A Son From Lands Unknown (PJO x Male Reader)

Avoiding Becoming Statuary

In a way, it was nice to know that there are all sorts of Pantheons out there since there was someone to blame when something goes wrong. For instance, walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people think it's just really bad luck. For the group making their way west? It was just proof that some divine force was really trying to mess up their day.

There they were, Annabeth, Grover, (Y/N), and Percy, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind them, the smell of the Hudson reeking in their noses. What (Y/N) wouldn't have given for a pair of noseplugs.

Grover was shivering and braying, his goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror, whimpering, "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

Percy was in shock himself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in his ears, but Annabeth still pulled the group along.

"Come on!" she insisted. "The farther away we get, the better."

"All our money was back there," Percy yelled at her. "Our food, our clothes, everything!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover pointed out, "but fine."

"Shut up-" Annabeth began, but (Y/N) interrupted her.

"Enough, the lot of you!" (Y/N) yelled. "What's happened has happened. There's no way around that. All we can do now is adapt. Fortunately, we didn't lose everything." (Y/N) unshouldered his backpack, opening the main compartment to check what he had.

Nectar and Ambrosia, clothes of his size, a first aid kit for when the Nectar and Ambrosia run out, and a few golden drachma to pull his gold stunts again. A few protein bars as well, but (Y/N) decided to keep them in there. He figured they'd be of more use once they reached somewhere like the desert.

The group continued to slosh across the mushy ground of the Hudson riverbed, through nasty twisted trees that smelled of sour laundry.

After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to Percy. "Look, I..." she began, her voice faltering. "I appreciate you coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?" Percy replied.

She was silent for a few more steps, sighing, "It's just that, if you died... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world." The thunderstorm had finally let up. The glow of the city faded behind them, leaving the group in almost total darkness. Percy couldn't see Annabeth except for a glint of her blond hair.

"You haven't left Camp since you were seven?" Percy asked her in disbelief.

"No... only short field trips. My dad-"

"The history professor."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me, living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words now as if she were afraid someone might try and stop her. "At camp, you train and train. And that's cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."

If Percy didn't know any better, he could've sworn he'd heard doubt in her voice.

"You're pretty good with that knife," the son of the sea encouraged.