Another chapter! trying to make up for me being a terrible author for a while. Did i mention i fell bad? Anyways, who was outside the van? Find out.
Nico had a huntress's arm wrapped around his neck and a dagger up to his throat. Percy and Annabeth were blocked in by two other huntresses and a pack of wolves. My mother was standing next to the van picking her nails with a stray arrow head.
"Aphrodite likes all of you a little too much." Her voice was strong and clear as if she could rule the world if she felt like it.
"I just want some food." Percy complained as a wolf singled him out and began a new orbit.
"That's all you men think about. Your stomachs rule your mind." Artemis complained.
"Not true," Percy shouted in her direction.
"Oh really, Percy? When you're about to control the water, where do you feel it most?" She whipped around facing him promptly.
"In my stomach," he answered without realizing what he had just said. "Oh" he formed the word with his mouth and then got a look of puzzlement in his eyes.
"You are such a Seaweed Brain." Annabeth rolled her eyes and hugged one of the huntresses. She stepped away from the dogs that simply let her pass. "Artemis, why did you come and find us? And where is Thalia?" She bowed slightly, but other than that she was rather in charge in this situation.
"Thalia is on her way and I came because, like I said, Aphrodite likes my daughter a little too much." Artemis crossed her arms over her chest dropping the arrow head which turned into a butterfly and took off toward the south.
That's when Thalia walked in. She had on a pair of grey colored camouflage pants, a black shirt, and a silver cloak along with a circlet of a crown sitting around her head. She looked angry, but not at anyone in particular, just angry. She was holding a spear. She hit a button and the spear became a small canister. I sat there kind of dumfounded at the fact that these hidden weapons were everywhere, and I had never seen them before. She tucked it down into her pocket and walked over to Percy. They hugged and then she walked over to the girl that had Nico by the throat. She had said maybe one word, two at the most, and then Nico was free. She cuffed him in the arm lightly and walked our way. This was not the Thalia I had seen the first time. This person was completely different.
"Lady Artemis," She kneeled and then stood as if it was normal. She had one hand in a fist and slowly uncurled it to reveal the blue butterfly. "I got your message." The butterfly spread out its wings and then turned into and origami paper butterfly. There were words written across it that obviously had some kind of message across it. "Hephaestus had it already waiting. You can have it anytime you want. It's in your mailbox." Thalia stepped back and called off the dogs near Percy. Annabeth kissed him lightly on the cheek and some of the girls around us made blech noises.
"Perce, you can go get some food now." Thalia bellowed in his direction. Annabeth and he went straight for the Burger King entrance. A couple more girls followed looking happy to get some greasy food. It left two other huntresses, Thalia, Nico, three wolves, my self, and my mother.
"What do you want mom?" I crossed my arms over my chest rather annoyed with the goddess.
"I saw what happened this morning, and I would like to tell you something." Artemis didn't look sure of herself anymore. Thalia stepped forward laying a hand on my mother's shoulder. She nodded once causing Artemis to gain some sort of confidence from her head huntress. "I am… ok with you having a boyfriend and I, uh, came to give you gifts, from me."
She held out her hand and a blue velvet box appeared. It wasn't the size of a ring, but the size of a picture book. Under that she had silver cloth draped over her arm. She handed the box to Thalia who held it gingerly in her hands. Artemis threw the silver cloth over her shoulder.
She took back the box and held it out before her. She opened it to reveal a silver circlet like what Thalia was wearing, but this was different. It looked like two silver vines intertwining with each other loosely. Small leaves came out pointing slightly toward the front of the circlet. A small silver circle that reminded me of the full moon sat at the front just above where the vines dipped down in a v that would sit just above the bridge of the wearer's nose. Flowers that seemed to be just blooming were styled with the center being tiny diamonds cut perfectly. It was gorgeous.
Artemis pulled it from the box handing the container back to Thalia. I kneeled willingly as she placed it on top of my head making me feel like a princess. She pulled me back to my feet and smiled at me.
"I want you to feel like I'm always there. So, I had it made especially for you. I know you aren't my head lieutenant, but you are close in my heart Aikaterine, always know that no matter how rash I act." Her smile slowly faded as if she was having trouble not being serious for once.
"I always will." I smiled at her a comforting smile that I knew was true.
Artemis retrieved the cloth from over her shoulder and held it out to me. A cloak of the Huntresses was mine to be had. I took it into my arms and wrapped it around my self. It formed itself around me making itself into a grey trench coat.
"Thank you mom," I hugged her tightly around the waist. She stood there for a bit before hugging me back.
"Aikaterine, I love you. And, I know you'll do the world right on your quest." She smiled at me and walked in toward Burger King.
Thalia smiled and winked at me as she walked by. I turned to watch her leave and found Nico standing there. I had completely forgotten he was standing there. Nico's smile was large as he slowly made his way over to me.
"I think we just got my mother's blessing." My voice got more and more excited as he got closer.
He sped up and wrapped me in his arms swinging me around in circles. He set me down and kissed me lightly. I felt like I was in a romantic movie with a princess fairy tale coming true.
"Let's get some food, and then we can head on." Nico took my head and lead me inside.
We got to the counter and the girl dabbed some tears away from her eyes. She told us how she had seen us outside and said we were the perfect couple. Needless to say, we were getting our meals free for just being all around awesome people. As we stood next to the counter Nico pushed my auburn hair behind my ears and kissed my cheeks like one of those mushy boyfriends from the movies.
We were putting on a great little show for the cashier who had given off her duty to her trainee. She was now leaned across the counter listening and watching as I snuggled into Nico's chest. She was propped up on her elbow her eyes growing so large they were the size of discs.
"Here's your food. Have a nice day." She said dreamily sliding the bags across the table on a tray. Nico took it up and led me over to a two person table. Nico left with our cups to get some soda and Thalia took a seat across from me.
"Hi there," I smiled her way as she set her hand down on the table in front of her in a business like form.
"Listen Aikaterine, I didn't mean to be a complete jerk the other day. I was in a bad mood." She looked kind of ashamed of herself as if she could have pulled herself together for our meeting.
"Why were you in a bad mood?" I wondered leaning forward as I noticed Annabeth trying to listen from across the aisle between our tables.
"I had just figured out what happened to Lady Artemis. I was a little more than upset and I blew my top when she had to tell you. I'm sorry." She held onto my hands quickly and noticed the ring on my finger. "What's that?" She wondered looking at it closely. I noticed the red rock seemed to be moving within itself like molten lava.
"It's a ring." I said mater-o-factly making her sound rather dumb.
She gave me an odd look and then went back to the ring. "Where did you get it?"
"I'm not sure." I lied coolly as she gave me another funny look. "I don't remember it was so long ago."
"I don't know if I –"
"What are you girls talking about?" Nico interrupted setting down to sodas.
"Nothing," I answered quickly as Thalia gave up her seat and headed back for her table with a huntress, Percy, and Annabeth. Nico took back his seat and grabbed his french-fries from the bag.
We ate most of the lunch in silence as different people entered and left the restaurant. The Huntresses along with my mother got a couple of funny looks considering the looked like a rogue Girl Scout troop. Nico and I talked about a few things like what some of the things that ticked us off were, but we knew almost everything about each other. Hell, we had been in a cave together for four months. Knowing each other was something that was inevitable.
When the whole group finished up we threw away our trash and made our way back out into the parking lot. The Huntresses immediately rounded up the dogs and headed off toward the woods. My mom hugged me goodbye and took off after her huntresses shrinking down to the size of a twelve year-old and vanishing. Thalia said her goodbyes to Percy and Annabeth. She quickly hugged Nico and then came up to me.
Her hug was kind of like a death grip. She cut off all the air to my lungs and leaned up to my ear. "You can't keep secrets. We'll find out." She hissed so that no one noticed. She walked out to where everyone else had vanished and looked back at the Burger King. Some people gave her funny looks as she was about to walk into the woods. Thalia looked like she laughed and then snapped her fingers.
A waved of what looked like pure energy radiated off of her and across everyone around us. I didn't understand until Percy gave a thumbs' up as the people turned from the windows. Thalia winked at me and walked into the woods vanishing completely.
We climbed back into the van and Annabeth was driving. Fine with me, I didn't want to drive at all. Nico settled down next to me in a seat. I rested my head on his shoulder. Percy was sitting in front of us looking rather stoked as if he had just gotten an extra boost of enthusiasm for our quest.
"Percy, get your butt up here." Annabeth complained pulling out of the parking lot.
"What if I don't want to?" He teased.
"Then I'll skewer you; how's that?" She shot him a death glare to him using the rearview mirror.
"How are you supposed to do that? I'm invincible remember?"
"I'm your girlfriend, remember? I know exactly where your weak points are."
He slipped off of his bench and climbed back into the front of the van. I laughed and Nico rolled his eyes as if this was everyday stuff. I sighed in relief of the so far stressful day and found it comforting that we were already in Denver, Colorado. We had about twelve hours left in the drive and it was around two in the afternoon. So, I slept late, but I made up for it by the time I spent up at night.
A yawn escaped my mouth. It was so large my eyes began to water. Nico chuckled a bit.
"Why don't you take a nap?" Nico suggested stroking my hair calmly.
Immediately, I shook my head, no. The last thing I needed to do was sleep. I didn't Nereus telling me something else that would scare Nico half to death.
"Come on Kate, you're tired. Just take a nap, maybe you won't have nightmares during the day."
I considered it. Would Nereus be waiting behind my dreams when I fall asleep during the day? He had knocked me out once to give me the scythe, but now that I had it would he want to talk to me during the day?
Suddenly, I got light headed. My vision blurred over and I could barely see.
"I can't see." I muttered. Nico looked at me and must have seen that my pupils were dilated.
"Annabeth, pull over; something's wrong with Aikaterine." Were the last words I heard before I deafening roar split through my head. I squinted against it as if I could get it to hurt less, but it was inside my head. I blacked out.
Hope you like, once again i have other chapters ready. They are ready to go and you just have to read and review. Love y'all
Sincerely,
wisegirlindisguise
