A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!

Kaboom!

Prince Octavian growled in annoyance at another fireworks exploding in the sky. The flickers of colorful light in the dark sky did little to uplift his worsening mood. Usually the Galvadorian prince would be happy to go along with the festive mood and drown himself in wine and women, but the loss of his monster half-brother and the unknown witch was far too dampening of his spirits.

He had been working night and day, commanding his men to search for the fugitives. Now in this town, his men were plastering wanted photos with descriptions of the pair and the magical beast. But the stupid villagers were too jubilant in their celebrations to pay much attention to the wanter posters.

"How about we head over to the tavern, Your Highness? I heard Hedgewood has a specialty aged pale ale they make from the wood local to the town," his second-in-command persuaded. "After the festival, the villagers will for sure help us be on the lookout, especially with the reward offered. They will have nowhere to hide."

It was not good for Octavian's men that the prince was in a foul mood. At the second-in-command's words, Octavian finally nodded to the relief of his men. They were tired of traipsing through woods and sleeping in cold mud at night searching for the Beast and the witch. The thought of some hot food and a warm bed cheered them up.

Soon, Octavian was feeling the bitter but refreshing taste of ale go down his throat. The local ale was stronger than he anticipated, and he relished the drink.

"Another one!" He called out. "Bartender!"

But the tavern's workers had their hands full serving other patrons. Octavian felt the buzz of alcohol dull his senses, but it didn't dull his impatience at not being served.

"Hey! Don't you know who I am?" Octavian moved to put his hand on his sheathed sword.

Immediately, another ale was brought into his hands by his second-in-command to prevent trouble.

"Hmmph." Octavian grumbled.

As he drank, he felt a breath of wind pass behind him. Though he had drank, he still had enough swordsmanship skills to sense something was not quite right.

Octavian's men by his side immediately drew out their swords, blocking the thief from leaving. The tavern suddenly quieted as the patrons saw the situation.

Prince Octavian sOctavianed. "I wonder what the punishment is for thieves who dare to steal from a royal prince?"

Hearing this, the thief trembled, his knees giving way to the floor.

"Forgive me, Your Highness! I-I did not know t-that it was you. This-this one has offended." The thief bowed onto the floor, his forehead touching the dirty ground. "Please forgive me just this once!"

"Should I lop off the fingers that dared to touch my pocket?" Octavian said in a lazy drawl. "Or should I just take off the whole head for a fool like you who is blind? You don't need brains, anyways."

"Your Highness!"

The thief looked at the other soldiers but all he saw in their eyes was indifference. They were used to seeing their prince's cruel methods. Besides, the one lying prostrate before them was a dirty thief.

It was not the first time he had been caught pickpocketing, only this time the capturers had higher status and power than he had encountered. His mind and mouth grabbed for anything that he could say to diminish the chances that his head would no longer be attached to his body.

The thief's eyes landed on a pile of papers regarding two wanted people. His eyes opened.

"I-I have seen the people that His Highness has been looking for?" He blurted.

Octavian's eyebrows lifted up. His frown deepened as he brought the point of the sword to the thief's throat.

"What did you say?"

The thief began describing the two people he had seen last night. He only vaguely remembered the faces of the two he had tried to rob because he had been surprised by the sudden stinging pain on the back of his hand when his deft fingers reached in the woman's pockets. It turned out that there was a cat in the woman's basket who had glared at him immensely.

"A-and the man...he had black hair and green eyes."

This gave Octavian some pause as he took in the thief's words. Percy, that bastard, had an uncommon appearance of dark hair with green eyes. Not to mention that the witch had golden hair and had a black magical beast. It was possible that the cat in the black haired woman's basket was the magical beast, camouflaged in its animal form.

"If I find out that you have been lying, your tongue will be cut out for spouting such falsehoods," Octavian threatened. "Now bring me to where you last saw these two."

Just before anyone could react, the topmost wooden box began to fall. But the reactions of those experienced were faster than gravity. Percy immediately cast a layer of ice around the box, trying to freeze the bombs inside while Jason made a wind barrier around the box of bombs.

Seeing that his attempt had not worked, the guard tried to reach for another box, but Percy was faster. His hand whipped out and touched the guard on the shoulder. Immediately, the guard twitched in pain as his body was covered with frost. Percy let go, and the man dropped to the ground like an icy statue.

The whole room froze as well. The majority of the people had not seen the extent of Percy's true powers before. There were a few whispers about the Beast of Galvador, before Jason quelled such quiet whispers with a steely look.

"That was close," Jason muttered. A sweat drop was making his way down his cheekbone.

Relieved that the precarious situation had been taken care of, the people continued their work, albeit much more carefully now. It had been a close call.

Annabeth let loose a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding all this time. She turned her attention to using her magic to tie up all the guards. She had a terrible feeling that not all the guards had fallen asleep from her potions, probably because some people had different affinities to magic and mana. But if she had made the strength of the potions too strong, then it was possible that the sleeping effects would become permanent death, and Annabeth did not want to kill anyone.

"Sir, the prince and his men are getting closer. We believe they're heading this way."

Annabeth looked around the basement. The last of the boxes were being moved out of the warehouse, but they still need to transport the boxes out of the warehouse.

"And sir...they were putting up these flyers." Jason's soldier glanced worriedly at Percy and Annabeth.

He handed Jason a few papers. Annabeth took a peek. The flyers were of a man and a woman, their likeness similar to Percy and Annabeth. Some lines were written on the bottom, describing their height, hair and eye colors. Annabeth even saw that Eclipse was mentioned as a black cat.

Annabeth cursed. That bastard of a prince was persistent. How did he manage to find them this far?

Jason frowned. "We'll need some way of distracting or slowing them down."

"I'll go."

Everyone turned to stare at Percy, who had spoken.

"Are you crazy? They're looking for you! You should be the last person to go and cause a distraction," Jason said, angrily.

"Which is precisely why I should go," Percy said, calmly. "I'm sure with Octavian's temperament, he will concentrate only on capturing me. He probably isn't aware of what's going on at the warehouse."

Annabeth had to agree.

"I'm going to. He's looking for me, too."

"And we shouldn't have anyone else come with us. At this moment, the Third Battalion is still considered loyal to the Galvador King, no? If you show up with us, the gig is up as to who might be moving the explosives here."

Jason looked like he wanted to protest some more, but he was met with the determined faces of both Percy and Annabeth.

"Fine," Jason finally agreed. "But I'll have a few guards stay in the shadows to help out."

The look in Jason's eyes was also stubborn like he wouldn't accept a no from Percy and Annabeth.

As they headed out of the warehouse, Annabeth saw that the explosives were carefully being suspended in air onto three wagons. A few earth mages were enveloping each box with layers of earth in case one exploded. She could feel some extra layers of mana being applied to prevent any 'accidents.'

"Which way is Prince Octavian heading from?" Percy asked.

One of Jason's men gestured towards the east where the town square was.

"Then let's go."

The thief was pulled unceremoniously by Prince Octavian. He hated how the end of the rope that bound him was gripped by the prince as though the prince was merely walking a dog. But what could the commoner do? Other people stared at the scene, only humiliating the thief even more.

"Is it here?" Prince Octavian asked with a bored drawl.

The thief looked around. It should have been around here where his failed theft had occurred.

"Yes, Your Highness."

But the thief knew it was futile. Even if he had encountered the people wanted by the prince, who could say that the people were still here? It had been about a whole day since he had last seen them. The wanted people could have been anywhere by now. In other words, he was a dead man, regardless.

"Your Highness, I recall that the warehouse with the 'special' delivery is here. The supervisor there should have made an appearance to give you his greetings." Prince Octavian's second-in-command informed him.

Prince Octavian waved his aide off, uncaring to receive the salutations from someone so insignificant.

"Just a low grade official in charge of storage. I don't want to receive such boring greetings from someone like him anyways. Just find someone to replace him if he doesn't value his position."

The prince's aide looked like he wanted to say more on the quietness of the warehouse supervisor but didn't say anything more. Prince Octavian's mood was only starting to get better by humiliating the thief he had caught. The aide was about to send someone to check on the warehouse when Prince Octavian suddenly grabbed the aide's arm.

There were two figures in the distance before them. Though both were wearing hooded cloaks, for a brief moment, they saw brown hair on the taller figure and longer black hair on the shorter person. At their feet was a black cat, stretching lazily. Then all three disappeared down an alley.

"Well, well, well. Consider this your lucky day."

Prince Octavian narrowed his eyes and kicked aside the thief, who quickly scrambled away.

"Let's go."

The prince took out his sword and followed his prey into the alley, forgetting all about the warehouse and its errant supervisor.

A/N: Jeez, I have hot pepper hands after chopping up some serrano peppers and much regret. Why won't the burning stop? What have I done to deserve this misery? T.T