ATLOP: Lessons in Water

When the World Comes Crashing Down (But you live)

Did ya miss me?

I'm sure you missed Tyson!

I know I post Monday's, but it's Monday for some of you, also I'm 3 months late lmao. I don't know if I'll update next week as I have an essay and several exams this week, but now that the writer's block has finally left me alone, I'm hoping to be able to update it properly!

I even combined two canon chapters for this one 3

So, hope you enjoy!

Come yell at me on my tumblr: Percabeth4Life
Come chat with me on discord: https://discord.gg/3tGNJhu

OO OO OO OO

I did not like mountain climbing.

The rocks were sharp and rough and cut my skin each time I clung tight; my fingers bleeding from hanging by the tips of them as my feet scrambled for a grip. My knees were aching from the numerous times I'd banged them against the mountain side.

I had experience on a harder rock wall of course, we did the one at camp all the time. But it was designed to have break areas, so you could rest if you needed it. Real mountain walls apparently didn't see the need for that.

There were a few spots we could rest, but they were small and far between. And while it wasn't quite a sheer face... it was pretty close.

So... not a fun climb.

Martha tried to help where she could, curling around us like a rope and finding the easiest paths, but this wasn't exactly easy.

But we couldn't take the easy path up the lush rolling hills we saw floating in.

The lush hills sparkled green, tall grasses, as tall as me, waving in the breeze. Groves of trees dotted the land, taller than the norm. Annabeth had pointed out the apple and pear trees, murmuring how they normally didn't get so large. Animals were grazing the grasses, massive sheep as large as a bull.

And somewhere there I had sensed a presence full of life. My breath came easier, my skin hummed with a pleasant warmth, coolness twining down my back. It all but drowned out the sea beneath me. I couldn't see where the fleece was, only that it was there.

I couldn't imagine many artifacts that echoed with life and nature and sunlight and water on it.

It was how we knew this was the island. Nothing else would match.

The mountain rose above the fields and trees. Rose above the rocky path atop a hill. Above the rope bridge swinging lightly in the breeze. It was tall, with large paths climbing up it.

I couldn't see any caves, but I knew there was one. The mythology spoke of one, and more importantly Grover was in a cave.

But if we went straight through the island, over the lush fields and across the rope bridge, we'd be in full view of the Kyklopes that called the island home.

So, despite the beauty, despite the ease of the trip, we couldn't risk it.

Thus, the climb.

Annabeth slipped above me with a soft curse and steadied herself, blood staining some of the rocks from a cut on her leg she earned banging it earlier.

We were both in our normal clothes once more, deciding not to wear the comfy khiton and instead to wear the shirts and pants from our bags. Our armor was overtop the shirts, the scales of my chest plate and arm guards glittering in the light of the sun in a way they never would in the ocean. Annabeth's burnished bronze only gleamed dully in contrast, much better for sneaking.