Okay, I'd just like to say a quick thank you to all the awesome people who reviewed, favorited, or alerted my story! That is Dark Skitty Power, Daughter of Posieden, Sasha1207, AnnabethIsTheBest, Amazing-Anna'beth'1, jahfreenalam, palmerage, percyjacksonfan77, Firestar26, and I think that's it. I'm so sorry if I missed you, and please inform me if I did. I'm honored that so many people like it! Thank you to my reviewers, I love you in a non creepy way! And thanks to my silent readers who favorited and/or alerted, but didn't review. You guys are ok too. No, I'm kidding. I appreciate you all! =D Now I feel obligated to update quickly though…
I'll try for one chapter every week or so… But remember, this isn't my only story.
Edited with considerable zest as of 7/9/15.
Percy's POV
The monsters finally settled down after about two or three hours of limbo, dancing between the tiki torches, pineapple pizza, and singing under the star-strewn velvet sky. A soft, warm breeze blew gently through the palm trees, creating a soothing ruffle of sound. My stomach was full of pizza and mango juice, and I was mostly content as I gazed skyward.
The monsters were all conked out on grass mats around the glowing coals of the campfire. They had lent me a mat, plus a soft blanket. Most of the monsters had their own thick coats of fur or feathers, and only a few of them needed (or maybe just wanted) real blankets. The eagle-hyena hybrid, who had told me to call him Nafrionios, or Frio for short, had lent me his blanket since he didn't need it. I had decided I liked Frio.
Their first questions about me had been typical. What's your name? Who's your godly parent? Where did you learn to fight? Where are you from? Who are you getting the water for? Do people know you're here?
My answers were fairly short and kind of nondescriptive. The questioners were still monsters, after all, however nice they were to me. I didn't exactly need to broadcast any important personal information to them, just in case. "I'm Percy, my dad is Poseidon [insert admiring gasp here], I train at Camp Half Blood in New York, I'm getting the water for my girlfriend, and yeah… I think they do." I paused, wondering if that last part was actually true or not. "At least, I left a note for them…" I amended, frowning slightly. I assumed the first place they would look for me would be my cabin, so I had left the note there.
"Would you like to send someone an IM to update them? I have a ton of drachmas that I never use, and there's a waterfall with a perfect mist for IM-ing," Frio offered.
See? Here is another example of how unreasonably nice these monsters are. I took him up on it, after making sure he wasn't going to need those drachmas.
"Are you kidding me?" was his shocked reply. If he didn't have an eagle head, I'm sure both eyebrows would've been raised sky high. "I have everything I need right here." He gestured around at Corinthos in general. "My friends are handy, there's a perfect beach, an awesome game of Limbo whenever you feel like it, unlimited pineapple pizza and mango juice… It's pretty much paradise for a monster like me. All I have to do is fight a hero whenever one comes along, which isn't even that often, and I'm golden."
When he put it that way, I kind of had to agree that it sounded like a pretty good lifestyle…
Ahem.
I made my way down to the waterfall alone, leaving the monsters to gorge on pizza again. I slid carefully through the grasses on the slight slope, scrabbling for purchase with my completely worn down sneakers. I'd really have to invest in a new pair after all of this- the hours of ocean travel had not been kind to them.
That was, if I survived all of this.
"Do it for the Vans, Percy," I muttered to myself, trying to lighten the heavy weight that had just settled on my shoulders. "Or maybe Converse? Or even Etnies."
After a few minutes of me murmuring shoe brands to myself as some sort of twisted encouragement, I came upon the waterfall. It was fed by a wide stream gurgling through the rocks a good ten feet above my head. The water crashed down into a deep little pool, creating a fine mist. The only problem was, the mist was in the middle of the pool, up against the rocks.
But then again, that wasn't really a problem for me. With a slight shrug, I waded into the cold, clear water, sighing at the familiar feel of cool liquid against my skin. Once the water reached my chin, I lifted my feet off the pond bed and swam over to the spray. Once over there, I asked for a slight current to hold me in place while I fished around in my pocket for the drachmas.
"Grover Underwood, Camp Half Blood, New York," I requested. Nothing happened for a moment, and I wondered if I needed something like an area code if I was out of the country. Then I saw a familiar curly-haired head appear in the mist. "Grover!" I yelled over the crash of the water in front of me. He jumped about four inches in the air, thoroughly startled by my voice. He turned, and his eyes widened as he saw me.
"Percy?" he asked breathlessly. "PERCY! You're alive! Where are you?" He danced from one hoof to another in excitement.
I couldn't help but grin at his enthusiastic reaction. "I'm in a pond on this magical Greek island. I am indeed alive, thanks for noticing. How's everything at camp? How is-" I swallowed the lump coming up in my throat at the thought of her. "How's Annabeth?" Grover looked guiltily around him, and my heart sank. "What happened?" I whispered, my voice cracking a little in alarm.
"Camp is fine, everyone is great and healthy and happy and wise and training well, and we got two new campers yesterday, and Nico dropped by for a visit, and Nemesis came and supervised the building of her cabin in the camp today and-" Grover rambled nervously.
I cut him off, not buying his poor cover-up. "Grover," I said heavily. "What happened with Annabeth?"
He closed his mouth sharply, and stared at me pleadingly. "Well, you know how the arrow Eros shot her with was an arrow of indifference, so she doesn't like you anymore, which you know already because that's why you're on that quest and-"
"Grover, get to the point." I was tired of him dancing around what I was trying to get at, and I really didn't want to relive that memory right now.
He swallowed nervously. "Eros came back and shot her with the arrow of love and now she is in love with Travis Stoll!" he blurted out.
I stared at him in silence, not comprehending.
Oh yeah, the jerk who sent me on this journey to Greece came back and made my girlfriend fall in love with another guy.
"WHAT?" I yelled. Grover winced, and tried to start to say something again. I didn't want to hear it. "Wait one moment. Eros had the nerve to come back and make Annabeth fall in love with Travis Stoll? Travis. Stoll?!"
"Umm, yeah," Grover confirmed quietly, wilting a bit under my wrath even through Iris message.
"A god or not, he is going down," I vowed. Eros was making it really easy for me to funnel out all my rage onto him. I was itching to meet this guy face to face, and see how much he liked Riptide at his throat. "How is Travis holding up under Annabeth's affections?" I asked, ignoring the pain in my heart at the images that sentence brought to mind.
"He's hiding in his cabin," Grover sighed. "All of his siblings are taking turns on watch to make sure that Annabeth doesn't sneak in somehow. Connor raided her cabin and took her Yankees cap, so she can't use invisibility to get past the Hermes cabin's defenses. She's kind of livid about it right now, and drowning in tears at the same time."
Grover's report was starting to lose any impact on me. I locked my feelings away in a small box and hid it far away from my heart. Grover's image suddenly flickered, and I knew that this was Iris' warning that she was going to break the connection soon. Technically, I could've used another of Frio's drachmas to buy more time, but I didn't feel like there was anything left to say that wouldn't be horribly depressing.
"I gotta go, G-man. I'd ask if you could try to remind Annabeth that I love her, but... anyway..." I paused to clear my throat, and tried to ignore Grover's sympathetic look. And tell Travis that I don't have any hard feelings towards him. I'll focus my wrath on Eros." I cracked my knuckles, and Grover laughed nervously.
"Will do, Percy. And I feel sorry for Eros," he told me, grinning weakly.
"I don't. He'll deserve everything I give him," I promised.
Grover's image warped wildly, and I waved goodbye before he smiled back, swished his arm through the image, and broke the connection.
Sigh. Annabeth was-
No. I wouldn't think about Annabeth. I would focus on getting the cure for her. It was definitely not her fault that she was-
Nevermind. Now, who to IM next?
I decided on my mom, and fished out another drachma from my pocket. Tossing it in the mist, I watched as it flashed and glinted in the sunlight, then disappeared into the vapors. "Sally Jackson, Upper East Side, New York City."
Again, there was a long pause between the moment I offered the drachma and the time when Iris showed me my mother, making me wonder about the whole overseas IMing thing again. I still didn't really get why a goddess would bother to waste her time ferrying calls for demigods after all this time, but that wasn't really my prerogative at the moment.
My mom was hunched over an open book, seated at the kitchen table in her new apartment that she shared with Paul. Sunlight streamed through the window, dancing on her hair and flashing on her metallic blue bracelets. I felt a surge of happiness just at the sight of her. She was a really great mom that way.
"Hey mom!" I called out. She looked up, and her face broke out in a warm smile as she saw me shimmering in her kitchen. Soon though, her face clouded with confusion, probably wondering just why I was shimmering in her kitchen.
"Percy? Why are you in a pond?" she asked, crinkling her forehead.
"Well, I'm kinda in Greece," I told her sheepishly. She sat up straighter.
"What? Why are you in Greece? I thought you were at camp!" My mom stood up, abandoning her book and walking closer to the IM to inspect me for any sign of wear and tear. The worry on her face actually comforted me a little- at least someone still cared deeply about me and my whereabouts. Annabeth was probably just relieved I wasn't bothering her anymore... it most likely didn't even cross her mind to care about where I had gone...
I shoved that thought roughly out of my head.
"Well, to cut a long story short, Annabeth is under the influence of godly magic and the only way to cure her is to get water from a certain island in Greece," I explained, fighting not to show just how deeply I was affected by that light summary of recent events. My mom's brow cleared a little, and she nodded in understanding, although the concern didn't wane. "I should be back in about a week," I finished, watching her for reactions.
"Alright then, be careful. Thank you for telling me about this, Percy," she sighed, her eyes still searching my face. "When you get back, bring a few of your friends from camp and we can have a little get-together to celebrate another quest well done." I smiled. My mom was already positive that I would complete my quest easily, despite fully knowing the dangers and risks of all demigod quests. Moms are so great.
"Bye Mom," I said, still smiling at her confidence in me.
"Good-bye, Percy." She waved her hand through the IM, and our connection was broken.
I thought for a moment. Was there anyone else that I really needed to update? The only other thing that occurred to me was to IM Travis and reassure him I wasn't mad about the whole Eros-made-my-true-love-fall-in-love-with-him thing. It really wasn't his fault that the gods had clearly decided they liked messing with me, and he was a good guy. No doubt he felt guilty about becoming the subject of Annabeth's affections, even if it wasn't his fault.
Pulling out another drachma, I tossed it into the mist. "Travis Stoll, Camp Half Blood, New York," I requested.
The mist shimmered, and I was shown a picture of Travis, lying on the floor under his bed amid piles of clothes and stuff. His expression was a mixture of terror and guilt. "Hey Travis!" I whispered loudly. He jumped, hitting his head on the bed, then looked at me. He blushed dully.
"Hey Perce. Umm, what's up? How's your quest going?" He babbled. I grinned at him easily.
"Hey, no worries about the whole Eros thing. Grover told me about his reappearance, and I don't blame you," I assured him. Travis sighed thankfully, and visibly relaxed.
"I feel horrible," he admitted to me. "I saw Eros appear on the roof of the Aphrodite cabin while Annabeth was walking by, and was standing right there when he shot her. She face-planted into the dirt and didn't move, so of course I got worried. I ran over to her to see if I could help, and she looked up at me with this weird look in her eyes. I asked her if she was okay, and she said, 'Now that you're here, everything is okay.' Then I got all weirded out, because that just wasn't Annabeth. Then she got up and started chasing me around the camp. My brother and my half-siblings helped me escape her and hide in here. In fact, they're patrolling the cabin right now." Travis gestured out from under the bed, pointing towards the windows. I caught a glimpse of Connor's back from where he was standing guard outside.
"It must be great to have such loyal siblings," I told him sincerely, trying to show how much I didn't blame him for what he had just shared. He grinned lopsidedly, clearly getting my unspoken message.
"Yeah, but I wish I didn't have to ask them to do this," he replied, dropping his head to prop against an abandoned shield. "I hope you get back soon, Perce. I want to see the outside world again! Plus, I kinda have to go to the bathroom."
"Eww, TMI," I told him, wrinkling my nose. "I really didn't need to know that, Travis. Anyway, I should be back in about a week."
"Wait, I have to wait a week to go to the bathroom?" Travis whined. I grinned at him, and he shrugged, clearly determined to get whatever jokes he could out of this situation. He really was a true son of Hermes. "Whatever. I'll just hold it in," he sighed dramatically.
"Why don't you just lock Annabeth up in her cabin while you go refresh yourself?" I suggested, raising my eyebrows at his theatrics. "Confiscate her knife, duct tape her to a chair, and lock her in her closet while you're outside."
"Man, this is your girlfriend we're talking about!" Travis scolded jokingly. He was still teasing, but his own eyebrows had rocketed up in genuine surprise, clearly not expecting me to reccomend anything like that.
"Not right now, she isn't," I said soberly, forcing my voice not to crack at the pain of that reality.
There was an awkward silence, during which Travis inhaled a dust bunny, and we both started laughing again.
"Okay man, good luck with Annabeth," I told him. He grinned, shifting carefully so as not to bump his head on the bottom of the bed.
"Good luck getting the water," he replied. "I'll see you when you get back to camp Perce." And with that, he waved his hand through the IM, and we were disconnected.
I swam back to the shallows, and walked back out of the pool. My clothes were, as always, perfectly dry, but I sat by the edge of the pool in a pool of warm sunshine and thought for a long time anyway. There was nothing complex to plan out, no traps to avoid, no pitfalls in this quest. I just had to fight five more monsters, and hope that I stayed alive through it long enough to get to the fountain and get back to camp in time.
I trudged back up the grassy hill and back toward the monster camp. I was greeted enthusiastically by the monsters, and Frio handed me a cup of mango juice. I drained the cup thirstily and handed it back to him with a thank-you. My mind was still spinning a bit from all of the conversations of the day, and I really just wanted to lie down and sleep off the battle and the stress of traveling here.
Thankfully, it wasn't long after until we all hit the hay, which brought my thoughts back to my current position, lying on the ground, facing the stars. Tomorrow I was going to fight with Leontrestar, a snake-lion hybrid. Trest was insanely good at Limbo, so odds were he was an excellent fighter. I was not looking forward to that battle. I had pretty much become friends with all the monsters over the course of this very odd day, and even if they regenerated ten minutes afterward, I still didn't like killing them.
I'm on a roll with the totally normal sentences, aren't I?
I sighed and rolled over onto my side, staring into the glowing embers of the campfire. I had better get some sleep so I could fight Trest. After all, great Limboers were often great fighters, and I had a feeling that Trest would be hard to beat.
BOO-YAH! I totally got another chapter done in less than a week! I think. Was that less than a week? Lemme check… **Goes to Fanfiction**
Gazzy: Hi!
Angel: Let me type!
Gazzy: NO!
Angel: TMI! Gazzy isn't letting me type!
Neither of you should be typing right now!
Gazzy/Angel: awww…
Anyway, I realized that I updated last on 9/18, and today is **checks iPod** 9/26. Therefore, I updated in eight days! That's just about a week. So yeah, BOO-YAH is right!
Nudge: TMI obviously forgot, so "oh yeah, Percy just used my penname! So burn!"
Thank you Nudge. I had forgotten.
Nudge: You're welcome.
~TMI~