How It All Goes Down
Piper
- Annabeth shows Piper the camp and talks about magic archery and monster fighting, which should be fun except Annabeth is still upset about the whole losing-her-boyfriend-to-amnesia thing, so it isn't.
- Annabeth wonders why Piper is taking things so calmly. Piper doesn't want to say that she had a dream where someone had warned her that she was a demigod and threatened her father, so she keeps it a secret.
- (Everyone in The Lost Hero seems to have a secret, just about. It's a demigod thing, we guess.)
- Gods are supposed to claim their children when they're thirteen, in part to protect the kids, who start getting noticed by monsters around that age. Annabeth explains all this and tells Piper that her mom should claim her soon.
- They speculate about where Coach Hedge is. Annabeth says that if he's been killed he'll be reincarnated as a flower or something. This does not make Piper feel better.
- We learn that Piper ran away from five schools, and Annabeth says that all the kids at Camp Half-Blood don't fit in.
- Piper explains that she stole stuff—or didn't really steal, but convinced people to give it to her. People usually think she's lying about convincing folks, but Annabeth believes her.
- They go to a cave, where the camp's oracle stays. Her name is Rachel. Annabeth hopes Rachel can tell her about Percy, but the oracle is out. (You'd think she could predict when people wanted to see her and be at home, but that would be too easy.)
- Annabeth explains that Percy disappeared three days ago, the first day Piper had her dream.
- She also tells Piper that her memories of Jason were created by magical Mist, which prevents humans from seeing things their minds can't process.
- Piper is very upset that her boyfriend is just a trick of the magic mist. She tells Annabeth about how strong her memories of him are.
- Annabeth admits that's weird, but also gets Piper to realize she doesn't know where Jason is from and never saw the tattoo before.
- Piper remembers her dream some more and spends some more time worrying that she's going to have to betray all her friends. That will keep coming up.
- They go back to camp and Annabeth helps Piper choose a weapon. They reject a shotgun, but choose a knife, which turns out to have belonged to Helen of Troy, a famous Greek woman whose beauty started a massive war.
- Piper looks in the blade and sees a giant holding her dad hostage. She drops the knife, but recovers, waves off assistance, and decides to keep the dagger.
- Piper asks Annabeth if she can call her dad. Cell phones are usually banned because they alert monsters to where the demigods are, but Annabeth has one (a cell phone, not a monster) and lets Piper use it.
- Piper talks to Jane, her dad's secretary, who stonewalls her and is generally a jerk. Piper does get Jane to admit that she doesn't know where Piper's dad is, though, which means he could well be off getting tortured by a giant.
- Annabeth asks about Piper's dad, but Piper avoids telling her who he is. Interesting…
- They chat about the Hunters of Artemis, who are immortal, which—duh—Piper thinks is cool. But she decides she won't be one when she learns they aren't allowed to date. Jason may not remember her, but she's not through with him as a boyfriend yet.
- They pass Aphrodite's cabin, where Drew is the head counselor.
- Piper tries to figure out whose daughter she might be. Daughter of Athena? Daughter of Artemis? Daughter of Beyoncé? (You know she's a goddess, right?)
- They head over to Zeus and Hera's cabins. They're mostly empty, Annabeth explains, because Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades (the Big Three) have tried to avoid having children recently, and Hera is the goddess of marriage so she doesn't have kids except with Zeus.
- Annabeth says Hera gave her a dream vision to go find Percy, but instead she found Piper and Leo and Jason.
- Piper goes into Hera's cabin despite Annabeth saying she probably shouldn't, and once inside they find Rachel—the oracle.
- They chat a bit, and then Rachel has a creepy vision where someone else's voice tells Piper to free her. Then Piper she sees a vision of the statue of Hera leaning over her and demanding to be freed.
- Piper blacks out, which is a totally appropriate response to being yelled at by a statue.