A Tale of Gods and Magic

Annabeth: The Power of Blueberry Waffles, As Shown by Percy

Annabeth had spent the entire morning trying to figure out who had captured Hecate. The rest of the crew had been powernapping and/or power waffle-eating. She had sent out a request through a long string of voicemail Iris messages to find anyone who had any clues about who had taken Hecate or where she saw. But she had a nagging suspicion that it was the witches and wizards at Hogwarts. She couldn’t think of any other logical explanation, unless Dakota had gone more overboard than usual with his Kool-Aid addiction. You never knew what a son of Bacchus would do when he went in over his head with red Kool-Aid! But Dakota had reassuringly replied with an Iris-message courtesy of Reyna:

“Annabeth, hey. I up gave Kool-Aid… withdrawal, you know… “ then he fainted. The image cut out as a girl with two blond pigtails dragged him by his arms across the field. Someone swiped their hand across the image and it was over.

Annabeth finally gave up after an Iris-message of Mellie introducing the baby satyr nicknamed “Windy.” She threw a pen through the message and Windy’s face cut out. Percy looked up from his blueberry-infested waffle.

“Everything okay?” Percy wiped blueberry from his face.

“Yeah. Just trying to get to the bottom of this.” Annabeth leaned back in her chair and yawned.

“I think my Wise Girls needs a break!” Percy hit a button on the side of his chair. “ARE WE ALMOST AT OGYGIA II, LEO?” screamed Percy.

“Yup. I was just going to make an-” there was a crackle from the speaker. “get on your swimsuits, demigods, ‘cause we’re at Ogygia II!” said Leo.

Annabeth had her hands over her ears.

“Just because you have no brain cells doesn’t mean you need to deplete mine with your screaming,” said Annabeth.

“Fine, fine. But c’mon Annabeth,” said Percy.

“Ugh. I really don’t feel the need to go sightseeing with everyone. Especially since the Stolls are back and-” Percy lifted Annabeth onto his back and started running out the door of the dining hall.

“AAAAAAAH!” Annabeth fastened her arms around Percy’s neck, her blonde ponytail streaming out behind her. As they ran down the hallway, people peeked out from their doors and joined the mad rush Percy had started.

Annabeth buried her face in Percy’s hair and hung on for dear life. Her ears echoed with the stampede of feet and she was bursting with happiness. This was what she wanted her life to be like forever and ever and ever. Annabeth and Percy. Percy and Annabeth.

They reached the end of the magical train and trickled out onto a white-sandy beach.

“Seaweed. Brain. Put. Me. Down.” Annabeth gasped for air.

Percy set her down carefully on the sand.  She jumped up and placed a kiss on his cheek. He blushed-oh, that immature boy-and placed his arm around her shoulder. As Leo made the jump from the train to the sandy beach, the train (which had been hovering over the water), disappeared.

Annabeth squinted against the sunlight. The demigods were on a long strip of beach populated mostly by driftwood and rocks. To the left, she could see a boardwalk. The sand was strewn with towels and umbrellas and all sorts of creatures. There was a satyr in swim trunks selling ice cream, a harpy circling over a palm tree, and a whole bunch of glistening hippocampi bobbing up and down in the sea. Annabeth noticed that the hippocampi all had baseball caps that said “Poseidon’s Buddy Club” and she assumed that they were the group of hippocampi Rainbow had explained to Tyson that he would be training. Behind the mayhem, there were buildings scattered among various tropical plants teeming with mysterious fruits and blooms. Some were precariously tottering on the side of a cliff; others were in a circle bordering the beach. The sun serenaded the beach-goers and glanced off the salty water deliciously churning next to them.

“Wow… this is… is… “ Leo’s mouth hung open. For once, he didn’t have a humorous comment. Annabeth could’ve thought up plenty about the chubby Alicorn with sunglasses trying to spear a donut on its horn.

“... different from Ogygia,” finished Percy.

Leo scratched at his head through his curls. He looked forlorn, like a little puppy-elf. Annabeth had an overwhelming need to pat him on the head or scratch behind his ears. Realization dawned on her.

When Leo had come back from the dead, he had brought a girl with him. Everyone had been surprised. Jason had accidentally poked Piper in the eye with a stalk of celery when Leo had entered camp scorched and with a beautiful girl by his side. Percy had promptly fainted. Later (after Percy had regained consciousness), Leo had introduced Calypso, from Ogygia. All the while, Calypso had been shooting Percy icy looks from under her dark hair. Percy had spent the rest of the night apologizing and then pretty much trying to hide behind Annabeth while the Aphrodite cabin bet on how long it would take them to get together (they were practically a couple at that point, thought). Percy had recounted the story of Ogygia after Mount St. Helens to Annabeth later that night. She’d kissed him near the water and told him he’d done what he had to do, that if he hadn’t, they’d all be dead. That had sure consoled him. But that was off-topic. Leo was obviously sad because Calypso wasn’t there. He was the seventh wheel again. Well… except for the fact that there were more than seven of them and the Stolls, Nico, and Will weren’t in relationships either.

A genius idea popped into Annabeth’s head as the demigods headed down the beach.

Nico and-

“WELCOME TO OGYGIA II!” a large man jumped in the path of the demigods.

“Hello to you, too,” said Leo, taking his spot as leader before Jason could. Jason scowled at the back of Leo’s head.

“Goodbye,” said the man to everyone’s puzzlement.

Then everything went black.

The last thing Annabeth thought of was Tartarus, and how if she was there again, she would scream so loud that anyone in a five-mile radius would suffer from deafness for the rest of their miserable lives.