A New Goddess (Sequel to The Child Of The Dead Sea)

12. Arbor

Annabeth

"It's too early to be awake." Percy complained.

"It's not that early and we have to get there by midnight tomorrow night. Which means we have to leave now. I wanted to leave an hour ago but you refused to get out of bed." Kate responded.

"Annabeth she's being mean." He whined in my ear.

"You deserve it Seaweed Brain." I answered. "So where are we going?" I asked Kate.

"Here." She pointed to the map she carried. The spot she picked was about ten miles south of here in the middle of a forest.

"Why there?" I asked.

"The place we are ultimately going to is here." She said pointing about ten miles south of that. "Here i have a sort of permanent camp set up so we can spend the night there." She said pointing back to the first point.

I nodded.

"How long is that?" Percy asked.

"Ten miles." I answered.

"M'kay." He answered and started strutting ahead. To the north.

"Wrong way." I sighed.

"I knew that!" He called and turned around heading south.

I looked at Kate and we both sighed and followed.

~~~~~~~~

We trudged through the forest for a few hours. Percy had fallen behind after ten minutes claiming to be bored. I walked ahead with Kate.

She had her eyes glued to the map. I was surprised that she still managed to avoid trees. Come to think of it, it was strange. She always walked in a straight line never swaying from the path. While me and Percy had to zigzag around trees and brush.

So i waited. Watching her path. If she continued on her set path she would hit a tree about ten feet away. So i watched the tree. With her eyes still glued to the map she walked in the three foot mark of the tree and it bended. The tree bended around her, letting her pass where it had once stood before shifting back.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

She stopped and looked up from the map. "What?"

"You moved the tree." I answered.

"Oh that. Yeah that came with Demeter's blessing. I can control plants." She answered and continued walking.

I hung back until Percy caught up. "Did you know she could control plants?" I asked.

"Wait, she can?" He responded.

"Seaweed Brain." I scoffed.

We kept walking until Kate stopped again. "What's wrong?" Percy asked when we caught up.

She didn't answer. Instead she calmly folded the map and slipped it into her small backpack. She took off the pack and handed it to Percy. "Hold this please." She asked dropping it into his hands.

Before i could ask she disappeared in a wisp of steam. I heard a loud chop behind us and turned. Kate stood there with a silver axe in her hands. It was imbedded into the tree in front of her. She yanked it out and where it was the bark melted off the tree revealing the hiding place for a dracaena. It fell out the hollow tree and disintegrated before it hit the ground.

Kate walked back to us, shouldering her axe, and took her pack from Percy. She threw it up in the air and it disappeared in swirl of water. A bright green cloth bracelet appeared on her wrist, the same color as her pack. She retracted her axe and looked around us.