THIS IS ME TRYING

28: The Real Fleece

THUNDER RUMBLED.
Luna gasped awake, almost choking on the restraint tied around her mouth. Her head ached, though she was distracted by the tight ropes wrapped around her body. The long ropes were tied around Luna, Clarisse, and Grover, as the three of them sat in a triangle. Luna looked around frantically, trying to take in her surroundings. As expected, she was still inside the cave, and above her was the hole beneath a large tree— the fake Golden Fleece was right above her. Though, Luna swore she heard thunder... but the sky was bright blue and clear.

Luna's head turned to face behind her, meeting with the bodies of Clarisse and Grover who were sat shoulder-to-shoulder with her. Polyphemus was nowhere to be seen, but Luna still didn't trust her vision; he could be lurking anywhere. Luna frowned in confusion, strategically moving her chin around to remove the restraint from her mouth,

"Thunder." She said, "Did you hear it?"

"What?" Grover questioned, though his words were limited because of the rope he was still trying to remove from his mouth.

But Clarisse's voice was clear, and it seemed she had already managed to break free from the restraint in her mouth, "You have a concussion, Red." But she sounded almost annoyed, as if they had both been waiting for Luna to awake for hours.

"No, I don't." Luna huffed stubbornly, looking up at the gap in the high ceiling of the cave which led to the outside world. She explained, turning her head backwards to look at Grover, "I heard thunder. It was loud." She tried to convince him, but realised how crazy she sounded.

Grover looked at her, almost sympathetically; he spat out the rope from around his mouth, "We didn't hear anything, Luna."

She hesitated, "Well, I did."

"Maybe because you have concussion." Clarisse remarked, in a mockingly surprised tone.

"I don't have a fucking concussion." Luna snapped, sensing the smirk of amusement on Clarisse's face.

Grover explained, "Auditory hallucinations are possible. I mean, the brain is very complex and a concussion can mess with how it processes sensory informa—"

"Shut up, Grover." Clarisse cut in with an exasperated sigh.

"You shut up, Clarisse." Luna retorted, "If I had a concussion, which I don't, it's your fault."

"My fault?" Clarisse laughed in disbelief. She mused, "Is that so?"

"Yes, that's-fucking-so." She argued, "I told you to stay hidden. I had a feeling that—"

"So, you're blaming me for not trusting a feeling?" Clarisse scoffed.

"My feeling." Luna shot back, as if it were obvious.

"Guys." Grover intervened with a deep sigh, "Is the mirror—"

Clarisse turned to look at her, "What?" She laughed bitterly, her brown eyes staring into Luna's blues— searching. Her grin faltered for a second, before she let out a sarcastic scoff, "You think I'm gonna stop my Quest for your feelings?"

"If you listened to me, it would've helped your Quest." Luna retorted and, unlike usual, she wasn't yelling. She was angry, but she was more upset. Her voice was stern and cold; her eyebrows furrowing in confusion at Clarisse's inability to understand. Or maybe she did understand, and Clarisse was just taunting Luna for fun. Usually when they argued, Luna's mind was flooded with dopamine— it wasn't like she enjoyed fighting, but Luna had gotten used to feeling so open to it— but this was different. Luna wasn't arguing back to get a reaction out of Clarisse... she was arguing because she was genuinely upset.