~~~~|~~~~~| Allie |~~~~~|~~~~
They didn't out run the police car. The officer got out and stopped them. He said something. "We don't speak Bulgarian!" Allie said.
Hw paused for a second, and then pointed at the store. "Did you steal from?" His English was obviously terrible.
"No! Why would we do that?" She sounded offended.
"Security cameras. He saw. Give back." He said, holding out his hand.
"Fine, but I have a real reason. We are travelers, and the airplane lost our bags. We have no clothes accept the ones we are wearing. We have no money or cell phones, either. We couldn't buy more clothes, so we had to steal." She started fake crying. "Please don't arrest us!"
He gave them a sympathetic look. "You have guardian?"
"Yes, my uncle. He is insane."
"Still against the law, come with me."
"No. We aren't going to go with you." Piper said. "We are going to walk away, and you are going to let us go. Right?"
He looked at her. "Of course. Go."
"C'mon, Allie." She ran toward the ship.
"You are awesome!" Allie said. "Why are we running?"
"You weren't so bad yourself. He's gonna realize what just happened soon, and he's gonna keep searching for us."
Suddenly, they saw Leo and Jason and a dragon running toward them. The dragon had a sheet of bronze in its mouth. Giant fire ants where chasing them. Not giant like big. Giant like the size of a dog.
"What's with the dragon?!" Allie asked.
"That's Frank! Explain later!" Piper drew her dagger.
"Ok, sure. Makes as much sense as the rest of my life," Allie muttered as she drew her sword.
"This is gonna be gross," Allie slashed through an ant. It disintegrated into dust. "Less gross then I thought. What are these things?"
"Myrmekes! They like shiny things! They'll try to take your sword!" Jason said.
The one that she just vaporized started to re-form. Another one ran over to her and tried to eat her sword. She slashed through it and it disintegrated. Frank the dragon was stomping on ants, but the where re-forming quickly.
One tripped Allie and started dragging her away by the foot. "Help!" It spit something on her legs. They went numb. "Help! It's gonna eat me!" She started to panic. She didn't know what to do.
Leo and Jason ran over. "Get the bronze to the ship! We'll help her!" Jason ordered.
The ant spit more stuff on her before Jason slashed through it. They picked her up by the arms and started running toward the ship. "Oh gods! What is this? Is she ok?" Leo asked. Allie could barely hear them talking.
"They paralyze their prey before they eat them. She will be fine." Jason said.
They dropped her on the deck, and she fell. Leo yelled "Festus, go!"
"Oh gods, sorry! Are you ok?" Jason asked.
"Ugh." Allie said. "Kinda. I can't feel my legs. Please tell me this isn't gonna last forever."
"No, it isn't. We have to hose this stuff off, though."
"Uhh. No."
"We have to."
She sighed. "Fine." She sat up on her hands, and got really dizzy. "I can't stand, though. Am I supposed to sit here 'till I can?"
"I'll help you to your room." Leo volunteered.
After they poured a bucket of water on her, Leo helped her stand and brought her to her room. "Thanks."
"No prob," Leo said.
"So, Frank can turn into dragons?" Allie asked.
"Yeah, well he can turn into anything. It's pretty cool. We all have pretty cool abilities. And we have some pretty hard pasts. I guess that's what we all have in common," He trailed off.
"What do you mean, hard pasts?"
"Well, we all went through a lot." He told her about how Percy had to go through the Titan war the summer before, how Annabeth ran away from home when she was only seven, Jason got taken away from his mother when he was two and how he became leader of camp Jupiter. He told her about how the giant kidnapped Piper's dad, and how they had to save him. How Frank's life depends on the burnt piece of wood, and he let Hazel protect it. How Hazel died in the 1940s and how Nico brought her back to life. He told her about how his great grandfather was Hazel's boyfriend from the 40s. And he told her about how Gaea scared him into killing his own mother when he was 8. "I went through foster homes, but I just kept running away. I wanted to get as far away from that machine shop as possible. When I was brought to Camp Half-Blood, I finally found a home. Then, we had to go on this dumb quest. The goddess Nemesis told me that I would always be the outcast on this quest. I would be the seventh wheel." His voice broke. "I… I'm sorry. I got a little emotional."
Then, she did something even she wasn't expecting. She kissed him. When she pulled away, his hair burst to flames. "Oh gods!" He patted it out. He looked really embarrassed.
"Sorry."
"No! Its fine. Don't think I didn't like it." He made a, that sounded really weird face.
Allie smiled. "I won't let you become a seventh wheel. I know I'm not one of the seven in the prophecy, but I can still be your friend. Or…" Or something more she thought.
"Or what?" Leo asked. He still sounded surprised from the kiss. Then again, she was too.
"Nothing. I still can't believe that this is real. People who are half god who can summon fire, and turn into animals, and magically talk people into doing stuff, and come back to life, and fly! And I'm just boring Allie, who has no special demigod abilities."
Leo laughed. "First, you aren't boring! You're really cool and funny. Second, you stole a whole bag full of stuff from that store! I would immediately get caught if I tried doing that. All demigods have abilities. Yours is thieving, 'cause your dad is the god of theives."
"But, the thing is, I thought I had, like, a mortal dad. I'm pretty sure I live with both of my parents."
Leo shrugged. "Your mom might have lied to protect you. Some parents do that if they know."
"I guess that makes sense." She tried to stand. "My legs work again."
"Cool. I should probably go install the Archimedes Spheres." Leo told her.
"What exactly are those?" She asked.
"Well, they're spheres. Created by Archimedes."
"Oh your sooo descriptive!" Allie said, sarcastically.
"They're gonna make the ship even more awesome. Lets just put it that way."
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