Sorry it's so short. It just seemed wrong to continue the chapter after the end.

-Jaz

~~~~

Chapter 5

Everything hurt.

That was the first thing Thalia had noticed. The second was the cold. Cold air seemed to be a needle at every one of her pores. She needed something warm, but she needed to move to get it. Her eyes blinked open to find everything was blurry. She tried to blink it away but it seemed to make no difference. She was laying down and she attempted to sit up but pain flared in her stomach.

A scream of pain left her mouth involuntarily and she quickly laid back down. She heard footsteps come closer and voices which were mixed together. Thalia felt hands touch her and someone force her mouth open. Something touched her tongue and things faded away.

~~~~

The next time Thalia woke up she was warmer. Should could hear a strange sound under her ear, a rapid thumping. And then soft breathing. A person?

Thalia shifted slightly but she didn't open her eyes not wanting move. She was comfortable laying on this person's chest.

"Thals?" Luke's voice asked softly.

"Luke?" She slurred snuggling more into his chest.

"Come on Thals, you gotta get up before you crush him," Luke said as someone's hands helped her to sit up and she felt as something fall off her shoulders, a blanket or something.

"Crush who?" Thalia asked peeling open her eyes. In front of her knelt Luke who held her shoulders so she didn't fall back over. Thalia raised an eyebrow, she wasn't leaning on Luke? She looked to where she had been laying to see Percy frowning at her as he lay on the ground.

"Your head is heavy," the little boy declared. 

Thalia shrugged.

"I told you not to lay on her," Luke told him.

"She has a blanket and I'm cold," Percy complained. "I didn't think she'd make me into a pillow."

Luke chuckled and looked back to Thalia. "How are you feeling?"

"I dunno," Thalia answered honestly. "I'm tired and everything seems... numb. What happened?"

Luke frowned and slowly let go of Thalia's shoulders and sat back a bit. When he did Thalia noticed the trees behind him, they sat between some trees next to a fire pit that had been made. Annabeth sat beside the pit poking into the small fire with a stick her eyes continuously flickering over to her and Luke.  

"You didn't tell us that you weren't okay. That's what happened," Luke said answering her question. "You were so worried about me and Percy's leg that you neglected yourself."

"I didn't realize it honestly," Thalia admitted. "I was more focused on you guys since I wasn't bleeding. I figured it was a bad bruise."

"Clearly it wasn't," Luke said crossing his arms. "You've been unconscious for three days."

"Three days!" Thalia repeated staring at him like he was crazy.

"Yeah. Three days of us trying to pretend we're Apollo kids, and constantly moving deeper into these trees to avoid being caught," he told her in a scolding tone. Finally he sighed and he ran a hand through his blonde hair. "You really had us worried."

"Sorry," Thalia said with a small smile. She then looked past Luke to Annabeth. "Do you forgive me now?"

Annabeth frowned and poked the fire again.

"I do!" Percy answered. "Can I have the blanket now?"

Thalia rolled her eyes and took the blanket off her shoulders and laid it on top the boy who snuggled into it.

Thalia stood up shakily and moved to sit beside Annabeth. "I am sorry," she told the smaller girl.

"You scared me," Annabeth told her. "You left me to deal with the boys too."

Thalia chuckled. "Did you keep them in line?"

"They're still living aren't they?"

"That's my Annie," Thalia said pulling her into a hug. "So? What else did I miss?"

~~~~

"We can't hitchhike, Luke. We have little kids with us," Thalia told Luke as they sat together later that evening after dark.

"I said as a last resort," Luke said with an eye roll. "Plus I don't see you coming up with any ideas on how to get there, besides stealing a car which we can't do."

"It's a last resort," Thalia mocked.

Luke rolled his eyes and he glanced over at the two younger children. Percy was talking to Annabeth excitedly about something while the blonde girl listened intently. "How do you feel?" Luke asked without looking away from the kids."

Thalia shrugged. "Alright."

Luke looked back to her and searched her face with a frown.

"What?" Thalia asked him.

Luke shook his head. "It's nothing."

"Luke I know you. So I know something's up," Thalia told him scooting a bit closer. "What's up?"

Luke sighed and stared down at the forest floor in front of him. "Why are we doing this Thalia?" He asked her after a moment.

"Doing what?" Thalia questioned confused.

Luke didn't respond at first, but he picked up a dead leaf by its stem and spun between his fingers. "Why are we even on this quest? No this isn't a quest, we'd need a prophecy for it to be. But here we are flying blind. The four us, errand boys and girls," Luke said quietly and Thalia's eyes widened as he spoke.

"Luke..." she started.

But Luke ignored her and spoke again, this time his voice was bitter. "Were here only to serve the high mighty... and for what? What is it we gain? We avoid the fear they strike in us, and avoid being killed," Luke spat out crushing the leaf in his fist. There was a short silence where Thalia only stared at her friend. Hesitantly she reached forward to touch his shoulder, but stopped when a breeze came and chilled her so she hugged her body. Though her eyes stayed on Luke. He threw the crushed leaf into the dying down breeze and watched it fly away, and scatter amongst the thousands of other dead leaves. "That's our only prize. So tell me Thalia, why are we truly doing this?"

Thalia's mouth felt dry. "I-I... because... because we need to," Thalia said shakily and her eyes went to Luke's face. He wasn't looking straight at her, but she knew he was watching her out of the corner of his eye. Thalia took a steely breath before she spoke again, this time with confidence. "My father is prepared to kill a nine year old boy, over something he doesn't have. Perhaps we are running errands to save our own asses, but we also do this to save each other's asses too."

Luke slowly nodded. "There still must be another way."

"Well when you find one tell me," Thalia told him.

Luke slowly looked at her, and Thalia's eyes searched his face. Though oddly enough she found herself unable to get a read him. Something she had noticed had been happening more and more often lately. He opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off as Annabeth shrieked from behind him.

"Don't Percy!"

"It's just a spider!" Percy told her.

Thalia looked back to see as Percy crouched over and picked up something and Annabeth's face turned white. Thalia's eyes flickered to Luke as he stood and moved closer to the younger children and took the spider from Percy.

Thalia didn't hear what Luke told the children, but she did wonder what he was going to tell her.