I was bored, so I thought: Why not? I'll upload another chapter! Yay! I'll make my two reviewers happy! :) So here you are.

Disclaimer: If I was Rick Riordan, Tratie would be canon.

His fights:

When Travis woke up dangling from a tree, he knew something was wrong. He wasn't usually the one hanging from strange places – he was the one hanging others in strange places. This was a first for him.

Think, Travis, he told himself sternly. Stop being so ADHD. How did you get here? He tried – he really did – but he couldn't figure it out. The last thing he remembered… A bronze cannonball had been hurtling towards him! That was it! And… and he'd ducked, but something had grabbed him and… and pushed him into a tree! Yes! And he'd hit the tree hard and had probably passed out then. Well, at least he hadn't been pranked by a fellow Hermes sibling and stuck in this tree. That would've been pretty embarrassing.

Eventually, he started wondering who had put him in the tree, if not his brother Connor (the most likely candidate). It seemed to him that he could vaguely remember Annabeth talking about some Canadian monster that had liked tossing around bronze cannonballs – no surprise there, Travis knew Canadians couldn't be trusted – but he hadn't been paying much attention at the time. Katie had been in the same class, and he'd been busy wondering about… stuff. (He didn't like to get into details.) Man, she'd be disappointed if she could see him now. He could see her now, hands on her hips, brown hair in a loose ponytail, green eyes flashing. Gods, but she was beautiful when she was frustrated with him. (What? You didn't hear that! He hadn't said that! Just… forget all about that sentence. Okay?)

"Travis Conrad Stoll!" she'd say accusingly. (Yes, Conrad was similar to Connor. Well, Connor's middle name was Trenton. So his mom wasn't a very creative name chooser! It wasn't his fault!) "How are you supposed to find me if you don't even know a Laistrygonian from a Cyclops?"

And he'd answer, "Sorry, Katie. You're very distracting." And before she could respond to that, he'd say, "Wait? Lay-stree-goney-whatever? That's what they're called? Thanks, Katie! So… wanna tell me about them?"

"You're hopeless," she'd respond at first, with an eye roll. But she'd soon give in and explain patiently that they grew up to eight feet tall, sported various tattoos, and enjoyed eating people, rather like Cyclopes, except that they didn't need salsa to scarf down a tasty human supper. She'd also tell him that although they were crazy-strong, they weren't very intelligent (much like other monsters) and only fought well in packs. "Split them up, and you've got a chance," she'd conclude. "You can figure out how to do that, right, Travis? After all, I'm sure you're more intelligent than a bumbling, idiotic, cannibalistic Laistrygonian. Or am I wrong?"

To which he'd reply that he could be very intelligent, thank you very much – when he was in the mood. "Just look at that prank my cabin pulled on Hypnos two weeks ago, Katie! That was clever, you have to admit. And it was all my idea!"

Then she'd inevitably glare at him and go off about how she was the one who'd had to clean up that mess, as always, and why couldn't he just be responsible for ten minutes in his life, and could he go without pulling a practical joke for just one day – one day – but he wouldn't be paying any attention because all he'd be thinking about was how great she was and how he really needed to get the courage up to ask her to go out with him… er, out as in outside so that he could, er, show her that he could do something productive and responsible for more than ten minutes in his life so that he could impress her – er, prove her wrong… Oh, who was he kidding? He liked – really liked – Kathryn Alyssa Gardner, and gods, he hoped she liked him back. But it wasn't until after she'd vanished that he'd realized just how much she'd meant to him. Only now did he discover that he'd looked forward to each minute he'd spent with her, even if she was yelling at him during those minutes, and without that time, his days were far less enjoyable. He found it ironic that she'd wanted him to skip the pranks for just one day. She'd been gone for almost two weeks now – and he hadn't pulled one practical joke the entire time. Too bad she wasn't around to see it.

The sounds of grunts and heavy footsteps jolted Travis back to the present. He realized that during his zoning-out-daydreaming-about-Katie session, he'd actually figured out what monsters had him captive, and what he could do about it. Laistrygonians. Go figure. Even when Katie was missing, she was helping people.

So before the Canadian brutes with cannonballs got back to him, he swung around and grabbed onto the rope tying his feet to the tree branch above him. Then he climbed up, thanking the gods for the practice he'd had while messing with other cabins at camp. Less than two minutes later, he was sitting comfortably on the branch and untying the knot around his feet expertly. Less than three minutes later, he had coiled the rope through his belt loops and climbed higher up into the tree's shadows where he hoped the Laistrygonians couldn't see him. He was right.

"Where is he?" one grunted as the monsters (there were seven) finally stumbled their way into the clearing beneath Travis's feet. They'd lit a fire before going off to wherever they'd went, but now the flickering light actually worked in Travis's favor, creating uncertain shadows that kept the monsters from seeing him. The idiots turned in circles, looking for Travis on the ground in vain. A few were even smart enough to turn their eyes to the trees, but he was well concealed. The Laistrygonians had no idea where he could be.

"Argh!" the monster with the most tattoos and biggest muscles said eventually (Travis figured he was the leader). "I want human tonight! Deer is a pathetic excuse for the taste of their flesh!" Travis suppressed a shudder, worried the movement might rustle some leaves and give him away. "So you will get me human! Fan out and search the nearby forest! Come back when you have our prisoner! I'll stay here, in case he comes back." Again, Travis marveled at the stupidity of these creatures. As if any escaped prisoner would willingly come back to their captors! Nevertheless, the Laistrygonians listened to their leader. They all left. This was exactly what Travis wanted.

He waited until the monster's back was turned and then unwound his rope, tied it to one of the thicker branches, and pushed off the side of the tree in nearly silent hops that brought him down to the ground. The leader was busy stacking his bronze cannonballs carefully while crooning to them (it was rather disturbing, actually), and hadn't even noticed. It'd been a simple matter for Travis Stoll, son of Hermes, master of stealth, to edge around the outer rim of trees to where the Laistrygonians had tossed his sword, retrieve it, and tiptoe behind the top Canadian dog without making a sound. Then he stabbed the monster in the back. The monster went poof.

Travis would've left it at that, but he was worried that the other Laistrygonians were anxious about getting human for their leader and would take any stray camper they saw. So he slunk around the forest and dispatched the other six monsters. Then he ran deeper into the woods, still searching for Katie (but quieter), until it got too dark to look for clues. At that point, he ate some junk food he'd packed (he'd actually been prepared for once! Katie would be proud!) and climbed up yet another tree so that he wouldn't be mauled by monsters during the night, tying himself to its trunk with the rope he'd carried with him just to make sure he didn't fall out and break his neck. He'd just been settling in when an Iris message popped up. While his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, he said in surprise, "Annabeth?" Because that was the only person he could think of who would possibly be Iris-messaging him.

"No, it's Katie. Disappointed?"

Any thoughts?