Percy's POV

We step out onto a beach. Behind us are some grey concrete buildings. Military buildings I realise. Beside me, Aelin mutters what I was thinking in my head.

"Well, that's not good."

"Agreed"

A bunch of armed soldiers march across the beach. They come to a neat precise halt. 

"Surrender in the name of Tiberias Calore the sixth King of Norta Flame of the North."

"Wow what a mouthful of titles" I mutter to Aelin.

"Yep"

"What do you think we should do?"

"Fight?"

"Yeah, why not. I wanna gauge their strength anyway"

The armed soldiers begin to grow restless.

"Well!?"

Smirking we say in unison.

"No"

Immediately arcs of flame whistled through the air. Some people began tossing seeds at us. In midair, the seeds bloomed and began to grow. Fortunately, Aelin burned the plants out of the air before they reached us and I doused the fires in water but then one of the soldiers opened their mouth and let out a shriek. Imagine the worst sound you have ever heard times that by a hundred and add in a cacophony of nails on chalkboards. Fortunately, I was on the edge of the wave of sound. Aelin was caught in the middle of the blast. She was literally thrown across the beach and knocked unconscious with blood leaking out her delicately pointed ears. 

"Oh, bright green tie-dyed fudge!"

Quickly I doused the person shrieking. I ran over to Aelin, grabbed her and slung her over my shoulder. I sprinted away into the mountains. They didn't bother to follow. They thought I would starve or something. It's good I took that wilderness survival class at camp, right?