ʏօʊռɢ ɮʟօօɖ ♆ 𝗣. 𝗝𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗦𝗢𝗡

♆ 𝗜𝗜𝗜. 𝗪𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗘

╝♅╚

***

YOU KNOW, you would think I would be used to the life of a demigod, and having your family be hunters of monsters would prepare you for anything, but a bus exploding was not on my bucket list.

But here I was with one of my best friends, a guy who was barely a demigod for a week and a satyr, walking through the woods of the New Jersey riverbank. The glow of New York City was making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the nearby river reeked 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."

Though I'd shot a gun before, there was still a ringing in my ears from the bus exploding. Annabeth and I had to pull along Percy and Grover. Annabeth had insisted that the farther away we got, it would be for the better.

"But, all of our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Out food and clothes. Everything."

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

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

"You didn't need to protect us, Percy, Mavis and I would have been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover interjected, "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," Annabeth snapped.

I rolled my eyes at the bickering between Annabeth and Percy. "I don't know if we'll get anything done if you two keep bickering. I have my bag, with some of the stuff we need. I don't know if we have enough money, but at least we have some essentials."

I turned to face Annabeth and Percy, "Stop playing the blame game or prove something to one another. This is a quest, and in order to succeed, we need to work together, or we will fail." I snapped, and they looked down at my words before we continued walking through the mushy ground of the forest and the twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.

Annabeth was leading the group, and even after my words, there was a lingering tension. So I stepped beside Percy, breathing in the musty air before speaking.

"Look... Annabeth isn't the best at getting help when she doesn't ask for it. But I know she appreciates you coming back for us. It was really brave of you."

"We're a team right?"

I nodded at his words, "This quest is really important for Annabeth. This might be her only chance at seeing the real world."

The storm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us. I lucked out and was gifted with seeing in the dark very well, so I could see the green in Percy's eyes. His expression was pensive.

"She told me that she hasn't left Camp Half-Blood since she was seven. Is that true?"

"Yeah, but that isn't my story to tell. But Annabeth has been dying to see the real world, to prove herself and the skills she's learned at Camp."

"From what I've seen, she's pretty good."

I laughed lightly, "Yeah she is."

"But how long have you been at camp?"

I pursed my lips together, "I've been attending camp since I was ten, but I've stayed at camp for a whole year at least once. So at least three years."

"And you've never been on a quest?"

I tilted my head in confusion, "No. Why do you ask?"

"It's just... you seem so prepared and like you've done this before." I saw him shake his head.