Not Your Choice

chapter eight

Annabeth rubbed her temples. "Your people are very problematic, Percy. You said all they cared about was fish."

Percy laughed dryly, but also looked distressed. "I wouldn't put it past my dad to make them give us too many pity problems to handle. I wonder how the other's are doing."

"NOT SO GOOD, JACKSON!" Yelled a voice everyone recognized as Clarisse.

Annabeth's brain must've thought screw being a lady, because she burst into laughing along with Jason and Percy.

Percy and Jason seemed to have found it more funny than Annabeth, seeing as Jason excused himself to go to the bathroom, and Percy just laughed at Jason more after that. Annabeth rolled her eyes as he walked away.

After her laughs subsided, she noticed how parched her throat was. She looked over at Percy. "Do you all have anything other than wine?" She said it as in a way that it didn't sound whiny, just questioning.

"Yeah," He said. "But the wells are at the end of the castle."

"My handmaiden must be bored out of her mind right now." Annabeth looked over at the nearest slave. "Go find my handmaiden, Piper, and tell her to fetch some water. She should be in my room."

The slave gave a curtsy, and practically ran away to go find Piper.

•••

Piper struggled to lift the heavy water bucket up the stairs. Although she was thankful for Annabeth giving her a challenge, Annabeth seemed to forget that Piper lacked upper body strength.

A guard seemed to notice Piper's struggle. "Do you need a hand, miss?"

Piper looked in his direction. His name tag read Officer Dylan. She nodded.

He picked up the other side of the bucket and led her away.

She didn't know the castle as well as she did, so she just followed his lead.

The air began to get hotter and hotter by the second, and soon enough they were at the very end of the forge.

"Officer," Piper began. "Why—?"

Dylan silenced her words by slamming her against a wall. She tried to scream, but her voice was muffled by Dylan's hand over her mouth.

He picked up her chin by his finger and stared into her eyes. She was glaring at him, and he kicked his lips. "You'll be a fun toy, won't you? Let's go to my room... we'll be away from this...chaos."

She bit his hand and he yelped and stepped back slightly. He looked furious. He slapped her across the face, drawing a hit of blood. She only flinched, but it still hurt badly.

"I am a higher rank than you, slave," he yelled with a sneer. "You will obey my orders!"

Piper let fear take over herself for a split second. Who's words against who's? She was just a handmaiden, he was a guard of the royal family.

She saw a small elvish figure slowly walking behind Dylan. He mouthed, Keep him talking. Dylan was too distracted by looking at Piper to notice the way she was looking.

She did just that. "Oh I'm so sorry, sir," She drawled out. She looked at him in her most innocent eyes and gave him a seductive smile.

"Let's go to your room, hmm?" Piper purred. She stroked his chest. "Let's have a fun night."

He was completely hypnotized by her words. That was why it was so easy for the elfish figure to wack Dylan in the back of the head with a wrench. 

He fell over with the ugliest smile on his face. Piper couldn't help but laugh.

She looked at me figure that helped her get away from Officer Dylan.

She gasped. "V-Valdez?"

He also looked up and got a good look at her face. "McLean?"

She nodded and hugged him tight.

"I haven't seen you since we both got sold!" Leo exclaimed. "Remember all the pranks we did in the nobles?"

Piper laughed and nodded. She remembered before they were slaves and they would always pull pranks on the upperclassmen. She had been heartbroken when they were separated.

"Remember when we set Lord Hedge's pants on fire?" Piper asked, letting go of her old best friend. "He was ticked."

Leo nodded. "I don't think this is the best time to catch up, so how about we talk another time, Beauty Queen?"

She rolled her eyes at her nickname. Once the duo got into Piper's mother's makeup and Piper did so terrible that Leo mocked her and called her a beauty queen.

"That's a deal, Repair Boy."

Leo puffed out his chest, proud of the nickname he owned. He could fix or make anything.

Piper bid goodbye and watched Leo run off. She sighed, not very excited to carry the water up.

•••

Jason was walking back from the bathroom when he saw a salve girl that caught his attention.

He recognized her as Piper, Annabeth's personal slave. She had choppy brown hair, skin a bit in the darker side, and her eyes popped the most. They were always changing, and each change was just as beautiful as the last.

She was struggling to carry up a bucket of water. Jason checked to see if anyone was around, and walked over to her. She didn't notice him walking towards her.

"You need help?" He asked, looking over her shoulder.

She yelped, and out of surprise, she kicked him in the groin. He groaned.

She gasped. "Oh gosh! Your highness, I-I—"

Jason cut her off by laughing. "It's fine. It was my fault. Piper, isn't it?"

She nodded and gave a small curtsy.

Jason noticed a large red slap with a bit of blood dripping down on her cheek. She noticed, and touched it, giving a small wince while doing so.

"May I?" He asked, noticing her wince.

She nodded, surprised that the prince of Olympia would be kind to a slave that he didn't even know.

He ripped a small part off of his shirt, small enough not to be noticed, and dipped it in the water. He tenderly rubbed the blood off her face.

Piper's heart was pounding in her chest. Jason's face was folded into a concentrated expression, and Piper thought it was cute.

The way Jason's blue eyes sparked with concern, and the tiny scar above his lip make Piper's heart flutter.

But she pushed those thoughts away. She was just a slave.

Jason was surprised he wasn't breaking down in a nervous sweat. Piper was beautiful and he wanted to do more than just clean her face.

But, like Piper, he pushed those thoughts away. He was supposed to fall in love with the people his parents taught him to hate.

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Jiper has met!

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