Strange Teachers

Chapter 21

—Percy—

Annabeth and I were having an awesome honeymoon. No responsibilities, no worries, no newbies to train for a whole week. At least, that was the initial idea; it didn't turn out that way.

The first problem was the thoughts of Nico's predicament that were often in the back of my mind and probably hers, too. There was nothing that either of us could do about it, though, so it wasn't our main concern—no, that was the weather. Unlike the normal weather at Camp Half-Blood, this week's was deserving of more than small talk. The borders had only let rain in a few times before in all my years here: once when Mr. D tried to ruin Annabeth and my chance of winning an obstacle course race against two of his kids, one of which was new to Camp, and one or two similar instances.

We both knew that it meant something more, since Beth had threatened to kill or at least punish anyone who might anger the Camp director while we were supposed to be relaxing. She'd also told me about her theory that this was the rainfall in Ginny's prophecy. If she was right, let's just say that I would pay the Fates a visit. Did it have to be on our honeymoon?

On the second to last day of our living in this private bubble, I woke up before my wife. I disentangled myself from her arms to put on a pair of pyjama pants and make a pot of coffee (the Camp's goblets didn't make warm drinks). As I was pouring the hot liquid into Annabeth's cup to bring to her, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my waist.

"Good morning, Seaweed Brain." She yawned.

"Hmm. Tired?" I said, holding out the mug for her. She took it and sipped the contents. Her eyes were immediately more alert and a less foggy gray.

Those beautiful irises seemed to match the sky outside lately. The rain still hadn't let up, and I vaguely registered the droplets beating down on the wood of the cabin.

"What should we do today?" Annabeth's question snapped me out of my thoughts.

"I have a few ideas."

Our lips were less than an inch apart when the pounding at the door interrupted us.

Frustrated, I opened the door, expecting to be met with a desperate camper who hadn't gotten the memo to leave us alone.

Instead, a stranger stood there. His skin was almost the colour of the drink in our hands, and he had closely-shaven hair. He had on a mix of punk and athletic clothes over an athletic build. He was protected from the rain by a completely brown umbrella. Around his neck hung a particularly big pendant that looked like a circle with a line stuck onto the bottom of it, hanging by a golden chain. I had no idea what that was about, but Annabeth's face was white with shock, so I asked her what the symbol meant—in Greek of course. When she stayed frozen, I took her hand and squeezed it. The man kept looking back towards the border of Camp, but didn't speak.

"Wise Girl? He's not a camper, right? Do you know who he is?" She finally came out of her daze with a shake of her blond curls.

"That looks like a Shen amulet," she muttered. "Come in."

"Wait, what? How do we know he's not dangerous? And what's a Shen?"

"Just trust me, Percy."

I sighed, but I stepped out of the way so that mystery guy could come in. He nodded in acknowledgement as he walked through the door frame. With one fluid motion, the umbrella in his hands was gone, and another necklace was being tucked into a pocket of his leather jacket. This was getting weirder by the second.

As a precaution, I fiddled with Riptide, ready to uncap it at a moment's notice.

"Are you Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase?" the man spoke for the first time, making both Annabeth and I jump.