Annabeth's POV

I didn't even turn around when the scream broke through the silent restaurant.

"What is it this time?" I asked Percy wearily.

"Well," he replied, staring out the glass door behind me, "I wouldn't look if I were you." I could tell from just his eyes that it wasn't something anyone would want to see.

So of course I turned around and looked.

A weird mixture of a monster was stomping through the streets right towards us. The mortals that hadn't had the chance to run yet were clogging the streets. It's like they were trying to get away but there was too much chaos. It didn't seem like anyone had been hurt so far, but that probably wasn't going to last for long. I have no idea what the Mist could possibly morph that monster into. In fact, the word monster didn't really cover it.

The body was about the size of an Olympic swimming pool (not, like, Mount Olympus Olympic, but, like, games that occur every four years  Olympic). It was about as wet as one, too. The skin that looked like it had frostbite oozed a clear liquid all over. The thing had a tail as long as the Empire State Building, covered it bizarre bristles that looked razor-sharp. The talons on it's claws curved like the M on the McDonalds sign. The head... well, it was too gruesome to look at. I averted my eyes back to Percy.

"Let's go," Percy muttered, standing up and pulling Riptide out of his pocket. The restaurant was a mess. We had to go before anything happened to all the mortals.

"Yeah," I responded, also rising and unsheathing my dagger. We sprinted out the door into the quickly dispersing crowd. That's good. But not so good that the monster is huge.

"Uh... so I guess we'll just, like, slash it 'till it dies then?" Percy okayed with me.

"Until we come up with something better, because that is the lamest plan I've ever heard."

"Hey, it usually works!" He protested.

"Whatever, lets just disintegrate this thing," I said, giving him quick kiss. We both charged.

It was not that easy. I am an idiot for thinking it would be. The creature had a hide like nothing I've ever seen before. No matter how hard he tried, Percy couldn't get Riptide to penetrate it. I left him on the ground and tried to scale the monster. Note "tried". It was too slimy. Gross. I made it to about the knee and slid back down, really fast. Fortunately, something broke my fall. Unfortunately, that something was Percy.

"Humph," he grunted as I crashed into him and we both hit the ground.

"Sorry," I said, embarrassed, grabbing his hand to pull him up.

"S'alright. But what do we do?" he asked, narrowly missing a swipe from the fast food logo talon.

"We need to find a chink in the armor, a soft spot. That'll be the only way to do any damage." My brain was moving abnormally sluggishly. What was going on? I should have a fool proof plan by now. It's almost like something is slowing down my thoughts.

"Ugh, I've had enough 'chinks in the armor' for a life time," Percy muttered bitterly. Oh. His Achilles Heel. "Where would be a good spot..." He must be experiencing the same thing as me. I could see it in his eyes that he was struggling to think straight. "The eyes! We need to go for the eyes!" he shouted suddenly. Yeah, that's good. Why did it take so long to come up with that? Why wasn't I able to come up with it?

"Okay, the only way to get up would be to go up the tail, everything else is too slick," I observed out loud.

"No way, have you seen that tail?" Percy demanded while we both ducked as the said tail soared over our heads at eighty miles an hour. "It's sharper than my fourth grade teacher's hearing. She was, like, part bat or something too!"

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but laugh. "Fine then, I'll climb the tail and you distract. But if I fall, please catch me right this time."

"I don't like it. But fine. I promise to catch you." 

"Love you!" I called over my shoulder, already running behind the monster.

"Love you too, Wise-" he tried but was cut off by a huge roar. "Alright, wanna play like that?" I heard him shout at the monster. Oh dear. "Fine. COME AND GET ME SLIMEBALL!" 

I really hoped he would be okay, but I had to focus on not being impaled or plummeting to my death. Climbing up the tail was was not easy, and I'm pretty sure Percy would not appreciate his fiancee becoming a grease spot on the road. I concentrated on keeping my balance while weaving throughout the bristles, which up close were about the size of me. It was tedious work, and it didn't help I could hear Percy screaming insults and profanities at Slimeball. 

After a while, I reached the base of the back. I risked a glance down. Bad idea. I wasn't afraid of heights, but watching my fiancee nearly getting squashed every few seconds from up here didn't settle well. Also the constant movement of the monster trying to do the said squashing didn't help. I forced myself to look forward and keep crawling.

Five years later, I was on the head. I only almost fell a total of three times. Not too bad. For some amazing reason, Slimeball hadn't notice me on him yet (him? her?). I perched myself right above the eyes and looked down at Percy. He saw me and flashed a thumbs up. I took a deep breath and plunged my dagger into the right eye of the disgusting creature.

It was surprisingly soft, and the blade went right through. I pulled it out as quickly as I could and stabbed the left eye. The monster was roaring and shaking its head, making it extremely difficult to hold on. I kept slipping in between the ears. When Slimeball dipped his head way down, Uh oh was all I had time to think before losing my grip and free falling through the air.

I braced myself for hard impact, hoping I could survive because of the proximity to the ground, but it never came. I felt myself caught in strong arms. I opened my eyes to see Percy smirking at me.

"I told you I would catch you, my little damsel in distress."

"Shut up," I told him while climbing out of his arms. "But, I suppose, thank you for catching me, my prince."

"So how do we end this thing?" he asked, gesturing to Slimeball, who was thrashing around and clawing at its eyes.

"Throw Riptide down his throat," I suggested with a shrug. He looked at me like I was crazy but obliged. When Slimeball bent down to most likely eat us, Percy chucked his sword into his mouth. The monster froze for a second and then made a choking noise. Then he exploded into golden dust.

"Well," Percy said, shaking monster dust out of his hair, "that was fun."

"Try gross," I responded while showing him my dagger that was covered in Slimeball eye goop.

"That," he agreed, "is truly disgusting."

I wiped it off as best as I could on one of the restaurant's potted plants that had been overturned and scattered everywhere. Percy checked his pocket and, sure enough, Riptide was back.

"We'd better get out of here. With our luck, the police will get here and blame us for vandalism and creating chaos," Percy told me.

"Yeah, let's not stick around."

We took off at a run out of the town that we were in. It was a relatively small town, basically out in the middle of nowhere. We wandered for a little bit, trying to decide what to do, when it hit me. I had been here before.

"Percy, I know this place!"

"You do? How?"

"Thalia, Luke, and I traveled through here and made a safe house. It has to be around here somewhere..." It was years ago, but I knew I was right. I walked in the direction that I remembered it being, Percy right behind me.

"Here!" I said happily when I found the entrance.

"Good," Percy muttered as we shimmied into the little hut-like thing. It looked exactly as it had so long ago. It was already dark out and our only light was from Percy's sword.

"You sleep, I'll take watch," Percy whispered into the darkness.

"What? No, I slept last, I'll watch," I fired back.

"Nope. You climbed Slimezilla, you sleep. I'm not backing down." Without waiting for me to answer, he pushed my head down into his lap. I grunted but didn't argue anymore.

I couldn't go to sleep, though. I was too busy thinking about the new prophecy, and what kind of monster we had just faced, but mostly about the days I spent traveling with Luke and Thalia. Those seemed like the good old days, which is crazy because I was a seven year old who had just run away from home and was fighting for my life. But I'm still nostalgic. The only thing that was missing from those times was Percy. So I didn't miss them too much. Sitting here with my new fiancee is something I would take over my old life any day.

He must have been able to sense I couldn't sleep because he started running his fingers gently through my hair. After a little while, I was able to finally conk out.

"They are taking far too much time, aren't they my lord," an all too familiar voice hissed.

"For once, you are right. We'll have to take matters into our own hands then," a titan said. "Send them in."

The dream shifted into a sludgy mess.

"You guys have to run! They're coming!" a long lost friend shouted at me. "WAKE UP!"

"Percy!" I screamed sitting straight up. "I had a dream, we have to leave-" but I was cut off.

Black figures that matched the night flew through the opening of the safe house. They swirled around us. I was yanked out of Percy's grip and grabbed by the... whatever they are. I tried to break free but I couldn't. I could hear Percy struggling, too. The last thing I remember was hearing Percy call my name.