Built From The Fire

3

Hera held up a hand. "Perseus has been taken care of. You shall find her back at Camp." Her tone was hard and her kaleidoscope eyes gleamed at Annabeth.

Annabeth looked at her mother, whom surprisingly sent her a reassuring nod. She didn't feel right about it, though. She didn't understand. Why would the gods be involved in this mortal affair? They weren't supposed to be collecting a half-blood child of Athena, and definitely not a spawn of Hera.

"Now, Annabeth," her mother's voice reverberated in her head, vibrating her bones. It was a command. Annabeth could not refuse her mother.

Hera scowled down at the daughter of Athena. Her impatience growing as the 16 year old took up her precious time. If her plan was to work, she needed to remove the girl from this small town she had sent them to, as well as remove the memory of coming here. Everything needed to be ready for Jason to unite the camps.

Annabeth's mother held out a hand, and she hesitantly grabbed it and the three of them disappeared with a painfully bright light.

——

Percy was very hungry. Her stomach grumbled loudly as she shoveled in another mouthful of macaroni and cheese. She closed her eyes and sighed. Percy wasn't sure of many things currently, but she knew without a doubt she loved macaroni and cheese more than she had ever loved anything before. She wondered if she had been a connoisseur of mac-n-cheese. She felt she deserved to be.

Percy didn't know much of anything currently, besides her absolute love for cheesy noodles.

Your name is Percy. You have a pen in your pocket. It is dangerous. You love macaroni and cheese. She repeated what she knew of her life in her head.

"Perseus A. Jackson, Manhattan, New York," the girl had said. That's another thing.

Leah, she reminded herself. Leah and Seth.

She wasn't sure what to think yet about the only two people she knew. Actually, there was one other thing Percy had discovered about herself.

She was quite the fan of women, it seemed.

As soon as she had met eyes with the copper skinned goddess, Percy had forgotten how to breathe. She was breathtaking, literally. It was hard for her to keep her cool, and over a girl she had just met that second.

The audacity of my brain, Percy growled to herself.

So Percy knew four things for certain. Her name was Percy. She was the very proud and slightly concerned owner of a very dangerous pen. And she loved women and mac-n-cheese.

It was an acceptable start.

The two siblings sat across from her, Seth snickering as she piled another spoonful of cheesy noodles into her mouth. Leah watching her every move. It made Percy nervous, her gaze. Not only was she the most beautiful person Percy had ever seen, though that wasn't really saying much as she had only seen two people that she could remember, but she was very intimidating. Her face was rarely relaxed, her eyebrows furrowed into a slight frown unless she was looking at Percy. Her deep brown eyes were hard. Percy could feel heat radiating off of her from where she sat. In addition to the beauty and intimidation factor, Percy was sure that she was not an attractive eater.

So, yes, she was nervous with Leah's lingering gaze. As well as confused.

She didn't understand where she was, why something had bitten her, why these people had taken her in, and how she had survived.

The pain in her side made her dizzy. Percy lifted her shirt and glanced down to see a large scar in the shape of some pretty big chompers, in Percy's opinion. Surrounding the scar (how was it already scarred over, too), were deep purple and blue bruises. Her torn orange shirt and blue jean shorts were completely soaked in blood, her blood, she assumed. Hopefully, her blood. How was she in that condition after suddenly being bitten. What had bitten her?