Chapter 3- Bryn's Other Secret

Percy's POV

I was just walking out of my cabin and was heading to the Dinning Hall, when Bryn came sprinting out of the forest, a huge smile on her
face.

She spotted me, and ran toward me, nearly knocking me over. "Hey." I laughed as she blanced herself and matched my stride.

"Hi!" She smiled. "Notice anything different about me?"

I stopped and looked her up and down. She held her arms out an turned in a circle so I could get a better view. "So...?" she said coming back to the front.

"Hmm... You look cleaner?" I guessed, and indeed, she did. She looked freshly bathed. Her caramel hair no longer a knotted mess, and now a beautiful labyrinth of wavy curls. Although she still had some bruises and cuts, they looked much better than they had the day before, no longer looking scabby and infected.

"No!" She said stomping her feet, and that's when I noticed, she was barefoot, and supporting both of her feet.

"Your cast and crutches are gone!" I exclaimed, and she smiled and nodded. "How?" I asked

"I woke up this morning, and it was doing much better. And I just helped it a bit... My powers with water include healing." she blushed a bit.

"Like mine?" he asked

Her eyes widened. "You can heal with water too!"

I shrugged. "Sort of. When I touch water, no matter how tired I am, I always feel so much stronger. And it can also heal 'my' wounds. Like once when we were playing capture the flag near the creek in the wood-" I stopped looked at her, and just realized where she just came from. "Wait- what were doing in the woods!"

She shrugged. "Sleeping."

"Sleepi- what! It's dangerous, and... And you were 'sleeping' in there!" I asked befuddled.

"Yeah." she nodded. "Haven't you ever slept in the woods before?"

"Not in those woods! There are monsters in there that are capable of killing both you and me! How on earth did you spend the night in there?"

"Eh, I saw some of your so-called 'monsters' and to be honest, most of them aren't that scary. I've seen worse." she shrugged

"So your a monster battle expert huh?" I asked crossing my arms.

"I didn't say I battled worse, I said I've seen worse monsters." she replied smoothly.

"Oh... Well, okay then..." I said, still a little confused, but knew that there was no point continueing the arguement. I turned and started walking again, and she walked by my side. We reached the Dinning Hall, where a large number of people were already gathered and sitting at their tables. I sat at my table, and Bryn stood around nervously before going to stand by a nearby collumn. I looked at her and raised my eyebrow, surely Chiron wouldve gotten her a table to sit at. She just shook her head, and turned away from me as Chiron strode up to her. They exchange a few words, he frowned and she nodded her head briefly before following him up to the table he was sitting at and standing there nervously shifting feet.

Chiron shouted for everyone to be quiet, and once everyone was said; "Everyone, this is Bryn. If you don't know who she is, then surely you remember the incident with capture the flag." a whisper broke out as people started to recognize her. A few looked my way, but I ignored them. "Bryn here, is not a demigod, but she is no mere mortal, and she needs a table to sit at while she's here. Who would like to take her in?"

Cabins talked it over with each other, and after a few moments, several raised their hands, including the Athena cabin.

"Ah, here. You can sit at the Athena cabin table." I heard him tell her. She nodded and walked over to that table and sat down next to Annabeth, greatful to be out of the spotlight but still nervous. I looked around, and laughed a bit. Most of the people were starring at her, and whenever she looked their way, they tried to hide it, but looked back again once she looked away. She muttered something to Annabeth, and Annabeth smiled and nodded like it was nothing.

The exitement died down a little, and we all lined up to get our food. After everything had been cleared, we all started going to our daily activities, but even as I was walking away, I noticed that mostly everybody still had their eyes in Bryn.

Annabeth's POV (Geeze! It's about time for a new perspective!)

First up was archery. Bryn walked with us, engaged in a conversation with my siblings as we walked to the archery range. I smiled as Bryn opened up a bit more to my brothers and sisters. It had been I who had told Chiron that she had no place to sit, so it seemed only right that we should be the ones to take her in.

We reached the supply shed, and handed Bryn a bow as she walked up. She smiled and took it, and sheathed a few arrows in her quiver that I had given her.

When everyone was ready, we each got our own target, and began shooting. I almost hit the bullseye on the first, and hit the secondary ring on the second. This is okay for me I guess. I looked over at Bryn to see if she needed any help, but she had already gotten 3 direct bullseyes. A little jealous, I watched her notch her arrow and send it flying at the target, another bullseye. I turned back to my own target, but still only managed to hit the secondary ring, again. I grit my teeth and tried again, and this time made it about an inch closer to the tiny red circle in the center.

After we were dismissed from archery, we headed toward the lake for canoeing. I asked Bryn how she was so good at archery. All she simply said that she had used a bow and arrow a lot when she was on the job.

I completed 3 laps around the lake, and pulled to a stop beside Bryn, who had merely floated there the whole time. She was looking down, winding water around her hand and between her fingers with her powers, she seemed to be thinking about something.

"Everything alright Bryn?" I asked, accidentally startling her, nearly making her fall out of the conoe.

"What?" She asked setting her boat right again.

"Are you alright?" I asked again.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking..."

"About your family?" I asked. Percy had told me mostly everything earlier this morning, and I felt sad for her. Even though my life is rough, I have at least gotten to see both my mom and dad within the last few months. Not to mention she'd been kidnapped.

She half nodded. "Sorta..." she replied. "Its just, me and my brother used to go conoeing sometimes. And now... Now I don't even know where he is. I can't feel anything anymore. I wonder if he can feel me at all, or if my family is even still looking for me." she said sadly.

I paddled closer to her conoe and put a hand on her shoulder, making her turn to face me. "Listen, I don't know about the whole 'twin- thing' with your brother, but I definitely know that your family is still looking for you. I bet they never stopped looking! If I ever lost one of my siblings, I wouldn't rest until I found them, and made sure they were safe. I'm sure the same thing is happening for you."

She looked at me, her eyes filled with saddness and pain, but also a bit of hope. She lifted her head a bit higher, and smiled very small, but it was still there. "Thanks Annabeth. That means a lot, it gave me some hope."

I returned a friendly smile. "No problem. Come on, we don't have much longer at the lake. Let's enjoy what we have left."

We headed toward the battle area for our last activity of the day. I stuck with a dagger as I sparred with one of the Hermes campers. Bryn did... Okay with metal weapons, but she prefferred to remain to use weapons made from her elements, which she did much better with. But she really excelled at hand-to-hand combat. No one could seem to deal a blow to her, she blocked every hit, and dealt good strikes against her opponets with infinite grace, speed, and agility. She didn't even need her powers to defeat us. Although she did start using it when we put her up against training monsters. By the time we left, everyone was sweating and breathing hard.

We washed up and headed to the Dinning Hall for dinner, where we ran into Percy and he asked how Bryn's first day went. After that, we all just went back to our cabin and just chilled until lights out.

About an hour before curfew, I ran out to go talk to Chiron, who had wanted to see how Bryn was doing. When I was walking back to the cabin, it was about half hour until lights out. But when I reached the familiar small building and walked in, I noticed Bryn's temporary bed was empty.

"Where's Bryn?" I asked my older brother, Seth.

"She went to look for you." he said, a look of confusion crossing his face.

"What?" I asked. And as he nodded, I thought. "I know where she is." I told him as I ran back out and headed straight for the woods before he could ask where was going.

It was fairly dark, but I didn't have that hard of a time seeing as I walked amoung the tall, dark, and kinda creepy trees. My eyes were peeled for any sign of Bryn, or any monsters...

I was pretty sure I had gotten lost when I heard this giant crash and a roar. Now this isn't super unusual, but it seemed bigger, louder. It could be Bryn. And she could be in trouble.

I break into a sprint and dash in the direction of the noise. I dodge between trees as I head toward a clearing, where I can barely make out the outlining of Bryn... and a giant monster.

The monster was like a centipede, only about a thousand times bigger. It's giant beady black eyes fixed on Bryn. I just reach the outskirts of the clearing when the mutant centipede lunges at Bryn, using its abnormally large head like a hammer.

I nearly jump out from behind some bushes, but Bryn jumps out of the way and uses the flying debris from the whole the centipede made with it's head to fling at the centipede's hide, but it's too thick, and the rocks just bounce off harmlessly. Bryn scowled distractedly, and her expression turned to surprise as she raised her arms in an X in front of her face and a shield of quickly frozen water shatters against the stone hard head of the centipede, sending her flying backward.

She gets to her feet but starts backing up as the centipede comes closer to her. It corners her into the edge of the clearing, near my hiding place. She takes another step back, and her body hits a tree, she's trapped. The centipede lifts half its body off the ground, and I almost scream at her to run!

The centipede arches its back backward, preparing to lunge. I am preparing to jump out and intervene, but I see something odd with Bryn and it stops me. Her pupils turn into slits. It happened so fast I thought I was imagining it, until I saw what happened to her.

Darkness started to hang in the air around her body, and suddenly all the darkness shot in toward her being, and she seemed to disappear, leaving in her place a collumn of swirling black darkness. In seconds, the darkness shot outward, but I was to stunned to even bother to think about where it went, for in its place, was a large black dragon.

The dragon had a beautiful black scaly hide that seemed to blend in with the night and relflect the moonlight at the same time. It had a ruby red chest and stomach, and red leathery wings that seemed so delicate. Silvery horns were placed around the dragon's crown at the tips of its wings and tail. The ones on its head were long and curving up and outward while the ones on it's wings were shorter. But the one on its tail was different. It was almost shaped like a teardrop except a curved chunk had been taken out of it, leaving the tip razor sharp. It looked like one of those wierd ends to a Japanese- looking spear. It was beautiful and wicked at the same time. The dragon had thin but strong looking legs and claws that were like well kept knives. I then noticed the dragon's slitted eyes, emerald green, just like Bryn's.

I was shocked, froazen in my spot, my mouth hanging wide open. The dragon stretched its wings wide, and flew into the air with infinite grace as the centipede lunged at it.

The centipede turned its body around, and the dragon flew at its face, scratching at them with those super sharp claws. The centipede shrieked and reared. The dragon flew around the centipede and used its whip-like tail and spearish tail end to slice the centipede's hide over and over with such speed, I had a hard time keeping up with it. Was it just me, or did I see a glowing green substance coming off the dragon's tail end?

My suspisions were confirmed when the dragon cut through the centipede's skull, for some of the green stuff lingered there, but then it started bubbling and fizzing as it mixed with the centipede's blood. Poison. The centipede shrieked in agony and its body swerved back and forth until it fell to the ground, where it broke into random spasums. The dragon stood by its head, slitted emerald eyes focased on it. The dragon lifted itself to a hover a few feet above the ground, and in one quick move, the dragon did a flip in place and its tail sliced the centipede's head clean off. The body went limp, and the head rolled to a stop at the dragon's clawed feet.

The dragon's pupils dilated as the adrenilene wore off. Carefully, the dragon leaned in close to the head and breathed on it, and its poison spread around the head, slowly desintegrating the whole structure, leaving the brains and blood, which was also slowly starting to be dissected into ash.

The sight was so gruesome that I had to take a step back, accidentally cracking a twig. The dragon heard my noise and it leapt toward the sound, and landed its large body on me, pinning me to the ground. I looked into the dragon's emerald eyes, they were now slits again, but they began to enlarge, the growling gradually stopped, and the sharp canine teeth were no linger glinting from the moonlight. I felt the weight being lifted off of me as the dragon backed off of me and into the clearing.

I got up, breathing hard, and stared, gaping at the dragon. It stared right back. I took a small step forward and the dragon took a step backward, but I continued taking baby steps toward the beautiful creature. I stopped a little more than an arm's length from it, and said, "Bryn...? Is that you?"

Nothing happened, the dragon just looked at me with its emerald green eyes. Slowly, I raised my arm up and held it inches from the dragon's face. It stared at my palm for a minute, but then I shook its elegant head and slitted its eyes, also revealing its teeth and a low growl breaking in its throat. Its body turned and it ran off into the woods, I ran after it.

"Bryn? Wait!" I called as I sprinted after the creature. I ran as fast as my legs could carry through the dark woods to keep up with it. And it wasn't helping that the dragon was super fast and it practically blended in with the forest. I ran and ran, but lost the dragon and came to a stoping a clearing like the one I was just in, except this one had flowers and a small creek flowing through it.

I put my hands on my knees, gasping for breath, angry with myself for loosing it. I kicked a rock into the creek in my anger, and I heard a rustling behind me.

I slowly turned around, and the dragon came out of the shadows, it looked like it had literally appeared out of the dark. It walked toward me with slow, steady strides, and came to a stop several feet in front of me.

"Bryn?" I panted, for at least the third time, I was hoping for an answer.

The dragon sighed, a harsh breath through its nostrils, and looked at the ground. It closed its eyes... and nodded. "Yes Annabeth." she said, but it didn't sound like Bryn's voice. It was like a combination of several different sounds. It was light and airy, but heavy and dark at the same time. It was soft and smooth, but rough and ragged. It was nearly impossible to describe.

I gaped at the difference in the voice. Bryn noticed my silence and laughed. It was like the tinkle of chimes combined with a regular laugh. "Ar-Are you sure you're Bryn?" I asked, a stupid qustion, but I was to shocked to use my brain much.

The dragon smiled. "Need proof?"

She took a step back, and all the darkness in the shadows and air shot toward her, and after a few seconds, shot back out, back to where they were needed most. In the dragon's place, was Bryn, human Bryn. She looked exactly the same I had left her, no difference in wardrobe, and not a hair out of place.

My eyes widened. "But how?" i asked.

Bryn sighed, "That, is an excellent question." She motioned for me to come sit on a wood log near the creek. "Too bad I don't have an answer." I looked at her, confused. She looked back. "I don't know how I can turn into a dragon, but that I guess explains why I can control so many elements. My brother can do the same. But, our dragons aren't always under control. They're spirits inside of us, my dragon can feel emotions just as well as you or I. I can feel her feelings and she can feel mine. We work together. We share life."

I gaped at her. "Wow Bryn. That's... Different. Is that why your eyes become slits... Because of your dragon's emotions?"

She nodded. "Usually yeah, that's why. But, Annabeth?" she asked, her voice suddenly becoming very light and quiet. She was no longer looking at me, but at the ground and wring her hands.

"Huh?" I said.

"You've got to promise me that you won't tell anyone."

"Not even Percy?" I asked.

"Especially not Percy!"

"Why not?" I asked. "Bryn, this is so cool. I don't anyone who can do even half the things you can! You're amazing!"

She didn't smile. She turned to face me, her eyes hard and a bit fearful. "No! This is not cool, it's freaky. Unnatural! Every single person that I have told beside you and my family has called me an alien after that. If you tell Percy, he'll think I'm some kind of freak!"

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Bryn, we're not 'every single person'. We deal with this kind of stuff all the time."

She looked at me doubtfully. "Really. So he wouldn't be surprised if I told him I am part Draki?"

"No." I lied.

She laughed. "Ha, nice try. But I can't tell him... I wasn't even going to tell you, but you kinda saw..." she trailed off. "Im surprised you haven't already run out of here screaming, like everyone else."

"I'm not everyone else. And I promise I won't call you a freak. Or tell Percy."

"Really?" she asked.

I nodded. "If it means that much to you."

She hugged me. "Thank you Annabeth, it really means a lot."

I smiled and motioned back toward camp. "Come on, let's go to bed before anyone realizes we're out passed curfew.

O.O! Didn't see that one coming did ya? Well, I wasn't sure if making her part dragon was giving her TOO many powers, but I just followed my gut and did. Don't worry, I'll have plenty of restrictions to it though. But please, let me know if she starts becoming an over-powering Mary-Sue, and I'll tone it down.
Let me know what you think! Thanks!