𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

𝐗𝐈𝐈 ; dancing phantoms on the terrace (are they second hand embarassed?)

title from 'loml' by taylor swift

౨ৎ･ﾟ:*

"𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋?" piper asked into the silence, and everyone was looking at her. "i mean... does she spew green smoke a lot?"

"gods, you're dense!" drew sneered. "she just issued a prophecy—jason's prophecy to save hera! why don't you just—"

"drew," annabeth snapped. "piper asked a fair question. something about that prophecy definitely isn't normal. if breaking hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death... why would we free her? it might be a trap, or—or maybe hera will turn on her rescuers. she's never been kind to heroes."

jason rose. "i don't have much choice. hera took my memory. i need it back. besides, we can't just not help the queen of the heavens if she's in trouble."

a girl from hephaestus cabin stood up—nyssa, the one with the red bandanna. "maybe. but you should listen to annabeth. hera can be vengeful. she threw her own son—our dad—down a mountain just because he was ugly."

"real ugly," snickered someone from aphrodite.

"shut up!" nyssa growled. "anyway, we've also got to think —why beware the earth? an oath? and what's the giants' revenge? what are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?"

no one answered, but i noticed annabeth and chiron having a silent exchange. i thought it went something like:

annabeth: the giants' revenge... no, it can't be.

chiron: don't speak of it here. don't scare them.

annabeth: you're kidding me! we can't be that unlucky.

chiron: later, child. if you told them everything, they would be too terrified to proceed.

that was just my guess at what they were thinking though.

annabeth took a deep breath. "it's jason's quest," she announced, "so it's jason's choice. obviously, he's the child of lightning. according to tradition, he may choose any two companions."

"this is different," rachel interjected, wiping her eyes. her hair was a little disheveled. a camper behind her handed her something. she seemed to have just woken up.

"what do you mean?" annabeth asked.

"they need more than three for this quest," rachel said. "i can feel it. there must be a fourth quest member."

"okay, then," annabeth said. "jason may choose any three companions."

travis from the hermes cabin yelled, "well, you, obviously, annabeth. you've got the most experience."

"no, travis," annabeth said. "first off, i'm not helping hera. every time i've tried, she's deceived me, or it's come back to bite me later. forget it. no way. secondly, i'm leaving first thing in the morning to find percy."

"it's connected," piper blurted out. "you  know that's true, don't you? this whole business, your boyfriend's disappearance—it's all connected."

"how?" demanded drew. "if you're so smart, how?"

piper looked dumbstruck, trying to think of the right words to explain what she had just said.

annabeth saved her. "you may be right, piper. if this is connected, i'll find out from the other end—by searching for percy. as i said, I'm not about to rush off to rescue hera, even if her disappearance sets the rest of the olympians fighting again. but there's another reason i can't go. the prophecy says otherwise."