Once again, welcome back! I'm not going to lie, I wrote this on my iPod again, but that was simply because my computer died.

Whaddya (not a real word (find your happy place, find your happy place (I hate bad grammar.))) know! The disclaimer is here already.

I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or any of the characters in this story. I only own the cover art.

Megan couldn't see anything after a few minutes. Staring at a fire can do that sort of thing to you. It burns your eyes and blinds you. Megan couldn't hear much anymore either. She'd been sitting too close to the fire, trying to soak in as much warmth as possible in the dreary rain. The constant cackling of the fire deafened her. The air tasted like smoke; it smelled like it too. Megan say back after awhile. When the smoke had begun to limit her breathing, she moved back and sat in the rain. She became drenched; she had been dry before due to the fire evaporating each droplet shortly after it touched her. In the back of her mind, she registered that it probably wasn't safe clouding her senses like she was, but she really didn't care. Kelby and Bethany were still fully aware of their surroundings, as far as she knew. They would warn her.

Cam, Amy, and Amanda slowly trekked up the trail. They had seen a fire been lit not too far up the mountain, and they decided to check it out. They were hoping that it was their friends, because, as Amy put it, "This wild goose chase has been going on for long enough." Cam was muttering underneath her breath, though still loud enough for the other two to hear, "Why, why of all places did they have to chose a mountain? And if the climbing wasn't enough, the rain is drenching everything within a 20 mile radius!" Amanda was the one to point out some of her flawed logic, "First of all, were not climbing. We're walking uphill. Second of all, the rain wasn't their fault. I hear this place is usually sunny." Amy was the one to mutter this time, "Who'd you learn that from? The weatherman?" Amanda looked at her, "Now two comments for you. First, the weatherman, isn't always wrong. Second, we can't have foul attitudes on a quest! If we do, we might form small rifts between us, and if that happens, we have less of a chance of surviving. I know we haven't been attacked by many monsters-" Cam interrupted her by saying, "Three. We've been attacked by three monsters. An empousae, another empousae, and a third empousae. All on the same day which leads me to believe that-" Amy interrupted her, "And there was that weird fox. And the rabid chipmunk that was scavenging around Bethany, Kelby, and Megan's First campsite." Cam sighed and said, "Fine, counting the weird fox, and that disgusting chipmunk-" "It was not disgusting! It just had rabies!" Amy shouted back at her. Amanda almost screamed at the sky in frustration. Almost. She wasn't quite there yet.

"Megan! Megan!" Bethany was shaking Megan and whispering her name loudly. Megan blinked, coming to focus. She looked around her quickly and asked, "What's wrong?" Bethany nodded to the trees in one direction, then ran in that direction. Megan scrambled up and chase after her. After they were concealed by the trees, though they could still see their campfire, Megan asked, "What's going on?" Kelby, coming seemingly out of nowhere, said, "Someone was coming, fast." Megan whispered, "Who?" Now mildly startled, she peered at the clearing where they fire was just beginning to flicker out. In the fading light of the fire, she could see three people that looked around 15 and 17. One girl with seemingly black hair stopped and the other two followed suit. She said, "Was this the fire we saw?" She walked over to the edge, close enough that Megan could have sworn she should've fallen off. After surveying the area, she nodded, "This is the fire. But where's the people go? We didn't scare them off did we?" Megan had the sudden urge to scream, "Yes! Yes, you did!" She ignored the urge and continued watching.

The boy among the group said, "Emblem, get away from the edge. Any gust, gale, or breeze could knock you over and down the mountain there." Emblem replied, "Aw, but it's so pretty." However, she listened to the boy and backed away from her precarious perch. The boy let out a visible sigh in relief. Just then the third of the figures, a girl with seemingly dark brown, said, "They probably fled. They heard us coming," she glared at Emblem, "and ran. Why? I don't know." A glint in the girl's eyes told otherwise. Megan looked her up and down. In the faint light that was provided by the fire, along with the moon, she tried to grasp where she had seen this girl before. She, as stated before, had seemingly dark brown hair, gothic-hellenistic armor, and her drawn sword was golden and had something inscribed in it. Megan had been trying to make out the words, which were blurred due to the lack of proper lighting, the distance from Megan, and Megan's dyslexia, when she heard Bethany gasp. As both Kelby and Megan turned to her, she whispered in a voice so quiet she barely heard herself, "It's her."

Amy could see them through the trees. There were three figures, two girls and one boy. Each had a golden sword drawn. Not really daring to approach them, she pointed out them to her two quest mates, who simply nodded. Amazing glanced back at them, and began to eavesdrop. The boy was looking at one of the girls ad saying, "Don't glare at Emblem, she couldn't help that she wanted to talk to a," he struck a pose, "dashing man as me." Lila looked quite agitated and said, "She could have refrained herself from talking loud enough to wake up Connecticut. Besides, I don't see how your so, as you say, dashing. I see a son of Mars who is a little too full of himself and is a little too fond of cookies." Amy doubted her hearing for a moment. Was there another set of Roman demigods running around the Appalachian Mountains? And did the first set know that they were there?

The boy countered Lila's comments, "Cookies are never a bad thing! And besides, who wouldn't find Mike Cillian, Thrid Cohort, son of Mars unattractive?" He struck another pose. The other girl, Emblem?, laughed and said, "Apparently Lila." Mike looked rather dejected for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure. He looked at Lila, "Well, Lil' Lila here is cruel and cold blooded enough to be a murderer." He smiled at his joke, but someone hiding nearby in the trees did not.

So, yeah. That was it. Things get more seriously messed up next chapter. I finished this at 9:42 PM last night exactly, so please, don't be mad that I posted it late. Either way, I'm going to graduate from my school on Tuesday! It's gonna be so sad!

Bye now!