Disclaimer : If I’ve said it before, I’ll say it now: I did not write the fabulous series of PJO and THG.
Percy’s POV
It’s probably way past midnight now. The other Careers have already fallen asleep. Glimmer is dozing off, jerking awake now and then. It’s her turn to take watch but I guess all the hunting and dodging the snowballs and icicles and all had really tired her out.
“ Percy?” Thalia’s voice whispers suddenly to me. “ Are you still awake?”
“ Yeah,” I say. “Sheesh, do you know that it’s dangerous to talk so suddenly when an armed man is near you?” She chuckles. “ Why are you still awake?” I ask her. We were careful to talk in hushed voice, so that none of the others would wake. Good thing we were lying close to each other.
“ I can’t sleep,” she says. “ I kept thinking that if I go to sleep in the Games, my chances at waking up would be close to none,” she admits.
“ You mean, you’re afraid one of them would kill you?”
“ Don’t you?” she asks me, propping herself on her elbows. “ I mean, Cato (she said this in a super, duper low voice) wouldn’t think twice about stabbing you in your sleep.”
“ Good point,” I say, rubbing my chin. “ Dang, now you’ve brought it up, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”
She snorts. “ It’s not like you were sleeping before.”
“ Maybe a nap would be sufficient?” I suggest. “ We’d need to be fully rested to face whatever they have in store tomorrow.”
“ Maybe,” she agrees, before adjusting herself so that she was right next to me.
And I don’t know when I exactly dozed off but I did with Thalia close to me. It was a good feeling to have someone you – kind of – trusted in the Games. Of course, until the odds are finally against us.
But it was a mistake for us to fall asleep. We should’ve kept on talking, you know.
Because near dawn, this huge, buzzing thing fell right in the middle of our small circle. And it burst. And it let loose a swarm of bees. No, not bees. Because getting stung by a bee wouldn’t kill you. Hornets don’t send you into near insanity. But tracker jackers do. They send you into near or complete insanity. Or even kill you.
And that was what that fell in the middle of our circle. A tracker jacker nest.
I leapt to my feet, not caring about anything else and sprint off to safety. I don’t know why I didn’t wake Thalia up or even grab her by the arm. I just…thought of myself. When I think about it back, it was selfish of me. She came back for me when I got stuck with the icicles. But me? I left her at the mercy of the tracker jackers.
Speaking of the nest falling on us, only me, Marvel, Cato and Clove had made it to the frozen lake (I didn’t know they had put a lake here..). It was a moment filled with panic. The frozen lake made it worse. Hey, who wouldn’t panic if you were chased by a swarm of angry tracker jackers and the only place you are safe (i.e the lake) is frozen? Without thinking, I grabbed my sword (which was strapped to my waist along with my knife) and broke the ice, making a huge hole and jump in. Well, the hole was enough to fit all of us in the freezing lake.
We stayed in the lake for a while, watching the tracker jackers flying everywhere, attacking anyone or anything that moved in their line of vision. We were freezing, Clove was on the verge of collapse either from the cold, or the tracker jackers’ sting, or both. But we held on, no matter how cold the water was. Because I think I’d prefer the water to being attack by the tracker jackers.
