Prompt #010 - Years

Prompt # 010 - Years

Eon
Time Frame: None
Pairing: None

**

“Immortality—a fate worse than death”

-Edgar A. Shoaff

**

It has been millennia, yet the gods remain.

An eternity of rule and bicker and watching from the clouds of Mt. Olympus. It is not such a terrible fate to the eyes of those on the ground—to their ancient subjects, and today their children. To be forever powerful and forever young and forever alive.

But to the gods of Mt. Olympus, the view is quite different.

Year after year passes in the blink of an eye. Generations of men are born, grow old, and die before breakfast. Their children are barely there at all. It is a never ending cycle of a changing world below them while the place they are stays the same—forever.

The same family, the same arguments, the same power.

No wonder they have so many children.

It is a brief moment in the eons of their eternal lives in which they can feel remotely human. They love passionately and have children that must face difficulties of their own. They can feel the intense sting of grief that comes with knowing that someday the one you know will die so you must make every day last.

And this desperation—this longing for a taste of what ever human on earth can have is what the gods secretly crave the most as the years roll by, like a wave over a rock that touches but does not alter it.

And then their children become great heroes, or die by monsters or time’s hand. Their brief affairs wither and die. The landscape changes, the people lose faith, the center of the flame moves west.

And then the cycle repeats itself—with the gods remaining alone and isolated from those they oversee on top of their mountain palace yet prison for eternity.

~fin~

Prompt #009 - Months

Prompt # 009 – Months

Remain

Time Frame: Three months after Luke left to join Kronos

Pairing: Annabeth/Luke (sort of)

**

“Three months and I’m still breathing.”

-Sober

By: Kelly Clarkson

**

He is gone.

Annabeth sits on the edge of her bed, staring down at the carpeted floor of her father’s home.

It has been three months. Has it really been that long? It doesn’t seem that long, yet it seems like so much longer.

Luke. Not Luke. Anyone but Luke.

That’s not true, a voice in her head whispers. She pushes it aside.

How could he? After so much. After so much they’d been through together, how could he just throw it all away? All those times he’d saved her live. All those times they’d laughed, and cried, and thought it was going to be the end.

How could he just…

Annabeth puts her head in her hands.

It has been three months. But here she is, living life as if there is nothing different. As if she can just live her life without Luke in it.

He was…her older brother, her mentor, her role model, her…he was all she had to look up to. He was all she had when she was little.

How can he just toss her aside like last month’s trash?

She deliberately takes in a deep breath and let it out.

All you need to do is keep breathing, Annabeth, she instructs herself. Just keep breathing.

She stands up and walks over to the window, looking out over San Francisco.

Three months.

She is here…and Luke isn’t.

~fin~

Prompt #008 - Weeks

Prompt # 008 – Weeks

Choice
Time Frame: Battle of the Labyrinth
Pairing: Percy/Calypso, Percy/Annabeth


**
“The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult.”
-Madame Marie du Deffand

**

Two weeks, one choice.

Percy Jackson has never felt so lost.

Completely cut off from the world, he is floating on a cloud, as if in that sweet transition between waking and sleeping. Every breath fills him with the sleepy, lulling scent of flowers and the sweetness and her.

He can see her, standing a ways from him, silhouetted by the moonlight and she is so sweet, and perfect…

Calypso.

So close and so lovely—like a flower in a window box, assuring him that if he just forgets everything else…life would be perfect.

Dreamland, he is in. Not fully real, yet not fully false.

It is like he is in a different universe, separated completely from the plane he once resided on. So beautiful and surreal that it certainly cannot last…a dream that must disperse in the morning hours. He can feel it: like a nagging tug on the back of his mind, pulling him away from the realm of sleep and dreams back into his harsh reality.

Annabeth.

He can still feel her—like a slow ache, painful but real, reminding him she is still out there waiting for him.

Like a lingering kiss, he can still feel her.

Percy stands, his feet rooted to the sand, the water swirling about his ankles. Which direction to move his feet? Back to the warm soft bed and the promise of another careless day…or into the ocean, back home to all he left.

The wave crash and churn and he can feel their power. He closes his eyes, wondering what to do.

Inside his mind, he sways like the currents of the ocean, letting go, releasing himself to the power and wisdom of the ocean, trusting it to guide him to his destiny.

He takes a step and knows he is going home.

~fin~

Prompt #007 - Days

Prompt # 007 – Days

At The End of the Day

Time Frame: The Last Olympian (just before the final battle)

Pairing: Percy/Annabeth

POV: Percy

**

“At the end of the day there's another day dawning
And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise
Like the waves crash on the sand
Like a storm that'll break any second
There's a hunger in the land
There's a reckoning still to be reckoned and
There's gonna be hell to pay
At the end of the day!”

-“At the End of the Day”

From: Les Miserables

**

I have always been stubborn. Annabeth has constantly reminded of how annoying I am because of it since we first met. But I don’t mind much. It’s a good thing I sometimes. Like now.

We are divvying up Manhattan. This is my city’s final stand. We, the children of the gods, heroes of our age are finally at the end. Now, it is do or die.

Everything is here. My family, my friends, my home, my life…if I give it up there will be nothing left of me. New York is my home.

And if Kronos and his army take over, they are going to have to take me with it.

Annabeth looks over at me, and I see her eyes. So grey. And can tell she’s scared. Her mind is racing, calculating, analyzing, but she is scared. I am too, but I try not to let it show in my voice. Because of her, surely—she is why I am so strong even now.

I need to have those eyes clear and focused now. It is essential. I need to let her know this mad game is almost done.

Because one way or another it will be over soon. And I refuse to let us be the ones defeated.

We are heroes. We will conquer.

When the smoke clears, it will be our blades and armor that shine in the sunlight. It will be our voices that ring victorious over Manhattan.

We will not give up hope.

Because at the end of the day…we will still be standing.

~fin~

Prompt #006 - Hours

Prompt # 006 – Hours

Final Hour

Time Frame: The Last Olympian: Chapter Seventeen

Pairing: None

POV: Clarisse

**

“All the hours wound you—the last one kills you.”

-Latin Proverb

**

She’s lying in my arms and I can’t believe it.

I hated her, I hated her so much. Shallow little girl who could barely take care of herself in a fight. Gah, I wanted to ring her skinny tanned neck.

I hated her for being pretty, I hated her for being happy all the time, I hated her for stealing my chariot and cabin to come here today.

But I know her now. I know how nice she is, how she is emotional when I am too proud to be, how she knew Chris and I were meant for each other. She is my foil and my friend. And now it is her final hour.

And I am crying, actually crying. I don’t cry. I never cry. I’m a daughter of Ares. We don’t cry. But now, as I see her there, I want to punch her, to shake her.

Don’t die, you idiot! I want to scream it at her. She was never cut out for war, why did she come here?

But I know the answer. I know why. Because I was selfish, because I was vain. She wanted to make up for her mistakes, and now it had cost her.

Every little decision she has made, and one big one I have are now why she is laying in my arms instead of on a tanning bed. It’s why she has drakon poison filmed on her face instead of moisturizer. It’s why she’s wearing my armor instead of her Abercrombie jeans. It’s why she’s slowing drawing her fifth to last breath, fourth to last breath…

The clock keeps ticking for her. The final moments of her final hour.

“You’re not dying!” I insist, staring into her once beautiful features. She was my enemy—now my friend, like so many others. They are out there dying too. I need to help them!

“Charlie…” she whispers, and her face swims before my eyes with frustration and anger and hopelessness. So many we have lost. “See…Charlie…”

I feel the tightness leave her body, and the pain fade from her crumpled brow. Now Silena is in a different pair of arms far below me, without pain, without heartache.

“She was a hero, understand?” I spit at the campers standing around me as I stand up. I wipe all evidence of saltwater-weakness from my eyes, and I feel Chris’s comforting, steady hand on my shoulder. “A hero.”

She’s left me here to finish what she started.

No more will die.

I pick up a sword from another of our dead…and run screaming into battle.

~fin~

Prompt #005 - Outsides

Prompt # 005 – Outside

Boundaries
Time Frame: Chapter 4 of “The Lightning Thief”
Pairing: None

**

“Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It's extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible.”

-Uma Thurman
(haha, Medusa! Coincidences make me smile!)

**

To Sally Jackson, nothing is more important than Percy. He is her reason for living. When the rest of the world dims and blurs into the dismal grey apartment and the awful smell of Gabe and her exhausting job and she almost can’t take it anymore…Percy walks through the front door and she has the strength to carry on.

To Sally, Percy is the only thing that keeps her from drowning.

Because when she sees his messy black hair she can feel a sea breeze pulling it in all directions. Because when she looks into his eyes she can see the ocean, the waves lapping at the beach.

Because when she looks at Percy, she sees not only her beloved son. She sees him—her constant reminder of the only thing that ever went right in her life.

But now as she sprints across the dark path up the hill, sees her son’s terrified wide-eyed expression, she wonders if it was worth it—to have a child with him, to put Percy in such danger, to risk his life like this.

She sees the horror, the confusion in his eyes and it almost makes her sob in fear and hopelessness. Her legs are burning and her heart is pounding and her breath is coming in short gasps, and they are dragging Grover behind them, desperate to get up the hill.

To the tree and he’ll be safe! To the tree and he’ll be safe! She chants it over and over in her mind. It is their only hope now.

Sally Jackson is not worried about what she’ll do once Percy is safely within the magical boundaries of the camp—the boundaries which she cannot cross. She doesn’t much care what happens to her now. Once he is in the camp, he’ll be cared for, he’ll be safe!

Her mind races as he pelts her with hurried, breathless questions as they run. She can’t answer—her mind is to full of panic and adrenaline and quilt.

They reach the top of the hill and she yells for him to go, but he doesn’t. He is yelling at her to come with him. Good, sweet Percy. He is much to kind for the life he has been dealt. That kindness will be his downfall.

She screams for him to run, for if it ends here, so close, so close…she will not be able to bear it. So much she has tried, so much she has given up because all she wants is for her son to live a happy life—that is all any mother wants. She can feel the barrier repelling her mortal blood from even a few feet away; she can feel the Minotaur behind her—both ways are an end, but there is a way out for him—a boundary which she cannot breach.

She will always be on the outside of this world that she does not belong in but he does, and he does, but not her. No, not Sally.

And because of this, Sally is sure she will die tonight.

But because of Percy, it does not matter.

Because of Percy, she does not care.

There are no boundaries of how far she is willing to go to protect him. And because of that she stands on the other side of the pine tree—forever on the outside looking in.

~fin~

Prompt #004 - Insides

Prompt # 004 – Inside

Within
Time Frame: The Titan’s Curse – Chapter 18
Pairing: None
POV: Artemis

**

“Hope, like fear, comes from within.”

-Deep Wizardry By: Diane Duane

**

I do not wish to look. I do not wish to see.

She is in my arms now—her tiny fragile body. Centuries upon centuries of battle, and now she is broken. My invincible hunter is now a bleeding, crumpled rag doll in my arms.

But her eyes—I do not want to see them looking so empty, so distant. She is looking to me; the night’s sky as she always had, but I do not want to see her now.

I want to watch those eyes burn for the hunt. I want to watch those eyes scan the ground for prints. I want to watch those eyes looking far onto the horizon—longing for the next adventure she will lead.

But now as I look inside her, all I see is her love. And I am scared to see it. For such raw, unfiltered emotion from my lieutenant can only mean the end for her. I see into her soul through her eyes and it is so beautiful—silver like moonlight on freshly fallen snow.

Her dark hair falls into her eyes, and I brush it away, tucking it back beneath her silver circlet—the mark of my blessing.

I offer to heal her wounds but we all know somewhere inside she is wrecked beyond repair. I do not seek within her body, I do not wish to see how broken she is. I have seen enough blood and death to last eternity.

So instead I look into her through her eyes—reflecting back the twinkling stars. They are smiling down upon her tonight.

“Stars,” my hunter whispers. “I can see the stars again, my lady.”

I do not wish to look. I do not wish to see the stars opening their arms to her, waiting for her, calling to her. Do not beckon her! I want to shout at them. Do not call her from me!

But even I cannot divert the Fates. Life and death is not the duty which I was given.

I close my eyes, listening to the stars calling her.

“Yes, my brave one. They are beautiful tonight.”

I open my eyes again. I watch them sparkle in her eyes. Her soul, silver as the moon dances behind them, her face filled with reverence as she gazes upon the night’s sky.

The stars are within her—the night’s sky a part of her.

My hunter goes still and I whisper a blessing, my eyes closed for I do not wish to see.

Take her, I tell the sky, let her be free.

The stars were within her—the nights sky a part of her.

Now she is within the stars.

And a part of the night’s sky she shall be forever.

~fin~