Chapter 8

Annabeth's POV

We were leaving. I knew this quest would be hard, but I never expected this. I took a deep breath. I really was nervous about this one. Last time it had been so easy. Well not really easy, but this one seemed harder. I really didn't know why I thought it, but it would be - I just knew it.

"Annabeth!" I heard Percy call. "We're leaving now."

I sighed, and walked over to the car that was waiting for us. Argus sat in the driver's seat.

Don't know who Argus is? He's the caretaker…with eyes all over his body, and I mean literally. I'd heard that Connor Stoll saw one on his tongue. Eugh! I opened the door of the car and hopped in beside Hermione. She'd been acting strange since she got the prophecy. She studied the piece of crumpled paper with the prophecy written on it intensely. I didn't know when she'd stop staring at it. Ron poked her in the ribs.

"Ow!" She said. "What did you do that for?"

"You've been completely zoned out for the last day!" Ron replied. "What the bloody hell is up with you?"

"Ronald!" She scolded. "Don't swear!"

"Yes, mum!" Ron joked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Boys," She muttered. I tried to supress a giggle. Hermione seemed so odd around Ron. She wasn't a bossy boots around me. She hadn't been like that at all before he came. The engine started up. Soon we were on the road, heading towards New York.

"But what is up with you?" Ron begged her to answer.

Hermione sighed. "Nothing."

"Don't lie!" Ron said. "I know something's up, there always is when anybody acts like this. Well maybe not Loony Lovegood, she's always like that. Come on, spit it out!"

"Fine," Hermione said reluctantly. "The prophecy is bothering me. It just doesn't quite make sense. I'm worried too. It says only four of us will complete the quest. What if one of us dies,"

"They won't," Ron said.

"Yeah, it's been bothering me too. I don't think that one of us will die though. It would've said that somebody would "lie on the grave" or something like that," It was the first time Percy had said anything. He wasn't usually quite either. I knew it.

I agreed with Percy. I didn't think anyone would be destined to die or whatever. It would either not be planned, or a mistake, but I really didn't want anyone to die, especially one of my friends.

"Guys," Harry said. "What on earth is that!?"

I looked out the window. "Uh Oh," I said. "That's Lamia…"

Harry looked puzzled. "Who?"

"I won't tell you the whole story. Lamia was a queen, turned daemon. She devours kids, including us," I replied, fear in my voice.

Even Percy didn't know who she was, but he was scared. Harry, who I thought was fearless, was scared. Hermione looked frightened and Ron… Ron looked like he was going to faint.

"Argus…" I said. "Drive faster. She's after us,"

Argus nodded and we were off. Speeding at more than eighty miles per hour. Ron was being sick into a paper bag he'd taken along…I wondered why he'd taken it before we left, but now I knew why.

The puking noises from Ron were absolutely VILE. I don't even want to tell you about it.

We slowed down after going along for a bit. Everyone thought we'd lost Lamia. That was our mistake. I still can't believe why we slowed. Anyway, on with the story.

We were so wrong. As soon as we were at the normal speed, it all turned topsy-turvy. Lamia actually jumped on our windscreen. I'm not kidding, seriously.

I took my knife from its sheath on my belt. Hermione got her bow and Percy got riptide out. Harry and Ron took their heavy swords out of their sheathes. We all decided to kill Lamia and send her, sorry it, to Tartarus. Of course she couldn't die, but we could send her away for a while, a good while.

We all got out of the car, swords, knife and bow at the ready. Lamia walked toward us, a menacing grin on her blood stained face.

Lamia lunged at us, giant fangs ready to pierce into our necks. I dodged them and tried to stab at Lamia.

Lamia dodged. Percy swung riptide at her/it, only scraping her/its arm. Ron clumsily swung, missing Lamia by about a metre. Hermione ran a good five metres away, her bow at the ready.

Lamia didn't see her though. It all happened in a split second. Hermione fired, and missed Lamia by about an inch. Unlucky.

I tried to stab at her/it again, but again Lamia dodged. I tried many more times, still unsuccessfully.

Then something strange happened. Just as I tried to stab again, the ground began to shake.

"What the Hades is going on!?" Percy shouted.

"I really don't know," I called back.

"Come on," Percy shouted. Harry and Ron quickly ran over to him, as of me and Hermione, we were still battling Lamia. Hermione shot at Lamia, unsuccessful yet again. Lamia started chasing us, but we ran up the hill at the side of the road. We were pursued by Lamia as we ran for at least a hundred metres through a rough plantation forest. We were scratched by sticks but still we ran.

Suddenly though, Hermione dared to shoot an arrow at Lamia. This time though, it hit Lamia right in her evil black heart. Lamia crumbled to dust.

"That takes care of that then," I said. "But we'll need to find Percy, Harry and Ron."

Hermione nodded. "They can't have gone that far, let's look,"

"Okay,"

And we set off in search of Harry, Percy and Ron.