised, action! There will be a lot of action in the next chapter as well which is Bruce's.
Oh soo exiting!
And don't forget to review! Just like there wouldn't be any avengers without loki, there wouldn't be any story without reviews!
-detective DG