Thanks to all my loyal readers out there!

Annabeth meets her cabin mates halfway to the archery range, smiling to herself. The other children of Athena have many similarities with Annabeth. They all have blond hair, gray eyes, and high intelligence. All of the others have decided that Annabeth is gifted because she slightly smarter and more skilled on the battlefield than they are. They appointed her as the cabin leader, which entitles her with the sole responsibility to maintain tranquility within the cabin. She takes her job very seriously as well.

Her half brother, Malcolm, smiles at her as she falls in step with him. "Heard you were training the newcomer. How did it go?"

"He has adequate reflexes but relatively poor balance. He trips over his own feet too much. It's things like that that will get him killed on a battlefield in a heartbeat."

Malcolm laughs. "So, let me guess, you nearly killed him in under ten seconds. Am I right?"

"Give or take a few seconds," she replies, holding back a laugh. "He really wasn't that bad. With some more training he will be a good fighter."

"Evidently a clumsy one," Malcolm chuckles.

Annabeth's eyes darken. He's not that bad. Leave him alone! Why am I so protective of Percy all of a sudden? Weird. "Yes, he's clumsy but he'll still be a great fighter. He just needs more work so leave him alone, will you?"

"Protective aren't we?" His smile fades, noticing Annabeth's glare. "I'm just kidding."

"I know that. Chiron told me to keep an eye on Percy, remember? The last thing I need is for people to be teasing him or making fun of him."

"Sorry," he apologizes. "Why'd Chiron ask you anyway?"

Annabeth shakes her head. "No clue. I don't mind too much though."

"Really? Why?"

She shrugs. "He's not that bad. He's just a little gauche and oblivious to so many things. That should all pass once he learns to trust his instincts and once he is more comfortable here."

"One could only hope. It'd be a disaster if he was like that all the time. Who's his parent? That might have something to do with the way he is, don't you think?"

You just had to ask, didn't you? "I'm not sure who his parent is quite yet. I've been contemplating the possibilities all day. I have come up with only one god." She steps closer to Malcolm, lowering her voice. "I believe that he is the son of Poseidon."

Malcolm stops dead in his tracks, his eyes and his jaw wide open. The campers behind him nearly run into his back. Annabeth grabs his forearm, making him start walking again. The two walk for several minutes in silence. Malcolm turns to Annabeth again, taking a deep breath.

"He can't be a son of Poseidon," he whispers. "It's just not possible. I mean-"

Annabeth cuts him off. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I have plenty of information that confirms my suspicions. He has to be. I know he shouldn't be but he is."

"How? With the treaty and all?"

"Same as with Thalia, remember?"

Malcolm's eyebrows furrow momentarily. "Oh, yeah. I completely forgot. But she has nothing to worry about though. She joined the Hunters. Percy on the other hand..." he trails off.

Annabeth nods. "I know. Just keep this to yourself, okay? Nobody else knows. Not even Percy knows who he is yet."

"How does he not know?" he asks, confused.

She smirks. "Like I said earlier. He's oblivious to so many things. The link between him being a really good swimmer and Lord Poseidon's power over water completely eludes him. I bet he has never even thought about it."

"Probably not."

Annabeth can see the archery range coming into view so she tries to finish their up as quick as possible. "Remember, do not tell anyone about this conversation. No one can know yet. And I do mean no one."

"Understood." he replies.

"We can discuss this later. For now, just focus on archery practice."

"No problem." He smiles.

"We have to pretend like we don't know anything like everyone else," she tells him.

He smirks. "Kinda hard being children of Athena, don't you think?"

Annabeth smiles. "Yeah. But, you know what I mean."

He nods. "This conversation never happened."

She smiles slyly. "What conversation?"

They both laugh, heading into the archery range with the others following not too far behind them. The children of Athena choose their bows and quivers out of the ones kept in the shed nearby. They walk a little closer to the targets and begin archery practice. Just like they said they would, the two children, who know something the others don't, pretend that nothing has changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LINE BREAK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not too far away, Percy is still in search of Grover. He has explored most of the camp to no avail. He reaches the edge of the woods where the Capture the Flag match was held.

Percy is starting to get frustrated when he hears music deeper into the woods. He follows the sound for a long way. The trees thicken as he heads deeper into the forest. He comes to a small clearing. Trees and bushes surround the open space so it can't be seen from farther away. In the middle of it all, Grover is seated on a moss-covered log, playing reed pipes. He is watching a girl, who is dancing around him, while he plays.

The girl has an elfish-looking face with slightly pointed ears to match. She is relatively small compared to all her surroundings; Percy guesstimates that she's around four feet tall. She's wearing a green chiton -Percy remembers seeing goddesses wearing in Ancient Greek pictures- and sandals. Her green eyes shine from under her amber-colored hair as she skips around Grover, who now has his eyes closed.

Neither of the two seem to acknowledge Percy's presence so he slowly steps out of the forest shadows. Grover opens his eyes and stops playing when he notices Percy walking towards him. The girl continues dancing until she notices that the music has stopped so she turns around. Her eyes widen and her face turns a light green color as she quickly looks to the ground, embarrassed. Why's her face green? Percy wonders.

"Hey, Perce," Grover greets his friend.

"Hey, man. Am I interrupting something?" he asks. "Nah, it's okay. Oh I almost forgot. Percy, I'd like you to meet Juniper," Grover says, gesturing towards the girl. "Juniper, Percy."

Juniper looks up and smiles shyly at Percy. "Nice to meet you, Percy."

"Uh, you too, Juniper." He turns to Grover again. "Seriously, I can leave if you were doing something."

"It's okay, Percy," Juniper tells him. "I should go anyway. A storm will be coming soon and I don't want to get caught in the rain."

She walks over to Grover and kisses him on the cheek. He smiles and she returns it. Juniper passes Percy, heading towards the forest. Once she reaches the edge of the trees, she vanishes into the bushes. Percy's eyes widen. How did she just...disappear like that? He turns to Grover, eyes wide and eyebrows raised in question. Grover just smiles. Percy walks over and sits down next to him.

"How'd she do that?" he asks.

"Do what? Oh, you mean disappear in the trees?" Percy nods. "She's a wood nymph. They all do that."

"Oh, I guess that explains why her name is Juniper. It's some kind of plant, isn't it?"

Grover nods. "She lives in a juniper bush so that's how she got the name Juniper."

"Oh, that make sense."

Grover smiles and nods. "So how did your training with Annabeth go?"

"Training?" he scoffs. "There wasn't any training. All she did was try and kill me."

Grover laughs. "She wasn't trying to kill you. She just wants you to learn on your own. What better way to learn how to fight than by protecting yourself from attacks?"

"Yeah, I guess. She's way too fast and skilled at fighting."

"What'd you expect?" Grover asks rhetorically. She is a daughter of Athena, the goddess of battle strategy."

"Yeah I know. She could've taken it a little easier on me though."

"Dude, she was taking it easy on you. If she wasn't, then you'd know it."

She seemed good enough to me. "You mean she's better than that? Is that even possible?"

"Yeah, man. It's very possible. You should see her fight against the other campers. No one can beat her. Even when she first came here when she was seven, she was sure skilled."

Percy sighs. I guess I have zero chance of ever beating her then. Should've guessed that in the first place anyway. "Luke could beat her though, right?"

The satyr's eyes widen. "Yeah. He's the best fighter I know of. Other than Ares and the other gods, of course."

"Wow."

"Yeah. So, where is Annabeth right now?" Grover asks.

Percy has to stop and think for a second. I know she told me but I can't remember... Oh, yeah! Now I remember. "The Athena cabin has archery practice."

Grover smiles and stands up. "Come on, Perce. You should see this."

"Why?" he asks.

"Because you'll be amazed."

"Okay." Percy replies, confused. He stands up anyway and follows his friend out of the clearing.

Grover leads Percy through the woods in the opposite direction from which he came. The gaps between the trees once again get smaller the farther they travel. About ten minutes later, Grover stops and Percy nearly runs into his back. Grover walks slowly to the edge of the forest, motioning Percy to follow him. They stop as close as they can to the edge of the woods as they can without being seen.

On the other side of the trees, Percy can see a bunch of orange camp shirts lined up next to one another. He looks in the direction the campers are facing and can tell that they are shooting targets that are quite a few yards away. Most of the arrows hit really close to the direct center of the targets but some are a little off by only an inch or two. Percy notices that all the Athena kids stop to watch one in particular. Annabeth.

As she's about to shoot her target, Grover nudges Percy a little to get his attention. He turns to the satyr, who gestures to something several feet behind Annabeth. Percy turns to look where his friend is pointing. Someone is walking up behind her, aiming his bow and arrow at the back of her head. Percy starts to get up to stop him but Grover gently yanks on his elbow and shushes him.

Why isn't Grover doing something? That guy's about to shoot Annabeth in the head with an arrow! All he can do is watch since Grover won't let go of his arm.

The tall guy fires and Percy nearly yells out again but finds that he can't even utter a single word past the lump in his throat. The arrow spins through the air heading straight for her. As quick as a flash, Annabeth spins around with her dagger drawn, her bow thrown to the ground. Everything moves too quickly for Percy to catch from his hiding spot with leaves and branches blocking his view. In the next instant, Annabeth is glaring at her attacker. The arrow that was about to hit her in the back of her head is now laying in two pieces in the dirt.

How'd she do that? That's impossible!

"Nice try, Solace. You should know better than to attempt something as stupid as that," Annabeth says to the camper.

He shrugs. "It was worth a try. The Stolls made a bet. I was trying to prove them wrong."

"So, what was the bet." she asks.

"They both bet that I wouldn't be able to shoot your target from behind you without you doing anything about it."

Annabeth smiles. "Better luck next time. I guess you owe them now."

The camper shrugs. "They already stole my wallet. I could only have it back if I won the bet."

"Hope there wasn't a whole lot in there."

He shakes his head. "Not really. Just about two dollars and some pennies."

"Too bad for them, then." She laughs.

Grover slowly starts walking away and tugs on Percy's arm. He takes one last look at the daughter of Athena before he starts following his friend. They leave as quietly as possible. Once they are far enough away, Percy turns to Grover.

"How did she do that? That was amazing! She was so fast! I thought she was a goner!" he exclaims.

Grover laughs. "Didn't I tell you she was fast, man?"

"Did you know he was going to do that?"

He nods. "I overheard them talking about it earlier."

"Oh, okay. I definitely do not want to go up against her for real. She'd skewer me!"

Grover laughs, knowing that it's true.

"So who was that guy? Solace?" Percy asks.

"His name is Will Solace. He's a son of Apollo, which makes him an expert archer. Even though he's really good, he still couldn't hit Annabeth's target."

"She never gave him a chance to," Percy chuckles. "She's way too fast."

"Yeah, I know she is." Grover glance up at the sky for a second before looking back at Percy. "Come on. We should head back to camp. Supper will start before long. We have just enough time to get through the forest and get back to camp."

"Good, I'm starving even though it feels like we just ate not too long ago."

"Always feels like that here. Time flies by for most people when they are at camp," Grover explains.

"Time flies when you are nearly getting killed I guess."

They laugh as they walk through the trees. Percy nearly trips several times over tree roots and the uneven ground. Grover walks (or trots) along with ease. It's as if he doesn't even notice any of the bumps on the forest floor. Not many minutes later, they find themselves near the exact same place Percy remembers entering the woods when he was in search of Grover.

The delicious smell of food wafts in the air, luring all the campers to the dining pavilion from their camp activities. Percy and Grover are right along with them. Grover trots ahead of Percy to get first pick at the best vegetables. Percy recognizes the campers from the Hermes cabin in the large crowd so he jogs over to join them. A few smile at him as he slows to a walk. They all get their food and take their seats for supper. Percy begins thinking that it's the very best food he has ever had in his entire life.