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CHAPTER EIGHT ( the dog, the voice and the monument )
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IT WAS A MISERABLE night after that. We camped out in the woods, a hundred meters from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers. We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.
We decided to sleep in shifts. Percy volunteered to take the first one. Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky. I laid down in one of the blankets too but found it difficult to sleep without the night light that hovered over my bunk back at camp – I hadn't realized how much I'd grown accustomed to it until I needed to work without it.
Another reason why I couldn't sleep was because of Annabeth, Grover and I's conversation on our way here. We agreed on one thing – something was wrong about this quest. Other than the fact that everyone knew that Percy's real motive behind this quest was to save his mother, we noticed the Furies' odd behavior on the bus. They weren't as aggressive as my other times when encountering them. My head kept reminding me of many other small details that occurred throughout the day, such as Medusa's words. There were too many that those same thoughts were the ones that lulled me to sleep, making my eyelids droop and relax my muscles under the blankets.
When I woke up, I wasn't anywhere near where I had fallen asleep.
I don't know how, but I had left my position on the ground and stood in a pitch dark room. At first I thought this would lead to my typical dream of the arena, but those suspicions were thrown to the side when a sudden light was turned on. My eyes took some time to adjust to the light and when they did, they widened in shock. In front of me stood an eight meters tall statue, similar to the ones carved for the gods. I thought this one represented one of the many female goddesses in Olympus, but as I paid close attention to the details like the eye shape, the nose and even the mouth, I couldn't help but think it looked just like me. The statue shaped a years older version of myself, holding onto a drawn bow beautifully carved into the ivory.
