The World Apart (Percy Jackson)

Not so secret anymore

Firework beach was surprisingly quiet tonight. I mean, I’d expected the wood nymphs to party their leaves off before the world ended in seventeen days, but I guess Dionysus took the party mood with him after he disappeared this morning but trust me; none of us really mined his absence from our lives. Anyways, Annabeth and I were kinda just staring into the vast sea before the daughter of Zeus showed up and scared the Hades out of us.

“Well, well, well…what do we have here?” Thalia said with a smirk as her electrifying blue eyes shone in the dark.

“Oh gods, we better make a run for it,” Annabeth whispered to my ears before saying to Thalia, “couldn’t sleep either?”  

“Annabeth, don’t think I’m unaware of what’s going on between Percy and you. I mean, I’m no daughter of Athena and I may have been a tree for a couple years, but I’m not that clueless.” Thalia laughed, sat down on the wet sand and turned her attention to me. “If the world were to end on the 21st then you, Perseus Jackson, better make this the best 17 days Annabeth will ever have. You do the Luke Castellan and you’ll have to deal with me for eternity in the Underworld.” 

“Whoa cuz, what’s with all the anger? So Annabeth gets the “you think you’re so smart” talk and I get the death threat?” I smiled and said, “The world is never fair is it?”

Thalia sighed and said “I wish we can all be normal teenagers for a change but I guess powerful parents come with a heavy price.” She dug her fingers into the sand and yelled into the pitch black sky. “Ugh, as if killing mom with your stupidity wasn’t enough, you just had to drag Jason into this messed up world.” The words have barely escaped from her mouth before the sky flashed dangerous with lightning and rain fell upon us. RAIN. If rain had managed to penetrate the boundaries of Camp, then Zeus must be pretty mad.

“Zeus, is that all you can do? Show your anger to your own child who risks her life to help save your existence only because you’re family? Why is it that I never see you fight my wars and battles?” Thalia screamed as tears swarm in her eyes.

The rain disappeared and the immortal girl ran off into the darkness.

“Percy, we have to stop her before she does something even more stupid. Ugh, why can’t the children of the Big Three just think for a moment before they decide to give all of us a heart attack?” Annabeth jumped up and ran towards the cabins.

“Whoa wise girl, where are you going?” Although I was slightly offending at being called dangerously impulsive, I seriously do not need another catastrophe.

“To find Thalia, who obviously went to consult Chiron,” and before I had a chance to say my famous “wait a minute”, Annabeth took off leaving me standing alone in the shadows…and she says I’m imprudent…

It took a while to catch up to the daughter of wisdom despite her slightly hurt ankle but thankfully, she didn’t trip over another pinecone. Anyways, like she predicted, Thalia was at the Big House and I have to admit, befriending the daughter of wisdom six years ago was not such a bad idea after all.

*

 “Gods, Annabeth and Percy, can’t you just leave me along for a while?” Thalia said as she gave us another one of her deadly stares.

“Thalia, just because you’ve spent a couple years with the Hunters doesn’t mean we’re not your friends anymore and that we don’t understand what you’re feeling right now. How many times have we died through and through together? Don’t you trust us at all?” Annabeth said as her grey eye reached the blue.

“Then what am I thinking?” Thalia eyes dropped to the ground as her entire being began to shake.

“Look, Thalia, being a demi-god is hard but in the end, it’s worth the while. Jason may be your brother but his actions shouldn’t affect the righteousness of yours. For all we know, some other evil overlord could be controlling him the same way Kronos overpowered Luke. Besides, this is all guesswork; Jason probably had nothing to do with the major thief so pull yourself together,” said Annabeth.

“Ugh, I suppose you’re right, but that doesn’t explain why the prophecy makes absolutely no sense. Rachel said that the magic items are hidden in Daedalus’s labyrinth but his death destroyed the creation years ago and besides, there’s no way that there’s an entrance in Camp anymore. We spent months looking for it after the Titan War and found nothing.” Thalia said as she gazed across the room with her puffy eyes.

“Umm, about that, I gave it a bit a thought and there might be a chance that parts of the labyrinth may still exist. I mean, it took nearly two thousand years for it to expand over Greece and later the United States, so it could take another two thousand years for it to completely disappear.” As I blabbed on about my possible theory, the room was complete silent so I continued to blab on. “Well, since the labyrinth first started out from major areas of Greek culture hence Mt. Olympus and later minor areas such as Auntie Em’s garden, it will probably vanish in the same order starting with the Underworld and later our own Camp.”

“It’s been nearly three years since Daedalus’s death so you think it’s time the labyrinth started to disappear underneath Camp?” Annabeth said as she broke the dreaded silence.

“But we’ve already checked everywhere we could on land and underwater.” Thalia said as the worry and desperateness returned into her voice.

“Well, there is a place we haven’t checked…” I said mysteriously.

“Then tell us seaweed brain, if you haven’t noticed, we are on the verge of a time sensitive quest.” Annabeth said as her grey eyes bore into mine which by the way, is beyond cute.

“Two years ago, when we were playing capture the flag, do you remember when Beckendorf was captured by Myrmekes?” I said quietly, praying the daughter of Athena wouldn’t recall the place, I mean; no one really wants to risk being eaten by a bunch of giant Greek fire ants, again.

“Wait, you mean that ant hill filled with weapons and magic weapons? That place where we found Festus, the bronze dragon? ” Annabeth said as she looked at me in bewilderment. Great, I just knew my luck wouldn’t hold.

“It’s too dangerous go in to simply check for an entrance, but as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.” Chiron, the immortal Captain sunshine couldn’t have ended the conversation off with a happier note.