Author's Note:

Halloween may just be my favorite holiday. That's all. (for context, this chapter was posted on Halloween)

Cheers!

justapercyjacksonfan

Chapter 6

Ian was having a pretty bad time. He really didn't want to be the leader. And now he had failed even in that regard when Bri left. They were doing fine. Not great, but what did you expect from a group of novice demigods on a quest? They hadn't died. They had a destination. They had a tent that magically produced fruit and fresh water.

They also had a missing teammate. Worse, it was the teammate with the most experience in the demigod world. Worse still, it was the teammate who stopped it from raining on them.

But honestly, the team was taking it well. As well as could be expected. He had settled into a "I respect her stupid decision" attitude, with the hope she would turn up around the Garden of the Hesperides. Caleb...he never really voiced his thoughts on the subject. Actually, out of all of them, Caleb had changed the least. Bri had of course left the group. Jess seemed much more comfortable about literally everything since Instinct, and Jo sparred with her every night, refusing to stop improving.

In fact, Jo was much less shy than she had initially appeared to be. Caleb had mentioned once to him that Jo was actually rather outspoken and completely annoying, and that he didn't understand her being so quiet. Apparently she'd gotten over that. As they all sat in the tent the Hunters had given them, rain pitter-pattering, she was having a lively discussion with Jess about how impressed she was with the Hunters. He and Caleb were speaking about nothing in particular, as neither was actually invested in the conversation. Caleb was rather focussed on what Jo was saying, while he was allowing his thoughts to wander over to the team dynamics.

One of the things Jo was most vocal about with her newly found voice was Bri. She wouldn't stop pestering anyone who would listen about how they needed to find her again. Ian chalked it up to her dad being the god of prophecy, making it her natural inclination to fight them to get all their prophecy-mates together. He might have been able to let it go - except she bothered him the most about it! Whenever she had the chance, she would not let it go, and even when she didn't. Anytime something went wrong, she would loudly attribute it to them not having everyone together before giving him a pointed look. As if he could just pluck Bri from wherever in Hades she was and bring her back.

Once when they were sparring, Jess had mentioned that Artemis had told them Bri's leaving was fate. Jo had only scowled, and fought harder.

"Don't you agree, Ian?" Jo asked.

"What? Oh, um yeah." Ian said, trying to pretend he had been paying attention.

"He said yes!" Jo crowed. "We're going to find Bri!"

"My gods, Jo!" Ian said, burying his head in his hands. "I don't know where she is!"

The others only laughed. "But you weren't paying a modicum of attention, were you?" Jess asked.

Ian felt his cheeks burn at being called out. "Okay I wasn't."

She waved her hand dismissively. "You didn't miss anything important. Anyone feel like bearing their tragic backstory to the group?" she said, swooning dramatically into Jo's lap, a hand over her forehead. Jo immediately broke into a fit of giggles, and the two girls laughed as Jess sat up. Caleb even cracked a smile, and Ian joined in after a moment, albeit more at the girls' inability to stop laughing than at Jess's joke.

And in that moment, Ian didn't see three other disparate people trying to work together. He saw a group of friends. He got up and rifled through his pack until he found his sketchbook and pencil. He'd been itching to draw something for days, but whenever he had tried, inspiration failed to strike. Now, as he sat back down he drew his friends in their discourse, telling each other stories about how they were raised by a den of lions, and had to fight Dracula when they were four years old, coming up with the most ridiculous tragic backstories they could. Even Caleb, who was so stoic he often seemed angry, was joining in, and laughing with them.

"What're you doing?" Jo asked him

"Just capturing the moment."

He never really drew in front of other people, but this was important enough he wanted to remember it.

"Ian, this is really good!" Caleb said, leaning to look at the page. "I didn't know you were an artist."

"That's over-selling my talents. It's pretty cartoon-y, and the anatomy is all off." Ian critiqued his work.

"But it really does capture the moment." Jo said. She had scooched over to look at it. The attention was just making Ian more nervous. With an evil grin, she added, "But it's missing someone."

Everyone gave a half-groan, half-laugh. Jess joined them to look at the picture, putting her between him and Caleb. "You don't have to be good to be an artist Ian. But for what it's worth, you're really good."

There was an awkward silence, before Ian put the drawing away. "Didn't I ever tell you about the time I escaped from the International space station when I was seven? I had to hold my breath as I space-swam back to earth."

Everyone else took the cue to switch up the conversation. They were laughing long into the night.


The goddess had a presence in a lot of places. She could see both. The group, and the deserter. One wasn't near her domain, but invoked her power. The other was near a hearth, although it could never have been considered as an atmosphere that would give her power. Her forehead furrowed in concentration. Those four had the right idea, but the other would never make it to the garden. Unless...but it was a foolish idea. Still, it couldn't hurt to try…

Author's Note:

We're skipping right to the shout-outs today!

Huge thank you to K . T . books for following AND favoriting this story! You're too kind

I'm glad you think so Gia!

Bruton Gaster, I hope this chapter gave you some of the team-building you were looking for. I'm so glad I wasn't being too vague - and I'm happy you like the cameos! Little hint - the garden is in California. A hop-skip and a jump away from a lot of characters. You might not like what I've done to all of them. I'm mean.

Potato king you're so sweet! I like to think so, but it certainly gives me a serotonin kick when someone else says so

Anyone doing NaNoWriMo? I am. I like torturing myself...apparently.

Have a lovely day!

justapercyjacksonfan