They passed numerous trees and moss infected rocks. The terrain gradually grew steeper and more closed in. By and by they started following a stream embedded in a tropical tree laden valley. Annabeth wouldn't be lying if she said it was beautiful. A few feather trailing birds of paradise were skirting around the trees sounding like water droplets and whistles with sweet melodies. The thick foliage sometimes let beams of golden light horizontally break through the thick humid air and light up the forest floor carpeted in ferns and brush. It was alive, yet sleepy and lulling.
"Are we there yet?" Annabeth complained.
Percy stopped and pivoted to shoot her a smirk "Yes."
"This doesn't look like much" Annabeth said sardonically.
Percy bit his lip trying to hide a grin. "Here." He started and walked behind her.He clamped his somewhat sweaty hands over her eyes "I'll guide you, then I'll show you when to look."
Annabeth squeezed the handle of her bucket not sure if she wanted to be blind for the next few minutes with a dork guiding her. She could here a hushed roar of water in the distance and the smell of the ocean that clung to Percy constantly.
Well this was a trust test for sure. Annabeth sighed and complied.
Percy pushed her through the wave of brush, warning her of rocks and guiding her carefully. It wasn't far really. Just a few feet and past a blanket of vines. Well at least Annabeth thought it was vines. That's what it felt like.
His hands fell away from her eyes.
Annabeth did a double take. Never in her whole seven years had she seen anything so enchanting. She felt shivers in her spine as Percy's grin pressed behind her.
A cove of rocky walls decorated in looping vines and fuzzy moss loomed above them in a steep semicircle. Streams of white misting water swirled and plummeted into a glassy sapphire pool of dazzling blue water.
The waterfalls made a deafening crash and sent a spray that tickled Annabeth's face lightly as it drifted on the breeze. Peeling off his shirt, Percy dove into clear cool pool kicking and blowing bubbles that rocketed to the surface.
Annabeth smiled and slipped out of her white cotton sundress. Bunching it up she stuffed it into her plastic pail carefully so she wouldn't ruffle her note book.
Her new white and purple swimsuit was something to be proud of. Her mother bought it for her in the city they stopped at on the way there. Shouting joyously Annabeth dove into the pool like a seal and sputtered to the surface next to Percy. The chilly rain water was silky and pleasant to tread in, cooling Annabeth's burning skin from the sun's hot rays. Her feet roughly scraping against the hard brown pebbled bottom. Percy swam under her, gliding smoothly and surfaced near the falls.
They swam for an hour or so, splashing each other and seeing who could stay underwater the longest. Anyone who saw them would've thought that they were just two kids playing in a pond. But as time wore on, that thin layer of ice that had held them back had dissolved. Two kids wouldn't be able to see their trust for each other building but a wise man would've been able to see it a mile off.
By the time they got bored of swimming, when their hands were wrinkled like old men and their skin soggy to the touch, Percy reached behind one of the falls and produced two tin pails. Each one contained varying yellowed eyed dead fish. Long, short, fat, thin, brown, silver. They were all there with dead open mouths.
Annabeth retracted disgusted but Percy didn't seem to notice.
"This is where I store the fish I catch" he explained "the falls keep it from heating up and spoiling."
YOU ARE READING
Forgotten Paradise by Average Canadian
Fanfiction*DISCLAIMER* I DO NOT OWN THIS STORY, IT WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY AVERAGE CANADIAN ON ANOTHER SITE. I JUST LOVED THIS STORY VERY MUCH AND IT IS MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE PERCABETH FANFICTION. I DO NOT OWN IT'S CHARACTERS (Rick Riordan does), OR IT'S PLO...
