Percy Jackson--The Blazing Trident

Chapter 4: Great, We're Lost

Quick author's note first! Aw, come on, it's not long. Okay, since Rick Riordan has pretty much sucked Greek mythology stuff I can use dry, I will create MINOR things not really in Greek mythology. Just a little, since I still want to make this as real Percy Jackson as possible. There's plenty left, but I don't want to use them on everything, if that makes sense. 

Uh, and if anyone finds that Percy has eaten raisin bread or something previously, tell me cuz I made that up. I just don't like raisin bread, so I went with the flow. Alsooo.....this has nothing to do with The Heroes of Olympus, alright?! All Greek. So, like don't think I'm contradicting stuff. You know how in THOO Nico travels camp to camp? Not here. Since I'm not doing Roman. So don't get confused. K BYE!!!!

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"Sweet! Let's head out!" Thalia said cheerfully. I mean, we were going on a dangerous quest to save the world. No biggie.

Chiron was waving goodbye at the tree boundary, but I could tell his smile was pained. I knew the situation wasn't good, but what could go wrong? We were just asking a centaur for advice on how to turn the sea back to water and stuff. We had our ambrosia squares, nectar canteen, drachmas, mortal cash, weapons, etc. Like, this was a totally normal quest. We were already on the path to the mountain. Once we reached there, we would go over it, talk to a horse, and come back down. Pretty easy.

So anyways, while we walked we chatted and talked about what we've been doing so far. "Have you run into any trouble yet, Percy?" Thalia asked. "Anything big happen before camp?"

I thought about the drakon and blowing up the school. "Nah."

Annabeth slung her arm around Thalia's shoulders. "It's been pretty ordinary for us up until this point. You're a Hunter, so you constantly have adventure. What's up lately?"

Thalia grinned. "Being Artemis's lieutenant is awesome. We've fought a lot of monsters and all. Thinking back on it, it was pretty average all around too. But..." She looked a little serious. "I didn't notice, but mortal eyes have been getting a little more...sharp."

I stopped. So it hadn't just been my imagination. They stopped too and looked at me.

"Percy?" Annabeth was bewildered. "Something wrong?"

"Sharp? You mean like through the Mist?" I was quiet. Thalia swallowed a little.

"Y-yeah." She responded. Annabeth thought over this, and her brow furrowed.

I tried giving examples of what I'd noted. "Like....say a drakon attacks and people think it is a huge snake and not an explosion?"

Thalia bit her lip. "Right. Or for instance, if some mortal hunter sees the Arcadian Deer as a magical-esque doe and tries to shoot it."

Annabeth seemed to have something dawn on her. "The movie theater too. What's-what's going on?"

There was silence. Thalia and Annabeth were whispering to each other after awhile as I was just staring into blank space. I was trying to figure it out, like when the solution is on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite get it. Bits and pieces, cluttered in my head. It was sort of like a puzzle set that I couldn't solve, one where I needed once last fragment but I couldn't find it.

Or more like the fragment wasn't there in the first place.

But as the girls talked about it, I looked up. And around us. Then I knew that we couldn't dwell on that at the moment. We needed to fix what we were faced with currently.

"Guys?" I said shakily. They seemed annoyed.

"What, Percy?" Annabeth demanded. "We're at the edge of solving the puzzle, I know it!"

"We just need one more minute, one more clue." Thalia complained.

I looked at them seriously. "You can't solve what doesn't exist as a whole."

They must've been surprised since I don't say philosophical or whatever things often, but this was no time to crack a joke. "Point is, check out where we are."

Somehow, we had strolled straight into a forest. It was nice, as far as forests go, but something was wrong. Bright, happy, a nice feeling--on the shallow view. But, enchanted.

Also, the trees were oddly shaped. The roots and branches were kind of warped and curled all weirdly. the plants seemed normal enough, but they bristled with points here and there. There was a nice clear path but this entire area felt old, ancient even, and devoid of life. Certainly nothing had lived here, at least not in centuries, yet there were no dust or dead leaves on the ground.

It was entirely healthy looking, judging by what I saw in the daylight. Thalia seemed to have an idea of what was going on.

"Percy, take a leaf." She told me.

I hesitantly plucked a leaf from a bush and recoiled. Horrifying images flashed in my mind, the leaf shuddered and flailed as if it were moving alive for a moment and I almost thought I heard screams and gruesome sounds.

"A-ahh-aghhhh..." I doubled over and gasped. I clutched my ears. My head was spinning and I felt insanity wrap around me, trying to suffocate me with nightmarish images.

"There's no doubt about it." Thalia said gravely. "I'm sure."

I looked at her and she stood tall.

"The second most terrifying maze existing, direct and heart piercing, a haunting place for unwary travelers," She said slowly. "It can't get worse."

I almost didn't want to, but I dared myself to ask. "Where are we?"

Annabeth clenched her hands as she had figured as much too.

This is the Twisted Trees, the forest of nightmaric images. Illusions and reality have no meaning here." She was obviously shaken.

Thalia gritted her teeth. "Crap, I can't believe we ran into this place. Out of all the places, getting in this wretched forest is the worst scenario! There is no situation that is more traumatizing!"

I smiled as painfully as Chiron had.

"Yeah? Twenty drachmas it's about to."