Annabeth

I never woke up in the middle night, and never dreamed. I just slept. It was awesome.

But my body is used to waking up early, cause I practice almost every morning at home. Consequently, when I woke up, it was still dark, and I couldn't hear anything, so I'm guessing everybody was still asleep. I heard loud snorts and snores coming from Thalia, whose pillow was on her head. I chuckled silently at the hunter's dozing noises.

I laid in bed for a little, seeing if I could get back to sleep. I am kinda on vacation, so I don't really need to practice. And I would think I deserve a break.

But I was awake now, and I couldn't get back to sleep. So quietly, I sat up, and tiptoed over to my dresser. It was kinda hard to see what I was grabbing in the dark, but I rummaged around, and managed to find some black leggings with a grey top. I pulled those out, then slipped into the bathroom.

After changing, I braided my hair again, and then went back into the room. Nobody had woken up yet. I silently grabbed my seized my pack of armor and my knife, and stepped out into the hallway, softly closing the door.

I didn't know where the fighting arena was, so I just wandered around for a little bit. The boy's door was closed, and so was Mellie's. I would've asked her to show me, but I didn't want to wake her up, so I kept on walking. I was able to trace my way back to the door of the dining room. I looked through the small windows, and saw some nymphs in there. Slowly, I opened the door.

Instantly, the three girl nymphs turned towards me, and one rushed to the side, pulling out a deadly looking butcher knife from the cabinet.

I held up my hands, dropping my blade and armor pack onto the marble floor, "Whoa there! It's just me!"

The girls visibly relaxed and sighed in relief.

The blonde on that had pulled the knife out said, "Sorry. You just scared us."

I smiled warmly, "Sorry for scaring you. I was just wondering if you could tell me where the training arena was. I thought maybe I could get in some practice before the council."

The other one, this one had black hair that laid down her back in curls, said in a sweet voice, "Of course! I'll take you there. We were just cleaning, but that can wait for a little while."

I gave her my gratitude, and she and I walked out the door. She started to drift down the hallway towards a door on the left.

I was following the nymph when she said to me, "My name is Chara, by the way. I'm a nymph that works in the kitchens."

Smiling, I replied, "Well, hello Chara. My name is Annabeth."

Chara stared wide-eyed back at me, "Wait, you're Annabeth Chase? The cause for the big council?"

I frowned, "Yes. Why?"

Chara grinned, "Well, that means you are also the one who defeated the Drakon with Percy Jackson. And your father is one of the main reasons for the rift between Poseidon and Athena. And the girl nymphs from Athena's temple, who us nymphs from Mount Olympus like to talk to a lot, say that you are one of the best girl warriors that they have seen. Also, they say you are really nice and pretty. They were definitely right. You're beautiful!"

I blushed, "Aw, thanks Chara. But have you looked in the mirror before?"

Chara laughed, "Thanks to you too, Annabeth. Here we are!"

We stepped into a large indoor arena. There were no stands or anything, just a dirt arena. An archery field stood at the back, with a rack of bows and many quivers full of arrows. Straw dummies were placed at my left, and to the right of me was a ring where people could spar.

"This is where all the demigods or minor gods practice. Is this okay?" Chara asked.

I nodded, "It's perfect, thanks. Also, I was wondering what the names of the other two nymphs were."

Chara grinned, "The blonde one is Delia, and the red-haired one is Elpida. We always work back in the kitchens or in the dining rooms, so if you want to come and talk, we'd love to have you come visit us!"

I smiled at her, "Thanks Chara."

She nodded, then was about to turn and leave, when I made up my mind to ask her about this one thing, "Wait! Chara, can I ask you a question?"

The nymph nodded, urging me on.

I frowned, "Why did you and Elpida and Delia get so frightened when I opened up the door? I mean, you are on Mount Olympus, so no monsters can get in. What could I have been that would've scared you three so much?"

Chara pursed her lips, then was about to say something, then hesitated, then said, "I think you'll learn at the council. It was nice meeting you, Annabeth!"

With that she departed, leaving me to my racing thoughts. What could I have been? Nothing bad can really happen here. It was pretty much solidly protected from monsters.

I shrugged it off and walked over to a dummy. After strapping on my armor, I grabbed the hilt of my dagger and drew it.

I stayed at the arena for about a half hour, just hacking away at the dummies, and practicing my throwing needles using an archery target.

After that, I went back to the dummies. Starting with the one that was closest to me, I dodged an imaginary slash, then went in close, thrusting my blade into the stomach of the dummy. Pulling it out, I quickly swung upwards, chopping off one arm. I didn't stop my swing, and made it go into an arc, coming down and severing the other arm.

Rotating as fast as I could, my blade soon turned back around and sliced off the head.

I stepped back, barely breathing deeply.

I was about to start on a new dummy when someone talked from the doorway behind me, causing me to jump and flinch.

"I don't think that dummy is going to see the daylight again." I pivoted to see who had spoken, and saw Percy leaning on the doorway, Riptide in his hand. He had on a breastplate and backplate, like me, and bracers and greaves. But that was all the armor he had on.

I sighed angrily, "You scared me half to death, Seaweed Brain. Don't do that again."

Percy grinned lopsidedly, "Good morning to you too, Wise Girl."

"What are you doing here?"

Percy shrugged, "I like to practice in the mornings. At Mount Olympus especially, cause in the afternoons, this place is flooding with demigods practicing. I think I should be asking you the same. And how did you find your way around this place? It's like a maze of doorways and passages."

I smirked at him, "I'm just smart like that."

Percy raised an eyebrow and stared at me, not buying it. I smiled and said, "A nymph helped me. And I'm here because I like to practice in the mornings too. I do it all the time back at Athena's palace."

Percy frowned, "I heard the story, and isn't that how you got almost assassinated? By practicing in the morning without some there other than the nymphs?"

I cursed silently, "Oh yeah. I forgot. My mother told me not to practice without a guard in the morning. Oops."

Percy chuckled, "Well, then I'll be your guard so you can keep practicing."

I smiled dryly, "I don't think my mother meant having a son of Poseidon as a guard."

"Oh well. She can deal."

Laughing, I replied, "You can tell her that, Perce. Also, she is not very fond of you. Just to warn you."

Percy smiled, "I knew that. I'm a son of her enemy. I don't think she could even think highly of me."

I smirked, "That's accurate. She doesn't like the thuoght of you and me being friends either. Actually, her words were something like 'I one hundred percent disapprove of your friendship with Poseidon's spawn.'"

Percy wrinkled his nose. "Spawn? What? Is 'son' not appropriate?"

I shrugged, "Who knows."

"Well, she is going to have to deal with us being friends."

"That's what I told her, but she still didn't listen."

"Well, poo-poo on her, I say." Percy said, sounding like a complaining five year old.

"Oh, if she were here now, I don't know if I would be able to save you from her wrath." I told him, snickering.

He smirked, "Come on, lets practice. You want to spar?"

I frowned, "You just want to beat me, don't you?"

Percy shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"Well, it might be harder than you expect, Seaweed Brain." I said, walking over to the sparring arena. Percy followed me, chuckling.

"Whatever, Wise Girl."

We stood opposite of each other in the arena, and studied one another. I looked at his posture, trying to find faults. But I couldn't spot one. He held his sword at the proper height, stood on the balls of his feet, ready to spring to the attack. I admired his perfect stature. I was guessing that he had been learning swordplay since the beginning of his life.

I don't know how I could get past his guard. Maybe I could try for a distraction.

I casually started, "So, how long have you been practicing swordplay?"

"Since I was big enough to hold a sword," Percy replied.

"Who was your trainer?"

"Well, I had a few, bu-" He was cut off when I lunged suddenly. Unfortunately, he wasn't totally a Seaweed Brain, and he knew this ploy. Dodging my thrust, he spun back around, swinging his sword towards my shoulders. I parried his attack, and backed off, resuming our circling.

"Nice try, Annie." Percy said.

I glared at him. Percy was fast, and before I knew it, my hand had automatically come up to block a slash that Percy had delivered towards my thigh. I retaliated with my own, aiming for his helmet-less head. My blade was stopped abruptly by Riptide. I barely had time to see and evade the vicious swipe that came back around. Percy had used the momentum of the collision of the blades to swing his sword back around, going for my head this time.

I ducked down far, my hand on the ground. I whirled my legs around underneath me, tripping Percy. Rolling on my should, I came to a standing position and slashed my blade down at Percy. The son of Poseidon rolled onto his stomach, avoiding my dagger. He was on his feet by the time I had slid my dagger off Riptide and brought it down for another strike.

Dodging smoothly, he swung Riptide through the air. I watched it whistle down towards me. Flicking my hand up, I didn't take his sword stroke full on, cause I had a feeling Percy was really strong and that wouldn't feel good on my arms. Instead, I deflected his strike, sending his sword off to the side.

We exchanged more blows, and kept on parrying. Percy landed the first hit, which was a light rap on my hand. I stung for a moment, but I forgot about it when I returned a blow, aiming for the funny bone on his elbow. I smirked, watching Percy grimace at the pain jarring through his arm.

My arms were getting tired, and my thighs burned. Percy was a good opponent, and I barely held my own against him. I need to exercise more. It would help with my practicing too. Maybe I could ask Athena if she could make a running track in her temple-

I cursed at myself, angry that I had let my thoughts distract me. Percy had feinted, and I had taken the bait. But Riptide swung back around, hurtling down towards me. I spun just in time, the blade slicing the air right next to me. Flinging out my dagger, I shot for Percy's collar bone. Riptide flashed up to meet my blade, and the ringing clash raced up my arm, numbing it for a second.

Gritting my teeth, I flipped my knife around, going to the legs this time. I hit air, and turned to stop a slash from Percy who had moved behind me. He tried again, but I held out my dagger with a firm hold, blocking it from behind me.

I took the offense, and whirled my dagger through the air. Riptide moved up, repelling my blade. I grunted, sliding my knife off the sword.

At that moment, my left side was open, and so was his left side. I thrusted my knife at his unshielded side. Percy must've noticed my left side was open too, for his sword came at me. I stopped my blade, it's tip just touching his shoulder. Percy did the same.

A tie.

We were both panting.

Percy removed his sword from the position, grinning, "Wow. Annabeth, you're better than I thought."

"You didn't think I was good?" I asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

Percy wiped some sweat off of his glistening forehead. "No, I knew you were good. But now I think you're fantastic."

I smiled. "Thanks, Perce."

He wiggled his eyebrows, then said, "Well, do you want to have another go, or should we practice something else?"

I thought for a moment. "Lets do archery."

The son of Poseidon shrugged. "Okay, but warning: I do not have a talent with bows."

Laughing, I reassured him, "I'm not that good either. And we could always throw daggers, too."

We walked over to the archery arena. Picking out a bow, I grabbed a quiver, strapped it to my back, then walked over to a row with a target sitting about forty yards away. Percy took the row right behind me. I took one of the sharp arrows, then attached it to my bow string.

Spreading my feet to match my shoulders, I then lifted my bow, Percy doing the same.

Taking a deep breath, I focused on the target only, shoving everything around me out of my focus. Another breath. After letting it out halfway, I also released the taut string. The arrow sprang away, and I felt a pang of satisfaction as I saw it land in the center black circle. It wasn't directly in the middle, nor was the target that far away, but I wasn't the best at archery, and any signs of even small improvement made me satisfied.

Of course, I was only satisfied for about a second. Then I wanted to do better.

I glanced over at Percy, to see him grinning. My gaze turned towards his target, and I saw the dark wooden shaft protruding from the ring at the very edge of the target.

He turned towards me, still smiling widely, "I hit the target!"

I raised my eyebrows, pursing my lips. "Um, good job?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Well, this is actually pretty good for me. Usually the arrow ends up about five feet away. Or in one of the sword practicing dummies."

Laughing, I turned back to my target, taking up a stance again. After I emptied my quiver, and Percy doing the same, we decided to practice our dagger throwing.

I grabbed the tip of my blade, aimed in less than a second, then whipped my arm forward releasing my blade. I have been practicing dagger throwing since I started practicing with my dagger. So a very long time. I smiled a little when I saw good results. I looked at Percy's target, and was impressed when I saw the dagger buried up to the hilt in the center circle.

"Nice job," I said to him.

"Thanks, and back at you."

I grabbed another practice dagger from the rack of weapons, and threw again.

We practiced in silence for a little while, then I heard Percy say, "So, did you ever get to meet your dad."

My mood immediately darkened a little. Yes, I should be used to talking about my father, but I still got sad and sulky whenever the subject breached, and it was a topic that I only liked to talk about with my friends. I sighed, not answering, and launched another knife. My change of mood also affected my aim, and I frowned as it hit one of the side rings.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. Sorry for even mentioning it," Percy said hurriedly.

"No, it's fine," I said. Percy's my friend. I can talk about it. "He died when I was really young, so no. I didn't really get to meet him when I was old enough to remember."

Percy scowled, grabbing another dagger, saying angrily, "I can't believe my dad did that. Even if the other gods told him too, and if it was distracting Athena... it still isn't right to take a girls father away from her. I'm sorry." He drew back his arm, and fiercely whipped the blade at the target. I watched in astonishment as the extra force he had used made the target actually fall back.

I shook my head. "You don't have to apologize. You didn't do it, after all."

Percy didn't say anything, just walked down to fix his target. When he was walking back, I asked, "What about your family? I mean, your mom, dad, and sister."

He looked at me, "What about them."

"I mean, he is a stepfather. Some kids don't get along very well with their stepparents. Do you two get along? And what about you and your sister?"

Percy shrugged. "Yeah, Paul and I get along fine. That's his name. He's a pretty cool and nice guy."

"And your sister? Calista?" I urged.

He was tense. His clenched hands loosened, then balled up again. This was the same reaction I had gotten when I asked him about Calista during our walk. Percy was quiet for a while.

Then he opened his mouth, but hesitated. His mouth closed, then opened again, "It's kind of late, maybe we should get back and get ready for the council."

I frowned, desperately wanting to know what was wrong. "Percy, what is it?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

He didn't say anything, but walked up and deposited the borrowed daggers back onto the weapon rack. Snatching up Riptide and latching the scabbard to his belt, Percy headed for the exit.

I sighed in frustration. Turning, I followed the son of Poseidon out of the arena to the hallways. Catching up to him, I slowed my pace and walked beside him. I trusted Percy to know his way around, and followed as he turned into doorways and walked without pausing.

We got to my room, and before I went inside, I looked back at him and said, "I'm sorry if I pried, Percy." I wanted to know what was wrong, but if it was something that he didn't want to talk about, then I should keep my distance from the boundary.

Percy dismissed my apology, "It's okay." He then smiled half-heartedly and said, "See you at the council."

I nodded and opened my door, walking inside.

"Why, hello there. Where have you been?" Thalia asked from her perch up on the bunk bed. She was stuffing food from the food cabinet into her mouth, spilling crumbs everywhere.

Shaking my head, I replied, "Really Thals? You're making a huge mess. And I was practicing at the arena."

Thalia froze, then peered warily at me. "You better have taken a guard, or else I'm gonna kill you for being so ignorant and stubborn. Well, after Athena kills you, that is."

I tossed my dagger onto my bed, then marched over to my dresser. "I did forget at first, but Percy showed up soon, and he can count as a guard."

Piper poked her head out from the bathroom doorway where she was brushing her hair, saying suspiciously, "Percy?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Yes," I said slowly.

Thalia smirked, "All morning?"

Nodding steadily, I answered, "Yeah. Why?"

Piper grinned. "No reason."

I glared at her, and was about to demand an answer when Hazel said, "Really Annabeth. Aren't you a daughter of Athena? Obviously they're curious because you've spent the whole morning getting sweaty with a son of Poseidon."

My mouth dropped open from the unintended meaning that emerged from Hazel's sentence.

Thalia started guffawing, "Oh Hazel, my dear. That sounded... dirty."

Hazel's eyes widened. "Oh! I didn't mean it that way! I mean't getting sweaty as in practicing sword fighting and stuff. Not- yeah. I'm serious, guys! Ugh!" She added when Piper started laughing along with Lacy and Thalia. Her face was red, and she threw her hands up in the air, glaring at them all. I shook my head.

"You guys are horrible," I reprimanded them, then I stomped over to the open bathroom to take a bath and get ready for the council.