People were running and screaming. We looked at each other and pulled out our weapons and Lucas jumped in front of us. Someone came over the loud speaker "Please everyone remain calm. It seems that the anaconda and the lion from the local zoo has escaped. Please evacuate in an orderly fashion."

Unfortunately, the people continued run chaotically away from the square, knocking over tables of jewelry, crafts, and paintings to the ground. I saw James grab something off the table near him and I was going to yell at him for stealing when a blood-chilling shriek came from the other side of the square.

"Great! What could it possibly be this time?" I threw my hands up and turned toward the monster.

Thomas shouted at me before I could see our attacker "Don't look at it, Drakons can paralyze you with just one look."

"What the Hades is a Drakon?" I turned towards Thomas.

"Think giant snake monster."

James pulled out a foldable shield out of his bag. He signaled us to come closer. We were able to see the giant snake with the reflective metal of the shield.

"Do you think if I shoot the eyes, we won't be able to get paralyzed because it can't see?" I asked.

The Drakon was getting closer and coming straight toward us. Luckily, Lucas distracted the snake monster away from us by pouncing on it.

"Yeah, that might work. Then we can attack it head on." Thomas said.

I summoned my bow. "Lucas, Retreat!" I yelled at my pet lion. Lucas backed away from the Drakon so, I could get a clear shot. Lucas didn't seem to do much damage on the monster. "Hold the shield steady." I instructed James. I looked at the shield to aim and nocked two arrows and released them aimed at the serpent's eyes.

It hit the mark. The Drakon let out a roar and coiled up in the center of the square.

"Lucas, Attack!" The lion jumped onto snake avoiding the potentially poison fangs. We all ran forward and started to attack the snake.

Its scales were extremely hard and seemingly unbreakable. Lucas was thrown off the serpent by its powerful tail and directly into a taco truck and shrunk to cat size. I ran across the Drakon's path to help my loving companion.

Too close, apparently. The snake grabbed me with its muscular tail and brought to its mouth were it was going to eat me. I swung my sword at the beast but couldn't reach and my bow was somewhere below me and was unable to summon it due my arm being pinned against the snake.

The fangs oozed poison and it had started to drip. I could hear James and Thomas attacking and shouting as an attempt to distract the snake but it was failing. My free arm was starting to burn when I realized the venom was dripping on my upper arm and burning through my shirt and into my arm. I was going to die until I was saved by a trash can lid.

Thomas had thrown the lid at the snake and hit it upside the head causing the snake to turn its head and loosen his grip on me enough to pull my arm out and summon my bow. I shot at the snake in rapid-fire mode and the Drakon drops me. The venom started to take effect and I tried to get up but fell over but Thomas caught me and dragged me to the nearest store.

He leans me up against the front counter and pulled his bag in front of him. I was seeing black spots and felt like my veins were filled with… well acid. My senses were fading. I going to die. Since I couldn't summon water from the pipes in my condition, Thomas started to pour some nectar on my arm then he made me drink some and eat some ambrosia.

I still felt sucky but my head started to clear bit by bit. First my hearing, I could hear James fighting the Drakon, then my sight, I could tell that Thomas had dragged me into a hair salon.

I looked around to see if there was anything we could use to defeat the monster outside. Nothing but shampoo and hairspray. Wait… "Thomas, hand me that."

He grabbed the big can and handed tossed it to me. "Do you have a lighter or matches?" He had a look of recognition on his face and dug in his bag, producing a lighter which he dutifully handed to me. I opened the lighter and started to spray the hairspray whilst lighting the lighter, making a makeshift flamethrower. "Drakons are similar to Hydras right? Do you think we can burn it?" I said to Thomas.

"Yeah, that could work but we'll need a lot more hairspray." He walked over to the shelf and put all the cans in his bag. He took the lighter and can from me. "You should probably stay here. You're in no shape to be fighting." He told me.

"I'm fine." I got up and walked two wobbly steps before crumpling to the floor. "Alright, maybe not. Go."

Thomas walked out the door loaded with cans of hairspray. I dragged my body to see out the door, I saw Thomas throw James a can and the lighter as he started to set fire to the evil snake monster.

The pain in my arm spiked up again and it wasn't long before I had passed out.

I woke later that night on the ratty piece of furniture that our motel called a bed. I head was still spinning and my arm hurt like… Well, like it had been dipped in Drakon venom.

When I stopped seeing stars I slowly sat up to see Lucas curled up by my feet, Thomas asleep on the couch and James snoring in the chair next to the table. They both looked terrible. I got up and was met with a sickening feeling which soon went away after I drank the glass of nectar sitting on the bedside table.

I walked over to the mirror to see that neither of the boys had cleaned (very well anyway) or bandaged my arm. I grabbed my bag off the table and took out my first aid kit and went back to the mirror and sink. I washed my hands and started cleaning the wound when I realized it wasn't a wound anymore just a weird-looking acid mark on my upper arm.

"Woah, what happened to you? You like you've been to Hades and back." A voice said.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I looked up to see Annabeth in the mirror. "Woah, how are you doing that? You're in the mirror." I whispered to Mirror Annabeth.

"Iris-messaging is how demigods communicate. So what happened to you and where are the others?"

"Let's just say we gave a Drakon a long overdue makeover. The boys are sleeping off the fight. So, what's up? Something wrong at camp?"

"No. I just wanted to check in with you on where you're at finding Percy."

"We know where he is. He's in Seattle. We are heading to Portland tomorrow and going to get there soon and bring him home."

"I was afraid of that."

"Afraid of what?"

"There's a huge spike in monster activity in Seattle. We don't know why? It's possible it has to do with you and Percy's curse."

"Great, more monsters. Anything else you want to throw at me!" I threw up hands and screamed at the stained motel ceiling.

"Don't taunt them. You get what you asked for tenfold."

"How could it get worse? I almost died today and yesterday. I don't see how it could get worse."

"OK, well I have to go. Be careful and bring our seaweed brain back." She disappeared.

I started to clean my arm again when I decided to just jump into the shower.

When I got out and got dressed, I realized that the sleeve of my shirt was burned where the Drakon venom touched it. I took the scissors from my kit and cut the sleeves and collar turning my camp shirt into a camp tank top.

I looked at the clock. It was about an hour before we needed to go the station. I woke up the boys. Thomas jumped with a start before he realized it was me.

"What are you doing up? You should be resting."

"I'm fine. All healed, see? We have an hour to get to the station." I showed him my arm.

"That's impossible. You should be bedridden or at least have your arm in a sling. Drakon venom is practically deadly. It's perfectly healed."

"Yeah, well the same thing happened with my Hellhound scar. I must have a healing ability because of the gift of Apollo."

"Hmm…" He didn't seem convinced.

I turned away from him and walked over to where James was snoring loudly. I went behind the chair he was sitting in and whispered in his ear "You snore too loud."

He jumped out of his chair and pointed his sword at me. "Woah, don't blame me for your snoring." I chuckled with my hands up innocently.

"Why can't you move that fast when we are fighting a deadly monster?" Thomas snorted. James just rolled his eyes.

"Let's get packed up and go. Annabeth contacted me earlier and apparently the monster activity is up in Seattle." I instructed them.

We were done packing in five minutes. Not much to pack, I guess.

We headed out and kept our heads down so, we wouldn't attract attention. I was forced to buy a green hoodie at the tourist shop to keep people, mainly James and Thomas, from staring at my arm. It looked like a red splatter mark on my skin.

Now we were all matching with I 3 Denver tops. Luckily, we were able to get on the train as soon as we got to the station. We slept most of the way there.

Here's your Valentine's gift from me to you! Hope you guys like it. Reviews and questions welcome!

Thanks for the Reviews: annbethgrace6, ObsessedwReading, percyjacksonfan0!

Have a great Valentine's Day!

~Kitty~