The last couple of days passed by sooner than I had expected them to. Luke and I had split and trained Percy as quick as we could, but I had the feeling that he won't be able to hold himself very well under the pressure of the whole camp.
Today was Thursday and I got Percy for two hours before dinner and bed time so I wanted to take him down to the lake and see what he can do.
"Hey Percy!" I yelled across the camp to the black haired kid and watched as he looked around in confusion. "Up here!" I waved down at him from the balcony of the Athena cabin, it was a good place to think. I pulled a pair of boy's swim trunks out of my back pack and threw them down at him. "Throw these on! We are going to the lake."
Percy looked at the swim trunks in his hands and peered up at me with a curious expression. "Where did you get these?"
"I have my ways." I shrugged and looked away from him. "Just put them on and meet me at the lake in five!"
"Kay." He ran off to the bathroom to change and I grabbed a towel, already changed into my one piece swim suit that I may or may not have stolen last year, it was just hidden under my clothes. As I walked through the cabin, I picked up some last minute things for his training like my bow and arrow necklace and a hunting knife and a water gun.
"Where are you off to?" Annabeth leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms.
"I'm off to train Percy, I want to see if he really has potential with water or if it was just a fluke." I shrugged and Annabeth sighed, walking to her bed and flinging herself on to it-face first. I nervously edged my way to the door, deciding if I should ask her what was wrong or if I should just leave while I still could escape. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and took a deep breath. "What's the matter Annabeth?"
A muffled groan was all that I could make out as she responded.
I looked around the room, trying to see if any one was around who could interpret. "Uh...what?"
"I said," Annabeth pushed herself up to a sitting position and looked at me. "You are training the enemy."
"What?" I knew that time was starting to get short, but her vagueness was sparking my curiosity.
"Clearly, he is the son of...the sea." She cringed and flung herself down on to the bed once more, but she laid on her back so I could talk to her. "And I was hoping it would be Zeus."
"Sorry?" I really had no idea why she was so worked up about Percy being the son of Poseidon, I didn't mind it at all.
Annabeth shook her head at me with a wise smile. "You just don't understand. You probably don't know this, but Athena and Poseidon absolutely hate each other."
I chuckled and shook my head at the girl. "Annabeth, just because your parents feel one way doesn't mean you have to. Have you never read the story Romeo and Juliet?"
"That's just it! I can tell that I have strong feelings toward him, but I don't know whither they are good or bad yet." She frowned and hugged her stomach.
"Well, maybe it is a sisterly feeling, those are pretty strong, trust me." I frowned and sighed. "You don't have to make up your mind right now. Think about it, okay?" I looked up at the clock and sighed, I had to leave right now. "I have to go, I will see you at dinner."
"Sure."
Shaking my head, I walked out of the cabin and down the dirt path to the lake. It was really a gorgeous lake, and since I love to swim I had spent many lazy days out here hiding from Annabeth when she was training me, only to get scolded by her later on. But I still think it was worth it.
I got on to the old wooden dock and watched Percy standing near the edge. He looked like he was deep in thought, so I slowly walked up next to him, not wanting to make him lose his train of thought-I hate when Annabeth or Luke do that to me.
I reached the end of the dock and stood next to Percy, just watching the water but he still didn't jump out of his thoughts. He must be really deep in there. Slowly, I sat down and began peeling off my converse and socks. Once I had removed all of hem, I jammed my feet into the lukewarm, crystal blue water causing water to splash and swish around and Percy to snap out of his thoughts.
"Woah, when did you get here?" He smiled down at me and sat down beside me.
I shrugged. "I hate when people disturb my thought process so I just waited 'til you came out of it."
Percy shrugged and put his bare feet in to the calm blue waves. "So, what are we doing today?"
"Same thing we always do, train." I grinned at him and he threw his head back with a small smile.
"Great, and I thought it was a relaxing day."
I jumped out of the water with a grin and pulled him up as well. "Times running out. So lets get to it." I reached down and un buckled my jeans, quickly pulling them off. I looked up as I was in the middle of yanking my ankles out of them to notice Percy's beet red face glancing nervously around the lake scenery. "What? Getting shy on me now?" I rolled my eyes and just continued stripping down to my bathing suit.
Once Percy took off his shirt, we were ready to start training. "Okay Jackson! Get in."
I didn't wait for him to respond, but instead I just shoved him in to the water. Hey, if he truly was a son of Poseidon, then he should be able to swim....I hope. Nervousness began to eat at my stomach as I waited to see Percy's black haired head break surface, but for the longest time it didn't.
"Crap." I cursed myself and took a running leap in to the lake. As soon as I was under the surface, I opened my eyes and scanned the clear waters for Percy, but I couldn't find him anywhere. A dark feeling crossed the pit of my stomach, I was the daughter of the Sun and the Moon, but Percy was the son of the Water, I have just trespassed into his territory, here I was pretty much helpless.
I looked to the left and to the right, but I still didn't find the kid. Slowly, I swam forward with the haunting sense of danger nipping at the back of my mind. My air supply was beginning to get low, so I began to make my was to the surface when something cold latched on to my ankle.
I had a mini heart attack and began flailing around like a helpless fish caught in a net and yanked my foot away from the grasp. Suddenly, my gaze was met with an array of bubbles and then black hair and then a smiling Percy. Angrily, I slapped his shoulder and let out a snort of laughter. I watched as my laugh bubbled up out of my mouth and lazily made it's way to the surface, amazing me.
The sea was always something that fascinated me, it was a whole other world then the one I was used to. One where the sun barely shone and the moon barely made any appearance. It was a mystery.
My eyes stopped following the bubble above my head and focused on Percy. I watched as he grinned and continued watching the air bubbles above the two of us. I had this feeling as if I was visiting Percy's natural habitat. On land, Percy was not the most coordinated person, but in the water he was just like...well a fish.
Percy turned his seaweed green eyes onto my blue ones and I felt captivated by those two colorful orbs. Percy grinned at me and I smiled back, still under his gaze.
I began to feel faint and I snapped out of my daze and looked up at the surface of the water, it was a good ten feet above me and I needed air, now. Panicked, I kicked up to the surface as quickly as possible and just as my head broke surface, I began sucking in lungfuls of air.
I felt Percy pop up behind me and I quickly turned around and splashed him in the face. "You almost killed me!"
"Me! How is that my fault?" He chuckled at my stupidity and I just growled and rolled my eyes at him.
"By pulling me down when I was trying to get air and then distracting me." I began swimming to the shallower part of the lake and Percy automatically followed. "How long were we down there?"
Percy swam backwards so he could loo at my face. "Only for about a minute...maybe 90 seconds."
"Nine-zero?!" I grinned and cheered. "Woah, seriously?"
Percy chuckled and shrugged. "Yeah, is that impressive?"
"Uh, yeah? I've never been able to hold my breath for that long before." I said as I felt for the sandy bottom with my toes, waiting for it to get shallower. Finally it did. "Anyway, let's get to your training." Suddenly, I remembered that I left my things on the dock. "Hold on. I left my tools over there."
Percy looked around. "Where?"
"On the dock, hold on I'll get them." I began to go under water when Percy held up a hand.
"It's okay, I can get them for you." He grinned and added cheekily, "Besides it will only take me a few seconds, if you went I may be here all night."
"What ever, just go already. Gez." I crossed my arms over my chest and looked away from him, only a small ripple in the water told me that he was already gone. I waited for ten seconds and he was back with my hunting knife and water gun. "Hmp." I pointed my nose in the air, he had insulted my ego.
I walked on the wet sand until we were waist deep in the water then I turned-hunting knife drawn-and stabbed Percy in the arm.
"Ow! What the hell?" He looked at me like I was a crazy person, but I was on to something. Or hopefully I was, because if I was wrong about this I just stabbed my trainee for no reason.
I threw my blade on to the bank and turned back to the bleeding Percy. "Alright, trainee. Here's what I want you to do."
"You just stabbed me."
"I know, but let's move past that and progress. Now hold out your arms over the water." I held my arms out in front of me as an example, but he stood still shell shocked, holding his wounded right arm.
"You stabbed me."
I began to trudge to the bank where I threw my weapon. "Do I need to do it again or are you going to listen to what I have to say?!" I snapped in front of his face. "I know! I know I stabbed you, I was there, now I want you to follow my instructions."
Percy slowly extended his arms like I showed him to, but he still kept a safe distance away from me, just in case I had another sharp object hidden somewhere. "Thank you. Now, I want you to..." I thought back to every time my aura began to take over and how I could control it. "I want you to take a deep breath, and relax your muscles."
Percy gave me a weary look, but closed his eyes and tried to relax.
"Good." I spoke very low and slowly. "Now, I want you to focus on the water, imagine that the water is a living, breathing thing and it wants to heal you."
Slowly, and almost just after I said this, a small stream of flowing water bubbled up and began to crawl its way up Percy's torso to the wound I had just inflicted on him. Percy sighed, "This is st-"
"Shut up Percy and open your eyes." I silenced him and just stared in awe at the amazing thing happening in front of my eyes.
Percy's eyes snapped open and looked at his spread arms, mesmerized by the steady stream that was licking at his wounds, somehow healing him from the fairly deep cut I had made. "How?" Percy tore his gaze away from his now healed arm to look at me. "Wh-at was that?"
Honestly, I didn't have an exact answer for him. "Follow me, I want to show you something." I waved him to follow me and I swam to shore. Once I had pulled myself on to the bank, I didn't wait to see how far behind Percy was, I just kept walking to the nearby cabin.
This beachy cabin had not been lived in since, well know that I thought about it. No one has ever lived in this cabin. Poseidon hasn't really had many kids since the second World War, and his son never went to camp.
I walked inside and grinned at the sun-bleached wooden floors, the wide-open windows that faced the lake, the walls that shone like the inside of an oyster, and the ceiling that reflected the light in the room making it look as if you were under the water. It was exactly what someone would imagine for the cabin of Poseidon to look like.
Percy let out a low whistle as he looked around the cabin with a grin. "Cool, what is this place?" He walked to the corner of the room and shifted through the various objects like the telescope and some maps before reaching an iron trident and picking it up.
"It's your true home." I shrugged and looked up at the ceiling while making my way over to one of the beds. Quizzically, I reached out a hand, poked the bed and chuckled, it was a water bed.
"My home?" Percy set down the trident and looked at the symbols on Poseidon all around the cabin. "My father is Poseidon."
I nodded with a grin. "Pretty cool, huh?"
Percy frowned and sat down on one of the water beds. "My dad, he was never there. My mom went through so much because of him and now she is gone."
Sighing, I sat down next to him on the bed. "Look, Perc. You're not alone in that. My parent was never there for me-and I've been with out a mother a lot longer than you have. Eventually you just learn to function without one-isn't that what your mom would have wanted?"
Percy sighed and ran a shaky hand through his thick black hair. "I know, you're probably right. I just wish there was some way for me to avenge her, or something." He chuckled a little mournfully and I rested a hand on his shoulder. He sure is a lot stronger than I was when I lost my mother-but then again I was just a child then.
We sat in the comfortable silence for a while and before I knew it, the sun was beginning to set. "Hey, Percy. How about we call it a day and head off to dinner? We have a big game tomorrow." I grinned and jumped to my feet.
"Yeah. Sounds good." He grinned and we changed into normal clothes before heading off to dinner.
~~~~~Skip To Capture the Flag!
"What chu' talking about, Anna?" I frowned at the pompous blonde and threw my hands on to my hips.
She grabbed a blue helmet and tossed it to me, already wearing hers. "Just what I said. Hermes' cabin has dropped from the Blue Soldiers and are now allied with the Red Soldiers."
"Why would Luke do that?" I frowned and muttered to my self.
"Clearly," Annabeth muttered to me as we began to walk to the battlefield, thinking I was actually asking her to answer. "He has gotten a fairly big head and thinks he can crush Athena's winning streak. But he is mistaken, I have never lost a battle."
"He's not the only one with a big head." I muttered under my breath, but Annabeth just grinned in response.
The field was crowded and Annabeth began to raise our silver flag with the image of an owl and an olive tree engraved on it and waved it valiantly-we haven't even won yet.
Soon, Clarisse and her goonies all ran through the crowd hauling their bloody red flag that had an image of a bloody spear and a boar's head hanging on it.
I caught the eye of the blonde standing far off and sent him a deathly glare.
With a sheepish smile, Luke made his way over two Annabeth and I. "Look, about dropping from the alliance, it's nothing personal."
"Get lost, Idiot." I frowned at him and crossed my arms over my chest defensively. "Your team is going to lose."
Annabeth just nodded firmly and looked away from Luke towards the distance.
"If it makes you feel any better, we traded our alliance with the children of Hephaestus. They are pretty strong." Luke smiled apologetically.
I just shrugged, not in the mood to talk. In the corner of my eye, I saw a black mop of hair make it's way over to us.
"Hey, so I guess we are going head to head now?" Percy grinned and I beamed back at him while Luke and Annabeth began a heated argument about the needs of the many versus the few.
"I guess so, watch your back out there kid. I'm not as nice when I'm in battle mode."
Percy paled a little and grabbed for his arm. "So you stabbing me yesterday was your version of nice?"
"Oh, yeah." I smirked. "You never heard about the first time Annabeth and I sparred?"
Percy shook his head with curiosity. "No?"
"I sliced her femoral artery." I shrugged it off, it's not like she was dead now or anything.
"The only reason you won is because you cheated." Annabeth overheard me and stuck her nose in the air. "Actually, it was a tie since I grazed your jugular-if we kept fighting the only outcome would be the both of us blacking out before wasting away."
I nodded. "You are right, but all is fair in love and war. Remember that Annabeth."
Percy's eyes followed our conversation with a slight look of horror. "You guys practically killed each other for a spar? Why?"
Annabeth and I gave each other a long look before answering him at the same time. "I hated her."
"Enough to kill her?" Percy just asked.
I shrugged again. "Mehh, not exactly. But like I have already told you-I'm not the same person when I get into battle mode." I looked around teasingly. "So watch your back, Jackson."
END OF PART ONE-I had to split this baby up in to two parts cuz it's too long :P but I promise part 2 WILL BE UP SOON!!
xoxo JESS