New story. Lots of ideas. Just read, please?

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own PJO or any of the ideas for it, but I do have some of my own, and Amara is all mine!

One

He was talking at me again. The pale-haired one – Benjamin, I think he the others had called him? There were three of them. Two boys, one pale, one dark, and a ginger-haired girl named Eleanor.

I wasn't listening. For the billionth time, I tried to tell them that I didn't need rescuing, that I had managed perfectly well for three years on my own after…well, never mind.

But my tongue was still heavy from the numbing medicine they'd given me, and the best I could do was open my mouth and make baby noises. I felt like an idiot. It was their fault the Nemean lion had come – they had been making far too much noise. Just my luck I had been camped right above them, in the branches of a tree. And just my luck that the lion had sniffed me out and sent me tumbling down from the tree.

I had been knocked out for most of the fight, but the three half-bloods had protected me and were nursing me back to health. My back had taken a nasty scraping, my arms too, but it was nothing a little ambrosia and nectar could cure. It had been ages since I'd had that stuff. Soon, I would be up on my feet again, and away.

The kids were coming back from finding the dark boy, and they were heading back to Camp Half-Blood. Again, lucky me.

'Hey, are you even listening?' Benjamin snapped his fingers in front of my face, and I blinked. 'Talk to me, Georgina of the Jungle!'

The ginger girl, Eleanor, walked up and crouched by my side. 'Ben, leave her alone. She's only just getting better, there's no need to lecture her.'

Benjamin scowled. I liked him least out of all the demigods. He did a lot of shouting and bossing around – it was his noises that had drawn the lion to us – and he rarely smiled. The dark boy, Oliver, talked little and looked at me a lot, as if he couldn't quite work out how I fitted into the picture. He was just learning about the gods, and our world. Eleanor was kind and gentle, and she talked to me when she fed me soup, even though I couldn't reply.

'How do we know she's even a half-blood?' he asked irritably. 'For all we know…'

'Oh, come on, Ben, she's eaten ambrosia and nectar without burning to a crisp, I think that's a clear enough indication, don't you?' Eleanor rolled her eyes good-naturedly and put a cool hand to my forehead. 'Are you ready for some more ambrosia?' she asked me. I nodded. 'This will enable her to talk, maybe we'll find out where she came from.'

Eleanor broke off a square of ambrosia from its chocolate-like bar and handed it to me. Weakly, I lifted my hand and put in into my mouth.

I smiled wistfully. The food of the gods tasted like spices, the night, palm trees…everything I could remember from home. I closed my eyes.

'Oh, no you don't,' Eleanor squeezed my hand. 'Sit up. In a bit, the ambrosia will start to work, and you'll be able to talk again. All right?'

I nodded again in reply, and sat up, helped by the girl. I felt my muscles starting to strengthen, and I wriggled my toes in my leather shoes.

I coughed. 'I can…talk.'

Eleanor smiled at me. 'What's your name?'

'Amara,' I replied. 'Amara Wilson.'

'Okay, Amara, you're a demigod, right? How old are you? How come you're not at Camp Half-Blood?'

I decided to play dumb. 'What's a demigod?' I asked, putting on a confused expression. 'And Camp Half-Blood… are they code words or something?'

I didn't know why I lied. It seemed like the right thing to do.

Eleanor explained to me about to gods, and Chiron, and Camp Half-Blood. The usual rubbish I had already heard.

Halfway through, Oliver came over.

'She's new,' Eleanor told him. 'Like you.'

Oliver smiled slightly, and then got up and went away again.

'So, one of my parents was a god?' I asked Eleanor, still playing stupid.

'Yes,' Eleanor said. 'I'm a Daughter of Persephone, Benjamin's a Son of Athena and Oliver, we don't know yet either. Is it your mother, or your father, who's mortal?'

I drew in a sharp breath and sat up straight. I wasn't going to relive the pain for her. 'Can't…remember,' I managed slowly.

'You'd better rest,' Eleanor told me. 'Here, I'll take you under the shelter to sleep. We'd better hurry up and get to Camp, though. Four demigods travelling across America? We'll have to find a lift, or something. Come on.'

Eleanor took my arm, and I followed her under the length of canvas strung up between two trees. Benjamin was studying a map, his face serious, and Oliver was watching him.

She leaned me against a pile of blankets, and covered me with one of them. I relaxed and lay back, pretending to sleep. I needed to know what their next plan was, to find out what they were doing here. Now I was in a state of consciousness, I would start to be myself again: wary and self-sufficient, not relying on demigods from Camp Half-Blood to nurse me back to health.

'Her name's Amara,' I heard Eleanor tell Oliver and Benjamin. 'She's maybe fourteen?' I pursed my lips. I was fifteen and a half. 'She doesn't know about us, or at least, she didn't up until now.' I was glad it was Eleanor who had questioned me. She was sweet, but not very clever. If it had been Benjamin, he would have realised I was bluffing.

'We need to speed up the journey,' Benjamin said. 'Now there are four of us, we can't afford to be slow.'

'How about we go into the nearest town tomorrow and…borrow a car?' Oliver suggested. I was surprised at his idea. It was crafty, and surprisingly good. I would have commented, but I was pretending to be asleep.

'I wouldn't know where to begin!' Benjamin said. 'Do you know how to do that sort of thing?'

'Of course,' Oliver said. 'Well, I've read about it…and, it's sort of the same thing, right?'

'We'll see tomorrow,' Eleanor said. 'But we should probably get some sleep.'

I heard rustling, and through the gaps between my eyelids, Eleanor's shape was covered by blankets and she lay down.

The boys went to sleep on the other side of their makeshift camp, and soon I heard them snoring. But my head was too filled with thoughts to sleep.

They were heading towards Camp Half-Blood, and quickly. I needed to get away. We were only in Virginia, but I knew that they would speed up now the threat of monster attacks was bigger.

I couldn't face Camp Half-Blood, not again. Not after what had happened…last time.

As I drifted off to sleep, I dreamt of him: of Ash.

His face was suntanned and framed by messy, curly hair, and his laughing brown eyes were kind. The sun glinted off his polished armour, and his sword was drawn, but he was smiling, happy, determined.

That was the last time I'd seen him.

He smiled at me and took my hand. I wanted to pull away, knowing what would happen and not wanting to think about it again.

'Cheer up, Ammy,' he said, his face fearless. He squeezed my hand and I looked down at our intertwined fingers.

'I'm afraid, Ash,' I voiced my thoughts. 'I don't want you to go.'

'Don't worry,' he said, letting go of my hand. 'I'll be fine.' Liar.

I opened my mouth to say something more, but another boy in armour called out to Ash to hurry up. I didn't care. This was more important.

'Ash…' I began.

But he sighed, torn. 'Amara, I have to go, or we'll never reach it. I'll be back soon, okay?'

No. No, it was not okay.

I must have still looked troubled because Ash slung his arm over my shoulders. He hesitated before bending down to kiss my cheek. I felt myself blushing.

'Stay out of trouble for me, will you?' Ash grinned at me, then turned to follow the others out of the borders. My last glimpse of him was the back of his armour glinting in the sunlight.