Thunderstorms And Ocean Waves *Book 2*

Big Dogs and New People

Aria

"Hey sleeping beauty, are you feeling better?" Will asked me as my eyes fluttered open.
"Much, thanks. Hey, is Percy ok?" I asked remembering what happened.
"He's fine, I think he was heading down to the sword arena.
"If he comes here tell him I've gone to my hideout, he'll know where it is." I grinned as headed down the lake and walked in with my guitar to clear my mind and work on a few of my songs.

After I finished singing arms wrapped around me from behind.
"Percy! My gods! You scared me!" I grasped my chest trying to slow down my heart.
"Sorry, you never told me you could sing!" He bubbled.
"Because I can't." I rolled my eyes but saw the scratch on his cheek. "Will told me you were alright, where did this scratch come from?" I held his cheek in my hand.
"Oh, that would be from the new Hellhound here in the arena." He huffed as I grabbed some water and washed it through his cut.
"Did you slay it?" I laughed.
"No, do you not believe me?" He scoffed.
"No, I do believe you I saw some extremely large dog hairs in the water." I smiled softly at him as he turned red from his built up anger. "Do you need to rant? I can see you're trying not to explode."
"How did you know?" He calmed.
"The little things. Like your face gets all red when you're angry or upset, and it's different from when you blush." I admitted.
"I know I'm beautiful, but you don't have to pay that much attention to me." He grinned as I blushed and pushed him playfully.
"So, tell me what's wrong?" I scooted closer as he proceeded to tell everything.

***

"We should probably get back on land soon." I smiled softly at him as he nodded and we swam back up to the surface together only to be greeted by Chiron.
"Come you two, Grover will want you both with him."
"Where?" Percy asked.
"At his formal hearing,  the Council of Cloven Elders is meeting now to decide his fate."  Chiron said as we followed him deep into the woods.

When we got to the meeting place Grover looked extremely nervous talking to the Elders.
Standing off to the side was Annabeth, Juniper, and Clarisse. Knowing Percy is confused about Juniper, I whispered in his ear Grover's girlfriend. I kept watching Juniper's reaction to this, because I remember this part, I just want to see someone else's reaction.
After hearing the Elders harshly criticize Grover Juniper jumped up and passed Clarisse and Annabeth. She was just about to ta tackle Maron when I caught her by the waist.
"Hold up honey, you don't want to mess with them." I said as she started to cry again. I held her close and whispered sweet nothings into her ear as she started to calm down. "Better?" I whispered softly to her as she picked her head up from crying into my chest.
"A little." She mumbled as I hugged her again and went to sit down with her.
"How did you calm her so quickly?" Annabeth asked me.
"I used to work with little kids and the elderly, it's honestly not very different from calming a crying child. A soft voice and sweet nothings usually calm most people." I shrugged as Juniper rested her head on my shoulder.
"Those old goats! Oh, Grover, they don't know how hard you tried!" Juniper jumped up to hug him.
"There is another option." Clarisse offered darkly.
"No. No! Grover I won't let you." Juniper said as tears filled her eyes once more.
"I- I'll have to think about it. But we don't we don't even know where to look." Grover paled.
"What are you talking about?" Percy questioned as the conch horn sounded.
"I'll fill you in later. We'd better be getting back. Inspection is starting." Annabeth said as she left only to turn and glare at me.

***

Percy and I raced back to the cabins only to find a giant cyclops. I screamed forgetting about Tyson, Percy's half brother.
"Aria! It's ok, this is my half brother Tyson. He won't hurt you I promise." Percy ran up to me and hugged me from behind trying to calm me.
"Percy!" Tyson cheered gleefully as he wrapped us up in a hug.
"Hey big guy! Watch the ribs." Percy gasped as we were squished face to face. A light blush took over my face as he put us down.
"Aria, this is Tyson, Tyson, this is Arianna daughter of Zeus, she's staying in the Poseidon cabin with us." Percy introduced us.
"Hi Tyson, it's nice to meet you." I smiled at him.
"You scare me with your scream." He whimpered.
"I'm sorry about that, I think I was really just surprised to see you. I hope we can be friends." I smiled softly holding out my hand.
"New friends! Yay!" He laughed gleefully as he pulled me into a bone crushing hug. I grinned remembering my older brother used to give me hugs like this.
"That didn't hurt?" Percy gaped at me.
"No, my brother used to hug me like that all the time." I smiled trying not to cry. "Tyson, the cabin looks amazing!" I jumped away from that uncomfortable topic.
"See fish ponies? I put them on the ceiling!" He grinned as I gazed at the delicate bronze hippocampi hanging from wires attached to the ceiling, making them look like they were swimming in the air.
"You fixed it!" Percy exclaimed walking over to his used to be dented shield.
"Oh my." Silena smiled as she walked in with her inspection scroll. She did a twirl and grinned at us. "I had my doubts, but you two clean up nicely, I'll remember that." She winked as she walked out.

Tyson, Percy and I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up and filling in, which was nice after such a chaotic morning filled with she demons.