The Nature of a Demigod

Teasing Dreams

[Annabeth's POV]

What a mess of a morning.

Since I hadn't heard from Y/N in a while, I was going to meet him at the Jackson residence, and go see a movie. He didn't know it, but I wanted to get dinner after too.

As it turns out, Percy's messed up again, and he hasn't seen our friend in a month. I'd wanted to call them to see what was happening, but I figured that if Y/N didn't want to talk, it would probably be best to leave him be.

Now I was stewing angry in a taxi with the kid who just blew up a school. Again.

I'd been back to camp twice since Christmas, and was hoping to run into him there, but nothing. Chiron hadn't heard anything, nor Zoe, his cabin-mate and much older sister, and now Percy. I'd had a monster infested spring watching over Mt Tam, and now the person I was most looking forward to seeing might be stuck in a maze.

"Any word on Luke?" Percy asked.

I shook my head. That was always a touchy subject. When I was growing up, I always admired, or even liked Luke, and then he turned out to be a traitor, who sided with the evil titan lord Kronos. When we fought Luke on the titan's mountain last winter, he survived a fifty foot fall off a cliff. And now, as far as we all knew, he was licking his wounds on that cruise ship of his. The princess Andromeda.

It was full of monsters, not to mention the chopped up bits of Kronos reforming in a golden sarcophagus, waiting until he had enough power to re-form and challenge the gods of olympus. Not the best situation to be in.

"Mount Tam is still overrun with monsters," I filled Percy in. "I didn't try to go close, but I don't think Luke is up there. I think I would know if he was." Percy didn't look any more relieved about that than I was. Luke would not stay quiet if he was on the move. He never did.

"What about Grover?" Percy asked.

"He's at camp," I said. "We'll see him today."

"Did he have any luck? I mean, with the search for Pan?" I fingered at my bead necklace, something that was pointed out to me that I do when I'm nervous. "You'll see," I said. I didn't want to explain any further. Grover was struggling badly enough right now, and if I told Percy the whole story, he'd just make it worse.

"So you really haven't heard anything from Y/N?" Percy asked nervously. I shuddered and shook my head. Exactly a month ago I talked to him on the phone. The last thing I heard from him was something about blue eggs and ham. I tried to Iris Message him a couple days ago to make sure everything was alright, but I couldn't reach him.

"So we have no clue where he is. Great." Percy said sarcastically. I swallowed a dry lump in my throat. "I have an idea." I said. "Of course you do." Percy shrugged. "But if he is where I think he might be, it's not good. It's really not good."

It definitely wasn't. If he had been lost this whole time, there was no telling where he was. He could be in New Hampshire, Nevada, or even some other country. He might even be...

I was getting choked up just thinking about it.

As we headed through Brooklyn, Percy used my phone to call his mom. Half-bloods try not to use cell phones if we can avoid it, because throwing our voices over the radio-waves is like sending up a flare to the monsters: 'Here I am! Please eat me now!'

But I figured this call was important. He left a message on our home voice mail, trying to explain what had happened at Goode.

I got to listen, and he didn't do a very good job. He told his mom he was fine, she shouldn't worry, but he was going to stay at camp until things cooled down. And asked her to tell some guy named Paul Blofis I was sorry. He also informed her that Y/N wasn't with me like she thought.