The Fates' Trusted

Awakening

The morning sun filtered through the sky, the birds cheering the sun on its climb up behind the mountains. The sharp smell of pine and early morning earth was almost oppressively pungent as I blinked my eyes open.

Annabeth shifted from her place, curled up against my side. I hugged her a little closer.

Annabeth nuzzled into me. "Seems like we left Wolf to the last of the night-watch."

I responded with a light hum.

She sighed, and we dozed off again, lulled by the birds' song and the aging dawn.

A movement had me lifting my head to see Annabeth starting to wake up. Annabeth mumbled something incoherent, slowly pushing herself up to sit and stretch. I instinctively reached out to pull her back.

I inhaled a sharp breath and let out a groan as the needle-like feeling of my arm coming back to life raced up it.

A gasp and a muddled, "Whatisit?" let me know Torak was awake.

"Mmm. You 'kay, 'ercy?"

Well, Grover sounded determinedly not worried.

"I'm fine," I said, a light break splitting my words.

"Mmm, good. Zzz... Mmm, pinecones. Zzz..."

"Sorry," Annabeth said, leaning in for a kiss.

When she pulled back, a huff of a sigh escaped my lips, and Annabeth's face contorted into a grimace.

"Yeah, your breath smells like lavenders, too," I said.

Annabeth's lips tugged into a smile and she half-rolled her eyes. "Thanks."

She made no move to stand, and I didn't move a muscle from my place, either.

The silence was comfortable. As I absentmindedly traced the shape of her eyes with my own, I realized I could take a dead limb to wake up with her by my side. Besides, while my eyes felt heavy, like with sleep, my arm, with the rest of my body, was waking up to that idea. Gods, her frazzled hair was still up in that messy ponytail. I wonder if she would let me guide her back down to me if I tugged on it just a bit.

I leaned in slightly, my fingers gently brushing a loose strand of hair, and Annabeth's smile played into a small laugh, a knowing look in her eyes. She teasingly narrowed them in a challenge, and I fell all too easily. Hey, I'm still half asleep here! So what if I take the easy way?

Just as we were about to close the gap, a rustle and a small Pop! yanked us back to reality.

Torak froze under our stares, his eyes wide. Slowly, he stretched his other arm out, eliciting another pop. "Sorry," he muttered with a grimace.

Annabeth sighed and got up. "It's all right. Morning, Torak."

I disagreed but gave out a grunt of acknowledgement anyway. Annabeth nudged my foot with hers on the way out of our makeshift camp, and I mumbled, "You're good, man."

It fell flat, and Torak seemed to shrink, his face turning down and away.

I searched for something diplomatic to say when Torak suddenly perked up. His guard slackened and he rubbed his face awake. He focused his sight again, the curiosity on his face twisting into confusion, then into something like awe—or maybe fear.

I followed his gaze and noticed Grover, still half-asleep, sprawled out on his side. But it wasn't just the sight of Grover that caught Torak's attention. His eyes were locked on Grover's legs—his very goat-like legs.

As if with a snap, we were both fully awake.

"He—He's..." Torak stammered, eyes fixed on Grover's legs. Even as he started to turn his head towards me, his gaze stayed glued to them.