With You Forever

Through Heaven And Hell

Annabeths pov

We arrived at the park 15 minutes later. At first we got sidetracked as a couple with an adorable little golden retriever walked by. I swear we spent a whole ten minutes talking to them and petting the puppy, Cap. Then we decided it was time to go. We had a contest to see who could find the nearest bakery the fastest. I won. Then I spent five minutes bragging about it. We were about to head north of the park to Devins Little Backery when a toddler walked up to us.

"Oh, it's a kid. Well...Umm." I struggled not knowing what to do as the poor little girl hugged her green duckie blanket close and looked up at us with fearful eyes.

"Oh Zues. Let me handle this. Hello, are you lost? Whats you'r name? We can help you find your parents." Piper said sweetly.

"Tawa." The little girl whispered.

"Talla?" Piper asked, trying to decipher the art of baby language.

"Nu, Tawa." She said louder this time.

"Tara?" I questioned.

"Mhmm."

"Two points for Annabeth, zero for Piper." I grinned.

"We have a serious problem here." Piper scolded then turned her attention back to Tara. "Where did you last see your parents? We can help you find them."

"My pairants is died."

My eyes filled up with tears. How could she say it so flatly? She couldn't have hardly been a year old.

"Well...where do you live?" I asked.

The girl shrugged. "Diffwent pwaces. Pwaces wif wats of kids."

"She must mean orphanages. We should take her to the police, just to be safe." Piper advised.

We walked north, the direction of the bakery and the police station. As we were walking we happened to come upon a random parade and turned down an alley to look for a way to detour around the mob. We had only been walking for a few seconds when a small hellhound leaped out of the shadows in front of Piper.

"Take care of Tara, I've got the hound!" I yelled to Piper. The small beast charged me and ran to it. Right before I collided with the fanged, slobbering jaws I dropped onto one knee and raised my dagger above myself. It cut deep into the animal and soon it dissolved into golden dust. For a moment we were all silent.

"Why did dee angwy puppy turn into gwitter?" Tara asked. She saw? No one said anything for a minute.

"Piper, you know what this means right?"

"She is either a demigod or clearsighted. We need to tell Chiron either way."

"Yes. But let's take her to the police first. We can tell him when we get back and he'll keep an eye on her."

After we dropped Tara off at the police station we went to the bakery. When the man behind the counter asked what we would like we laughed nervously and told him about the scavenger hunt. He smiled and gave us both a piece of paper and saying he'd been expecting us. The boys had pre-ordered us our favorite drinks and left the next clue with the man. We looked at the papers. On them was another poem.
I don't want you to frown,
But where your going there might just be a clown
Love
Jason

It wasn't from Percy. But I had gotten the last letter. Why was it only from Jason? We both had seen signs of a carnival down the road and figured that's where we were supposed to go. It was a short walk and soon we saw balloons and games. We walked around looking for a clown. Pretty soon we decided it would would take forever without help. So we went to a stand where a portly bearded man sold hotdogs and asked him if there were any clowns here.