Tangled Legacies: A KOTLC and PJO Crossover Story

🌊Leo is Wet. Don't Look at Me: Chapter 29: Percy's POV🌊

{{the art above is a drawing of Jasmine, who you're about to meet. Art credit to ILoveKotlc35! go check out her art! She . Is. AMAZING!!!!!}}

Leo led the way to Bunker Nine. I grinned at Piper behind his back.

"Almost there," I mouthed to Piper. Leo stepped into a clearing near Bunker Nine, where a creek ran through the forest.

Leo turned around. "Guys, I have to-" he was cut off by the stream of creek water that slammed him right in the face. "Wh-" he spluttered. "What'd I ever do to you?"

I rolled my eyes. "You bailed on us for a robotic dragon." I replied. "You deserved it." I spun and stalked away, leaving Leo soaked and slack-jawed.

Piper looked back and forth between Leo and I. "Percy, I need to tell Leo what's going on. See you later." She jogged after Leo, who was already deeper into the woods.

I sighed and wove back through the trees to camp. Leo was acting weird. I wondered what was bothering him. Maybe he was feeling left out because we didn't tromp through the woods to find him. It didn't matter to me. He was being a gloutos. So I shook him out of my mind. Suddenly, a smear of red caught my eye. I pulled my pen from my pocket and got ready to uncap my sword. I crept toward the splotch of color, my senses on high alert.

"Show yourself!" I shouted, in case it was a rouge Maenad or a monster. My foot slipped on some loose rocks on the edge of... I wasn't even sure what it was. A jagged scar ran the length of a grove of thin, pale-barked trees. The crevice was about five feet wide and about twenty feet deep. The weird thing was, the grove of pale trees was completely silent. No birds chirping, no water rushing, even though there was a creek flowing about a hundred yards behind me, no monsters roaring. I saw the red again. I jerked around, thinking I would see a giant scorpion or a cherry-flavored drakon. (Those exist!)

But it wasn't. She was human, or at least a humanoid being. Her skin was the color of polished onyx. Her chin-length, dirty, snarled hair was stark white, though she couldn't have been more than nine. But what struck me the most were her eyes. They were the deep red of summer roses. She was wearing a red sweater that had a long slash down the front, revealing a blue shirt underneath. A worn black skirt about five sizes too big was held up with a braided leather belt. A leather sheath hung from the belt, carved with an intricate design. On her feet were muddy hiking boots with metal fastenings. She was holding something tightly to her chest with one arm.

"Hello?" I called. She looked up from the thing she was holding- some sort of sketchbook, I guessed- and froze. She backed up toward the edge of the crack in the ground, leaving about fifty feet between us. She folded her pencil inside the leather-bound volume she still cradled and set it in the grass.

"What do you want?" She asked. Her tone was meant to sound defiant, but her voice trembled.

"Who are you?" I asked. She looked like a goddess or a nymph, but she wouldn't be that scared of me if she was.

She frowned. "Jasmine. Who are you?" One of her feet traced through the grass, leaving a trail of torn up blades of grass and dirt where it had been disturbed. Something glinted in the trail that her foot had left.

"I'm Percy. And you need to come with me." She rolled her eyes.

"No can do." She turned around and jumped into the crevice. I heard nothing. Confused, I moved to the edge. She was creeping along the floor, not making a sound. Then she turned and walked straight into the rock face that formed the wall of the fissure. I did the logical thing. I jumped in after her.