Moonlight

Chapter 8, Car sickness and we aint got no radio

Percy sat in camp van, looking at the passing trees and hills as the vehicle wind down the road. Tapping his fingers on the window as he took in the sights. His sister Zoe was driving, which might have been weird, considering she looked about sixteen, but really wasn't, since he knew she was much older than that.

She was driving like a crazy person, and looking out of the window was the only this preventing him from spilling his breakfast over his lap. We were in Maryland before we finally pulled over at a rest stop. We all got out of the car.

Grover did some weird tracking spell with a bunch of acorns Percy hadn't ever hear of before, but it somehow did not point them to the west.

''Grover are you sure.'' Thalia said, one eyebrow raised

"Well, pretty sure.'' He said, ''Ninety-nine percent.'' He nodded as he tried to convince himself, Artemis' son looked at him pointedly.

''Okay, eighty-five percent.'' The satyr scratched the back of his neck, donning an embarrased smile

"And you did this with acorns?'' Bianca asked, not believing a thing he said.

Grover looked offended, ''Its a time-honered tracking spell.'' He explained, ''I'm pretty sure i did it right.''

''D.C. is about sixty miles from here, Nico and i used to live there." She frowned, as if she thought of something weird, ''That's strange ... I had forgotten.''

 "I do not like this," Zoe said. "We should go west. As the prophecy said."

"Oh, like your tracking skills are much better?" Thalia growled. It was clear to Percy that she had no idea what being a Hunter actually entailed.

Zoe stepped toward her. "You challenge my skills, you scullion? You know nothing about being a Hunter!"

"Oh, scullion You're calling me a scullion? What the heck is a scullion?"

Percy chuckled, "A scullion is a kitchen maid.''

"Why you-''

"Whoa, you two," Grover said nervously. "Come on. Not again!"

"Grover is right," Bianca said. "D.C. is our best bet."

Zoe still didn't look convinced, but she nodded reluctantly. "Very well. Let us keep moving."

"You're going to get us arrested, driving," Thalia grumbled. "I look closer to sixteen than you do."

"Perhaps," Zoe snapped. "But I have been driving since automobiles were invented. Let us go."

Percy climbed back into his seat in the back of the van, Amicus immediatly flopped down on his lap, Percy groaned.

"Ami.''

Yes Percy?

"Unless you wish to get puked on, please, for the love of Lord Pan, get your paws out of my stomach.''

Sure thing Prince

''Don't call me that.''

As they continued south, he wondered whether Zoe had been kidding. Percy didn't know exactly when cars were invented, but he figured it was a long time ago, back when things like phones didn't exist.

 Fortunately for his stomach, the van started to slow down. It crossed the Potomac River into central Washington. Zoe parked the car near the Washington Monument, at the curb.

Everybody was getting out. Grover pointed toward one of the big buildings lining the Mall. Thalia nodded, and the four of them trudged off into the cold wind.  

Percy started to follow. But then he froze.

A block away, the door of a black sedan opened. A man with gray hair and a military buzz cut got out. He was wearing dark shades and a black overcoat. Now, maybe in Washington, you'd expected guys like that to be everywhere. But it dawned on him that he had seen this same car a couple of times on the highway, going south. It had been following the them.  

The guy took out his mobile phone and said something into it. Then he looked around, like he was making sure the coast was clear, and started walking down the Mall in the direction of Percy's friends.

The worst of it was: when he turned his front towards Percy, He recognized the face. It was Dr. Thorn, the manticore from Westover Hall.

The hunter followed Thorn from a distance. His heart was pounding. The monster kept well back from his friends, careful not to be seen.

Finally, Grover stopped in front of a big building that said NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM. The Smithsonian! Percy had been here a long time ago with his mother, but everything had looked so much bigger back then. As if he didn't grow, the world just got smaller.

Thalia checked the door. It was open, but there weren't many people going in. Too cold, and school was out of session. They slipped inside.

Dr. Thorn hesitated. Artemis' son wasn't sure why, but he didn't go into the museum. He turned and headed across the Mall. Percy made a split-second decision and followed him.

Thorn crossed the street and climbed the steps of the Museum of Natural History. There was a big sign on the door. At first he thought it said CLOSED FOR PIRATE EVENT. Then I realized PIRATE must be PRIVATE. The prince of animals silently cursed his dyslexia.

He followed Dr. Thorn inside sneaking up in the rafters, through a huge chamber full of mastodons and dinosaur skeletons. There were voices up ahead, coming from behind a set of closed doors. Two guards stood outside. They opened the doors for Thorn, and Percy had to crawl quicker to get inside before they closed them again.

Inside, He saw something so terrible he almost yelped, which probably would've gotten him killed.

He was in a huge round room with a balcony ringing the second level. At least a dozen mortal guards stood on the balcony, plus two monsters—reptilian women with double-snake trunks instead of legs. Percy had hunted them before. Scythian dracaenae.

But that wasn't the worse of it. Standing between the dracaenae- Percy could swear he was looking straight down at him- was the boy he had saved all those years back, Luke. He looked terrible. His skin was pale and his blond hair looked almost gray, as if he'd aged ten years in just a few months. He'd obviously been under extreme stress. The angry light in his eyes accompanied by the glint of betrayal were still there, and so was the scar down the side of his cheek, where a dragon had once scratched him, Clarisse had later told him. But the scar was now ugly red, as though it had recently been made.

Next to him, sitting down so that the shadows covered him, was another man. All Artemis' child could see were his knuckles on the gilded arms of his chair, like a throne.  

Percy might have gotton himself into big trouble.

Finally!

So i'd been planning to write this for a long time, but i never knew how to write it. I finally decided to make a whole new beginning to this chapter, as he was originally gonna meet Will and Clarisse again, but i figured he'd probably already met them at capture the flag.

It was fun trying to reimagine this part of the story without Annabeth having been kidnapped and Percy actually being chosen for the quest.

Please alert me of any typos/spelling issues

I've watched Voltron with my friend @10SparklyTrash01 and i really love it. Don't sue me for putting you in my book fren ily 

So i've decided to do questions of the day, todays question is;

QOTD: Who is/are your favorite Voltron character(s)

Mine are just all the paladins *chuckles*

I'll be writing a lot more now that i'm almost at the easier parts to write, and i'm looking forward to adding more animal friends.

With much love, Amy