Chapter 23 - Trail of Smoke

"Since when could Kronos give out prophecies?" Annabeth demanded as she clambered into the passenger seat next to Luke.

Luke shrugged. "Beats me," he admitted as he started the car. "Never heard him do it before."

"Do we even know where we're going?" Piper demanded. "Annabeth, Luke? Did either of you happen to hear directions somewhere in that prophecy?"

"'Trail of smoke'?" Luke offered. "Whatever that means."

"Ask Kronos," Annabeth suggested, reaching for a drachma out of her pocket even before she'd finished speaking. "He gave us the prophecy, he can at the very least point us in the right direction. Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering," Annabeth intoned as she threw the drachma at the rainbow formed from the light through the window and the ever-present Californian mist. "Show me Kronos, the Titan who flew out of Camp Jupiter." Since she can't be sure of where Kronos went, there was no way to narrow down the search for the goddess, but Annabeth was certain that there was only one Titan called Kronos.

"Annabeth," Luke started, "I don't think that's a – shit," the son of Hermes slashed through the message that had formed, saying, "Thanks, Iris. Wrong person."

"Luke!" Annabeth exclaimed.

"What was that for?" Piper questioned from the back with a heavy frown. Something about that image that had formed had bothered her.

Luke cleared his throat. "He's busy." The demigod had caught a glimpse of the furious ochre eyes fixing on him and noticed the extremely scaled trunk behind him, and reacted quickly to cut off the message before anymore had formed. As it was, Kronos was going to murder him already. "Ask Chiron instead," Luke suggested. "Maybe he'll know."

"Where there's smoke," Piper said, "there's probably a fire."

Annabeth frowned heavily. "'Sired by fire', the prophecy said. So…"

"Hephaestus," Luke guessed.

"Blessed by Earth,'" Piper said, finishing off the line.

"Gaea," Annabeth said tiredly.

Luke snatched up another drachma, gaze flicking away from the road briefly in order to do so and almost swerving them off the edge. "Here," he said, passing it to the beta.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said.

"Chiron," Luke greeted.

"Luke, Piper," the centaur replied. "And Annabeth, it's good to see you safe."

"Likewise," Annabeth replied.

"Where's Jason?" Will Solace questioned. Fortunately the counsellors seemed to be in the middle of a meeting.

"Well, we have to prove that Gaea's rising," Luke said. "And Kronos can apparently hand out prophecies, so we're trying to follow his, but…"

"It doesn't have directions," Piper summed up. "And we were hoping you'd know something, Chiron."

"What was the prophecy?" The old centaur asked.

"Sired by Fire, Blessed by Earth,
the false giant has proven his worth.
Deceived by lies, trail of smoke,
One to suffer a fatal stroke.
Three shall find the stolen staff,
but fail to have the last laugh."

Annabeth paused after reciting the prophecy. "But there's absolutely nothing about where to go."

"Trust Kronos to give a prophecy that you can't follow," Clarisse snorted.

"The staff mentioned," Chiron slowly said. "Have any of you heard anything regarding a stolen staff?"

"No," Luke replied. "Nothing."

"A trail of smoke means follow a fire, right?" Leo asked. "I mean, a fire has smoke."

"Maybe," Luke said, "but 'Deceived by lies' is also in that line."

"So the smoke could be metaphorical," Malcolm said. "Maybe someone's planted a trail on purpose – the liar."

Luke seemed rather amused with Malcolm's deduction. "Are you accusing Kronos of leading us on a wild goose chase?"

"We have to consider it," Malcolm offered. "Honestly, Luke, do you really trust him?"

Luke didn't answer.

"So any ideas about what we're looking for, Chiron?" Piper asked.

"Sired by Fire, Blessed by Earth, the false giant has proven his worth," Chiron repeated thoughtfully. "A giant, sired by Hephaestus, whom isn't really a giant, and whom has stolen a staff – likely from the gods. Any ideas, campers?"

Luke sighed. Chiron was using that tone he used when he already knew the answer and was waiting for his students to catch up. "It sounds like Cacus," Annabeth slowly said.

Luke frowned heavily. "Cacus?"

"A son of Hephaestus," Chiron said. "A ten foot tall demigod son of Hephaestus. He stole cattle from Apollo. Eventually Hercules defeated him. But he can breathe fire," Chiron explained. "I believe he is the thief you need to be searching for."

"Brilliant," Annabeth said, "thank you, Chiron. Piper, can you grab my bag from next to you? There should be a plate-sized… plate in there."

Piper raised an eyebrow, but nonetheless searched for the said plate.

"You brought that with you?" Luke asked as Annabeth brought it through into the front of the car and propped it onto the dashboard before expanding it. The shield was soon a full-sized bronze shield which had shattered the windshield and was sticking out of the car. "Annabeth!" Luke exclaimed. A piece of glass had shattered against his cheek.

"Sorry," Annabeth apologised. "Shield, show me where the fire-breathing giant Cacus is."

The reflection on the shield changed and shimmered into a scene of Manhattan. "That's the High-Line Park," Malcolm realised. "In the Meatpacking District."

"But I don't see Cacus," Annabeth said.

"Down the hole," Piper suggested. "The trail of smoke."

"Smoke means fire," Luke agreed. "And in this case, fire means fire-breathing giant."

"So what's the quickest way back to Manhattan?" Piper asked.

Luke sighed tiredly. "I'll sort it," he promised.

"What?" Annabeth questioned. "How?"

"Thanks, Chiron," Luke said before swiping his hand through the IM.

"Luke?" Annabeth questioned.

"Shut your eyes, Annabeth," Luke ordered. "You too, Piper."

"What are you doing?" Annabeth demanded.

"Just trust me," Luke said. "Shut your eyes." He waited until Annabeth had done so before focusing. He remembered the scant few times when Kronos had been disappointed with his lack of knowledge regarding his abilities and how the Titan had invested time into helping him develop. How one of those few lessons had focused on his father's domain of travelling. It turned out, being the son of the god of roads and travellers could be quite handy for long distances.

The car juddered beneath Luke's hands as he focused on where he wanted to go, and then the Californian countryside melted away into the buildings of Manhattan. Luke's eyes drooped and the car swerved to the side amidst the blaring of horns.

He heard a wild shriek from Piper and Annabeth yelling his name and grunted, forcing himself to stay awake long enough to safely stop the car. Fortunately, Annabeth was prepared and shoved a quarter of a square of ambrosia into his mouth as soon as they'd stopped.

Luke hummed as he chewed the godly food, letting out a relieved sigh. "Thanks."

"What was that?" Annabeth demanded sharply.

"A little something I learnt last year," Luke explained, taking a few seconds to be sure the ambrosia would keep him awake before pulling back into the road – causing yet more horns to blare in response. "Being Hermes' son," and he couldn't completely take the bitterness out of his voice as he spoke, "it means that I can bend distances. Kind of like a centaur when they gallop – you know what Chiron does?"

"Yes," Annabeth said. "Yes, they can bend distance."

"Exactly," Luke said. "Kronos helped me figure it out," he elaborated.

"He was teaching you things?" Annabeth asked carefully.

"Yes." Luke shrugged. "I was his figurehead, Annie. I had to show some abilities. He couldn't have me being useless, could he?"

"Don't call me Annie," Annabeth snapped.

Luke grinned. "Yeah, sure. Whatever you want, Annie."

In the back, Piper snorted. "Can you two flirt later?" She questioned. "We have a half-giant to find."

Luke cleared his throat. "Yeah, Right. So, a giant hole in the ground," Luke mused.

"There," Piper said, pointing at said giant smoking hole in the ground.

"That's it?"

Luke smiled. "I took us right to our destination," he said. "Though I won't be able to do it back. I'll wind up killing myself."

"Luke," Annabeth said as she stepped out of the car, "how do you feel about taking point?"

The son of Hermes shrugged. "Just like old times," he smiled. With his Curse of Achilles, it was less likely that he'd die than the others. They'd all skirted around the fourth line of the prophecy so far, and Luke wasn't eager to see it come true. "Do we have a plan?"

"Go in and scout it out," Annabeth suggested. "And go from there."

Luke nodded. "Sounds good," he said. "Piper, how are you in a fight?"

"Not good," she admitted.

"Well then stay close," Luke said. "Let's try to limit fatal strokes, yeah?"

Piper's lips twitched up slightly. "Agreed."

The three demigods walked up the pavement before ducking behind the police cordon.

"So," Luke said, "beat the giant and get the staff."

"That's the plan," Annabeth said as she peered down the steaming hole in the ground. "After you," she said.

"Don't mind if I do," Luke said, grinning as he started down the ladder set into the side.

Annabeth climbed down after him, and Piper took up the rear as they descended into the steaming pit.


Some heavy hints in this chapter as to what's going on outside the main POVs, which none of you are going to find out about without looking at all the hints :p.

So Cacus. He was in the Demigod Diaries book released by Riordan and I figured I may as well involve him, since he was the very first hint of Gaea rising that Percy and Annabeth encountered. But, that mini book takes place in about September 18th, and this fic is currently December 28th (Christmas would've been and gone while the demigods were travelling to Camp Jupiter). So the stolen staff (I actually almost wrote who's was stolen, but didn't want to spoil it for those whom haven't read that mini story yet) has been missing for over 3 months now, which means that this fic will differ massively from Riordan's canon story about the same thing.

I'm going to assume that there are 2 more chapters until we see Percy again (maybe at the end of the second). So not long now!

Matt: So do I.

ShadowsClaw: Yeah. Lmao Kronos is always pulling shady shit xD.

Ghostfall: I'll admit that was my original idea for the quest, but then I remembered the Cacus quest that [the god whom-I-shall-not-name] gave Annabeth and Percy and thought that would be better... and as for Kronos... well, he is still very much Kronos.