Daughter of the Myths: The Lightning Thief

Chapter 12

I pull of my hoodie dropping it, my bag, and my quiver on the ground getting ready to launch myself into the river.

"Mia don't. He's the son of Posidon. He's in his fathers realm let him figure it out," Annie says grabbing my arm.

"Annie we don't know if he's even conscious! Yeah sure the water heals him but he hit the water from really high up," I say, panic lacing my voice.

I don't want to think about what Kronos will do to me if I don't get Percy to join our side, I cannot do that if he's dead. My whole body recoils at that idea, I see his gold eyes filled with fury. I've seen what he does to demigods that disappoint him. I cannot do that.

"He's fine, I can feel it," Grover says.

"I don't know guys," I whisper staring at the murky water. I don't see anything below it's surface.

"I know, and I'm pretty smart for a satyr," Grover says puffing his chest.

Annie grins, her gapped front teeth showing. I can't help but smile with her. A little bit of anxiety leaving my system.

"He's gonna be okay," I repeat more for myself.

We stand there leaning over the railing trying to see anything that would let us know if Percy was alive. To our dismay we didn't see anything, I have pulled on my hoodie again as the wind had picked up again, freezing gusts blowing through the river.

I put my bags back on and we turn to walk away from the river in the hopes that he magically left before we got there and he is trying to find us.

"Mama, that boy just walked out of the river," A little girl says tugging on her mothers shirt.

The three of us whip around and Percy is standing on the side of the river, completely dry and looking horribly confused.

We run over to him and Grover grabs him in a hug before quickly stepping back muttering an apology.

"We leave you alone for five minutes and you decide to jump out of the arch! What were you thinking?" Annie asks, panic in her voice.

"I less jumped and more fell out of the arch," Percy says, his blue green eyes wild with adrenaline.

"Yeah, that's soooo much better," Annie says rolling her eyes.

We walk back towards the arch ducking between news crews and just trying to make it back to the Amtrack station before the train leaves.

"Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very

early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch." A lady in a crisp blue pansuit says to a newscamera. I shoot a glance a Percy who is doing everything in his power not to look at the cameras.

We dart past them ducking our heads, we almost run right into another news castor "... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion.

Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."

"Dude, you are going to be on the news everywhere," I whisper.

"Don't you think I know that," Percy says

"This quest just got harder," Annie says.

I keep quite as we disappear into the crowd. We hear a lady blabbering to a paramedic about a fire breathing chihuahua and that's when Percy yanked us deeper into the crowd.

"Okay, what happened up there," Annie finally asks.

"Well the lady we rode up in was Echidna, ya know mother of monsters," Percy snaps eyes darting around.

"And let me guess, that wasn't a harmless chihuahua she was holding?" Grover asks.

"Chihuahua's are never harmless, they are mean. But no, it was a chi-something. I did my best to not die but a hole got blown into the arch and I ended up falling through." Percy says, waving his hand in the air.

"Chimera. Percy, did you fight a Chimera?" Annie gasps, turning around to facing him.

"Yeah, that's it," Percy keeps walking, leaving Annie staring in shock.

"He's scary," Annie whispers, before taking off after him.

"I have to agree," I answer chasing after the three of them.

"There's something else, when I fell into the water and a messenger from my father told me to meet him in Santa Monica. She said something about a gift waiting,"

"Then let's get you to Santa Monica, you don't ignore a summons from your dad," Grover says eyes bright.

By the some grace of the gods the four of us got back to the Amtrack station without anyone recognizing Percy from the swan dive he took or the rest of us from the picture from the Greyhound. We slide back into our seats hearts pounding in our chests. We look at eachother grins splitting across our faces before the train starts speeding off.

I go to the bathroom and turn on the shower and flip a drachma into the rainbow spray.

"Luke Castellan,"

The drachma disappears and the rainbow splits open revealing Luke sitting around a table with the rest of the headcampers. One of Annie's brothers was filling her spot, leaving just two seats empty. Percy's and mine.

"Hey guys!" I say hoping the surprise on my face didn't show.

"Hey Flytrap, what's up?"

"Just wanted to check in and let everyone know that we are on our way to California,"

"Awesome. This is great timing, we actually have a new head counselor in the Apollo cabin. Rather a new co counselor. Will is still a counselor but he requested some help and we brought in Navy,"

The mist shifts slightly and shows a girl with long brown hair, large square frames perched on her nose, freckles across her face, and the same blue eyes as many of her siblings.

"Nice to me you Navy. I am Kalmia," I say.

"Anyway, that's all, have a great rest of the meeting sorry to interrupt,"

I swipe my hand through the message letting the image fade turning off the shower before returning to my seat and slowly joining the rest of my group asleep.