A/N: Thank you people who reviewed! Okay, I have taken way too long to update, I know, so here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of his friends/enemies (sadness), I only own Andy.

Chapter 5

By the time winter was over, Andy and Annabeth had become great friends. The threesome of Andy, Katie, and Silena had become a foursome. Annabeth proved to be a sweet girl, despite being a bit of a know-it-all, and really good at coming up with ways to get back at the Hermes cabin when their pranks got out of hand. Soon it was Andy's 9th birthday, then her 10th. She was given a quest, to get a handful of fleece from the golden (carnivorous) rams of the sun. Andy was a bit disappointed, seeing as Psyche, goddess of souls, had done this task while she had been human. Since it was October, Katie was in school. Annabeth had been charged with keeping the other two girls alive, since she had spent over a year on the run from monsters.

"Annabeth, Silena! Hurry up!" Andy cried as she rushed up the big hill to Thalia's Pine. Thalia, the daughter of Zeus and Andy's cousin, was the girl that had sacrificed herself to get Annabeth and Luke into camp all those years ago.

"We're coming! Jeez," Silena called. "The fleece isn't going anywhere." The raven-haired girl trudged up the hill, Annabeth right behind her.

"But this is my first quest! I don't want to be too slow, or might not get another one!" Andy was bouncing on the balls of her feet just inside the border, unwilling to cross it for once. There was no Delphi Strawberries van waiting to take them to New York; they had to get to the rams and back without any help from Chiron. That didn't mean that they couldn't contact him, but he couldn't give them transportation anywhere.

The two other girls reached the top of the hill, and they set off. Annabeth had warned Andy and Silena that they couldn't trust anyone, especially people who were being really nice. It seemed backwards, but Annabeth was the one with first-hand experience, so they followed her lead. It didn't hurt that she was a daughter of Athena, either.

After about an hour after leaving camp, they caught a taxi to Central Station. There was no way they could walk all the way to wherever the rams were, and Andy couldn't go on an airplane, considering that her uncle Zeus would blast her and anyone with her out of the sky. They booked a train to St. Louis, right in the middle of the country, thinking that that would be the easiest place to start. Andy had suggested they start in DC, but Annabeth said that there were too many monsters there for it to be safe. Arriving at Central Station, they headed to the ticket counter. Everything was going fine until they got to the window.

"Can I please see some ID or permission from your parents? We don't allow minors to travel unaccompanied without written permission from your guardians," the lady behind the counter told them.

"Just a minute," Andy said, taking off her backpack and looking for the paper that Chiron had given her. Suddenly there was a loud scream from behind the girls. The lady at the window turned white and disappeared from view as she ducked.

"Already? I was hoping that we could go at least a day without getting attacked," Silena whined. "I'm going to mess up my hair!" Andy sighed and shook her head. Typical Silena.

"I thought we broke her of that habit," Annabeth whispered to Andy. Andy smiled wryly, pulling out her sword. Annabeth had her knife out, and Silena had pulled out a bow and a quiver of arrows. There was no way that a daughter of Aphrodite would go anywhere near a monster; the danger to their hair, makeup, and clothes was too great. As the monster came at them, the three young demigods paled. It was a huge black dog with glowing red eyes. It snarled, displaying fangs longer than Andy's hair.

"Hellhound," Annabeth whispered, her grey eyes widening.

"Great. Now we know what we're going to be eaten by," Andy said, her quavering voice thick with sarcasm. The others were too preoccupied with how to go about attacking it to tell her off for rudeness. When it got close, Andy lunged for the throat. Her sword sliced through the thick fur at the neck, but didn't kill the dog. Silena had climbed atop one of the counters and was raining arrows on the beast, while Annabeth had put on her magic Yankees cap that made her invisible. From the way the dog spun around crazily, Andy guessed that Annabeth had jumped on its back. Taking advantage of the distraction, Andy lunged at the throat once more, this time sliding under the creature's head and stabbing it in the chest. With a yelp, the hellhound dissolved into yellow dust.

"Less than a day and we've already been attacked by monsters. I think that this may be a new camp record," Andy commented as she and Annabeth brushed monster dust off their shirts. Silena jumped off the counter and joined them, stowing her bow and arrows as she did so. Andy and Annabeth hurriedly stowed their weapons as well, hoping that nobody had seen what had happened. No such luck.

"What on Earth just happened?" the lady from behind the counter asked. "Did you just kill that poor dog? Security!" she called. "Security! These people have weapons!"

"Time to go," Annabeth said, grabbing the two black haired girls and dragging them out of the train station.

"How in Zeus's name will we get to St. Louis now?" Andy moaned. Thunder rolled ominously in the distance.