Magic Meets Might

Chapter 14

Written by Kelly (smarttalk)

 

Percy Jackson

Percy had never really had a problem with shadow traveling. Though some people might find it scary and scarring, he finds it thrilling, as weird as it was. But whatever weird teleportation thing Harry was doing, though it seemed similar to shadow traveling; Percy hated it.

Right after he had been forced to wait at the door for like, an hour, Harry had come running out frantically, ignoring his remarks and opting to grabbing his arm and sending them into darkness again. When they finished their trip, all of Percy’s senses felt as if they were stuffy and blurred. He popped his ears before turning to Harry.

“What was that about?” he asked, rubbing his eyes to clear his blurry vision.

“It’s called Disappartion,” he explained shortly, turning around in a 360 degree circle to get an idea of their surroundings. Percy did the same. They were standing outside of a mountain, and when Percy saw a sign he realized it was Mount Arvon, where they had previously talked about visiting. They only wanted to visit the place to find Ajax and Simon though, and they had obviously done that, so he was slightly confused as to why Harry decided to pop them there.

“Okay,” Percy said slowly. “New question. Why are we here?”

“I had to pop us out quick,” Harry said. He began to walk towards the mountain and Percy followed. “We were talking about how in your dream, they could have been here, so I thought it would be smart to come. Maybe they dropped something or there’s something important here.”

Percy shrugged. “I guess we don’t really have any other options. Do you have the parchment?”

Harry reached into his pocket and showed it to Percy. “Ajax was with us, but Simon wasn’t. Do you think they split up?”

“Check,” Percy offered.

Harry stopped in his tracks and flattened out the parchment in his hands, holding it at an angle so that Percy could see it as well. He pointed at the paper. “It shows Ajax at the hotel- obviously, and Simon was… Huh, he was at a library. Maybe he was signing out some books?”

“We should go check it out after this mountain,” Percy agreed. “Maybe we can find a record of what he signed out.”

Harry agreed and they began to walk again, until they came across a booth selling tickets for hanging cable cars. In Percy’s dream the two demigods had not only been on a cliff; they’d been on a high one, so Harry and Percy agreed they should try going up high.

“Hi,” Percy said, digging into his wallet for money. “Two tickets please.”

The woman behind the booth smiled and exchanged the tickets for the money he had finally managed to dig out. He handed one to Harry and they made their way over to the line.

The car was just about to leave, and they managed to be fit in, even though it was already crowded. Percy’s stomach immediately felt queasy when he stepped onto the unsteady platform. Harry must have noticed because he said, “Is everything alright?”

Percy gulped and said, “I don’t like heights.” Harry didn’t reply and Percy turned away from the windows and looked down on his feet, grabbing onto a handle when the car took off.

He kept his eyes down through most of the ride, only looking up when they reached the top and there was a slight bump that scared Percy out of his skin. He quickly jumped off and shot Harry a glare when he saw his amused expression.

They made their way away from the mortals. Harry let Percy lead the way since he had been the one to have the dream, and he had ended up talking them completely off trail of everyone else. They entered various cliffs and edges, and every time Harry would look at him and ask if this was the cliff in his dream, and every time he would look down at the scene below and answer no.

The emerged into another cliff and Harry looked at Percy, and repeated, “Is this the cliff you saw in your dream?”

Percy looked around. The setting was somewhat similar, so he gave it a shot and looked at the scene below. In his dream, he had seen the world on fire. The view of the city in flames had been etched into his mind, and when he looked down to see it wasn’t exactly like his dream, he replied with, “No, but I think we’re close.”

They headed back into the forested mountains. Percy was quick to realize why the part they were trudging wasn’t part of the trail- it was dangerous. Percy and Harry and already tripped over tons of rocks and Harry had even cut his jeans open at the knee. There were unexpected drops and tons of dangerous edges.

The boys stumbled their way through rocks to another cliff edge. This one immediately triggered a memory in his mind. Harry repeated his question: “Is this the cliff you saw in your dream?”

Percy didn’t even have to look down at the scene below to know that yes, it was, but he did anyway. It was the exact same scene with the exact same buildings, just minus the fire. Percy like it better without the horrifying flames anyway.

As he thought of flames, he was vaguely reminded of Leo, and his mind wandered to how everyone at camp was doing. He had had a dream of Camp Half-Blood but it hadn’t told him much. All he really knew for sure was that Annabeth was going to strangle him when he got back.

He really hoped camp wouldn’t have to get involved with Simon and Ajax. Everyone deserved to just have a rest after the Giant war (so did he, frankly, but now wasn’t the time to be bitter) and the last thing anyone needed was a threat. Plus, with Harry by his side, the situation didn’t seem that bad.

“Percy?” Harry said, and Percy realized he never answered Harry. “Is this the cliff?”

“Yes,” Percy answered quickly and confidently, and Harry’s eyes stayed on him for only a second longer before he began to scour the place.

“Alright then,” Harry said, kicking aside some rocks. “Just look for anything, really.”                      

“Got it,” said Percy. He walked over to a bush and started pushing aside leaves and branches. He found nothing but rocks and dirt. After all, what were the chances that Ajax and Simon actually left or dropped something?

Apparently there was a chance, because in less than ten minutes Harry had called Percy over.

It was a book. It didn’t have a title, and it was an ugly green cover with torn and stained pages. If Annabeth saw a book in that condition she would have a panic attack.

Harry flipped open the book. His eyebrows furrowed at the text. “What language is this?”

Percy carefully took the book from him, feeling as if it would rip apart from his touch. He didn’t recognize any of the words. Sighing, he closed the books. “Well, now we have an even better reason to go to the library.”

Harry nodded. They did another quick glance around before leaving the cliff, going to the place Percy dreaded most; the library.

Here’s an idea; how about we just don’t talk about the insanely long time it took me to update? Sound good?

So, I’m obviously really sorry it took this long, I just have major writing block with this story. Please comment and vote and the next chapter’s Moh’s!  Love you xoxo