As I promised, I'm updating. This chapter is shorter than the last one, and it's kind of boring, but the next chapter will be better, I promise.

Thanks to my reviewers: ILoveWillRiker and Awesomejoyce! Thanks guys!

Please review. I would like to hear what you think of my story. Enjoy!

Thalia's POV

Once we got Annabeth in the warehouse, I quickly looked over her to see how bad she was.

She had scratches covering her chin and her hands. Her clothes were thin and faded, covered in a layer of dried mud. There were twigs and mud in her blond hair, which was falling out of a high ponytail. Her forehead was caked in mud and there was a deep cut on her left arm. Worst of all, her ribs were showing through her shirt. How she survived without food, I don't know.

She started looking at my half eaten sandwich abandoned on my sleeping bag. I picked it up and handed it to her. "Here, have this, you need it." I told her.

She took it like it was gold. She ate it quickly and smiled up at me. "Thanks," she whispered.

"You're welcome, if you want more, there over there." I said, pointing to the pile of sandwiches on Luke's sleeping bag.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking at the sandwiches in awe.

"Of course, there's more where that came from," I answered. I handed her another sandwich. "Oh, and you can clean up later, if you want."

"Really?" Annabeth said, after she had swallowed a bite of the sandwich.

"Yup, we found a few bottles of shampoo when we looked through these supplies," I told her, as I held up a bottle of shampoo for her to see.

Her jaw dropped. "Thank you, Thalia!" She smiled at me, which made it all worthwhile.

"You sure are hungry, aren't you?" Luke asked as he sat down next to me. Annabeth was on her third sandwich.

She nodded, because her mouth was too full to say anything.

He turned towards me. "I'm going to pack the rest of the sandwiches after she's done and we can go get her cleaned up, Ok?"

"Ok," I agreed.

As I waited for Annabeth to finish eating, Luke got up to get his backpack from outside. I followed him.

"She's cute, huh?" I asked him, smiling.

He smiled. "Yeah, she is." Then he smirked. "I never, ever thought that I would hear you say the word cute."

"Oh, shut up." I told him, but I couldn't help but smile. It was true, but I did seem to be more emotional lately. I hated it.

"Hey, it's true!" Luke said defensively. I couldn't really argue with that.

He smirked again, guessing what I was thinking. I glared at him.

"Oh, shut up." I repeated. "Come on, let's go clean up Annabeth. There's a cut on her arm that looks nasty." I told him.

He followed me inside.

When we walked in, Annabeth looked up at Luke and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry I ate your sandwiches."

"Nah, it's good. You needed them, but don't eat too much at one time; you'll get a bad stomach ache." Luke told her.

"Now let's get you cleaned up, kiddo," I said playfully, ruffling her hair. She laughed and smiled up at me.

"Come on now, this way," Luke said from outside the door. I led Annabeth out the door.

Once we reached the pool showers, Luke pushed the gate open. He looked behind him.

"You guys coming?" He asked, leaning against the fence.

"Yeah, just wait a minute," I grumbled after Annabeth had run through the gate in her excitement.

I noticed that he was looking around, like he was watching for something. Oh, of course, monsters. How could I forget? He remembered that it wasn't always going to be this easy, that we weren't always going to catch a break like we did now. I couldn't forget that, no matter how tempting it got. I had to remember that we were demigods on the run, and that monsters would try to kill us with every chance they got.

They came close to killing me just a day and a half ago. I had tried to keep my mind off my shoulder, but it still hurt every now and then, especially when I moved it too quickly.

"Might as well enjoy this moment of peace while it lasts," I told Luke, as we followed Annabeth to the bathroom.

"Yeah, but still we should keep a lookout," He argued.

"I know," I said simply as I walked into the bathroom to help Annabeth.

Once I had helped Annabeth scrub her hair, (which took a lot longer than mine because it was so much longer), and clean her cut on her arm, she was done.

We walked outside to meet Luke. He looked at me anxiously. "What took you guys so long?"

"Her hair," I said simply.

We walked back to warehouse. It was getting late, and the temperature was starting to drop.

When Annabeth was out of earshot, I turned to Luke and whispered, "Do you think we should stay here for one more night or move?"

Luke thought for a moment. "I don't know… I think we should stay here for one more night and get out of here first thing in the morning. The monsters seem a lot more active at night, plus they can hide easier during the night than they can in the day."

"Yeah," I agreed, "We should definitely leave in the morning, and it's much safer than at night. And the sooner we leave, the better, 'cause I have a feeling something's going to attack us soon if we don't leave."

Luke nodded in agreement. He took the sandwiches and the other spare supplies on the ground and stuffed them in his backpack. He took his and mine and dropped them near our sleeping bags and our tent. I sat next to Annabeth.

"Thank you, for everything," Annabeth said after a while.

"Oh, no problem, we're a family now," I assured her.

"I knew mom would lead me to you," Annabeth smiled.

"What?" I asked, startled by what she said.

"I prayed to my mom. I asked her for help, and she led me to you," She told me.

That must've meant that her mother was a goddess. I guess goddesses cared more for their children because Luke and I never had a prayer to our fathers answered. I guess gods thought that we could figure out our problems by ourselves without their help. I was happy for Annabeth, that she had a parent that cared about her. Luke and I didn't have that luck. But I also wondered who her godly parent was.

"Really?" I asked.

"Uh huh. She led me where to go, ever since I ran away." she answered.

"Um, Thalia?" Luke asked, his voice strange.

I looked at him. He had a sword in his hands. A celestial bronze sword. "Where… where did you get that?" I asked warily.

"I was just looking through the supplies again, in case we missed anything important… and I found this," he answered, with a confused expression on his face. "Thalia, can I talk to you? Alone?" he asked, looking at Annabeth, who was still staring at the sword in his hand.

"Sure," I told him, and followed him out of earshot of Annabeth. "Luke what are we going to do?" I whispered, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

"We can't leave now, the monsters will find us," he told me, and I could hear that he was trying to hide his fear too.

"Yeah, but don't you think that a celestial bronze sword showing up in a bunch of mortal stuff is a little suspicious?" I told him, my voice rose with every word. Annabeth turned around and looked at us.

He gave me a warning look. "Keep your voice down. Oh and… that's not all." He pulled out a bottle of nectar from his backpack.

My eyes went wide. "What?" my voice rose again. Annabeth looked at me again.

Luke grabbed my shoulders. "Maybe it's nothing to worry about. Maybe… the gods have finally answered our prayers." Luke suggested, but it sounded like he was reassuring himself more than he was reassuring me.

I almost rolled my eyes. "Luke, what makes you think that the gods have decided to answer our prayer? They never have before, so what makes you think that they're going to change their ways?" I asked.

"I know, but I mean… maybe they did." He said, but I could hear disbelief in his voice. "How about we sleep for a little while, and then find another place to go."

I didn't like it, but I agreed that we needed sleep. I went over to where Annabeth was sitting on my sleeping bag.

"Is something wrong?" she asked timidly.

"No," I lied, "but we're going to leave in the morning,"

She nodded in understanding. "But, what about the sword?" she asked.

I felt bad lying to her, but I had to. "Oh, it's fine. Now let's get some sleep." I told her.

"Um, Thalia?" she asked as I got ready to get into my sleeping bag. "Where do I sleep?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. You can sleep with me," I told her.

She crawled in my sleeping bag next to me. "Thank you," she mumbled.

"No problem," I whispered as I settled down next to her. She was already asleep. Poor kid, she had probably been through a lot.

As soon as I fell asleep, I dreamt that I was in a god's throne room. At least, that where I thought I was. Everything was big, the size of a god in his full form. There were twelve thrones in total, and the middle one was occupied. In it sat a man in a pin stripped suit, with black hair just like mine and, as I looked into his face, I saw that he had electric blue eyes just like mine.

"Prepare yourself, Thalia," He said, "Your first instinct was correct, prepare yourself."

I sat bolt upright in my sleeping bag. Annabeth was still asleep next to me. Through the hole in the roof, I could see that it was early morning.

I didn't know what my dream was about, but I knew who it was. It was my father, Zeus. I was confused by what he said. Prepare yourself, Thalia. Your first instinct was correct, prepare yourself. Prepare myself, for what? And my first instinct was correct? What did that mean?

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a low, unhuman growl that I had heard almost three nights ago, right outside the door.

A cliffhanger! Opps! Hopefully this chapter wasn't too boring. Anyway, thanks for reading, and please review!