14 chapter 13-Hard Love

It's dark, I don't know where I am. I see a beach, a storm, and two animals in the distance. A horse and an eagle. Oh, I'm in a demigod dream. Haven't seen one in a while, weird.

In the distance, the animals change into two men who are grappling with each other. One man is in a white toga, while the other is in a blue toga. That must be my Uncle and my Father. They look like whiny children right now.

"Give it back, give it back", damn he does act like a child. My father on the other hand has a grimace but slight amusement on his face. Then everything changes.

The sea and storm no longer surround me, only the sand under my feet. Oh, and also that hole in the distance. In the distance, I see a shadow.

A man in a hood.

"Come child join me, and I'll give you what you desire. The Power to protect your mother. I'll give you weapons and armor of such caliber that you would be unstoppable."

"Offer sounds nice but nah, sounds too suspicious. Feels like I'm about to sell my soul." I'm pretty sure this is Kronos.

"Are you sure, this may be your only chance to get stronger? To be the BEST." Yeah, this is Kronos.

"I'm good. Now why don't you go away and stop disturbing my dream."

Just for a slow slight second his eyes then tightened around the corners and glared at me. Then that look disappeared to one of complacent.

"If you are sure, I'll see you another time."

"And I am not looking forward to it."

He then disappeared into dust.

Well, that was weird. I should probably be waking up right now. Need to make sure my mom is being taken care of well by the campers.

If they aren't, well, I'll be giving them a talking too.

DREAM ENDS

———————-———————-—————

Waking up in a cot I see that it's dark and right in front of me is a blonde. This must be Annabeth. She's beautiful. Her hair is in a nice ponytail. Her eyes seemed to be discerning my entire existence as if I were a puzzle she was waiting to solve.

This is crazy, I can't be thinking this. I may like her but I can't love her this early. Love is something that grows through time. Stop thinking this way, Percy.

Ahhhh, it's so hard. She is my type. Smart; I always liked the smart ones. They always know what to do and you can be dependent on them. Looking at other discerning features I see that she does look like a California girl.

Oh, she noticed I'm awake, better say something.

"You drool in your sleep", she stated. She said the line. SHE SAID THE LINE.

Percy, control your emotions. You're better than this, but she's the perfect pretty girl.

Okay, I'm calm, I'm calm. I need to stop focusing on this. I need to find Mom.

"Sure, I believe you. Now if you don't excuse me I have a mom to find."

I sat up and got off the bed. I stretched a little and focused on her reaction. She seemed mildly annoyed but focused intensely on my body, awesome.

"You should sit down, you fought the minotaur. Something that you should be honored about."

I mean I suppose I am? If it was only me during that fight I would have probably won with less of a problem. Probably I said, not that I would.

"Nope, I'm good. Fully healed and everything. Also about the whole Minotaur thing, not that fun of a fight. Rate it four out of ten. Would have been better if the beef was rare but meh. It wasn't, I might speak to his boss if he doesn't step up the act."

She looked livid. Oops, I might have gone too far.

"This isn't something you can joke about. You fought the minotaur and a bunch of hellhounds before we got to you. You should have more respect for all those who fought them and died."

She's... letting her emotions get the better of her. Huh, I don't remember much of that happening. Maybe it did, hmm.

"Alright, I'm sorry. Just making jokes to lighten up the mood. I just made it worse."

She didn't seem to lighten up at that but her glare lessened.

"Never mind whatever. Since you're up and don't seem to want to go back to bed you have to see Mr.D and Chiron."

"Uh, did you not hear what I said? I want to see my Mom."

"I did, she's currently with them."

Okay, that's good. I thought we would have had a dispute but nothing like that happened.

I then decided to make small talk with her.

"So, what's your name? My name is Percy."

She ignored me for a few seconds then looking over her shoulder she answered me.

"I know your name. Everyone knows your name. Mine is Annabeth."

Right, okay. Maybe if we talk about something she would like she would be less exasperated with me.

"So, read any interesting books."

That made her light up for a second, she then reigned in her excitement in a huff. She then faced me and answered my question.

"Yes, I did. What do you think about architecture." This may seem like an innocent question to anyone but to me, the answer I give could decide how she sees me in the future.

"I think it's fascinating. The aesthetic to it. How it defines the creator."

That made her lighten up to me just a slight bit, but that's enough. For the rest of the walk, she talked to me about architecture animatedly. I barely even got a word in.

It continued till we got to the big house. That's when she chose to go quiet again.

"we're here, get inside and you'll see all three of them. What are you waiting for get inside."

I entered the room to see them all playing a card game. With my Mother smiling ear to ear. I looked at Chiron and Mr.D where I also saw Grover eating a can of... pepsi? Chiron and Mr.D looked tired and miserable. Once the door closed behind us and the both of them looked up at us in hope.

"Oh well, it seems we will have to end the game here, look up Mrs.Jackson your son is here."

My Mom looked up from her cards and when she saw me leaped up from her chair.

"Oh, I'm sorry for not being there with you when you woke up Percy. After being there for too long they began to worry over my health and took me here to relax. Are you feeling better, they said something about how your body was different compared to most demigods. I hope it didn't affect your health too negatively."

My Mom continued to ramble off worriedly till I chose to stop her.

"Mom, there's no need to worry. It's okay that you weren't there and I'm fine, look at me I'm fully healed, nothing to worry about."

When I said that last sentence my mom's attitude changed from a total of 180.

"What do you mean don't worry you got hurt, you were hunted down and you chose to fight them. What you did was foolish, what were you thinking?"

"I apologize for interrupting but I agree with your mother, what were you thinking about taking on the Minotaur and the hellhounds?" Came in the voice of Chiron.

"I thought I needed to make sure my Mom and best friend were safe. Oh and also why are they calling you Chiron, not Mr.Brunner?"

"Now Percy don't change the subject, but if need be I will tell you. I am Chiron of the myths, trainer of heroes."

While saying this Mr.D chose to interrupt.

"While it's fun seeing someone else being yelled at, I would like to know one thing. How exactly did you defeat them, hm?"

I had to think fast, something that is both a truth and a lie.

"I just punched them till they died."

That just gave me deadpan looks all around the room.

"Are we sure he's old Barnicle beards son, I don't think that he has power over strength or does he?"

Man, he has a lot of important questions to his name. Wait, he knows that I'm a son of Poseidon. That makes sense with the fact mom is here and must have told them the truth, so there's no need to worry.

"WAIT, he's a son of Poseidon."

All heads turn to Annabeth.

"Yes, Annabeth he is. When he was fighting the monsters he was claimed by Poseidon. You did not know this because you were still at camp."

She looked annoyed at not knowing something. She then looked at me scoffed and walked away.

One single thing, one thing changed her opinion of me. Our parent's stupid rivalry. All that work of getting her warmed up to me down the drain. Now I sound like a creep.

"Well, I think this got out of hand", said Mr.D

"I do believe that we should relax and think things through, now Percy I want you to explain how you beat them, in detail."

Meh, I already know what to do.

"I just knew how to fight them, it was all instinct. My body knew exactly what to do to beat them."

Chiron remained skeptical but seemed to accept what I said.

"I suppose it's not too strange for a demigod to know how to fight with no training whatsoever."

"Are we done now I don't want to deal with this anymore, I want a nap", said Mr.D

"Right, well then we should end this meeting for now. Grover go show Percy and his mother to cabin 3, please. Tomorrow I will have Annabeth introduce you to the rest of camp."

"Alright, Chiron I'll do that."

On the way back to the cabin Grover was silent until I hit him on the arm.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"You looked depressed, only I get to be depressed around here."

That made my mom shake me in alarm.

"You're depressed, it's going to be okay son. I'll make you happy, just don't do anything drastic."

"Mom, I wasn't serious. I was joking."

"Oh, okay it's just with what happened yesterday I thought that what you just said was connected to the fight. Like you had a death wish or something."

Sheesh, next time no dark jokes.

"It's fine mom, I'm not depressed."

My mom gave me a nod but still looked worried over me. I would have done something but I know being too pushy with her is a bad idea. So I turned my attention back to Grover... who was currently staring at a tree, anyway.

"So buddy what's wrong?"

*Sigh*" I failed to bring you to camp, so now the Council of Cloven Elders is talking about rescinding my license."

That was easier to get out of him than I thought.

"Grover you didn't fail you brought us here alive."

"I needed to be awake, not sleeping while being saved. So no, I did fail."

"Well, you bringing us here has got to count for something."

When I said that we got to the cabin. The cabin is low, long, and solid, with all the windows facing the sea. The outer walls are rough gray stone with pieces of coral and seashells and look like the bottom of the ocean floor.

"Here is your cabin, I need to get back to the big house to speak to Mr. D. Have a good night."

"Wait Grover, good luck with keeping your license. If you need anything I'll be there."

He smiled ruefully at me and responded, "Thanks Percy."

"Bye Grover", my Mom says.

He then turned and left. I then turned my attention to my Mom entering the Cabin. On the inside, it has six empty bunk beds and the walls glow like abalone. Which is just the color green.

"Well this is it kiddo, this is where we'll be spending the rest of the night. I won't be taking a no for an answer. You will be resting, you fought against a group of monsters that no one your age should have gone against. Now rest up."

"Fine, I'll go to sleep. Again, which is unnecessary but we can't argue with you."

I got onto the bed and contemplated how things would go tomorrow. Will there be more or less danger?

Oh, who am I kidding? Me and Annabeth will be arguing for the rest of the day, just hoping that she won't hate me more than she already does.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<2,134 words in text>