Thinking of You- A Percy Jackson Story

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A week or so later, Annabeth’s daily routine was back to normal. Meaning, she was teaching Elementary Archery, teaching Piper how to properly fight with her dagger, taking Advanced Archery, working on the Argo II, and all of the other camp activities. She still hadn’t told anyone about her dream about Gaea and Percy or her meeting with Athena.

“Alright I told you, you need to aim for the arrow, Louis,” she instructed, a little bit impatient. Louis, a son of Hermes, shot his arrow and missed the target, again.

“I can’t do it though! It just doesn’t work,” the young boy said.

Annabeth walked in front of him and knelt on her knees. “Okay, I know that it seems impossible right now, but you’ll get it in time, I promise. Training takes a lot of time and work.”

“But- but you’re so good at it!”

“I wasn’t always Lou. I was a little girl at one point too. In fact, I believe I was your age when I started taking archery lessons too,” she said genuinely.

“You were?!”

She nodded, “You’re seven years old right?” Louis nodded. “That’s how old I was when I arrived to camp. Trust me, all you have to do is try your best and you’ll be a master at it. And then one day, you’ll be telling another kid how to shoot, just like I’m telling you now!”

“Really? Do you really, really think that I can do it?”

“I sure do! Why don’t you give it a try?”

Louis nodded, and he held up his bow and tried again. The next thing Annabeth knew, Louis’ arrow hit the bulls-eye.

“Wonderful job, Louis! I knew you could do it! Keep trying, and I’m gonna check on the others.”

Annabeth walked to see the other students in her archery class. Most of them were doing pretty well. They’ll make amazing fighters when they get older. Although I hope that when this thing with the giants is over, that’s the end of it, she thought.

Suddenly, another, creepier voice crept into her head. That’s if you all survive.

Annabeth shuddered. She went on with the rest of her class as usual, trying to ignore Gaea’s message.

Later that afternoon, Annabeth was typing something on her laptop that she received from her half-brother, Daedalus.

“Annabeth! Hey,” a voice shouted, startling Annabeth since wasn’t exactly paying attention to her surroundings. When she saw Grover, a satyr and one of her best friends, through an IM, she relaxed a bit. Even though, he did say that he was going to report back to Annabeth on any leads about Percy that he found.

“Hi Grover,” she said cheerfully. “Did you find anything?”

Grover’s expression darkened. Annabeth knew that he was missing Percy, his forever best friend, about as much as she was missing her boyfriend. “Nothing and I can’t stand it!”

“I know, that’s how it was for me in December.”

“Yeah, but I can’t even contact him in his sleep! Three years ago our empathy link was superb! I told him that Polyphemus wanted to make me his bride and he came! You guys even left camp against the rules to save me!”

“I know Grover. It worked fine last summer too. Maybe you can just try again tomorrow?”

Grover simply shook his head somberly. “It’s just driving me insane! I know Hera has this huge plan in store for him, but why did that mean taking him for so long? What’s he even doing now? I bet he’s getting the crap beat out of him by some monsters that he banished a while ago. And then, and can’t even remember them! He’s probably freaking out because he doesn’t know how to banish all of them. Monsters can be pretty tricky after all.” Grover paused for a short moment and then his face turned into a horrible expression. “AHH! WHAT IF HE DOESN’T REMEMBER THAT HE’S A DEMIGOD?!”

Grover continued on with worst- case scenarios. Finally Annabeth decided that she heard enough; after all, she thought these things once before and she was trying not to freak out too much about them. “Grover, listen to me! Percy’s going to be fine. He has the Curse of Achilles on him. Unless some monster figures out where his spot is, he’ll be fine. And he’ll probably figure out he’s a demigod by all of the power he has, especially if he gets close to water.”

Grover’s face seemed to calm down a bit, but not totally. “Wh-what if he doesn’t remember where his spot is?”

Annabeth remembered when she was lying on the chair last summer and Percy was at her side. She had just taken the knife that saved his life. He asked her why she did it. She told him that he would’ve done the same. Then he told her where his spot was.

“No, he won’t forget that one Grover. I promise,” she muttered, half in her cabin talking to her friend, the other half still in the chair touching his Achilles’ spot on his back. Suddenly, Annabeth mused that she was making a lot of promises that day. I hope I can keep them all.

Grover’s worry seemed to disappear for the time being. Annabeth noticed that there was some sort of talking in the background. Grover looked behind himself, said something Annabeth couldn’t hear, and looked back at Annabeth. “I gotta go. Tyson’s getting hungry, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be more polite if I pay for the food instead of him stealing it from the Bargain Mart.”

Annabeth grinned. “Alright, have fun with that one Grover. Make sure you Message me again if you pick something.”

“I will. Bye Annabeth,” the satyr said before the mist dissolved and Annabeth was left alone.

Again.

Elsewhere there was a boy with black hair and green eyes sleeping. He was wearing a tattered orange Camp Half- Blood t-shirt. He seemed to be in a peaceful slumber to anyone observing, but alas, that was not the case for this demigod.

His dreams were going a mile a minute. First he saw his old Pre- Algebra teacher morphing into some odd creature. Then he saw himself kissing a beautiful blond in a volcano. Next, he was guinea pig in a tank with several others. Then he was holding up the world while everyone around him was in an intense battle.

Then there was something peculiar. There was a creature with horns and legs that were like a goats speaking to him. Goat-boy was saying something like “Perce! Come home, man! I miss you and Annabeth does too,” but the demigod wasn’t sure if he really heard this.

Above, laughter emerged. There was a woman dressed in an elegant gown. She had beautifully black hair. “We can’t have you getting messages from your friends, now can we?” The mysterious woman swiped her hand and said something in Ancient Greek.

The demigod’s dreams were now blank and he slept without knowing what the Goat-boy really wanted.