Chapter 6- We All Lose Something

Max's P.O.V.

I couldn't see a thing. The smoke was too thick. My only connection to anything was Fang's hand gripping my shoulder. He'd put it there when Ari appeared. I was about to call for a report, when Angel's voice popped up in my mind.

Max. Max they're taking her to Death Va-Her voice was suddenly cut off. A chill ran down my spine. The fog started to dissipate, albeit slowly.

"Flock," I bellowed, "report, NOW!"

"Right here Max," Fang said into my ear.

"Here Max," I heard from Nage, Iggy, and Gazzy.

I started to feel sick to my stomach. Angel didn't report.

"Angel," I screamed. Still no answer. "Angel sweetie, come on, report!" Nothing. "ANGEL!"

Fang wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into him. Angel was gone. Again. Crap. The fog was still clearing, and now I could make out a hazy outline of someone else.

"Annabeth, are you okay?" A boy. Most likely the one from before. "Annabeth, where are you" now he sounded worried. I remembered what Angel had mind-spoken to me. They're taking her to Death Va-. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"ANNABETH!" The boy had realized that the girl wasn't going to answer. It was the most anguish filled cry that I'd ever heard. And it was followed by a string of curses in a language that I'd never heard before. That girl obviously meant the world to him.

The smoke had completely cleared out now, and I could see the boy clearly now. In the confusion of the battle, I hadn't gotten a good look at him. He was tall and tan, well muscled, with untidy black hair and sea-green eyes.

He seemed to remember that he wasn't alone, and pulled himself together. He turned to the flock. Iggy seemed in shock, while Gazzy and Nudge had tears running down their faces. I figured that Fang's face looked as unreadable as ever. I didn't know what the heck my face looked like.

"Hi," he said with a forced smile. "I'm Percy. Is anybody seriously hurt?"

The flock did a systems check. Some scratches a couple bloody noses, bruises, and Nudge had a split lip, but nothing serious. I introduced the flock. Normally I wouldn't have given our names so freely, but this guy and the girl had helped us with Erasers, and the girl had been taken by them so i thought we owed it to him.

Percy nodded. " the other girl, the little blond one. I take it that these wolf things took her too?"

I nodded.

He let out a breath. "So… here's the thing. I need some answers, and unless my intuition is lying to me, you guys have them, and that this isn't the first time something similar to this has happened to you. Am I right?"

We nodded.

"And you are probably wondering about me too."

We nodded again.

"I need to contact a friend in a minute, and if you come with me, we can satisfy our mutual curiosity in a safe place to recuperate and then track down and rescue our friends. I think that we can help each other."

I hesitated. It's not in my nature to trust people, and the first thing I wanted to do was to go rescue Angel. But this Percy and the girl, Annabeth had risked their lives to help us out. I sensed that Percy was telling the truth. I looked to the rest of the flock and they nodded.

"Allright."

Percy gave a slight smile, then closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate hard on something. He opened his eyes and said, "Now for transportation." this was followed by an ear splitting taxicab whistle.

At the edge of the clearing a shadow rippled and a giant black mastiff appeared. By giant, I don't mean big dog giant, I mean bigger than a tank giant. Percy walked up to it and scratched it behind the ears.

"Guys, this is Mrs. O'Leary, the world's only friendly hellhound and our ride to camp. Hop on."

Stunned, we obeyed. Percy climbed up on front, and whispered something into Mrs. O'Leary's ear. She ran straight into a shadow.