The Pirate of Greece

Chapter XXVII (Annabeth)

She was seven. 

Seven. And she had already left home. Although, 'left' was too kind of a word. Annabeth ran. At such a young age, she'd already made up her mind and ran from a house that could not be considered a home. She ran from people who could not be considered as family.

And she never looked back. Even when monsters leaped from the shadows, or with hell at her heels, she never thought about going back. 

Why would she? Her father was too busy with his new family to care about Annabeth any more. Her 'new mother' wasn't even a mother at all. She realised this quickly, and she did everything she could to get out of there. It wasn't hard, really. When nobody pays attention to you anymore, sliding through the shutters onto the cold pebbled streets at night was easy. She ran down the main road past the empty market place without a problem. She disappeared into the forest without a trace.

Annabeth never did find out what happened to them after all these years. Did they ever think of her from time to time? Were they even concerned about what happened to her? For all she knew, they could be dead. 

But those months on her own were challenging. Monster came after her, and all her younger self had to defend herself with was a hammer she'd stolen from the blacksmiths from the first town she came across.

It wasn't long until they came. 

Annabeth still remembered the moment her seven year old self nearly branded Luke Castellan over the head with her hammer. She was hiding beneath a piece of discarded timber in a back alley, away from the common drabble. At first, she suspected more monsters were upon her, so when two older kids lifted up her cover she wasn't prepared. Thankfully the boy had quick reflexes, otherwise Annabeth would have done a pretty handy job at knocking him out.

Someone had grabbed her wrist. 

"No more monsters!" she had shouted, "go away!"

"It's okay!" a guy said. 

Of course, younger Annabeth didn't think so. She put up quite a fight trying to wiggle out of their grasp until eventually she heard another voice, this time belonging to a girl.

"It's all right. We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke." 

"We know about monsters," the guy, Luke, said, "we fight them too."

Their voices were enough to calm her down, and their mention of monsters eased some of her concerns. They were older and looked more powerful, surely they knew what they were doing. 

She took this time to analyse them. Thalia had always obtained that spark of roguishness and individuality. She still had that look that said 'however strong you think you are, I'm stronger'. However, Luke was younger and had yet to face the torment of his scar. His face was boyish and soft, still growing into the handsome face of his later teens. And the clothes they wore were pieced together strangely, like each item had been found in different locations and had become ragged and torn. 

And the way they looked at each other, like they were close and knew one another, respected and cared for another, was something Annabeth, at the time, had dreamt of.

Thalia knelt down next to Luke and placed a hand upon her shoulder. 

"What's your name, kid?"

"Annabeth." 

She remembered Luke smiling. A genuine, warm smile aimed directly at her.