Quest of the Third

xStarletx

A/N: Here we are Chapter 3. What do you guys think of it so far? Chapter 4 will be coming up soonish, If I get a few more reviews =P. For you Luke fans, he does make an appearance today so Look out for that!

Chapter 3: I Get Eaten By a Tree

It was when we were speeding away from Luke's evil hide out, a cruise ship named the Princess Andromeda, where I had very nearly gotten eaten by big half bear people, I realized that I had met Clarynda before and maybe that was how she knew me. When the girl with mossy green hair that had been the main cause to the destruction of the Ares house had introduced herself to us, and I had been so busy trying to think of a way to escape that I didn't quite recognize her straight away.

The first time I had met her, I was maybe three, she may have been four or five. I had a big bully towering over me with crooked yellow fangs, but he ran away from me when she came over with her reddish brown puppy. Then there was the time my mom and I were at Lake Montauk, she had come to play with me. I remember because I had just gotten interested in girls, so I guess I was probably around ten or eleven and my mom yelled at her until she broke out in these huge dewdrop like tears and ran away. My mom made us leave and with an hour a freak tornado hit our stretch of the beach.

When I first recognized her as the girl being chased by the Hellhound I thought she was one of Luke's minions. Sort of made sense, it would explain why she had gotten me in so much trouble, maybe she was some sort of green haired revenge package. But I quickly realized that she was way to perky, she ran to me screaming my name on the top of her lungs and enveloped me in the biggest hug I had ever gotten. She then introduced herself with a bubbling personality, flipping her hair back and forth and she was happy to be talking to other demi-gods. Annabeth had jumped on the name immediately, obviously she had heard of Clarynda too. The next thing I knew Luke had Orieus hauling her over his shoulder and taking her – kicking and screaming – into her room, not before she managed to push us off of the boat.

The fact that she had pushed us overboard and that our escape seemed so easy that it just had to be some sort of trick definitely made us more wary of her, and Annabeth definitely agreed. After a sometime of drifting I turned to Annabeth.

"How do you know Clarynda?" I asked her. She sighed softly as if the memory made her sad.

"Thalia and Luke told me all about her. She was a friend of theirs. She's a demigod too, obviously, her mother's Demeter." She told me. I mumbled something about that explaining the trees saving her and the shrub randomly appearing and disappearing and Annabeth laughed.

"Yep, it sure does make sense now. She got called back for something before they found me, and she never came back. I could tell Luke missed her, and after Thalia died, he would sometimes blame her for what happened. Thalia always said that she and Clarynda were best friends, but on that hill, when Thalia called for her, Clarynda never came." Annabeth finished. I took the sad story in, Clarynda seemed pretty airheaded maybe she forgot, I knew better than to say that out loud though.

When we finally found land, we found out that we had somehow been lapped by the Princess Andromeda. But when we got closer to them we saw that it was having problems of their own. I figured Clarynda must have gotten angry with Luke after he had her banished to her room, for the hull had been lifted clear out of the water by the branches of ten or more trees near to the shore. It seemed they had just all lunged forward and grabbed the boat. I could see leaves sticking out of several port holes and the captain could no longer fit into the command box.

I could make out several minions caught in the tree's grasp, struggling to get free to no avail. One of those was Luke, who seemed to be tied to a tree that had grown out of nowhere, no doubt Clarynda's work. He was screaming for her, over and over again, his voice wailing, echoing over the water and into the trees. She didn't answer, evidentially she had gotten away. Annabeth had us anchor closer to shore underneath the branches of a tall willow tree. She led us through the bushes, in case Luke sent out scouts to look for Clarynda, in moments we found what looked to be a normal tree, but she lifted up a flap I would have sworn was bark and ushered us inside.

Once inside I could see that it was a hide out, and clearly already inhabited. Clarynda was sucking down a bit of Ambrosia when she turned to look at us. Annabeth was on her a second.

"What are you doing here? How did you know it was here?" She cried, she jabbed at Clarynda who cried out and backed away. I heard the tree give a loud lurch, as if it were a warning.

"It's a tree, you idiot. Why do you think Thalia always chose a tree for a hide out?" Clarynda countered. Annabeth paused and stared at Clarynda for a moment.

"I don't know." She murmured. It was odd for Annabeth to say something like that, it shocked me a little.

"Then stop being all defensive!" Clarynda demanded. I foresaw this ending horribly, I turned to Tyson who was whimpering behind me. I handed him the last of our cash.

"Go find us something to eat." I ordered, he was happy to get out of the stuffy room before Annabeth went off on poor Clarynda, but I needed to stay to break up the fight that would no doubt ensue. Sure enough I saw Annabeth's grip tightening on her bronze dagger.

"Tell me or I'll kill you." Annabeth snarled, she pointed her dagger at her. Clarynda merely looked up at her with those bright brown eyes, and then they narrowed dangerously. And for the first time I was actually scared of her. Her eyes quickly changed from the bright brown to a dark black and then back again and the next thing I knew vines had shot out from the hollowed bark and had grabbed Annabeth. They forced her back until she was tied to the wall. Clarynda stood to address her, a dangerous and yet serious look on her face. And here I was thinking that Clarynda only had one emotion – Perky.

"Thalia knew that as long as she was in a tree she was safe. It's why whenever you're in a hideout tree, it feels like you've been wrapped up in the warmest of hugs." Clarynda replied. She sighed just thinking about it, I realized that she was right. I had felt at peace and oddly more upbeat since I had walked in here.

"I don't understand, you were never there!" Annabeth accused, the vines tightened around her knife wrist as she tried to wiggle it free. Clarynda either chose not to notice or didn't care.

"Just because you couldn't see me didn't mean I wasn't there. She knew I was one with the trees. It wasn't a coincidence that you found hollowed trees everywhere you went, that was me. Giving you guys a place to rest. It's hard work being in charge of so many lives."Clarynda sighed. I wondered what she meant? Did she see trees as people? I supposed she did. Clarynda waved her hand, and the vines dropped Annabeth, I was worried she'd try for revenge but she didn't move.

"Where were you when Thalia died? She called for you." Annabeth blamed. For the first time since I met her, Clarynda looked sad. I felt my heart break just by looking at her sad brown eyes.

"I did hear her and I helped her. It just wasn't as noticeable that's all." Clarynda admitted.

"What are you talking about you did nothing!" Annabeth accused. Clarynda looked as if she were about to cry.

"I took her soul to Eden!" Clarynda admitted, she acted as if she had just spilt the deepest of secrets.

"Than what's guarding our camp?" I asked. I immediately regretted it for once those brown eyes turned on me I felt as if my entire mind and soul were being turned inside out by the mere gaze. She regarded me quietly as if she was taking in my thoughts and my inner most desires, and then she flashed me one of her smiles. But for some reason I didn't feel any more comfortable until she broke eye contact and when she did I realized I had been holding my breath.

"An essence, a part of her being, but I took her soul… but you have to keep it a secret Zeus will be total not cool about this if he finds out. But I had to! He was going to turn her into a PINE TREE! She hated pine trees! They were always so sticky, she liked oaks." Clarynda confided. Annabeth and I exchanged glances, if she was speaking the truth then she had done a pretty bad thing. Zeus would no doubt attempt to kill her if he found out the truth… and anyone else who had known… just great.

Annabeth looked like she was going say something more but Tyson showed up carry a bag of donuts.

"Where did you get these?" I asked him.

"The Monster-O." He replied munching on a donut. Annabeth and I decided to go and check it out, Clarynda stopped me.

"You should come with me, it will be safer." Clarynda warned me, but I decided to go with Annabeth instead. Before we left though I saw Clarynda turn back to a tree and was enveloped in branches and then disappeared completely and I have to say, that was pretty creepy.

The Monster-O turned out to be a nest of monsters, where we found a hydra sniffing for us. We tried to fight it off but if we cut a head off two more grew, it was definitely a losing battle. That is it was until an ancient liner appeared and started blasting cannonballs at us.

Out of nowhere a branch whipped out and grabbed me. It pulled me up into the air and I saw that a cannonball bounced off the ground I was just standing on. I looked back and I saw the branches coming towards me. They wrapped around me and then suddenly I was being compressed and sliding down a wooden slide, almost like I was being swallowed by a tree.

When I landed I could tell I was with someone and it was really dark. When my eyes adjusted to the dark I realized I was pressed against Clarynda.

"If you had just listened to me this wouldn't have happened." She scolded me. I could hear the muffled sound of the fight, the hydra's dying cries. Then Annabeth and Tyson were calling my name. I felt so warm and it wasn't just from the close proximity to Clarynda.

"Are we in the tree?" I asked her. Clarynda nodded. I suddenly realized why Thalia chose trees as their hiding spots.

"Percy please! Where are you?" Annabeth cried, she must have been standing close to the tree, I could really hear the panic and desperation in her voice. Clarynda snapped her fingers and I was being pushed out. I found myself sprawling off the tree branch landing on top of Tyson where as Clarynda merely stepped off branch as it lowered her to the ground. I looked up and found myself looking at Clarisse's ugly shoes. I quickly picked myself up to glare at her.

"Well, well Jackson. I guess I'll be saving your life." She taunted. I glanced at the dead hydra and remembered the cannonball barely missing me.

"Uh… no Clarynda did." I argued pointing the green haired freak behind me. She was twirling her hair between her fingers causing a flower to bloom from the tip of her hair, for some reason I wasn't the least bit surprised.

"Whoa, what a hippy!" Clarissa crowed laughing at her. For some reason I was suddenly very defensive.

"Peace, love and flower power." Clarynda suddenly sung twirling around in a melodic way flowers sprouting around her in a ring of sorts. I scowled, she wasn't helping me at all right now. What a great time for Clarynda to suddenly become vapid again.

"Well get on then." Clarisse ordered. I went to board and realized Clarynda wasn't following us. She looked terrified.

"Not another boat." She whispered backing away from us. "Can I stay here with my trees please?"

Annabeth pushed her so hard she flew over the railing. She would have hit the metal deck very hard had the branches from the closest tree not chased after her and plucked her out of mid air. The branches then set her down very carefully on the metal boat. A second branch handed her a small stick she smiled as she accepted it and thanked them.

"You are positively unrighteous!" Clarynda cried, turning to face Annabeth. She clutched the stick to her chest and then huffed away from the group. I couldn't help but laugh, it was the funniest thing I had seen that day.

Here we are, how was this? Did you guys like it? Reivew tell me what you thinks gonna happen and what's going on with Clarynda... like what a bimbo... lol i love writing her.

Percy - 2