Annabeth

While Sophie was speaking, Annabeth observed the elves. They were all exceptionally beautiful, with clothing that was almost formal that made Annabeth feel out of place with her orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and simple jeans. Their eyes were all different shades of blue except for Sophie's. The color seemed to be a mark of the elves.

Judging from the flashing lights summoned by Elwin and the furniture appearing from nowhere at a snap of Edaline's fingers, these elves had magical abilities somewhat like that of demigods, maybe more. There was so much more that Annabeth didn't know about these elves, but she had decided that she could trust them, though still somewhat warily. Experience has taught her to always proceed with caution.

"...And we light leaped back." Sophie finished.

At that moment, Annabeth fell Percy stir behind her and quickly turned to look at him. She felt the eyes of the elves on her back. "How do you feel?"

Percy sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Like someone heavy stepped on my head. Are you okay? Where are we? Where's Blackjack? Is that blue cake?"

Annabeth introduced Percy to everyone and told him what had occurred on Liberty Island. "They saved us from the Shrimpzilla. We can trust them. They're elves that seem to have powers, like demigods, but I'm not sure what that means yet. I told Blackjack to go back to camp in case we didn't make it."

"Elves? Like the ones that make toys at the North Pole?"

Sophie grinned. "You sound like me when I first discovered I was an elf."

"When you first discovered you were an elf?" Percy asked. "Okay, there's definitely a lot more to the story. Can I have some of that food?"

Elwin stood up and gave Percy a Bottle of Youth. "Drink this first. It'll do you good."

"Thanks."

After he drained the bottle thirstily, Annabeth handed Percy a piece of mallowmelt.

"I'm glad that Percy has recovered." Said Grady. "Now that everyone can participate, we should discuss the problem of the monster you fought. Did you call it a Shrimpzilla? On top of that, we also need to know what a 'demigod' is."

Gathering her thoughts, Annabeth questioned, "Have you all heard of the gods of Greek and Roman mythology?" When the others nodded, she continued. "Those gods and goddesses are real, and reside on a floating city above the Empire State Building in New York called Mount Olympus. Demigods are the children of these deities when they fall in love with humans. Demigods, in most circumstances, inherit some of the powers of their godly parent. We have two camps that are safe heavens for demigods protected from monsters. Camp Jupiter for the Roman demigods and Camp Half-Blood for the Greek. The Greek and Roman gods are actually split personalities of the same gods, and the two camps didn't even know about each other and started to merge until recently, but that's a different story. A magical veil called the Mist conceals these things from the mortals."

"That about covers it." Percy agreed. "But there's so many more details. I'm a child of Poseidon the god of the sea and more stuff, one of the 'Big Three' gods. Annabeth is a daughter of Athena the wisdom goddess."

"Wow." Fitz said. "Just when I thought this world already reached maximum weirdness this drops on us."

"Yeah. It's a lot to process." Biana agreed.

Percy took another piece of mallowmelt. "That's what I thought about the elves thing. But I'm not even surprised by this anymore after what we've been through. This food is heavenly, by the way."

"Now, I think you owe us an explanation about elves, where we are, and how we got here." Annabeth said.

"Wait," Tam cut in. "We've been speaking the Enlightened Language this entire time. Why do you demigods know it and can speak it fluently?"

"We've been talking in a different language?" Percy looked mystified. "I don't know, must be a demigod thing. Annabeth, any ideas?"

Annabeth shook her head, unhappy that there was so much she didn't know. "I've never even heard of this language. Can you still speak English, too?"

"We can, but we're not as fluent. It's another mystery, like the ambrosia. Try not to worry too much about it now. Let's tell them about us." Linh said.

"Well, um." Sophie glanced around her. "It's quite a long story."

"Annabeth." Percy interrupted. "I'm sure that the other campers and Chiron are worried about us. Blackjack went back by himself, so they might even think we're dead."

"You're right. Sophie, just give us a watered down version of the explanation. I don't like not know anything."

Sophie nodded, then filled Annabeth and Percy in on the most important details of the world of the elves like the pathfinders and the Council, including the Black Swan and the Neverseen.

"You know," Dex said after Sophie finished, "Now that I've heard it all said out loud, the things we've been through seems even more insane."

Percy grinned. "It's almost comparable to the crazy quests that demigods have to go on just because a oracle sprouts some prophecy and the gods are lazy."

"Don't say that, the gods might hear you. We don't need any more trouble right now." Annabeth chided. But she agreed with him silently.

She noticed that Alden was looking at Percy and her, then at the mallowmelt and frowning. A second later, his face cleared and he smiled at the group.

"Well then, let's not let your friends worry about you two any longer. If you tell us where your camp is, I can deliver you there via light leaping. I'm certain that this qualifies as a situation in which we can use the crystal that leaps to the human cities." Alden said.

"We'd appreciate that. Camp Half-Blood is on the north shore of Long Island in New York." Annabeth informed.

"Can I go with you? I'd like to see the camp." Sophie asked.

Fitz said. "I'd like to go too."

"Me three." Keefe added.

"I don't see why not." Alden agreed.

Tam looked towards his twin. "I'll stay here with Linh. She needs her rest after lifting so much water to chase away that Shrimpzilla."

"Wait." Percy's eyes lit up. "You can control water too? Will you show me?"

Linh held her hand up, and a sphere of water grew above it. The water shaped itself into a hummingbird that flew around the room and evaporated.

"Woah. Your skills are more precise than mine." Percy thought out loud. "Can you breath underwater or control ships?"

"I can't." Linh answered.

Percy smiled brightly at Linh. "We should practice together sometimes and teach each other. I've never actually met someone who has water abilities that wasn't a god."

Linh returned his smile. "Sure." She then turned to her brother, who was frowning at Percy. "Tam, stop worrying. I'm fine."

Alden had left the room as Tam started talking. Now he returned holding a pathfinder with a blue crystal, two small cuffs, and two thin crystal squares. Annabeth recognized the items as nexuses and Imparters from Sophie's earlier explanation.

"Are Sophie, Keefe, and Fitz the only ones coming with us?" He asked.

After seeing the nods of confirmation, Alden turned to face Annabeth and Percy. "Here are two nexuses to protect you from fading while light leaping, just in case. The Imparters are to contact us. You can keep them." He gave them the gadgets and they both clamped the nexuses on their right wrists and twisted it until it fit, thanking Alden.

The jewel set into Annabeth's nexus was deep purple, while Percy's glinted silver. Etched around the band was a message or quote of some sort.

Percy read his sentence out loud. "'Remember what you're fighting for, remember your future.' What does yours say?"

"'Fantasies becomes reality, and the world fades into dreams.'"

Sophie looked startled and slightly unhappy. "You can read elvin runes? I can't do that even though I'm an elf. Well, I guess demigods can already speak the Enlightened Language. So unless you're unlucky me, you can read the runes too."

"What do you mean? This just looks like English to me." Percy said. It looked like English to Annabeth, too. She tried shifting her eyes to looked at the words different. Suddenly, the sentence turned into unintelligible gibberish. She focused again and it switched back to English.

Alden adjusted the pathfinder then held a hand out to Annabeth, who stood up and took it. "Link hands. I've set the pathfinder to Long Island and we'll be there in no time."

Percy held on to Annabeth's other hand, while Fitz, Keefe, and Sophie followed suit. Alden lifted the pathfinder to the light and stepped into the beam it created.

Annabeth still wasn't used to this feeling when her body was broken down into tiny particles to be carried by the light. It defied the laws of physics. But then again, a lot of things in her world didn't follow physics.

The group appeared beside a road on Long Island. Fortunately, no humans were around the see the strange sight of 6 people suddenly coming into existence from thin air, and they had arrived close to Camp Half-Blood. Annabeth suddenly realized how much fresher and cleaner the air in the elven world was compared to the air heavy with pollution in the crowded human cities.

Percy pointed them to right direction and, after a short walk, they arrived on top of Half-Blood Hill. It wasn't a particularly beautiful sight compared to natural wonders, but to Annabeth and Percy, it was home.

The elves marveled at Thalia's Pine with the Golden Fleece hanging glittering in it's branches, guarded by Peleus the purple dragon. Peleus glanced at the elves, then yawned and lifted his tail in greeting to Percy and Annabeth.

"A dragon." Sophie whispered. Even Alden seemed impressed.

After promising to call using the Imparters now safely stored inside Annabeth's backpack, the demigods started down the hill towards the Big House.