Rogue

Chapter 6- Into the woods

Hey people! Sorry if you got impatient or anything but I was busy with my freakin' summer reading projects. My mom said I couldn't update anymore until I finished! I finished today! Yay!

Aywayz… on with the story!

PERCY'S POV

"Percy! C'mon get up! It's time to go!"

I awoke to someone shaking me, not too gently I might add. I would have gotten up if it was warm, I would be sweaty and willing to get up and take a cool shower to get ready for the day. But I could feel the cool air coming from my cabin's open windows. Strange. It's usually warm at camp, with all that weather controlled climate mumbo-jumbo. All I knew was that I was NOT getting out of my bed today.

"C'mon Seaweed Brain. GET UP!" Great, it's Thalia.

"No" I protested

"Move your butt now!" she said, pushing me.

"Give me five more minutes or I'll slice you with Riptide"

"Gods Percy, get up! You don't have Riptide remember? Todays the day we are going in the woods to get it back! Remember Kelp Head?"

Yesterday's events rushed into my head and I fell out of bed, startled. Finally, I was going to get back at the guy who dared steal Riptide! I took a quick shower and headed outside, in full armor and a sword that I had borrowed from the Hephaestus cabin. It was enchanted to feel like Riptide, but it wasn't the same. The blade's name was Bronzeheart. Nice name, not as good as Riptide though. Meeting up with Thalia, we walked up to the woods where Chiron, Annabeth and Nico were waiting for us.

"Good morning Percy, Thalia. Are you ready for your trip?" Chiron asked

"Yea." Thalia replied. "We all have sleeping bags and a little bit of Nectar and Ambrosia, just in case Kelp Head gets hurt."

"HEY!" I protested. Then, something occurred to me "Wait Chiron, since the woods are so small, can't we just bring nothing, since camp is so close? And couldn't the thief gotten out of the camp's boundaries?"

"Well Percy," Chiron answered, "1, you can never be too prepared and 2, the camp has recently expanded its borders so the woods is a lot bigger. Also, Dionysus and I made a change. Last night, we put up an enchantment that tells us whether something has come in or gone out of the boundaries. So far nothing has shown up, so we guess that he is still hiding in the woods."

Annabeth nodded, "I thought it looked a little bigger when we played Capture the Flag."

"OH C'MON ALREADY," Nico yelled, "Are we just going to debate on how the woods have gotten bigger or are we going to catch this thief and get Percy's sword back?"

Everyone looked at him, startled. Sometimes it's easy to forget he's there, being the son of Hades and all, he literally blends into the shadows. He glared back at us expectantly, waiting for a response.

"Yea" I said, breaking the silence "we better go now, we need all the light we can get."

And with that we walked into the woods. Not knowing what was in store for us, or really caring, in my case.

ANNABETH'S POV

We walked into the woods and decided stay together for a while. Not only was there a very powerful thief on the loose, but there were monsters in the woods too, and we couldn't afford to split up and lose someone. We walked for a while, Nico occasionally shadow traveling to random spots in the forest, seeing if he could catch the thief off guard. Thalia hopped from branch to branch above us, swinging on thick ones like a monkey. I guess being a Hunter also gives you acrobatic skills. Cool. I thought. We walked for hours, looking and waiting for a sign that we were getting closer, but nothing appeared.

Later, about 9:30 or so that night, we decided to stop for the evening to rest and think of a new plan because the current one obviously wasn't working too well. We sat down in a clearing and lit a small fire. I had packed some granola bars and protein shakes in case we got hungry, so we munched on those.

"So," said Nico in between bites, "what are we going to do tomorrow?"

"I don't know. I need some time to think." I admitted

"Obviously," intervened Thalia, her mouth full of granola bar, "this thief knew that we were coming for him, and hid himself pretty well." She took a gulp of her shake, "we need to think outside of the box, something that he totally wouldn't expect."

"The thief needs to eat and drink right?" Percy suddenly stated,

"I think so," I said, "assuming he is a demigod,"

"Didn't the prophesy say so?" persisted Percy, "Anyways, he would need to have something to eat or drink to stay alive for a while in the woods. I'm sure he has set up traps and nets of some sort. Why don't we trigger one of the traps?"

"Sure." agreed Thalia, sarcastically, "let's just trigger the trap ourselves and then wait, dangling for hours while we wait for the thief to appear. It doesn't matter if we waste an entire day waiting!"

"Wait a minute Thales, I think Percy's on to something. It's a good idea in progress."

"Anyways," Percy continued, "If Thalia somehow catches an animal, I mean it could be a mouse for all we care, it just needs to be big enough to trigger the trap. We need to find one first though, to know what animal we need."

"Ok," Nico said, "let's say we do find a trap, and get an animal big enough to trigger it, how do we know that the thief will come?"

That was something that Percy obviously didn't think of. Too bad, this was one of his greatest ideas. We sat in silence for a while, thinking. Soon, an idea occurred to me.

"Percy, do you remember how he used his powers to bring you and Mr. D to him? I asked

"Yea, how could I forget? It was terrifying! I couldn't do anything to retaliate, or grab back Riptide or anything!"

Thalia nodded, "Don't forget Percy, the rest of us were paralyzed too, otherwise I would have come in and helped you."

"That's beside the fact now," I intervened, "I'm thinking that if he's powerful enough to force and paralyze several people, I'm thinking that he would put something like a mind-sensor on the traps."

…

"I think we can't know that for sure until we find and trigger one of the traps tomorrow." Nico finally agreed, "but that's our best guess for now."

"Alright then, I don't know about you guys," Thalia said, yawning "but I'm going to sleep so that I'll have enough energy to pound that thief into nothing!" She opened her sleeping bag and lay down.

With wordless agreement, Nico, Percy and I laid down too. I took the first watch. I stayed up for a while, looking up at the full moon, shining through the trees. I heard the rustles of small animals in the woods and the howls of the monsters. None of them were close to us, so there wasn't anything for me to worry about. Two hours later, I woke Nico and he took watch. I lay down in my sleeping bag and I drifted off into sleep.

PERCY'S POV

*dream mode*

I was in a clearing; to my right was the ant hill, a place I don't want to go near again. (read the Demigod Files to see his adventure there) To my left was the river. It was peaceful and calm; nothing could be heard except the babbling of the river over the rocks. I thought that I was finally having a good dream for once, but as I turned around and saw him. The thief. She was still wearing the clothes I saw her in when she took Riptide. She fingered it in pen mode. Just like I did when I was nervous. Huh. Weird. I heard a murmuring and saw that she was talking to herself. I strained to hear what he was saying.

"Brother…. Finally….. together… blade….. procedure… forever…"

What he was saying, what I heard, made no sense to me. I'm sure that if I heard everything that she said, I could repeat it to Annabeth and she could explain it to me. I wish it made sense. Suddenly, the thief's head snapped up.

"intruder… watching" she said. Uh oh, she must sense me!

"She took two blades from her back. They were long knives, about the length of the tips of my fingers to my elbow. They were made of celestial bronze, with streaks of silver in the center. That reminded me of Backbiter, Luke's sword. It must be a mix of celestial bronze and steel, something that could harm both monsters, and mortals alike. The thief looked straight at me and sliced through my dreams, laughing all the while. The laugh echoed after my vision faded, and I passed into darkness as cold as the dark side of the moon.

…

The next thing I knew, it was morning and everyone was getting ready to set out. I rolled up my sleeping bag ad put it on my back. Yawning, we ate another breakfast or protein shakes and then started to walk again. I caught up to Annabeth and told her about my dream. She was silent for a minute, and then asked:

"Did you see who it is?"

"No, although even if I did, it wouldn't make any difference. Everyone who would have a grudge against me is either dead, a god or a titan. And we already know that he's a demigod."

"Yea. I can't think of anyone else either, Percy. So the question remains. Should we go after her at the Ant Hill or find a trap and trigger it, hoping he comes."

"Remember our adventure there?"

She nodded and said "Yea. That wasn't that very fun. I think that we should see if the trap idea works and if not, we could always tell them. By the way, that was a really good idea yesterday. One could think you were very smart."

I didn't know whether to take it as a compliment or criticism and I didn't say anything.

"Seriously Percy, just take the complement! Is it that hard?" Annabeth said, exasperated

"Was that a complement?" I asked playfully, shoulder bumping her.

She smiled and bumped me back. I was just about to put my arm around her when I heard Thalia yell:

"Percy, Annabeth watch out! We found one of the traps! Don't move an-"

That was the last thing I heard before a THUMP of a large rock came crashing down next to me.

SWISH! Next thing I knew, my feet were yanked out from under me and I was dangling in the air, heels over head in a trap. I reached for Bronzeheart to cut myself free, but it had fallen to the ground. I tried twisting and turning, nope. All that did was tighten the loop around my ankles. I finally gave up, let my arms hang over my head limply, and looked down at the giggling faces of my friends. Thalia and Annabeth started laughing their heads off and Nico just looked up at me and said:

"Smoooooth Percy, real smooth."

I groaned and crossed my arms. How did I get into messes like this? How come it was always me?

I glared down at him:

"Oh just shut up and give me the darn sword already."

There you have it! Chapter six is finally up! Anyways, no flames! I know it's a boring chapter, but there will be plenty of action in the next one! Also, the thief's name, parents and motives will be revealed! STAY TUNED TILL NEXT TIME!

Cho!

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