Chapter Text

Piper

Percy woke up. The first rays of dawn where coming through the window. Beside him Annabeth was sleeping deeply.

For a moment he was confused why he felt such an urgency. Then he remembered his dream. He needed to ensure that he wouldn't forget it. Wouldn't be the first time that happened to him. Maybe he should write it down or better yet tell someone. By the time he would have finished writing down half of his dream, he would have already forgotten everything.

Quietly he got up, trying not to wake Annabeth. As he stood by the door he hesitated. He didn't want to leave Annabeth alone. What if she woke up and worried about him. What if she had a nightmare. Maybe he should wake her? No, she needed the sleep. In Tart-, he didn't want to think about it. Simply put she hadn't been able to get a good night's sleep in a long time.

While he thought about what to do a page of paper caught his sight.

He took it and wrote down: „I'm on deck and alright. Don't worry.“

Then he quietly left the room and made his way upstairs, where someone should be. They always had a guard on duty.

The cold air greeted him as he closed the door behind him. Someone was high above him in the crow's nest. Since the sun was blinding he couldn’t see who it was.

Percy decided to climb down to them, it wouldn't really make sense for the other person to climb down to meet him and then climb up again.

Piper stood with her back to him staring down the horizon, she didn’t seem to have noticed him.

Percy reached up to him with his hand, but before he could touch Piper she whirled around and levied her dagger threatening. Percy stepped back and held his hand up unthreatening.

„Hey, Piper“, he said softly to soothe her. „I’m Percy. Do you know where you are?“

This wouldn’t be the first time he helped some confused Camper who was trapped in a flashback.

„Oh, it’s only you.“, Piper said. She lowered her dagger and continued speaking: „Of course, I’m sorry I thought you were someone else.“

Still she was very pale.

„No problem.“, answered Percy. „I needed to tell you something that I dreamed about.“

„You have prophetic dreams?“, asked Piper surprised.

„Not really prophetic, more like typical demigod dreams. I dream what is currently happening.“

He never really thought about them like they were prophecies. Thar word had too heavy a meaning.

Piper explained: „Is that not a prophetic dream? I thought they aren’t only about the futures, but about the past, the present and the future. Like Jason told me that the Roman’s Augur didn’t just tell them about the future, but also about the opinion of the gods.“

„Apropos gods, I dreamed about my dad.“

„Oh, how was he?“, her voice seemed louder and jarring. „What did he want?“

„He was happy to see me, really happy even, but he told me a few things that should help us, like the Nereid did.“

„Really that’s great! What did he tell you?“, she said and for a moment she seemed finished but then she added almost silent: „Did he say anything about us?“

What a strange question.

„No, not really. We talked a bit about me and then about the quest.“

„Oh“, Piper said and Percy couldn’t decide if Piper was relived or disappointed about this before Piper seemed to pull herself together and asked: „What did you want to tell me?“

„We need to go to Olympia, the city not the competition,“, he told her „because the gods can’t win if we don’t help Nike.“

„Nike? Who is that?“, asked Piper weary.

„Well, I don’t know her personally,“, explained Percy. „but she is the goodness of victory.“

„And with what does she needs help with?“

„She fights with herself like the other gods and since she’s the goodness of victory. So the gods are inhibited in their fight with the Gigantes. “, Percy told her. „If we give her a clear victor between the Greeks and the Romans she can be in control again.“

„And what’s a clear victor?“, quizzed Piper him.

Percy clarified: „Well, the clearest victory is with a dead loser, but we can simple trick her into thinking that we are fighting to death and that the winner side killed the other side, while not letting her seduce us into fighting for real.“

„Then we should think about a plan.“, declared she. „I don’t want to meet any goddess without a plan.“

„Yes,“, agreed Percy. „at least we can avoid going into it without any information.“

„Did he tell you anything else?“, asked she desperate.

He told her the good news trying to calm her down: „Yes, he also told me that Apollo and Artemis are hiding on Delos and will probably help us out.“

„Do you have any idea how we could get them to help us?“, Piper wanted to know.

„He told me that they want to appease their father and that they already kinda like me.“

„They like you?“, asked Piper stounded. „How did you even meet them?“

„During the Titan’s war.“, answered Percy.

„Aaahh…“, replied Piper.

Percy shrugged with his shoulder and after a while they both waited in awkward silence he told her: „Well, I don’t have anything else to say, so I’m going to sleep.“

Piper wished him a good night and after wishing it back he climbed down. He was already delighted at thoughts about their warm bed and Annabeth.

But still he couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation.

The whole conversation seemed weird. Piper was really nervous, maybe it was because of the many fights they had fought while he and Annabeth were… away.

He knew many demigods who were jumpy and just nervous after quests or long-drawn-out fights. You can’t see every consequences during the battles or even after they were over. Some only showed themself during recovery. And after all Piper didn’t even know about the gods for that long, even if she should have. She probably is still dealing with all that. It was strange to think that even though the Camp had gained so many new Campers after the Titan war since the gods started telling them about their children there were still demigods out there who had no idea.

Or maybe it was the topic. Talking about his dad always created a strange mood, not many demigods had even talked once to their parents. Doing so semi-regular seemed mind-boggling to them and Piper wouldn’t be the only demigod who was jealous of it or knew how she should behave when his dad came up.

Or maybe he simple didn’t know Piper well enough. After all they would tell him if something was up.