Chapter 3: The 'Prisoners' Are Very Strange...
Aragorn paced the room impatiently. He was waiting for these people - prisoners, as the guards called them - to finally wake up. He could feel the gaze of his friends behind him. They were all curious as to what Aragorn would do.A few minutes passed until the first kid started to stir. He was a small boy with wild brown locks. He blinked and looked around the room. His eyes widened. Aragorn was afraid he might pass out again, but instead, he started talking like a waterfall:
"Oh my Gods! Am I like at a rennesance faire or something? You," he pointed at Arwen. "Look almost as good as my girlfriend." Eldarion choked on his drink while Legolas chuckled. Aragorn raised an eyebrow. "This whole room looks so cool and - " At that moment, he noticed his friends, still unconscious next to him. His face fell. " Shit." he murmured.
The boy looked back up at Aragorn, slightly frowning. "Who are you?" he asked. "I believe I could ask you the same thing," Aragorn replied. "OK," the boy said. "But why did you take us to a Renaissance faire to try to kill us?"
That took Aragorn by surprise. "Try to kill you?" he asked. "Well, I mean people like you always try to kill us, but up til now, they've never suc, so..." Aragorn shook his head. Just as he wanted to answer, the others slowly became conscious again.
"Where are we?" A boy with short dark hair groaned while the one next to him, who was pale and had equally black hair shot deadly looks at Aragorn.
"Who are you?" A girl with blonde hair asked. Her stormy grey eyes looked at Aragorn and trough the room as if analysing everything. "I could, and also should ask you the same thing." "And why should we answer you?" asked the pale boy. Next to him, a boy with tanned skin and blonde hair gave him a nudge. "Maybe they mean no harm?" he said carefully.
Aragorn looked down at the prisoners. They were all relatively young, and they seemed confused. Aragorn had never seen them here before. "If I untie the ropes binding you," he slowly asked, "Can I trust you not to run away or attack us?"
The group of people looked at each other and seemed to be having a silent conversation. Finally, the blonde girl nodded. "We will stay here and not attack as long as you don't do so either." "We won't." Aragorn promised. "Do you swear on river styx?" A girl with dark skin asked. "On what?" Aragorn asked, frowning.
A boy with green eyes gave her a nudge. "Wait. They might be mortal. " Legolas laughed. Aragorn chose to ignore him and proceeded to cut the ropes of the boys and girls in front of him.
They stood up, and Aragorn invited them to take a seat at the table. He himself sat down at the end of the table with Arwen by his side. The others stood at a bit of distance but still in earshot.
"So," Aragorn started again. "What are your names, and how did you get here?" Everybody looked at the boy with seagreen eyes. Apparently, they accepted him as their leader and wanted him to explain. He did not look like he was very comfortable, but at last, he sighed.
"My name is Percy Jackson." he said. "These are my friends Nico, Hazel, Piper, Thalia, Frank, Will and Leo. And this is my girlfriend Annabeth." He pointed at everyone individually. "We came here from our summer camp in New York and -" Suddenly, he looked down at himself. He was wearing a bright blue shirt and trousers of the same colours with little shapes of waves and palms on them. He blushed."Yeah, we - um... so... help?" he looked around at his friends. His girlfriend, Annabeth, rolled her eyes. Then she eyed Aragorn and Arwen. "Are you mortal?" She asked them. Aragorn laughed. "Yes, I am." he said. He looked at his wife. "And so is she." He said it more bitterly than he had intended to, but apparently Annabeth had noticed it. "Then your story will not make any sense for you." She said. This time, it was Arwen to answer. "Tell us any ways." she said. "Both my husband and myself have experienced quite strange things in our life." The boy that had regained consciousness first coughed. He looked from Aragorn to Arwen. "You...and- oh shit." he mumbled. The girl that Percy had introduced as Piper raised an eyebrow. "Oh no, Leo, what did you do this time?" He cleared his throat. "Nothing," he croaked, although he seemed to have trouble looking at Aragorn.
"We will tell you our story." Annabeth said. "But you have to give us your names. And after we have told ours, maybe you could also tell us yours. Then we can see if we can trust you." "By telling them our story, we are basically already trusting them." The boy called Nico growled.
"We will give you pur names after we have heard your story." Aragorn said. "For now all you need to know, is that I am the King of this country and these are my friends and family." The colour drained from Leo's face. "King?" he whispered.
Annabeth did not seem fully satisfied, but she nodded. "Then we will now tell you our story. " She said. Legolas and the others now joined the table to listen. Aragorn nodded as a sign that she may start. And they all listened as these strange folk took turns telling their story.