CH1- PIPER
Piper was tired of dreams.
Last night, they had been worse than usual. She'd woken up drenched in a cold sweat and to the tase of salty tears.
Fisrt, she'd dreamed of the first time her father had sent her to borading school. He'd acted like it was no big decision, sending his own daughter away.
Of course, Piper now knew he'd been trying to protect her. But the memory still hurt.
Then, she'd dreamed of the day Percy and Annabeth had fallen in to Tartarus but Gaea's voice was coming from the dark pit, laughing evilly.
Piper got out of bed, and pulled on jeans and a fresh sweatshirt. She slipped her feet into black converse and made her way to the mess hall, trying to erase the horrible dream from her mind.
The only person in the mess hall was Hazel who barely looked up when Piper entered.
"Hey," Piper said mildly, sitting down in front of her friend and looking at her plate. A bowl of her dad's black bean soup appeared. A strange breakfast food, but Piper didn't mind. She immediately dug in.
"Hi," Hazel answered, watching Piper eat.
"You're not eating," Piper noticed.
"No." Hazel's plate was filled with emerald's and rubies, a clear sign something was bothering her.
"What's wrong? Tell me," Piper said, putting a bit of charmspeak in to her voice and immediately wishing she hadn't.
"Nico spoke to me in my dreams last night," Hazel said quickly. Nico, Reyna and Coach Hedge had left yesterday night. For some reason, the coach seemed very anxious to leave.
Piper raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Wow! He can do that? Does he..." She faltered, seeing Hazel's pointed glare. "Sorry. Go on."
"They passed the first leg of the journey. But they're nowhere near close to Camp and some wild pegasi attacked them. Apparently, the coach is hurt."
Piper suddenly felt like her black bean soup was molten lead, swishing around in her stomach. Her spoon fell in her plate with a heavy clatter.
"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes," Hazel answered grimly.
"Why so glum ladies?" a voice asked and Piper found herself smiling. Trust Leo to make everyone smile in the hardest of times. Behind him were Jason and Frank, looking exhausted. Piper knew why; they had been on guard duty.
"Hi," Piper said smiling at her boyfriend. "Did you have any trouble?"
Jason nodded distracedly, dropping in to a chair between her and Leo. "We were attacked by a giant squid. Like Shrimzilla."
Piper cracked a smile then wished she hadn't. Her cheek muscles weren't that used to smiling any more.
"Hazel, why so glum?" Leo asked, poking her arm. Piper wondered for the millionth time why he suddenly was less awkward around Hazel.
Hazel told Jason, Frank and Leo about the dream. Their faces immediately morphed in to the worried expressions that they had permanently worn for the pas few weeks. Frank looked especially worried. Piper could only wonder why. So many secrets had been kept from her. Leo wouldn't tell her where he had been after Khione had blasted him out of the sky, and Jason wouldn't say how their encounter with Eros had been.
Piper somehow felt that this made her untrustworthy. She knew she should believe in her friends, blah blah blah.
But she didn't.
"Pipes?" Jason gently nudged her arm. "Earth to Piper!"
Piper jumped, startled. She had totally zoned out. "Sorry," she apologized. "Were you talking to me?"
Leo rolled his eyes. What surprised Piper was that he hadn't made fun of her for zoning out. Again, Piper wondered sadly who had changed him this way. "I asked if you knew where Percy and Annabeth were."
"No, I don't," Piper answered. They were probably sleeping. And a good thing that they could finally get some rest.
That was when a voice floated in from outside.
"Ahoy!" the voice boomed with a slight accent.
Leo winced. "He needs to work on his shipspeak."
"Leo!" Hazel chided. "There's an intruder in the ship and all you can do is comment on his shipspeak!"
"Well," Jason said tiredly. "Let's go welcome our visitor."
Hey! This is our Blood of Olympus fanfic. Um... you can call this a prologue...?
Next chapter coming soon! And thoughts about the House of Hades? I loved it.
All rights go to Rick Riordan.
~Rachel