Just saying, writing this was hard. Something messed up my settings, so when I type the cursor randomly moves around the document. I have no idea why, but if anyone has had something similar happen… well, I need help! ACK! I can't scroll! STUPID MOUSE GLITCH THING! *Rages* Sigh. :/ I always end these with an emoticon, don't ask why. Please review!

DERPCLAIMER: I am out of witty remarks. I am also not Rick.


Green lay in the shade of once-Thalia, absorbing the sunlight that fell across his face, and listening to the birds. Sweet trills, warm sun, soft grass. A light breeze brushed past the armies of leafy blades, ruffling Earth's hair. There really should be flowers everywhere, just to complete the stereotype. Jacuzis probably felt like this; warm, relaxing, and quiet.

Someone is leaving, Thalia told him, breaking the silence.

How do you know?

I can sense them leaving the boundaries of camp.

On a quest? He sat up, shaking off the tranquility of the hill.

Yeah, Percy, Grover, and Annabeth I think.

Where? I have to find them. I want to go with them.

You don't even know what the quest is!

I don't need to. No way I'm letting them get hurt.

Um, no offense, but I don't think they'd be the ones needing protection in a fight.

Still, I could find things out from plants, they can talk to each other! I have to help.

And what would you do when you found something out? You can't even write notes, or shake your head! Unless you start talking…

Just tell me where they are please.

They already have three! That's the best number for quests.

I'm mortal, I don't count.

It doesn't work like that!

It does now.

For such a relaxed guy, you're stubborn as Hades.

Why thank you.

You might die Green!

I can't just sit here until I get old and die! Maybe I learn better from on-the-job experience.

That's a good way to end up eaten The only reason you aren't already dead is that you can't stab yourself with Celestial Bronze, and that's just training!

Okay, I'll just run around the border until I find them.

There's no way that's going to work.

Then I'll go straight until I run into them, or starve! Come on, I need to see what's out there. What if I find something from my past? She was silent for a moment, searching for more reasons to refuse.

Fine, they're at the road, a bit east of here. They won't want you to come.

Well, in that case I'll have to follow them.

Green! Ignoring her protest, he sprinted off down the hill as fast as he could.

Panting, he reached the spot where the quest was exiting camp. There was a car on the side of the road, waiting for the last member. Percy was holding an ink-stick, or rather a pen, standing on the hill. Suddenly, he took off the cap and the pen changed into a glowing bronze sword. Well, that was new... and awesome! He turned, his face smoothly passing from awe-struck to confused as he spotted Green farther up the hill.

"Uh, hi," he said, looking more bewildered than anyone he'd seen in his short remembered life.

Green jogged the rest of the way down the hill, steeled himself, and forced his hand into a person-shape, ignoring the cramping in his fingers. He made it walk, pointed at Percy, and stood there, waiting for a response. While he was massaging his fingers, Annabeth strode over to them, looking impatient.

"Let's go, we only have, um, what's he doing here?" Oh, that was just great. He could defy Thalia, because she couldn't chase him down, but...

"You want… to come?" Percy asked, looking apprehensive.

Again, he forced himself to move, nodding. It actually hurt, the muscles in his neck knotting as he fought with himself to move them. Percy looked uncertain, and asked, "Chiron, uh, don't we already have three?"

Green had written on a napkin, in the shade beneath the pine tree. Writing was easier there, somehow. He pulled it out of his pocket and smoothed it out.

I now there arr alreddy threy, but I am mordal. I dont cownt.

"I can't read this…" Right, dyslexia. Or maybe his spelling was just that bad.

"Allow me," Chiron took the napkin, and read it aloud. "That really isn't how it works, but there has never been a mortal on a quest before. Then again, no mortal has ever passed through the camp borders either. This is the first quest in a long time, and we know little about him. Can you fight?"

Well, he could fight. Chiron hadn't asked if he could fight well, so he wasn't technically lying. Yeah. He nodded again.

"You haven't been following that schedule I gave you… may I ask where you go instead?"

Schedule? Oh, that bit of paper. Green had dropped that after he had studied it and found that it didn't do anything. In answer, he grabbed a fallen stick and drew a crude pine tree in the dirt.

"What?" asked Percy, confused.

Lik plas, go ther too thinck.

"You… go there to think?" Chiron asked. He nodded in confirmation, waiting expectantly.

"Why do you want to go on this quest anyway?" Annabeth wondered, giving him a suspicious look. That was going to be hard to explain. Find… how to sign find. Or past. He'd just have to write it.

Find were I cam frum, he wrote, cursing himself. From was with an 'o' right? An 'e'?

Chiron sighed, stroking his beard thoughtfully. Green decided then and there that one day, he would have a beard to stroke too. "I suppose you had better bring him along. Who knows what useful, perhaps essential, talents he may reveal?" he decided, surprising everyone, even Green.

"Chiron!" Annabeth had been silent until then about his tagging along, but it was obvious to Green that she didn't want him to come. He probably should have given up the first time he had tried to talk, as he had obviously made her wary of him. Going up to someone and sighing was creepy enough if you only did it once. He didn't want Thalia to have to live the rest of here evergreen life not being able to talk with her friend though.

"I am sorry, but I am afraid I must insist. He intrigues me, a mortal that can just stride right into camp. I hope that he shall find his voice on this quest."

Smiling impishly, Green slid into the backseat, right behind the many-eyed man, and squished in next to Grover. Percy completed their satyr-demigod-mortal sandwich, and Annabeth shot him a poisonous look and followed. He hoped Chiron was right, and that he would learn to talk, because he needed to get off her bad side, and fast.