"you could be the king, but watch the queen conquer"
-
Rosalyn Carter is the daughter of Aphrodite and the last thing Percy expected to find at Camp Half-Blood.
But he wouldn't want to fight deadly battles with anyone else.
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When Percy woke up, it was daylight. Annabeth sat a few feet from him, but Rosalyn was nowhere to be found.
"How long was I asleep?" Percy asked groggily.
"Long enough for me to cook breakfast," Annabeth snarked, tossing a bag of corn chips his way. "Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."
Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with a dirty pink poodle in his lap. It yapped at him loudly.
"No, he's not," Grover said.
"Are you... talking to that thing?"
The poodle's growl was followed by the sound of Rosalyn's voice coming from behind him.
"That thing is our ticket went. Be nice."
The boy jumped at her sudden appearance, turning his head sharply in her direction. Somehow all of the dirt and grime that they'd accumulated thus far was missing from her clothes and skin. It appeared as if she had reset while she was sleeping.
If Annabeth's stink eye told Percy anything, it said that she noticed the girl's clean appearance.
"Did you take a walk to do your makeup?" Annabeth sneered. "We're on a serious quest."
"I can't help it," Rosie spoke through clenched teeth. "We always wake up this way."
Sensing the tension building between the two girls, Grover stood up. He held the pink poodle in his arms now.
"Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."
No one spoke for several moments, the air thick between them still. Rosalyn crossed her arms and watched Percy's gaze jump between them all.
"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle. Forget it," Percy scoffed. Rosalyn glared, but it was Annabeth that spoke.
"Percy, I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."
When the dog growled again, Percy quickly said hello to the poodle. Rosalyn leaned against a tree as Grover explain to Percy how he found the runaway poodle in the woods whose family posted a $200 reward for his return.
In a little under an hour, they'd gotten the reward and bought tickets for the Amtrak train leaving at noon.
The money they'd received for the poodle bought them tickets as far as Denver, which mean Rosalyn could relax a little bit. Two days on the train gave them a reprieve from monsters.
She had been worried they'd be making their journey on foot or hitchhiking. The train provided them with a bit of protection. Rosalyn and Annabeth rode in silence for several hours after they departed while the boys slept. Percy mumbled in his sleep the whole time.
When he finally woke up, Annabeth wasted no time and began interrogating him.
