Chapter 8: The Beast

Honestly, the rest of that night was a blur. Thalia and I were once again pretty beat up. At least this time we are able to walk it off. I should actually say limp it off because that's what we actually did. We stumbled around in the storm for about ten minutes until we found a large rock that protruded from a hill. Underneath the rock was a mini cave that went about 10 feet inside. It was dry but definitely not warm. The only things I remember were huddling close to Thalia to try to stay warm and waking up every half hour or so because I was freezing. We clung together as if our lives depended on it – and it probably did.

The morning was a lot better. The storm had blown through the area and had left behind a handful of knocked down smaller trees. The ground was mushy and muddy. Branches were strewn about the forest floor. I was surprised the rain hadn't turned into snow. Thalia and I got really lucky we were able to find some place to hide.

With much difficulty and a couple arguments about where to go, we were able to find the road that we were originally on. We were mostly silent as we walked along the road. Our heads tended to gravitate towards the ground. Our feet tended to shuffle across the wet asphalt. A car would pass us every now and then, but we would barely even pay attention. Thalia and I weren't nearly as physically beaten up as when we had faced the two gorgons, but I could tell that our confidence was quickly sinking. So far we had had two life or death encounters with terrifying monsters. And it had barely been over two days. Things were not looking up for us.

We had been walking aimlessly on the road for most the morning when we came across a sign telling us that the next city was only five miles away. Thalia gave a heavy sigh of relief.

"It's about time. My feet are killing me."

"Same. This sucks. If we were still on that bus we could have almost been there by now."

Thalia didn't respond. She didn't need to. The silence between us said everything.

My mind wandered from topic to topic as we approached the town. I had seen a lot of battles and action in my life, but none of it compared to what was going on now. Something seemed off. There was something we were missing. We still didn't know why Annabeth was taken and who had taken her. We were still in the dark and our circumstances were only getting more and more bleak.

"Hey Thal?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been thinking... This is the second freak storm we've had in a couple of days. Was this one because of your dad as well?"

Thalia broke eye contact furrowed her eyebrows and looked down. "I don't know. I know the storm in Camp Half-Blood was him. He was livid. Looking back on it I'm surprised he didn't zap me or you right there. I suppose if he wanted us dead we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"I guess. But wouldn't you say the storm helped us? No offense but I don't think you could have zapped that snake with as much power as you did if it was a clear night out. If that storm really was Zeus then we're missing something."

"Or maybe he's mad at something else. Or maybe he's just been in a bad mood. Or maybe it really was just a random freak storm." It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anything else.

"Even of Zeus does hate our guts I don't think last night was a coincidence. There are rarely coincidences in our world, remember?"

"Maybe so, Percy. But you have to remember that sometimes, yes, the gods care about demigods with their quests and affairs. But oftentimes the gods really couldn't care less. That's one of the reasons why Kronos was able to get so many demigods in his army, because the gods didn't care. Don't forget that."

"This is different Thalia. I think there's something larger at play here. Do you remember at the emporium when I threw that dagger and saved your life?"

"No I d- of course I do! You don't have to rub it in."

"I'm being serious! I was so beat up and my head was on fire. I was frantically looking for something to use to help you. My vision was so blurry. I was only able find the dagger on the floor because the moonlight reflected off the metal. But the moon wasn't even directly shining on the blade."

"You're not implying that-"

"What else could it be? The moonlight doesn't just get brighter at a specific area for no reason."

Thalia looked hurt. Her face was filled with emotion. "Why would Artemis want to help us. After what I did... I let her down and she saves my life."

"That's what I'm getting at. I don't know what Artemis thinks of you, but if she is still actively helping you then there has to be something else that's happening that we're not aware of."

"I don't know. That sounds a little far out there."

"Is it? Last night when we got to the river I had never felt more powerful. I was almost able to drown a massive snake. I know I couldn't have done that on my own. I think Poseidon was helping me by giving me more power over the water. And Athena! She appeared to me in person. And actually helped us. That's almost half of the twelve Olympian gods who have helped us. They are definitely taking interest in what's going on. I think I remember Athena telling me that there is some division going on between them because of the three of us."

"You're kidding? What? Are they treating us like a series of the Bachelor?" Thalia tried to play it off, but the look I gave her quickly took the smirk from off her face.

"I hope not. Gods have done stupider things for even more stupid reasons than what's going on."

We walked for a couple minutes in silence. There was something that had been in the back of my mind ever since we had left camp. I was afraid about bringing it up, but I figured the topic would have to come up sooner or later.

"Do you think Aphrodite is helping us?"

I looked over to see if Thalia would react on hearing that question, but she didn't. As far as I knew, Thalia had no idea that I had talked to Aphrodite.

"I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine at this point."

She looked away from me. I scanned her what little I could see of her face, trying to find out if she was lying or telling the truth. I couldn't tell.

"Have you seen Aphrodite recently?"

Thalia was shocked by this question. I know if I asked it Thalia could find out I knew something about her and Aphrodite. Maybe it would have been smarter to keep that information from her but at this point I just needed to hear it from her.

"Why do you ask, Percy?"

I tried to play it off, "I don't know. We're both seen our fair share of gods the past few days. I was wondering if Aphrodite could have something to do with this." I knew the goddess of love had to be involved somehow. I just needed to hear what Thalia thought about it.

"I haven't seen her in a bit." Was all she said.

We kept walking. I was hoping she would open up more, but the seconds turned to minutes. A "bit" is very subjective. It could mean a couple days, a couple weeks, even a couple months. Thalia had to be stretching the truth. Maybe Thalia and Aphrodite were actively working together. My thoughts started jumping around. I became uneasy. Why won't she tell me more?

"Do you think she could have something to do with what's going on?"

"You're asking a lot of questions. I think you're starting to ruminate. I don't know what the bigger picture is. Maybe there's some complex scene going on right now or maybe we just need to take this situation at face value. The only thing that I'm thinking of is getting to Annabeth as fast as we can so we can know she is alright. You need to worry more about what's going on now than what may be happening."

"I guess you're right." We kept on walking. I didn't actually think that. But I didn't want to push Thalia for whatever she was holding from me. Asking Thalia those questions only strengthened my suspicions of Aphrodite's involvement. But there were still so many details I was missing. Thalia was right about one thing, that I was starting to ruminate. Things still weren't adding up. I wished Annabeth was with me right now. She would know exactly how to get to the bottom of everything. Until then I guess the only thing I could do was get closer to Richmond.

It was a little after midday when we finally got to the town. The town itself was older. The streets were narrow. Many of the buildings were made with brick. The city's streets were organized into a perfect grid. Thalia and I made our way to center street. We walked past many small shops: bakeries, local restaurants, clothing stores. My stomachs rumbled every time we saw food. The two of us made some small talk about the city and debated on whether to get some snacks or not. We decided against it just because we were almost out of money and thought it would be better spent elsewhere. Thalia and I found a bench along center street that was sitting in the sun. We plopped down onto the cold wood. Up and down the street there were a plethora of quaint, local shops. The shops were so short we could see the vast hills behind them. The road that we looked out on was a small two lane road. A block and a half to our left appeared to be the center of the city where a large park with countless enormous trees.

"Finally. That took forever." Thalia leaned her body against mine. "Should we try finding another bus?"

"I'm worried the exact same thing is going to happen to us if we get on another bus. But I honestly can't think of any better ideas."

"Same here. Let's take a quick rest here before we start looking around."

I nodded in agreement. Even sitting for just five minutes would go a long way.

"This feels familiar." Thalia eventually broke the silence.

"What are you talking about?"

"Just being out in the real world, trying not to get killed. I mean, with the hunters we would run around and hunt monsters, but now that I'm not one any more... Well, this just feels more real. I haven't really done this in a long time. Even though it really sucks, it's nice to be able to go back to my roots."

"If you say so." I shrugged. "Do you miss them? The other hunters? Being one of them?"

Thalia stared out at the cars rolling up and down the street. "It hasn't been that long, but it feels nice. I made some really good friends with many of the hunters. But I am just so different from them. I felt as if I was forcing myself to be a hunter rather than having it become a part of me. It was really challenging at certain times. I think as time goes on I will feel more and more free."

She told me all of that without looking at me. She looked wistful, or maybe she was just tired. I knew that if I got kicked out of a group that I was a part of for a long time I would definitely be more upset. But Aphrodite's words came into my mind that Thalia mainly joined the hunt because she knew that she would never be able to be with me. We were silent after that.

Thalia had been snoozing on the bench with her arms folded across her chest for 10 minutes when I tensed up. I started aggressively tapping Thalia awake. She grunted in protest, both her eyes still shut tight. "We have to go now!" I told her urgently. She grunted again but this time her eyes were slightly open.

"What do you mean? I don't see anything." She looked around sheepishly at the slow passing cars, the occasional pedestrian, at the gentle floating clouds.

"I don't either, but I have a feeling if we don't move soon something bad is going to happen." Thalia heard the urgency in my voice and shook herself awake.

"Fine." She got up and flung her backpack around her shoulder. "Where to?"

The truth was I had no idea. I still didn't know if there was anything to be worried about. Everything seemed so peaceful. "Maybe I'm just stressed or paranoid."

"If you felt something we need to move now." Thalia responded.

I looked around and thought that the park was a great place to move to. It looked like it offered a lot of cover and many potential escape routes that would make it hard for us to get cornered. Thalia saw where I was looking and gave a little nod before we started speed walking towards it. Our heads were on a swivel as we crossed the street. It would be easy to spot danger with such few pedestrians, but we couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"We were stupid to sit out in the open like that for that long a time." Thalia said as we made it to the central park. "We have to be more careful. Remember what the gorgons said about the two of us? Monsters are drawn to us like moths to the brightest light bulb on earth."

We made it to the park. Large hedges surrounded the exterior which made the park feel shielded off from the harms of the world. The large trees with their stretching branches arched over the walkways and covered the rolling clouds. In the center of the park there was a fountain. The splashing water calmed my nerves. Pigeons were walking around the center. I saw an elderly woman and what must have been her grandchild sitting on a bench feeding breadcrumbs to the birds. A young couple was walking around the fountain holding hands.

We walked around the park. Looking at the different streets trying to find out what could be hunting us.

"I wish our lives could always be this peaceful." Thalia mused.

I didn't respond. Right next to the bench we had been sitting on just moments ago was a four-legged animal the size of a truck. It had a head of a lion, another head of a goat, and a 10-foot-long snake for a tail. The fangs of the lion head had to be the size of bowling pins. The snake tail bobbed up and down as if it was trying to locate something, or someone. Pedestrians walked past it as if the ferocious beast was a little dog, but I knew from past experience what that monster was. It was Chimera, and its evil red eyes were looking directly at us.

"Run."

"What?"

"Run!"

Thalia turned her attention to where I was looking and turned the other way almost as quick as the lighting she had summoned the previous night. The beast let out a giant, bloodthirsty roar, as if it had been tacking us the moment we left camp Half-Blood, which, according to our luck, was probably true. Just as I had thought, the park was a great place to be in case of a monster attack. The tall, giant trees were able to help hide us as we booked it in the opposite direction from where we came. The monster's roar already sounded closer, and my legs turned to jelly at the thought of fighting it. I had only seen this monster once before, and even though I had grown a lot since then I still had the occasional nightmare of being back at the Missouri arch, trapped and at the mercy of Chimera.

We were still running when an idea came to my head. "We need to split up." I managed to get out between breaths. Thalia looked scared at the suggestion.

"Why? Haven't you learned by now that if we were by ourselves we would have died a couple days ago?" We rounded another street corner, dodging pedestrians. The monster's roar was a block or two behind us by the park.

"Maybe if we split up Chimera will get confused and lose our scent!"

"That's a long shot. How will we find each other once we split?" We were running across a busy street. Old, worn cars honked at us as we dashed in front of them.

"The bench we were sitting on. There was a narrow alley across the street and down a couple shops to the right. Maybe he won't circle back to where he already looked?"

Thalia's eyes softened. I could tell she wasn't fond of the idea but that she also wasn't too keen on the idea of fighting a legendary Greek monster. We had made it at least 5 blocks from the park. We had never stopped sprinting for our lives. I could no longer hear Chimera and that made my heart beat even quicker. We came across an intersection with the signs 6 North and 2 East.

"I don't like it, but I think it's the best chance we got." I told Thalia. "I'll make a large circle around the town going clockwise, you need to do the same thing counterclockwise."

"What if he finds one of us? We won't be there to help each other? I don't want you to..."

Thalia stopped running. I stopped with her.

"I'll be okay. Let's meet at the alley in thirty minutes?" Thalia gave a solemn nod. Her eyes were filled with worry, searching my face for to see if I could think of any plan that would have us stay together. I think we both knew that this would either be a stroke of genius or would end in both of our brutal and lonely deaths.

Thalia leaned in to kiss me as Chimera gave an earth shattering, blood curling roar.