The Untold Story of Annabeth Chase

Chapter 4

We walked for a few hours until we found a little hut in the woods. Luke and Thalia took me inside and gave me new clothes and some food. They told me they had built safe houses like this all over the country, and even some in other countries. They explained that they came in handy when they needed somewhere to rest, and if they ever ran out of food or supplies.

That night, Luke took first watch. He sat outside and looked for monsters while I read and Thalia cleaned her shield.

I eventually gave up on my book and watched her clean. She was gentle with it, and very thorough, like it was new. Her eyes were sad and her eyebrows knit together, like there was a bad memory associated with the shield.

"Where did you get your shield?" I asked.

Thalia's eyes flashed but she responded, " I found it in a mansion we stayed in right before we found you."

A mansion? "Was it a nice house? Did anyone live there?"

Thalia swallowed. " A man named Hal Green lived there and let us stay with him."

"That was nice of him. Did he stay behind after you left?"

That was the wrong thing to say. Thalia choked back a sob and looked away. "I should help Luke guard." She tapped her shield and it shrank back into a bracelet.

I watched her stand up and leave, and fell asleep wondering what had happened to poor Hal Green.

The next afternoon, Thalia went to collect berries in the forest, and Luke stayed inside restocking our supplies. I was sitting outside the hut, admiring my new knife and watching the sun through the trees, when I heard a noise in the forest.

"Thalia? I called, but there was only snuffling and the sound of branches snapping in response. I stood up and walked hesitantly toward the trees.

Suddenly a dark shape came barreling out of the forest and straight towards me. I barely had time to jump aside before it ran into me. I yelled for Luke, and he came outside as the giant black dog turned around for another pass. He sprinted for me and scooped me up just as the monster charged.

Luke set me down behind a tree and grabbed my knife from my hands. I watched in awe as he charged the monster and slashed at its neck. It turned around and snarled at Luke, and he kicked it in the snout.

The monster thrashed and clawed, but Luke was relentless. He kept slashing and stabbing until the dog melted into an inky black puddle with one final howl.

Luke stumbled and sat down in the dirt. I ran towards him and he looked up. "Annabeth. Are you okay?"

He was asking if I was okay? "I'm fine. You look tired, you need some ambrosia." Luke had showed me the godly food last night, and explained that it could heal demigods, but if we ate too much of it we could burn up. The idea still scared me a little, but this was an emergency.

He shook his head and got to his feet. I marveled at how tough he was. He handed me my knife and started to say something just as Thalia ran up to us, smiling. "Hey, guys! You'll never believe how many bushes are down there... What's wrong?" She looked back and forth between us, her smile melting.

"We need to leave," Luke told her.

Thalia looked around and noticed the puddle of monster at the edge of the clearing. She looked back at Luke and asked, "What was it?"

"A hellhound," he replied. "Big one. Tried to attack Annabeth."

She looked at me in alarm, instinctively reaching for her bracelet, but I assured her I was fine and we headed back to break camp.

We packed up and left in only twenty minutes.

We wandered around in a random town for a day, eating out of Dumpsters and begging for change. I used my big-gray-sad-eyes trick and managed to charm ten dollars out of pedestrians. I guess they didn't get many beggars in small towns.

At the end of the day, we counted our money and gave it all to Luke. Even though he had just saved my life, I was reluctant to give up all the money I had worked for, but I had no choice.

By then, it was getting dark, so we found an alley with some empty cardboard boxes. We set up our sleeping bags in them and settled in for the night. I offered to take watch, but Thalia hurried to volunteer instead. I still didn't completely trust her, so I decided to stay up too.

While pretending to be asleep, I started thinking about my family. My father would be home from his business trip. My stepmother would have explained what had happened.

Was he angry? Sad? Relieved? I wondered if leaving was the right decision. I missed my father and I didn't know the people I was traveling with.

Should I have stayed? Was it too late to go back?

Enough, Annabeth, I told myself. You made your choice, now you have to stick with it. I had a new family, and they were nicer than my stepmother ever was. They had already saved my life a couple times, and they had been nothing but welcoming to me. I decided to tell them who my mother was in the morning and fell asleep knowing I could at least trust Luke and Thalia more than I could trust anyone else in my life.

The next morning I was woken up by Thalia shaking me and whispering, "Annabeth! We have to leave right now."

I sat up, wiping my eyes, and saw Luke battling a man. No, not a man. He was seven feet tall, for starters, and was wearing torn jeans and a flannel shirt that looked like they hadn't been washed in years. But the biggest giveaway was the single eye on his forehead. A Cyclops.

I tried to jump up to help, but Thalia held me back. I fought against her, but she was strong. "You'll only hurt yourself," she whispered.

"Your father is a useless god," the Cyclops taunted in a deep, scary voice. "You've never even spoken to him, much less met him in person. You are alone, Luke Castellan. Your father never cared enough to stay around, and your mother..." Luke faltered as he said this, and the Cyclops laughed. "Ah, yes, your mother. You claim to trust your friends, but you still will not tell them your biggest secret."

I tried to ask Thalia what he was talking about, but I was distracted when Luke was swept aside by the Cyclops. He cracked his head on the brick wall of the alley and lay there, possibly unconscious.

Then the Cyclops turned on me and Thalia, but before I could even move Thalia jumped up and drew a spear. I wondered where she had gotten it from, but I had bigger problems right then. I ran to Luke, who was lying on the pavement moaning. Well, at least he hadn't passed out.

I put a hand on his shoulder, and he shrugged me off and tried to sit up.

"I'm fine-" he started.

"No, you're not." I insisted. "You're hurt."

After a lot of arguing, I eventually persuaded him to take some ambrosia. He tried to get up to help Thalia fight, but I held him back and told him to rest.

"What are you, my mother?" He complained jokingly, but then a shadow crossed his face. I remembered what the Cyclops had said about Luke's mother, and I started to ask about it, but Luke turned away.

I tried to stand up to help Thalia fight, but she slashed viciously across the monster's chest and it disintegrated into yellow powder. I stared at her in wonder, but she just jogged over and helped Luke up. I knew enough not to ask if he was okay, even though he still looked pretty shaken.

"What do you want to do now?" I asked instead.

"We should leave," he said. "They can smell us."