'River Anise was like the morning sun. Her rays were gentle and calm, accompanied by a light breeze. Her light painted the skies with a beautiful array of colors that Percy thought no painter could ever truly capture.'
-
(Percy Jackson)
(The Lightn...
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chapter six: the garden gnome emporium
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River grimaced at the squelching of the muddy dirt beneath her shoes, seeing it stain the bright colors she wore and splash up at the back of her ankles. There was nothing she hated more than wet clothes, but here she was, nearly soaked to the bone as the rain poured down on them.
Grover brayed in terror, "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
"Come on. The farther away we get, the better," Annabeth pushed them along.
"All our money was back there. Our food and clothes. Everything," Percy pointed out.
River had remained quiet, chewing on her bottom lip as guilty thoughts swirled in her mind, "I'm sorry. This is my fault. If I had just killed that Fury quicker..."
"It's not. If Percy hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"
Percy scoffed, "What was I supposed to do? Let you get killed?"
"I should've just stabbed her. And why did I close my eyes? I know better than that. I can't fight blind," River began to mutter under her breath, tugging at the keychain on her earring.
Annabeth and Percy seemed not to hear her as their loud arguing continued around her.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"Sliced like sandwich bread. But fine," Grover added.
"Shut up, goat boy," Annabeth snapped.
"I was so stupid. All that training, and what did it get me. Chiron never should've put me on this quest," River's head hung low.
Percy sighed, "I was scared too, River. Stop beating yourself up over it."
"Ok," she murmured, stopping her moping words and instead shoved them deep down to unpack by herself later.
"Look, I appreciate you coming back for us. That was really brave," Annabeth admitted.
"We're a team, right?" Percy shrugged.
"It's just that if you died...aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."
"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?"
"No," Annabeth shook her head, "Only short field trips. And one time I stayed over at River's apartment with her and her mom. My dad-"
"The history professor."
"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home. At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."
