The Mark Of Athena

chapter 7

The Mark of Athena (chapter 7) All rights to Rick Riordan: Word Whisperer

Percy    VII

                Gods Percy had missed Annabeth. He missed pretty much everything about her from her smile, her laugh, and her stormy eyes. But he missed kissing and being with her most. Whenever he was with her he was always happy as could be. But all his joy of being near her was decimated by her punching him.

He was used to being punched by her she did it all the time. Even though they didn’t hurt him he had to give her some satisfaction so he hunched over or over exaggerated what he felt. One time she was seriously angry with him, though Percy couldn’t think of what it was he did, and did a full on boxer’s swing at him. When it landed he hadn’t even felt it. The punch she just gave him was just the same as the one before. Now that the curse of Achilles was gone he got the full thing.

On the ground Percy wasn’t really noticing anything beyond his girlfriend’s love tap. Slowly the pain ebbed enough for Percy to notice there was arguing going on around him. He focused on the voices near him. He could hear Annabeth, Jason, and one other who was it?

“…our Praetor! You see they are not here as ambassadors of the other camp they are infiltrators!”

Only one person in this whole entire camp, no in either of the camps would be this stupid as to insult someone that could start a war. Heck, they didn’t need another one. He slowly stood and stumbled a bit. Annabeth reached out to him and steadied him.  Percy finally turned to Octavian, who was already spewing his next string of idiotic babble.

“Octavian!” Percy yelled at him. Octavian stopped talking and stared at him, “Yes, Praetor Jackson?” Percy continued in a voice that Octavian shouldn’t ignore,” Didn’t I tell you and everyone but the Fifth Cohort to leave?” Percy didn’t let him answer. “And since you seem so interested in ignoring my orders, maybe I should have Reyna set up a suitable punishment for you. Something that is suitable for a Roman soldier who ignores his orders, hmm?”

Octavian was angry, but he hesitated and tried to worm his way out of something again. “But Praetor I was just…”

“Enough, Leave now!” he said, Octavian stumbled back a few steps and did a quick bow and walked away from them. “Fifth cohort join the others, Frank and Hazel come on over here.” As the Fifth was leaving Dakota gave him an are-you-sure? look, Percy gave him nod as an answer. Dakota just shrugged and took a swig from his flask.

He turned and saw that Piper was staring between him and Octavian. Percy laughed trying to lighten the mood. “Jason, I bet you missed that guy?”

“Oh, not really,” Jason agreed with Percy,” he always annoyed me. The whole time I was praetor he tried to get me or Reyna to mess up so he could take our spots”

“Reyna hates that guy. Well I hate him too, mostly the fact that he’s a little slimy shadow working jerk.”

“Why do you two hate that guy so much? Other than accusing us of espionage?” Piper asked, clearly wanting some more light on the situation. Jason started first. “Well, for me it started when he had ignored the rules of engagement in my second match of war games. Then all of the little snide remarks he would say. And in the way he talked at meetings always pissed me off because he could out maneuver anyone in a conversation.”

Frank and Hazel joined them. “Not earlier! Percy actually got him to stumble, it was impressive to see.” Hazel pointed out.

“Hey, Hazel I see you’ve made good friends. And the “All Mighty Percy Jackson” does it again.” Jason smirked peeking at Annabeth, Percy was confused, and he looked at Annabeth who was blushing a bit. “What is he talking about?” “Nothing much, I just told them about a couple of the quests you went on.”