I
Percy POV:
You ever get the feeling the world hates you? I do. And all us demigods do. It's because of our lazy parents that can't- and won't- do anything for themselves. If the Gods need something done, us demigods are forced, through a prophecy, to do it for them. Otherwise, we're threatened with death, obliteration, torture, etc. Honestly, I'm not good at math (that's my girlfriend Annabeth's thing) but I'd say around half of us half-bloods die from monsters or impossible quests. We were put into this world to look after Western Civilization, the mortals, the gods. We were always expected to save the world. The gods are idiots (no offense gods, please don't kill me!) They expect a bunch of young teens to fight in wars and save everyone over and over again, and lots of us die because of it. You'd expect the gods would come down and give us hugs and tell us what good little children we are, at least. But no. They're to busy for that. Doing what? I don't know. Don't ask me, but they're certainly not doing anything helpful to society, obviously, because we're doing all the work down here in the mortal world. They had children with mortals, left as soon as we were born, and expected the mortals to be able to raise the demigod all on their own. Some gods didn't even tell the mortal that they were a god, probably confusing them to no end why they're child is saying they're being chased by monsters. The gods don't try to form relationships with they're children at all, and yet expect them to do their handiwork for them. Those damned megalomaniac gods think that they- sorry I'm rambling again. Let me introduce myself- we can talk more about the gods later.
I'm Percy Jackson. I found out I was a demigod when I was twelve and was claimed by Poseidon- god of the seas, and horses, and some other stuff. Ever since then I've been on quest after quest, (one every single year) mostly because of my powers and parentage. (Fun Fact: A bunch of years ago Hades, Zeus, and my dad Poseidon made an oath to not have any more children because the kids were too powerful. Zeus had a kid, and Poseidon had a kid even after they swore on the river Styx, which is the most powerful oath you can make. I'm not supposed to be here, so the gods- namely Zeus- have made my life a living Hades/ what demigods say instead of hell.) You want a list of all the things I've done? I don't really care if you say no, I'm gonna do it anyway.
-Retrieved Zeus's master bolt and returned it to him on Olympus
-Retrieved the golden fleece (I wasn't supposed to go on this quest) and restored the borders of Camp Half-Blood, in turn reviving Thalia Grace, my cousin-ish.
-Put Atlas back under his punishment of holding the sky and saved my best friend- now girlfriend- Annabeth. (I wasn't supposed to go on this quest either.)
-Ventured through the Labyrinth, found Daedalus, then watched as former Camp Half-Blood member Luke Castellan was turned into the mortal embodiment of Kronos by choice. (I blew up Mount Sain Helens in this quest and went missing for two weeks. Annabeth hated me for that.)
-Fought in Manhattan against the Titans and won. I handed the knife to Luke so he could stab his "Achilles spot", therefore killing Kronos. (I also bathed in the river Styx and almost died when someone tried to stab my Achilles spot. Annabeth saved me, though.)
-Went missing for 8 months and got amnesia (because Hera) and then retrieved Camp Jupiter's eagle thing with Hazel and Frank in Alaska. (Surprise, there's Greek and Roman demigods!)
-Annabeth showed up with other demigods on the Argo II and me, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Leo, Jason, and Piper set out on a flying warship for a 3-month death quest against mother Earth/ Gaea.
-I fell into Tartarus with Annabeth but both of us escaped.
-Fought against the Giants and killed them all (but Annabeth and I bleeding onto "ancient ground" is the reason Gaea woke
-Fought against Gaea and Leo defeated her, and we all thought he was dead, but a while later he turned up being just fine.
-Taught my girlfriend Annabeth's cousin how to dive.
-Set off on a quest for recommendation letter to go to college and literally wrestled with old age. (Another result of being an unlawful child. The gods hate me, so I'm the only one who needs recommendation letters to get into New Rome University. NRU made a whole section about it in their brochure and labeled that it only applied to Percy Jackson. I love my life.)
Boom. You're welcome. So, you can see how fun my life is (sarcasm.) But things are going well for now at least. I sat in my cabin- cabin 3- and thought of all my misfortunes. I did that a lot. Suddenly, I heard three knocks on my door, and I was immediately shaken from my stupor. "Open up, Perce. It's breakfast time." I heard Annabeth voice outside. Had I missed the conch horn? It's so loud, typically everyone in camp can hear it, even from the top of the climbing wall. If your near Chiron when he sounds the conch horn, say goodbye to normal noise and say hello to ringing ears. I got up from my bed and swung the door open and saw my beautiful girlfriend with her arms crossed, staring daggers at me.
"Were you seriously sleeping?" She asked.
"No," I responded simply.
"What in Hades were you doing in there then?"
"Contemplating life," I deadpanned. I closed the door behind me. She rolled her eyes. You might think that it seems like we hate each other. But the only thing that makes us bicker like that is that we are complete opposites. We fight all the time because I'm stupid, careless, and never plan. She's super smart, cautious, and has a strategy for everything. Naturally her catchphrase is, "Athena always has a plan." Mine is probably, "I'm gonna die. Let's fight with sarcasm!" Though I've never ever said that, I've thought it a lot of times. And I'm still alive, so I guess my plan B of sarcasm always works. Anyway, Annabeth and I are the proof of the phrase, "opposites attract." She and I were enemies, best friends, and secretly in love all at the same time. I'd say that the fighting and arguing make our relationship more alive. I don't know, it's just fun to debate with her, even though she always declares that she wins.
She glared at me in annoyance, and yet she reached for my hand. As we walked through the crowd of demigods, Annabeth gave menacing glares to any girl who so much as glanced in my direction. She gripped my hand tightly, almost protectively. When Chiron said that Annabeth was territorial about her friends all those years back, he definitely wasn't far off. I gave her a look that said, "Back of, Wise Girl. Everything's fine." her stiff body seemed to loosen. We balance each other out. That's pretty obvious.
We made it to the dining pavilion, and I sat at Poseidon's table. Naturally, Annabeth sat next to me. Back when it wasn't normal for Annabeth not to sit with the Athena kids, people would give her weird looks, and Chiron would raise his eyebrows at her. But now it's been years, and nobody even gives a a second glance except the newbies. Chiron doesn't care anymore. He's tried to get Annabeth to stop sleeping in my cabin once a week, tried to stop her from sitting at my table, and tried to stop her from sneaking out of camp with me, but alas, Annabeth backs up her excuse with facts and is so convincing that she makes you start thinking that your own opinion is wrong and that you're living your whole life wrong. It's honestly scary how she does that. I glanced down at the plate and simply imagined blue pancakes drowned in syrup and a blue coke. Why the blue? Don't ask. It's a Jackson family thing. Annabeth smirked at my choice of breakfast and turned to eat her omelet. Chiron came into the pavilion with a look of distress. I glanced up at him, silently asking questions, but he just shook his head. We'll talk about it later. Chiron only has that look on his face when there's a problem regarding the gods. Just his look alone dampered my mood for the rest of breakfast. Annabeth looked at me worriedly.
"What's wrong?' She asked gently. She could always tell when I was upset.
"Nothing, Wise Girl. I'm fine." I smiled at her reassuringly. I watched as campers filed out of the pavilion. Annabeth stood up, and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me to my feet. She and I left the pavilion, and as soon as I left, I heard Chiron's voice. "Percy, come here." He spoke. I sighed, knowing deep down that his words might have to do with the gods. Therefore, that might mean I have to do a quest for the gods, and trust me, I really do not want to do that. Annabeth was sprinting after me, assuming it would be okay if she went too.
"Annabeth." Chiron spoke quickly. "Not you. Just Percy." Annabeth's face flashed hurt but she backed off and went back to her cabin. I walked through the doors of the Big House and sat next to Chiron; his face unsettlingly grim.
"Hey, Percy. How's it going?"
"Let's skip this part and go to the important stuff."
"I need you to go on a quest."
"Chiron, I already talked to you about this. Annabeth and I aren't doing anymore quests, I'm only here to visit for the summer. I can't risk dying and leaving Annabeth alone. We have plans for out future."
"I know, Percy. Trust me, I know. But the prophecy was clear that you had to go. Visit Rachel, and talk to her about the prophecy."
"Chiron-"
"There's nothing I can do for you, Percy. I care about you, but you can't disobey the prophecy or something bad will happen, I'm sure." I sighed, and stumbled out of the Big House, basically dragging my feet. After a bit of walking and dramatically sighing, I made it to Rachels's cave and went in. Rachel sat on her three-legged stool, her paintbrush sweeping the canvas in front of her. I saw me in it, which would've been pretty school if I didn't have a bleeding stab wound to the chest, looking pale, dying in Annabeth's arms, her crying over me.
"My gods, Rachel. I sincerely hope that you're just crazy, and you didn't see it in your dreams." Demigod's dreams were always super important, and sometimes show the future, good or bad. I typically prefer having no dreams, but that's highly unlikely for me. Rachel sighed.
"I saw it, Percy. But it seemed off… it might not come true! There's still a chance!" She said, trying to reassure me that I wasn't going to die a painful death, in the arms of my girlfriend.
"So…" She spoke. "I assume you came here about the prophecy."
"Yup."
"Does Ananbeth know?"
"Nope. And don't tell her."
"Percy-"
"I don't want her worrying about me. Just keep it quiet for now, Dare. Please?"
"Fine. But if you die, I'm telling her you conned me into lying."
"You're not lying, you're just not telling the whole truth." I said with a wink. Rachel laughed, a smile gracing her face. She pulled her curly red hair into a ponytail.
"Anyway, about the prophecy…"
"What is it?" I asked her.
She cleared her throat, looking uncomfortable.
"The child of the sea
Shall search for truth relentlessly
To fall alone with death in mind
The truth he shall prevail to find
Hoping for the absent to be proud
While up above he burns his shroud
Once the truth is found and his chains are bound
A truth is discovered, forcing chaos abound"
"Woah." I spoke. I didn't know how else to respond. There was no other demigod child of the sea, it had to be me. It always has to be me. I couldn't tell Annabeth. If she heard the prophecy, she would force me not to go. I promised Annabeth I wouldn't be involved in any more quests or prophecies, but how could I control this? The odd thing is that prophecies are typically only issued when something is going wrong, but everything was as it should be currently. Since I had no idea where to even start to find "truth" (whatever that means) I thought it best to ask Chiron. I thanked Rachel and left the cave.
The light pierced my eyes, and as soon as my vision cleared up, I saw a figure standing directly in front of me. I yelped and jumped back.
"Relax, child. It's just me." Chiron spoke.
"Gods, Chiron. You couldn't have stood a little farther back?"
"No."
"Okay then…" I mumbled.
"I assume you're confused about the prophecy?" Gods, how could he read my mind. He's so much like Annabeth in that way.
"Uh, yeah. A bit."
"The gods are afraid that the greatest power will rise against them. If this power were to decide to make enemies with the gods, there would be no chance for living."
"Fun. Who's this 'great power'?" Chiron sighed.
"The universe."
"Um, what?" I thought for a moment. "Oh. Chaos." I could barely say her name. Chaos was the shadowy realm of mass and space things. She's the universe itself. If she were against us, we had not chance of winning. She could destroy the whole world with a flick of her fingers, and yet she hasn't so far.
"Why would she want to kill us?"
"I don't know, Percy. But my guess is she wants entertainment, or wants to test the powers of the less-powerful forces that she looks down upon."
"That's not very nice."
"No, Percy. It's not. But nothing in our world is 'nice'. And unfortunately I believe you are the child of the prophecy, therefore you must go on a quest to find out whether or not Chaos is against us."
"Why do the gods think she is."
"Apparently, many of them have had visions of her saying, "The smaller forces believe they have utmost power, but never do they realize what I can do to halt the world from progressing above me. No one shall truly understand my power, and I will watch thou perish as the world burns at my hands."
"That sounds pretty straightforward to me. She wants to kill us, one hundred percent."
"You can never know for sure. Some dreams lie to you, to make you have false beliefs. The gods have to know for sure in order to pursue further action."
"Meaning I have to go figure that out for them."
"Yes."
"So… where would I go?"
"I have absolutely no idea."
"Thanks. That'll help tons."
"I would recommend you go to Olympus and question the gods, Percy. They should tell you what to do." I sighed. I really did not want to have a chat with the gods, but I really had no other option. "Leave tomorrow, Percy. See you at lunch."
I nodded and left, feeling just wonderful. (Fun fact: that's a complete lie.) So, I went down to the canoe lake to think. I dangled my feet of the edge of the dock, and stared at the shimmering water, watching as kids laughed and shoved each other off their canoes. I felt someone sit down next to me wrapping an arm around me.
"What did Chiron say?" The voice of my girlfriend said.
"Nothing important." I told her. Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't ask if it was important, I asked what he said."
"What would you say if I said it was confidential."
"I wouldn't say anything." She responded. "I would kick you where it hurts."
"Too bad. It's confidential." She laughed.
"You'll tell me eventually."
"I know." I said. There's nothing she can't pry out of me. She knows how to get me to talk, and she won't hesitate to blackmail me. I love my Wise Girl. She rested her head on my shoulder.
"Hey, you wanna race on the climbing wall before lunch?" She asked me. She and I used to always race on the climbing wall, and she would always win. The winner got to push the loser off the climbing wall and into Long Island Sound. So basically, this is the one time that I'm glad I'm a son of Poseidon. Otherwise I'd be dead.
"So basically, I'll get pushed off a cliff and get to watch your smug face as I fall."
"Yep." She said triumphantly.
"Great." I responded. And she and I headed off to climb. I hoped it wasn't the last time she and I would ever do that.
