princess // percy jackson (under editing)

i. seventeen - three kids, a goat, and their wine auntie emmy

words : 5370

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an hour had passed of trekking through the unfamiliar woods and percy was starting to get antsy.

"i'm hungry." he complained. "and this thing is killing my back."

he was referring to the tote bag slung over his shoulder, bulging with whatever luke had given him. he'd explained to the others earlier that it was a gift from the boy, to help them on their travels.

alliah could sympathize with being hungry.

they'd finished the chips and sodas at about the half-hour mark and they'd forgotten grover's bag of snacks on the bus during the panic. nobody nagged on percy's complaints because they were all feeling it too - misery.

"cheer up," grover tried, despite his own voice sounding weak - he was starving far more than the others were, he was a growing satyr after all. "somewhere up ahead, this turns into a satyr path."

"satyr path?" percy questioned.

"it's a road through the wilderness." grover explained. "satyr explorers use them, the paths make it harder to track us."

"lovely, but if we stay in the wilderness, how are we gonna find a phone?" percy sighed helplessly.

"what would we need a phone for?" alliah joined in, lugging along her own heavy tote bag filled with water, some clothes and the extra weight of silena's bag of makeover essentials.

"so we can call camp." he said as if it were the most obvious solution ever. "to call for help?"

annabeth cut in, her voice firm despite her eyes begging for a rest. "we don't need help, we're fine."

"are we fine?" percy groaned. "we haven't even gotten to trenton, and we're wandering through a forest."

he began to rant. "i didn't even know they had forests in new jersey, but we've found one. i would say we're the opposite of fine-"

"stop being a baby," alliah scowled as she tucked hair behind her ears, annoyed at them getting in her eyes' way. "you're supposed to be the big-shot demigod whose quest this is, remember?"

"exactly, thank you for reminding everyone including annabeth, that this is, in fact, my quest." percy tutted. "and i say, we phone-a-friend before one of us drops dead from starvation..."

his gaze caught onto alliah's hair which somehow remained in tact despite the humidity and the exhaustion. he eyed the small single braid amongst the rest of her loose hair. the braid was a lighter brown color, contrast to the rest of her jet black locks.

then he realized she had had a change of outfits as well.

when they left camp, she had been dressed in brown jeans and a simple beige tee with a matching brown coat. now she wore green corduroy pants, a black top and a military green coat. he hadn't even remembered her stopping to switch out any of that and he was mystified as well as judgemental.

"did you actually give yourself a makeover?"

alliah grumbled. "leave me alone, i got bored."

"we were sent on a quest by the oracle, by the gods." annabeth scoffed, bringing them back to the conversation. "what, did you think it'd be easy? it's supposed to be hard. that's why only certain people are chosen. if we call camp, we're basically saying it was a mistake to choose us."

beneath the stern voice, alliah could sense the fear in her best friend's chest.

if there was one thing she knew about annabeth, it was that she was shit-scared of failure - even more than spiders, which really said something.