When Sun Meets the Sea ~ PJO 1

~14

        ~Percy's POV

        Everyone was pretty miserable that night. They decided to camp out in the woods, about a hundred yards from the main road in some sort of marshy clearing that Percy figured some local kids had been using for parties due to the flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers. 

        Annabeth had the bright idea to take some food and blankets from Medusa's place, but she decided that fire would be a big no-no for them. Percy knew she was right, the Furies and Medusa had been enough for one day, and he didn't feel like dealing with anything else. 

        Percy suggested that they sleep in shifts, which no one was opposed to as Percy volunteered to take the first watch. Percy watched as Annabeth curled up on the blankets and she was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Andie did about the same, she collapsed onto her stomach, heaving out a big sigh before she was out like a light. 

        Percy thought that was ironic, her being the daughter of the god of light and all. 

        Grover had fluttered with the flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.

        "Go ahead and sleep, Grover." Percy called up to him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble." 

        "It makes me sad, Percy." Grover said instead. 

        "What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?" 

        "No. This." Grover pointed to all the garbage on the ground. "This makes me sad. And the sky, you can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr." 

        "Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist." 

        Grover did not like that response. 

        "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan." Grover sighed sadly. 

        "Pam? Like the cooking spray?" 

        "Pan!" Grover cried. "P - A - N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?" 

        Then almost as if Grover somehow summoned it with his words, a strange breeze rustled through the clearing which completely overpowered the stink of trash and muck. Instead, Percy smelt berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater. Percy began feeling nostalgic for something he'd never known. 

        "Tell me about the search." Percy replied and Grover looked at him cautiously, as if he were afraid Percy was just going to make fun of him, but he began to tell his story. As he talked, he began to slur is words, slowly falling asleep against the tree with small snores. 

        Percy chuckled a little bit and he adjusted his laying position. He enjoyed the silence and stared at the sky. Cautery to what Grover said, he could see certain stars and he enjoyed connecting them together with his eyes. 

        Soon he heard some rustling beside him, and he turned his head to see Andie slowly pushing herself up into a sitting position. He watched as she rubbed her face with a yawn, sitting crisscross before looking over at him. 

        "Good morning, sunshine." Percy said and Andie rolled her eyes with a small smile as she rubbed her eye. 

        "How long was I out for. Thirty minutes I bet." Andie spoke.

        "Mm, maybe forty-five." Percy countered. 

        "Well, that's good."

        The two sat there in silence for a minute, Andie staring at the ground in front of her and Percy going back to staring at the sky. 

        "Why are you awake?" Percy asked, turning to face Andie who went back down into a laying position, but she made it so that she was closer to Percy, probably so they wouldn't wake the others. 

        "Nightmare." Andie answered simply and Percy nodded. 

        "Wanna talk about it?" He asked.

        Andie sighed, using her figure to play with a singular piece of grass before she plucked it out of the ground and started to pick at it. 

        "It's this same one that I have every night. I haven't told anyone about it, so you have to promise you won't tell anyone. Even Luke." Andie replied and Percy nodded, deciding to stay quiet so that she could talk. "So, if you didn't know, Apollo is also the god of prophecy. Which means that sometimes, his kids can see certain prophecies. It's rare but it happens." 

        Andie looked at Percy, as if waiting for him to say something but he just nodded, allowing her to continue again. 

        "Well, I'm one of those rare cases. My dreams are never dreams, they're always something that will happen. Even if they're small, they'll still happen. Like before you came, I had this one recurring dream of this boy falling on top of me on the Big House steps and then three weeks later, you show up and fall on top of me on the Big House steps." Andie explained and Percy grimaced.

        "Yeah, sorry about that." He spoke. 

        "It's fine." Andie quickly said, though she had a small smile on her face. "Anyways, I've been having this one dream over and over ever since I was a kid. It only happens every once and awhile but basically, I have this dream where I'm fighting, well, I don't really know what it is but I'm fighting something. Anyway, something really weird happens to me and it ends up killing me. The only thing I remember every time is a boy yelling my name... a-and-

        Andie seemed to get sort of choked up as she told her story and Percy thought he should reach out to her to comfort her, but she quickly whipped her eyes and apologized. 

        "Sorry, I don't know why I'm crying." She chuckled as she said it, taking in a deep breath as a tear fell down her face. Andie looked towards the sky, taking a couple deep breaths and Percy hesitatingly reached his hand out, grabbing hold of hers and rubbing his thumb against her hand. She looked down to their hands and then to Percy who smiled at her. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you this."

        "It's okay, Andie. Thank you." Percy said and Andie looked at him confused. 

        "Thank you? What are you thanking me for? I'm crying to you about some nightmare that I have." Andie laughed; Percy knew she was trying to keep the conversation light. Percy did the same trick whenever he tried to talk about something that truly affected him. 

        "Thank you for trusting me." Was all Percy said. Andie looked at him, her eyes searching his face as if she was trying to see if he was lying. Percy let her do this, just smiling softly at her. The two were quiet for a minute before a smirk came across her face.

        "Is your name really Perseus?" She asked and Percy rolled his eyes, causing her to start laughing. She kept it quiet, but Annabeth stirred slightly to their right and Percy shushed Andie as she apologized, quieting down her giggles even more. 

        "You can't be talking, Andromeda." Percy teased back. Andie stuck her tongue out at him, before she had a deep sigh. "What?"

        "Thank you for listening. I thought people would judge me for it or say, 'that's the price you pay being a demi-god', but you just listened and that's all I really needed." Andie explained. "You're a great friend, Percy." 

        Percy paused at her last sentence, something about it made something in him feel different but he brushed it off. 

        "Thank you for being my friend." Percy replied. 

        "You should get some sleep; I can take the next shift." Andie spoke and as she said that it was as if all the tiredness that Percy was fighting had suddenly risen to the surface. He nodded with a yawn and got comfortable on his makeshift bed before closing his eyes and falling asleep.