The Thief // pjo

Chapter Five // Annabeth Gets a Gold Star And We Become America's Most Wanted

    I'm not sure what brought me back to reality first: the stark realization that I was underwater and was breathing or the enormous catfish that was just sitting in front of my face when my eyes opened.

    I blinked a couple of times, suddenly awake.

    What in the—

    My hair floated in front of my face as I looked around, hovering a bit as I pushed myself off the sunken car I had settled on. The catfish was very quick to swim off, avoiding me like the plague. Maybe that was my aunt in fish form.

    I wrinkled my nose and raised my brows simultaneously at the sight around me and my current situation.

    The water was disgusting, first of all, if any of you are wondering what the Mississippi looks like.

    And two, the water wasn't wet.

    Don't come at me. That is the only way to describe it.

    It was cool, but it wasn't wet.

    Also, I didn't feel sick anymore from the poison, or more accurately, I did not feel like my head was going to explode and that I was going to die.

    As I stared around me, breathing underwater, completely dry, and no longer dying, a panicked thought hit me, Where is Percy?

    "Percy?!" I shouted, my voice sounding weird in my ears.

    It echoed across the water, and soon the warbling noise of squelching mud came from my right.

    I turned my head, and a relieved gasp filled the space between us.

    Percy, alive and alright, was coming right for me, struggling a little through the gross mud of the river.

    I moved towards him and wrapped him in a tight hug as he buried his face into my hair and whispered, "I thought you were dead..."

    I buried my face deeper into his shoulder, breathing shakily, "I almost was...but you saved us..."

    A sigh made his body sag in the water, his arms still around me, when a gentle green and blue light fell over us.

    Percy moved away, and a small gasp fell from his lips, "Oh my gods..."

    Lifting my eyes upwards, I spy a glowing emblem above my head.

    Recalling Percy's story, I realized what had happened.

    I had been claimed.

    And I guess Annabeth would get a gold star for her intuitiveness because above my head was a glowing blue and green trident.

    Poseidon, god of the sea, was my dad.

    I let my eyes drop back to Percy, who was looking at me with an unreadable expression on his tanned face, and I tried to joke, "I guess Annabeth was right."

    There was a moment of silence before Percy again wrapped me in a hug, even tighter than before.

    This one was different, though, I wasn't sure why, but it was.

    I stiffened a little, unsure how to process the change of the purpose of the hug when Percy said in a small voice, "I've always wanted a sibling..."

    A small cry fell from my lips as I again embraced Percy tightly in a hug.

    That was what was different.

    This wasn't a hug between friends.

    This was a hug between family.

    Between siblings.