Heroes of Olympus (The Throne of Stone)

Chapter 14 Elysium

Chapter 14

I Meet The Real Yoda

Annabeth

I was tumbling head over foot down, down, down. Water pressed down on my. I  struggled as I  tried to kick to the surface. I gave it my all but it was like I was stuck in one of Percy’s whirlpools. The harder I  kicked the quicker I  sank. The water pressure was so extreme my ears popped like popcorn. My lungs felt like they were being squeezed inside my chest. I  curled myself into a ball as I  fought the urge to close my eyes and embrace death.

My life flashed before my eyes. I  saw my years of bullying from my stepmother, the spiders in the closet, running away with Luke and Thalia, coming to Camp Half-Blood, meeting Percy, visiting Mount Olympus, the Sea of Monsters, holding the sky, traveling through the labyrinth, defeating Kronos in the Titan War, my first kiss. The moment only fragments of memory. Dating Percy, Percy disappearing, the Argo II, finding Percy, blowing up the Roman camp, finding the Athena Parthenos. The more painful memories made tears run down my face. Percy would be devastated when he found out that his girlfriend drowned. The Great Merging, and my last kiss with Percy in our pillow fort inside Percy’s cabin. The water pressure was too much and I  closed my eyes. A shadow passed over me as I  thought about all that I  has left behind. my family, Chiron, and most importantly Percy.

Percy. He was the world to me. I  loved him so much. So much. My head connected with something hard. I  saw him now, in my head. His beautiful eyes gazed down at my, dark green, like the ocean. His shaggy black hair was gorgeous and I  felt stupid that I  found nothing to say. He was perfect or as close as one could get to being perfect. I  dreamed about him. His perfect face. His eyes. Was this Elysium? It felt like it. Just Percy. Only him.

It turned out not to be Elysium. Sadly I  didn’t get to spent my existence looking at his face. I  opened my eyes. Holy Apollo’s Cattle!

The scenery was beautiful. Coral surrounded me like a thin veil of color. Red and yellow. The red was identical to the coral bead Percy had given me when we had started dating. Very pretty. I  was laying on my back and when I  looked up I  saw a completely pearl ceiling. I  looked closer and saw that the so called ceiling was actually a film like layer. A huge bubble in which I  was laying inside. Now that I  thought about it the bubble seemed so huge it could hold an entire ichthyocentaur world that my friends had told my about. Interesting, I  tried to sit up so that I  could get a good look around before I , very likely, turned into a monster’s very alive, very sleepy, lunch. my head spun as I  forced myself to remain at a sitting position. my mouth tasted like burned rubber. Disgusting. I  cleared my throat trying to get rid of the awful taste. I  looked around. There was nothing. I  felt the back of my neck tingle like someone was watching me. I  quickly looked backwards. There it was. A small black dot on the horizon. What the heck is that? I  thought. The dot seemed to grow larger, it’s coming, I  thought. The dot seemed to be slowly swaying. How is that possible? It turned from a black dot in a slightly orange and gold dot that was slowly swaying, it wasn’t my eyes tricking my, at least I  hoped not. The strange object approached, I  squinted to see it better. Is that a goldfish?It seemed like a goldfish was swimming towards me. Why a goldfish? Then I  realized that the goldfish was towing something. It was only a few myters away now and I  could see the I huge mass of the goldfish. It had to be at least 300 pounds if not more. I  felt like giggling, I  knew that Frank had turned into a goldfish once and this goldfish would probably match the size that Frank’s goldfish was. An enormous coy. It might be able to swallow me whole if it wanted to but it showed no intentions of attacking me. The fish slowly swam forward. Pretty slow for a 300 pound goldfish. Maybe what it was carrying was really heavy. The goldfish slowed to a stop, about 7 feet in front of me.

I felt really uncomfortable without my favorite knife. I  normally always had it with me, however, since my recent trip to Tartarus, I  hadn’t seen my knife. I  had left my drakon bone sword at camp. I  felt so….exposed...was this what it felt like to have an Achilles heel? I wonder if Percy ever felt like this. Even the thought of his name made my chest ache with the desire to see him again. I miss him SO much. Icouldn’t let my seaweed brain get in my way of seeing what was at hand, whatever was in the chariot could be a potential threat.

A man with dark black hair and stubble, wearing a Hawaiian shirt. He sets down what at first looks like a stick but I correct myself that what he put down was probably his trident. I didn’t think that he would carry it with him wherever he went  but apparently this was a special occasion. I was completely empty handed, what was the trident for? Was he afraid that I would claw him or something? Was the sea god paranoid?

“Annabeth Chase?” Poseidon asked.

“Uh...yeah?” Did he seriously not recognize me? Had he not been eyeing Percy and my relationship like a hawk? That was what my mother was doing. Maybe Poseidon was capable to mind his own business. I admired him if that was true.

“I’m so sorry.” He looked down at his Bahama sandals. He scowled like he had stepped in something smelly. His eyebrows creased together and his shoulders slumped. He looked like a kid that had broken a lamp and was very weary of what his mother would do to him. Why?

“Why?”

“I kidnapped you. I am sorry.”

“You kidnapped me? Why?” I  felt my own eyebrows creep together in surprise.

“To get my son back.” Poseidon shuffled his feet and looked down at the sandy bottom. “I’m so, so, so, sorry. Please forgive me.” There was a shuffling behind my and before I  could whirl around a sack was wrapped around my face. Someone, or maybe...something clamped something over my mouth. A sickeningly sweet smell tainted everything. Black dots danced around my vision like dark snowflakes. I  tried to scream and hit something hard with my heel. A leg? I  had no time to think, my head felt like it was filling with packing peanuts and everything turned cloudy, my voice caught and I  collapsed into a heap. The world filled with white noise. Everything was muffled like I was under the largest pillow ever. And then I was filled with anger for my boyfriend’s father, but even that slipped away as I slowly passed over into the unknown.