Prisoner of Ice and Stone

Chapter 12

Percy's POV:

I woke up feeling strange, but the pain was gone, so I figured that was good. Slowly I opened blurry eyes and focused on the source of frantic whispering beside my head. The source of the whispering was Annabeth and Nico both of whom looked out of their minds with confusion and worry. 

            Concerned I started to sit up and speak only to immediately discover why I felt so strange. I was taller, my feet nearly hanging off the bed, my shoulders still slim, but about an inch or so broader in either direction then when I'd gone to sleep the night before. I was bigger and when I muttered out a few choice words as I sat up I noticed that my voice while still not deep was definitely deeper than before. 

         Annabeth and Nico immediately scrambled to get closer to me as well as apparently all my other friends who were in the room but I hadn't noticed initially. The tension was palpable so with my usual stubbornness I groaned dramatically and rolled my eyes.

"Anyone get the plate on the truck that hit me or did one of you do it and you're all gonna brainwash me instead of owning up to it?"

Only Leo laughed, Annabeth gave me a highly unimpressed look but the tension eased slightly.

"How are you feeling Seaweed brain?"

I smiled gently at her

"Bigger, which is weird, and a little sore, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty ok actually."

Annabeth let out a sigh of relief and several people in the room slumped as the rest of the tension left in a rush.

"Alright then, according to Nico Hades said that something like this has to be the work of a god, or something with similar powers, and he's guessing that whatever kidnapped you in the first place is also responsible for whatever this is."

I nodded. It made sense.

"The feeling was similar presence wise to when I was kidnapped, and it looks like they are unfortunately still interested in me."

Annabethe sighed, sitting on the bed and leaning against me.

"Only you Seaweed Brain, only you are able to manage this much trouble, without even doing anything."

I laughed the sound slightly bitter.

"Lucky me, am I right?"

***************

So it turns out getting your body changed only slightly is worse than having it change completely. This experience reminded me of the island with Circe and the Guinea Pig incident, only ten times worse. 

         My balance was just ever so slightly off, enough that I couldn't walk normally, but not enough that making a dramatic change in posture would fix it. The extra two inches on my shoulders had me bumping into doorways left and right and the extra two inches in height had me constantly bumping my head on the normal sized doorways of our house. Also after a look in the mirror this morning I found that my skin was more bronze than tan turning to something more metallic, my eyes looked sharper and more vibrant, my canines slightly lengthened and sharpened and my features more defined. I looked just ever so slightly to unnatural to be human, but not enough to be obvious. 

     That wasn't even accounting for my heightened senses, it wasn't as strong as when I was in full attack mode, but just passively my senses had dialed up about three or four notches. All in all I found myself crashing around the house like a particularly drunk giraffe trying in vain to figure out just the right spot between my old and new body to function.

The others thought it was hilarious. At first there had been concern and condolences, but now every time I slammed into a wall the house erupted with laughter from various places, Leo kept recording things on his apparently Demigod proof phone, and sending to others so my humiliation wasn't just limited to the house. Despite my grumbling and irritation and mock anger at their laughter. Secretly I was glad that they were laughing and having fun, it felt more like before I'd vanished than ever before. It was as if the grief and pain that had been hovering over everyone since I'd gotten back had left. Still on my 26th time slamming into a doorway, I couldn't help feel a glimmer of concern. I couldn't exactly fight like this and we still didn't know who did this and why. I could only hope that they didn't strike until after I got used to this new body.

***************

Somewhere far away a powerful being lets out a sound like crunching glass as it laughs, then in a strange twisted tone of voice like the echoing of shattering stones they say

"Careful what you wish for little one, careful what you wish for."

A/N: Here you go an update!!!! YAY!!!!! Sorry it's been so long, I genuinely don't even want to talk about what's happening in my life right now so I am not going to do it. Hope you all like this. I ain't abandoning this story! It just might take awhile so pleaaaase be patient. Also this is your infrequent reminder that I don't own the art, or the characters just the plotline.