All Heroes Fall

"If I could, I'd stay like this forever," she whispered in my ear. I smiled and kissed the side of her head.

"Me too."

It felt good to be back. My cabin was spotless as ever from Tyson. The lake was clearer than I remembered. The grass was greener. The sky was bluer. Everything was perfect. Especially this moment, right here, with Annabeth. We had found the hammock in the attic. Chiron gave us permission to set it up and we were relishing the relaxing feeling.

Everything felt colder since coming out of Tartarus. You get so used to the constant burning, that it becomes a background sensation to everything else. It was nice to feel cold again. It was even nicer to hear my mom tell me to put on a sweater. Visiting her for those few days was paradise. Well, almost paradise. This right here. This was paradise.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes while rubbing my thumb in circles on the back of Annabeth's hand. Just then, Grover trotted up to us to announce that it was time for dinner. The whole, eat with your cabin rule, kind of didn't apply to me or any of the seven anymore. We had our own table in the center of the cafeteria. It made me feel bad sometimes that a rule didn't apply to us, but when you're spending time with your family you don't really think about it anymore.

~

"Settle down! Settle down everyone!" Chiron raised his voice to be heard over the chattering. Slowly, the talking faded, and Chiron smiled. "Welcome to tonight's campfire! Now it has come to my attention that there has been some plummage issues in cabin . . ."

"Percy." Annabeth took my hand and I smiled.

"Yea?" I looked over to her on my left. My smile faded and was replaced by a look of worry. Annabeth was pale and her grey eyes looked dull. Her eyes were never dull. Unless she was afraid. "What's wrong?" She took a deep breath and squeezed my hand.

"You know how we went to the attic to get the hammock?" I nodded. "Well, when you went to get the extra rope, the . . ." She bit her lip and looked forward. "Rachel came up and talked to me." Slowly I widened my eyes in unerstanding.

"She . . . talked to you. Well, what did she say?" Annabeth nervously swallowed.

"She, she said that. She said that something bad was coming. Something real bad."

"Annabeth," I turned her to face me. "What did she say exactly."

One's thoughtless mistake
Peace, it will forsake
The seven must embark
On a journey that will end in the dark
To reclose the doors
That Wisdom's daughter has ignored
If they should fail
Then darkness should prevail
Once and for all

Notes