artemis ; pjo

Unexpected Visitor

"Stupid dragon" Gabby cursed as we landed Prince.

"Ya know, one of the reasons he refuses to go on any farther could be your attitude" Dan suggested.

Gabby scowled at him, "Don't".

   Prince decided to be a brat and make us land for the night. We had only traveled for a day since we stopped at the town in Missouri before Prince took the leisure of stopping in a forest.

Prince landed and Dan slid off him first so he could see what was wrong. We all got off and had some of the Cliff Bars I picked up. After sitting on tree trunks and over turned rocks silence, other then the occasional chewing for a few minutes, Dan came up to us.

"He refuses to go any further until he's had a full night of rest" he explained.

"That little bi-" Gabby started before James spoke up.

"We don't have a choice. Better not anger our only form of transport"

Gabby made a growling noise in her throat but otherwise started quite.

"Well, if he's not moving 'til morning, we might as well find shelter" I offered.

   They all shrugged and murmured in agreement. We set out to find a good spot to sleep that was near where we initially landed. My eyes combed over the brush and shaded areas, but most of the forest was the same. I ventured deeper into the forest, but found nothing. After nearly 45 minutes of searching, MK called out. Everyone followed the sound of her voice and found her standing near a shallow cave.

"This was a good find. Not too far from the clearing where Prince is" Gabby said.

"Yeah. Let's go get the stuff and bring it back here. Dan, could you coax Prince into coming here?" Ben asked.

"Uh, sure, I guess" Dan replied and we followed him back to where Prince and the stuff was. After grabbing everything and awkwardly waddling back with our hands full to the cave, we dropped everything and rolled out the blankets. 10 minutes later Dan came back with an irritated Prince.

"It's like 8 'o clock now. We have a lot of time to make a plan for tomorrow" James said as we all sat down and looked at the surroundings.

"We need to get to New York tomorrow" I said quietly.

"Agreed. We can get there by nightfall if we leave by morning" James said.

"That's it? That's the plan? Go to New York. Then what?" Gabby asked.

"We go to Olympus, and light the flame, I guess" James said.

"And the sooner we reignite the fire, the sooner we can find Madi, Megan, and Sadie. The gods an help us, right?" I asked, looking around for someone to help me.

"I dunno" Gabby said, "You've met them, they're not all for helping lesser beings"

   I looked down at my feet. She was right. We'd have to do it ourselves. Everyone else talked while I listened for two hours or so.

"If we're going to get up at 5 tomorrow, we should think about getting sleep now" MK said. We all nodded.

"I'll take watch" James offered.

"Ok, thanks" Gabby said as we all shuffled around and got under blankets. As I walked by James to get to an empty spot, he gently grabbed my arm.

"Would you mind staying up with me? It's fine if your tired, it's just I haven't talked to you in a while" he said.

"Oh, uh, yeah. I slept for a while yesterday" I said, looking at the ground.

   Everyone was soon quiet and we shut off all the flashlights. James and I sat on a large tree stump. We stayed quiet for a while. I was glad, though. After what happened with Ben, I couldn't look James in the eye. I don't know why. Was I feeling guilty? I didn't like Ben...

   The heavy breathing if my friends filled the shallow cave. The occasional snore erupted to fill the steady silence between James and I.

"You've been acting strange" James finally said.

I swallowed hard, want to avoid talking about something I didn't have the answer to.

"Have I?" I croaked.

"Yeah, and something tells me you know you have. Why have you been avoiding me?"

   I knew lying wasn't going to work. I didn't have the energy to go on a long conversation for me to lie, but end up telling the truth at the end.

"I'm not completely sure" I said honestly with downcast eyes.

We stayed quiet for a while before he continued, "Does Ben have something to do with it? It feels like he does"

"Yes"

He sighed loudly. "I don't trust him, you know"

"Don't hate on him because you don't like him. He saved me, and you"

"But he hurt you"

"He didn't hurt me. He just, confused me, I guess. He made me open my eyes and think realistically"

   James looked at me sceptically, and he looked like he wanted to press on. I didn't know if I wanted him to or not. He didn't, though. James looked at me like I was a hurt puppy and he didn't know what to do. He seemed to be getting closer to me, or vice versa. And I didn't want this to happen. It's not fair to him to not know.

I pulled away from something that was about to happen.

"Stop" I said, my voice cracked, "I can't do this without you knowing what happened. You deserve to know-"

"You stop. I don't want to know. I don't want to ruin things"

"No, it's best if you know" I said. He fell quiet, but didn't move back from where he was leaning. I opened my mouth to speak, but someone else's, familiar, voice beat me to it.

"Am I interupting something?"

There are abosolutly no words to describe how sorry I am about not updating in months, so I'll save it. Just know that I feel so horrible. I was considering putting this story on hold, but I'm glad I didn't. I lost motivation to write this story, but I saw new people reading this, and voting on my early chapters and I didn't want to let my new readers down, and those who have stuck with me. Someone commented, asking nicely for me to update, and that got me writing this chapter, so thank you. And if you are reading this the week it comes out, I want to thank you beyond words for staying with this story through 4 months of inactivity. You guys are the absolute best readers any author oculd ask for.

Thanks.