Disclaimer:

I do not own the PJO characters.

Annabeth explained how she knew where Khione was being held. I didn't listen to half the stuff she said, but she made it clear that Khione was being held in a large cave.

"So, we just hike up there?" Nico asked.

"Well, normally, yes, but we have Trish," Annabeth said as she looked at me. "Now, you won't be able to go all the way up without getting tired so get us up as far as you can and then we'll walk from there."

"Okay but what will happen when we get up there?" I asked.

"Well, from past experiences, we sneak in, try and get Khione out, get noticed and have to fight our way out," Nico explained.

"Or, we get noticed right away and have to fight the entire time," Annabeth added.

"Um, okay."

Without even hesitation, I lifted my hand and we began our ascent up the mountain side.

Halfway up was when it hit Nico and me that we weren't prepared for the cold, especially him. I had my cloak but he didn't have anything. Annabeth was the only one prepared for the Thracian weather.

I ended up making a bubble around ya which caused my energy to drain faster than it already was.

"Guys," I warned, "I'm going to have to put us down."

I slowly started putting everyone down, but about six feet off the ground I finally ran out of energy and we fell the rest of the way down. It wasn't far but it was far enough to make Coral cry.

I wanted to comfort her but I couldn't get up, I just laid there unable to move.

"Hey guys?" I called.

"Yeah," Nico responded.

"Can I just rest here for a moment?" I asked.

"Of course," Annabeth said, "we're going to need our energy to get the rest of the way up the mountain." I inwardly groaned.

A few minutes later Annabeth was finally able to make Coral stop crying with a little help from my healing.

"Is it okay if I IM Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"Sure, but where are you going to find a rainbow?" I asked.

"I saw a small spring just over there," Annabeth pointed.

I just continued to lay on the cold hard ground while Nico rummaged through my backpack.

"Hey, can I have a cookie?" I asked.

Without saying a word, Nico tossed the cookie over to me and it landed on my chest. "Nice throw," I said, grabbing the cookie and nibbling on it.

"Thanks."

After Nico found what he was looking for in my backpack, he came over and laid beside me, but far enough away that we weren't touching.

We both just laid there looking up into the cloudy Thracian sky in silence until Annabeth came back.

"We should better keep going," she said.

"Ugh, but it's nice down here," I complained.

"Well would you rather lay on the ground forever or get this over with and be able to get home?" Annabeth said, standing over me.

"Fine," I mumbled. I picked myself up and brushed my cloak off. After we gathered up all of our stuff, we continued our ascent up the stupid mountain.

Thanks for reading! So I might post two chapters tomorrow because there is going to be something interesting happening soon and I'm really excited to write the next part.

-Lou Ellen and Sydney