Forbidden Quests

Chapter 10

Annabeth

"Hey, Annie, pass me that water flask."

I frowned at Thalia's demand and reprimanded her with: "One, don't call me 'Annie,'—my name is Annabeth. And two, you could say 'please' every once in a while."

The lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis looked lazily at me, "Okay. Annie, hand me that water flask."

Sighing, I handed her the flask. "Don't ever change, Thals." Thalia smirked and took a gulp.

You see, Thalia is one of those girls that don't care. Really. She doesn't care. And nobody can change that, because it's just her nature. Her style is black. She wears black leggings, with black leather boots that have blue laces, a black tunic, and black hair dyed blue at the ends. Electric blue eyes lined with kohl sparkled with energy above a freckled nose. Normally, being a kid of Zeus, you would be a "big deal," but Thalia didn't like being a big deal, and decided to become a hunter. Her personality is . . . sarcastic I guess. But I love her for it. Just don't insult her. She's really good at getting revenge.

At the moment, we were stopped for the night in a small grove about two miles from the nearest town. We were still a three days ride away from the Teleporting Twins' fortress. So far, nothing bad has happened, other than a guard's horse getting a lame hoof. Tomorrow we were scheduled to meet Piper in the town right next to us—Larissa.

I was sitting next to the fire with my guards and Thalia, eating some cooked fish that we had traded for when we went into Larissa. We had only gone into the city for the food, and not all of us did. It was just me and my three brothers, sons of Athena. All three of them had blond hair cut military style and stern grey eyes, but you could tell them apart pretty easily. For example, Malcolm was tall and skinny, with muscle, but not overly buff. His main weapon was the bow, and he could rival Thalia pretty well with it (although she still wins every time they compete with each other). He's quiet, and nice, but not shy.

Then there was Castor, who was small and wiry, but extremely fast and agile. He used the dagger like me, but I could still beat him. He had a witty brain, and could always make silly remarks about everything. That got on Thalia's nerves a lot, so he was always watching her warily. 

Last, but not least, there was Darryn, who was huge. Not huge as in fat—huge as in brawny. He was about six feet and three inches, had large muscular arms and upper body, and his main weapon, unsurprisingly, was the broadsword. But instead of being just a decent swordsman, he was probably the best swordsman I knew, other than the gods. I had no hope in beating him. You would think, being one of the best swordsman in Greece, he would be cocky and arrogant, but he was quite the opposite. He had the softest heart. Half of his heart belonged to the animals. He loved animals.

So there is a description of the three brothers on my trip. We all were very close, and nobody was uncomfortable in this small and tightly knit group.

I recalled our morning while sitting and staring at the flames of the fire that we cooked the fish on.

When we walked into Larissa, I was fascinated by all the little things, as always. I loved going into cities, and hearing the venders' cries, and the mothers looking for their children, and the little boys and girls that would run about, completely oblivious to their surroundings as they laughed. Cities were full of life, full of people. 

I walked up to one vender and started a conversation with her. She was selling beautiful fabric. She introduced herself as Farah. I told her I was just looking, and she was fine with that.

But I didn't come up to her to just ask her her name, instead, I questioned, "Do you know where we could find fish? Would it be by the docks or do you know a vender or a shop that would sell some?"