Epilogues for the Heroes of Olympus Crew

Epilogue for Piper McLean

After walking back to the city from Annabeth's house, she walked into her father's house, careful not to set off the security alarm. But when she checked it on the wall, it was unarmed. Piper groaned, put in the code and armed it. The lobby was empty, except for a piano by the stairs.

She climbed the stairs and went down the hall to expect her father sleeping but, he wasn't there. She checked his study, nope, the kitchen was empty too. Soon, after checking nearly every room she could think of, Piper gave up and went to her room with a duffle full of clothes and her knife. When she flicked on the lights, she saw her dad sitting up against her bed, passed out cold holding a picture of her and him together when she was ten. She'd put it in the closet a long time ago. He must've found it.

Piper removed the picture from his hand and covered him put with a blanket that was at the foot of her bed. That's when he woke up. He rubbed his face and looked at his daughter in disbelief. "P-Piper..?" Piper smiled and nodded. "Yeah dad, it's me," he hugged his daughter close to his chest. Piper hugged back slowly as her father rubbed her back.

"Where have you been? You stopped calling me and when I went to my office, Mellie was gone..." He started crying in her hair. "Your mother told me everything," screw you too, mom. Piper thought.

"You are so... Brave," Piper pulled away and looked her father in the eye. "What?"

"You heard me, young lady. You are the bravest girl I have ever known." He tucked some hair behind her ear. "I missed you Pipes.." She smiled and let her head fall back on to her father's chest. "I missed you too, dad." For the longest time, they just sat there, hugging each other as if time had stopped. And it felt like it had, until Piper yawned. "Get some rest, you're exhausted." Her father picked her up and tucked her into bed like she was ten years old again. "Tell me story?" Tristan laughed and stroked her hair. "Okay."

"Long, long ago, the Hopis were greatly troubled by the wind. It blew and blew and blew and blew--all the time. The Hopis planted their crops, but before the seeds could begin to sprout, the wind blew the soil and seeds away. Unhappy and worried, all the people made prayer offerings of many kinds. But they accomplished nothing. The old men held councils in their kivas. They smoked their pipes prayerfully and asked one another, "Why do the gods turn such strong winds upon us?" After a while, they decided to ask for help from the "Little Fellows" who were the two little War Gods, two of the five grandsons of Spider Woman. "Why did you ask us to come?" was their first question. "We need your help," answered the old men. "Something must be done to the Wind." "We will see what we can do for you," said the Little Fellows. "You stay here and make many more prayer offerings." The Hopis make many kinds of prayer offerings--as many as there are prayers, and there are prayers for every occasion in life and death. They are reverently fashion--" By that time, Piper was fast asleep, but Tristan kept telling the story, smiling and holding her hand.

(here is the website where I got the story from; the-office.com/bedtime-story/hopi... )