What? A two chapter update? I hope you guys haven't given up on me. Please enjoy this next chapter.
Disclaimer. Unfortunately, I am still not the owner of Percy Jackson, all rights belong to Rick Riordan.
Running away from home. Check. Surviving a turbo charged New York Taxi ride. Check. Bull Fighting. Check. Kidnapping your cousin who happens to be the son of one of the most powerful gods. A big fat check. Yep, Percy was sure he had filled his quota of dangerous stupid stunts for the year. It wasn't going to be pretty for any of them when they had to face the music. Percy could see the storm clouds over head becoming darker and darker the longer they were in the air. A few stray lightning bolts cracked across the sky above them, but Percy was sure Zeus wouldn't hit them. Not when they had an unconscious Jason with them.
"Annabeth, that last strike was pretty close." Grover cried out over his shoulder. "Can we land yet?"
The daughter of Athena shook her head, she still had to hold onto Percy to keep herself from falling off the bird. "Not until I see a town. We can find another ride from there."
Percy wanted to say he was stoic like Annabeth, braving through the storm, but he couldn't help but feel they were testing Zeus's temper the longer they had him in the sky. Jason had yet to wake up. That may have been their only saving grace. Whatever Annabeth had done to the son of Jupiter was enough to keep him out. If pride was really Jason's flaw, Percy wondered if the blonde's friendship with Annabeth would recover from this.
"So, you said that the nymph told you to find Nereus?" Annabeth yelled over the roaring wind. "Was she able to tell you that Nereus won't give you answers for free? You'll have to trap him somehow."
The son of Poseidon scoffed, "Trap a god? How could I possibly do that, Wisegirl?"
"We'll have to think of something, won't we, Seaweed Brain?" He didn't have to be looking at her to know she was smiling. "Athena always has a plan."
"Did you plan on me waking up?" Jason's voice slurred. Percy was grateful that Annabeth had the foresight to make him tie, the son of Jupiter's arms.
"Okay, Grover. Now you can bring us in for a landing." Annabeth told the satyr. Jason looked a bit confused, like he was expecting another fight or something. The eagle was as quick to land as it was to take off. Grover was the first to dismount the large bird as it landed. Percy followed, but Annabeth took a minute to secure Jason to the eagle. "Just be sure not to squirm too much on your way back, okay, Grace."
As she slid off the bird Jason shouted at her. "Don't you get it, Annabeth. I'm the only chance Percy has to return to Olympus alive. This is stupid, the three of you need to come back, now."
"Have a nice flight." Grover told him before playing a tune for the eagle.
With a couple beats of its mighty wings, the eagle took to the sky with it's rope bound rider. Percy could admit he felt a little bad that they humiliated Jason like that, but his mom was more important than the other demigod's pride. The trio headed towards the town. It was pure luck that Jason had woken up when he did.
"Okay we need to find another ride." Percy told his friends as they walked through the town.
The town was very much like the average American small town. It had an almost rustic country feel to it. Compared to New York city, it was very, very slow. And also, three strange kids walking through the place looking homeless also didn't go unnoticed. Many of the people they walked by gawked and stared at them. The trio was a mess. The wind from riding the eagle had turned Annabeth's curly hair into a mess, Grover was covered in mud, and even without the missing shoe and torn shirt Percy usually gave off a 'trouble maker' vibe to most people.
"First, we need to get you some new clothes." Annabeth told him as she dug through her pockets. "I could only save the essentials. Running from a couple of trained demigods doesn't work when you are weighed down by ten bags of Doritos."
Grover bleated sadly, "So much wasted food, and we left it all in the woods by the field."
"I'll help you pick up some litter when the quest is over." the daughter of Athena promised. "Right now we have bigger issues than the forest."
"If Juniper heard you say that she'd lose her leaves." the satyr whined. "If she ever finds out she'll be so mad at me. If...if she's still alive..."
Percy saw both his friends become somber once more. Annabeth seemed to be thinking a mile a minute. She was probably trying to come up with some way to make Grover feel better. There was so much he still didn't know about the two of them and what they'd been through before he showed up. All Percy knew was that they were once again exhausted and hungry. Heck, he didn't even know what state they were in anymore.
"Hey," Percy nudged both of their friends. "How about we buy me a shirt and a pair of shoes and go get something to eat? We have enough money to spare, right Annabeth?"
"If you can call two hundred bucks enough to spare?" She muttered as her hand sunk to her pocket. Annabeth's eye wandered to his feet. "What did you say happened to your shoe again?"
...
It was a good thing Goodwill was reasonable on their donated items. Percy was able to get a new shirt and sneakers without eating up too much of their money. Because he was properly clothed, they weren't turned away at the restaurant either. Annabeth warned that they needed to be judicial in what they ordered. Whatever money remained would have to somehow get them all the way to California.
"I'm just glad that those eagles can travel so far so fast." Annabeth smiled, "It almost brought us all the way to the California-Arizona border. We're a hop, skip, and some tedious searching before we find Nereus and then Ares."
Percy eyed the cheaper part of the menu. He desperately tried to resist looking at the exquisite and expensive barbecue that the restaurant so proudly presented. Ultimately, he did end up browsing it. He admitted that he was weak. But Percy Jackson was a simple boy, a simple boy who loved his BBQ. When the waitress came to take their order, her refrained from a twenty dollar rack of ribs for a mere cony dog and fries instead.
"What bother's me..." Percy began as he fumbled with the straw wrapper. "Is that I'm still not sure what was stolen that I have to return and to who..."
"Whom." Annabeth corrected before she took a sip of her water.
The son of Poseidon rolled his eyes. "To whom I return the item to."
"Well you got the quest when you asked how you could help your mom, right?" Grover asked as he nibbled on his napkin. "Maybe it has something to do with that."
Percy looked at Grover almost in disbelief, "Who would break into the underworld to steal something from Hades himself?"
Annabeth's lips pressed together tightly and Grover went pale at the question. The son of Poseidon found that he had accidently touched one of those sensitive subjects again. Something that predated his arrival into the demigod world. With a sigh Annabeth clasped onto her glass and looked up to Percy. Her eyes were once again stormy with emotions.
"Simple." She told him. "The same person who had the guts to steal from the king of gods. The friend who might as well be dead."
Percy would have pried more, but some rather tough looking guys made their way to the trio's table. They all had some rather unnerving looks on their faces. At first he thought that maybe they were monsters who recognized that they were demigods. Some how, Percy knew they were humans.
"So, you're the punk terrorizing people in the park?" The one who seemed to be the leader asked. He eyed Percy, as if evaluating him for a fight. "Rumor has it there is a big reward for you. I think I want to collect."
The man made a grab for Percy. He recoiled in pain when, in the blink of an eye, Annabeth sliced his hand open. Percy saw something flicker in the man's eye, it was unusual. The teen couldn't place what it was, but he could tell something unnatural was at work. While the man recovered from his shock, Percy took the opportunity to push Grover and Annabeth out of their booth.
All three of them ran for the door. Unfortunately there were cops outside, and it seemed they weren't at the restaurant for lunch either.
"Those are the kids in the bolo." one pointed out. His partner seemed to agree and he shouted at the trio, "You three need to come with us."
Grover gave a bleat before shoving the demigods to the kitchen. The three of them ran as fast as their legs could carry them. It seemed as if they could no longer fly under the radar. As they rushed through the restaurant employees, they turned the kitchen into a mass panic. The cooks all stumbled around, trying not to get knocked over by the trio of intruders.
Percy could hear the police and the group that had interrupted their lunch following close behind. Thankfully the chaos of the kitchen slowed their pursuers down enough that they could get away.
"We need to get out of the town and hide somewhere for a while." Annabeth told them. "There. That truck."
The son of Poseidon looked to where she was pointing. It was an old truck that was hauling a horse trailer loaded with straw, but perhaps there was enough space for the three of them to hitch a ride. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover managed to crawl into the trailer, unseen. Thankfully people were too preoccupied with the commotion at the restaurant than with the trailer. They were a bit cramped, wedged tightly between the straw and the top of the trailer, but at least they were hidden.
It wasn't too long after that the trailer gate was closed and the truck pulled away from town. As luck would have it, in the direction they needed to go.
"What do we do when the owner of this truck finds he has three stow always?" Grover asked, he had already begun to much on the straw.
Annabeth scowled, she almost looked jealous of the satyr. "We'll find out when we get there. For now we should try and stay comfortable."
...
The drive was a lot farther than they were expecting. In fact the sun was starting to set by the time the truck slowed to a stop. Both Grover and Annabeth were asleep as the man parked the truck. With what little light there was, Percy realized that their trailer was in a barn. He heard the trailer gate open and his whole body tensed.
Gently, Percy shook his friends awake and silently ordered them to be quiet.
"Honestly, Joseph, why don't you unload that hay tomorrow?" An unseen woman asked. "It'll be safe in the barn until then. Please, just clean up and eat your supper."
The man gave a tired sounding grunt. Percy could hear him hovering at the end of the trailer. He gave a sigh before he walked away. "Yeah, yeah. Just let me pull the truck into the driveway. Can you close the barn behind me?"
The sound of the truck engine slowly died off as the barn doors creaked shut. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover waited for a long time before clamoring off of the straw bales. It was a relief that the barn air was almost thirty degrees cooler than the air in the trailer. A lot easier to breathe too. That is...until he caught a wiff of horse manure. How did he know it was horse? He really couldn't say.
"I guess we're going to stay here for the night." Annabeth muttered. "It's hard to see, but lets just find somewhere to hide for the night, okay?"
The three of them found a cozy space as far from the barn door as they could. Luckily, it was also free of any...unpleasant surprises. Percy and Annabeth commandeered some of the clean straw from the trailer and made the space just a bit more bareable to seep in. Grover didn't take long to fall asleep, with a belly full of straw, obviously it wasn't hard. Both Percy and Annabeth weren't as fortunate as the goat. Annabeth sank into the straw and Percy followed suite, but neither could seem to fall asleep.
For a while it was quiet until Annabeth spoke, "His name was Luke Castellan. Son of Hermes. He was probably one of the few people I could ever put my trust in. I met him and Thalia when I was really young. We were three runaways just trying to survive. Some bad things happened and Luke was never the same. He betrayed us to the Titans and stole Zeus's Master Bolt. If anyone could steal something from a god and get away with it its him."
The son of Poseidon knew there was more, but he already felt that Annabeth was hesitant to tell him that. He heard her breathing pick up, obviously the shortened version of her story still stirred up a lot of emotion. Percy knew why she was telling him this though. Luke was once a good guy, he became bad, and worst of all, it still tore Annabeth up inside to even try and hate the guy. For all her talk of "he might as well be dead", Annabeth still cared for him.
Why did the idea of that make Percy feel...almost jealous?
"All I'm trying to say is, don't trust him." She sighed. "He has a silver tong. Like most liars and thieves do."
Percy strained his eyes to see the barn ceiling above him, of course the dark was too thick to do so, but he still tried to. It was almost as if he were trying to pull the right words to say from the rafters above them.
"As long as we're getting deeply personal, there is something you should know about me..." He sighed. "I totally aimed a cannon at my school bus in Gettysburg."
Annabeth surprised him when she giggled at the story. She said it was such a Seaweed brain thing to do. Even though he couldn't see her, he could almost tell that a weight had been lifted from them. It was nice to hear Annabeth laughing again. Once her giggles died down she sighed.
"Goodnight, Seaweed brain."