7 Years: Annabeth's Story

7 Years: Part 3

                                       pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker

Chiron couldn't say why he'd told her about the prophecy so soon, when there was no indication she would even be involved. She wasn't a child of an eldest god and there was no reason to think it would even happen in her lifetime, but something about her made him wonder. He had never seen a demigod like her- so ruthlessly devoted to her dreams and plans, so unyieldingly vicious when pushed against a wall, so terrifyingly smart when given a test- and he had been training demigods for centuries.
Annabeth was special and that scared him because no matter how many times he lit a funeral pyre for another of his charges, it never stopped hurting and maybe Annabeth refused to admit and he didn't push the topic, but they both knew that he was as good as her father (he knocked on the cabin door and she couldn't stop crying long enough to tell him to go away so he came in, sad eyes watching the broken child before him and oh why, oh why are the Fates so cruel to those who suffered so much already).
She latched onto the idea of the prophecy and a quest. She trained harder- but Chiron sighed in relief when though those hours were more grueling, they were less. Annabeth seemed to have finally accepted there was a reason to take care of herself and if a potential quest was what it took, Chiron would not take it away from him.
Except then, he did, because Luke came back and Annabeth ran to him and hugged him but no, no, no, that was when it broke forever (if only she had seen it earlier, that moment when he pushed her away, she should have seen it and pushed back, so why didn't she). Luke had never wriggled out of a hug, not even during those long nights when all Annabeth could do was sob and cling to him, even if he was dead, dead inside and bleeding and had no one himself, he was always there for her. Until he wasn't and he didn't hug her and she was left wondering how the world could collapse so fast without anything physically happening.
Quests were banned and Annabeth no longer had her glory goal, that mark on the calendar next to her bed that kept her safe and sane and she fell (it was inevitable, really, because when you reach the peak, you can only go down). And once again, there was no one to catch her and she was back at seven years old and alone.
She still saw Luke, still loved him, she couldn't stop after what they'd been through, but it hurt, it hurt so bad to watch him drift away and turn into an angrier and scarier person and when it hurt, she turned back to before. If her mind was busy, then her heart wouldn't hurt, so she threw herself back into her trying and her excelling and it felt like the top, but it was the deepest she'd ever dove and she was running out of oxygen and maybe she was drowning in all she desperately wanted and needed to have and be (and why, little dreamer, did you set your sights so high and forget the more important things?).
And being head counselor provided no relief, that was a position not earned through deeds or skills, just on to the one who had been there the longest; and if anything, it hurt her more. Annabeth had been at camp so long and had she truly done anything worthy of her status as Athena's favourite child? She watched the pyre burn, she didn't know the person- her brother- and it made it easier, she realised, as she watched her siblings cry and all she could muster was a stone face as the flames grew higher. Maybe that was what she had to do, was turn back in again and shut the world out like she had when was seven. Athena had rewarded her then, and maybe she would reward her again (you'll wish you knew them when you're facing the end of things and they're begging for you to lead them).