You Only Live Once ➳ Percy Jackson

▹chapter 10

"She has been through hell. So believe me when I say, fear her when she looks into a fire and smiles."

After whole fiasco with Medusa we started setting a camp in the woods. We decided to sleep in shifts. Percy volunteered to take first watch while Annabeth and me curled up on the blankets and we fell a sleep as soon as our heads touched the ground. That night I had a vision of my mom.

"I am so proud of you, my daughter. You are strong and brave, you can make it."she said to me. Her voice wrapped around me like a silk. The image of my mother began to fade, I guess it's time to wake up. When I woke up, Annabeth and Grover were already awake. So me and Grover went exploring.

"How long was I asleep?" I could hear Percy as I was walking towards our camp

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast, Grover and Tessa went exploringand they found a friend." Annabeth said

"Correction, Grover found a friend. I only found couple of fleas." I told Percy sitting down and he stifled a laugh after I sent him a look

Grover was sitting crosslegged on a blanket with a pink poodle. The poodle then yapped at Percy. 

Grover said, "No, he's not."

"Are you ... talking to that thing?" Percy asked surprised and the poodle growled.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him. Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy." Percy was staring at Annabeth then at me

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle. Forget it."

"Percy," I warned him. "I said hello to the poodle. Anna said hello to the puddle. You say hello to the poodle." The poodle growled. He said hello to the poodle.

Grover explained that Gladiola had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to, if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said.

Percy beat me to it and said sarcastically "Duh. Of course. Silly us."

"So we turn in Gladiola, we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple." Annabeth explained

"Not another bus," I said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed. "There's an station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola,train leaves at noon." We spent two days on the train, heading west through hills, over rivers. We weren't attacked once. Our reward money for returning Gladiola had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. Grover and me fell asleep but I woke up after few hours and heard Anna and Percy talking.

"He doesn't care about me," Anna said. "His wife and my stepmom treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened, you know, something with monsters they would both look at me resentfully. Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."

"How old were you?"

"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."

"But ... you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."

"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway" after a few minutes of silence Percy spoke up