A/N: OK, call me (maybe;) lazy, but I really want Annabeth to get on her actual quest… so I'm starting this back up on the morning of December 18 (which, coincidentally, is my friend's brother's birthday), the second day that Piper, Jason and Leo were at CHB. It's a bit of a short chapter, sorry! But please, enjoy:)

The next, morning, I wake up much earlier than the rest of my cabin, so I pack for my trip. I plan to visit Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, not only who claims to know everything, but has met Percy. Percy told me about him, and how he was pretty much Santa's evil twin brother. I pull out my travel pack, and carelessly stuff several camp shirts, jeans, shoes, and toiletries in. I dress for travel, throw my hair in a ponytail, and leave my cabin. The frosty air bites at my cheeks, but I ignore it as I make a beeline for Zeus's cabin- Cabin 1. I have a few things to tell Jason, whoever he may be. I silently enter the cabin without knocking, in a rush. He has his back turned to me, looking at some of Thalia's photos that she left. "That's Thalia," I say quietly, making him jump. I walk over to him, and explain who Thalia is.

"Don't suppose you changed your mind about coming with us?" Jason asks hopefully. Like I did. I shake my head.

"You got a good team already. I'm off to look for Percy." He looks at me, real disappointed, but I honestly think that he'll do really well. And… maybe, just maybe, he's been on quests before this one. I tell him that. A/N: Again, we will speed up time to when the dragon comes back. I f you need a refresher on what happened, basically Annabeth told Jason where to go, and about Thalia. Capiche?

We spend more time talking, and I give him advice on where to go, what to do, and how to. Suddenly, Jason surprises me (yes, apparently that's still possible for me), with something me says.

"You have to swear you won't tell anyone. " Whoa, dude.

"Jason-"

"Swear it," he urges me. "Until I figure out what's going on, what all this means- you have to keep it a secret." Um… okay. Creepy? Yes. Tempting? Even more so.

"All right. Until you tell me it's okay, I won't share what you say with anybody else. I swear it on the River Styx," and all that crap, I think. Jason looks around, before saying anything. He picks up the picture of Thalia. "My last name is Grace. This is my sister." The blood drains out of my face as I realize the importance of this. Is he lying? Why? This. Is. Impossible. Thalia never, ever, said anything about a younger brother. Does she not know about him? Or is he lying? Jason looks at me apprehensively, and suddenly, the doors to the cabin burst open, and half a dozen campers spill in. "Hurry! The dragon is back!"

The cold morning air bites my face as I fly through the sky on Blackjack's back. We travel west as fast as we can, which is pretty fast, but I know that Blackjack has been working his butt off, and won't be able to take me past Utah. We can't go into the super-fast mode, so I'll take a train or something once he gets to the breaking point. Which, by the way, was probably a couple states back. Poor pegasus. After Jason, Piper, and Leo left camp, in their fancy dragon, I took off on Blackjack, who (thank the gods) answered my call. Whistle. Whatever. As we fly through the air, I remember all those times Percy and I raced on pegasi. All the times I sat behind him on this pegasus. Oh, Percy, I miss you so much. Please come back to me, I think, absentmindedly wiping my eyes. Because of the air, of course. There are no disturbances for about an hour, but I know that Blackjack is tiring- and fast. "Hey, Blackjack," I say softly. "Land in that field over there." I point out an open field in the middle of nowhere, about half a mile ahead of us. I figure we're somewhere in Kansas, so about halfway. Yay…

Once we land, I immediately give Blackjack two carrots, and a few sugar cubes. I take out my lunch bag, and eat a bag of blueberries for Percy. It seems so weird, not having him around. Even when we weren't dating, during the school year, I felt incomplete without my best friend. Now… this is ridiculous. It hits me that this is how Percy felt when I was missing at Christmas time a few years ago. But now we're not just friends. Still, my world is so dull without him. I walk through field, my ADHD hands messing with the straw. I almost laugh when an ironic thought hits me. This is what the main character in Gladiator was doing, right before the battle… Wait- NO! Way to jinx yourself, Annabeth, thinking like that. Because we all know that when you think about how peaceful something is, then suddenly about fighting, a monster has to sneak up on me.

I first hear a rustle in the wind, then a couple footsteps, slyly approaching us. Blackjack whinnies fearfully from almost a quarter mile away, and this is when I turn. I see a huge shadow, and Blackjack rearing up. I can't tell what the monster is yet, but it's scaring the crap out of my boyfriend's horse. "No! Blackjack- no! Stay, boy!" my words have no affect on him, as I watch him leap into the sky. Great, I think. Just lost my ride. I pull my knife, and start sprinting towards the quickly approaching beast. As I near it, I realize what it is, and the blood drains from my face. A Teumessian fox.

I remember it, because I spent a whole afternoon a couple summers ago trying to make Percy remember what it is. The huge fox was about five feet tall, and eight feet long. Its perfect white teeth are huge, and sharp as knives. It has smooth reddish brownish fur, and get this- its destiny is to never get caught. It was sent by the gods. Just. Great. I make the split second decision to stay and fight, instead of hightail out of there, and into the forest, which was probably just about as safe as fighting it. Its cruel eyes regard me and my lovely knife.

I think about all that I know about this beast, which isn't very much. I know that in the ancient times, it was sent by Dionysus to hunt down the children of Thebes, as a punishment for a crime they committed. It was destined to not be taken down, so when the magic dog, Laelaps, whose destiny was to always catch its prey, was sent to kill The Fantastic Mr. Fox, the gods faced a challenge. They decided to send them both to the stars, but hey, anything to bother/piss off/kill a demigod, right? Even if it means taking it out of the stars. Great little history lesson for ya. And this, folks, is why I really would rather not fight this guy. Being sent to the stars, just because I'm too awesome for this fox, will not help find Percy.

The fox growls evilly at me, and charges.

Yay for cliffhangers! Okay, so for those of you who haven't, please check out Percy Jackson and the Golden Pen, Percy Jackson Reads His Myth (warriorprincess100), and in the next week, I'll have a new story up: Lost Stories From A Demigod's Past. It's a bunch of chapter long stories about various demigods' childhoods before camp (Both CJ and CHB). Rock on~ IzzyPJAC