Hey again! Thanks for reviews, favs, and follows! It's a good motivation to write! Here's your chapter.
It takes us a while to drive to Canada, and I'm pretty sure we only stop for gas. I wouldn't know because I slept the whole way. So did Percy. We wake with Argus shaking us awake.
"We're there?" Percy says with a stretch and a yawn.
Argus nods. Percy and I get out of the van and grab our book bags from the back, making sure we have everything. Argus waves and drives away. Percy and I stare at the entrance in awe. It's a really big preserve, with giant trees forming an entrance. I read the sign carefully.
"Let's go!" Percy says, starting towards the arch.
"Wait, Percy!" I grab his arm and haul him back. "Read the sign."
"Annabeth, I'm dyslexic!"
"So am I!" He sighs and squints, and it takes him about five minutes to read the sign.
"It's a forest preserve. Yippee."
"Underneath the words!"
"It's just a bunch of mist."
"Exactly. It's Mist."
"That's what I said."
"Look harder."
"Annabeth—"
"Just do it, Seaweed Brain!"
He sighs, and does as I tell him.
"It says…'Immortals, demigods, monsters, etc, entrance to the left. Huh?"
"It's a godly forest preserve. They'll have endangered monsters there, along with dryads and nymphs."
"Hmm." I grab his hand and pull him to the second arch, much smaller, but as we pass through, the air is heavy with Mist.
It's fairly empty, with a few dryads darting through trees and watching us. We walk for a while, not knowing what we're looking for.
"So what's the point of this?"
"We're trying to make it so we can sleep apart again."
"Maybe we don't need to. Maybe it's a sign."
I shush him and concentrate on the butterfly wafting up to us. I reach out my hand and it lands on it.
"Careful, it could be a butterfly monster." I ignore Percy and use my other hand to rip off a wing. "That was mean!"
"Look, Seaweed Brain." I hold the wing up for him to see. It's sparking and has wires running through it. "It's a camera."
"We're being watched."
"Joy."
We walk a bit more, heading for nothing in particular, then I decide to climb a tree to see if there's anything we should aim for. In the distance, I see a tall, pink palace, looking like it came from a Disney movie. There's mist floating around it, the real kind and the magic kind, and in pink letters above it, it spells out "Your Destination!"
I sigh and start to head down when I hear Percy curse and unsheathe Riptide. He starts fighting something so I drop down and land on a hellhound.
Within seconds, the three hellhounds are dust. Percy and I catch our breath, looking at each other. Then I tell him what I saw, and he curses again.
"Stupid pink."
"Why stupid pink?"
"Cuz I can't say what I really want or I'll get blasted into pink Percy hearts." I laugh and he smiles at me.
"We should make camp, I saw the moon come up."
"Alright, I'll start the fire."
"I'll set out the bedrolls." We do as we said, and soon we have hot dogs roasting over the fire. We snuggle as we roast.
"I'm glad we're prepared."
"Yeah, me too. And I'm glad you're here."
"Ditto."
"Gah, my hot dog's on fire!" I laugh as Percy frantically blows his hot dog. When he gets done, it's a blackened piece of meat. And it looks really gross. He's crestfallen.
"Here, Percy. If we're Aphrodite's entertainment, we might as well entertain." I hold out the end of my hot dog for him, and we eat it together at separate ends. Then, we lay down on our bedrolls on opposite sides of the fire, when I notice something in a tree. Standing, I pull it down. It's a small, metal canister on a parachute. When I open it, it's full of chocolate cookies.
"What've you got?" Percy asks sleepily.
"Cookies!"
"Score!" He comes around and snatches one, then returning to the safety of his bedroll. We eat in silence, then lay down to sleep.
For about half an hour, we lay, staring into each other's eyes. It's dark now, and the fire's low, so all I can see in the moonlight filtering through the treetops is the sea green glint of his eyes. Finally, Percy mutters "Screw it" and moves his bedroll by mine. We snuggle, and soon enough we're asleep.
*BACK AT CAMP, A BIT EARLIER*
Chiron stands in front of a group of assemble demigods.
"Piper, Jason, are you ready?" They step forward and nod, sporting bookbags on their backs.
"Alright. Argus?" Argus motions them into the back of the van and drives away with them.
Another van pulls out behind them, far enough back not to be seen by the first.
They're both going to the same forest preserve as Percy and Annabeth, with the same curse and same goal.
So pretty uneventful, I guess. Please review anyway!
