Annabeth didn't know where to go next. She needed somewhere to sleep. She was tired. She had been hiking through the city all night, hoping to find a tent city or something. She didn't find anything except an old hammer. For days, Annabeth walked. Her feet hurt so much. One day, Annabeth was hiking in the forest to try to get to another town. She paused. She heard something big. Annabeth slowly turned around.

There was an ugly, hideous beast staring right at her. Ok, it wasn't actually hideous. It was like a big, hairy, black dog. Annabeth knew that dogs like playing fetch, so she looked around for a big stick. She had to hurry, because she knew that the dog was advancing. There! There was a huge stick. Well, not huge, but big for Annabeth. She threw it as hard as she could, and it soared into the darkness. The dog bounded away, and Annabeth ran in the opposite direction.

Annabeth stopped running, and collapsed on the ground. She took giant, heaving breaths. Then, she started crying. She had nowhere to go, and she was completely lost. But she knew that she had to keep moving. Staying in one place wouldn't help anything. So, Annabeth got up and started walking.

She walked for days, and the only food she ate were granola bars. She was really starting to hate granola bars. She finally found another town, and when she read the sign, it said… Richmond. After days of walking, she ended up right where she started. It was getting cooler out, and Annabeth needed warmer clothes. She made up her mind to go into the store the next day. But for now, she needed to find somewhere to sleep.

After another hour of walking, Annabeth finally found an abandoned alleyway that she could sleep in. Most of the time, she slept in alleyways. Occasionally she would find a tent city that she could stop and rest in, but never for more than a night. It wasn't like she wasn't welcomed, because she was. But she had to keep moving. Everywhere she had stopped, people had tried to persuade her to stay. It never worked. She shivered. It had been in the middle of spring, about May when she ran away, it was in the middle of autumn now. She had pushed off going into the main part of town for a while, but her stash of granola bars was running out, and she needed a coat. She layered up in all of her clothes, and slowly drifted to sleep.

A few days later, Annabeth had distracted a lot of monsters in different ways. She threw something at a big one-eyed man's eye, she threw more sticks at the superdogs, as she now called them, and she managed to skirt around a sleeping beast that had nine heads. Nine heads! She hadn't woken it up, and she knew that if she did, there would be big consequences. After many days, she finally worked up the nerve to go into town.

Annabeth slowly walked into town, hoping that people wouldn't notice her. Of course, due to her luck, she got noticed a lot. Most of the interactions with adults went like this.

A woman would say, "Little girl, are you lost?"

"No, I know where I am going."

"Did you lose your parents?"

"No."

"Well, is there any way I can help you? Maybe I could direct you to the nearest tent city?"

"No thank you, I am not homeless. I have a very specific destination in mind."

"Well, could I buy you some food? Or some new clothes?"

"No thank you, I am fine, I have money."

"Well... wait, how old are you?"

"Seven."

"I need to take you to the police station. A little girl like you shouldn't be running around a city alone and unaccompanied."

At this point, Annabeth would make a break for it. The woman would tell her to come back, and this whole process would repeat again. And again. And again. And… well, you get the idea. Annabeth would go into the stores, and pretend that she was with some random stranger to get in, then get her things and leave.

She found an alley by a fountain to sleep in that night, when she heard some noises. She quickly looked around to see if there was anything that she could use as a weapon. At the back of the alley, she found a hammer. 'Finally!' she thought, 'I have some good luck!' She heard people coming into the alley. Annabeth quickly looked around, and found a big piece of scrap metal to hide behind. The sound of footsteps got closer, and closer. The scrap metal was lifted from above Annabeth's head, and she sprang and threw the hammer at the same time.

"Whoa!" said the boy. He dodged the hammer. Great. Now Annabeth didn't have a weapon. Then, the boy reached out, and grabbed her wrist. Annabeth looked around, and saw a girl with a piece of metal with a scary head in the middle. Annabeth struggled, but she couldn't break free. "No more monsters!" she screamed. "Go away!" The girl had a spear now too! Annabeth struggled harder. "It's ok." he said. The girl with the shield and spear was frozen in place. "Thalia" the boy said, "put your shield away! You're scaring her!" The girl, Thalia touched the shield, and it shrank down to a bracelet. She dropped her spear too. Thalia came over to where Annabeth was being held by the boy. "Hey little girl" she said gently, "It's all right. We aren't going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke."

"Monsters!" Annabeth cried.

"No," the boy, Luke answered. "But we know about monsters. We fight them too." Annabeth was shivering, and Luke held her close. She eventually stopped struggling. Annabeth looked up at him and Thalia. Luke had blond hair and blue eyes, and he seemed nice. Thalia was dressed in all black, with spiky black hair and metal studs on her clothing.

"You're like me?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah," Luke said "We're… well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters. Where's your family?" Annabeth's face got hard, and her chin trembled. "My family hates me. They don't want me. I ran away." Luke looked at Thalia, and it seemed like they communicated with their eyes. Then Thalia knelt next to Luke. She put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. "What's your name, kiddo?"

"Annabeth."

Luke smiled. "Nice name," he said, "You know what Annabeth, you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you." Annabeth's eyes widened. "You could?"

"Oh yeah." said Luke. "How would you like a real monster slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. It works a lot better than a hammer." Annabeth couldn't believe her ears. Luke had barely known her for two minutes, but he was giving her a sharp knife? Annabeth took the dagger. It was so pretty! She made up her mind to not let Luke down. "Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters. They don't have the power or reach of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a pretty clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling that you're pretty clever."

"I am clever!" Annabeth said. Thalia tousled her hair and laughed. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you food and clothes."

Annabeth paused. It all depended on their answer to this one question. She prepared to bolt. "You're… you're not going to take me back to my family? Promise?" The desperation and hope in her voice was evident. "You're part of our family now." Luke put his hand on her shoulder. "And I promise that I'm not going to fail you like our families failed us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Thalia picked up her spear and smiled. "Now come on. We can't stay put for long!"

And as they walked away, Annabeth smiled. This was the first time in her life that she felt like she actually had a family.

Athena looked down from Olympus. Annabeth had found friends. That was good. But, wait. She had made friends with a daughter of Zeus! That was bound to have problems. She could send a satyr after them, to help them get to camp safely. And if any of the other gods, especially Hera were to find out, she could just say that she was looking after her daughter. And Zeus could never stay mad at her. He needed her. But the daughter of Zeus was a problem.

A/N: And she met Thalia and Luke! This actually was canon, there is a book that details their first meeting. Also, just in case any of you guys were wondering, Frederick only helped Annabeth last chapter because he wanted her gone. At least, that is what I was thinking when I wrote it. Please review, follow, favorite, and PM me if you have any questions! ALSO, I have the chapters up until seven pre-written. Therefore, once I run out of prewritten chapters, it will take longer for me to update, especially because I'm trying to write Of Deceit and Trickery as well. For those of you who don't know what that is, I have created a SYOT about the 80th Hunger Games (AU of course). It is open, so please feel free to read, review, follow, favorite, and submit characters for that! I actually will need characters for this soon as well. They won't have POVs, as Annabeth's POV and Athena's POV are the only ones here, but they will be featured. PM me for the form, and I will get it to you as soon as I can. Have a good week!

-Annabeth