Annabeth's POV

I screamed. After all I've been through with Percy, he just jumps off a balcony? Worse, none of these weird people down here looked worried. Well, they have giant bats that probably save them from everything! Of course they're not afraid of heights. Then Percy came back up on Blackjack. THANK THE GODS! I slapped him. With my fist. In the face. Straight on. Not a punch, just an odd slap, ok?

"How dare you scare my like that again, ok? NEVER!" I scream, then calm down enough to realize that Hazel had called Arion, Nico found a black bat, and Thalia found a silver one, and I turned straight into a beautiful, green eyed gray bat. Gregor was crying into a dark grey bat, and Luxa was already on a gold bat. Ripred looked like he was ready to run all the way to where ever we were going.

I turned to Luxa and asked, "What's this bat's name?"

"Why don't you just ask me, huh?" The bat had talked!

"I'm sorry! I, I'm so ignorant! I'm sorry! What's your name?" I felt my face burn.

"My name is Scio, and you must be Annabeth?" The bat, Scio, said. "Thalia's bat is Pefko, and Nico has Skia."

We all mounted, and were told not to squeeze too hard, because Overlanders tended to do that. And with that, we left, into the beyond. But I thought of one thing: I wasn't mentioned directly in the prophecy, so was I really supposed to be on the quest?