Daughter Of Hera Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Percy
The Prophecy Please
Percy was sitting on the couch in the Big House next to Annabeth as they waited for Chiron. His girlfriend was leaning into his shoulder and her sweet but sharp minty breath felt warm on his face. Annabeth looked relaxed and not anxious, and if she was then she wouldn’t show it as much as Percy felt it.
Honestly, Percy was relieved, he had woken up, gotten dressed, walked outside and saw someone being carried off in a stretcher. It had almost given him a heart-attack when he noticed it was from the Athena cabin.
Annabeth! His mind screamed. But she was sitting safe and sound next to him on the couch now. Percy squeezed her shoulder lightly and she looked up at him. Before he could say anything they both jumped as Chiron burst into the room in his wheelchair and rolled over to the couch.
“Annabeth, if you’ll recite the new prophecy please,” he asked. It sounded more like he was ordering her in his deep voice.
“There shall only ever be one daughter of Hera, who must join the seven in the new era. She will have the powers of all the gods, and only she can be the one to tip the odds.” She answered. Chiron just leaned back and scratched his chin.
“Hmm, daughter of Hera you say, strange, there’s never been one of those,” he though out loud. “The powers of all the Gods sounds dangerous, and I hear Rachel just woke you up and went right into prophecy mode, you sure you didn’t miss any words?”
Annabeth shook her head. “Well, I sort of missed the words there shall, but I don’t think that’s important. I guess it could be the daughter of Artemis, there’s never been one of those, but I think it doesn’t count if you have followers that are like children. So Hera is the best answer,” she responded.
“Well then. Good job, but there was nothing else? No other lines of the prophecy?” Annabeth shook her head. “Then she’d better not be on land, or we’re probably doomed.” Chiron said, voicing the demi-gods’ worst fear. Annabeth sighed beside Percy.
“We know,” she groaned. Chiron looked around.
“Where are the others? They should be in here helping.” He snapped. Percy realized he was referring to the other five out of the seven, Percy and Annabeth being two. Percy shrugged.
“Leo’s probably working on the boat or his dragon. Hazel and Frank are probably walking around or sleeping, and Piper and Jason are- well, somewhere. Want us to go find them?” he answered. Chiron nodded and Annabeth hopped to her feet, followed by the teenage boy beside her. They hurried from the room and towards the Hephaestus forges.
As expected, Leo was working away on the head of his dragon, Festus. It looked almost done. Its teeth were bared as Leo worked on sharpening them and screwing them in tighter. Its face looked plain, but Percy had seen it in motion before. It was going to be a very scary figure head, that’s for sure.
“Leo! Come on, seven business.” Annabeth called. Percy walked up beside her and gazed at the engineer. He looked depressed. The Athena girl didn’t seem to notice and hurried off to find Hazel and Frank.
Percy walked over to the fellow boy and slung his arm around his shoulder, leading him towards his cabin. Leo led him inside with his hand still weakly clutching his screwdriver.
Percy looked around. The cabin was pretty big, but it was cramped. There was only one main room, a storage room, and two bathrooms with showers. In the main room, the beds were all pushed to one side, and they were all bunk beds except for one, so it must have been hard for the bottom bunk kids to get in and out, but they had probably found a way to make it easier using mechanics.
Four large worktables took up most of the room. They were cluttered with celestial bronze, nuts, bolts, half-finished projects, blue prints, and tools. Some things spilled onto the floor, like the nut that Percy almost slipped on. He had no idea how they got good inspection points all the time. Probably some cool cleaning up gadget that Percy really needed for his own cabin.
He couldn’t see it now, but Percy knew that inside the storage room was a huge walk in closet with over a dozen dressers filling the space. It was a pretty smart idea, unless you all were in there at the same time. There was barely any room to walk; much less all pull out the drawers at the same time.
Surprisingly enough, if you somehow got to the other side of the room, you could see past the clutter and look at the best painted picture Percy had ever seen. Or, maybe it wasn’t painted. It was a huge eight x six foot canvas picture, and in it were Charles Beckondorf and Silena Beauregard, holding hands and smiling. Percy tried not to cry at the sight of the pair.
They had both given their lives in the second Titan War to stop Kronos. Percy wished again he had been the hero that saved Olympus, not because of the fame, but because he wanted revenge for all the lives Kronos had taken, including Beckondorf’s and Silena’s. The Poseidon boy focused his attention elsewhere.
Hanging on the wall above Leo’s top bunk was a picture of Leo and Festus, steam swirling around them. They both seemed to be grinning. It was probably from when Percy was still at Camp Jupiter and Piper, Jason, and Leo were on their first quest.
The picture next to it was one of Leo as a little kid, with a lady who looked like his mother working beside him in a workshop. Leo had a big, toothy grin on his face and his mother was chuckling as they worked together on a small, circular piece of metal. Percy’s attention turned to Leo.
Around his neck was slung two necklaces; the first one was of a dragon, which Piper had designed and given the print to Leo to make. Piper was a nice girl. She was a lot like Annabeth, but different, too. Even though she was a daughter of Aphrodite, she wasn’t like Drew Tanaka or the others. She was beautiful in her own way; graceful and elegant, yet strong and determined. She had kept Leo and Jason alive on their first quest.
The other one looked old and worn. Percy looked from the picture of Leo’s mother to Leo’s second necklace. It was the same thing; just the real life version had a hole in it with a string slung through.
Leo looked exhausted as he pressed a button on the wall Percy hadn’t noticed before. A strangely shaped vacuum cleaner came down from the ceiling and cleared away all the clutter.
Then a different thing came in and started rearranging the place until three of the work tables were in the storage room and the beds were all spread out nicely. Six of them were against one wall while the other two, Leo’s and Jake Mason’s twin bed, were on the other wall.
Percy looked closer at Leo’s bunk and realized that his bottom bunk wasn’t really there. In its place was a desk, a lamp, and a chair; something nobody else’s had; maybe because Leo was head counselor. Somehow Leo’s pictures had moved with his bunk, which amazed Percy even more. They sat down on opposite bunks and looked at each other, silently having a conversation.
What’s wrong?
I miss Festus so bad. I feel so alone. He fiddled his necklaces between two of his rough fingers.
We’ll see him up and happy again soon. You just need to keep working.
I’m trying. My life is going downhill very fast. Percy didn’t need an empathy link to know that Leo was right. His life was more horrible and depressing than Percy had ever imagined.
Then make it go uphill. Percy really thought Leo could straighten his own path. Leo was scrawny and small on the outside, sure, but on the inside, he reminded Percy of his half-brother, Charles Beckondorf. They had the same heart. They loved their friends and family. Silena Beauregard for Beckondorf, Festus and his mother for Leo. Their families. Their companions.
I’m sorry Percy. I can’t. I- Leo’s expression broke and tears filled his eyes. “Gaea tortures me with pictures of my mother. They keep appearing in the leaves and on the work tables. That-” he pointed to the picture of young Leo and his mother- “is the only real one I still have of her. I got it from my aunt a few months ago. Why does she do this?” he sobbed. Percy looked at the younger boy solemnly.
“Because she hates everyone and everything; but we can fix that, remember?” he answered. Leo smiled weakly. Percy hated seeing him like this. He wanted the happy-go-lucky Leo back. “Come on, the rest are probably waiting for us.” Percy said.
He was mostly right. Everyone but Annabeth and Piper was there. Percy was told to go look for them. He searched half the grounds before going into the Aphrodite cabin. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be in there so he moved quickly and prayed to the gods no one would find him in here besides Annabeth and or Piper.
The cabin was one of the biggest in the camp. On the wall was the same exact eight x six foot picture of Silena and Beckondorf, which made Percy wince. To the right of the front door was a huge walk in closet. To the left was the picture and the main room, which had several chairs. Past it was a homemade beauty salon that Percy had been dragged into before. Past the picture and the wall behind it was the super long bedroom with nine bunk beds and three twins.
He came upon Drew in the main room before he could find either one of the girls. Percy gulped. The Aphrodite girl smiled. “I’d thought you’d coming running to me someday, Percy. What’s up?” she greeted. “Wait. Let me guess, Annabeth dumped you? Or, did she go bye-bye? Did a monster get her?” she squealed. It scared the Poseidon boy how happy she sounded about Annabeth dying.
The pretty girl flipped her black hair back and returned to her smooth tone. “Well, I have to go now. I’ll see you at dinner, okay?” she continued. She gave Percy a peck on the cheek and then skipped off. He was left speechless. Piper saved him.
“Wh-” she started as she rounded the corner from the bedroom. “Percy?” she gasped. “What are you doing here?” she demanded. Percy snapped out of his daze.
“Looking for you! Where’s Annabeth?” he replied.
“In the bathroom. She’ll be out in a minute, but she’ll be pissed if she saw the kiss stain on your cheek!” she exclaimed. Percy’s eyes widened and he looked around desperately for something to clean his cheek off with. Piper grabbed something that looked like a wet wipe from the beauty salon and helped. Annabeth came out of the bathroom the very moment Percy had thrown the wipe away.
“Thank the gods for quick makeup remover.” Piper muttered. The other girl smiled at them.
“Percy! What have you been up to?” she greeted happily. She must have noticed Percy’s nervousness, because she stopped and narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?” she asked suspiciously.
“Nothing,” Percy answered a little too quickly. “I was just looking for you. Chiron and the others are waiting.” He added. She nodded and began to lead the way out of the cabin.
“Come on. We have Seven business to attend to.” She said.