Zero to Hero (Percy Jackson Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty-One-Artemis and Aphrodite

N/A I hope you guys are happy. You've gotten three chapters out of me this month. I sense this story coming to a close (I always write more when I'm close to the end), and again I thank you all for your support. I'm not sure how many more chapters, but we're getting there. Please, please, please go check out my novel, "The Sunset Stone." It is the love of my life, and it kind of breaks me a little that it only has like 250 reads. Help me out, guys!

Percy's POV

Annabeth was again, surprisingly good at the challenge course. She had never done it before, but her instinct was spot on. Even when we'd almost fallen, she hadn't lost her head. But that wasn't what bothered me. 

She had known I would be able to make the water move. How? I mean, I had done it once before, but I had assumed that it was...I don't know, a coincidence, maybe? I was bothered by what she'd said about Menoetius and Mnemosyne. The way she spoke about the mythological figures...as if she believed they might be real. 

But that was impossible. 

How could Annabeth, an Athena camper, use myth as fact? 

Yet her suspicions made me uneasy. Especially because of the dream I'd had the night before:

I woke up in my cabin, sitting bolt upright in my bunk. A weird light was flickering across the walls, like waves reflecting sunlight, only it was the middle of the night. I got out of bed, approaching the familiar fountain in the center of the cabin cautiously. But what was the source of the light?

"Percy."

Suddenly everything went staticky, like a TV channel that had a bad connection. My head ached and spun. Pressing my hands to my temples, I sank to the floor. 

Someone touched my forehead with their finger. Instantly the pain and dizziness dissolved, though the scene remained fuzzy and unclear. I blinked, raising my head. My father was standing over me, looking deadly serious. He reached out his hands and took a firm grip on my shoulders, both of us still crouched on the floor by the fountain.

"Percy," he said again, his face going in and out of focus. With jagged lines shifting across his image, it was hard to recognize him, but I knew his voice, and I knew his touch. "...much time...being watched...the curse...you must break it...listen to Aphrodite...Annabeth...."

I blinked at him. Was I supposed to understand any of that? "What?" I asked.

He smiled wryly. "...my favorite son...."

And then he was gone in a wisp of sea breeze.

I woke up lying on the floor by the fountain, which was strange because I've never sleepwalked before that I know of, but it made the dream feel that much more real.

Now, I walked briskly toward the practice ring, looking for Jason or Thalia. Annabeth had simply shrugged and said, "You did it before," when I'd asked her how she knew I could move the water. Her eyes had shone with a triumphant gleam, however, and it made me wonder whether she was somehow involved in this mess. She was probably smart enough to pull one over on the whole camp if she really wanted to. Hopefully talking to Jason and Thalia would help me figure some stuff out.  

But neither Jason, nor Thalia was training in the ring. 

Frustrated, I marched off towards the Artemis cabin. The shiny metallic walls glinted fiercely in the sun. I paused on the stoop. Under the crescent moon symbol stencilled on the door, there was a sign:

No boys allowed. EVER.

Cheery. Resigning myself to a few arrows in my gut, I knocked twice, then quickly stumbled back about ten paces. The door cracked open within seconds, and the stony gaze of Phoebe seared the hair off my eyebrows.