The Guardian Angel- A PJO fanfiction

Chapter 41- Rania

That stupid idiot. We could have run and escaped without collapsing the whole tunnel, but he had to be heroic. He had to make sure we had enough time to escape.

I felt tears threatening to fall, so I turned away from the cave, or what used to be a cave anyways. I took in our surroundings and our situation. There are other ways out of the tunnels so we couldn't assume we were safe. The sun was just peeking above the horizon and we're stuck in the middle of a forest on a mountain with no idea where to go.

Dominic could have flown over the trees to find a way out, but he's- we can't use him. Christian might be able to build us a contraption of some sorts, but he can barely stand up let alone gather the supplies he would need to build something. We have an emaciated oracle, a defenseless 9 year old kid, and one body that said boy won't let go of. Guess it's up to me to get us out of here.

I look at Christian and all I can see is the grief and concern on his face, but I don't have time to grieve. "I'm fine Christian. Quit looking at me like that. I'm going to see if I can climb a tree and figure out where we are."

I walked off a short ways trying to find a tree with low enough branches for me to climb. Instead all I found were trees too tall and thick for me to climb or trees that wouldn't hold my weight. I could feel the anger and panic and pain growing inside me, threatening to make me break. Instead I punched the closest solid thing I could find, which happened to be a tree.

"Did that make you feel any better?" asked someone behind me. I turned around to find Christian leaning on a tree for support. I guess he took my silence as his answer because he kept talking, "I know that this seems bad, but we need to keep moving. We need to sort out a way to contact the camp that doesn't involve punching trees."

I looked down at my hand. My knuckles were split and bleeding and I'm sure that I broke something. Christian's voice became quieter and less steady, "I know that it sucks. Dominic and Z-Zora being gone, but we can't let that stop us. There's people back there who are still alive and need our help. It's okay to cry, Rania. Just get it out of your system now."

I looked away from my hand and up at Christian. I saw tears running down his own cheeks. His pain clearly evident on his face. I stopped fighting the tears and let them fall. I let out everything I had been holding back for years. I fell on my knees and sobbed as Christian wrapped his arms around me. I don't know how long we sat like that, with him just holding me.

"Christian! You better come here!" called Rachel from where we had left her and Wesley. She didn't sound like she was in danger though, so Christian went and left me to gather myself.

When I finally came out of the woods, I found the three of them crouched by Zora's body. Rachel gave me a worried look as I walked up, but she didn't say anything about my obvious crying disaster. I looked down and found that Zora's body was glowing with that strange golden light. In fact it seemed to be coming from her necklace.