Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
☠︎
"Well," Annabeth says, making Morana turn and see that Percy's up, "the zombie lives."
He doesn't seem that well but Morana doesn't comment on it. "How long was I asleep?" He asks.
"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tosses him a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."
An annoyed grumble from Morana makes Percy look over at the boy. Grover's sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal. No. It isn't a stuffed animal. It's a pink poodle.
The poodle yaps at Percy suspiciously. Grover says, "No, he's not." Percy blinks.
"Are you ... talking to that thing?"
The poodle growls, Morana throwing it a nasty glare, "I'll still cook you", she mutters, the dog barks pathetically. Morana hisses like a cat. Grover cuddles the poodle in his arms like protecting it. "This thing," Grover warns, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."
"You can talk to animals?" Grover ignores the question from Percy. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy." Percy looks to Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on him, but she looks almost as deadly serious as Morana who looks like she's actually ready to cook the dog despite the perfectly good bag of chips in front of her.
"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," Percy states, "Forget it."
"Percy," Annabeth says. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle." The poodle growls. "No way", Percy shakes his head, looking to Morana if she'd back him up.
She just turns her annoyed eyes to him and states, "I said hello to the fucking poodle".
Percy says hello to the poodle.
☠︎
Anger.
That's what's always been driving Morana's powers. Or at least that's what she sees and remembers. So much so that she grew scared of it. Scared of what she was capable of.
Letting her emotions get the better of her has always been her Achilles' heel. And because she's a slow learner. . . she's done it twice. But not even she falls for the same trap trice so she swore to herself that she'd never do it again.
