𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐆𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒 𖤓 - 𝖯. 𝖩𝖺𝖼𝗄𝗌𝗈𝗇

𝐈𝐕: 𝖧𝗎𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗋 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖥𝖾𝖺𝗋

       𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 was silent. The previous events caused mutism to the four young heroes. They were grateful for being alive and able to walk, sure, but they were most of all shocked and haunted by the Furies' screams. Flashes of the monsters attacks appeared in Zaya's head. That was the first time she ever fought the Kindly Ones and she was scared. She couldn't shake off the pain she felt in the bus, her arms and ribs crashing, her cries. If she didn't overthink for so long all of them would've probably been already out of danger. It was her fault for not being fast. It was her fault that Percy got into the fight. She was a failure. She wanted to apologize to everyone and go back to camp as the weakling that she was. She felt like crying and she was about to until someone came up to her.

       "Hey, are you okay?" Percy asked.

       "What?" she asked with a sad and confused voice as she raised her head.

       "Are you okay? You look troubled"

       "Oh, yeah I'm fine. Don't worry about me" Zaya answered with a fake smile. 'I can't let myself be weak in front of them' she repeated in her head.

       "You sure?"

       "Yeah, totally!"

       "Okay. By the way, you were really cool back there on the bus, you handled that psychotic granny really well" Percy said trying to cheer her up. He knew she didn't want to be emotional in front of him, so he didn't push her. He was going to give her all the time she needed.

       "Nah, you're overestimating me" she said with a sort of chuckle.

       "I'm not! I'm serious! If I had been in your place I wouldn't have known what to do, I would've died in 2 seconds. You're stronger than you think, you're underestimating yourself"

       "Percy-"

       "Shut up, I'm right. Don't deny it" he interrupted.

       "Alright! You win"

       "Say it"

       "What?"

       "Say that you're a good hero"

       "Never"

       "Say it or I'll push you in the mud"

       "You wouldn't"

       "Bet?"

       "Okay okay. I'm a good hero"

       "See? It wasn't so hard" he said smiling.

       Zaya smiled at him and thanked him. He had been really nice to her, she was happy to have a good person like Percy with her. Percy was about to say something when they all smelled something like... cheeseburgers. The four Demi-Gods were very hungry, so they let the temptation tempt them. They followed the smell and found themselves in front of a long and short warehouse with a neon sign on top. Unfortunately the sign was red and written in cursive so for three dyslexic teenagers it was impossible to read. Zaya tried to give sense to the phrase she was deciphering, but all she could make up was 'AN UTYME'S GRADNE NGOM EMPEROIUM'.

       "What does it say?" she asked.

       "I don't know. I read 'ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM', I don't think it's correct" replied Percy.

       "Yeah, it's probably not" said Annabeth.

       "It says: 'Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium'" translated Grover.