WORLDS BEYOND ( pjo )

𝐢𝐢𝐢: the lesser of two evils

The meeting with the Council of Cloven Elders (which Kia still snickered at by the way) went terribly. Percy had tried to remain optimistic, but it seemed he hadn't properly grasped just how little Grover could scrape by with to find a god that had been missing for years in the span of one week. Not exactly a walk in the park. Kia greeted him with a hug first, seeing as how they hadn't seen each other ever since after their quest last summer Grover has announced he'd heard the wild god Pan's voice, and then she had half-heartedly tried to assure him that he was the greatest saytr alive and that if anyone could find him, it'd be him, but the unspoken statement was up in the air: centuries of 'greatest saytrs alive' had lived, and not one of them had managed to bring Pan back.

Afterwards, the next day had seemed to go by more or less uneventfully, bar the event that had transpired between Travis from Hermes and Katie from Demeter to have finally resulted in Katie breaking out of her polite confines and returning one of Travis' pranks with a crude gesture that involved her middle finger being raised, earning dozens of whistles and shocked expressions from nearby campers who were there to witness the once-in-a-lifetime situation. Travis had grinned, and Kia, who was passing by, might've even said he looked a little lovesick.

In the morning, Annabeth had tugged her by the belt loops of her jeans, essentially dragging her to the Poseidon table. She released her in front of Percy, next to Grover while she herself plopped down into a spot next to Percy.

Grumbling sourly at being treated like a rag-doll, she huffed like a child, puffing out her cheeks and sitting passive-aggressively next to Grover. Grover patted her back sympathetically. If there was anyone who knew how strong Annabeth could be when it came to pulling someone, it'd be him.

"I'll tell you what's about," Annabeth said randomly. How did she know what they were talking about earlier? Was she not paying attention to the perfectly-made scrambled eggs in front of her? The wonderfully heavily caffeinated drink set on her tray? Had Annabeth finally lost her marbles? "The Labyrinth."

Ah. It was about that. Closely following her strenuous attempt at not detesting Kia (for reasons Kia could not reveal until the fifth book because people claimed it was 'spoilers!'), Annabeth had spilled to her completely about the entire situation with the Labyrinth she and a few others had been conducting without the knowledge of most of the other campers. She had also told her about why a camper named 'Clarisse' had been away last winter when she usually stayed year-round. Kia had actually talked to her once or twice after that ('talked' was used very loosely here; mostly it compromised of Kia offhandedly making a remark about the weather and Clarisse grunting back, not seeming to completely hate her guts for existing, so she took that as a green light to make conversation more often).

Anyway, Annabeth said a bunch of other stuff that she had already told Kia about weeks ago, so she busied herself with finding amusement in the pale shade of pink Percy's face would take to whenever he'd glance down at how close Annabeth's knee was to touching his, only occasionally meeting her eyes while she told him about the Labyrinth. The dude was so whipped.

"What do you mean he just appeared?" Percy had been asking Annabeth when she finally decided to pay attention to what they were talking about.

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string."

"String."

"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."