They were walking down a path, Anna lagging behind.
"You are my half sister," Percy insisted for the fourteenth time.
"I don't have a brother," Victoria said, beginning to get agitated.
"Half brother."
"I am not your half sister."
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Stop fighting already!" Anna yelled at them and Percy and Victoria fell silent. Anna grimaced. "I can't feel my leg, I have a headache, I just saw to people materialize out of the clouds and push over the bus. Shut up, could you?"
"Let me see your leg," Percy said, diplomatically changing the subject. Anna rolled up the leg of her pants, with no little amount of pain. Jared winced, looking away. A piece of glass was protruding from the flesh on her leg, at least an inch in. It must have taken Herculean effort to walk with that thing. Percy smiled slightly at this simile.
"Do you want me to pull it out?" He asked.
"No!" Jared nearly shouted. "Just-don't let me see. Please." He was turning a rather sickly shade of green.
"Don't move," Percy cautioned, then swiftly pulled it out. Anna swore, sucking her breath between her teeth, eyes screwed shut. Percy wrapped up her leg with a bandage that came from who knows where.
"Did you know that you were a demigod?" Percy asked, casually tossing the bloody shard of glass away. He was trying to take her mind off the pain, but she wasn't so easily fooled.
"No." She said, in a strangely strained but quiet voice. It was a little scary.
"Does this hurt?" Percy asked, lightly touching the bandage.
"No," she said. Lying blatantly.
"How about this?"
"OUCH! Yes... That hurt..." Anna gasped. "Stop! I can walk on it. You don't have to bend my leg backwards."
"I could carry you," he offered.
"I'm fine!" she protested.
"Or Jared." He suggested, ignoring her.
"Sure," Jared shrugged, grinning.
"No, stop!" She moved away.
Krysta sighed. "Come on, Anna, we're all waiting for you. The sooner we get going the better. Wherever we're going."
"No."
"Anna!"
"It's fine," Jared hastened to say. "I'll just make sure she doesn't fall over." He glanced at Anna to make sure this was alright, and she grudgingly nodded.
"Alright," Percy conceded, "let's go."
"Where are we going, anyway?" Victoria demanded to know. "First you bring us here, then you don't check to see if anyone's hurt, then you never say where we're going."
"I didn't think anyone was hurt," Percy said defensively. "We'll be at our destination in five minutes. We're almost there. Almost home."
This last comment was said a bit absently, unusual for a guy like Percy to say. No one said anything, and in minutes, they were at the foot of a hill."
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."
