Blaze of Glory - a PJO fanfiction

22. Fading

Bored to Death - Blink-182

We ran until we couldn't anymore.

Well, until they couldn't. I could go more. Roman military training was seriously no joke.

I wiped a tear off my face, sheathing my sword in my new sheath and sitting against the wall of the tunnel. The walls and floor were all made of white rock. It was wet and rough, probably a natural limestone cave.

"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, but it sounded faraway. Annabeth's sobs echoed through the tunnel. I just stared at the opposite wall.

...

"Krys? Hello?" A hand waved in front of my face. "Krys," Percy said. I shook my head to clear it, as if I could shake the images I saw right out of my mind.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"We need to move," Nico told me, offering me his hand. I took it, allowing the Son of Hades to pull me to my feet.

Percy froze a few feet down the tunnel, he bent down, picking up something red off the ground. I saw that there were two sets of footprints, one a set of small hoofs and the other human looking, but way too big to be a person. The tracks were leading off to the left of the fork ahead.

"We have to follow them," the Son of Poseidon said. "They went that way, it must've been recently."

"What about Camp Half-Blood?" Nico asked. "There's no time." I nodded in agreement.

"Who are we even following?" I spoke up.

"Grover and Tyson," Annabeth said. "They're our friends, we have to find them." The Daughter of Athena grabbed the red rasta cap from Percy's hands.

"They're not mine," I told her before she had walked too far. "I'm going back to camp. You can come with me if you want, but I can make my own way back."

"No," Annabeth said. "You're staying with us. I don't trust you to go anywhere near camp without us there to watch you."

"I can handle myself, oh wise one," I said sarcastically. "I just watched my best friend die, so I'm not in the best mood right now. If you wanna try to stop me, feel free, but just know that you won't succeed, and you'll get hurt trying."

"Was that a threat?" Percy asked, stepping up beside Annabeth.

"It was a promise," I told him lowly.

"You can't go back anyways," Annabeth said, pushing Percy back behind her with one arm. "They'd probably kill you on sight. Now let's go." She turned and headed down the tunnel. Percy glared at me for another second, before turning and following Annabeth.

"Chill out, fish sticks," I whispered to him as I started walking. "I'm not gonna hurt your girlfriend." Nico fell into step beside me, and Rachel walked in front with Annabeth.

I looked the Son of Hades up and down, finally getting a chance to examine the boy that I hadn't seen in months.

"You've grown up," I told him, picking my way down the tunnel, being careful not to slip down the treacherous slope.

"I guess I have," he said. "For one, I know what a virgin is now." We both chuckled lightly at his reference to when I met him, before it died out.

"You're what, eleven now?" He nodded. "Well, in that case, just remember..."

"The only downside to being a virgin is that sometimes, people want to use you as a blood sacrifice," we said simultaneously, laughing together. The conversation was a nice pick-me-up after the shit that had just gone down at Mt. Othrys.