(With the demi-gods)
The group had finished their trip and at the moment they were laying low in their base on the James river. Thalia was on the lookout for monsters while the others slept. She was smiling at a small picture, she always had it on her, it was a reminder, a reminder of what she had lost. She stared down at the photo of her and her baby brother, in one of the moments between being drunk and hungover, her moth- Beryl had taken a photo of just the two of them.
The image was slightly torn at the edges but other than that it was in perfect condition. The picture was a younger Thalia holding onto a small blonde boy, he had the same eyes as hers, their father's eyes and a small scar on his lip. He was grinning from her lap, she too was smiling, she didn't have eyeliner and her hair wasn't as roughly cut.
Thalia became aware that she wasn't the only one awake when a small fuzzy head nuzzled into her arm.
"Who that?" Parrot asked quietly, not wanting to wake the others.
"That's…" Thalia briefly contemplated lying and saying it was no one, but looked into the fox's blue eyes, ones that brimmed with innocence the same way Jason's had. "That's my brother." She finally whispered out sadly.
"Oh," the fox sat down beside her, "is he…" He began.
"He's dead." Thalia said sadly, "he… he was the reason I left. My mom-Beryl, she was drunk most of the time, I had to raise him. I took care of him, and I raised him. Beryl didn't help, all she did was drink and wallow in self-pity." Thalia hissed out, but her voice softened, "Jason, he was only two. Beryl decided to take us on a picnic. That should have warned me, she never took us anywhere." She said bitterly, "she was holding Jason, eventually we came to a spot to eat, She told me to go and get the basket from the car," she took a deep breath, "when I came back, Jason was gone. I-I searched all over the place but he wasn't there." She sobbed slightly, "it's my fault, if I'd have held onto him…"
Thalia never told anyone about this, she didn't plan on telling anyone either. She was sobbing quietly, suddenly a tail wiped the tears away, Parrot, now the size of a border collie gently nuzzled into her. Thalia wrapped her arms around him, holding onto him and sobbing softly into his fur, he said nothing, but gently pet her head with his tail, comforting her as best as he could.
After a few minutes Thalia sat up and looked into the fox's eyes, "thank you," she whispered, "for listening." She then wiped her eyes and her eyes hardened, "but if you ever tell anyone about me crying like that…" She let the threat linger, but he knew it was only have hearted.
"No telling." He said grinning, they sat there in silence for a minute before he spoke again, "Jason love you." He said, "I not speak well, but I see well. Picture him love picture you very much." Thalia felt a stray tear escape her at that.
"Yeah," she said, "I love him just as much."
"He go to Elsum." Parrot said, "he happy there, he waits for you, but he want you be old Thalia then."
Another stray tear, but Thalia couldn't help the grin on her face, "thanks. And it's Elysium."
They sat there in a comfortable silence for a minute, Thalia was lying down and using Parrot as a pillow, while he wrapped his body to comfort the daughter of Zeus.
Eventually Thalia finally spoke again, "you never told me you could grow and shrink like that." She said absentmindedly.
"Didn't know." He said, and Thalia turned to him in shock sitting up off him.
"You didn't know you could do that?" She asked in shock, "then how did you know it would work when you jumped at the leucrota?"
"Didn't, just guessed." Parrot said absentmindedly.
"You jumped at a monster at the size a puppy without knowing you could do that?" Thalia asked shocked.
"Yup. Still not know how it work." Parrot said.
"But do you not feel something, like getting tired or something, or like a weird feeling in your stomach?"
"Nope, it just take chakra to do." Parrot replied.
"Wait, what's chakra?"
"It… I not know." His face became a mass of confusion. "I know, but not?"
"Okay. Well, I think it's Luke's turn to watch." Thalia said, waking said demi-god and gesturing for Parrot to come over to her. "Okay, shrink down to a manageable size, you can sleep on top if you want."
Parrot jumped up and landed on top of her sleeping bag at the size of a two-week-old kit, he then lay down and drifted off, Thalia following his lead.
(Time skip)
The group of demi-gods had been traveling for months now, their foxes were now fully able to speak English and had broadened their vocabulary. Neither fox was comfortable with the others presence but had not fought with each other, they were too busy fighting the various monsters that attacked them. Whiskers had learned that he too could become big and small when he wanted, but becoming big wasted 'chakra'. Something neither of them knew about but still knew enough that it was the reason for their ability to shrink and grow. They also found that if they wasted too much chakra they would collapse and normally fall into the realm of Hypnos. The biggest they could make themselves was the size of a lion, but they could only hold this form for a few minutes, the bigger they were the more chakra they wasted.
The number of monsters had also increased, seemingly at random. One day there were only a few monsters every odd day, now every day was becoming a struggle, now the group were deciding on a plan, Thalia had injured her leg in the previous attack. She couldn't go far and they knew that the monsters would be coming for them soon, they needed to find somewhere to fix Thalia's leg up soon.
Luke had reluctantly said he could bring them to his home, it wasn't far from here and they would be safer there. They made their way to the house, which looked nice, somewhere the others didn't understand him running from, but maybe his mum wasn't nice. Thalia and Annabeth tried to reason that was the case, they tried to sneak in but q light appeared in front of the door, man, no god, who bore a striking resemblance to Luke.
"You should not have come here," the man spoke to them, he then looked at Luke, "we need to talk." He said, he then directed his son to another room. The two girls, and their vulpine companions, made their way over to the kitchen where they found Luke's mom, she was baking by the looks of it.
"Hello." Thalia said and the woman looked at them, she smiled happily at them.
"Hello," she said, "are you Luke's friends, he's such a good boy, such a shame he…" She trailed off, "oh hi," she said, "I'm May, you must be Luke's friends." The two girls looked nervous, this woman was strange. "Would you like a drink?" She asked them, they replied with a nod, "ok, Luke always loved this, before…" She poured them out some Kool aid and gave it to the two girls. It was lumpy and looked unpleasant but they took a drink anyway.
"Did you hurt your ankle?" May asked the daughter of Zeus, "here, Hermes gave me this for Luke, if he ever hurt himself." She handed her some ambrosia, "he always ended up with scraped knees and hurt himself. Before he left that is…" She looked off into the distance and looked saddened. She then looked at the two of them and smiled, she then found their foxy friends and at their feet and bent down to pet them. Her hands were harshly stroked their fur but the two foxes allowed this woman to pet them, she was the mother of their friend and would treat her nice.
"Well aren't you nice." She complemented, "Luke always did like dogs, I wonder if I should have got him one, before…" She trailed off and looked down.
Suddenly Luke barged out of the room he and his father went into, "so you don't care!" He yelled back and stormed off out of the house, Thalia and Annabeth followed. May began sobbing and crying out his name, begging him to come back, Hermes then grabbed her and held her gently, stopping her from running off.
The two foxes looked at the saddened face of Hermes and the sobbing face of May, they then gave an apologetic look before running after them. They soon caught up with them to find them surrounded by a horde of monsters, the three children looked terrified, never had this many gathered at one time. The foxes lunged at the nearest monster to them and struck. Like a switch the rest of the monsters attacked, aiming for the demi-god children, they fought as well, Luke cutting them down with his sword, Thalia stabbing with a spear and Annabeth getting any that got close with a knife.
Unfortunately the young Annabeth was terrified and kept trying to stay close to the elder demi-gods, one of the monsters lunged at her. It was about to strike when suddenly Whiskers appeared in front of her, he snapped his jaws around the arm of the dracaena as it lunged at her and bit down. He then lunged at the monster's throat and bit down, it turned to dust and blew away in the wind, the fox turned to Annabeth and smiled at her.
"I'll protect you, Annie." He said before turning back to the monsters, this time making sure never to go far away from the young girl and attacking any monster that came near her.
Though the group had killed plenty of monsters they were on their last legs, they were all exhausted and could barely continue. The demi-gods were glad of the foxes help as they took care of some of the tougher monsters for them, but they knew that they wouldn't be able to keep fighting, even now the foxes were slowing down.
Suddenly thought the two foxes froze in place, they looked terrified. The two of them looked back at the group with terrified looks in their eyes, they then looked at each other and shared a glance, seemingly agreeing on something for once. Their gaze then returned to the demi-gods. Parrot looked at Thalia and spoke to her quickly, "I'm sorry, but we have to go." He then ran through a pack of hellhounds, destroying any that got in his way.
Whiskers then turned to Annabeth, "I'll be back, but I can't stay either, don't tell her we were here." He said and then ran off in the same direction as Parrot did.
"What?!" Thalia raged, "don't leave us!" She shouted to their companions.
"Whiskers! No!" Annabeth shouted but the fox was gone.
The monster continued to fight them and the demi-gods feared this was it, suddenly the sound of a horn came through the clearing. Several streams of silver flew through the forest and struck the monsters, some came dangerously close to hitting Luke too. The monsters dissipated into dust, the children turned to their next attackers but were stunned when several girls, no older than Thalia emerged.
"Who are you?" Thalia asked wearily, none of them were ready to take on people who took care of those monsters so quickly.
"We are hunters," one of them replied, "my name is Phoebe, come, my lady wishes to speak with you." She then gestured that they follow her.
"Who is your lady?" Thalia asked suspiciously.
"Artemis, goddess of the hunt, maidenhood and childbirth." Phoebe replied.
"What does a goddess want with us?" Luke asked bewildered.
"Silence boy," Phoebe said harshly, "our lady wishes to speak with Thalia of Zeus. You three may come to our camp." She glared at Luke the entire time.
They followed the hunters to a camp site, they were led to a tent for them to heal their injuries, Annabeth fell asleep after one of the hunters plastered her wounds. Thalia and Luke talked quietly with one and other so as the others didn't hear them.
"Why did they leave?" Luke asked, slightly angrily.
"I don't know." Thalia said bitterly.
"What did they say?" Luke asked, he was too engrossed in fighting to hear what either of them said.
"Parrot just said he had to go, Whiskers said not to tell 'her' maybe they have met the hunters before or something." Thalia said bitterly, her expression softened ever so slightly. "They looked scared."
"That isn't an excuse." Luke said angrily, Thalia scowled before frowning.
"I know," Thalia said sadly, "but we're fine now."
"Yeah." Luke said.
Soon one of the hunters came in and told Thalia to follow her alone, she had black hair and red eyes, she stood out from the others for some reason. They came to a tent and were led inside, there were furs everywhere and many other trophies, tusks, horns, even a few claws. All of them came from deadly animals, probably monsters, the sight of them sent chills down Thalia's spine, she came in front of a young girl about ten years old.
The girl who led her here bowed and looked at Thalia, "bow, this is Artemis." She whispered, the demi-god was surprised. This young girl was Artemis?
"It is fine," Artemis said, she sounded tired, more so than someone who looked her age should be, "sit Thalia, we have some things to discuss."
"What sort of things?" Thalia asked.
"I have an offer for you, I would like you to join my hunt," this surprised Thalia, "I offer you immortality and eternal youth." Artemis finished.
"What's the catch?" Thalia asked suspiciously.
"The immortality only stands if you keep your vow, you may fall in battle or on a hunt however, and you must also stay away from males." Artemis said.
"What about my friends?" Thalia asked, she was considering the offer.
"Well, Annabeth may also join but she is will need to be older, this is a big decision, she needs to mature a bit." Artemis said.
"And Luke?" Thalia asked.
"He may not join. We cannot have males here." Artemis said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
"… I'm sorry, I can't just leave him." Thalia said.
Artemis sighed, "I understand, maybe you shall choose otherwise if our paths cross again."
"Err… thank you, but I don't think that's going to happen." Thalia said.
"We'll see." Artemis said, a ghost of a grin on her face.
Thalia then left the tent and went back to the one that Luke and Annabeth were in, Artemis promised her rest for the night. She also told her of a safe place for demi-gods, camp half-blood. They would head off there, Artemis told them to head to New York, a satyr would meet them and guide them from there. She found a bed next to Annabeth and quickly went to sleep.
(Next morning)
When they awoke, they were told by one of the hunters, who glared at Luke, that they were to leave, Thalia told the others of camp half blood. They agreed that it was the best course of action and began their journey to New York, they left the hunters and began their track to New York. They found a path in the forest and followed it, hoping it would lead out of the forest and in the general direction of New York. They heard a rustle in the bushes to the right of them, they feared another monster attack and raised their weapons to fight.
Out of the bushes emerged Whiskers, when he saw Annabeth he smiled and approached her, he called out behind them, "it's them, I told you didn't I?"
"Lucky guess." Another voice replied and Parrot came out of the undergrowth, he grinned at Thalia and Luke, "good to see you're ok." He said with a smile.
"You're glad to see we're ok?" Thalia asked incredulously, "why the hell did you abandon us to the monsters?!" She all but screamed at the young fox.
"We're sorry." Whiskers mumbled, "but hunters are bad." He said, "they hurt me before, I don't remember much it was just before I met Annabeth." He said.
"Same with me." Parrot said apologetically, "I think they were hunting us." He shared a look with the other fox, "we knew you'd be ok though."
"And we never went too far away." Whiskers added.
"But they wouldn't have hurt you with us there." Thalia said.
"You don't know that." Parrot said accusingly.
"Fine, coward." Thalia muttered under breath but the foxes heard.
"I'm not a coward!" Parrot yelled, "they came to save you, there was no point in us being there just to be hunted."
"We would have protected you!" Thalia yelled.
"Against a god?" Parrot said.
"If it came to it yes." Thalia said.
"Look," Whiskers interrupted, "it is for the best that we left, no one got hurt and no one would have to fight a god." He said looking at Thalia. "Please just calm down."
"Calm down?! You abandoned us." Thalia accused, she then pointed at the two of them, "you left us, family don't abandon each other, you… you traitors!"
"We didn't, you were alone for a minute or two, you are fine now. Please, don't call us traitors." Whiskers begged, "the hunters are the worst thing for us. It would be like sending you into a den of monsters."
"B-but, you left us." Annabeth said, tearing slightly.
"Please don't cry Annie." Whiskers pleaded.
"We have every right to be upset with you two." Luke said, "you left us when we needed you."
"And who's fault is it, you're the one who dragged us into that mess!" Parrot exclaimed, Luke backed down slightly, like he had been shot, "you ran off! We were safe there."
"You don't know anything! You're just a dumb fox!" Luke yelled.
"Yeah, and you're just a scared child." Parrot replied.
"You should just leave! No one wants you here!" Luke said, "it would have been better if the hunters got you!"
"Luke calm down-" Annabeth asked.
"No! They abandoned us! They should stay away then!" Luke yelled.
"No plea-" Annabeth tried.
"You want me gone? Fine, I'm going." Parrot said, he then ran off into the forest.
"Wait!" Thalia yelled but he was gone, Luke stared, shocked, his friend was gone.
"No, come back!" Annabeth yelled, tears falling to the forest floor.
But it was too late, the fox was gone, he had disappeared.
"Why did you do that!?" Thalia asked angrily at Luke.
"I-I didn't mean it-" Luke began.
"Yes, you did! Why would you say that? He-" Thalia was about to yell.
"You are just as bad." Luke said, "don't go blaming me for all of it."
"Stop it!" Annabeth yelled, stopping the two of them, "stop it please." She said, tears flowing down her face, "just stop fighting."
Whiskers came over and nudged her leg gently, "please stop crying Annie." He pleaded, "I don't like to see you sad." Annabeth then pet his head gently.
"Please don't leave me again." Annabeth said, tears blooming in her eyes still.
"I promise, just stop crying." He said.
A few minutes passed, they all managed to calm down and were now ready to continue their journey. They had no chance of catching Parrot, they knew that he would be nearly impossible to find as even Whiskers said that he wouldn't be able to, he was the only one with any tracking skills. He said that because the other fox smelt so much like him it was nearly impossible to find him.
"So, where are we going?" Whiskers asked, after they began walking.
"New York." Thalia replied, still saddened at the loss of her friend.
"Why?" The fox asked.
"There's a camp for us, it'll be safe there." Luke said.
"In New York, is it not a city?" Whiskers asked confused.
"We're to meet a satyr there, he'll lead us to camp." Thalia said.
"Ok."
They walked in silence for the rest of the day, eventually they came to the big apple and began to search for the satyr. They then realised that New York is a big place, they found a nice place to sleep in the form of an ally, Whiskers kept them warm and kept watch for monsters the whole night. The next day they looked around the city, Whiskers slept in Annabeth's arms as they walked, he was exhausted and stayed asleep even through all the loud noises.
By about mid-day they managed to find a satyr by the name of Grover, Whiskers said he smelled like a goat, so they asked him about camp.
"How do you know about the camp?" He asked when Luke asked him to bring them to the camp.
"We ran into a goddess, she told us to come here to find a satyr." Luke supplied.
"Ok, so three demi-gods. Oh dear, I don't suppose you know your parents?" Grover asked nervously.
"I'm a daughter of Athena." Annabeth said shyly.
"I'm a son of Hermes." Luke said with a scowl at the name.
"I'm a daughter of Zeus." Thalia said, Grover trembled.
"Not good, not good." He muttered under his breath, "y-y-you need to get to camp quickly." He said, they then began the journey to long island where the camp is.
On the way, Grover began to get even more nervous, "Ok, we'll stop in here for tonight." He said, and they entered an old abandoned house in Brooklyn. He realised he took a few wrong turns and knew that it would take another day at least to get back on track. They went into the house and found it to be very dark, soon they heard noises and began to drift away from one another somehow.
Annabeth realised she was now alone, she looked around for her friends but they were nowhere to be found. Then she heard a voice, it was Thalia's.
"Annabeth, come here." The voice said. Annabeth followed the voice, relief coursing through her system.
"Thalia, I'm coming." She called out. She soon found a room with a bright light, she entered a small cavern and was terrified. A cyclopes was standing there with Thalia, Luke, Grover and Whiskers tied up, hanging over a pot, the light came from the fire heating the pot up, the monster started walking towards her.
"Annabeth, run!" Thalia shouted.
"Now Annabeth." The cyclopes said, it's voice sounded exactly like her father, "come here." It said, Annabeth froze, she looked at the monster, she realised she had no chance of running. "Good girl."
Annabeth then unfroze, she reached for her dagger and struck the cyclopes in the knee, it cried out in pain but she ran past it and ran to Thalia.
"Annabeth, run!" Thalia yelled again but Annabeth quickly cut Thalia's bindings, "thank you, but you should have run." Thalia then grabbed her spear and aimed at the cyclopes head, she then let off a lightning bolt, the cyclopes erupted into golden dust. Thalia turned to Annabeth but was wrapped in a hug, Annabeth cried into her stomach, "it's ok, come on now." Thalia tried to calm Annabeth down.
They then cut the others free from their bindings and made their way out of the house.
"Grover, how far away is the camp now?" Thalia asked.
"A few miles away, we should probably make a camp." Grover suggested.
"No, the monsters are coming, we need to hurry." Whiskers said.
They didn't argue and just followed Grover, they soon came across a sign that read 'PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES'
"Not much farther." Grover said.
They then made it to a hill, they could see the camp from here, they heard a growl coming from behind them, they turned and found a large hoard of hellhounds, the furies flew overhead eyeing Thalia. All of them watched them hungrily, they were now terrified, they had no chance of winning against this many.
"Go," Thalia said, the others looked at her, "I'll hold them off, you go to the camp."
"Thalia no you can't-" Luke began but was stopped by Thalia.
"I will, go get help, they're after me." Thalia said.
"But-" Annabeth tried, tears in her eyes.
"Annie, you're going to need to be a big girl now, please go." Thalia said.
"We're getting help." Annabeth said, tears flowing down her face, "stay alive until then, please."
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Thalia lied, not facing the young girl, "now go!"
The left Thalia then, she faced the monsters with a spear ready and charged, they charged too, they met and Thalia fought and killed a few. She turned and saw a fury wield a whip, there was no time for her to block, the fiery whip came at her and she winced slightly, this was the end. She heard a yelp and opened her eyes, in front of her was a fox, a silver fox, it was Parrot!
"Parrot? What are you doing here?" Thalia asked, still fighting.
"I never left." Parrot replied, "it was hard to keep track of you but I held off a good few monsters."
"Why? I thought you left for good." Thalia said, happiness filled her at his answer.
"Because you're my friend." Parrot replied, turning to the stunned Thalia, she then saw there was a line of burns on his forepaw.
"What happened to your paw?" Thalia asked.
"That whip burnt." Parrot muttered, Thalia realised he took the whip full force for her.
Even with the two of them the monsters were overwhelming, eventually Thalia collapsed, she'd been hit too many times, she was dying. A silver pile of fur limped over to her, Parrot was injured too.
"Come on now, don't give up yet." He muttered.
"Parrot, get out of here while you still can." Thalia coughed out.
"Not without you." The fox replied.
"Please, you can still make it." Thalia pleaded.
"Not worth it, I'm going to stick with you, till the end." Parrot coughed out.
"Please don't." Thalia pleaded.
"Not want me or something?" Parrot said with a dry chuckle, "too late now anyway." He then crawled up and lay down on her chest, looking her in the eye.
"Thanks Parrot, you're the best." Thalia finally conceded.
"I know." He said with a forced smirk.
"Well, this is the end." Thalia said, she then looked up in the sky, thunder was heard, then there was a strike of lightning, it hit the two of them.
Parrot yipped in pain for a few seconds before going quiet, Thalia to was silenced, their bodies vanishing beneath an enormous pine tree.
(At the camp)
Grover had led the demi-gods and fox to the big house, they came to get Chiron to help Thalia, they would get help for her. Suddenly Whiskers halted, his eyes opened wide, tears forming, there was a strike of lightning in the distance, they turned and saw a large pine tree being erected on the hill.
"It's too late." He said, the group came to a halt.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked, fear in his voice.
"Thalia's gone, Parrot too." Whiskers said sadly.
"No!" Annabeth said, Luke froze, Grover looked saddened, "she isn't gone. She can't be." Annabeth had tears in her eyes.
"You could be wrong." Luke said, barely believing himself, "how do you know?"
"The tree, it's them. Zeus saved them, their souls anyway. Hades won't get them." Whiskers said sadly, "the tree also makes a… a wall… stops the monsters getting in. We can't see it though."
"You can't be sure though." Annabeth said, "they could still be ok."
"No, their scent surrounds the camp." Whiskers said, looking Annabeth in the eye, tears falling from both of their cheeks.
"Please, please. She can't be dead." Annabeth said, at the look from Whiskers she broke down, her friend was gone.