Who I Truly Am

Ch. 14 *Edited*

Percy POV:

We wake up before dawn, lucky that no one had kicked us out. Probably a trick of the Mist, or just the fact that we camped in a forest nearby. Connor and Travis lead us to the tower.

"Well, we're at the tower. Do we climb it?" I ask. I go up the stairs at the base of the tower. I can see a lot of Duluth and I'm not even at the top of the tower yet.

"I'm guessing," Jason flies up to the top. The sun has started to rise.

"Anything up there?" I yell.

"I don't see anything!"

"Is this the right tower?"

"It has to be," Connor looks around. "Let's go in."

We walked up the stairs. Wow. The view is breathtaking. It's almost like you're looking out at an ocean, but it's just a really big lake.

"Woah."

"I wanna see!" Jordan is up on their toes, trying to look over the edge. I pick them up. "Woah, cool!"

"Do you see that?" Will asks, pointing out in the distance.

"I don't see anything," Jason looks in the direction Will pointed at.

"Move out of the way, even with glasses you're blind," I push him out of the way and look. "I don't see anything."

"See? What does it look like, Will?"

"Some sort of beam shooting a line of light pointing to here."

"Well, where exactly is 'here'?"

Will walks over to the side of the stairs, where there's what looks like a bench in the wall. He picks at the slab of stone, trying to slide it off.

"A little help?"

"Sure," I move next to him and pull the slab off. Will reaches in, grabs something, and pulls it out. It's a short PVC pipe with end caps on it, sealing away whatever's inside.

"What's inside of you?" Will opens it up, revealing a piece of parchment. I slide the slab back into place, and he sets it down on it.

The tower starts to tremble. Lightning flashes around us, even though the sky is clear. I put my hand on the wall between us and the stairs. The lights held in the stone tower crack, glass falls to the floor.

"I don't think that's a good sign," I say. "Let's get out of here. Jason, take Jordan with you. We'll meet you at the bottom."

Jason flies off with Jordan, going through the lookout while the rest of us rush down the stairs. Travis in front, me in back. The shaking is getting worse. We run out of the tower, almost falling and stumbling in the process. I touch the ground, trying to calm the earth, but it just gets worse. The ground cracks. Something emerges from the ground. A big shadow. A huge lizard emerges. Not a lizard. A drakon. Covered in huge scales. Scales. Didn't the prophecy say something about scales? Shit.

"Don't stare into its eyes!" I shout over the rumbling. "It's a drakon!"

Frank POV:

As I saw the drakon emerge, I knew I was screwed. I told Hazel what might happen. I breathe in. And out. It's ok, it's ok, it's ok. It'll be fine. I'll be fine. It's not ok, I'm not fine.

"Don't stare into its eyes!" Percy shouts over the noise. "It's a drakon!"

I close my eyes. In. Out. In. Out. I shift into an eagle, planning to blind the drakon so he can't paralyze us. I fly high. Spot the drakon's general face area. And dive, hoping to land on its eyes.