The Journey to Camp Half-Blood

8: Thalia

Styx.

Styx.

Styx.

That's all I can say. The second after Midas touched Annabeth, me and Luke stabbed him in unison. He now lay bleeding his stupid golden blood on his stupid golden carpet in his stupid golden mansion.

Anyways, me and Luke totally freaked out and turned to the shining gold statue of Annabeth with a look of terror on her face.

"Annabeth..." Luke whispered, "I let her get turned into a statue. This is all my fault!"

"No, Luke, it wasn't your fault. And I remember a way to fix it." I said, trying to think of it.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm thinking hang on..." I said, trying to remember the old story about King Midas that my mother told me when I was young.

"That it! The cure is fresh water!" I said.

"Of course! I remember seeing a stream a little bit back in the forest," Luke said.

With a little difficulty, we dragged the golden statue out of the mansion and into the forest. After about ten minutes of walking, we found the stream.

Exhausted, we collapsed at the edge of the water. "Okay. Do we just dip her in the water?" Luke panted.

"I think so," I replied.

Carefully, we stuck the statue into the water. Immediately, it looked like the gold was dripping off of her and melting into the stream.

After about a minute, it was just Annabeth floating in the water.

"Thank the gods!" Luke yelled.

One problem though- she was still passed out. "When is she gonna wake up?" I asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure she'll wake up in a little while, let's just get her out of the water." Luke said, pulling Annabeth out of the stream.

We must have sat at the edge of that stream, praying that Annabeth would wake up for four hours. Not really, it was like ten minutes, but while waiting for Annabeth to wake up, it was like an eternity.

Finally, she began to move. Then she slowly opened her eyes and sat up. "Annabeth!" Me and Luke yelled at the same time.

"Woah... Where are we?" She asked groggily.

"The stream in the woods. The only cure to the golden touch is fresh water." Luke explained.

"O-Oh. I'm really dizzy," said Annabeth.

"Well, why don't we camp here for the night? I think we can all benefit from some sleep," I said, as Luke and Annabeth nodded in agreement

That night, all I could think about was my mother. I distinctly remember her telling me the story of King Minos because of the event it led up to. See, my mother had been praying to Zeus to come down from Olympus right before she told me the story. At the time, I didn't even believe that my father was Zeus. I just thought my mom was crazy.

Anyways, I was yelling for her to stop praying because it freaked me out, so she stopped and told me she would tell me a bedtime story. So she told me the story of King Minos. I was so creeped out by the fact that some King would be so selfish as to turn his own daughter to gold that I went to bed immediately. However, I was woken by my mother's scream. It wasn't a scream of terror, though. It was a scream of delight. I rushed downstairs to see a tall, muscular man with a black beard, close cropped black hair, and a pinstriped suit.

"Who-who are you?" I had asked.

"Thalia, say hello to your father, Zeus." My mother had answered, rather smugly.

"Z-Zeus?" I asked, amazed by the fact that the gods were real.

"Yes, Thalia," Zeus answered, "and I have a gift for you." He then handed me a silver bracelet.

"Jewelry?" I asked, I had never been one to wear jewelry.

"Yes and no. This is Aegis. Simply tap the bracelet and it will transform into a shield with Medusa molded into the bronze. It will scare away most attackers." Said Zeus, placing the bracelet on her wrist.

"Th-Thank you," I whispered, slowly backing up towards my bedroom.

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"Thalia! Wake up! We have to go!" Luke yelled into her ear.

"Wha-?" I sat up groggily.

"There's a rouge hellhound bounding through the forest!" He yelled, moving on the wake Annabeth.

I quickly got up and gathered out things, then I tapped my silver bracelet- which I had never taken off since my father gave it to me- and Aegis spiraled into a shield. Luke had finally gotten Annabeth up, and we were now all standing in a line in the forest. Suddenly an extremely big, extremely dirty hellhound leaped out at them. They all began to attack different parts of the giant dog- and they were losing miserably- when they heard soft 'swish!'

We all turned and watched as a group of about fifteen girls in silver pants and jackets came out of the trees. They all had silvery bows, which they were firing at the hellhound. In a matter of seconds, all that was left of the huge dog was some black fur and a pile of golden dust.

"Why hello," said a girl, who was about 9 years old.

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

"I am Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and the moon. These are my hunters, The Hunters of Artemis." She said, gesturing to the other girls.

"Lady Artemis?" Annabeth asked, sounding amazed.

"Yes, child. Now, will you and the other girl follow me please? I need to ask you something. Zoë, come." She looked at a taller girl with a long black braid down her back and a silver circlet in her hair.

"Now girls. I have a question for you. Would you like to join the hunters and become immortal?" Zoë asked us.

"What about Luke?" Annabeth asked her.

"Well, I'm afraid you will have to leave your friend behind. We do not trust males." Artemis said.

"No! Come on Annabeth, we're leaving. I said, glaring at Artemis and Zoë.

"But-" Annabeth said, turning towards them.

"No, Annabeth. We can't leave Luke!" I said, pulling her along.

"Well- okay." She said, following me.

We went back to Luke and led him away.

"What did they want?" He asked.

"Those stupid hunters wanted us to join their little hunting group- and leave you forever." I said, glowering at the forest floor.

"Wha- oh." He said, blushing a little and staring at his scuffy shoes.

"Come on! Let's just get to this camp already." I said, storming away with Annabeth and Luke hurrying after me.

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Hope you like the update! I have a question for you: Do you want this book to go to when Annabeth meets Percy? Please comment!

~Megan❤️