Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Ten

Happy Little Working Song

"We're in Greece!" Andee exclaimed happily, her smile like a one thousand watt light bulb.

"How could we have possibly sailed to Greece in one night?" Annabeth asked incredulously, taking in our foreign surroundings.

"Because Greece is magic!" Andee said, as if was the most obvious thing. She was jumping up and down ecstatically, clapping her hands together. "I know exactly where to go!"

"Where?" Grover asked.

"Oh, I can't tell you that – it's a secret," Andee said seriously before running across the street, completely oblivious to both the foot and vehicle traffic around her. She approached one of the sales people and talked to them in what I guessed was Greek, making wild hand gestures the whole time. The person seemed to understand and responded back, pointing in a certain direction. He made several different movements with his hands and arms, and Andee nodded before skipping back over to us.

"So where are we exactly?" I asked, looking around.

"Skiathos Port," Andee muttered, looking down the street. "Okay, she said, a relieved smile appearing on her face after a long silence where her hands drew something in the air. "It should take one, maybe two days walking distance to get to a place where we can stay for a while. It's just outside of a town, but we should probably stay off the streets when it gets darker so we don't look suspicious."

"Finally – a plan," Annabeth said and Andee stuck her tongue out at her. So we started walking down the road and no one even cast us a second glance. Andee produced a camera from her bag and started taking pictures of everything as we walked, still managing to keep up the fastest pace of our group.

"You like photography?" I asked, walking alongside her.

"I love it. You get to see things from a completely different angle," she said, snapping a few pictures of our group.

"Gods, Andee!" Annabeth said, not expecting the bright flash of light that hit her eyes. Andee kept on smiling and taking pictures of stores, the ocean, people, and all sorts of other things around us.

We were making good time and had made it to the forest when it started to get dark. "We should probably use what little daylight we have left to set up camp," Grover suggested. Everyone agreed, setting all the bags down on the ground.

"So, we need to figure out our sleeping arrangements and think of making a fire," Annabeth said, immediately taking charge of the situation like she always did.

Andee dug through her bag before pulling out a small case and tossing it to Annabeth. "Tent," she said, to answer Annabeth's questioning look. "It's going to rain tonight."

"You know, it's very handy that you know these things," Annabeth said and Andee smiled, wiggling her eyebrows a little. "No one likes getting rained on when they're trying to sleep." Annabeth quickly worked on setting up our temporary camp, refusing any help because we'd "just get in the way". By the end, the tent was set up off to the side and under the shelter of some trees, while some large logs lay in a circle around where the fire would go.

"How are you going to make a –"

Andee held her hands in front of her and with a flick of her wrists, the ground burst into flames. Grover and I stared at her in astonishment.

"Like I said, Andee is an all-in-one camping tool," Annabeth said.

"I am not a tool!" Andee whined. "Just a very useful travel companion!" Everyone laughed. "But really, my dad is the god of the sun, which is light and fire."

"Apparently," Grover said, sitting down on one of the logs. We all followed suit soon after. I stared into the bright, dancing flames. I glanced over and saw how the fire illuminated Andee's face, making it look even more beautiful than normal. Her eyes glowed as she gazed into the flame and every little details of her face was lit up.

"So what's your plan from here, Dee?" Annabeth asked.

"Well," Andee started, "we get a good night's rest and pack up first thing in the morning. We need to get moving as quickly as possible. And because we made such good time today, we should be able to get there by midday tomorrow."

"Where is 'there'?" Grover asked.

"Why is it so important?" Andee retorted.

"Well…because…because I want to know!" Grover spluttered.

"That's all fine and dandy, but where we're going is not as nearly as important as getting there in one piece," Andee said, watching the fire as Annabeth opened her backpack and pulled out some food for everyone.

We all are our dinner in silence before Annabeth said she'd take the first watch, and the rest of us could sleep for the night. Andee would take next, then me, and then Grover. I crawled into the tent and went to sleep for a while but couldn't get much sleep so I got up to see who was on watch.

"You should go back to sleep," Andee said as I approached her. She was staring up, looking at the sky, almost like she was praying. "We have a long day tomorrow."

"Did you sleep at all?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Sleep doesn't help me rest much anymore." She paused. "I like looking at the stars, though. Every constellation tells its own story and you can get lost in that."

I looked at the twinkly lights in the sky before moving over to sit beside her. "How did your mom die?" I asked, having thought about that conversation quite a bit since she mentioned it. I mean, it's hard to forget when someone says they killed their own mother.

Andee looked at me but quickly glanced away. "There was a Prophecy about my mom stating that she wouldn't live past the age of eighteen. So when she met my dad, fell in love with him and became pregnant with his child – me – at eighteen, she was worried that she was going to die before she was able to give birth to me. She died the minute before she would have turned nineteen, and the same minute I was born."

"That doesn't mean you killed her," I said softly.

"Yes, it does. I'm the reason there was a Prophecy in the first place. As I grew inside her, I grew stronger and stronger, and my powers kept building up. As soon as I was born, all that power and energy was released and that's what killer her," Andee said, hugging her knees to her chest. "I just wish I could spend one day with her, just to find out what she was like, what she would think of me. If she was proud of me and what I've done. Being here makes me think about her a lot more than I usually do."

"Andee, I have no doubt in my mind that she would have been so proud of you. You are this strong, beautiful girl that is amazing in so many ways," I said, gently touching her cheek.

I leaned in and was about to put my lips to hers when she said, "I can't." I stopped dead in my tracks, our faces so close that our noses were brushing against each other's. Her voice sounded tight, almost like she didn't want to say it. "I'm sorry, but I just can't do this." She quickly stood and crawled into the tent, leaving me there to sit by myself. And as if to make me feel even worse, it started to rain.

I sighed frustratedly and ran a hand through my now damp hair. I climbed into the tent, glancing over at Andee to see if she might still be awake, but she was already in her sleeping bag, her face covered by her hair.

I grabbed the stand-up umbrella from just beside the entrance that Andee had left out and set it up so I could stop myself from getting even wetter. As I settled in, I could have sword I could hear crying from the girl's side of the tent. Then again, I could have just been imagining it.

I was in an empty room, but open further investigation, I saw a golden sarcophagus at the other side of the room. I shivered, knowing what it was, but felt my legs walking towards it anyways. The sarcophagus opened as I got closer and inside I could see Luke's body, eyes closed but glowing an unnatural looking goldish-green color.

The girl is mine, I heard emanate from the body. There is nothing you or anyone can do to protect her.

Within a heart-wrenching second, I knew he meant Andee. My Andee. Well, not my Andee, but my Andee. The beautiful girl that kept rejecting in every way known to man, and then some. The funny thing was, I knew I was in love with her, and knew that I wouldn't be able to give up until I had finally gotten her. Until I could rightfully call her mine.

"You will never have her," I growled at him. "I'll kill you before you ever lay a finger on her."

A horrible laugh filled the room and a hollow feeling filled my chest. It doesn't matter what you do now, she's already in my grip. It's just a matter of time, Kronos said, laughing.

I woke up with a jolt, looking around as if Kronos was just strolling up to come the tent to steal Andee away in the night. I still hurried over to the tent to check, and she was still fast asleep in her corner of the tent, mumbling away.

"I'm a human nectarine? Well that is very interesting, Mr. Monkey," Andee murmured in her sleep. Annabeth rolled over and looked at Andee through her own sleepy haze.

"Does she usually do this?" Grover asked Annabeth. Apparently this had been going on for a while because Grover was completely awake.

"Yeah, when she's dreaming she's either deathly silent, or she starts babbling nonsense when she's stressed. She has a lot of really weird dreams when she's stressed." Annabeth looked like she'd dealt with this more than a few times. "When she has nightmares, she –"

"Screams like a banshee?" I suggested.

Annabeth nodded. "At least she's having decent dreams tonight."

"Well I would love to have tea, but the dormouse is in the sugar!" Andee exclaimed loudly, throwing her arms out dramatically and almost hitting Annabeth in the face.

"Alice in Wonderland?" Grover asked, exchanging a smile with me.

"Apparently," Annabeth looked at her best friend before flopping back down on her sleeping bag. "Shut up, weirdo, the rest of us are trying to sleep."

"Get out of my dream, Annabeth! You're not welcome here – you're not mad enough!" Andee shouted. Annabeth threw a pillow at Andee's head before turning over.

"Guess it's my turn," Grover said and I nodded as she struggled to get out of the tent while I tried to go back to sleep. All I could think about was what Kronos had said – It doesn't matter what you do, she's already in my grip. It's just a matter of time.

When I woke up the next morning, the sun was shining brightly through the tent, practically blinding me. I was exhausted, but I sat up and stretched out my back. Sleeping on the ground like this really wasn't good for sleeping patterns or your back muscles, I discovered. I took a cursory glance around the tent and saw that Andee was missing.

My heart sped up and my blood started pounding in my ears. He had gotten her. Kronos really had come here and taken her from right under my nose. I bolted out of the tent in bare feet to go and look for her. They could be anywhere now. I heard humming and saw Andee stretching and doing some weird poses in front of the fire while homing a song from "Enchanted".

"Gods, Andee, you can't do that!" I said, finally able to breathe now that I knew that she was safe. I guess it made more sense that she hadn't been kidnapped by Kronos because if he had come here, I'm pretty sure he would have killed me in my sleep.

Actually, he probably would have killed all of us.

But especially me.

"I can't sing a happy little working song while I do my morning yoga?" Andee asked, a look of exaggerated panic plastered on her face at the thought. "I know it's unorthodox, but sometimes you need to jazz it up!"

"Yes, you can sing a happy little working song while you do yoga," I said, laughing a little.

"Well thank goodness I got your approval!" Andee said seriously. "I was going to keep doing it anyways but now I can rest easier."

"You are something entirely out of this world," I said and she smiled brightly at me, crossing her eyes slightly. "What I meant was that you can't just disappear like that without some sort of warning. For all I knew, you could've been kidnapped or killed."

She stopped her sun salutations to come over and give me a tight hug. She pulled back and looked at me. "That's very sweet of you to worry about me like that, but I can't actually be killed." She moved back over to her yoga mat (where did she get a yoga mat? Did she actually bring that with her?) and continued with her morning ritual.

"Either way."

"Well I'm sorry, dad," she taunted. "Now if you don't mind, I still have six more sets to do, so you either have to be quiet while I finish so I can get back into my zen place, or you can join me."

"I'll be quiet."

"Probably the best choice," Andee said with a cheeky smile.

I watched as she went through a series of poses, holding each for few seconds before moving on to the next one.

"These are sun salutations, right?"

"Percy."

"Well, couldn't you just like, wake up and wave at the sun? Or Iris message your dad?" I asked.

"I can't even answer that. Please be quiet."

"I really need to know this."

"I'm going to hit you."

"Could you two make any more noise?" Annabeth growled, rubbing her head as she came out of the tent, followed close behind by Grover.

"I'm so sorry I woke you up. How could I ever do such a thing in the morning?" Andee asked sarcastically. Annabeth rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Actually, you are all the rude ones because I just want to do my sun salutations to start my day off right and you keep interrupting! So quiet for fifteen minutes or I will actually send electricity through your body."