chapter II

🧸 Annabeth Chase had seen a lot of strange things in her lifetime. She'd spent too much time to count on the streets, being ruthlessly hunted down. Because she was a daughter of Athena, spiders followed her everywhere and she seemed to have a knack for finding them. She was used to volunteering at the infirmary during the winters when most of the healers and Apollo kids were in school or spending time with their families. Annabeth had seen her best friend turn into a tree, and her other best friend carry her away from her very best friend who was sacrificing her life for the rest of them.

So, yeah. Annabeth assumed she had a pretty good resume for seeing the most strange things in the group. She'd even seen Grover without his trousers off (and that was weird).

And she knew she was headstrong and stubborn. All Athena kids were. But even with these qualities, Annabeth could ashamedly admit that what was about to happen topped the rest of her experiences by a mile.

And no, it had nothing to do with the lady with the head of snakes, thank you very much. She was used to monsters from her books and studying and training. She could handle that.

What she couldn't handle is watching thick, evergreen vines trailing over one of the statues besides them going absolutely crazy after Percy had chopped off Medusa's head. Annabeth almost assumed the vines were mirroring the snakes of her locks, curling, twisting, writhing over the stone statue as though they were trying to cover it.

"Percy," Annabeth murmured. "step away from that statue."

He turned from grinning at the beheaded monster to look at the statue, his face dropping. Percy (who had already wrapped the Medusa head with Grover's old jumper) stepped away to fall into line with Annabeth, his other hand finding Riptide again.

"What is it? Some sort of - plant fake monster thing?" he said, a false sense of bravery masking his fear.

Annabeth shook her head wordlessly - for the first time, she seemed clueless. She was drowsy and tired, the food and aura of Medusa's lair having more of an effect on her than the others through the monster's history with her mother. Her reaction time was slowed and her mouth felt slack.

Suddenly, Grover bleated. Instead of falling back alongside Annabeth and Percy, he surged forward, eyes shining with wonder that Annabeth only saw when he spoke about Pan.

"Goat boy!" she hissed, anger masking her worry. "Get back, or you'll be smoking chevon-"

"No - look!" he spluttered. "I knew - I knew I recognised it. Just like I recognised my great uncle Ferdinand. But - can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?" Percy raised an eyebrow. His hand seemed to have relaxed around his pen, trusting Grover's judgement despite his best reflexes.

Grover grinned crazily at them. "The nature."

Percy shook his head. "You're insane."

Annabeth had seen a lot of strange things, that much was true. But never once in her life had she expected to watch the vines tighten around the stone, squeezing it, making the rocks crack.

"It's impossible," Annabeth stammered. "that shouldn't work. Stone is too strong-"

"Annabeth, I don't think the structural integrity of stone really matters when it comes to magic snake-lady statues-" Percy snapped, before a small piece of rock which had been squeezed between two thick vines pinged out and hit him square in the forehead. "Ow!"

The statue was crumbling. Jagged pebbles and rock were falling, hitting the floor with vivid aggression. The vines were as wild as ever. The flowers blooming from them released a sweet sort of pollen, dizzying their already confounded heads.

Annabeth hit Percy on the arm. He turned to her, about to open his mouth in annoyance - when she pointed with her golden dagger to her own nose, which her free hand had pinched. Her eyes said, follow my lead and you won't die, kelp head.

He pinched his nose, trying not to breathe deeply through his mouth. The smell of the pollen was still infectious. More rocks crumbled and fell, leaving a dust in their wake.

The three winced in unison, covering their heads as the rest of the statue crumbled into rubble. And when they opened their eyes . . .

Standing in the wake of the statue was a girl. A real-life girl, Percy corrected himself as though he'd never seen one before. A real-life girl who looks a lot like a real-life princess.

She was cut up and covered in dirt and grime, and Percy couldn't think of anything else to describe her of than a princess. Maybe it was the way her twisted and curly hair was sticking up at the back like a tiara. Or a bird's nest, but Percy wasn't really focusing on the logistics. He was pretty busy looking at her. She'd just sprouted from stone, so there wasn't really a reason not to.

She was posed in the same manner as what Medusa had crafted her in. Her pale hands were up before her, almost in a defensive stance if her face wasn't one of horror. The vines lay around her feet, unmoving. The pollen in the air had all but disappeared, the last sprinkles of it laying on her already dirty and messed up hair.

Percy was frozen in shock. She was the girl in Annabeth's picture and she looked . . . exactly the same. As though not even a day had passed.

Her face was still dirty, her clothes ripped and torn. What Percy could assume was usually well-cared for and silky hair was matted and choppy, hanging around her face and giving the impression of a crazed animal. If her eyes glazed with unshed tears weren't flickering and wary, they'd be drooping with tiredness.

She looked worse than them. Almost dead. It made Percy feel better about their own situation, for a second.

Her chest rose and fell fast as her legs gave way. The sudden apparition of a girl dropped to the floor, caught almost elegantly by the vines which helped her fall against the ground gently, and suddenly stilled as though the snake charmer had stopped playing his flute.

"I - I just had the most horrible nightmare," she murmured crazily, her hands coming to grab each other and pat over her body, making sure she found skin over stone. Her voice was different against his ears, he noticed. She had a Greek accent, slightly mingled with the Brooklyn twang. "she was ... so horrible - so ugly -"

Grover tripped over his own hooves to tackle the poor girl. If Percy didn't know any better, he would've thought that was his way of attacking.

And he didn't. Percy uncapped Riptide, holding it before him in a defensive stance.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded. "who are you? A minor goddess? Some sort of monster-"

"Percy," Annabeth interrupted him, voice cracking. Her knife had fallen against the ground, and she was stood rooted in her place. Not out of fear, but shock. "She's not a monster."

You shall stumble blind over a past friend of stone, he mentally recounted his prophecy.

Oh.

Oops.

He suddenly felt bad for threatening the poor girl who was shivering in the cold, her only source of warmth being the satyr who was still sobbing into her hair.

The girl blinked dazedly, eyes starting to come back into focus. Her hand, though weak, came to the back of Grover's head where she patted it awkwardly.

Grover bleated a noise which sounded suspiciously like a sob. "D-D-Daphne!"

"Thank God's you came back," she shivered, still trying to come to grasp with her eyes not being covered by stone. "the monster would've got me if it hadn't - where - where's Luke and Thalia? And - Annabeth - God's, Grover, let me go, I can't breathe-"

He mornfully dropped his vice-grip around her and sniffled. Percy didn't notice the slip of Thalia's name.

Daphne's face only came into Percy's full view as she pulled away and studied Grover's face. She was pretty, and had the general look of which a nymph should hold. She reminded him of Annabeth slightly - whereas the daughter of Athena looked like a princess, the daughter of rubble had rosebud lips which reminded him of a fairy, and eyes shaped like sugared almonds. Unlike Annabeth, her skin was pale as though she hadn't caught the sun in years and her nose was regal and roman, reminding Percy of old Greek statues of royalty. "Grover...your horns. Why...? How did they grow so fas- Gods - how long has it be-"

"It's been five years," Percy blurted out. Daphne's head whipped towards him, as though she didn't notice he was there before. Way to rip the bandaid off, one part of his brain scolded. Where's your compassion?

Shut it, the other side of his conscience scolded. Better to get it over with, really.

"Hi, I'm Percy. I'm new." he stepped forward slightly. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

Her mouth opened and closed like a fish. Grover was still sniffling, unable to speak without bleating or stuttering.

"Five years?" her voice croaked. Grover started to bawl again, howling as he hung his arms back around her shoulders. "I - what? I can't... What the hell happened? Why..." she looked down at herself helplessly. Percy was still apprehensive of the vines beside her, though they sat without slithering.

Percy capped his sword, turning it back into a pen and stuffing it in his pocket. Daphne looked at him in alarm, like he was some sort of sorcerer.

"Daphne," Annabeth spoke a little louder this time, mobility finally coming to her as she rushed to her side. Annabeth fell on her knees onto the vines, almost crashing into Grover as she did so. She frantically started sifting through her backpack. "I - I have some ambrosia in here, okay? Do you need-"

"Annabeth?" Daphne whispered in a daze. "Oh, Gods. Look at you. You're all grown up - you still look like shit, did you even make it to the Camp?"

Annabeth laughed wetly. Percy didn't notice when she'd started to cry. "Of course that's what you're worried about. Daphne we thought - you were presumed dea-"

Daphne glanced around the room, speaking hurriedly to interrupt like she didn't want to jinx it. "I guess I was. Maybe Hades didn't want me anym-"

Annabeth muttered something which sounded like 'stupid' and wrapped her arms furiously around her friend.

Only then did Percy start to feel as though he was imposing.

He'd never really had friends. The only family he had was him and his mom. This felt like an intimate reunion, and he shuffled on his feet awkwardly, not knowing whether to stay and help her to her feet, or to leave and wander around the lot like a lost puppy.

Percy liked to look down at his shoes whenever he felt awkward. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the disembodied head of Medusa wrapped in bubble wrap and tape sat by his feet. He stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: 'WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!'

He looked up and saw Annabeth trying to shove a piece of ambrosia into Daphnes' mouth, and her trying to push her away. He quietly slid away from their picnic table back into the warehouse, searched the back of the it until he found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. He folded up the bill and stuffed it in his pocket.

Percy killed a bit of time wandering idly around the office. He saw that Medusa had won a couple of awards which were hanging on shelves around the room. His dyslexia made it hard to read the tiny lettering, but he assumed that they were for garden gnome competitions.

After about ten minutes had passed, he heard Grover's feet trotting behind him.

"Hey, Percy?" he started hesitantly. "it- it's okay if Daphne stays, right? At least for a while-"

Percy turned around with a frown. "Why wouldn't it be okay? Hey, dude - are you okay?" he added, after seeing tears still running down his cheeks.

"Yeah, I -" he fumbled and took a shaky breath. "it was my job to get her to Camp five years ago. I told you last night, didn't I? She was with Annabeth and Luke, and... and I failed. And it's, like, a weird jumpscare, so I haven't really processed it all, and my therapist says I don't do well under pressure -"

Percy interrupted him by reaching forward to hold onto his arm. "Dude. It's okay. She's here now, isn't she? And another person for our quest. Keeps Annabeth off my back."

He knew exactly what to say to calm Grover down. They walked back out together, and as they approached the girls, Percy threw the wrapped head onto the picnic table. Annabeth stared at it in disgust, the tears from her eyes now fully wiped away. The girl - Daphne, he reminded himself - raised an eyebrow, looking up at him like she was trying to figure out him out.

He grabbed a ballpoint pen he'd taken from Medusa's office, and scribbled:

The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY

With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON ᵕ̈

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."

He poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as he closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop.

"I am impertinent," Percy said. He looked at Annabeth, almost daring her to criticize him.

She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that he had a major talent for ticking off the gods. Statue Girl - Daphne - had a small smile dancing over her lips.

"Come on," Annabeth muttered. "We need a new plan. Daphne, we'll - we'll have to explain it along the way."

౨ৎ ˖ ࣪⊹ 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
🌷🫧🪷

   and BOOM !! Welcome ... Daphne :)

ʚɞ I don't want to dawdle on her storyline for too long. It can be really boring just reading about a character who's just depressed about missing years - and she's only twelve. To Daphne, her mind never left
fight-or-flight mode, so she's really taking it all in as she goes along right now.

♥︎ thoughts?? opinions?? any grammatical mistakes? every comment is a blessing. thank you for reading :)