a story as endless as the ocean . pjo / allie jackson

1.1 the enemy of my father is... also my enemy (allegedly)

1.1 Garden Gnomes are FREAKY and Anyone Who Says Otherwise is a LIAR

In some ways, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there.

Mostly because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.

For instance, when you're 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 might think that's just really bad luck. When you're a half-blood, you understand that it's just some divine force that is really trying to fuck up your day and at the very least if it doesn't make you happier, it'll give you peace of mind because you're given a reason.

So there we were, Luke, Grover, and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.

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

I was pretty much in shock, myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Luke kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

"Do you think anyone was hurt?" I worried. "What if someone got hurt?"

"Allie, Sweetheart, I get why you're upset," Luke said tensely, continuing to tug me through the trees. "But we need to focus on getting away from there. We have to keep ourselves safe first."

I bit my lip but nodded. He flashed me that smile that I really hated, the tender one that made my ears heat up even more than the infuriating, but somehow still charming, playboy one did.

"It was really brave, coming back to help us," he told me, releasing my wrist to wrap his arm around my shoulders. "You're doing all you can, I know, but focus on your safety before the others. You come first."

I gave him a weak smile in reply. "Yeah, well, you come first, too. Imagine what'd happen if the Stolls were left in charge of Cabin 11," I tried to joke. "There'd be nothing left."

He snorted and nodded, giving me a squeeze. The thunderstorm finally began to let up, and I sighed in relief, adjusting my backpack.

"Good call, getting us to keep our bags with us," I said tiredly to him. "We'd've been in trouble otherwise."

"Yeah, well. Been there, done that," he grimaced. My eyes flickered to the scar on his face.

"When you went on your quest?"

He stiffened slightly and I immediately regretted asking.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. You don't have to—" I began but he cut me off with a mild head shake.

"No, actually. When Thalia, Annabeth and I were on the run, we didn't have a lot. Thank the gods I'm a natural thief, or we'd have starved long before the monsters got to us."

I didn't reply, simply nodding. He looked glad that I hadn't said anything, so I made it my job to keep my mouth shut for a while.

"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"

He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.

Instead of finding a path, I came close to slamming into a tree and getting a nice-size knot on my head.

"Sorry!" Grover yelped as I turned my death glare on him.

"I think you're trying to get Luke killed. I think busting my head open on a tree would classify as 'me getting hurt while on this quest,' especially to Clarisse," I said, trying to lessen some of the tension that had settled over the three of us. Thankfully, it worked and we were able to laugh even with all of the awful shit going on.