Sometimes, Percy wished he had never been declared a demigod. Other times (though very, very, very few) he was actually thankful he had a pretty decent father and very cool powers.
Specially the last part. Hey, no one can blame him. Imagine being able to talk to rainbow-colored seahorses, or know that your half godly sister actually wanted to kill you.
Oh, wait...
Percy shook his head roughly after remembering Kymopoleia. It had been bad when he found out she was his half-sister. He didn't need to remember the nightmare he passed through that day, specially in his current predicament.
It would only make him even more depressed.
Nevertheless, that all changed the moment both raven black dragon and blond-braided Viking-styled copy of Annabeth stepped up into the dragon stables.
The stables themselves weren't that bad. In fact, the sea green-eyed teenager seemed to be enjoying himself. He had thought of them as tiny caves that could only house one dragon; barely big enough to fit a single reptilian. So, when he started to count down the seemingly infinite amount of cave-ins made to huge boulders going all the way to the top and to the bottom, he finally realized just how smart these Vikings actually were.
But still, they didn't seem to have blue food. And unfortunately for them, it was a must in Percy's calendar.
Man-made bridges stood out from the cave walls spiraling all the way to the top. Huge gaping holes led way to wide areas inside the mountains of rock, some rather large-sized lizards with wings sleeping peacefully on the floorings.
Percy's view was washed with every color of the color spectrum. Dragons in all shapes and sizes flew above both human and... half-human? Winged human? Hybrid?
'No, Percy', the raven-haired demigod thought to himself. 'Stop it. Keep your ADHD in check.'
But it was hard to keep it in check, he later realized. How was he supposed to be okay with all of this? Sure, it was bad when Hera wiped out his memories and sent him to Camp Jupiter, but this was way over the line.
Specially because he knew that him being there was the gods' doing.
At this, Percy raked his brain a few hours back; to when he encountered the goddess Iris on the sea.
"The people in this world need of you, Perseus Jackson. They are going through tough times that won't end unless a young man like yourself amends it together."
While it hasn't been the first time a Greek god had asked for his help to aid others, Percy was unsure as to why the Vikings would need his particular assistance. After being there for what he could assume would be three days at least, he hadn't seen any kind of threat for the Vikings.
Sure, there was the dark-cloaked fella that took him as a prisoner, but he had only thought of him as a thug wannabe.
Still, Percy had this tingling sensation at the back of his neck that vibrated a lot whenever he thought of the Dragon Trapper man.
He didn't like it. At all.
His long pointy leather ears shot straight up when he heard the scuffling of feet against dirt. Percy's line of sight turned towards the blonde Viking girl, who was crossing her arms across her chest and looking back at him in a manner the demigod knew best from his girlfriend.
Annabeth flashed quickly through his brain, and he struggled to maintain a neutral expression.
Both of them had gone through so much. The Sea of Monsters. The Labyrinth. Going through a long time not knowing of the other's whereabouts. And finally Tartarus.
Gods if Percy would've been down that nightmare alone, he wouldn't have survived at all. If he were being completely honest with himself, it was Annabeth who had helped both of them keep their sanity and survive at the same time.
And now that he not only was switched into a dragon, but transported into a different place, he didn't know how long he would survive without her.
He needed to contact her. Find her.
"Ahem!"
Percy's vision turned towards the girl once again, feeling a bit curious as to why she looked annoyed. Her foot was tapping against the dirt pavement in an impatient manner, her piercing blue eyes growing even more fierce by the second.
Then, she motioned with her head to her right, where Percy saw a huge group of dragons hanging out amongst themselves. If he was understanding her correctly, he could only think that she wanted him to go with his lizard counterparts.
To which he agreed in the end. He didn't need more enemies in this world than the ones he already had.
However, as soon as he set his leathery behind down, the others suddenly turned their gazes at the Night Fury and widened their eyes. In no time, the colorful array of giant winged lizards had overcrowded the far side of the huge cavern room, looks of what Percy could discern were of absolute terror.
No one spoke. Not even the dragons were letting out growls or grunts as they had just seconds ago. The sea green-eyed teenager slowly felt as his ADHD kicked in at the awkward situation. His back right foot- uh paw- started tapping rapidly, without him knowing about it.
'Why don't they want to hang out with me?' he thought to himself. 'It's not like I'm any different from them, am I?'
Sudden memories of Yancy Academy flushed right through his brain like a hurricane. Percy remembered that feeling he always had whenever he went to that school. He would always feel like he didn't quite belong there, not forgetting that he didn't know how to get along with the other kids. As outrageous as it sounded, the teenage demigod never had the wits to start a conversation with anyone. Let alone make new friends quickly.
He had only achieved this the moment he had stepped foot in Camp Half-Blood. And that was because everyone there was exactly like him.
He missed it. Terribly.
He missed the sweet smell of the strawberry fields in summer. He missed how much noise the other cabins would make in the mornings, specially the Hermes and Hephaestus cabins, as they ran about trying to clean everything for the morning inspection. He even missed how Seymour would growl at him whenever they had cabin meetings in the Big House.
But most of all, he missed his friends. His Annabeth in particular.
'Gods, what have I gotten myself into?'
The raven black dragon was about to call it a day when he caught a slight gasp coming from his right. Surprised, he turned towards that way and was even more surprised to see the normally collected and stone-hard Viking girl staring at him with a shocked expression.
He was almost tempted to ask, "What?"
Until he took notice of the bright sea blue lighting up the entire place. From where he was, he could have sworn that the light was brighter, but it might've been his sheer imagination. His slitted sea-green eyes scanned the whole cavernous landscape, hoping to find the source of this enchanting blue hue.
What he hadn't expected though, was to drop his gaze down at his scaly black chest and stare in amazement at the trident tattoo he had imprinted there. Not only was it the responsible one for the light show, but rather it started to pulse every now and then. As if the weird skin design had a heart at its center, pumping out the bright blue beam even more.
What was happening to him? This was something that hadn't happened to him before. This was new.
And Percy was sure he had passed the "This-is-completely-out-of-the-ordinary" line.
Was this tattoo trying to say something to him? Like, was it useful for any purpose? Percy had never been as perplexed as he had been at that moment.
Then, little by little, the puzzle pieces seemed to fall in to place. The tattoo... A trident... His connection to the Greeks, even if he was so far away from them...
Could this mean that he did have a chance to go back home? Or that he could contact even more gods? What about Poseidon? Was this just another way of claiming Percy as his son, or could it be used to contact him?
The demigod thought it crazy, but there was a slight possibility that it could be true. And there was no way that the Hero of Olympus would let an opportunity like this go to waste. If this was his long-awaited answer for going back to where he belonged, then he would jump at it.
He turned one last time at the blonde Viking girl. Even at a long distance away from each other, his ears could easily pick out her panicked breaths, and see tiny beads of sweat slowly rolling down her forehead to her cheeks. There was no doubt that the girl was scared; afraid because she clearly gave away an expression Percy had become an expert at doing: the iconical "I-don't-know-what's-going-on-but-this-is-bad" look.
For a split second, the scene around him changed. The mixture of browns, grays, and yellows suddenly shifted into dark red and black. He was no longer inside the dragon stables, but rather he saw a sulfurous sky, a terrifying landscape, filled with wilted trees and silhouettes of all shapes and sizes.
He looked downwards, and almost let out a startled cry as he realized he no longer had paws or a raven black scaly body. Instead of his dragon features, he was met with hands, feet and what he was wearing before he had turned into Waverider. He felt happy, not caring for the dark atmosphere the place around him gave off. He knew he was back at Tartarus, but he didn't care.
He was human again.
That all changed when he looked up. For standing right in front of him, was none other than his Wise Girl.
Even through her tattered clothes, cuts, and grime, she still managed to make Percy's heart flutter happily.
He wanted to run to her, grab her hand, and hug her to death. He wanted to throw one of his jokes in order to lighten up the mood and walk with her back to Camp Half-Blood.
She didn't speak. She didn't even make any movements towards him. The only thing she did, was stare back at him with a blank expression.
Percy's hopes suddenly went downhill. This wasn't his Wise Girl. Whenever she saw Percy, her mood would lighten up, as would those stormy gray eyes of hers. Her entire face would eventually pull up into a happy expression, because of how she unconsciously copied Percy's overjoyed endeavor. But now, standing so close to each other, the demigod knew there was no way from Olympus to Tartarus that this was Annabeth Chase.
All of this seemed to be happening for eternity, rather than mere microseconds. And so, he couldn't take it anymore. He needed to yell at her, speak to her.
But he couldn't. No words would come out of his mouth. His arms were suddenly pulled behind him by an invisible force. Sweat slowly formed on his face as he struggled to free them, all while keeping his gaze plastered on Annabeth. But she remained the same, if not looking even more tired with each effort Percy made to unhand himself from the force.
Until finally, Percy's surroundings stopped moving. His sea-green eyes widened to the point where he felt a slight pain at the back of his irises.
But he didn't care. Because Annabeth had just spoken.
Her voice came out hoarse as if she had aged a hundred years, but there wasn't any doubt that it was still hers. What she said, shocked Percy the most.
"Percy, if you can, please hear me. You are not alone in this world. Help is right within your grasp. Your father can lend a hand for you to come back to us; to me. Seek his guidance. He's the only one that can help you out."
His father? So he was right. He could contact Poseidon after all.
He had a chance to go back home.
Suddenly, bright flashes of blue lightning started to shake the place around him. Percy's heart started pounding hard against his chest as he saw how the ground shifted to hard rock, and the red sky seemed to be blown away by a strong wind. He stared directly at Annabeth as her body seemed to fade away like ripples on water.
A huge pain entered Percy's heart seeing her disappear like this, but that all washed away when she saw his Wise Girl deliver him a heartwarming smile that he would never forget.
"Good luck, Seaweed Brain."
The fictional world disappeared after that, and he was met once again with the dragon stables and the female Dragon Rider. Everything seemed just as he had experienced before he had had his encounter with Annabeth.
But now, he knew what to do. He was determined.
He was going back home.
And so, he mentally pleaded to the girl to let him out into the open. The sea green-eyed Night Fury knew it was useless to do that but was met with the girl turning on her heel and advancing towards a long carved log that was near the heavy door chains.
Maybe it was a work of the Mist, or rather his desperation for finding his father, Percy would never know. But he sure was happy that luck was on his side on this one.
A grunt and a pull of the log down, the huge doors began to open wide. The peach, pink and red sky let their light filter in, mixing with the light blue hue coming from Percy's chest. A strong current of fresh seawater immediately sent the demigod's senses into overdrive, boosting him up with newfound juice.
He willed himself forwards and stared down at the long drop, not forgetting to throw an apologetic look at the tense-looking girl.
'I wish you understand that I don't like doing this to you. Even though you can't hear me. Or understand me. Or know what I need to do. Anyways uh, sorry.'
And so Percy dove down the great cliff, leaving behind a hypnotized Viking, with his objective in mind.
'Time to have a family meeting.'
He became a black spot on the horizon and disappeared behind the clouds.