Percy Jackson And The Kane Chronicles:The Journey

Kindness

Annabeth's POV

I woke up, shivering in the cold, frigid air of the night. The stars were shining brighter, and the wind whipped across my face. It was about 3:00 AM from what I could tell, and around me, it seemed that everyone was sleeping around the fire Leo made. I tried going back to sleep, but I couldn't. Something seemed of.

"You okay?" Someone asked behind me.

I jumped, turning around to see Miranda sitting behind me looking, at the stars, her axe balanced in her right hand.

"Why are you still up?" I asked her.

"I convinced Leo to let me take his shift on guard." Miranda replied, shrugging.

"Oh. Okay." I move closer to her, perching myself on the same rock as her. "Look, we don't really know each other and, if we're going to work together as a team, we need to trust each other."

"And how do you propose we just trust each other?"

"I think we should get to know each other. " Miranda turned her to look at me, her blood red eyes digging holes through my head. Is that what people mean when they say my eyes bore into them? I wondered.

"What do you want to know?" She asked, turning her head back to the stars

"How about what you were really doing in the diner." I glared at her and, this time, it was her turn to feeling as if my eyes were digging a hole into her head.

"I already told you." I noted that the tone of her voice changed, and became a little more defensive. "I was grabbing something to eat." She finished, shrugging slightly.

"Ya? Then where did you learn to fight like that and know exactly what to do and when?" I asked her.

"I'm self taught." She said, then she chuckled. "And I'm not stupid. I know when you're facing a monster, you don't just sit around and let it kill you." I couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"I guess we were all shocked about her, you know, growing."

"Makes since. But we shouldn't have trusted a witch." Miranda said.

We were silent for a little while after, lost in our thoughts.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" She asked, intrigued.

"For dragging you into our quest. I mean, you're only 14. Wait you are 14 right? I just realized I never asked your age." I suddenly felt bad. Then again, it's not like I had a lot of time.

"Yes, I' m 14. And don't worry about dragging me into your quest. It's the most fun I've had in a long while." She grinned, and I resisted the urge to smile.

"You know you can leave, right? You've helped us enough, and we really don't want to ask anymore of you. If you want to leave, you can." I offered.

Nah, I' m fine where I am. I'm tired of being alone." This time, I couldn't help but smile with her.

"Okay, but remember your free to leave when ever you want." I reminder her, before walking back to my place on the ground.

I tried to fall back asleep, but it was still freezing, so alone I lay in the darkness, staring at the sky, wishing for sleep.

A minute later, Miranda was shaking my arm, and I noticed she had a suitcase. Reaching inside of it, she pulled out a thick, warm looking quilt, which she handed to me wordlessly before going back to her guard post. I couldn't even get in a thank you.

I don't know when I fell asleep but I soon woke to the voices of people arguing. I looked over to see Jason towering over Miranda, well, actually, not even towering. I didn't realize until then, but Miranda wass really tall. Now standing, I could see that she was maybe 1 inch shorter than Jason. I got up to here what they were saying, and run interference if the need came to it.

"WHY DIDNT YOU WAKE ME FOR MY SHIFT?" Jason yelled at Miranda, waking up those who weren't already awake.

"Hey!" I shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. "What is going on?" I demanded.

"She didn't wake me up for my shift! Now did she wake anyone else!! What if we got attacked?" Jason was really angry. The vein on his forehead looked like the scar from Harry Potter, that's how deeply it was pulsing.

"Wait," I said, turning to look at Miranda "When exactly was Leo's shift?" I asked, Miranda lowering her eyes.

"9:00 PM." Miranda's eyes were downcast, as if she were trying to hide or something.

"So did you get any sleep?" I was careful to keep my tone even and calm, even though I wanted to scream at her to take care of herself.

"No..." Miranda trailed off, lowering her head even more. Suddenly, though, she looked up, her eyes filled with determination. "But can defend us without sleep! And I wouldn't let any of you get hurt!"

Jason wanted to keep arguing, but I told him to leave it alone, which he did after a few minutes of protest.

We went back to our rides and we decided air might not be to safe anymore, since we'd already done it for a while. A monster could probably figure out where and how we travelled. So, we told our rides to go back home until we called, and we rented two vans via Piper's charmspeak. We did pay, but none of us had licences, and so, we relied on Piper to get us the vans.

Percy, having practiced driving before going missing, took the wheel, driving through most of the day.

We stopped once to go clean up and go to the bathroom, though it was mostly for gas.

We drove through the rest of the day, and late into the night. By the time our car shuttered to a stop, we appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but trees around us. Leo hopped out of the van to check the engine, and I could see his eyes go wide out the window.

"What is it, Leo?" I asked, hopping out of the car.

"Look at it!" And so I did. I gasped. The engine was covered in what looked like claw marks, and, with closer inspection of the car, I could see that all the tires were scratched open.

I opened my mouth to answer but, before a sound could come out, I felt a sharp sting, and then nothing.