Author's Note: Okay, got this one out a lot quicker, but that's because not much is going to happen, truth be told. Don't think you can skip this chapter though, it's still important. Though if you had any questions, there will be some stuff here that might explain it. If say anymore, I might give stuff away, so I'll have to cut this AN short. But that's probably a good thing for you guys isn't it?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything about PJO.

Chapter 4

Conversations With a Former Tree

Percy sat between the Scrawny-Boy and the Punk-Girl on the train clutching his ruined arm.

Scrawny-Boy was rummaging through his backpack. "I should have the ambrosia here somewhere."

Percy frowned. "The hell is that?"

He waved dismissively, "It's the food of the gods. It'll heal-"

The Punk-Girl turned around sharply. "Grover! We're you… actually going to give him that stuff?!"

"Yeah, what's the… oh… damn," He turned to Percy, "sorry, mortals can't have this stuff, if I'd given it to you; you'd have burned into a pile of ash."

Percy blinked. "Well righteo then, if that's all you have…"

"No, I always bring bandages and the like with me." He pulled out a bandage roll and scissors, prepping the bandage.

As he did so, Percy looked around the train. People glanced their way occasionally, but it was because of the medical situation; they didn't look twice at the lions pelt wrapped up under his arm. Why, he had no clue, but the amount of eyes looking his way was less than it could have been, and for that he was grateful.

Suddenly something pricked in his mind. He turned back to the Scrawny-Boy. "Hey, she… said your name is Grover, yeah?"

"Yeah, Grover Underwood. Ah, that's right… you don't know our names yet. They'll introduce themselves in their own time, but for now, what's your name."

"I'm, Perseus… Jackson. Percy for short."

Scrawny-Boy, Grover, raised an eyebrow. "Oddly fitting, considering the situation. Now Percy, tell me, ever had medical alcohol rubbed on an open wound before?"

"Uhh… no…"

"Well, you might want to bite down on something."

Well, that was a marvellous new experience, Percy thought dryly.

He'd followed Grover's advice, and bitten down on something… that something being the lions pelt. His arm may be faring better, but now he felt like he'd have to get a new set of teeth.

Not the smartest of moves.

A short way down the train route the black helicopter had come down and followed the train, so they switched trains twice, and eventually lost the helicopter.

His arm now bandaged up, and pain definitely lower, Percy now had no Idea where they were, but that didn't bother him as much as the helicopter had. The prospect of instant fiery death was much more stressful, hands down.

They all got off the train, but it was the end of the line, in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks. The entire area was blanketed in snow.

Percy was used to the cold by now, but still… this was a new level of cold. Looking at the others in their long coats and thick jackets, he'd wished he brought something warmer. He'd survive though.

He always did.

They wondered through the railway yard, hoping to find another passenger train, but there was nothing but freight cars covered in snow. They didn't look like they were going anyway any time soon.

Then they stumbled across a homeless guy standing at a trash fire. At least, that's the way he looked to Percy for the first microsecond he saw him. Instantly Percy couldn't see, but instead feel the warm golden aura radiating from this man.

And another thing, he looked way to cliché to be actually homeless. Percy had yet to actually meet anyone on the street who had a giant scruffy beard like this guy had.

One thing Percy was sure of, he was not who he seemed to be.

The man at the trash fire saw them and smiled. "Ya'll need to get warmed up? Come on over!"

The others seemingly didn't share Percy's concern, and took the man up on his offer. As they wondered over, he made eye contact with the man, and for an instant he was frowning, like he couldn't quite place him. The expression was gone as quickly as it came.

They all stood around the fire. The Punk-Girl's teeth were chattering. "Well this is g-g-g-great."

"My hooves are frozen," Grover complained.

Yeah… wait a minute… hooves?

"Maybe we could contact camp," the Younger-Hunter-Girl said. "Chiron-"

Ye-Olde-Hunter-Girl interrupted immediately, "No. They cannot help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves."

Percy was contemplating everything he was hearing. An entire camp of people like them? How many half-gods could there be out there.

The thought sounded strange in his head. Half-god.

When he looked at the group around him, he saw them shivering from the cold just as he was. Like a human. Like him.

They didn't seem very godly at the moment.

"You know," the 'homeless dude' said, "you're never entirely without friends. You kids looking for a train going west."

"Um… yeah," the Younger-Hunter-Girl said. "You know of any."

He pointed at a freight train, gleaming and without a single drop of snow on it. It was a car carrying ones, with three decks and a steel mesh curtain on the sides. It said 'SUN WEST LINE'.

Percy knew for a fact that it was not there before.

"Well, that's… convenient," the Punk-Girl said. "Thanks, uh…"

She turned to the homeless guy but he was just gone. The trashcan fire was suddenly extinguished.

Yep, definitely not human.

The group all turned to face each other, and gave each other shrugs that said 'You got a better idea'.

No one did.

They all got on the train.

The train started running almost immediately after everyone was on. When they all hopped aboard, everyone got into their own separate car.

Percy felt he should try to get to know the rest of the group. The Hunter-Girls were in a Lexus on the top deck. The younger one seemed nice enough, but Ye-Olde-Hunter-Girl didn't seem the friendliest. He'd already introduced himself to Grover, who was playing race-car behind the wheel of a Lamborghini.

That left the Punk-Girl, who'd gone off into a black Mercedes SLK.

Plus, she saved him from turning into an ash pile… apparently.

Percy couldn't tell how much they were telling the truth about everything. 'Food of the gods' seemed to be a bit of a stretch.

He knocked on the window of Mercedes.

The Punk-Girl reached across and opened the door. "Yeah?"

"Hey, um, just thought I'd thank you for, saving me from becoming an ash pile or something."

She frowned, "Yeah, it's, not a problem."

Neither them knew where to take the conversation from there.

At last she said, "You want to join me?"

Percy, seeing nothing better to do, hopped in the car. She'd hotwired the radio and was listening to some kind of rock station. Percy wasn't sure.

He'd never had much time for music.

"Nice coat there. Why don't you wear it? Probably warmer than what you have there."

Percy frowned and looked at the lion skin.

It didn't look like a coat to him.

"What do mean?"

"Ah yeah, the apparent clear sighted thing. What does it look like to you?"

"Like a lion's pelt. Hold on a moment, you and the other keep calling me that. Clear sighted? What does that mean?"

"Hmm, I suppose someone's gotta explain all this to you. Well what it means, is you can see through the Mist. And before you ask, well you'd think people would know by now if monsters and demigods were running around the country? Well, the Mist kind of censors it, prevents normal people from seeing everything. And, no one knows why, but sometimes regular people can see right through the Mist. It won't affect them. You're one of those people. "

Percy absorbed the information. "Hmm… okay then… how many other crazy things should I know about? Like the lion, why did it sometimes just, pass through me?"

"Well I don't know for sure, its skin looked like some kind of special Celestial Bronze. That's the metal our weapons are made from, and it can't harm non-magic beings. That'd be you. And the claws looked like silver to me. That's the only metal that can harm mortals, monsters and demigods. Again, no one knows why."

Percy frowned. "That's… a fair bit to take in."

"Yeah, it all ways is for the new guys."

"So uh, you guys really going to rescue a goddess?"

"That's why the Hunters are going, yeah. Their patron, Artemis was kidnapped."

"The Hunters? Those two girls with the bows?"

"Yeah, but there are a lot more than two of them."

"You said that's why they're going. What about you?"

She sighed. "Because one of my friends was kidnapped as well. Annabeth. She's like my little sister, except… not so little anymore."

Percy frowned. "Not so little anymore?"

The Punk-Girl raised an eyebrow. "You ask a lot of questions."

Percy suddenly realised he may be intruding into personal territory. "Ahh, um, sorry, you don't have to answer if it's not-"

"I used to be a tree, okay."

Percy wondered if he'd misheard her. "Uhh…"

"Yeah, I'm being serious. I really should be like, eighteen or something but… being a tree for a few years threw my aging out of wack. I don't know how old I am."

The rock station suddenly started buzzing, until it cut out completely.

The Punk-Girl glared at the radio, "Argh, Damn it! Must be out of range."

She started to tune the radio, looking for another channel.

"Look, um… I never got your na-" Percy began, but was cut off.

"Look, I understand you're new to this an all, and it must be a lot to take in… but I just need to be alone right now."

The Punk-Girl suddenly looked very tired, and Percy realised he'd probably asked too many questions, plus being an ex-tree sounded really distressing.

So, he obliged.

Percy had gone to Grover's Lamborghini, but found him sleeping in the back, so Percy had sat in the driver's seat.

He'd never really been obsessed with fast cars or anything, and this car in particular just seemed a little… much. It was just far too impractical. It all ways surprised him that people would spend half a million dollars on a car when they could have one for just a couple thousand.

He went to look out the opposite window, but suddenly found himself face to face with the man from the trashcan fire.

"Gah! What the hell!"

He held a finger to his lips. "We wouldn't want to wake up your friend back there."

Percy glared at him. "Who… no, what are you?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Me, oh I'm nobody. Call me Fred. Now, I just wanted to talk to you. You're the clear sighted one yeah?"

"That's what the others keep calling me, so I guess so."

"You know, I've been watching your progress, and there's something about you that I like. You've got, what do they call it these days? Spunk? Let's go with spunk. Anyway, your friends, they're all on this quest for their own reason, even though the main point is to rescue my little sister…"

"Wait your sister?" Percy suddenly realised what exactly the aura this guy had was. "You're a god."

"Ah, you're smart one. Yep, but don't say my name, I'm incognito."

"I don't know any of their names, so that won't be a problem. Also, don't expect me to kneel or whatever. I'm not praying either. "

The god raised an eyebrow. "Wow, you are a mean little dude. Anyway, back on topic, they all have their reasons, but what's yours? "

Percy wasn't expecting that question, and he didn't quite know how to answer it. He decided to change the subject.

"Look, Fred, if you're a god, you can help us can't you?"

"Already am. You've got this train, courtesy of the deity of awesomeness."

"Ah, right then. Do you know where this Artemis is?"

"If I knew, don't you think I would've told you already? I'm supposed to be able to see things, and I can… but she's clouded from me. But there is something I can see. One thing you don't know about this quest, they're also here to hunt a monster. One that has the power to kill all the gods. Maybe even me, though I see that as a bit of a stretch."

"So, you can see were this monster is then?"

"Yes, and I want you tell my sisters lieutenant something… stop looking for it, because the Titans already have it… or at least they will, very shortly."

"Um, who's-"

"She'd be 'Ye-Olde-Hunter-Girl.'"

Percy recoiled. "What! Can you read my mind or something?"

He checked a watch he didn't have. "Ah, look at the time! Sorry Percy, I've got to go. I can't risk appearing in person to you again. You'll need some sleep bro."

Before Percy could protest, the god clicked his fingers and suddenly he found himself getting very tired, very quickly.

The last thing he heard before he went to sleep was the god's voice. "Hmm… the first male Oracle, could that even-"

Percy's dream was more like a flash of sounds and images than an actual dream.

He saw a blonde haired girl crouched on the ground, holding up a pillar of darkness, and a guy who looked around twenty with his back to her.

Try not to die.

He saw a giant bronze foot crashing down onto the ground.

The least image he saw, the Punk-Girl standing at some kind of altar. The body of some kind of cow-serpent hybrid lying on it motions. The Punk-Girl was holding a bloody knife, and her eyes… were solid glowing purple light.

And the worst part of all…

She was smiling.

Percy woke to someone shaking him. He started awake and shoved the arm away.

"Hey!"

He looked over to see the Punk-Girl standing there. "The trains stopped okay, we gotta get off here. Make sure you bring Grover." And with that she walked off.

Percy thought about the dream he had, and her in it.

What in hell just happened?