Annabeth chase and the lightning thief

Chapter 8: we nearly join aunty em's garden statue colection

Hi guys happy new year!!! Any ways sorry for not updating for a while. My winter break just ended so I've got less time.

Dubai's fireworks at burj Khalifa were the best I've seen so far. Even better than Sydney. Any ways enjoy

Disclaimer I don't own PJO

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In a way I hate myself for signing up for this quest. Yeah sure I might become a famous hero, and save the western civilization, but really? Some evil force is definitely trying to mess up my day

So here we are, Percy and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror.

"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

I was not in much shock. I knew they weren't as aggressive as last time when they were chasing Luke Thalia and me. Still, I did not want to run into them again so I kept on pushing them forward, saying "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

"All our money was back there," percy reminded me. "Our food and clothes. Everything." Yeah thanks for reminding me Percy.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-" I shot back.

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," said I. Then I started thinking. I should have been thanking Percy. If he didn't jump in, I might have been, as Grover said, a sandwich bread.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.

After a few minutes, I finally gave up, and said, "Look, I..." My voice faltered. Just say it! I said a lot of times to Luke "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?" He said

I was silent for a few more steps. Maybe I should tell him my real reason for keeping him alive "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness.

"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" He asked me.

"No" I admitted," only short field trips. My dad-"

"The history professor."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."

I could've sworn I heard doubt in my voice. First monster, and I would have died if it weren't for Percy. I really think I need a lot more practice.

"You're pretty good with that knife," he said. Wait, did he just complement me?

"You think so?" I asked