Hey guys, I know it's been a long time since I last updated, but here is my next chapter. I hope you enjoy it, no action, yet...

I also wanted to let you know I do have an ORIGINAL in progress story on Wattpad, it's been up for a few years and sadly has no reads besides when it registers me looking through it. I was working on it with a friend of mine, but he got pretty busy and now I am the sole writer. I would like to for you guys to read it. The pen name is 'the_two_immortals' and the story is called 'The Sorcerer's Blade'. The cover page is kind of pinkish with a grey cat on it, made by my friend. The beginning part of the first chapter was written by my friend, but the rest is my work so far. I would LOVE it if you guys would read it and tell me what you think!

And tell me, who do you think should be Percy's first monster kill?

-Mrs. Dodds

-The Minotaur

-Medusa

-Other?

Disclaimer, I do not own Percy Jackson, all rights belong to Rick Riordan

Unfortunately for the three friends the humid air had brought rain. Even with the canopy of leaves above their heads they all got soaked by the heavily falling water. Percy hadn't even thought about making himself dry, he figured that Annabeth and Grover wouldn't appreciate him showing off. He didn't know how much farther they had to walk, but he felt tired and uncomfortable in the wet clothing. Why did he have to nobly choose to remain as miserable as his friends?

"We still haven't found a road." he complained to Annabeth.

Annabeth growled, "Blame Goat Boy, he still hasn't figured out a pathway spell to help us yet!"

"Why are you blaming me?" Grover bleated from behind them. "If you two were a couple of ferrets rather than demigods, I'd be able to give you a spell to return you to the wild."

The daughter of Athena rolled her eyes in irritation and trudge forward. They were all getting tired and irritated. Percy kind of felt bad for Grover, he came to help, but it seemed as if he couldn't find a real niche in the quest. Right now he was a punching bag for a couple of irritated teens. The son of the sea god was surprised to find out that Grover was actually way older than him. There was so much about the demigod life he had to learn about.

"Hey, Annabeth." Percy began, he remembered how Slate and Killer no longer looked like normal police officers like they had the day he met them. "Why did they look different from when I met them before, the monsters?"

Annabeth slowed down so that she was walking next to him. She began smiling as if he were an adorable little kid who had asked a stupid question. He noticed her blond hair was matted down against her face and water raced down to her chin. It was funny, that the one thing the daughter of Athena hadn't packed was an umbrella in case it rained. Though if he tried to make a joke about it, she'd probably stop smiling at him.

"Let's just say you Mist it the first time." She giggled, obviously making a pun he wouldn't understand, yet.

Grover snorted and chuckled, little goat sounds as he laughed. "Yeah, it was a Mist learning opportunity."

Both goat and girl began cracking up even more at their own banter. The son of Poseidon blushed at his ignorance of basic demigod knowledge. How was he supposed to know what he had missed if they wouldn't explain it to him? Annabeth saw the look on his face and decided to spare him from being at the expense of anymore of their jokes. She did her best to quell her chuckles before speaking,

"The Mist, it's a magical veil that protects mortals from seeing the monsters." the daughter of Athena began. "It doesn't always protect us from the mortal's assumptions, but it keeps the two worlds separate. You probably didn't understand enough to see through it when you had first met them."

Percy blinked, so the only thing keeping the mortal and godly world separate was a thin wall of magic?

"Hey guys, up ahead." Grover pointed to a clearing in the trees.

The son of Poseidon could just make out a small park in the distance. A blue jungle gym was the first thing to catch his eye. Annabeth gave a cheer as she began to run ahead. "There's probably something we can hide under until the rain quits!"

Percy and Grover ran as fast as they could to keep up with their friend. She was a fast runner, already half way to a park shed before they had even reached the clearing. The faint glow of a vending machine caught Percy's attention almost immediately; food sounded very good to the starving teen. Both Grover and Annabeth were relieved to be out of the rain, each thanked the gods for the shelter. Percy, as much as he loved water, was also glad to be out of the down pour.

"Even better than shelter is food." Percy told his friends as he pointed to the vending machine. "Are we going to use money or just smash the thing open?"

Annabeth lips curled into a smile. "Thug."

Regardless, Grover took it upon himself to break the glass with a cloven hove. Percy and Annabeth were both surprised by the goat-boy's actions, he was the last person who you'd think would vandalize public property. The satyr blushed bashfully at their wide-eyed gazes as he pulled out chips and other snacks for the three of them. Nervously he handed out the food.

"I figured we didn't have the money to waste." He explained as he munched on the corner of a Doritos' bag. "And I also wanted to feel useful to you guys."

The daughter of Athena pat him on the shoulder, "You are very useful to our quest, Grover."

Annabeth, having no moral dilemma, began to eat her bag of chips merrily. At first Percy wasn't sure if he was hungry enough to eat stolen snacks, but then his growling stomach made him say 'to hades with it' and he began to munch on the salty food. Grover also managed to find, and break, a vending machine with pops and juices. Percy couldn't say no to a crisp Dr. Pepper.

"Thanks, G-man." The son of Poseidon greedily drank the sweet pop.

The trio happily ate their food and drank pop as they talked about how they'd get to their next destination. It was a general consensus that they all wanted to avoid any mythological transportation. However, Annabeth did murmur something about wishing that they had Pegasus. Percy wondered what it would be like to see a flying horse, or to even ride one. The daughter of Athena told him about her first flight on a winged horse.

"It was really cool, I was scared but Luke-..." She trailed off sadly as she looked down into her empty bag of chips. "It's a pretty cool experience, maybe I could show you how to ride one, maybe someday soon."

Annabeth became rather quiet at the mention of some guy named Luke. Goat boy also seemed to be rather depressed at the name. Percy wondered if Luke was the friend she had been talking about earlier, the friend who may as well be dead. He had betrayed them or something, Percy wasn't sure about the guy. He had only ever heard bits and pieces.

Percy wanted to make his friends forget about what was bothering them, "It'd be cool if we could go out riding sometime. So, how about we get a bus when the rain lets up."

"If it lets up." Grover laughed as he looked out the continuing down pour. "We might be stuck here for a while."

Annabeth sighed and crumpled up the chip bag, "If it doesn't let up in an hour, we should head out regardless of the weather. It would be bad to fall behind on our quest."

For a long moment the three went silent. Percy knew part of it was them all being cold and wet, though the water didn't really bother him. They had nearly retrieved all of the food and a bunch of the drinks from the machines. Now stealing is wrong and Percy would never suggest that someone do it, but they were demigods on a quest and they were in need of such supplies. By the time they had gotten as much as they could pack, the fourteen year old son of Poseidon could hardly zip his bag shut.

"So Ares." Percy began. "He's the one who belonged in that empty seat on Olympus, right?"

"Yeah, but he kind of lost his marbles a couple years ago." Annabeth told him.

For some reason Percy had the image of a giant, buff guy searching the country for marbles. "What happened?"

"No one is exactally sure of anything except that he had betrayed the gods, he protected a servant of Kronos and let him get away with the Master Bolt." The blond teen explained.

Grover jumped up in excitement, "Maybe the Master Bolt is the stolen object we have to find."

"But that is in the complete opposite direction, the camp." Annabeth frowned and began to play with the beads around her neck. "Why would the Oracle tell us to go in the opposite direction of the Bolt if it was what we were after?"

"Maybe she has a bad sense of direction." Percy shrugged.

Annabeth shook her head, "You've got to be more respectful than that Percy, the Oracle is never wrong. Ugh, let's just get some rest before we leave."

Percy watched as she sat down onto the cement floor of their temporary shelter. Annabeth pulled a notebook and pen from her bag to write with. He wondered if it was a diary or maybe she was trying to write down everything that they knew so she could make sense of it. Meanwhile, both he and Grover started to play hot potato with a bottle of water to pass the time. It was a weird childish game, but the teen oddly found it enjoyable.

Here it is, I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite how uneventful it was. I'll try to be better when it comes to updating. But I want you to know that I will NEVER abandon a story. If you have any suggestions or reviews please write them down, I'd love to hear them!

Also I do not promote stealing unless you are a fictional character in a book ;)