I know it wasn't that long, but I still feel guilty because I started another story and I haven't updated in 10 days (or maybe longer, I dunno).

So, anyway, longer A/N at the end, make sure to read that.

Disclaimer: If I were Rick Riordan, or I owned PJO, I would be making money off of this stuff.

Bold= my notes

Chapter 4

The next morning, Argus, a guy with eyes all over his body, drove us off to start our quest. When we got to Penn Station, we got on a train to Maine (I couldn't find a way to say that without it rhyming).

"So," Ellie asked, "Why Maine?"

"Because that's where Aphrodite and Athena and Hermes are trapped!" I said.

"The cave's in Maine?" she asked.

"Yeah!"

The Very Scary Monster was also in Maine. I had no idea why anyone would go into the cave, and why Hephaestus had put a trap for Ares and Aphrodite there. It hadn't seemed very romantic the last time I'd been there.

But whatever.

"The train ride is gonna be long," I said. "We'll need to eat something. Annabel, can you go see where we can get food?"

"Sure thing!" Annie said.

She left to go look for snacks.

"And, can you go see where the bathroom is?" I asked Ellie. She looked at me, suspicious, but left.

So I had some alone time to think. I didn't want to think about the Very Scary Monster, because, well… it's Very Scary. It's my worst fear.

So I thought about the end of the prophecy:

The trap is hidden in the dark,

But there they'll find a tiny spark,

This tiny spark will lead the way,

But orange will lead them astray.

Did it mean a literal spark? Or was it a metaphor? I'd never encountered a prophecy before, so I didn't know anything about them, other than the fact that they told the future.

The future wasn't looking so good for me.

I wish that it said that we would find wonderful surprises, and a birthday cake for Ellie. That would have been a lot better than the… Somewhat Scary Monster.

I can't convince myself.

But that's okay.

And what was orange? I mean, it probably wasn't talking about fruit. The only other thing that I could think of that was orange… were those Camp Half-Blood t-shirts.

I looked down at my own shirt and shivered. That couldn't be it.

I mean, there were tons of other things that were orange.

But still… I had a bad feeling that the shirt did have something to do with it.

I didn't have any more time to think about it, though, because I saw monsters outside.

And they were coming in.

The thing is, it didn't occur to me, at first, to go and fight the monsters.

When Annabel and Élouase got back, the first thing I said was, "which one of you used a phone?"

They stared at me blankly.

I snapped my fingers. "Come on! One of you used a phone. Why else would there be so many?"

They shook their heads. They hadn't used their phones? Now I had no one to blame! And I really, really just wanted to be able to blame someone and punish them for all of those monsters outside.

The only good thing that I could think of to say was,

"At least the Very Scary Monster isn't out there."

Annie and Ellie exchanged a glance, like, umm… the Very Scary Monster? That doesn't sound good.

"What's the Very Scary Monster?" Ellie asked.

"It's-" I started, but something growled outside the window. We all screamed.

"Now isn't the time to talk!" I said. "Let's get out there and fight them!"

We went outside, but we didn't do much fighting. We mostly did that thing where you swing your blade and pretend to be really good so that you can get through the horde of monsters. I mean, I killed some monsters, but mostly I just knocked them out of the way and pretended to be really tough.

The only one of us three that was actually killing a lot of them was Annabel. With her bow in her hand, she was almost unstoppable.

Until a griffin picked her up and started to fly away.

But didn't even let that stop her. She climbed onto the griffin's back and grabbed hold of its wings, so that it was forced to stop.

It started to drop, and I screamed. How would Annie survive? They were fairly high in the air, and the monsters would take advantage if she was injured.

But she fell on top of another griffin, and both of the griffins passed out.

She stood, grinning, and we made our way through the last of the monsters, killing every one of them.

We were sure they wouldn't bother the mortals.

Once we were far enough away that we could tell there were no more monsters following us, we sat down.

Apparently she wasn't as okay as she'd let on, because she let a few tears fall when she was sitting.

"I-" she started, then shook her head. She opened up her backpack and took out a plastic baggie with ambrosia in it. She carefully ate a whole square, then seemed to be able to talk again.

"I twisted my right leg when I fell. And, just from the impact, some of the fingers on my left hand broke. And my left foot. Other than that, I'm fine!" she tried to sound cheerful, but there was no way that she was perfectly fine after all that.

"Let's rest for a bit," I suggested.

"No, I'm-" Annie started, but Ellie interrupted saying, "you're not fine, Annabel! You just broke your leg, foot, and hand! We'll rest for the rest of the day, and then find a way to get to Maine."

We sat around for a bit, not really talking. I picked at the grass and weaved the blades together, just playing around. Ellie dug tiny holes in the ground and tried to make miniature geysers (with varying degrees of success). Annie made flower chains with clover flowers.

After a while, I said, "I'm cold. And hungry."

Ellie looked up. "Really? I've been cold for a while, but I decided not to say anything, since I'm causing that."

Annie laughed. She seemed a bit better than before. "Can we make some sort of shelter? I've got matches we can use to make a fire."

I looked around. We were in a woodsy area, so I figured I could make some sort of shelter, and I could definitely get firewood.

"Sure," I said. "I'll be back in a bit."

I got up and headed out.

I found a good tree, said thanks and sorry to the dryad, and got to work.

First, I cut off some big branches, which I planned on using to construct a sort of tipi. Then I cut off some bark (okay, a lot of it) to fill in the gaps. I dragged one branch all the way back to the others and then asked Ellie for help.

Together we got all of the supplies for the tipi back to where we'd been sitting, and Ellie went to look for firewood.

Me and Annabel constructed the shelter using duct tape that she'd packed ("Annabeth said it always comes in handy!").

By the time Ellie had gotten back with the firewood, we'd put a blanket that I didn't know we had on the floor and had made ourselves comfy. Considering the amount of time it'd taken us to build it, the structure was pretty sturdy and spacious. We'd stuck some of the branches into the ground, and then tilted them together to make a slightly elongated tipi. There was a nice space in the middle, and in five minutes, we had a roaring fire that was just big enough.

By then it was already getting dark. To be honest, I was scared. Not normal mortal fears, though, like dehydration or the shelter collapsing or starvation.

I was scared of the monsters.

I knew that they were more powerful at night, so I figured that we'd have to take turns keeping watch. But still, I had no idea what kind of demigod-hungry monsters were lurking about…

"Let's eat!" I said.

We dug into a meal of chips and ham-and-cheese sandwiches.

While we ate, we talked about the prophecy, and what we thought it meant.

"I was thinking that maybe orange has something to do with the t-shirts," I said. "You know, the Camp ones?"

"Maybe," Ellie said. "But how would a t-shirt lead us astray?"

"I don't know," I said.

"What about this curse? And facing fears beyond our worst? What does that mean?" Annie asked.

"Well, there's this monster-" I began, but Ellie interrupted me.

"The Very Scary Monster that you mentioned?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's the one!"

I told them about the Very Scary Monster, and how Very Scary it is.

I revealed to them that it was…

Well! I'm leaving it there, but I do know what it is. I figured that out before I started writing this chapter.

Anyone want to take guesses as to what it is?

I started another story. It's called Not a Hint of a Memory.

Please review! Reviews keep me going!

ALSO:

I'm going to update this at least every other week. So expect an update two weeks from now. Even if I update before then, I will update on the 27th!

- Ivy Antionette