DESTINY ↳ WILL SOLACE

11. We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium

CHAPTER ELEVEN

We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium

I don't own Percy Jackson.

Grover had taken Riptide out of Percy's hand and shrunk it back down to a pen, but she still had to rely on Will to actually get out of there. Frustration at her uselessness pricked her mind, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it—with Will's arm around her waist and him practically supporting her entire body weight, the best she could do was hobble along and try not to put too much pressure on her injured leg.

At last, after what seemed like an eternity, the three of them stopped by a little stream to catch their breaths. Will looked more tired than usual, like he had just finished an extremely long night-shift—as one of the best healers in the Apollo cabin, as a senior camper, Lee and Michael, the head and first-in-command of the Apollo cabin, respectively, often had him work longer hours compared to the others. Will had never complained, but Percy could see how tired he would get some days. And right now, he looked almost worse.

Will knelt by the water and hesitantly dipped a finger in it. Frowning, he withdrew his hand and inspected it, and then grimaced. "Yeah, I was thinking about using this stream, but all these pollutants... they could infect your injuries, or worse. I don't think we should risk it."

Very carefully, he unlooped her water pouch from her belt, and instructed Percy to hold out her hands. She complied, trying to ignore the pain in them as Will allowed a small trickle of water to drip into her cupped palm. For the first few moments, the pain screamed—her vision went red and she had to use all her self-control to not cry out, biting her lip so hard she drew blood—but then it started to get better. The pain lessened. Her vision cleared. The water didn't heal her burns completely, but at least she could actually move her fingers.

Will's eyebrows were knitted in concentration as he knelt down beside her, carefully moving aside the ruined jeans from her leg. Percy swallowed down a yelp of pain when he accidentally chafed the material against her leg. His expression was one of pure concentration as he drizzled a small stream of water down her leg, letting it slowly heal it, though Percy's leg buckled under her at the first contact and she almost hit the ground—Will had managed to catch her at the last second and set her back down gently.

"Grover, can you find some aloe vera?"

Grover nodded and bounded into the forest.

"I'd be better if I had my medical supplies," Will muttered. "We'll need medicine soon. Antibiotics, at the least. It'll get infected without proper care." He sighed, mostly to himself, and pulled out a small bottle that looked almost like a test tube. "My emergency nectar," he explained. "I never go anywhere without it. I was hoping we wouldn't have to use it, but seeing as this is the only thing we have on hand..."

He dripped a few drops on Percy's hands and leg before carefully sealing the tiny bottle again and putting it back in his pocket. And then he began slicing his shirt into strips with his knife.

"Hey," Percy said as she watched him work. "Thanks."

He cracked a grin. "No problem. Besides, I should be thanking you. You took out two of the Fur—Kindly Ones. If it hadn't been for you, Grover and I probably would've died. Thanks for coming back. That was brave."

"We're a team, right?"

Will was silent for a few moments as he ripped another chunk out of his shirt. "Percy, there's something..." he hesitated. "Back on the bus... they were saying something funny..."