Bonds

Annabeth Forms A Plan

"Chewie... That tickles..." the girl murmured as she rolled over in her sleep.

Did he ever keep a promise?

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Some hours later Luke's only daughter (or so she hoped) sat upright in her bed suddenly and stretched her arms in the air with a massive yawn that would have made her stepmother chide her for being unladylike. The teen then rolled her fists in the air before looking around the room, before finally settling on her. "Good morning Annabeth!" Queen chirped, brushing her raven-hair with her fingers. "Did you sleep well?"

For a moment Annabeth thought that the girl was being sarcastic, as even Phineas could have seen that she had been up all night. While testing the limits of her collar (it worked, and it hurt like crazy), she had caught a glimpse of her reflection in a polished bronze shield and had not been pleased by the dark bags under her eyes, how dirty she was, and how much of a rat's nest her hair had become. She didn't consider herself to be vain about her appearance, but it did hurt to see herself in such a state. "I didn't sleep at all," she stated coldly, slowly rising to her feet as her first crush's daughter did the same. "Call me crazy, but it's hard to sleep knowing you're surrounded by monsters."

"You're crazy?" Queen asked, as she adjusted her nightshirt. "No one out there would harm you. They're good people."

"Eleven years of experience say otherwise," Annabeth muttered loud enough for Queen to hear. She had seen the way the armor-wearing monsters had looked at her when she tumbled into the hallway, all of them waiting for an excuse to kill her. I will give them credit where credit is due: they waited to kill me instead of attack on sight. "There was hardly a time where a monster didn't attack me on sight."

"Did you ever think it might have been the same for them?" the girl asked as she took a few uncertain steps away from her bed; seemingly scanning the room for something.

"What are you talking about?"

"You say that monsters attack you on sight, but what if it is also true the other way around?" Luke's daughter asked as she gathered up her strange clothes and cloak from the floor. "What if they attack first because they've been attacked in the past? What if this cycle of hatred is the result of centuries of misunderstandings?"

"I wish I was half as naïve as you," she scoffed, though her thoughts momentarily drifted to Tyson and Ella.

"You are really unpleasant, you know that, right?" Queen sighed as he circled around the bed, looking about as if she was lost. "Ummm... Have you seen a bathroom anywhere?" the girl asked, crossing her legs.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at the childish display. "I can only move twenty meters away from you." The girl continued to stare at her. "No, I haven't seen a bathroom anywhere," she said with an exasperated sigh. "And how do you not know where the bathroom's at in your own room- home- palace- whatever you want to call it?!"

"Because this is my first full day here?" the girl shrugged, her eyes set to the left side of "T" shaped main chamber. "When we left for Gaea this place only existed on paper. And I may have never bothered to pay attention when my brother was explaining the layout to me?"

Yesterday? That can't be right... While running with who she somewhat thought was Luke, she had managed to see a considerable amount of the greater structure. The scale was beyond titanic, with the central hall alone having what appeared to be its own ecosystem, and she doubted that even the gods could create something so ornate, large, and complex in twenty-hours hours. And there were signs that it was older than a day; some of the floors showing signs of ware, a layer of dust on some of the horrific statues, the size of the forest in the hall, and the way the other monsters knew their way around spoke volumes about the structure's true age. This place has got to be at least a century old... But that boy was acting like he designed it... Queen said they were eighteen and some change...