𐌙/𐌍 Ᏽ𐌵𐌀𐌋𐌄 & 𐌕𐋅𐌄 Ᏽ𐌐𐌄𐌀𐌕 𐌌𐌙𐌕𐋅𐌔 ¹

Chapter 10

10 | The Garden of Stone Gnomes

In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when
things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.

So there we were, Annabeth, Grover, Percy and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.

I could still hear the ringing in my ears from the loud sound of thunder and explosions giving me a headache. But Annabeth still insisted into going further, Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

Even with the three of us shook from the bus incident, Annabeth kept pushing us forward, "Come on! The farther away we get, the better," she declared.

"We left our money in the bus," I told her. "Which, may I remind you, is in complete shatters."

"Well, maybe if Percy didn't run in the fight–"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

I sighed as my head finally felt the well missed silence over the buzzing on my ear.

Percy looked a little beat up, already. He was lightly groaning at each couple of steps he took. Even if he wouldn't admit it, he was already with aching feet, and walking did not help his state at all.

Annabeth was obviously not that much better, her steps were wobbly with all steps she took with her left leg.

Meanwhile, Grover looked as good as new, his hooves hitting the ground were the same as usual, with a small skip in them as he hopped, or tried adjusting his fake feet, I did not know which. I guess being a satyr has its good days around here.

Like Grover, I had my own two feet at full throttle. I could race down in front of them if I wanted to, Grover would obviously keep up behind, but I doubt either of the two could handle much more than painful walking, or feet dragging, in the case.

We sloshed across mushy ground, and through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.

Annabeth kept a little behind me, always checking over my shoulder to see where we were currently going, since she couldn't see over me if she didn't stand on her toes. She also always huffed and steadied her pace to keep up with me everytime I accidentally sped up too much and didn't notice before I heard her small feet jogging behind me.

After a couple of minutes, Annabeth came from behind me and walked by my side, tired of having to look by me to actually see something in front of her.

"I, uhm," Annabeth's voice fell down a notch. "I didn't seem that rude to Percy, did I?"

"Oh, that's what you're worried about, then." I shoved my hands inside my pockets. "It's fine, I guess. You just slipped up."

"That was actually really brave, right? You know, coming back for us."

"Uh, yeah. Percy is a brave kid," a thought came to my mind. "Or just a hellion."