Hey TheLifeandTimes here with a new chapter. Hope you all enjoy.

The next few months were the best that Sam ever had. It took him a while to start trusting the others completely but eventually he did. It wasn't long until he truly started believing Annabeth and her promise of family.

That was he did until Grover showed up.

Line break...

Ducking under the knife I took a few steps back to assess my opponent and catch my breath.

I didn't know what annoyed me more. The fact that she was grinning at me or that she didn't look winded at all. With a roar I charged back into the fight. Once I was close I darted in and tried to jab her in the stomach. She read me and stepped to the side, easily dodging out of the way of the dagger before smashing her free hand into my nose.

With a grunt I fell onto my back before rolling away and coming up onto my feet. I spat blood onto the ground and wiped my face with the back of my hand. It came back red. I grimaced before charging back in.

This time I managed to take a few swipes with my dagger before my hand was caught and my wrist was twisted, forcing me to drop it and cry out in pain.

"Annabeth!" Thalia shouted. "I told you not to be so rough when fighting Sam! You know he's not as strong as you." I winced. I knew that she meant to tell Annabeth off. But that hurt worse than my wrist.

I stood up from where I was kneeling. Cradling my poor appendage. "It's okay. I'm fine."

Thalia gave Annabeth one last glare before looking at me. She glanced at my arm pressed against my body before responding. "No, you're not. Now let me see."

I winced as Thalia grabbed my hand and pulled it towards her. Annabeth came up next to her and looked at the injury before gasping. "I'm so sorry Sam! I didn't think I twisted it that hard!" I could see she had tears in her eyes and her hand was over her mouth.

Glancing at my wrist it wasn't hard to see why she felt so bad. It was turning an ugly shade of purple.

Thalia grimaced before looking back at Luke. "Its definitely broken."

Luke walked up to us before speaking. "Wrap it up as best you can Thals. It's gonna have to do until we reach the camp. Annabeth, can I please speak to you for a minute?" Luke asked before walking further into the park that we were camping in tonight.

Annabeth looked like she was about to burst out crying as she followed him.

" Annabeth!" I called. "It's okay."

She gave me a watery smile before turning around and following Luke away.

Thalia glanced at my face as she was wrapping my wrist in the bandages we got a few weeks ago. "You ever broke a bone before Sam? "

I looked at the injury. "No."

Thalia seemed a bit surprised by the news. " Well you've got one hell of a pain tolerance."

I felt a small smile break out on my face, before it vanished and I grimaced. "She demolished me. Again. Three months of constant training and I still can't touch her."

I could see Thalia looking at me sympathetically. "Annabeth is the daughter of Athena. A pretty powerful one if Grover is to be believed. Athena is a goddess of war, it's natural her daughter would be good at fighting. She has her talents and you, Sam, have yours." Her finger poked me in the chest at the last part.

I felt my mood lift a little. Thalia was right. I did have talents that Annabeth didn't. Besides for Luke I was the best thief among the group. Even Annabeth didn't pick up Luke's lessons as quickly as I did. It did make me wonder about my parentage though.

"Thalia? " I asked as she unwrapped my arm because it was too tight.

"Yes, Sam? "

"Who do you think my parent is?" It was a question that had been on my mind since the first time I met the group. But recently, since we met Grover and he first started telling us about the camp and all the kids that are there, it's a question that plays on my mind more and more often.

Thalia didn't speak for a few seconds as she finished wrapping up my wrist. Once she was done and satisfied she looked me in the eyes. I could see she was using the time that gave her to think of a response. "It doesn't matter Sam. You are who you are. Knowing who your godly parent is isn't going to change that." She said.

I was still bothered however. "You know your father is Zeus. Annabeth knows her mother is Athena. Hades, Luke even met his father a few weeks ago! How am I supposed to know what I'm good at if I don't know who my godly parent is?!"

I know I sounded immature, but I just found it unfair that everyone but me knew who their parents were.

Thalia knelt down before me and put her hands on my shoulders, locking eyes with me." You can do anything, be good at anything, if you put your mind to it Sam. Fighting may not come to you as easily as it does Annabeth, but that just means you have to work harder. You not knowing who your parent is might even be a good thing. You can write your own destiny, be whoever you want to be without anyone telling you otherwise. It doesn't matter where you came from. What matters is what you choose to do now that you're here. Just remember, you're stronger than you know and the only limits are those you accept. "

She finished with a soft smile.

It would of made me feel better if I didn't notice her eyes flick over my shoulder to Grover as she spoke.

I thanked her before moving to sit down on the wooden log next to Grover. I could see him shuffling uncomfortably as I did.

Grover was somebody I had mixed feelings about. On one hand he was taking us to Camp Half-Blood which was supposed to be a type of safe haven for demigods. Where they could be trained and taught how to survive.

On the other hand he seemed to be irrationally scared of me. He would act skittish whenever I was around and would constantly keep an eye on me. He also spoke to Thalia and Luke about me in private on more than one occasion. I wasn't able to hear exactly what he said but I did hear it was about me.

As I glanced toward him I could practically see him start to tremble. I opened my mouth to speak but before I could Annabeth came back.

She no longer looked like she wanted to cry but she still looked guilty. "Sam! I'm so so sorry! I promise I will be more careful next time!"

I smiled at her as gently as I could while internally wincing at the reminder of how much weaker I was than her. "It's okay Annie."

I instantly saw the guilt vanish. "I told you not to call me that!" She screamed.

I couldn't help but laugh.

Line break...

It was the next morning that things started going to Hades.

I woke up with the sunrise as I did most mornings. It was usually me or Thalia that woke up first but I could see by her empty sleeping bag that she beat me today.

I glanced around our camp to make sure everything was still fine. Not finding anything out of the ordinary except for our resident protector sleeping when he was supposed to be on guard duty. Even that, sadly was not completely out of the ordinary.

I threw a small stick into his head. He snorted and immediately shot awake looking alarmed. He quickly grew annoyed though when he noticed me smirking at him. "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be a while. Let Thalia know when she comes back." He nodded tiredly before his eyes immediately started drooping again.

I shook my head and walked further into the trees to find a good spot to relieve myself before we started on our journey again.

After that was done I made my way to a small stream so that I could bath in the water a bit as I hadn't had the chance for a while now. Luke and Thalia would be annoyed I did this on my own once they found out, but right now I just needed to be clean.

I had been in the water for about ten minutes when I heard the screams.

I jumped out of the stream and immediately got into my pants. My shorts quickly absorbed the water from my body making them wet and highly uncomfortable.

I didn't pay any attention to that however as I then immediately grabbed my dagger and started sprinting in the direction of the sound, leaving my shoes and shirt behind.

The scene I came to was one from a nightmare.

The camp was trashed. There was a tree lying through the middle of the fire pit and a few more were knocked down.

Luke was on the floor with blood pouring off his face from a head wound. He was unconscious but I could still see him breathing. He was surrounded by piles of gold dust suggesting he didn't go down without a fight. There were two dracanae that had grabbed his legs and started dragging him off with sick smiles on their faces.

Grover was tied up in a crude rope net bleeting from panic. There were two hellhounds snapping at him aggressively. Annabeth was lying on her back crawling away from a hellhound that was advancing on her. She looked completely helpless without her dagger.

Thalia was stuck between two creatures with wings that were each holding one of her arms with a whip pulling them apart. There was a third one that was laughing at the girls struggles.

"Hades will be happy that we finally found you daughter of Zeus. He's wanted to see you die for some time."

None of the monsters had noticed me.

I can't remember what I was thinking when I charged one of the monsters that were holding Thalia. All I know is that things had never seemed so clear before. It was like instinct consumed me. I wasn't myself anymore. For that moment, I was older, more experienced. I just knew exactly what I had to do.

With a roar I charged and jumped at one of the woman. I landed on her back with my left hand around her throat and used my right to stab her repeatedly in the chest. My broken wrist protested painfully but I pushed through. She quickly burst into golden dust. Her screech made my ears want to bleed.

It was worth it however as Thalia seemed to gain the upper hand. With one of her arms free she grabbed the remaining whip before pulling as hard as she could.

The monster flew at Thalia where she met it with a lightning infused punch to the face. I heard a crack. She then wrapped the whip around the creatures neck before spinning in a circle and throwing the monster lady at her friend that had taken to the air. She flew about three meters before smacking into the other one. With a cry both fell to the floor. I'm sure pretty much any mortal would be dead by what she just did to them. I could already see the monsters scrambling however.

I didn't pay much attention after that though as I charged at the hellhound that was advancing on Annabeth. I didn't even stop to think about how I had just killed my first monster.

It was one of the biggest hellhounds I had ever seen. Easily over eight feet tall and rippling with muscle. I knew I would never be able to seriously hurt it as I was. I couldn't reach anything important.

With that in mind I stabbed it in the back of its leg while it was focused on Annabeth. It immediately spun around and tried to bite me. I expected this however and was already scrambling back. Once it was focused on me I growled at it before turning and sprinting away towards Grover and Luke as fast as I could. I could hear it give chase.

The dracanae saw me approach however and had more than enough time to get their weapons ready. I could see neither of them were taking me seriously, that's why only one bothered to ready her spear. Once I got close she jabbed it at me.

It was sloppy and slow compared to Thalia though. I weaved past the stab receiving a small scratch on my cheak for my trouble. Before the monster could even register what had happened she had a dagger in her heart with me standing over her.

I didn't forget about the hellhound however as I immediately broke out running again. Seeing their alpha chasing new prey, both of the hellhounds around Grover immediately started charging after me to.

I sprinted off into the forest as fast as I could praying that Thalia and Annabeth would be able handle the remaining monsters.

I knew I didn't stand a chance of outrunning the hellhounds in a straight line. So I immediately started weaving between trees. I could hear the beasts slamming into trees behind me as I twisted and turned through the forest as fast as I could. I stopped sprinting and dived to the side as a hellhound came out the shadow of one of the trees in front of me and immediately dived at my throat.

I felt air blow over my back as the monsters claws barely missed ripping me in half.

I didn't spare it a second thought as I carried on running.

It was maybe a minute later that I knew I was probably going to die. I knew I couldn't do this for much longer. I was already tired. I needed to go back to Thalia where hopefully she had dealt with the other monsters.

The problem was that I was completely lost.

I wasn't paying any attention to my surroundings as I ran for my life so I had no way of knowing where Thalia was.

A growl behind me interrupted my chain of thought. I spun around with my dagger clutched in my wrong hand. My right hand was completely useless now. I couldn't even close the fingers anymore.

All three hellhounds were advancing towards me slowly. I don't know why they didn't attack, I had never seen them hesitate when they attacked Thalia or Luke. It was almost like they weren't sure what to make of me.

Or maybe they knew I was done and were just playing with their food.

I knew this was it. I couldn't run anymore. Exhaustion had caught up to me. Besides with me lost, running would only delay the inevitable and ensure I died fleeing like a coward. I don't know why such a thought made me feel so disgusted. I just knew I would rather take a stand.

With a roar I immediately started charging the nearest of them. It also happened to be the biggest.

As I drew closer my fear completely vanished. Replaced by a strange determination to take as many of these bastards with me as I could.

It was all for nothing however as with a single swipe of its humongous paw the beast sent me tumbling into a tree.

As I lay against the tree only a single thought ran through my mind. "Thalia, Luke... Aa- a- Annabeth... I- I'm sorry." I was completely powerless to do anything to help them so I did the only thing I could. I prayed. I prayed to the only divine being that I knew of that actively killed monsters. 'Artemis, please help them.'

I saw darkness closing in on my vision and my death was approaching me with snarling jaws dripping with saliva. Just before it pounced however words entered my mind and I had an overwhelming urge to speak them. So with the last of my energy, I did.

"Fus Roh Dah! " I heard thunder crashing, hellhounds whimpering before going silent and trees crashing to the floor.

I never saw any of this however as my head lolled to the side and my vision faded. Just before blackness swollowed me completely though, I swear I saw an angel. She was beautiful, glowing silver and although she looked young I saw that her silver eyes were ancient.

I want to thank everybody that's reviewed this story so far. I do read every review and try take what you say into account. That said I do have a direction I want this story to go in and will stay true to that. Doesn't mean I won't use some ideas if I like them though. As far as making chapters longer. I do plan to make them a little longer in the future. I just thought that this was the best place I could end this chapter.

I'm sure many people will disagree with me making Annabeth stronger than Sam in this fic. But I have a reason for that. Annabeth is the daughter of a Greek goddess and as such is basically built for war. Sam is also a demigod in a sense but he will have altogether different gifts. Not saying he wont be a crazy good fighter. I just want you all to know that the Dragonborn is extremely powerful in his own right and the story needs some balance otherwise it can become boring. Both to read and write. So as such Greek demigods will be a lot stronger in this fic than they are in the books. So will some wizards ;)

As always please review. Criticism is welcome as long as it's constructive.

The next chapter will be ready soon.