Percy Almost Gets The Bolt

Word had spread around Camp Half-Blood, and now campers were starting to work together rather than be at each other's throats like they were weeks before. Part of it was because of the truce between Percy and Jason, but also because of the fear that soon their own personal magic items would go missing.

Percy, meanwhile, was looking for the person who tried to frame him. Stealing his trident was one thing but attempting to frame him for stealing Nico's hat was another thing. He was even willing to bet that the same person who tried to frame him, was the same exact person to steal Jason's bolt in the very beginning.

Percy walked towards the forest where the picture had to be taken from. The angle from the picture was impossible to get unless someone was in the forest. Percy also had looked around before he went into Nico's cabin, and he didn't see a single person.

The closer Percy got to the tree line, the less confident he got. It had been days since that picture was taken, chances were that any evidence someone was in the forest was probably gone. Either way, he had to check, Annabeth had told him to.

Percy pushed a bush aside and found that there was a clearing covered by trees, which made sure no sunlight ever made it in. Anyone wearing dark colors would be virtually invisible, unless someone was close enough.

The darkness made it hard to see, so Percy took out his phone and turned the flashlight on. Thank Leo for demigod phones. He'd built everything into them. Flashlights, signal scramblers against monsters, and even a emergency button for Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter.

As Percy scanned the ground with his flashlight, he noticed something. There were boot prints in the dirt, but some of the prints were filled in by dust and grass. The boot prints wouldn't help, but it did prove to Percy that someone was indeed watching him. He snapped a picture for proof. The only issue that came to mind was that it was impossible to narrow down the stalker to one singular person. The Ares cabin wore combat boots all the time, and the Demeter cabins usually wore boots when they went exploring.

Percy turned, he had enough. Just before he turned to leave, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something bright and blue. He turned his head, but whatever he saw was gone. Monsters didn't glow like that, but neither did anything in the forest.

Percy drew Riptide just in case this was some rare monster that he'd never fought before. He snuck through the trees, making sure to not fall and scare away whatever this thing was. He pushed a branch out of the way and nearly shouted.

In front of him, suspended by vines, was Jason's bolt.

A giddy feeling took over Percy's body. He came looking for evidence of a stalker and ended up finding the bolt that had caused all this fighting. To say Percy was excited would've been a understatement.

Percy reached for the bolt, his hand shaking from excitement. Just before he grabbed the bolt, a vine shot out and wrapped around his hand. "What the—" Percy got interrupted when more vines shot out and wrapped around his leg. Excitement turned to fear, then that turned into rage. He was right there! It was like watching your favorite team in football lose the lead slowly right in front of you.

Percy slashed through the vines. He was going to get this bolt back, even if he had to go deeper into the forest just to do that. He saw the bolt being moved by vines deeper into the forest, but Percy was free now. He charged after the bolt, kicking branches and vines away from him.

Whatever spirit was transporting the bolt seemed to be playing with Percy. He'd get close, then the bolt would shoot forward out of reach. He'd reach for it, only to lose it. He was being taunted, but he didn't know by who.

Percy didn't care about how much his legs hurt from sprinting so much. All he cared about was getting that bolt back. Finally, just as he seemed to be in reach to grab the bolt, it shot upwards. Percy fell forward and face-planted onto the forest floor. He got up and looked around frantically for the bolt, but the forest was quiet now. No magical vines, no lightning bolt, nothing.

"Damn!" Percy cursed. He really blew it this time. He wasn't sure if he was going to tell Jason about this, it was humiliating. The great Percy Jackson was defeated by a bunch of trolling vines.

Regardless, not all was lost for the young demigod. He had the evidence that someone was watching him, which didn't really do much to help him get any closer to his trident, but now he knew someone was definitely stealing and framing everyone.

As Percy trudged out of the forest, he looked back one more time. This time, he swore that he could hear laughter coming from the forest. He turned and walked back to camp, he wasn't going to be led on a goose chase by vines again.