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

14. Too Many Questions

Kate

Where is she. Kate has been gone for at least two hours. I was still holding Percy back from going in after her. But right now, i was ready to go with him. While she was in there i got a sickening feeling in my stomach, like she was dying and i couldn't stop it. I assume it was the link she mentioned earlier.

Just then the gate opened to reveal Kate as a leopard who was covered in arrows sticking out of her skin.

She limped out of the gate and they closed. She limped over to us and Percy reached for one of the arrows.

"Leave them." She growled.

"But Kate-" i began.

"Leave them. We can remove them back at camp. But until then they stay."

"But camp is two days away. You'll bleed out in that time." I responded. Although i wasn't sure if goddesses could bleed out.

"There is a faster way back, but it only works for going back. But to make it we have to move." She took a few shaky steps forward before her body shook and she collapsed to the ground.

"Kate!" Percy exclaimed. Her reached toward her but held back, not knowing what to do.

"I'm fine." Kate growled. She stood again and started her limping gant forward again, this time a little slower.

I exchanged a worried look with Percy and we followed after her. We walked like this for about an hour, only making it about a mile away from the garden.

We stopped at a clearing that had a line of giant oak trees down the middle.

"Stay back." Kate said. She walked up to the trees.

A loud shriek sounded from the trees and a dozen harpies descended. One grabbed her off the ground and they disappeared into the trees.

"Kate!" I yelled with Percy. All we could hear was the frantic shrieking of the harpies and the howls of pain from Kate. I swear it sounded like they were ripping her apart.

Then the sounds just stopped. Something dropped out of the trees and landed in front of us. I looked down at it to see Kate, still a leopard, with every arrow that was in her skin had been ripped out. Gold ichor poured from the wounds.

"Annabeth, what do we do?" Percy asked a little panicked.

I shook my head, for once i didn't have an answer. It looked like Kate was dying or dead, but something in the back of my mind kept reminding me that that was impossible.

Kates eyes burst open and she leaped to her feet. The harpies in the trees started to shriek again, almost like they were celebrating her waking. She looked up at the trees and let out a loud roar. The harpies silenced only to be replaced with a new sound. The sound of the earth rumbling like an earthquake was starting.

"Run!" Kate yelled at us. She took off running and we followed her, not eager to ask questions.

She kept running and we followed close behind before she suddenly stopped and looked back the way we came. The rumbling was starting to get louder.

"Up, now!" She yelled at us and pointed up the nearest tree.

I started to climb with Percy at my heals. Kate waited on the ground until we were more than half way up on the last branch that had a hope of holding us. She leaped up the branches and stayed on the one right below us.

"Neither of you make a sound." She hissed.

We stayed quiet and watched the ground. Soon we couldn't see the ground through a hoard of various monsters, most of which i had never seen before or heard of.

Some looked to have the head of a duck, body of a fish and the legs of a dog. Others had extra limbs or missing limbs. Some were more mixes. But even more were monsters that i knew, ones that i or Percy had faced including the Minotaur.

Once the flood passed, Kate jumped down and we climbed down to follow.

"What was that?" Percy asked.

"That was Arbor's effort to kill you two. He does not like demigods. But they'll be back this way in about a minute when they loop around the perimeter. So have to be gone by then." Kate said and walked off.

We followed her. This was too weird to ask questions, especially when she said our lives are in danger.

We crept through the trees and brush, careful not to make a sound. In about ten minutes of this we reached a river.

"This is it. The river is the border, we cross it then we're safe. Well as safe as you can be as a demigod." Kate said.

She jumped across the river effortlessly. I looked at Percy. He picked me up and started to wade into the river.

"When i looked at you for help. I didn't mean to carry me." I grumbled.

"No but i can read your mind, Wise Girl." He responded with a goofy grin.

He kept walking across the river, bending the current around us. When we reached the other side Kate was staring off into the trees like she was waiting for something.

I was gonna ask what she was waiting for when two birds, a parrot and robin, flew out of the trees and landed on the ground in front of us. Kate growled softly to them and they shifted into two pegasi.

"Percy you take Echo, Annabeth you ride Blu." Kate told us.

"Why didn't we ride them here?" I asked.

"The border keeps them out and the journey here had to be on foot or he wouldn't have let me in." She answered.

We mounted the pegasi and Kate formed into an eagle and took off. The pegasi followed her and we were on our way to Camp Half-Blood.