The New Camper (a Percy Jackson fanfiction)

The will to go on

I woke with a start, screaming. My eyes were wide and every part of me shook. I looked around for Ethan but he was nowhere to be seen. He quickly raced into the room..

"What! What is it!"

I started hyperventilating. "Luke- he - he- knows-." I suddenly stopped to catch my breath. Ethan came up behind me and started to massage my shoulders. He sat down on the couch and pulled me into his lap.

"What's going on." He said calmly as he resumed massaging my shoulders. I felt his strong, warm fingers digging into my shoulder blades, working out the knots that had been building up since we left camp.

"I had another dream, Luke knows where Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson are." I said.

He didn't respond

"He doesn't now where we are though." I told him. "That means we're safe." I said as I felt his fingertips working down my back.

"But they're going to have a run in with Luke at some point." He said. His warmth encircling me.

My eyes went wide. "Then we gotta get out of here!"

Ethan stood up. "Legend has it that a raft is supposed to be on the other side of the island."

"Lets go find it." My eyes were wide as I jumped up just to be pulled back down by Ethan.

"Hold on." He coaxed while taking my hands in his. "Let me have a look at you." He said as his strong hands grasped my shoulders.

"Why?" I asked him as his cool fingertips crept across my cheek, inspecting the burn from the bronze bull attack to the faint bruises and scrapes from the princess Andromeda.

"I want to make sure you're up for this." He said as he ran a finger under my chin.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked.

"Because you went through a lot on the Andromeda." He said as he inspected my hand.

"You're the one that was tortured!"

"But you're fragile, and I don't want you to get hurt." He said.

I got up with a start. "I am not......fragile!" I almost choked on the last word. How could he think I'm fragile. "I went on the quest to save you AND kick Luke's sorry ass into next Tuesday!" I yelled as I started toward the door.

Ethan grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his arms with the same sword hold he'd used on me earlier. I tried fighting him but he just held me tighter. "Let go of me!" I yelled.

"Not until you promise to calm down!"

"I am calm!" I stopped struggling and thought to myself for a moment. sighing, I hoped he would fall for what I was about to do. "Where did you say the raft would be?"

"On the other side of the island." Ethan answered, his arms still holding me tight.

"Thanks for the tip!" I stamped on his foot as hard as I could, then ran for the door.

"Pamela!" Ethan yelled. He then sprinted out the door to follow me across the beach.

"Try and catch me sucker!" I screamed and sped up.

I didn't get far before I felt myself being dragged down onto the beach by my waist. Within seconds I was pinned to the sand with Ethan holding my wrists. "Calm down." He said, but I was too busy struggling to listen to him.

"I don't care!" I screamed. "I want to finish the quest!"

"Then you have to listen to me." He said. "Luke feeds off pain and peril, if you go and fight him like this he will become stronger than you could think." He told me. "You need to relax and let fate kick him in the ass." He said.

"Okay, fine, but the deal is I get to kill Luke." I urged.

"I'll leave that up to the others." He said jokingly as I pulled him down into the sand with me. I leaned in and kissed him. His hand found my waist as my I held his shoulder.

After a few seconds he pulled away. "Luke could have tortured me to death. I thought of you to ease the pain." He said.

"Even if you had died would you be mad if I didn't wait for you." I said as I rested my head on his chest.

"Tsk tsk tsk, death can't stop love, it can just delay it for awhile." Ethan wrapped his arms around me.

"The Princess Bride reference?" I asked.

I felt his shoulder raise and lower. "It's a good movie."

"Westley reminds me of someone I know." I told him.

"Who?"

I pretended to think for a moment. "He's tall, charming, caring, brave,......."I looked up at Ethan. His eyepatch seemed like a thing of comfort to me. "handsome." I said, running a hand down the side of his face. "And he can withstand any form of torture or suffering." I looked at the wounds that snaked their way down his arms.

Ethan put a finger under my chin and turned me toward him. "I can cope with torture."

"And he has great talent with weapons." I said as I remembered Ethan's sword. Dark as night, it gave me a feeling of hope in the glint of daylight that always found the way to the sharp point of the end of the blade.

"I think I know someone who rivals buttercup in lots of ways." Said Ethan. His voice, smooth and low. "She's beautiful, has a mind of her own, and has spirit. but unlike buttercup, she's not helpless. Last, unlike Buttercup, she would never forget about you.

I smiled at his words. A thought bounced around my head until I finally said something. I excitedly stood up and told Ethan what I was thinking. "We need to leave, but what if we ditched our previous quest and helped Clarisse with hers?" I asked him.

"Go and find the Golden Fleece?" Ethan stood up with me.

"Yeah. I say we get out of here, find Percy and Annabeth, then get the Golden Fleece and Hightail it back to camp."

"Sounds like a plan."it was almost as if he gave the idea no second thought. That was what I truly loved about him.

."I love you." I told him. He wrapped me in a warm hug and held me for a while.

"I love you too." He whispered in my ear, leaving his words echoing.