"Phoebe?"

Phoebe sat up and looked at Annabeth, "Yes?"

"My heart hurts." Annabeth clutched her heart and looked worriedly at Phoebe, "It feels empty."

Phoebe cocked her head to the side and sucked on her lip, "What's wrong?"

"I have no idea," Annabeth said while shaking her head. "It's just…I feel bad for leaving Percy back there. He could be dead for all we know by now."

Phoebe nodded, "I understand."

Annabeth breathed in the morning air, looked down and muttered, "Y'know, truth be told, I don't think I would've ever escaped if it weren't for you and Opal. I spent five years there. Five years without my daughter, Minerva, and my step son, Dmitri. My cell was beside Percy, but we couldn't communicate."

Anger flared in Phoebe's face. How could somebody take apart a family? Wasn't the whole reason for Kronos' second uprising was to 'help' unclaimed demigods have a family? Why tear it apart? When Phoebe voiced her thoughts, Annabeth shook her head.

"It's more than just stupid Kronos. All the First Ones are getting stronger. It started with Kronos, then Gaia. The one who captured you guys? Didn't you say that he was tan and he was missing an arm? I think that that's Perses. He's the Titan of Destruction. Kronos loves him almost as much as he loves Sinclair."

Phoebe snorted.

"Hah, I know it sounds ridiculous." Annabeth giggled.

"He needs to get off our asses." Phoebe muttered.

"Course he does, but do you really think that Kronos, All Mighty Lord of Time is going to do that?"

"Nope; he'll never realize that he's not wanted." Annabeth smirked. This conversation was ridiculous.

Suddenly, thunder clapped and it began raining. Phoebe screamed and backed even more against her tree. Annabeth took a breath of the icy air, again. It was her first rainfall in five years.

Phoebe laughed nervously and looked up. "Maybe we shouldn't make fun of the 'Almighty Ones', as they call themselves."

Annabeth nodded. "You sound like a true daughter of Athena," she said sarcastically.

The two agreed to call the Titans by their older names, Uranides, but Phoebe insisted- Those-who-shouldn't-be-named-because-they're-wannabe-gods. Annabeth disagreed, saying that it sounded too Voldemort-esque.

"What's Voldemort?" Phoebe asked.

"The villain from the Harry Potter who wanted to kill muggle-born wizards," Annabeth said exasperatedly.

"Oh." Phoebe looked down. "What's Harry Potter?"

"A series about wizards," Annabeth said calmly.

"Is it real?" Phoebe said excitedly. She grinned happily and looked at Annabeth expectedly.

"It's possible, Phoebe." Annabeth shifted. She wanted to get out of the tree and exercise her tired limbs. The heavy rained just stopped and the animals were starting to wake up. "Can we get down now? I'm getting tree cramps."

She looked down and noticed Opal tending to the fire below. It was odorless and smokeless. Annabeth wondered vaguely how she had done that.

"Yeah, I think so. Opal's down there now, so I guess." Phoebe muttered and began climbing down. She was down within seconds.

Annabeth grumbled about how unfair it was and took her time getting down. A branch almost broke and she cursed, "I'M NEVER LIVING IN A TREE AGAIN!" Opal and Phoebe looked up at her and snickered.

"I heard that!" She yelled down. The Hunters stopped snickering. Phoebe went off to hunt and Opal continued tending to her fire.

Annabeth finally got down from the wretched tree and walked towards the fire. It was a typical fire; it just didn't have any smoke or odor. Annabeth cocked her head, trying to figure that out. How was that possible?

Opal must have seen Annabeth's confusion, because she smiled and said, "Mum taught me a way to make smokeless fire. I didn't exactly think of it last night. But hey, I was tired. I woke up and remembered it. It's not permanent; it only lasts for an hour. I've had this sucker up for 15 minutes. When it burns out, we're going to head that way," she pointed to the clearing where Phoebe went hunting, "and hopefully we'll find a highway, or at least some sort of civilization. If we come across a lake, I'm going to try and emergency IM the camp. Bloody Uranides took my entire drachma. Don't know why they did, they're Uranides. They have no use for drachma. But anyways,"

"GUYS! GUESS WHAT I FOUND!" Phoebe's voice came loudly from the clearing. Annabeth and Opal winced. Sure, they were far from the prison, but with Phoebe raising her voice like that, the monsters that were sure to hunting them would now be on their track. Great.

Nonetheless, the two replied softer, "What did you find, Phoebe?"

Phoebe emerged with yet another venison carcass and a huge smile on her face. "Stag and a river. Oh, and I think that these are our drachma?" She held up a dirty velvet bag. "Girls, I think we're going to be going home."

But then, a growl ripped through the forest.

Teehee. This chapter makes me happy.

Revieww!

-Vikki