Darkened

Chapter 2: How It All Started POV: Percy

"Annabeth" I yell as I run over to the only one who mattered to me at this moment in time. I quickly hug and kiss her, trying to make up for the lost time. "Percy, thank gods you are back, if you had to be on your quest one more day I swear I would have lost my mind." She managed to say between kisses. "I know, hopefully the gods feel generous enough to give me a break longer than a few months." "All that matters is now, besides you made it in time for capture the flag." she says with a grin. It had been quite a while since I was able to participate in a game of capture the flag. We quickly head to where everyone is getting prepared, sneaking a few kisses in along the way.

"Bit rusty Jackson?" Jason, an old friend, says with a grin, almost knocking my sword out of my hand. "Just warming up." I reassure him. In truth having to battle monsters on a daily basis does magic to one's sword fighting skills and I could have easily have knocked Jason's sword away. However defeating Jason was not part of Annabeth's strategy to win capture the flag and disobeying Annabeth's battle strategy will subject you to a fate worse than falling into Tartarus and believe me that falling into that place is not something you would want to experience. Instead of easily knocking Jason's sword out of his hand Annabeth wants me to distract Jason one of the bigger threats on the opposite team. I stare out into the distance, hoping that Jason thinks I'm distracted. Predictably he does and sure enough he tries attacked me, however I stealthily deflect the move. I figure its been long enough and if Annabeth and the others still haven't gotten the flag then they might need a little help. I quickly fake trying to hit Jason from one direction and he tries to deflect what he thinks is a sloppy offensive move on my part. Instead, as quick as possible I make the move that will turn the tides and have his sword end up on the ground when I hear a shout.

"WE WON!" I look behind me and see Annabeth and some of her cabin mates proudly holding the flag. "About time, I was about to go help, you stopped me in the middle of knocking Jason's sword out of his hands." "We got held up with Piper, she tried charm speaking us multiple times. It's a bit hard trying to capture a flag when you have the un-resistible urge to drop all your weapons." Annabeth explained."Sorry Annabeth but we were a bit outnumbered and I didn't want to make it too easy for you." Piper says appearing behind Annabeth. "Hey Pipes, long time no see. " "Glad you're back Percy. I see you gave Jason quite a challenge." Piper replies, affectionally smirking at her boyfriend. "Yeah, yeah, ok maybe I underestimated my bro Percy a bit." Jason says while fixing his glasses. "Don't feel too bad Jason, it was part of the plan." Annabeth informs. "Gods I hate your plans sometimes." Jason mutters. "I recall that most of my plans have save your butt." Annabeth reminds Jason. Jason laughs a bit then says "Pipes and I are gonna head out, we both got some early training tomorrow morning." Jason calls as he starts walking away. "See you guys tomorrow." Piper adds in walking away with Jason. "I should probably head to bed as well." Annabeth sighs, clearing wishing that she could hang around longer. "Well you don't have to.." I remind her. For a moment she considers my suggestion. Shaking her head she finally says"Yes but I probably should, besides I'll need to remind my cabin mates to settle down, they'd be celebrating the victory till next week if they could. "Well goodnight then." I yell as she starts walking away.

It feels good being back in my cabin, my second home. Being on over ten quests in a time span of a year can wear you out and nothing feels better than getting back home. As I slowly drift off to sleep I think of how much I miss being at Camp Half-Blood and how glad I am that I'm finally back, hopefully for more than a month or two this time.