I know. I'm not feeling the lazy syndrome today so I'm gonna update.

Anyway, Happy reading!

Oh and take note, Luke was nine years old when he ran away and he was fourteen when he got to camp. See the time differences?

Something smelly was overpowering the whole house.

"Phew." I said. "What the heck was that?"

Somebody who has to be a kid like me answered. "Reporting for duty- What the-?" his eyes widened when he saw me.

I finally stepped outside and was greeted by an older kid. He has to be thirteen or fourteen. Who know-or cares. He looked grumpy and I wondered if he owned this place and wanted it back.

"Look." I began. "I had this place and nobody was in it so I decided to-"

"Hey, kid." He stared at me from foot to toe. "You don't look like a girl to me…" he murmured to himself.

What? He thinks I'm a girl?

"Do I look girly to you?" I raised my fist.

"Kid, what's your name?" he asked, appraising my appearance.

"What's it to you?" I growled at him. Nobody called me a girl much or less doubt me of being one.

"I'm looking for a girl. Well, it has to be a girl unless your name is Thalia?" he asked me, his eyes searching everywhere.

"Nope."

"You know anyone named like her?"

"Nope."

"What's your name then?" he asked me.

"I'm gonna answer your question if you're gonna tell me where's the stench coming from?" My nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Down." He answered quickly. "Your name?"

"Luke."

"Luke…?"

"Just Luke."

He seemed to be remembering something… "I kinda heard that name before… Was it a child of Her-?"

"Who are you?" I asked him, looking at his troubled face. He looked like someone who needed sleep pretty badly. Or hungry at least.

"Grover Underwood." He stood up. Oh he didn't. He took his clutches to stand up. "Now, I gotta go. Gonna find a kid named Thalia. You wanna come with me?"

Now that you mentioned it, why not? Two is better than one, anyway. And he looked somebody who knew a lot of places. A pretty good company, if you ask me.

"Sure."

"Good. Let's get going then." He started walking.

I began to catch up with him. Despite the condition of his legs, he's pretty fast. Well, I could be fast. Faster than anybody.

"What happened to your legs, man?" I asked him curiously, staring at his limping form. Well, limping-in-fast-forward-form which looked really weird.

"No need for you to know that… How old are you?"

"Nine."

"What are you doing here? In the dark? Alone?" he looked at me like I was some crazy kid.

"Well, my mom kinda creep me out and I can't take it anymore."

"What do you mean?" his eyebrows slammed together. "She hurts you or something?"

"Nope. She's kinda protecting me. Okay. She's overprotective that it's crazy."

"How is being over-protective crazy?"

I just shrugged. He wouldn't understand.

"Who's your father then?"

Blood boiled my skin. Anger impulse in my veins. Nobody asked me that question if he didn't wanna die.

"Do. Not. Even. Mention. Him." I hissed through my teeth, controlling my self.

"Okay. Chill down. Never again." He apologized quickly.

My anger slowed down. "Good."

…

We reached a forest. All my life, I've never been in one but apparently, this one doesn't look so welcoming. It was a place that has to be considered as DANGER ZONE in alarming big letters. I can feel the bad aura it's giving me, like when I had that dream…

Grover sniffed something, his nose circling the place. "I smell… nothing."

Well, I sure do smell something. I needed a shower pretty badly. And this guy bside me needed a much longer shower.

"Where are we?" I asked him, my eyes searching the place to.

"The forest."

Yeah. I'm not exactly seeing that right now. "I mean what part of the forest?" I hissed, looking sternly at him.

"Look, Luke." He told me. I always got irritated when somebody told me to look and mention my name afterwards.

"What?"

He smelled the air again, putting his hand in front of me, silencing me. Then his eyes widened. "Run."

"What?" I asked him, confused.

Something was growling from behind me, something… really smelly. No, not the stench but some kind of smelling evil or something. It reminded me of somebody who had a really bad aura.

Without thinking, I ran. So fast, it felt like I'm flying.

Some booming laugh filled the whole forest. "AMUSE ME."

This is a little... short?

Thanks for reading! Yes, Grover is on the loose. I'll put Thalia soon! LOL.

-Candace