Percy Jackson: Life In The Land Beyond The Gods [The Completed Rewrite]

"Are You Coming?" EDITTED

Piper's eyes sparkled with a mix of worry and thrill, legs burning as she kept pace with her blonde friend. She was like a bullet, shooting over the grass, and almost impossible to keep up with. Grass slick with dew made her stumble and trip at every other moment, but Annabeth seemed unaffected by it all. Possibly one of the only upsides of Tartarus was her invulnerability to different terrains – nothing could be as hard as marching through hell or carrying the sky.

Jason, too, was barely staying a pace before her. But from the way the wind seemed to flow in the opposite direction as she stared at him, it became obvious as to how he was keeping up.

Unfortunately, Piper didn't have that luxury, and after one final slip, she found herself staring into the sky. World spinning, she forced herself up just in time to see Annabeth and Jason disappear around the corner. She gave herself a moment to catch her bearings before unsteadily rising to her feet. However, instead of racing after them, she followed the sounds of yelping from the lava wall, a small smirk sliding onto her lips.

Her best friend, Leo Valdez had arrived back at Camp Half-Blood only a few weeks ago, spending almost a year touring the world with Calypso, a daughter of Atlas, and catching her up on the modern world. The son of Hephaestus had taken Piper's punch to the jaw without complaint, and had even hugged her back twice as hard during their emotional embrace, so she found herself relishing his company, not wanting to be left without his awful jokes and well-meant humour.

A low rumbling sound shook the earth as she jogged over to the lava wall, already spotting the latino's impish grin as he touched down on the ground. He quickly spotted her and grinned, waving his cabin mates away as she approached, "Wassup, Beauty Queen?"

"Olympus. And Percy just came back from there. Are you coming?"

Leo's grin grew wider, "Try and stop me, I'll just go tell Jake so no one assume's that I'm dead... again."

A minute later and the pair were jogging towards the beach, far behind the blonde duo that had sped off before them. Piper double-checked her blade was secure before eagerly shouting, "Race you!"

"Hey! Come on, Pipes! Wait up!"

***

It didn't take the pair long to reach the beach.

Piper jumped onto Jason's back, the son of Jupiter letting out an 'umph!' as he adjusted to the impromptu piggyback. Beside them, Annabeth offered Leo her bottle of water as he collapsed on the sand.

"Hey," Piper greeted, stilling clinging to Jason's back.

The blonde duo remained silent, staring at a lone figure throwing pebbles into the sea.

Whilst it wasn't unusual for the son of Poseidon to skim stones on the waves, it was a different matter entirely for him to be flat out chucking rock after rock into the ocean. There was a slump in his shoulders and dark bags under his eyes. A pang of sympathy shot through Piper's chest. He had survived two wars and hell itself, yet he had never looked so visibly defeated.

They watched without comment as he sat on the sand, holding a hand out towards the sea. The water rose to meet him, coiling around his arm before shooting into air, an aquatic horse swirling into existence before dissipating into gas. Piper, who had been admiring the horse, muffled a gasp when it disappeared.

Annabeth watched on with mild curiosity, leaning forward slightly before lightly kicking Leo to extinguish the flames bursting forth from his hair.

Well, tried to. The son of Hephaestus scurried to his feet and jogged over the son of Poseidon, baseball-style sliding in the sand until he was next to Percy, gleefully exclaiming, "Dude, you have got to teach me how to do that!"

Percy chuckled and a small smile tugged at his lips, "Yeah, sure."