Jason's POV

I was in the camp arena, taking out all of my anger at the people that had taken Piper on the straw dummies that encompassed the area when a rainbow shimmered into existence right in front of me, and I had to stop myself from slicing through it with my Gladius.

"What?" I snapped at Thalia.

She broke into a smile. "We found Piper."

That was all I needed to here before I laughed aloud, a huge smile on my face. "Where?" I pressed.

She was in California, heading to her Dad's home with a bunch of other kids. They were attacked by these wolf monster things and Nico tracked them down for the Hunters and we took them down. They are currently in our care and we are heading back to the camp. You'll see her soon, little brother."

My smile was so wide it threatened to split my face in half. Tears were filling my eyes and just about to spill over. "Thanks, Thalia," I said and my voice cracked with emotion.

She shared my smile and cut the connection, leaving me to my own thoughts in a large, empty room full of slashed-up training dummies.

Percy came in a little while later, and found me smiling, and just standing there. He cocked his eyebrow. "Good news?"

"The best," I replied. "The Hunters found Piper. She's coming back."

"Percy smiled and hugged me. "Congratulations, bro."

Thalia's POV

I just got ended the call to Jason when one of the lower Hunters, Lilly, came into my tent to talk to me.

"Everyone's settled, and all of the tents are set up," she reported.

I raised my eyebrows. "Including the ones for Piper's friends?"

The Lilly shook her head. "They insisted on sleeping in the trees for some reason, but I'm not complaining. We gave them a couple of sleeping bags and blankets for use, but they don't want to sleep in the tents."

"Good work, Lilly," I told her. "You go get some rest. I want to go talk to Piper before I head to bed."

"Thanks, Thalia." Lilly smiled and walked out of my tent. I followed behind her and headed over to where Piper was standing under a hole in the trees that showed the sky, staring at the numerous stars that showed.

"Hey, Pipes," I murmured to her.

"Hey, Thalia," Piper returned as if she knew that I had been behind her the entire time.

"What's going through that mind of yours, girl?" I asked.

"Just...just wondering...what's going to happen now? Now that we escaped...they'll be hunting for us until they get us back. We can't escape. We can try and run, but they'll find us before long and attack…!" Throughout her tirade, Piper's voice rose in hysteria, and her voice cracked on the last word.

"Hey, Piper, it's going to be okay. We'll protect you and beat the crap out of whatever they send after you. I do have one question, though. What were those things that we fought when we first found you?"

Piper shuddered, and answered in a small voice, "Erasers. They were Erasers."

"Erasers?"

"Yeah. Human-wolf hybrids. That's why you could hurt them with your arrows and knives. The animal in them is enough to be hurt by the celestial bronze in our weapons."

"You mean they were Lycanthropes?"

Piper shook her head. "No. They aren't from Greek Mythology, or even any mythology. They were made. Wolf DNA mixed with human DNA to achieve a chimera."

"But...that's…"

"Horrible," Piper nodded. "And they're main instinct is to hunt and capture, or kill if they're lucky, the...escapees of the...place...that I was at."

I saw the tears glistening in her eyes, and I didn't push her on the subject, so I decided to change it. "So, you excited to see Jason again?"

The smile Piper gave seemed to light up her whole face. "Definitely."

"Well then, you have to get a good night's sleep so we can get farther tomorrow, and that's not going to happen if you're falling asleep on your feet." I ushered her to her tent, and closed the flap after watching her settle in the sleeping bag for the night before going back to my tent and laying down.

I didn't think that I would get to sleep, I had so many questions on my mind-but I managed to, and before I knew it, it was morning.

As I took down my tent, I looked around for group that we had rescued with Piper, and didn't find them anywhere, and I grew frantic. Where were they? If they were escapees too, what would stop the Erasers from coming after them? Would they even be able to stay alive out here? Where would they go? What would they do? A shadow crossed my face and I looked up, and saw large bird-like things wheeling around in the sky doing flips and turns, formations and just generally messing around. It was the six kids with bird wings, and it was a amazing to watch.

I noticed Piper standing off to the side, watching the bird-kids too, a somewhat sad expression on her face. I called her over, and she started, looking wildly around her before realizing that I was talking to her.

"What's up?" she asked once she had walked over.

"Can you call them back down? It's time to get moving if we're ever going to get back to Camp Half-Blood."

"Just let them fly. They haven't had the chance to stretch their wings in a while, and they can follow us from the air. Plus, half of their group is made up of guys. I don't think the Hunters will take kindly to them, and Max made it pretty clear that she doesn't want anything to do with people who don't want anything to do with half of her flock." When I shot her my confused look, she smiled slightly. It wasn't a laugh, but it was better than nothing. "Max is the eldest girl and leader of their flock."

"What are the other's names?"

She bit her lip. "You should probably ask them. They wouldn't want me spilling out their life story, especially since they don't particularly trust me. Not that I blame them. It'd just be nice to befriend them, you know?"

I could tell she wasn't really talking to me anymore, more like thinking out loud, but I nodded my head anyway. "Well then, could you let them know that we're moving out? If they're gonna come with us, they should at least know that they're welcome along, even if the rest of the Hunters don't like it, and Lady Artemis isn't one to turn down girls in need, even if there are boys attached." It was meant as a joke, but Piper didn't even acknowledge it, and closed her eyes before opening them and announcing that they knew and were willing to come along with us. I didn't understand how she knew that just by closing her eyes, but I didn't question it, considering the fact that they followed once we set out.

And everything was going fine until Piper collapsed and the screams poured forth.

Yeah, sorry about the long wait, but I honestly forgot about this for a while, and remembered it when I was looking through my old stuff. *shrugs* At least it's updated now...

I also realize that this is a super short chapter, and I apologize for it, but I just couldn't resist ending it like that, and I couldn't think of anything else to put in there.

As always, Review and tell me what you think!

Cihla signing out!