“What in Hades is going on?” Grover exclaimed as Juniper dragged him swiftly through the forest. One moment he had been fast asleep inside that strange jail cell, and the next Juniper was running through the undergrowth like  nobody’s business.

“Shhh!” Juniper scolded.

“But-”

“Just keep running!” she whispered fiercely. “I’ll explain everything later. But we need to get out of here.”

Grove had no idea what was happening, where he was or why he was there or why Juniper was fleeing like someone was about to cut down her tree.

They weren’t, where they?

“Is someone trying to cut down your tree?” he asked, being sure to whisper this time. “Because if they are, I’ll-”

“No one’s cutting down my tree,” she replied, teeth gritted. “We’re pretty far away from my tree. That’s the problem. I shouldn’t be this far away. In fact, I don’t even know how I managed to get this far away. I really need to get back to my tree.”

“Of course,” Grover said, speeding up his pace. He was still dazed and half-asleep from whatever nap he had been taking in that forested jail cell, but he knew how hard it was for Juniper to get away from her tree. Something serious must’ve been up.

Come to think of it, this forest Grover was in didn’t look at all familiar. Sure, he had been through a lot of forests in his time, but he usually had a way of recognizing them and telling them apart: a certain type of plant that grew there or a smell in the air or the very density of the trees. Hey, he was the Lord of the Wild. He was pretty comfortable with forests.

This one, however, was completely foreign. There was nothing wrong with it that he could sense; it was just that he was positive he had never been in it and yet, he obviously had to have gotten to that cell he woke up in somehow.

Not that he could remember anything about that. The last memory he had was chewing on a tin can in the summer breeze by Juniper’s tree, then venturing into the forest of Camp Halfblood (which he was most certainly no longer in) in search of a strange noise and an ominous hunch.

“Okay,” Juniper said as she reached the edge of the forest, breathing hard. “There was something weird about that forest. I just needed to get out of there. From her, if I have enough energy, I think I may be able to get us back to my tree.”

“Like… by coach bus?”

“By teleportation. But again, that’s if I can find the energy,” Juniper panted. Grover noticed that his girlfriend wasn’t even fazed any longer when he threw out random suggestions and jokes like that.

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s see if I can do this.” She closed her eyes softly, her expression transforming into one of deep concentration. Grover placed his hand gently on her shoulder, really wanting more answers but knowing that now was not the time to ask.

He waited.

And waited.

Juniper remained standing there stiff as a tree, feet planted into the ground,, eyes still screwed shut in concentration.

As she they there, something strange began to happen. So slowly that Grover at first thought he was imagining it, Juniper begun to fade. She was slowly becoming more and more transparent until he could see clearly through her tiny body.

“Juniper?” he whispered. He had never seen her travel before; he wasn’t sure if this was how it was supposed to work. Grover thought he should try to do something, just in case, but he was almost afraid to touch her. Was she even there in solid form? Or was she as ghostlike as she appeared?

She was almost completely gone, barely a shadow against the bright sun when all at once she stumbled back into Grover’s arms, solid as ever. She was breathing hard, chest heaving as she clutched her head.

“Juinper? Hey, are you okay?” Grover picked her up bridal-style and hurried her over to a nearby picnic table sheltered by the shade of a huge weeping willow tree. He lay her down gently. “Juniper, honey, what happened?”

“Something… it was weird. I’ve never been this far from my tree before, but I have traveled and this seemed… It was like there was something blocking me. A wall in front of my tree or something.”

“A wall?” Grover asked, eyebrows pinching together. He saw no reason why they would have put up a wall in front of Juniper’s tree.

“Not… a wall. Not a physical one. More like… a shield or something,” she stammered, still trying to catch her breath.

“You don’t think they… cut down your tree or anything, right?” Grover asked apprehensively.

“Of course not,” she replied quickly. “I’d be dead instantly if that were the case. It just seems like someone is trying to keep me out.”

“Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know! I would say so if I knew!” she exclaimed.

“Sorry,” he muttered, pushing her hair off her face. “Just relax. Just calm down. We’ll figure something out. I promise.”

***

He was trying his best to be patient, to let Juniper bring it up first, but Grover wanted answers. He wanted to know what had happened that had put him in a deep enchanted sleep in the middle of an unfamiliar forest, what had scared Juniper so and brought her farther from her tree than he had even thought possible. He wanted to know why she couldn’t get back to her tree, too, but that wasn’t a question anyone would be able to answer at the moment.

Currently, they were sitting in a small restaurant overlooking the beach. Apparently, to Grover’s surprise, they were currently on the North Carolina coast. After getting out of the shock and drowsiness of waking up, Grover had discovered that he was extremely hungry. While he could have settled for some old tin can, the little Mexican restaurant had been advertising a special on cheese enchiladas and he just couldn’t hold back. Juniper wasn’t used to eating regular food as she lived off of the nutrients taken up by her tree, but far away and blocked from her usual sanctuary she too grew hungry. Grover was keen to introduce her to the wonderful world of food while he got the chance; however, she seemed to find the enchilado he’d ordered her strange and rather disgusting. She ordered a salad instead.

The wonderful cheesiness of the enchilada was enough to take Grover’s mind off of everything else for a little while, but with an empty plate in front of him he began to focus once again.

“So, um… What in Hades happened?” Grover burst out suddenly. Juniper jumped in her seat, still on edge from her strange and uncomfortable experience attempting to travel. “Sorry. I mean, do you know what happened?” he asked more gently.

Juniper sighed. “Honestly…. you were there one day, and then you were gone. I didn’t think anything of it at first, thought maybe you had gone on some vacation you’d forgotten to tell me about or a surprise quest or something, so I didn’t do anything about it. I wish I had. Maybe I could’ve found you sooner, before they took you so far away. But then I started to think… Well, never mind that, I-”

“Never mind what?” Grover asked.

“Nothing. Anyways, I-”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Juniper said, her voice strangely high. “I mean, other than the fact that I can’t get back to my tree…”

“What did you start to think?” he prompted her.

“I just… it’s silly. I know you’d never do it.”

“Go on.”

“I started to think you’d left. Just because…. because you were sick of me. Or because you’d found some pretty willow nymph in another forest or…”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Grover saw she was almost crying. He got up and put his hand on her shoulder. “I would never do that. Never.”

“I know, I know that now, you just… disappeared like that, and I couldn’t find you, and I’ve always been able to find you. It seemed like you were hiding or something and I… I hate to cry about something like this, just the stress of it all got to me… after so long, and I had no idea where you were, what you were doing, if you were even alive….”

“So long?” Grover asked. “How long was I gone?”

Juniper didn’t look up. There was something she didn’t want to tell him again.

“Juniper?”

Silence.

“Juniper, how long was I gone?”

She took a deep breath, keeping her eyes on the ground.

“Seven years. You were gone for nearly seven years, Grover, and I thought I’d lost you for good.”

***

Sorry the update took so long! I’m pretty busy so I may not be updating very often in the future, but please know THAT DOES NOT MEAN I AM STOPPING THIS BOOK. Just keep faith in me! ;) Anyways, I asked a couple chapter ago if you guys had any questions for me and I got lots of responses so I’ll answer a few each chapter. Feel free to post any more questions you have for me in the comments as well :)

~Do you like bananas? (PercabethForeverFTW)~

I don’t, actually. But I like the color yellow. Does that count for anything?

~How do you come up with such awesome prophecies? (Jackobooks)~

Well. They’re just kind of random, really. I write poetry a lot, so that helps. I come up with the gist of what I want to say beforehand and then just word it creatively and rhyme whenever possible. It helps to say things a little indirectly as well like referring to Leo as “son of fire” or something like that. I don’t know.

~Do you have any advice for writing good pjo/hoo fanfics? (Jackobooks)~

Try to make it original. There are so many PJO/HoH fanfics out there that if yours isn’t at least slightly original it probably won’t make it. Make sure to update (yes, I know I’m slightly hypocritical here… but I DO update, it just takes a while sometimes). If you only have like 2 pages on your story no one is going to bother reading it. Also, another big thing is to try and stay in character. That’s one of the toughest things of fanfics. I’m not sure that I even do it that well, but there are some people who just ruin the characters so badly that it’s painful to read.

~How did you find Wattpad in the first place? (makaylascull)~

Um. That was a long time. I started on my other account cheruchan262, and I think my friend introduced me to it. Or it might have been when I was looking for apps to read books with and I downloaded Wattpad. I’m not actually entirely sure.

~Who would be your godly parent and why?~

Probably Athena, ‘cause I’m kind of a nerd and I like to read and I care too much about school and I think I’m smart. Maybe.

~Are you upset Uncle Rick doesn’t have an epilogue to Blood of Olympus?~

 I’m actually kind of glad that he didn’t include a nineteen-years-later type of epilogue because that would’ve not been healthy for fanfictions, but I wish that the ending had been a little bit better and more final.