princess // percy jackson

i. thirty - alliah and her dire need for swimming lessons

words : 8169

(im baaaack...

...with a longass chapter - lock in yall)

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the moment after alliah opened her eyes, she wished she didn't.

"alliah!"

she could only gasp a muffled response as she felt herself go under watery surface and descending fast.

she didn't know how she got there but that wasn't her first worry at that moment - her first worry was the fact that she was now surrounded in deep, vast and fast-moving waters. she shuddered at the cold whips and waves of the salty sea as it fought to keep her down and under.

she managed to cut through the surface, flailing her arms out desperately as she tried to keep afloat. she tried to scream but managed nothing as a wave hit her and sent her even further down.

"alliah, take my ha-"

whoever had said that, she didn't see nor properly hear - her head had sunken back underwater before she could.

somebody's hand grazed against hers but they lost contact quick after. she grabbed at their direction but found nothing.

"alli-"

she felt the hand again and this time, she latched on tight. she let herself be pulled to the surface, gasping for breath as she emerged out of the water.

eyes still shut and suddenly burning, she felt whoever held her hand in theirs, guide her towards a boulder. she blindly held onto the slimy rock as she let herself catch up to her senses and regained memory over where she had been just a few minutes before tussling for her life in the ocean.

"percy!" she coughed, eyes stinging and vision blurry from the salty sea as she remembered the prior situation she had been in.

her mind cascaded on and on as she recalled everything.

the underworld, fluffy, that forest, annabeth, those shoes, tartarus, sand in eyes and mouth, hades' palace, percy's mother, hades, grover, the pearls, percy...

the pearls.

that was their escape route. but why couldn't poseidon have considered the fact that his son wasn't the only one holding those pearls.

not everybody was a child of the sea god after all - why'd he have to drop her in the rowdy waters when she could barely doggy-paddle?

"i'm right here, don't worry." percy's voice trailed into her ear from her right, audibly as out of breath as she was. "you okay?"

"just dandy." alliah said sarcastically as she rubbed at her eyes, her sight still not back to its right state.

on a lighter side of situations, percy was right - 'dandy' was a fun word.

she looked to her side where she thought percy was and instead of seeing his familiar face, all she could see was unclear and foggy rock-

"other side." percy corrected, gently pulling her chin to her right.

the gesture was unexpected and alliah jumped a little, but let her line of sight be re-directed.

though she couldn't say much for the sudden warmth and fluttering she felt running down her chest and stomach, despite the fact that she was freezing everywhere else.

this time, all she saw was the blob-like, faceless figure of percy treading water.

his detail-less face was merely inches away from hers but alliah could barely see him, the sea's saltiness still pricking and piercing at her eyes painfully.