Bride of the Sea God

Chapter 4

A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!

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When Annabeth woke up, she wasn't sure she was alive for a moment. Above her floated a large blue-silver tuna, its eyes looking almost curiously at her. Could tuna fly in heaven? Then she tried to sit up and realized she was underwater.

Annabeth's first thought was to worry about how to breathe. But the cold water she expected to rush into her nose was not there. Strange. She could feel the cool seawater move out of the way whenever she moved a limb, but she did not feel the wetness associated with water itself. Somehow there was a layer of air around her, and she did not find anything constricting to her means. Annabeth couldn't even feel any pressure from the seawater exerting above her.

"The gods..."

She must have somehow made it to the realm of the gods! Annabeth admitted that there was some part of her that did not quite believe in the gods, for how else did her prayers and the prayers of Pegai for rain go unanswered for so long? However, there was no other place that could be as magical as her surroundings was.

As if seeing that she was awake, the large tuna above her swam a circle around her and then swam away. Annabeth pushed herself up from the sandy ocean floor and took in her surroundings.

She had somehow landed in the middle of some underwater palace. Poseidon's perhaps? A large temple, taller than anything she had ever seen stood in the middle of this palace. Other gray buildings constructed from slabs as if hewn straight from the seafloor and still containing shells and coral stood imposing nearby. Pavilions were lit up from glowing pearls the size of her head, allowing light to filter through the water. Paths were strewn with glowing abalone shells and strange sea flowers grew in neat flower beds. The whole place seemed to be bigger than Pegai itself.

No scroll in the library, nor could Annabeth's own words, could ever depict the majestic sight of what she was beholding before her. The only thing wrong was that there were no other creatures here aside from the large tuna that she had seen. The palace seemed cold and empty.

But soon the tuna came back. It circled playfully around Annabeth and then swam away. Annabeth could have sworn that the tuna looked behind its shoulder to try to get her to follow. There was no one else here, so Annabeth pushed herself forward to follow.

The tuna swam at a speed just enough for Annabeth to keep it within sight. They passed by a garden constructed out of unique formations of coral and statues of merpeople and sea creatures.

At the very center of the garden, a statue caught her eye. The gray sea rock formed a human, a sword in his hand and a shield in the other. He seemed familiar to Annabeth, but she couldn't quite place her finger on where.

But the tuna was moving further away.

"Wait up!" She called out. In return, the tuna wiggled its tail but continued to move on.

Annabeth followed the tuna out of the gates, but the swim was long and she was still tired from lack of water and food. Outside the palace was darker, with rockier seafloor and high forests of seaweed. Annabeth had to swim faster to catch up.

Suddenly, the tuna darted and propelled off deeper into the sea. With a flick of its tail, the fish disappeared into a mass of green seaweed.

"Hold on!"

But it was too late. Annabeth frowned. She was now in the middle of this seaweed forest. Fortunately, she still remembered roughly what direction the palace was. She started the slower process of swimming back the direction she came from. Her energy had been quite depleted by the swim.