little bird - Percy Jackson

chapter twenty eight

     Unfortunately for the birthday cake that Piper had just cornucopia'd up for Jason, Percy and Wren came sprinting towards the Argo II like two bats out of hell.

The solemn expressions on their faces never faltered, even as they moved onto the ship with Jason, Piper, and Coach Hedge. They all sat there confused while Percy and Wren ran them through the events of their trip.

"- and then Percy got us lost on the way back."

"Wren got us lost. She kept leading us down dead end streets."

"Well there's no reason there should be that many!"

Jason couldn't hide his laugh as Percy and Wren bantered back and forth. Piper on the other hand looked between the two with an extremely unsure look on her face, "So Annabeth was kidnapped on a motor scooter by... Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn."

"Miss Tiffany herself." Wren nodded while Percy shook his head, "Not kidnapped, exactly. But I've got this bad feeling... Anyway, she's- she's gone. Maybe we shouldn't have let her, but-"

"You had to." Piper said, "You knew she had to go alone. Besides, Annabeth is tough and smart. She'll be fine."

Tough and smart and completely on her own on a death-defying quest that no one has ever survived, and despite the faith that Wren had, she couldn't fight the out in her stomach that Annabeth was going to be-

fine.

It wasn't a big deal. She was going to be fine.

Both Wren and Percy's shoulders noticeably dropped, visible relaxation rolling across their entire bodies. Jason spared a wary look at Piper after her obvious charmspeak, not exactly a fan of her tactic, but he knew why the girl did it - the duo needed to be focused, especially if they were on their way to fight giants.

Annabeth would rain hell on them if Wren or Percy wound up getting hurt in a fight because they were worrying about her.

Wren would rain hell on Piper if she knew she'd just been charmspeaked. Luckily, her stormy blue eyes seemed to clear just the slightest bit and she didn't seem ready to fight the McLean girl.

"Maybe you're right." Percy nodded, his own worries dissipating, "Anyway, Gregory - I mean Tiberinus - said we had less time to rescue Nico than we thought."

"Hazel and the guys haven't come back yet?" Wren questioned.

"It's two in the afternoon. We said three o'clock for a rendezvous."

"At the latest." Wren pointed out, "It wasn't a 'no earlier than' thing."

Jason shrugged, because technically the girl wasn't wrong, "It's still not three-"

"Shut up, Grace."

"But it's not th-"

"Shh."

Percy rolled his eyes at the two before he gestured to the dagger in Piper's hand, "Tiberinus said you could find Nico's location... you know, with that."

"I've tried." Piper sighed, looking at the dagger with dismay, "The dagger doesn't always show what I want to see. In fact, it hardly ever does."

"Please." Percy urged, "Try again."

And his face, those sea-green eyes - Piper wondered how Wren had ever managed to hate the boy. Wren herself wondered how she ever won a single argument with the him, because just one look made her feel like Cupid had whacked her over the head with a heart shaped mallet.

"While you're at it." Coach Hedge said as Piper pulled up the blade, "See if you can get the latest baseball scores. Italians don't cover baseball worth beans."