Luke Castellan was not much one for the woods. Surprising for a demigod, but then he was a son of Hermes- the divine patron of roads, thieves, commerce, hospitality, resorts (well someone needed to take the job), and postal service; basically, in the woods, Luke was as far away from his dad's dominion as he could get, and he didn't like it one bit.
And yet, despite his rather urban predisposition, Luke was traipsing around in the forest past Zeus' Fist, sweat uncomfortably clinging to his skin and mud squishing in his sandals .
Di Immortales, Annabeth, where have you gotten to this time? I swear on the river S- er, Lethe, when I find you I'll…
Fortunately, he never had to finish the thought; Luke's eye caught on a small flash of gold hair sticking out from behind an outcropping of rocks some distance away. He walked quietly, trying to creep up behind his qua-
"I know you're there Luke."
Annabeth didn't move as Luke came around the rocks and sat down next to her. They were silent for a moment, then two, then:
"It didn't have to be me you know. It could've been someone else entirely."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Please, Luke, only you could manage to break every twig, rustle every branch, and trip on pine cones. Besides, your left shoe's sole is broken, so it makes a clack every time you take a step, your camp necklace always bangs against your Dad's symbol charm, and…" her breath hitched, and Luke realized she'd been crying, "and you're probably the only person in this entire stupid camp that gives a drachma about a stupid little daughter of the stupid wisdom goddess."
"Careful Annabeth, all this 'stupid' talk will probably lure Ares cabin out here…"
Annabeth gave a slim smile, and pretended to shudder. "Don't even joke."
Luke gestured towards her. "Come on, let's go for a walk. The ants here bite, and I can't stand them."
Annabeth shook her head in teasing disapproval, but got up and brushed herself off.
They walked in companionable silence for a minute. But Luke was ADHD, and a Hermes kid at that, so it wasn't long before he put an end to that.
"You know, Annabeth, I'm not the only one who'd care to look for you. There's Chiron, Ivy, Tim, Becca, Bill- he likes you, you know-"Annabeth gave a gasp and a giggle, "and Beckendorf, Abby, Jamie, Joey-"
Suddenly Annabeth's face fell again, tears misting up in her eyes.
"Wait, did something happen to Joey?" Annabeth stopped, nodded slowly, and moved into Luke's now embracing arms.
"He was run over by a car in the city while he was on his way here," she paused with a sniff, "Chiron's not sure if the cause is totally mortal, or if some monster distracted him. I found out about it at before classes; Chiron's going to give the news after dinner." A long pause. Then:
"Well, I guess you've got an acceptable excuse for missing lunch and getting lost in the woods. Unlike last time…"
"For the last time, I could have sworn the Aphrodite cabin was plotting a make-over; besides, you have to admit the big bird's nest was a pretty sweet spot."
"Fair enough. But what was with the magical laughing gas again? And what you did to Ivy? Really, Annabeth, she was just trying to help; no need to …"
Annabeth burst into giggles again. "Stop it Luke."
"Stop what?"
"Making me feel better."
"Why would I want to stop that?"
"Because I don't feel like feeling better."
"Which is exactly why I'm doing it in the first place."
"I'm not going to win this, am I?"
"Nope."
There was another pause as they started walking. Finally Annabeth spoke up again:
"I wasn't actually crying over Joey. I didn't know him very well, and he made a lot of mistakes in Capture the Flag."
"Don't speak ill of the dead Annabeth."
She rolled her eyes, but conceded before continuing. "But as I was saying, it isn't so much that I knew Joey as it is that Joey was family, my big half-brother. He always told us little kids in Cabin Six that he'd look out for us, but he failed; he couldn't even look out for himself."
Annabeth's chest began to shake again as she stopped. "He's just another loss. Like everyone else. First I lost my dad to his mortal" she spat the word like a curse, "family, then Thalia was metamorphosed into a Zeus-forsaken Pine tree, and now I've lost my counselor and half-brother."
"You still have me."
"For how long Luke? You're going on your own shiny quest next week. Aren't you the one who's telling me out side is a dangerous place to be, with monsters lurking around every street corner? And you're going to have to face the dragon, Luke, when even Heracles couldn't kill it! Do you know how many other heroes have tried to take a golden apple? Hundreds. How many ever came back?"
Annabeth's voice grew more and more ragged as she spoke, until she finally broke down, sobbing.
"None, Luke. No one ever came back. Let's face it, as far as everyone knows, you're just a dead man walking."
"Hey, it won't happen like that. I'll get through this, with a nice, shiny apple for my troubles. After all, you know there's no monster that could kill me."
"That's what we thought about Thalia too."
Pain quickly swept over Luke's features, but was gone just as fast.
"Yeah, but she didn't promise you, did she?"
"Luke, you can't promise anything like this. You can't control it."
"I'm not too sure about that Annabeth; I'm pretty sure people can use this little thing called self-preservation. Of course, you might not have heard of it, judging by what happened last Tuesday…"
"Focus Luke!"
"Right. If I swear on the River Styx not to do anything to split up our family, I'm sure even death couldn't stop me. I'd like to see Hades try and fight the Styx on this. All right?"
"So, you promise?"
"I so swear on the River Styx." Thunder rolled in the distance.
"And now I can see that the Olympians really were the source for theater. Rather melodramatic, isn't it? But now, Annabeth, unless you want to stay out here and mope some more without me, it's time for dinner. And as fair warning, if you don't attend, I might have to read your diary aloud to the camp."
Annabeth's jaw went slack as Luke produced the small, pocket-sized journal from his jeans.
"How did you… son of Hermes, right. Fine, okay, let's head back."