After her brother, Malcolm disappears and is announced dead. Princess Annabeth Chase has no idea what to do. She can't remember anything from the night of the kidnapping and suddenly the entire responsibility of the kingdom is placed on her shoulder...
My feet slowly came in contact with the sands, my boots falling deeper with each step. I looked down at my clothes, they were covered in dust and blood, I grimaced, trying to brush it off, why hadn't I noticed it before?
The bag on my shoulder had gotten heavier, my shoulder ached underneath the pressure. Frank didn't seemed fazed at all. As I came closer to the water I leaned down an pulled the shoes of my feet and shoved them in my bag. I scanned the horizon and sure enough, The Argo 2 was waiting dutifully, far enough for us to access it but was far away enough to not be noticed immediately.
I waited for Frank to be ready before beginning to walk forwards, the cool water lapping against my legs. I continued walking, fishes swam around my ankles as I tried not to step on anything dangerous. I looked up to the Argo 2, a small wooden boat had been deployed and was quickly paddling towards us.
The water was up too my knee so I stopped walking and just waited for the boat. Connor and Travis pulled up next to us.
"Get on in," Travis smiled, "The captain's eager to hear what happened."
He and Connor extended their hands and Frank and I heaved ourselves into the small boat, I put on a fake smile,
"Well, its certainly interesting information." I smiled sweetly.
I didn't want to tell the captain what the gods had told me. I knew he was looking for some good news in all this despair and it broke my heart to think that all I could give him was some cryptic riddle that he didn't have time to decipher.
The boat pulled up next to the ship , I stood up and grabbed onto the ladder and began pulling myself up. As soon as I reached the deck I was enveloped in a hug from Piper,
"Hazel you're alright thank goodness!" She squealed, " I really hope you have some good news!"
I put the fake smile back on my face, "Of sorts I suppose,"
She squealed again and hugged me tighter before rushing off somewhere else. Frank stood beside me,
"You know we have to tell them the truth," He whispered,
"Yeah I know," I whispered back. "But its not going to be fun."
Before he could answer Percy approached us, He shook Frank's hand excitedly.
"So what happened," he asked.
"Well, they did mean Apollo and Artemis." I began,
"Did they give you a weapon? Or some way to win?" Percy's voice became desperate. I cringed,
"Well they told us something."
"What did they say?"
I hesitated, "Below the left armpit."
I watched Percy's face fall, "Below the left armpit?"
I looked down at the floor shamefully, "Yeah."
"Did they tell you what it could mean?" He questioned.
"No, not even Artemis could shed any light on the situation, she and Apollo said that it was all they could tell us and, more specifically, all they knew." I explained.
Percy ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Well thats fantastic. We'll be fighting the biggest war of our lives in a few days, we're completely unprepared, Annabeth may already be dead and the only advice that the Gods can offer us is 'Below the left armpit'. Fantastic," He swore.
"Well Rachael did say the the gods didn't know anything.." Frank offered,
Percy nodded, "True, True. I wasn't sure what I was expecting honestly, I think I've just been caught up with the stress of this whole situation, and my guts telling me that Annabeth is dead and gods I'd have no idea what on earth I would do if she was I...." He trailed off.
"I'm sorry, I don't want to burden you with all of that, it's just, well, never mind. Frank since the new crew members have already arrived, do you mind introducing them to Hazel? I need to go to some things." He rushed, before walking away.
"Come on Hazel, I swear they are nice people." Frank encouraged, seeing the look on my face.
I nodded as he grabbed my wrist and carefully dragged me away and down the steps, ready to meet the new crew.
The prophecy said the captain would take us to the Aegean Sea, so thats exactly what I planned to do.
I refused to let anyone take over from me, Sending each crew member to do some other job. I didn't want to risk ruining the prophecy or endangering my crew simply because I couldn't fulfil my part.
Below the left Armpit.
I had no idea what it could mean, and I certainly wasn't eager to find out. However, if its what the God's told us then it should be important, in one way or another.
Annabeth.
Ever since she had been taken I hadn't stopped thinking about her. I wasn't sure why though. She hadn't been part of my crew for even a year yet she was undeniably important to me. I hoped and prayed to the gods that she was alive, yet the sinking feeling in my stomach told me otherwise. Maybe I was just being paranoid, at least I hope I was just being paranoid.
I was scared. I didn't want to lose her. How she held herself and the impression she would leave on people. How she thought through her decisions yet when she didn't everything would end up fine. How she managed to lift up spirits.
How much she meant to me.
I shook away those thoughts. I needed to focus, I was thinking like she was dead, and she wasn't, she couldn't be,
Right?
I couldn't help but worry, but at the moment my priority was my crew. Annabeth was alive. So I could afford to focus on other things. But every time I tried to distract myself with other thoughts she always wormed herself in. It wasn't just since she had been taken, It had been longer then that, yet I still hadn't figured out why. Her name sent butterflies to my stomach.
A thought struck me, I immediately felt sick, that couldn't be it, could it?
I thought over it. It was more and more realistic every second.
