D': I swallowed my gum! How sad. I don't own PJO. That makes it sadder.


I hate hiking. You may not know this, but I am short. Small. A regular midget compared to my eighth grade peer group. My legs are the problem, they're too short. And apparently, you need long legs to hike. I kept falling behind everyone else, and Tammy didn't help any by singing "Here comes the sun" at the top of her lungs. Natalie complained the whole time, like adding lemon juice to an open wound. I'm glad I'm not a famous runner's kid; I would most likely be disowned.

"How far have we gone?" I wheezed, glad of my strong lungs. Being an Apollo kid pays off.

"Half a mile." Tammy grinned.

"Seriously?"

"Na, way more than that. I think we're almost there." She grinned even wider, I think I could see every tooth in her mouth.

"Joy."

I wheezed some more, and tried ignoring my sore feet. Did I mention I hate hiking? At least it's healthy. When your dad is the god of medicine, you care about the condition of your body.

"Cars ho!" Shouted Lacy. "I say we end the madness and hitch a ride."

"And I say we see were that hideous scent is coming from. Phew!" Natalie fanned the air in front of her face.

I sniffed the air. EW! It smelt like B.O. and school cafeteria food, the worse thing I could think of.

"That is plain nasty!" Shrieked Tammy, gagging.

Then something even weirder happened.

"Annie, I'm so glad to see you!" That voice was way too familiar. "Come and give your mommy a hug!"

I froze. My mom was long gone, how-

"Hey Nat, where's it at?" A new voice, a man's this time called.

Natalie looked around. Her almond eyes widened slightly, and she mouthed the word, "papa."

"My gods Tam, you sure grew since I last saw you!" Came a cocky male teen-aged voice.

"Tommy!" Tammy spun a full 360, tears in her normally happy eyes.

I was still frozen in place, still shocked at hearing the voice of my dead mother. Lacy was looking at us three with a worried expression. The three voices continued calling out to us, asking for hugs and commenting on our looks. I looked around in a daze. Where was she? Where was my mom?


Lacy's POV (for once)

This is too weird! All three of my friends were looking everywhere for the voices with tears in their eyes. Then without warning, Tammy threw her charm bracelet to the ground and ran toward a cave that hadn't been there a second before. Anna and Natalie were quick to follow, Anna dropping her watch and Natalie dropping a large hair clip. I picked up the bracelet for some reason. My pinkie lightly tapped one of the charms, and it transformed into a 4'' sword. I blinked at it, then rushed toward the cave. There was something weird about that cave, and it was safe to guess it wasn't friendly.

The disgusting smell only got stronger as I made my way through the torchlit cave. Enough to make your eyes water. I turned another corner and found a ridiculously big chamber. A giant man had his back turned to me. Tammy and Natalie were tied up next to him, their eyes wide with fear. And in a giant, grubby hand, the monster was dangling Anna by one leg above his mouth. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, and her azure blue eyes were squeezed shut.

I rushed forward, holding Tammy's sword like a baseball bat. One thing you should know, I have a really short temper. When I'm angry you'd better run and hide, and if you don't you'll die a most painful death. I slashed the sword through it's chest, crumbling it to dust. That was no easy feat, I was only at camp for about a week. Heck, I'm lucky I can hold a sword on the right end. I dropped Tammy's sword and ran to Anna. Her eyes hadn't opened.


Is that actiony enough for ya? I hated this chapter, oh well, Review anyways.