Annabeth's Point of View

The Last Olympian - Fall

Even as Blackjack set me down and everyone swarmed around me, trying to heal my wound, I couldn't stop thinking of the look on Percy's face when he seen me at his feet, my arm sliced open. It had been horror beyond belief, and protectiveness and a heck of a lot of anger.

I knew it was stupid of me to take the knife for him, and I would be the first to say so, but that didn't mean I wouldn't do it over again. I had heard the Prophecy before, I had read it myself, but even then it had always seemed like something that would never happen - something sort of insignificent. But when Percy read the Prophecy, is face pale and full of terror, everything seemed much more real.

The cursed blade... that's what I've been looking for ever since that day. Every time a blade came close to Percy I would break out in a sweat. Every blade was the cursed blade to me - even my own knife made me nervous when Percy stepped too close to it.

I closed my eyes and remembered the words Percy said to the whole battle field of people who wanted to tear him apart.

No one touches her!

It was at that moment did I realise that I had fallen for Percy. His bravery to even worry about me when he was the one in danger, his sarcastic smile, his sea green eyes, his jokes - things that had annoyed me so much when we were twelve but now I found endearing. I didn't care if the Prophecy said that Percy was destined to die - as long as I was breathing, I wouldn't let that happen.

I had finally figured out just how much Percy meant to me. No one, not even Aphrodite, can break us a part this time.

Outside my door, I could hear Jake Mason call out, "Percy! We're getting reports-"

"Later," came Percy's voice, sounding as though the last thing he cared about was the reports. I smiled. "Where's Annabeth?"

"The terrace. She's alive, man, but . . ." Jake didn't finish, which I was glad for, the way he said it made it sound like I was on the brink of death. It even made me worried.

I waited in anticipation for Percy to come. I hardly noticed that my whole cabin was fluttering around me nervously, or that Silena was wiping my forehead with a cloth.

Finally, I saw him. I wanted to catch his eye, but he wasn't even looking at my face. Him and Will Solace hovered over my arm, seeming more interested in my wound than myself.

I would have been annoyed with Percy at this, but when I looked at his face I couldn't find the will to be annoyed. His sea green eyes were wide, the corners of his lips turning down into a stern frown, and his eyesbrows were scruntched up together. He didn't look like that fierce man I had seen fighting most of the battle, he looked like a kid. I marveled at the fact that Percy was looking so worried for me.

"Annabeth . . ." Percy's voice drew my eyes away from his face, and I looked down at my arm, which was the focus of attention at the moment. I never thought I would be jealous of my own arm.

"Poison on the dagger," I mumbled, seeing his eyes traveling on the green outline of my wound. "Pretty stupid of me, huh?"

Will looked, surprisingly, relieved. "It's not so bad, Annabeth. A few more minutes and we would've been in trouble, but the venom hasn't gotten past the shoulder yet. Just lie still. Somebody hand me some nectar."

Percy grabbed a canteen and handed it to Will. Then he took my hand, almost unconsciously, and watched closely as Will did magic on my arm. His eyes were half closed, and as he watched Will, I realised that his eyes were warning Will that if he did anything wrong, then he would tear him apart.

The second Will put the nectar to my wound, I was paying my arm attention just like everyone else.

"Ow," I said."Ow,ow!"  I clenched my hands into fists, feeling slightly comforted that I had a hand to hold as I went through the pain. It was like someone plunging a knife back into my wound and twisting it - the skin on my arm burned intensly and the force of not moving made beads of sweat form on my forehead. Silena was talking to me, trying to comfort me, but her words became boggled in my mind. The wound was still stinging when Will wrapped it up in brand new bandages, and only when he stopped humming the Ancient Greek song did I realise that the stinging wasn't all that bad.