The thermos of winds made a rainbow from the sea mist which was perfect for an Iris message. Though the connection was poor, Percy and Annabeth managed to tell Chiron everything that had happened aboard the Princess Andromeda. They told him about sneaking away from camp to help Grover and find the Golden Fleece. They also made sure to tell him about the golden box that held the remains of Kronos, but between the music on Chiron's end and the roar of their boat, Percy wasn't sure how much Chiron had heard. Percy mentioned Artie aboard the ship. But before Chiron could answer, something flew into the Iris message which severed the connection.

"Well," said Percy. "Looks like we're on our own."

"Looks that way." agreed Annabeth.

"So is Artie a friend?" asked Tyson innocently.

Percy looked at Annabeth. "Good question."

"What?"

"You know him better than Tyson or me." Percy pointed out. "You gotta know something. Something that help us know if he is on our side or Luke's."

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know any more than you do. Everything I told you about him when we first met was all anyone knew about him. Luke wasn't just being clever when he nicked named Mister E."

Percy held his temper in check at the mention of Luke, "So we have to wait till he wakes up."

Annabeth nodded. "I remember Chiron did say one thing when we learned about Luke's plan. He was whispering to Mr.D, I'm not even sure what he meant exactly. He could have meant something else entirely or maybe someone else."

"Annabeth!"

She shook her head. "Sorry. He said if anyone had ever an axe to grind against the gods, Artie would."

Percy seemed surprised by that. "What do you mean?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I still don't know but when I asked him, All Chiron said was, Artie has a complicated past like many demigods, some would argue more than most."

"So he might be helping Luke," guessed Percy. "That can't be good."

"But he was in disguise." Annabeth defended. "He helped us escape."

"You got a point there." Percy admitted. "We'll just have to ask him when he wakes up."

Tyson tapped Percy shoulder and pointed to boat behind them, "Other boat is coming."

Annabeth looked and saw its lights were flashing and gaining speed. "We can't let them catch us. They'll ask too many questions." Annabeth looked around and pointed. "Keep going into Chesapeake bay, I know a place we can hide."

The coastguard boat shrank and was completely gone as Annabeth lead them to and down the mouth of a river. They veered into a swampy area choked with marsh grass. They beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress and unloaded their duffel bags. Together Percy and Annabeth struggled to pull Artie off the boat. Despite Artie lacking body of a wrestler, he was surprisingly heavy.

"Forget this." Said Annabeth before stomping to a low hanging branch.

Tyson leaned over to Percy, "What is she doing?"

"No idea." said Percy.

Annabeth knelt and picked up thin dead branch. She smiled and walked over to Artie. She knelt again, this time behind Artie, and snapped the branch loudly next to his ear. Instantly Artie shot to his feet, tripping over an upraised root and went down face first into the river. As Artie came up sputtering, Percy and Tyson could not help laughing and even Annabeth grinned at the spectacle.

"Whats so funny?" Artie demanded as he stepped out of the river.

"Sorry Artie." said Annabeth. "I didn't plan on that."

"Still it was kinda funny." Percy chuckled.

"You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little slow up maybe," Artie walked up to Percy, looking pretty mad. " But I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to amuse you? What do you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?"

Percy looked taken aback. "Just . . . you know, how tripped and fell into the water. What?"

Artie pushed his wet hair back. "No, no, I don't know, you said it. How do I know? You said I'm funny. How am I funny? What is so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what's funny!"

Percy gave him a long silence before he smiled and chuckled. "Get outta here Artie."

Percy and Artie nearly doubled over laughing, "I wonder about you sometimes, Percy. You may fold under questioning. "

Tyson cocked his head, "I don't understand."

"Artie here like to quote movies," Annabeth explained.

Artie wiped a tear, "And that little scene was the crime drama masterpiece, Goodfellas. Directed by Martin Scorsese in 1990." he turned to Percy. "And here I never thought you even knew what movies were."

"Never saw it." admitted Percy, "Just saw a piece of it on TV once."

Artie feigned disappoint and shook his head, "Por que eu tente?"

A screech pierced the sky as Tobias dropped a bronze tube with a leather strap. Artie held up the quiver and smiled as Tobias perched on a low branch. Artie set the quiver down and took off the silver ring from his necklace. He licked his left index finger and slipped on the ring. He opened the bow and pulled the string back several times. He threw on his quiver and drew an arrow. He fired into a tree and out fell a dead squirrel which Tobias scooped up and began tearing at it with gusto.

"And I thought I might be rusty." commented Artie. "Well it was only three days."

"So what were you doing on that ship?" asked Annabeth.

"I could ask you guys the same thing." countered Artie. "And with a cyclops of all things."

"Leave Tyson out of this." said Percy.

"Alright." said Artie. "I'll start from the beginning."

In a few short minute Artie told them everything. How he was mistaken for a runaway half blood and was taken aboard. He also explained how he managed to fake his death and regain entry as an Irish demigod in America on vacation. He had planned on worming his way into Luke's inner circle and had been hard at it for three days when they crashed the party. In return they told him about Thalia's tree being poisoned and Grover captured by Polyphemus.

"You guys could do with a lesson from the Hermes cabin on sneaking around." Artie pointed out.

"So you weren't helping Luke" asked Percy. "You were trying to find out what he was planning."

"Yeah, but Luke was having hard time trusting me." Artie explained. "All I know that a day or two something big happened. I was in the middle of finding out what when I heard you guys were brought to Luke this morning."

"I don't buy it." said Annabeth. "You spent two months with Luke after you got to camp. He taught how to read and write English as well as Greek, and he didn't even think to question you wearing sunglasses the whole time."

Artie shrugged. "I thought about that too. But I swear on the Styx, I was not planning nor do I plan on helping Luke."

Thunder boomed at his words.

Annabeth relaxed, "Alright that settles that. Come on, I know a place we can - - -"

"Nobody move." In less than a second Artie had an arrow drawn and aimed at Annabeth. "I don't want to miss."

Annabeth and Tyson became statues, only Percy dared move. His hand drifted to his hand were he kept Riptide. He was sure he could disarm Artie before he loosed the arrow, but he was wrong. He saw everything in slow motion as Artie fired and the arrow sliced the air just over Annabeth's shoulder. The arrow landed in the tree with a solid thunk. Artie collapsed the bow and walked over to the arrow and examined it. He plucked something off the arrow's shaft.

Percy drew Riptide. "What was that about?"

Artie ignored him, but spoke to Annabeth. "You weren't kidding about these finding you within a mile. And she's usually not an aggressive type."

Annabeth rubbed her shoulder and walked over. "You have two seconds to t-to-t-t-t-"

In Artie's hand was half of a spider. "Latrodectus mactan. Though most know her as the Southern Black Widow."

Annabeth pulled at her collar and stared at her shoulder, "Did it . . ."

Artie shook his head, "Another half second and we'd have to rush you to a hospital. Better let me lead the way, just give me directions. No offense but all of you are out your element."

Annabeth nodded shakily, "Okay."

"First things first." said Artie as he drew his knife and sliced off the sleeves of his shirt. "I've been uncomfortable for far too long." He then sliced his jeans and he was wearing shorts. "Alright lets get going." he said as he kicked off the boots.

After the three near death experiences in less than half an hour, Percy quickly understood what Artie meant by being out of his element. For example, he would let certain kinds of snakes pass by while he picked up others and gently tossed them out of their way. As far as Percy could tell, they were the same and made the mistake of bringing up.

Artie scooped up a snake and held its head firmly. He showed it to them. "This is a coral snake. Highly venomous and dangerous." he tossed it and picked up another. "Now this is a Scarlet Kingsnake, completely harmless as well as the Scarlet Snake. Its the coloring that gives it away."

"How do you remember which is which?" asked Annabeth.

"Thought I doubt you ever wanna get close enough to look." Artie held it up again. "Just remember this, If red touches yellow, it can kill a fellow, but If red touches black, it is a friend of Jack."

Artie continued forging ahead always taking Annabeth's directions. They came to another river and Artie held up a hand to stop. He walked to the river bank and looked both up and down river. He examined the mud and cursed. He walked back and looked annoyed. Percy could understand his mood. They had been walking for a little over an hour. It was hot and muggy, and steam curled out of the river only adding to the humidity. Basically it wasn't New York City and Percy didn't particularly like that every little thing out could kill him, and that didn't even count the possibility of a monster ambush.

Artie pointed the river behind him with his thumb, "You sure its that way?"

Annabeth nodded firmly, "Yeah, then we're almost there."

"Whats the problem?" asked Percy, sounding annoyed and tired.

"We need to find another place to cross." said Artie. "The water isn't safe."

Percy began walking to river,"We'll be fine. Son of Poseidon remember?"

Percy made it about knee deep when he understood what Artie meant about the river not being safe. This understanding came in the form of a six foot long two-hundred pound alligator. Percy managed dive out of the water as it jaws snapped shut the air he had just occupied. Without a second's hesitation, Percy ran back to his friends, alligator giving chase onto land. Three arrows landed inches from the alligator's snout, causing it to snap its jaws defiantly. Artie responded by nocking and aiming another arrow right between its eyes. Artie held the arrow until the gator turned around, returned the the water, and disappeared down river. Artie turned to a panting Percy who was being examined by Tyson and Annabeth. He couldn't blame him for his reaction, he was simply learning what he had known almost all his life. Humans were not the top of the food chain, no matter what they thought.

With the alligator gone, they quickly forded the river and came to a patch of brambles. Annabeth then moved a few branches like a door and they it was a camouflaged shelter. The inside was just big enough for four without being crowded. Artie couldn't helped be impressed by the shelter. The walls were woven from vines and branches as was the roof, making it sure any heat would stay inside and Artie was sure it was waterproofed against rain as well. In the corner he spotted supplies he would have killed for his first few months in the jungles of Brazil. Three sleeping bags were stacked on top of each other next to an empty ice chest. Artie could also smell the faint smell of kerosene from the old looking lantern. There were also demigod provisions in the opposite corner. There were bronze javelin tips sitting on a dust box of ambrosia with a quiver of arrows leaning against it and a spare sword laying next to the quiver. Even to Percy, the place smelled musty, like this place hadn't been used in some time.

"A half blood hideout!" exclaimed Percy.

"Looks like it." agreed Artie.

Percy looked at Annabeth in awe. "You built this?"

"Thalia and I." she said quietly. "And Luke."

Artie pricked up at that. "Won't Luke think to check this place?"

Annabeth shook her head. "We built dozens of these safe houses. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are or cares."

Artie wanted to press Annabeth for more information. These safe houses could prove useful. A map with all the locations marked alone would be a godsend. He might even add on to them by bringing and storing more provisions. He was half second away from asking when she threw herself down on the floor and began going through her duffel bag Hermes had provided. Artie had plenty of experience reading body language and moods, not much of a choice since a slight twitch was all the warning he had before he was torn to shreds. With her back to him and Percy and her hunched shoulders, Artie did not need any more indication that Annabeth was not in a talkative mood.

Percy must have guess the same, "Um, Tyson? Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a convenience store or something?"

Tyson cocked his head, "Convenience store?"

"Yeah, for snacks. Powdered donuts or something. Just don't go to far."

Artie took the hint and clamped Tyson on the shoulder, "Come on big guy. I'll help you out."

Though Artie wouldn't admit it, he had a hard time trusting Tyson. He had run into cyclopes before and none of them had left him with pleasant memories. He did sense something different about Tyson, almost a non violent aura if he had to put it into words. He reminded Artie of small kid, good natured and maybe a little naive. Still if Percy trusted him, then the least Artie could do was give him the benefit of the doubt. As they walked, Artie thought he could break the ice with a little small talk.

"So, you're a son of Poseidon?" he asked nonchalantly.

Tyson nodded enthusiastically, "Yes."

"Which would make you Percy's half brother, right?"

More nodding from Tyson, "Yes, Percy's daddy is my daddy. Percy said you were son of Artemis?"

Artie nodded once, "Yeah, the one and probably only."

"How it happen? Artemis swore on Styx to be maiden forever right?"

Artie was spared the effort of avoiding the question when the wind blew past them, carrying a sweet scent of pastries. Artie sniffed the air several times, trying to locate the source. Tyson joined in after a moment as he caught the scent a moment later.

"You smell it too?" Artie asked.

"Yes." Tyson answered. "Smells like donuts."

Artie frowned, "But its too strong, the nearest town has to be at least five miles from here. Where do you think its coming from?"

Tyson sniffed the air and pointed north, "I think its coming from there."

They walked past a tree and saw it. The building looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a small parking lot, and a little road leading our to the forest. Artie looked around and saw nothing. Only a single employee standing behind a cash register, reading a newspaper. His eyes drifted to the sign over the door which had letters so big, even he could read with his dyslexia. He smiled slightly at the cartoon ogre taking a bite out of all the O's which were all made to look like donuts.

"Monster Donuts" he read aloud.

"Yes." agreed Tyson.

"Why don't you go check it out?" Artie suggested.

"Me?"

"It says Monster Donuts," he pointed out. "It might mean only monsters are allowed inside or might just be a name. Either way, I doubt you'll get any trouble."

"Oh . . . okay." said Tyson and began walking.

Artie spotted something and quickly stopped Tyson, "Hold on there big guy."

"What? See bad monsters?"

Artie handed Tyson five dollars, "See if they have any Brazilian blends. If they do, get me a large. Two sugars."

Tyson took the bill. "Large Brazil blend with two sugars."

Artie nodded, "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get real Brazilian coffee in this country."