Fire and Wisdom [Leo Valdez]

X - Caroline

Annabeth, Caroline and Leo got out of the Camp Half Blood van that was driven by Argus in Manhattan after a forty-five minute ride. "Alright, Rachel said through a vision that Thalia was last seen in Central Park with the Hunters right before she vanished." Annabeth explained while leading them to the park that was empty for the day. "Can't we just search for her tomorrow? It's 11:50 and I'm wore out," Leo complained "No! We have to find her before something bad happens to her!" Annabeth yelled, and Leo kept his mouth shut. "Good. Now, we have to watch out for monsters—they always want to kill half-bloods like us," "You mean like that?" Caroline pointed to a three headed beast that consisted of a lion's body and head, a second head of a goat and a snake for a tail. "A Chimera!" Annabeth drew her dagger and gripped a bronze shield as she prepared herself for a fight, and Caroline drew her gladius while Leo gripped his hatchet and conjured a fireball. The blade of Caroline's gladius was glowing a faint gold color as she charged for the monster and stabbed it in the chest, but the lion's teeth began to glow bright red and she dove out of the way just as orange and green fire blew out of its mouth. She somehow knew it was Greek fire. Annabeth threw her shield like a Frisbee and it smacked the goat head in the face, causing it to bleat in anger. The Chimera ran towards the three demigods, but they all dove to the side, which took it off guard. This gave Caroline the chance to stab the goat's neck and Leo was able to throw his hatchet at the head, which decapitated it in seconds. "Yeah! You don't mess with Leo 'Flaming' Valdez!" Leo gloated. Caroline was about to attack the lion head, but it was too fast for her. It ended up smacking her into the air like a fly, but she did a flip in mid-air and landed on her feet, were she threw her gladius at the heart, and it collapsed. The only thing that was still alive was the snake head, which was jerking around like a regular snake. Annabeth went over to it—but just as she was about to decapitate it, the snake bit her ankle, causing her to scream in pain and fall to the ground. "Annabeth!" Yelled Leo and Caroline, who grabbed her weapon from the lion's body and stabbed the snake in the neck, killing it instantly, then she stuck her gladius back into it's sheath on her sword belt. Caroline and Leo ran over to Annabeth, who was now pale and her ankle was bleeding heavily. "Annabeth, you're going to be alright," Caroline soothed, holding her friend's hand as Leo began nursing the wound.

"Ugh—this isn't going to be pretty." Leo said to himself as he drained the Chimera poison from Annabeth's ankle with a syringe, but Annabeth barely felt it. "It hurts," Annabeth whined as Leo stitched it up and put an elastic bandage around it. "There. All done," Leo took out a square of ambrosia from Caroline's bag and shoved it in Annabeth's mouth, who ate it immediately. "Caroline, eat some of this, too. I see that the Chimera got you pretty good," He pointed to a large cut on her cheek and a few on her arm, and she took a square and ate it hesitantly. To her, it tasted like the olive pizza from Domino's her father would eat with her every Friday night, or when he wanted to apologize for not being the best Father of the Year. She smiled at the taste after swallowing, which made her think of her father. She sure did miss him, and he probably missed her, too. Hopefully after this was all over—and she wouldn't be sent to Camp Jupiter—she could fly back to Seattle and see him again. Annabeth's groaning got her back to reality, and she saw that her friend was about to fall asleep. Leo decided to pick Annabeth up in his arms and carry her bridal-style the rest of the way until they found the best place to set up camp for the night.