Warrior Cats: The Four Clans

Flying with the night wind rippling through your hair is a truly peculiar feeling. Knowing that there are thousands of mortals who dream of being able to do so, yet you are the one of the lucky few who will ever experience the feeling is even more peculiar. Flying to Mount Olympus, home of twelve immortals who are about to decide whether to kill two of your best friends and make a decision that will either make-or-break life as we know it now thats the most peculiar of all.

Thalias head rested on her pegasus and her eyes were shut tight. She looked almost innocent as she lay asleep in the night sky. Almost innocent. After all, leopards dont change their spots.

She turned my head to look at him. This was one of those moments that you would rarely find Percy Jackson caught in his face thoughtful yet unmoving, his green eyes fixed on something ahead. His calloused hands didnt even need to hold onto the reins of the pegasus. He looked so at ease; it was almost a different person.

She wondered what was running through his mind. Although many a comment was directed towards Percys brain capacity, she knew he wasnt stupid. He was a thoughtful and curious person engaging, unpredictable. She would have thought he would be uncomfortable, flying so high in the sky, and yet he looked so relaxed and calm.

He never ceased to amaze her. He was...different that way.

It struck her, then, how very different he was from everything conventional everything predictable. She remembered those years she had spent at Camp; waiting and praying for a great hero to come so her life could begin. All the others can been typical? Was that the word? Perhaps quintessential would be more appropriate. Yes, they were all well and good, but they werent the one she had been waiting for. She knew that much.

And then he had come battling a Minotaur and a Fury in the process and everything had changed. The world turned upside down. He aggravated her. He irritated her. He made her want to throw something preferably at him. And yet, he, the one who was so maddeningly unorthodox, turned out to be the one who changed her life!

Irony, for a daughter of Athena, was more infuriating than it was humorous.

She ran her hands through her pegasus mane slowly, breathing deeply. She wished, briefly, that her brain would cease to stop thinking just for a moment, so she could just relax and not have to deal witheverything. All her life; so complicated, so rushed, so pressured

Everything, everything, everything had changed. Shed grown so quickly in such a short space of time. She had been a little girl only weeks before. Granted, a little girl whod seen the worst of the world - but somehow, that had been okay, because she could turn a blind eye to that harsh reality. She had trusted, she had loved, she understood. She felt she knew it all.

And now Now she knew so much less.

Annabeth sighed, wanting to scream and cry and shout as the memories of the last few days flickered through her fading mind. She remembered being so frustrated at herself at first. She became convinced that she was weak, because she felt pain and she had cried. She hadnt been able to fight back. She couldnt conquer anything without anyone elses help.

The sky She touched her hair tentatively, as if it could trigger that force above her to fall upon her shoulders once more. She shook even now as she remembered the feeling crushing, burning, overpowering like everything was going to be taken from her, one by one as her body took the weight of the sky

She couldnt remember being freed. Even now, the memory was fading of the sky crashing down upon her, but the memory of her release was non-existent. She didnt know how she came to be freed, but when she had awoken she there was no sky. She had not felt relieved, she recalled, but rather appalledat herself. Shed let someone else save her. Shed been the person she hated the person who couldnt fend for themselves.

Over the next few days, she remembered feeling so changed she had felt barely the same person she was someone else in all but name. She had been saved by another Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt.

She was indebted to Artemis, and the gratitude she felt towards her was immense, but she didnt like having to be rescued by someone else. It felt cowardly. It felt weak.

It felt like it was the only way she would ever walk out of the nightmare to be saved by another. For a hero to come along, beat the enemy and whisk her away to the days she remembered. It sounded so like a fairytale. Annabeth Chase, fairytale princess.

She had hated that story when she was younger.

Now?

Well, it was growing on her. She almost smiled to herself, but held it back and glanced sideways at Percy.

Her hero. The one who had saved her.

Not only had she changed, but something had changed in the way she looked at him. She remembered how she had chosen him, of all the things in the world, as her one source of light to keep her going. He had kept her from giving in. It was his face she had engraved in her memory to look back upon and remember that her life was still out there, somewhere.

For the gods sake, it was him. Everything was him. The one who let her life begin two years ago. The one who saved her, just hours ago. The one who

The one who didnt betray her.

She shut her eyes and pretended she didnt think about that, brushing the thought away quickly and somewhat painlessly.

Everything was changing. Shed known war changed stuff, but still she didnt expect it on this scale. He was her best friend, for crying out loud! He was Percy. Her irritating, courageous, nauseating, hilarious, punchable Percy. Apart from the fact that he wasnt hers. He was just a friend.

Lying to yourself, she realised, never works.

She glanced quickly over at him, and blinked, letting herself rest in the moment. For now, at least, he was just Percy. He might be just Percy for only a little longer a month, a week, a day, an hour­ but he was Percy. Some things hadnt changed. He was still the same person. He was still there for her.

He turned and gave her a small smile that made her blush and send a shiver right through her. Their eyes met and it dawned on Annabeth Chase that, however things may change between them, however war might turn their words upside down, however it may end, some changes werent always for the worst.

I am, thanky Night!!! * hugs Night *

Thank you!!!

HOLY FUDGEMUFFINS
ahuorfbelqhiofe
I KNOW THAT SONG

It's one of the greatest songs EVA. 8D
"So close", right? From Enchanted, right? By Jon McLaughlin, RIGHT?! 8DDD

Lulz, awesomest chapter EVA!!! x3