(Percy's POV)
I woke up in a rowboat with a makeshift sail stitched of gray uniform fabric. Annabeth sat next to me, tacking into the wind.
I tried to sit up & immediately felt woozy.
“Rest,” she said. “You’re going to need it.”
“Tyson...?”
She shook her head. “Percy, I’m really sorry.”
We were silent while the waves tossed us up and down.
“He may have survived,” she said halfheartedly. “I mean, fire can’t kill
him.”
I nodded, but I had no reason to feel hopeful. I’d seen that explosion rip
through solid iron. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was no way he could’ve lived.
He’d given his life for us, and all I could think about were the times I’d felt
embarrassed by him and had denied that the two of us were related.
Waves lapped at the boat. Annabeth showed me some things she’d salvaged
from the wreckage-Hermes’s thermos (now empty), a Ziploc bag full of
ambrosia, a couple of sailors’ shirts, & a bottle of Dr Pepper.
She’d fished me out of the water & found my knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla’s teeth. Most of my stuff had floated away, but I still had Hermes’s bottle of multivitamins, & of course I had Riptide. The ballpoint pen always appeared back in my pocket no matter where I lost it.
"Wait, wait, wait...where's Nora?" I ask Annabeth.
"I couldn’t find her either Percy...I'm so sorry..."
I didn't say anything & I could feel a piece of my heart shatter. I wanted to cry, yell, punch something...but I knew that wouldn't get her or Tyson back.
We kept sailing for hours. Now that we were in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid.
The wind smelled fresh & salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too-as if a thunderstorm were coming. Or something even more dangerous.
I knew what direction we needed to go. I knew we were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by north west of our destination. But that didn’t make me feel any less lost.
No matter which way we turned, the sun seemed to shine straight into my eyes. We took turns sipping from the Dr Pepper, shading ourselves with the sail as best we could. And we talked about my latest dream of Grover.
By Annabeth’s estimate, we had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover,
assuming my dream was accurate, & assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn’t change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier.
“Yeah,” I said bitterly. “You can never trust a Cyclops.”
Annabeth stared across the water. “I’m sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that.”
I tried to stay mad at her, but it wasn’t easy.
I looked down at our measly possessions-the empty wind thermos, the bottle of multivitamins. I thought about Luke’s look of rage when I’d tried to talk to him about his dad.
“Annabeth, what’s Chiron’s prophecy?”
She pursed her lips. “Percy, I shouldn’t-“
“I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn’t tell me. But you didn’t promise, did you?”
“Knowledge isn’t always good for you.”
“Your mom is the wisdom goddess!”
“I know! But every time heroes learn the future, they try to change it, & it never works.”
“The gods are worried about something we’ll do when we get older,” I guessed. “Something when Nora or I turn sixteen.”
Annabeth twisted her Yankees cap in her hands. “Percy, I don’t know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half- blood child of the Big Three-the next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That’s the real reason Zeus, Poseidon, & Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three who reaches sixteen will be a dangerous weapon.”
“Why?”
“Because that hero will decide the fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods, or destroys it.”
I let that sink in. I don’t get seasick, but suddenly I felt ill. “That’s why Kronos didn’t kill Nora & me last summer.”
She nodded. “You two could be very useful to him. If he can get you both on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble.”
“But if it’s me in the prophecy-“
“We’ll only know that if the two of you survive three more years. That can be a long time for a half-blood. When Chiron first learned about Thalia, he assumed she was the one in the prophecy. That’s why he was so desperate to get her safely to camp. Then she went down fighting & got turned into a pine tree & none of us knew what to think. Until Nora & now you came along.”
On our port side, a spiky green dorsal fin about fifteen feet long curled out of the water & disappeared.
“This kid in the prophecy..he or she couldn’t be like, a Cyclops?” I asked.
“The Big Three have lots of monster children.”
Annabeth shook her head. “The Oracle said ‘half-blood.’ That always means half-human, half-god. There’s really nobody alive who it could be, except Nora & you.”
“Then why do the gods even let us live? It would be safer to kill us.”
“You’re right.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“Percy, I don’t know. I guess some of the gods would like to kill you, but they’re probably afraid of offending Poseidon. Other gods...maybe they’re watching you, trying to decide what kind of hero you’re going be. You could be a weapon for their survival, after all. The real question is...what will you do in three years? What decision will you make?”
“Did the prophecy give any hints?”
Annabeth hesitated.
Maybe she would’ve told me more, but just then a seagull swooped down out of nowhere & landed on our makeshift mast. Annabeth looked startled as the bird dropped a small cluster of leaves into her lap.
“Land,” she said. “There’s land nearby!”
I sat up. Sure enough, there was a line of blue & brown in the distance.
Another minute & I could make out an island with a small mountain in the center, a dazzling white collection of buildings, a beach dotted with palm trees, & a harbor filled with a strange assortment of boats.
The current was pulling our row boat toward what looked like a tropical paradise.
When we pulled up to the beach we saw a familiar figure laying on the sand...
Hey guys!😄
I've been super busy with college stuff which is why I took so long to update🙁
But anyways..I'll shut up now🤐
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Take care my lovely readers.❤️
Alice signing off.
XOXO.
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Daughter Of Lightning - Book 2 (A Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)
FanfictionA year ago Zeus's lightning bolt was stolen...which would've been the cause of the next world war. But Eleanor, Percy, Annabeth & their satyr friend Grover had managed to return it. Grover had headed off in search of the great Lord of the wild: Pan...
