Too Many Memories

The Amazons Kill Straw

The Amazons Kill Straw

"It's true," I agreed. "I would." I stuck my tongue out at Percy and he rolled his eyes before turning back to Leo and Piper.

"Are you guys sure you're not hurt or mentally unstable? I'd hate to bring Dionysus into this." Percy managed a small smile.

At least he could joke about it. "Piper," Leo lifted his head to look at her. "Do you have the urge to kill yourself or randomly run off--never to be seen again?"

She laughed. "Nope. See, Percy? We're good." I could hear the charmspeak in Piper's voice, but I knew it wouldn't work on Percy.

He sighed. "I still couldn't forgive myself if you had been seriously hurt. I'm a danger to all of you here. I should have just sent my team." Percy spun on his heels and stormed out of the infirmary. I looked back at the shocked faces of the son of Hephaestus and the daughter of Aphrodite.

I groaned. "I'll deal with it. Just stay until the world stops spinning, I can tell that's what you're thinking."

"How did you know?" Leo whimpered. "I thought we lied pretty well." He frowned.

"Your faces. Rest." I commanded and ran out of the tent. I glanced all around camp but didn't see Percy. His team looked confused too, and I didn't bother asking them where he was, because they wouldn't know. I jogged toward the lake, but he wasn't there.

I thought of other possible places he could be, when I remembered my necklace. I fingered the sphere and unclasped the cord from around my neck. I was about to throw it to the ground but a hand stopped me before I could.

"No need to do that." Percy replaced the necklace and it rested against my throat.

"Did you really mean that? That you're a danger to us and you shouldn't have come?" I looked him in the eye and pulled on his hands until we sat next to each other.

He hung his head. "Yeah."

I held his head in my hands. "Never say that again. You are not a danger. You're still getting the hang of your new powers, it wasn't your fault. Piper and Leo know that, everyone knows that. It wasn't your fault. Got that? Stop. Blaming. Yourself."

He nodded, "Okay."

"Hey, we need you here. We would lose if you didn't come, even with your team. And I need you. You don't know how much I missed you."

"So did I." His lips touched mine and he gave me a sweet kiss. "All right," he said when we broke away. "I'll stop blaming myself. But I need to clear my head. Please don't use the necklace." He stood quickly and ran into the woods so he could flash away without killing me.

I sat there, frozen, processing what just happened. I sighed and rose to my feet, wanting so badly to use the necklace but knowing that Percy needed time to himself.

I decided to train with the Amazons and walked back to the cabins to gather all of them in front of me.

"What are we doing?" Tansy bounced along with Tammy. I looked at them with a blank expression.

"I swear, you two could be twins. Seriously. Not even joking." Hylla appeared by my side and spoke what I was thinking.

"We should call you the 'T-twins,' because your names both start with 'T.'" I chimed in.

The "T-twins" turned to each other, looked at their linked arms, their bouncing feet, shrugged, and said in perfect unison. "True. But don't call us that."

I shook my head at them in disbelief and addressed the crowd in front of me. "Get your weapons and armor, we're training. The campers will be watching." Simultaneously, dozens of grinning faces faced me and I knew they would be showing off just for them.

Once we were ready, I led them to the arena and separated them into partners. Tansy and Tammy were paired together (of course) and after I finished Hylla and I were the only ones left. Silena was nice enough to conjure up a pair of straw dummies that would move for each duo to practice team work. Believe it or not, we had trouble. Not to name names (Kinzie), but some of us were very stubborn.

I pulled out my dagger and got ready. "Go!" I shouted and we charged. Hylla ducked over the first dummy's arm and sliced through the straw. It fell to the ground like blood and the dummy staggered back. I cut off the right hand of the other one and spun around.

The first dummy knocked my dagger high into the air towards Hylla's direction. I grabbed her knife and she snatched mine out of the air, and we continued to fight. We linked our arms when we were back to back and she lifted me over her back, so I kicked an incoming dummy away. It stumbled and lost its balance, and I took my chance and stabbed it where the heart would be, "killing" it. It disappeared into dust like a monster would and Hylla and I went back to the other dummy.

I linked my fingers and flung Hylla onto its shoulders, where she hacked at it while I cut its legs out from under it. She found a sweet spot and severed its head from its body, spilling straw everywhere. The dummy fell limp under her legs and collapsed, turning to dust.

Hylla stood next to me as we watched the rest of the Amazons train. Most of their dummies were in similar condition as ours, and straw covered the ground. A few Amazons still fought, but quickly finished them off. I turned and the campers stared at us with open mouths.

I snorted. "You won't stop Gaea like that." That snapped them out of their stupor and they joined us in our training. Soon, straw was visible all over the place and kids hacked at cloth. I'd like to say they all got better in the skill zone, but not many did.

After Hylla and I got our weapons back, I left her to continue training with them, although she was very unhappy about it, and walked around camp. I had missed the place more than I had realized. I explored the Athena cabin, and saw that they had left my bunk exactly as I had left it, unmade and cluttered with unfinished inventions and junk I wasn't able to take with me.

I smiled at the sight and rummaged through the items, collecting anything useful. After I found everything valuable, I made my way back to the Amazon cabin. It was empty since the Amazons were helping train the campers. I deposited my findings onto my bunk.

A board creaked and I lifted my head. I couldn't see anything in the cabin but had the feeling someone was there. I unsheathed my dagger and held it ready in my hand, waiting. After a few minutes and nothing happened, I slowly started to walk out of the cabin.

I had almost reached the door when something hard crashed into my head. I crumpled to the ground and rolled onto my back, my head throbbing, unconsciousness threatening.

"We're so sorry, Annabeth." A voice said before the world went black.