Sailing Solo

7

Previously:
Percy watched her go, unable to stop the tears that trailed down his face. A flash of moments from the last few days ran through his mind. He had no idea when she started pulling away but he realized it had been for a while now. He wish he knew the events leading up to it. Maybe things would have been different. Maybe he could have stopped it.

Nobody would think about the gossiping dryads in the woods by the camp. They assumed that it was a good place for private conversations but the trees were always listening. And those that listened were even worse at keeping secrets.

-            -            -

By the waters of the lake, Percy's face was again lined with tears even as he stared stoically at the horizon. Now the camp was starting to wake up. People moving off to breakfast passed him on their way to the pavilion. If anyone saw the tears in his eyes, they said nothing. No one had a right to feel more sorrow about the events of the last few months than Percy Jackson.

Clang! Crash! Clang!

The familiar sounds of training filled Annabeth's ears. She knew this sound better than anyone at this point. Sometimes she could even guess which move had been made by the sound of a weapon hitting another. She could definitely figure out which weapons were being used on a regular basis.

Even in a monster training camp, she was the best at pointing out who exactly had made a miscalculated move. And calling them out.

"Kelly, I know you have been around longer but if you continue to slash like that, you know who's going to get the better of you every time?" Annabeth shouted over the loud sounds surrounding them. "Percy Jackson! And likely every other demigod you come across! He's the one training them now! So do it the way I showed you, and move on!"

Kelly grumbled darkly, glaring at the blonde demigod that had taken charge of the monster's training. A few of her sisters joined her but Annabeth ignored them and continued watching the other monsters.

"Why do we need to listen to her anyway?" One of her sisters said just loud enough for Annabeth to hear. "She's a demigod too, we should just eat her and be done with it."

Kelly smiled and hissed approvingly but didn't say anything as she got back to work. Pontus was watching the training today and experience proved that if you did not listen to Commander Chase, you got sent back to Tartarus the hard way.

Unfortunately for a certain cyclops, he hadn't quite learned the lesson of shutting up.

Annabeth was correcting his swing, his footing, his reach, and a few other things. So much correction was just too much for poor Polyphemus. He growled menacingly, hoping to get Annabeth to back off. She didn't.

"I think that I know how to use my own club, daughter of Athena," he growled loud enough to be heard in the far corners of the training arena. "How do I know you're helping me instead of making it easier for your demigod friends to kill me? You keep mentioning your demigods and Percy Jackson, I think your loyalties lay somewhere else."

The echoing silence was deafening. Many glanced at Pontus nervously, waiting for him to vaporize the cyclops like he did with the last monster to go against Annabeth. Instead he smiled, which was somehow even more nerve wracking.

Annabeth didn't miss a beat after his little tirade. She marched over to the weapon rack, grabbed a large enough sword and marched back. "You want to know how I'm helping you?" She said. "Very well. We are going to spar. Come over here to the center circle, you will fight the way you have always fought. I will show you how Percy Jackson-" she spat his name "-would defeat you without the use of his powers."

There were some murmurings at that. Some looked excited—probably to see her smeared across the floor—others looked uncertain. Surely the son of Poseidon was not strong enough now to defeat them without using his powers? Polyphemus just grinned, and walked over, shaking the ground with each step.

The second he stepped into the circle, without warning, she attacked. As she fought the massive cyclops, her mind went back to her training in camp. Drawing on the memories of fighting the machines Leo made for practice against an opponent larger than you. And even times fighting against Tyson in training. Unfortunately, it brought back other memories with Percy.

Annabeth side stepped the swing from Riptide and answered with a jab from her drakon bone sword. It was parried by Percy, but just barely. Annabeth grinned to herself as she realized a way to take him down this time.

Two steps to the right put her in position and she rushed forward. She turned her own sword around so she was holding it like a dagger in her left hand. When she got close enough, she spun and sliced at Percy's right side. She broke skin. The fight was over.

Percy swore in Ancient Greek and put his hand to his side. He grinned ruefully at her, ignoring the cheers from the part of the crowd that had been betting on Annabeth's win and the boos from those betting on Percy. "Didn't see that one coming." He said. "Rematch?"

Annabeth was barely breathing hard, she could have gone another round but a quick look at the sun told her the time. She had somewhere to be in fifteen minutes. She didn't have time for another match. So she shook her head, sheathed her sword and walked off through the crowd that took a habit of watching them fight every day. She tried to ignore Percy calling after her, but she knew he was going to be relentless. She had to get rid of him quickly so she walked off to the edge of the forest.

"Annabeth, why did you just walk away from our training?" She understood his confusion but she really needed to meet with her contact in Pontus' army soon. She had to make this quick. Maybe now was the time to start pulling out of camp.

A quick hand signal from Pontus and a few healers from the edge of the arena rushed to Polyphemus' side as the rest of the monsters stood in silence. Even as she had been thinking of her time in camp, she easily took down Polyphemus in twenty minutes.

"Realize, all of you, that I have grown up at that camp with their leader." Annabeth started, staring mercilessly at the cyclops bleeding on the ground. He was holding his face and his left side, curled up on the ground. None of them had seen the last move coming. "I know their ways. I've fought their wars." She spat angrily. "I've served my time among them. I know how to counter each of their attacks because I was the one to teach them!" Her voice rose in volume as she continued talking. "Maybe use my knowledge so you can survive more than one encounter with them—especially with Percy Jackson—from now on!"

Without another word, she stormed out of the arena, pausing only briefly to speak with Pontus on her way out.

"Thank you for letting me do this," she said quietly.

"You are welcome, dear," Pontus said, smiling in a way that made everyone's skin crawl. "You were right, they would never listen to you the way we wanted if we did it my way." He reached for the large sword still in her hand. "Go cool down, I'm sure they'll be more than willing to listen to you when you come back."

She nodded, relinquished the sword and left.

Pontus now turned his gaze onto the monsters watching in awe. "Well?"

Without another word, the monsters got back to work. This time, using the moves that Annabeth had shown them at the beginning of the session.