Chapter Text
Getting Percy into the box without scraping his tail any more was a hassle, and Connor's endless questioning hadn't made it any easier.
Of course he wanted to know what his friend had been doing with a merman, to which Annabeth had no good answer. She couldn't exactly tell him that she's been meeting with Percy for weeks and didn't bother to inform anyone.
"I'm just wondering where you guys met. It's a valid question," Connor said, trying to convince Annabeth to spill.
"I told you, no questions till afterwards. We need to get Percy out of here quickly," she responded. Percy had been awfully quiet ever since Connor showed, closely watching his every move. She was surprised that he had even agreed to let the two of them hoist him out of the water and to the box disguised as camp store goods.
Percy had remained calm and cooperative so far, despite how vigilant he was of Annabeth's friend. That was, until Connor brought a pegasus, cart hitched behind it, out from the forest where it had been hiding.
"What are you doing with that thing?" Percy exclaimed, shimmying but unable to move within the box. "Get it away! It shouldn't be here!" Both Connor and Annabeth were taken aback by his sudden outburst. She hadn't considered that merfolk would be so opposed to pegasi, but it made sense. Creatures of the water and creatures of the air rarely mixed well in mythology.
Annabeth motioned towards Connor to take the pegasus back into the woods and she took Percy's shaking hand in hers. She just hoped that he hadn't been loud enough to hear from the center of camp.
"It's alright, we won't bring the pegasus here again," she said in a soothing voice. He seemed to relax a bit, but it proved too late. Coming down the hill on the other side of the lake was a group of campers, probably checking on the noise. The group seemed to stop their progress for a moment and stare in shock at the scene, then one turned around and ran towards the Big House.
Annabeth considered trying to pick up the box and make a run for it. The camper would no doubt alert Chiron about Percy, now was her only chance to get him out of there. She weighed the possibility of success in her head. I couldn't move him very quickly last time. If Connor helps it'll be quicker. But we'll have to go in a different direction than planned. We could take the trail-
"Get away from the creature, both of you," Chiron's voice ordered, tearing through her thoughts. She saw Connor step back and put his hands in the air like he was being arrested. Annabeth froze in place.
She had missed her chance. If she would have moved quicker, maybe she could have Percy halfway through the woods by now. But Chiron had arrived and there was no hope of escape now.
Annabeth locked eyes with Percy. She saw the same fear she had seen the first time they met under the dock, but now there was something else there too. Something that told her things were about to get ugly.
"Take this thing to the Big House," Chiron said to the nearby campers, motioning towards Percy. The waterline of the lake was steadily rising, though Annabeth appeared to be the only person who noticed.
It had reached her feet when all of a sudden a massive wave, which seemingly came out of nowhere, launched at the demigods making their way towards Percy. Every one of them were knocked off their feet by the force and left soaking on the shore.
None of them looked more stunned by this than Chiron, who had taken a cautious step back. "Who are you?" he said, his voice less confident than before. The water began to crawl up the sand again, this time illuminated by a blue glow.
Annabeth looked around for the source of the light and found that it was coming from Percy. More specifically, from the glowing trident symbol above his head. The sign of the god Poseidon. Percy was being claimed.
He's a demigod, she thought with amazement. Percy was looking above him in confusion.
Smiling broadly at him, Annabeth said, "You're a son of Poseidon." She then turned towards Chiron and continued. "And camp is a safe place for any demigod. He stays here."