Sign of the Times

Nose as broken as my humor

Percy pulled me to my feet as he was explaining how the general was here. Zoe was very against him being here, not believing it until Percy mentioned how the floor had split in front of him. He then told us about how they were growing things with teeth and soil, growing monsters. And then skeleton warriors came into the equation? This is weird. 

"Well," Zoe said. "If what Percy is saying is true, we must go now. Skeleton warriors are the worst, impossible to kill." Monsters that can't die? Great. 

"Let's go," Percy said.

"I did not mean you, boy," Zoe spat out. "You are still not part of this quest!"

"No, Zoe," Thalia replied, surprising us all. "We all know that Phoebe wasn't the sixth person on this quest. Percy is here now, whether we like it or not."

"That is not thy decision to make!"

"And it's not yours either. How about we make this a democracy? All in favor of Percy joining." Thalia and Grover raise their hand. Percy's expectant eyes fall on me and I sigh before raising my hand. Thalia and Percy were right when they said that Phoebe wasn't the sixth, no point in fighting it. "Well look at that, democracy rules, let's go!" 

They all started to go but I stayed put. 

"But, wait if the general is here right now, why don't we just go and try and figure out where Annabeth and Artemis are?" I asked. "I'm not saying invite him out to coffee and ask politely, but-"

"No," Zoe said, tone final. "One does not seek out the general if they wish to live to see the next day."

"Well, I have never been particularly keen to see the next day," I said, somewhat joking. 

"Shut up," Percy said. "We don't trade lives here."

"Well, some people are going to die as the prophecy so kindly mentioned. And it's not trading lives, it's saving a goddess who will determine the tides of this war. We don't have long. Thalia is what? A few days out from being 18?"

That seemed to send a shock wave through everyone, realizing how close this great prophecy is to becoming true. While they were going through that shocking realization, I was going through realizing that I am a few days out from dying. Or maybe minutes, hours, I don't know. All I know is my death has some place in the end of this war. Thanks, Mom.

"Listen, if we can figure out where the general is, figure out where Artemis and Annabeth are, then we have a better chance here."

"No, we can't do that! That is crazy!" Percy said, looking around at the rest of the group who genuinely look like they are considering it. 

Percy doesn't have the chance to argue about it more because we heard a large crash from down the hall and then a kid yelled, "KITTY!"

Now, we did the only sensible thing when you know something bad is happening, we run right towards it without hesitation. 

We got into an open room and saw a large, LARGE cat. It has golden fur and silver claws. It was about the size of one of those big 18 wheelers. And it was looking right at us. Awesome.

"The Neman Lion," Thalia whispered. "This is fucking great."

The lion roared loudly, shaking everything in the building. I heard a kid cry and a security yell into his walkie talkie about there being a large lion in the mall and having "no fucking clue how it got here because the closest zoo is an hour away!"

"Split on my mark and try not to get killed," Zoe ordered. 

"Until when?" Percy asked. 

"Until I figure out how to kill it. Go!"