A new quest, seriously?
Percy: "Ohhh Percy.. Annabeth..!" Clarisse singsongs somewhere in the forest around us.
"Styx." He takes Annabeth's hand and leads her away to the lake. Without hesitation, Percy jumps in, pulling her in with him, and forms a bubble around them, keeping their clothes dry and so that she can breathe (obviously).
"Percy can we not just go back?" Annabeth complains.
"No!" he exclaims, horrified, "you can't seriously be suggesting letting them win this game of hide and seek can you?" Annabeth huffs and crosses her arms, Percy smirks. "Come on Wise Girl, you know you love being around me constantly," he laughs and she visibly relaxes before getting the same look of determination on her face.
"Percy I have to finish my summer work! You know that." she tells him for the millionth time this summer and he rolls his eyes.
"Yes I know that it's important to you but can we pleaseee finish this game of hide and seek?" He pleads with his best puppy dog eyes and now it's her turn roll her eyes.
"Seaweed Brain I-" Percy cuts off her about to be lecture by leaning in and capturing her lips in a long kiss. Her lips are soft but still slightly blistered from drinking literal fire, but he doesn't care. Her blonde, curly hair is tied up in a ponytail, like always and her eyes are a beautiful shade of grey (don't tell Athena he said that).
When he finally breaks the kiss, they find themselves hovering just above the water, the nereids having had enough of them for the rest of the summer. "The dam lake has had enough of us," Percy doubled over in hysterics, laughing at his own 'dam' joke and Annabeth soon joins in. "You weren't even there," he bursts into fits of laughter again.
"I know but- well, Thalia told me about it but I didn't think it was- still a- a thing," she had struggled to keep a straight face in between gasps for breath from laughing too hard. Percy seemed to have that effect on her, one of the only people who could still make her laugh.
They stand there for a beat before Percy feels a presence behind him. Quickly, he swivels around, already having drawn Riptide only to be face to face with Clarisse La Rue. He gasps and she smirks at him, "Fancy seeing you here, Prissy, I was wondering what the racket was." Her eyes were twinkling with mischief, and whenever she had that look, she had done something.
"What did you do Clarisse?" Annabeth asks, seemingly reading his thoughts.
"Oh nothing, nothing. Just a nice surprise for you guys back at Prissy's cabin," she smirks and sprints back to camp.
Percy turns to Annabeth, " Any ideas on how to 'overcome this challenge we have been presented with' Wise Girl?"
Annabeth shakes her head, "Let's see what we're dealing with first, and then we- but mainly I can think of a way around it." He nods in agreement and they too, take off running back to camp.
"Bet I can beat you there Seaweed Brain," Annabeth taunts.
"Bet. Believe it or not, I have gotten faster these past 5 years Wise Girl." He replies, confident that he could beat her if he wanted to.
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"Oi, kelp face!" A voice shouts from behind him. He twists around to see Thalia leaning against his cabin.
"If this is about the confetti around the Hunters' tents-" he begins before she, very rudely he may add, cuts him off.
"No, no it's not tha- wait what confetti?!" she starts angrily stomping towards him, sparks flying from her fingertips. "Seaweed Brain, Thals! Get your sorry asses over here!" Saved by the Annabeth, he thought before walking, while keeping his distance from Thalia, to the Big House where Annabeth was standing.
"What is it, Wise Girl?" he asks, pulling his best innocent face, hoping that he wasn't in trouble for anything he'd done recently, which was quite a lot now that he's thinking about it.
Annabeth rolls her eyes, "Just come inside, Chiron said that he wants to talk to us."
He follows her inside to find the rest of the Argo II crew, Nico, Will and Chiron inside. "Frank! Hazel! I missed you guys!" he hugged them, "How's Camp Jupiter?"
"So you miss them, but not me?" Thalia's voice behind him says, feigning hurt.
"Yeah, sounds about right cuz," he says, rolling his eyes. "So what's all this anyway, it's not a surprise party for me is it? I love surprise parties!"
"No Percy, it's not. I'm afraid I've got some rather bad news for you." Chiron sighs, irritated that he has to send them away again, that they can't get any peace.
"What is it?" Annabeth demands.
Chiron takes a deep breath before beginning to explain, "Demigods, you have all fought bravely these past years and faced hardships most could never even imagine-" Percy snorts, "And I hate to have to ask this of you-"
"You've got to be kidding! Another quest, seriously?!" Percy interrupts, Jason nods.
"I agree with Percy, you can't be serious!"
"I know- and I'm sorry- but Lady Hecate has asked me personally to send you on this new quest." Chiron winces at how desperate he sounds, "You see, long ago, she blessed two mortals with magic- she gave them wands and shared the secrets of wand-making. Eventually, there came to be an entire civilization of witches and wizards." he pauses, looking at their reactions.
Leo was the first to say something, "Let me guess- they got too powerful and now we need someone to burn them all at the stake?" He summons fire in his hand to prove his point and Piper smacks him on the back of his head.
"Idiot! You're going to burn the camp down!" Leo looks down sheepishly and extinguishes the fire.
"Not quite Leo, I don't think Lady Hecate would approve of burning her civilization at the stake." Chiron explains calmly.
"What do you want us to do then, we're not 'wizards and witches'." The rest of them nod along with Annabeth's words.
"Wait, we're not wizards right?" Percy asks, his eyes widening. He and Annabeth had been making plans: moving to New Rome together, going to college, living without the constant fear of being killed by monsters.
"No Percy, you're not wizards." Chiron tells him.
"So why do you even want us to go?" Hazel asks.
"Yeah, surely you could get one of these 'wizards' to do it instead?" Frank adds.
"Because, heroes, they are not strong enough yet. They think that they are, but they are not." A voice from the corner of the room answers Frank's question.
"Lady Hecate," Chiron bows.
"Hello Chiron, young demigods," Hecate greets.
"And what if we don't want to go? What if we want one, just one year, of peace?" Annabeth demands, this is why he loves her, she isn't afraid to fight back for what she believes is right, that and other things of course.
"I'm afraid that's not an option," Hecate replies simply, "I am here to temporarily bless these demigods with magic and to gift them their wands."
Percy snorts when she waves her hand and 10 long, rectangular boxes appear in each of their hands, "These are wands? More like sticks," Leo snickers at Percy's snarky remark.
"Yes, Perseus Jackson. These are your wands," she answers, the exasperation clear in her voice, "Yours is made from sycamore wood, dragon heartstring core, 12 and a half inches long, quite flexible."
They all gape at her, "Dragon heartstring? Please tell me that wizards don't go around ripping dragon's heartstrings out." Will exclaims from his position next to Nico, Percy had almost forgotten he was there.
Hecate ignores him and gives the rest their wands, Piper looks nauseous when she is told her wand has unicorn hair in it, "You don't just steal hair from unicorns!"
Him and Annabeth compare wands while she grumbles about Athena, something about her wand being made of olive tree wood, either way, he can relate to grumbling about Athena. Although, her grumbles quickly turn to a look of delight when Hecate tells her that her wand is olive not because of her mother, but because an olive wand is 'good in the hands of those who can see ways towards resolutions and solved problems and for diplomats and tacticians'. Whatever that means, it sounds like Annabeth, lots of long words.
"So where do we find these wizards," Thalia asks, admiring her wand.
"The wizards reside all over the world, but the school you will be attending is in Scotland," Percy groans.
"School? I don't do school anymore, the last 6 that I went to, I got kicked out before the year even finished!"
But Hecate was no longer there.