Anthízo, Percy Jackson

IV. stuck in a silent suffering

IF NOT FOR THE HORSES, piper could've died.

jason and percy charged each other, but tempest and blackjack balked long enough for piper to leap out of the way.

she crawled quickly over to the bleeding, and unconscious form of karina, who was laying flat against the pavement, a small pool of blood forming around her head on the ground.

piper shook her shoulders desperately. "come on, karina. wake up." she poured as much charm speak into her words as she could, pleading for the daughter of ceres to wake up. she couldn't do this on her own, she needed karina's strength and skill to help her get the boys back out of their trance, and she also knew that if she didn't get karina up and moving soon, she'd bleed out, and possibly die.

karina didn't move, and piper forced her dead weight body into a sitting position, grappling with her drooping body as a way to try and get her awake. she began to tap her face repeatedly, saying, "karina, hey, hey, come on. open your eyes for me. wake up!"

with one more final push of her charmspeak, karina gasped awake, her eyes dilating as she scooted away from piper in fear, not even registering the amount of blood that was dripping down the side of her face, or that her boyfriend and bestfriend were trying to murder each other behind in front of her.

"karina!" piper said with relief, quickly looking behind her to see the horses whinnying and rearing back reluctantly, trying to keep their owners from killing each other. "oh, thank gods, it's okay! you're okay!"

karina's breathing was quick, and labored, and piper could see a faint brimming of gold around her pupils that hadn't faded, mixing with the vibrant green of her original eye color. "did i hurt you?" she asked shakily, her body trembling.

piper shook her head, licking her lips. "no!" she said sympathetically. "no, karina. you did nothing wrong. i promise."

karina nodded hesitantly, her eyes averting from piper's face to the situation behind her, and her eyes widened. "what's going on?"

piper swallowed, and got to her feet. "can you stand?" she asked karina as she slowly got up.

"um— " karina stuttered as she wobbled to her feet, holding onto piper's shoulders as she struggled to stand straight. her vision blurred for a moment, and she blinked repeatedly, trying to clear her eyesight. "yeah, totally." she finally said, and piper, despite the horrible situation, let out a nervous laugh.

but, despite her knowing full well that karina was lying, she needed her help, so she just acted like she believed her. "great. okay." she said. "now, we need to stop our boyfriends from killing each other."

karina nodded, despite being totally lost in this whole situation, and ran with piper back to them.

they ran to the side of the road, and looked back at the situation, dazed and horrified, as the boys crossed swords, gold against bronze. sparks flew. their blades blurred— strike and parry— and the pavement trembled. the first exchange took only a second, but karina couldn't believe the speed of their sword fighting. the horses pulled away from each other— tempest thundering in protest, blackjack flapping his wings.

"stop it!" piper yelled.

for a moment, jason heeded her voice. his golden eyes turned toward her, and percy charged, slamming his blade into jason. karina gasped, which caused her to stumble back in dizziness, putting a hand to her head. when she pulled it back, her fingers were coated with blood, and karina swallowed. "great." she muttered, and shut her eyes for a moment, trying to stabilize herself.