Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Juno's Warning

Chapter Twenty-Five: Back at Camp

Leo: Hey artchick97, who's the author of PJO and HoO?

theartynerdchick97: It's Rick Riordan.

Leo: *gasps* You're not artchick97!!!

theartynerdchick97: No, I am, just a different username.

Leo: No! *bursts into flames* What have you done with the real artchick97?!?!

theartynerdchick97: *sighs* Here we go again.

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The rest of the quest wasn't as exciting as the encounter with the giant and sea serpent.

We fought a few Earthborn, a flurry of anemoi thuellai, and some outdated dracanae. The four of us traveled down the east coast, and were going to keep making it West, but by the third day--the winter solstice--I got an Iris message from Chiron at camp saying they got in late that night. We traveled up the coast, and Tyson left when we were in North Carolina.

"Closest to Poseidon's underwater palace. Will visit camp later." he promised, squeazing the air out of each of us in turn. "Bye-bye." he plunged into the ocean, and we spotted him riding in the distance with what looked like a hippocampus. 

"You know what's funny?" Julia asked.

"What?"

"I'm actually going to miss him. Is that bad?"

I laughed. "No, it's not. Tyson is the sweetest monster I've ever met. He's like a child."

We took a train up to New York and a cab back to camp, and by then it was late afternoon.

Piper, Rachel, and Leo greeted us there.

"Hey, Annabeth!" Rachel ran up and hugged me.

I grinned at her. "Hi. I'm back. When did you get here?"

"Just now. I literally just walked in." She gestured to her luggage bag and her uniform she was wearing.

Piper walked up to us. She was smiling and happy. I was glad to see that; she didn't seem to carry that weight on her shoulders she had three days ago.

"Piper! Good to see you." I grinned at Leo. "You too."

Leo flashed a crooked smile. "Always a pleasure." he waggled his eye brows at Julia and Sabrina. "And, of course, you ladies also."

They stared.

I rolled my eyes. "Piper, Leo, this is Julia, daughter of Apollo, and Sabrina, daughter of Aphrodite. Julia, Sabrina, this is Leo, son of Hephaestus, and Piper, daughter of Aphrodite."

Piper nodded. "Nice to meet you." She grinned at Sabrina. "And I've got another sister."

She grinned back. "Yeah. I bet we'll have doubled the amount by the end of the week."

Leo slung his arm around Piper's shoulders. "This girl has more moxie than I do. She took down that tyrant Drew this morning before breakfast. She's the new counselour."

My grinned widened, overjoyed. "Well done, Piper. That must've taken a lot of guts. I'm proud of you."

She blushed slightly, smiling wryly. I could tell she was happy too. "Thanks. I am too. It felt really good."

Julia nodded in respect to her. "You've got balls, girl." (A/N sorry about language. I think she would say that :P)

Piper smiled crookedly. "Thanks." she looked down at the valley. "I'll get Jason for the council meeting." She started to jog down the hill.

Leo coughed. "You know, I also became the Hephaestus head counselour, if anyone's interested." He winked at Julia and Sabrina.

Rachel punched his shoulder. "You're such a dude." She smiled at the three of us. "C'mon. You guys must be wiped out."

"Yeah," I agreed. "You two go back to your cabins and rest. i'll talk to you guys later."

They nodded in agreement and muttered goodbyes, then stumbled down to the valley towards their cabins.

I turned to Rachel and Leo. "So, anything new?"

Leo laughed, a slight hysterical note to it. "Oh, nothin' big, just, ya know, fought a few giants, almost got turned to gold, and came close to being turned into a demigod-sicle. Nothing out of the ordinary."

 I froze. "Wait, what?"

As we made our way down the hill, Leo described their quest-- their meeting at Boreas' palace-hotel, their run in with the Cyclopes in Detroit, Medea's underground mall--fiery Sun Dragons now on sale!--Midas' mansion, meeting the Hunters--and Thalia being 'totally in love' with him--then being dumped out of Aelous' sky palace, realizing Gaea is the enemy, Mount Diablo, and the Wolf House, and finally the events at camp--the counselour change, discovering bunker 9, and the confirmation of the quest to stop Gaea.

I nodded. "Wow," I said, impressed. "That amazing how you guys were able to defeat all of them." I hesiated, then asked, "And, wait, you met Thalia?"

Leo grinned. "Yeah, she's hot--er, cool. Jason told me not to say stuff like that about his sister."

A weight dropped in my chest. "Oh...so they are related."

Leo raised an eyebrow at me. "Yeah...you didn't know that? I thought she said you guys knew each other."

The look on my face made him quickly change the subject. "So...um...how was your quest, Annabeth? Any clues on Percy?"

I bit my lip and responded, "Nothing. Fought a giant..." I gulped.

"Which giant?" Leo asked. "How many are there, again?" Like, fifty, right?"

I considered it. "I think, eleven. One for each Olympian. Two of the goddesses doesn't have a bane." i looked down at the ground. "We fought Polybotes, the bane of...Poseidon."

Rachel's face drained of color. "Oh, no. Did Percy....is he--"

"No, the giant doesn't have him." I choked. "I still don't know where he is. But if Polybotes ever finds him--" I couldn't finish.

Silence filled the rest of the way to the Big House. We stood in front of it for a few beats, then Rachel wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "Hey, it's okay. We all miss him. We will find him, Annabeth."

I blinked back tears. "Yeah, I know." But my words were hollow.

Leo tried an encouraging smile. "C'mon. Let's discuss the end of the world."