The Ever-changing Tides~ (PJOxHP)

1:14

The hall was stunned silent at the news of Percy jumping from the St. Louis Arch.

That was until James Potter happened.

Jumping from his seat he looked at Percy with a wild expression and yelled, "You jumped from that?! And you survived?! How high up were you?!" With a slight cringe Percy replied, "Around 630 feet in the air."

This caused a whole new round of shock to pass through everyone.

James was frozen as he stood gaping at Percy. Even in his own shock Remus saw this and sighed to himself. Standing, he gently grabbed the bespectacled boy's wrist and whispered, "Come on Jamie. Let's sit back down."

Percy felt her father's eyes drilling a hole into the side of her head. She did not want to see the scolding face he would give her. In a worried whisper Poseidon said, "You were lucky there was water at the bottom, Seastar. I'm glad you're okay, but what you did was reckless." Percy sighed at her father's words. She knew they were true, but what else was she supposed to do? Let the monster kill her?

Not making eye contact, Percy gave her dads hand a squeeze as she whispered back, "I'm fine now dad. That's all that matters." What she left unspoken though was the fact that she knew things only got worse from here.

Chapter 14: I BECOME A KNOWN FUGITIVE

I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.

The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!

Sirius couldn't help the snort that escaped him.

Percy obviously heard and slapped the back of her left hand against his stomach in return.

The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

And then: Flaaa-boooom!

A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.

But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage-- beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags-- swirled up all around me.

Percy and Poseidon both angrily tensed and clenched their jaws at the mention of polluted waters.

At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbequed. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.

Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.

I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.

When they heard the word "lighter" Sirius and Percy both instinctively touched one of their pockets.

No way, I thought.

I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.

I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Awesome.