Lost at Sea

Part Three

AUTHORS NOTE: Hey  guys, it the Poppy here! I just wanted to ask what kind of POV you would like to read? As in first or third person? As of now I've been writing in third, but this part may be first. Honestly it depends on my mood and I didn't want to give any of you whiplash! :3 So do you guys want to see third more or first? Or don't mind me skipping back and forth between them as long as it's signposted?

PERCY POV

I walked quickly, fingers fidgeting on my phone and riptide inside my pocket. I had become aware of footsteps, even and heavy. They kept following me through streets, and twice I had glanced at my reflection in shop windows. Behind me was a heavy set man, with a grey hoodie and cap. The way he held himself nagged me for a whole block until I clocked on it was eerily similar to how Centurions drilled you to stand in New Rome, like you were an extension of the earth. Unbreakable. Even how he held himself, and marched like he was on some kind of gods-sent mission made me falter. 

He hadn't smelt like a monster, didn't look like how they usually carried themselves. Which made me all the uneasier. He must be some kind of half blood, maybe from another pantheon, to be following me of all people.

I was shaken now, caught off guard at being tailed. I couldn't make myself focus and try to spot any other people or monsters on my six. Shaking my head, I chased away my nervous thoughts. Maybe it was just a training exercise. Or maybe he was the owner of the car I'd skated into last week ... oops.

Pushing my bag further up my shoulder, I noticed the gates to central park in front of me, and a flash of blonde hair being shoved under a cap, then disappearing. 

Annabeth.

I smiled, something cruel in it. If there was anyone following me Annabeth could be standing right in front of them and they would never notice.

Reaching up to scratch my neck, I heard a soft set of footsteps join my own, and her voice.

Annabeth's voice had always amazed me. It gave you a feeling, like being shushed at by a librarian, or the soft feeling of waking up on a late Sunday morning. Sometimes, like now, it echoed in your ears like steel being drawn against a grindstone. 

"Why do you always get yourself into trouble when it's the least convenient time." Her voice whispered in my ear.

I smiled, and rolled my eyes.

"How many?" There was a pause, and a few moments of silence before I felt her arm brush mine. I couldn't see it, but my fabric moved on its own.

"Two maybe. One in a suit about four meters back. He looks real familiar. And about 15 meters is the military guy I guess you were talking about. I see it in the way he walks. Grey hoodie? Black cap?"

I nodded, then caught myself feeling like an idiot. If my tails saw me nodding to myself they may get suspicious, no I played it off my rolling my head around my shoulders.

Annabeth took a sharp intake of breath. "Shit. Percy the guy in the suit caught your nod."

I winced, and sped my pace slightly, heading through the park gates and towards the pond. We turned down a smaller path, and then came to the pond, where Jason and Hazel stood, talking quietly. I nodded to Jason, smiling stiffly. 

"Hey."

Jason caught my tight lipped smile and nodded, walking towards me and clapping my shoulder as he pulled me into a half-hug.

I heard Annabeth muttering in his ear rapidly as we pulled apart and I slid the bag off my shoulder and he took it, swinging it over his purple shirt, luckily blank of the Camp Jupiter insignia. Didn't need the creeps following me knowing where they were going.

A flash of blonde appeared to my left as Annabeth ducked out from behind a tree, shoving her cap into her back pocket.

Hazel was busy concentrating talking to what appeared to be a tree but was probably a nymph and gave me a wave before turning back and conversing for a bit before giving a smile and walking over to our motley crew. 

Once everyone was in a tight circle I started talking, gesturing with one hand whilst my others slid around Annie's waist. 

"I'm gonna split soon, looks like we won't get to spend an afternoon in the park."

Hazel frowned, "Why not? I made cobbler!"

"He's got a tail." Jason said, and nodded over my shoulder. The four of us rather conspicuously turned around and watched the army dude in the hoodie and cap and man in the suit sit at opposite ends of a bench about fifteen meters away and stare in opposite directions. 

"Not professionals. Obviously." Annabeth quipped drily and fished into her pocket, handing me her cap. "I'll want it back. But it'd be fun to give them a run for their money."

Jason and I smiled at each other but Hazel looked worried, and tugged at one of her golden ringlets absentmindedly, "Ametures they may be but that guy in the suits wearing a solid gold watch with diamond hands."

I rose my eyebrows and gave the man a stare. He had a goatee and salt and pepper hair which looked more like a fashion choice than a sign of age. His face was a little past youthful but not old. The other guy would have looked like some kind of personal trainer if he didn't carry himself in such a screamingly obvious military way.

I recognised one of them. The man in the suit.

He's face was kind of blurry, but all at once it came back to me. He had been the guy in that wicked suit that fell into the ocean.

I felt troubled, because I had used the mist on him to alter his memory.

Which was either a good sign, because he was probably some older demigods looking to corner me and ask me about their parent or really bad because it meant I'd pissed off some other immortal deity who was sending goons once again and couldn't be affected by the mist.

The joys of being the child of three prophecies and counting.

"Yeah whatever he's probably some trust fund prince or son of Zeus." No offence, I added and smiled sheepishly at Jason.

The Roman only shrugged, "I'm a champion of Juno. Plus my dads Jupiter not Zeus."

I rolled my eyes and tugged my hood down, taking Annabeth's cap in my hands.

"Well I'll see you guys after solstice. Send Reyna my regards?"

"Sure thing." Hazel smiled, and she and and Jason turned to walk towards the trees. I caught a flash of black fuzzy fur. Mrs O'leary.

Annabeth took a step and stopped in front of me, playing her tanned hand on each side of my face. "Stay out of trouble Jackson."

I rolled me eyes, but smiled and stoked her knuckled with my thumbs, "Whatever mom."

"Hey your mom is a goddess. In the best sense." 

I chuckled and gave her a long kiss before pulling back. "Well I gotta give these goons something fun to do other than watch us pash."

Pulling Annie into a hug I twirled her around before setting her back on grass. "I'll see you around Wise Girl."

"Likewise Seaweed Brain."

We pecked once more before she jogged off into the thicket to join Hazel, Jason and Mrs O'leary.

I watched where she had vanished for a long second before turning around, and giving the two men who were now looking directly at me a wide, shit-eating grin before pulling Annabeth's cap over my head and disappearing into thin air.