Percy of the Huntsmen

The Journey

Annabeth woke up to her Athenian owl alarm clock. Today was the day she would leave with the Hunters of Artemis and a son of Thanatos on a quest. She'd often choose campers for different types of hypothetical quests, but she never would have thought that this would be how her quest team would be.

Upon walking over to the camp van, Annabeth heard someone yelling. Big surprise, that someone was her boyfriend. Brayden always seemed to be yelling at someone, but not usually at Annabeth, thankfully. Honestly, Annabeth wasn't sure why she loved him. Just something about him made Annabeth feel an attraction that felt a bit weird, but an attraction all the same. Children of Athena normally had to take the love lot that was cast their way. Not many campers fell for the nerdy girls, they were never the first to be noticed by anyone.

Brayden has his sword out. Justin and Chris stood on either side of him. Percy stood a few yards away from the trio, looking completely disinterested with Brayden's rant. Percy said something that apparently angered Brayden, since he pointed his sword at Percy. Annabeth was finally close enough to hear what Brayden was yelling, "We'll do it when you get back."

Percy shrugged. "I can wait until then. See you around," and with that he waved mockingly and turned towards the van. He had managed to get a watch from God knows where, had added a knife to the belt on his jeans, and was back in his sleeveless shirt, completely ignoring the two-inch deep snow all around him.

Now that she could see him in full light, and without the blue-sleeved letterman jacket that Nico still hadn't given back yet, she could see several large scars running down his left bicep. She could also see a tip of a scar on his chest peeking out from the top of his shirt collar. What had he been doing before he came to camp?

"What was that all about?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"Brayden was trying to pick a fight with me. He seemed pretty surprised when I actually agreed to it and postponed the fight to when I get back from the quest. I'm okay with that, I'll just have more time to kick his ass."

"Brayden can fight pretty well. You underestimate him."

"Thanks for the warning," Percy said sarcastically. "You might wanna skip watching us fight, you don't want to watch your boyfriend get humiliated."

"He-" Annabeth was cut off by a car horn.

Zoë had honked it. She was standing next to the camp van with Phoebe and Bianca. She'd honked the horn by reaching through the driver side window of the van. "Come onward! I shall leave you behind if I must!"

Once Percy and Annabeth had made it over, Zoë started talking. "We have no idea where we're going. If anyone has any ideas on where Artemis is captured, now would be the time to say them."

"Actually," Percy said, "I had a dream last night about Artemis. Ares is holding her at Mount Tamalpais, Atlas's new and improved jail after Mount Orthys was left behind in Greece. Some guy named Luke used Thalia as bait to draw her there so Atlas could be free from his sky burden."

"This is troublesome," Zoë admitted. "If Atlas is the one holding her, then it will be no easy task to break in. He will doubtlessly have hoards of monsters there with him. This will be no easy task."

"Luke?" Annabeth asked. "Is he okay?"

Percy looked at her strangely. "Hopefully he won't be okay when this quest is over."

"This quest will be even harder with Luke assisting Atlas."

"Doesn't gotta be easy, only doable.
Hop in the van, kids. Uncle Percy's taking you on a field trip to San Fransisco!"