the story of thalia grace.

thalia

( hunter of artemis, mistress of thunder )

disclaimer: not mine.

"Luke, wait up!" I called. He was speeding through the dense forest, hardly even caring if he left Annabeth and me in his dust.

He spun around angrily, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for us to catch up. "Slow down, Luke," Annabeth said in-between pants.

"Luke, if there's something you want to get off your chest, now's the time. I'm not putting up with this anymore," I said hotly, putting my hand on Annabeth's shoulder.

He stared at me fiercely for a moment before softening his gaze and letting his shoulders sag a little. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's just… that didn't go the way I expected."

I felt a little guilty now. I had just chewed him out when really he was just sad. I sighed. "Sorry for yelling."

He shrugged. "S'okay. I was kinda asking for it." He ran a hand through his hair. "You guys wanna stop for the night?"

Annabeth nodded eagerly, and we set up camp in a small, secluded grove surrounded by shrubs. We didn't bother making a safe house. It went unspoken… we all knew we weren't coming back here. Ever.

After Annabeth was safely in bed, I opted to stay up with Luke. "You sure?" he asked.

I nodded. "You've had a rough day, and I know you're not going to sleep tonight. I figure, you need a friend right now."

He gave me a small smile. "Yeah. I do. Thanks." We sat back-to-back, his hand on his sword, mind on my spear.

Oh gods, I thought as I felt my heart speeding up. You're alone with him. Stay calm. Be cool. "So, um… how are you?" Really? That's all you can come up with? I thought angrily.

Luke shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Still just a little upset about today…" he let out a big sigh. "It's just hard, you know?"

"Yeah. We all have family problems. It kinda comes in the whole 'demigod package'."

He laughed. I tried to ignore how hot his back felt through my jacket. Maybe it was just me. Yeah, that's it. "You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said a little too quickly. But he must not have noticed, because he didn't say anything.

After a few moments of silence, Luke said, "You know, Thalia, I'm really fine if you want to sleep."

"No, I'm fine to stay up," I protested.

"I really think you need to get some sleep. You need rest after the whole drakon attack today."

Oh, how sweet, he's worried about me! I felt all warm and fuzzy until I realized what I just thought. Oh, great, I sound like friggin' Aphrodite. I've got it bad. "Fine," I said, standing up and closing my spear on itself. I tucked the canister into my pocket and got into the sleeping bag with Annabeth, tucking her into my side. "Goodnight."

One last smile from Luke. "Goodnight, Thalia."

My nightmare started off like a regular dream. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was in school, sitting down for class. All of a sudden, I was in a straitjacket. I struggled to get out, but the jacket wouldn't budge. The kids all stood up and started leaving the room; I'm assuming they were leaving for recess. The teacher was saying something, but I couldn't hear her over all the kids' chatter. I listened closer. Come on, Percy. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil. Percy? That wasn't my name. Then I realized I wasn't the only student in here. I looked over to the desk next to mine. In it sat a boy. He had unruly, black hair and the greenest eyes I'd ever seen. He was wearing a straitjacket too.

I struggled with my jacket once more before glaring at the boy and saying huffily, Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here. I don't know where the name 'Seaweed Brain' came from, but it seemed to fit. His eyes kind of looked like the color of seaweed, and he just radiated 'ocean.' Don't ask me why, I don't know.

I closed my eyes in concentration and frustration, and when I opened them, I wasn't with Percy in the classroom anymore. Now I was with Luke, sitting on a blanket in a forest. He was grasping my hand tightly and smiling at me. "I love you, Thalia," he said. Then he started leaning in. He's going to kiss me! I thought excitedly. But just before I closed my eyes, I got a better look at his face. There was a thick, white scar running down his right eye.

I jerked back. "Luke, what's that?"

He looked generally confused. "What's what?"

I pointed to the scar. "That!"

He touched his face and a look of recognition crossed his features. "That? Oh, that's nothing." He started leaning in again.

I stood up abruptly, dropping his hand. "No! Tell me where that scar came from!"

Luke stood up and faced me. He drew his sword. "What… what are you doing?" I asked furiously. Luke said nothing.

I looked down at myself. Suddenly, my spear and Aegis were in my hands. What's going on? I didn't have much time to wonder, though, because Luke charged me as soon as I had my weapons. He slashed and I blocked, I stabbed and he parried. "Yield!" I yelled. "You never could beat me, Luke." I backed off, waiting for his response.

But Luke started glowing. Glowing golden, like the sun. I shielded my eyes with my hand, falling backwards onto the grass. The last thing I remember is hearing Luke say, "We'll see, my old friend." Then my world went dark.

"Psst! Thalia! Wake up!" I jerked awake, sitting up quickly, a cry already on my lips. But there was a hand muffling my scream. As I felt the last bits of sleepy fog leave my mind, I registered my surroundings. I was in a forest still. But Annabeth was right here next to me, sleeping peacefully. And instead of trying to kill me, Luke was crouching in front of me, one hand plastered over my mouth, the other holding a finger to his lips.

I wrenched his hand from my face and wiped my mouth. "What is it?" I whispered angrily.

"There's someone coming. Listen." I sat still for a moment, my ears attuned to the sounds of morning in the woods. Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop.

I looked at Luke and nodded. "I hear it."

"Come on." He grabbed his sword and I took out my spear. We checked the perimeter of the clearing. Luke nodded in the direction of a cluster of bushes. "Past there."

I nodded and followed him. We reached the bushes. Luke nodded again. We charged through the shrubs, holding our weapons ready. We were expecting a monster of some sort. Maybe even a wild animal, or another human.

What we were not expecting was a mix of all three. "AAH!" it yelled.

Luke and I stopped abruptly, our weapons inches from its throat. "What do you want?" Luke asked fiercely. I studied the… thing. It looked like a human from the waist up, but its lower half was made up of hairy goat legs. Instead of feet it had cloven hooves. That must've been what was making the noise… There had a backpack hoisted over one of its shoulders. A Rasta cap topped its head. There were bits of curly brown hair sticking out around the bottom of the hat. Both its arms were raised in surrender.

"Don't kill me!" It pleaded.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Grover Underwood. I'm a satyr."

"What are you doing here?" Luke asked him.

"Chiron sent me. That's all I know. He just told me to find three half-bloods, one of them is a daughter of Zeus. I just followed the strongest scent to here." He looked at us up and down. "You must be the daughter of Zeus. I could smell you all the way over in Long Island."

"Chiron… like, Camp Half-Blood Chiron?" Luke asked.

"That's the one! Don't hurt me." He said.

Luke lowered his sword. "He's okay, Thalia." I dropped my spear to my side. Luke sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "So, Chiron sent you to find us?"

Grover looked at both of us for a moment before saying, "Why don't we go back to your camp and I'll explain?"

"So, let me get this straight… my dad actually followed through on his word for once, and Chiron sent you to come get us, and now you're gonna take us back with you to Camp Half-Blood?"

Grover nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah."

We sat in silence for a moment. Annabeth was still sound asleep in the sleeping bag, using Luke's jacket as a pillow. "What you said back there… did you say you could smell me from Long Island?" I asked.

Another nod from Grover. "Yup. Satyrs have an impeccable sense of smell. Demigods have a special scent that we have a talent for smelling. Camp Half-Blood employs us as seekers."

"Seekers?" I asked.

"Uh huh. They send us out to schools around the country. We sniff out the half-bloods and bring them to Camp."

An awkward silence settled on us. I looked at Luke, who seemed to be deep in thought. "What if we don't want to?" he asked suddenly.

"What?" Grover and I asked in unison.

"What if we don't want to go with you?"

"Oh. Um…" Grover mumbled, shuffling his hooves.

"Luke, can I talk to you in private for a second?" I asked, standing up. Luke got up and I led him off where no one could hear us.

"Luke, maybe we're supposed to do this."

"And maybe we're not! We've been doing fine on our own."

"Define 'fine' for me, please. Because I'm not sure if 'fine' is what we all are. Luke, I almost lost my friggin' leg yesterday! My leg! What would you have done if we weren't near help and I didn't have one of my legs? Hmm? What would you have done?"

"I would have carried you as far and as fast as I could to civilization."

"What about Annabeth?"

"She would have followed!"

"Okay, if you were going, 'as fast as you could,' there is no way a seven-year-old girl is going to keep up!"

He fell silent. "Luke, what would you do if you lost one of us? What would I do if I lost you?" I asked, my voice soft.

He shook his head. "You're right."

I sighed. "Then it's settled?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We're going back with the satyr."

We both walked back into the clearing, sitting down next to Grover again. "We'll go with you." I told him.

He nodded happily. "Oh. Good. I don't know what I would have done if you guys decided you didn't want to." He pulled out his backpack and reached in. I thought he was going to give us something, but he just retrieved a tin soda can. He took a large bite out of it and then held it out to me. "You want some?"

I was about to answer when I heard Annabeth stirring. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, a yawn escaping her mouth. She smacked her lips as she looked at us. Confusion registered in her face as her eyes landed on Grover. "Uh… who's that?" she asked, pointing a finger at the satyr.

Luke rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… it's a long story…"