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In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.
For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.
So there they were, Annabeth, Grover, Marlowe and Percy, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind them, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in their noses.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
Percy was pretty much in shock himself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in his ears. But Annabeth kept pulling them along, saying: "Come on!"
"The farther away we get, the better," Marlowe breathed, wrapping her arms around her body and shivering from the cold.
She should have known better than to keep her bag on the bus. Everything she owned—which wasn't much—was in that bag and she so stupidly left it with the others.
"All our money was back there," Percy reminded the girls. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
Annabeth glared back. "Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.
Marlowe stifled at laugh at them. It seemed so silly and childish when she knew of them having this same conversation for the next couple of years.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans...a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
"We can get you some new ones," Marlowe said, patting his shoulder.
They sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to Percy. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."
"We're a team, right?" Percy smiled at her.
She was silent for a few more steps. "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."
The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind them, leaving the four in almost total darkness. Percy couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her black braids.
