The Hunter Of Artemis And The Lightning Thief

VIII We Visit The Garden Gnome Emporium

I led Annabeth and Grover through the woods near along the New Jersey riverbank that I recognized from my time with the sign.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

It was getting annoying how loud the others were walking. They thought they were running quietly, but to one of the hunters, it sounded pretty loud. I was running silently like a skilled hunter---which, of course, I was.

"All our stuff was back there," Annabeth said.

"Not all of us decided to take off our backpacks for no particular reason," I shot back.

She looked at me, then saw my backpack. She groaned. I smirked.

"Anyway," I said, "it doesn't really matter. I have extra of everything anyway. Like that book that you brought? I have three extra copies, plus more."

Annabeth stared at me.

"What?" I asked. "You should always be prepared. My backpack is bigger on the inside."

"Like the TARDIS in Doctor Who?" Grover asked.

"What's Doctor Who?" I asked.

They stared at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You know, Doctor Who?" Annabeth said slowly. "The TV show?"

"I haven't watched TV in over seven years," I replied.

Then I ran ahead of them, leaving no time for arguing(or the two weirdos to stare at me).

We ran in silence, well, mostly.

The leaves crunched loudly under their feet. They were panting as they struggled (and failed) to keep up.

I froze abruptly. Grover and Annabeth knocked into me, and bounced off of me, falling backwards onto the ground.

"Monster," I hissed. "Close by. Just one, but it's a powerful one. Smells disgusting."

Grover sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. "You're right. It does smell pretty bad."

Annabeth sniffed too, and she grinned. "I smell food! Burgers. They smell good." She exclaimed.

I waved it off. "I've been smelling that for the last mile and a half- which was for the last, like, thirty minutes. It's also where the monster smell is coming from. . ."

Annabeth looked at me. "I want to go to the food. We've been running for hours! We're all tired! We can afford to take a break!"

"I'm not tired yet," I mumbled. "And I have a bunch of food in my bag."

Annabeth unwisely ignored me. Weird, for she's the daughter of the wisdom goddess...

I pondered on my choices.

A.) Trust Annabeth and go get food,

B.) Say no and take a break and eat my own food,

C.) Say no and convince them to keep going... (Convince= threaten and\or use the fact that "I'm in charge" against them. . .) or

D.) Say yes, and when attacked by a monster, kill it.

After a few seconds of thinking, I decided go with the last choice.

"I guess," I mumbled. I made eye contact with Grover. My message was clear: keep an eye out anyway.

We walked until we got to a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed down gas station, a tattered billboard for a movie of some sort, and one open business, which was the source of the smell of food-- and the monster.