"You're too good for this world," Clarisse smiled, running her hands through her best friend's hair.

Alana furrowed her eyebrows and turned to look at her. "No, I'm being serious. I think a lot of people are misunderstood. I mean look at our parent's family and history, it's all perspective."

The curly haired girl nodded. "I guess that's true. I mean everyone in our family gets blamed for shit that hasn't happened the way people believe."

"Exactly!" Alana threw her hands up. "I mean look at you. You're not a bad person, no matter what anyone tries to say."

Clarisse's lip shook slightly as she softly smiled.

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"Somewhere up ahead this turns into a satyr path," Grover stated as they walked.

Alana hummed to herself as she walked behind the trio, making sure she could watch them. She was stressed about the situation, sure, but they were in a path in the forest, this was her favorite thing ever. A while ago she made friends with a rabbit that was now hopping beside her. She named the little black bunny Rue.

"What's a satyr path?" Percy asked.

"It's a road through the wilderness," Grover explained. "Satyr explorers use them."

"It's harder to track them," Alana added on. "And us, in this case."

Percy furrowed his eyebrows at the two. "That's great, but if we stay in the wilderness, how are we going to find a phone?" 

"What do we need a phone for?" Annabeth quickly questioned.

"So we can call camp," the blonde answered, then he saw the other campers faces. "T...To get help."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "We don't need help. We're fine."

Percy scoffed at her. "We're fine?"

The two kept arguing as Grover fell into line with Alana. "Hey," he muttered, defeated.

"Hey," she whispered, looking over to him. They were about the same height, Alana only being like an inch taller, making their conversations very natural.

"What are we going to do about them?" He asked, glancing between the younger demigods and the older one.

Alana shrugged. "Let 'em tire themselves out like kittens," she laughed to herself.

Grover laughed lightly too, shaking his head. He looked over to the girl and gave her a sympathetic look. "Are you ok, by the way? Sorry Allie, I meant to ask sooner, but they distracted me. I mean, you did get thrown into a bus wall."

"I'll be fine," the huntress answered, smiling at him. "My shoulder will be a little sore for a while but it's no big deal. Instead, we have to make sure dumb and dumber don't kill each other."

Grover laughed. She was right, if they didn't step in soon those two would try to kill each other, and everyone knew who would win.

"Why are you so afraid of who you are?" Annabeth asked harshly.

The older two glanced at each other as they tuned into the conversation. This wasn't going to end well.

"What?"

"You know, what's interesting about this particular satyr path," Grover interjected, "is it's actually the one my Uncle Ferdinand took when he set out on his own quest."

The two continued to argue while Alana started tuning them out. She didn't mean to, her shoulder just hurt way worse than she was letting on. Plus her head hurt from being shoved into a wall, the arguing wasn't helping either.

"You don't want to call camp, fine. Then, at least let's call your mom," Percy said.

Alana quickly came back to her senses and grabbed Annabeth's shoulder. It was known that none of the demigods were truly on speaking terms with their parents. Alana was an exception, but she was, well, adopted.

Annabeth's eyes lost any light in them and the only thing keeping her from lunging at the blonde was her big sister figure. "Excuse me?"

"Athena? Your mother," Percy explained. "I'd call my father, but we aren't exactly on speaking terms. You know, because of the lifelong neglect and all, but you and your mother seem close. So, why don't we ask her for help? We could ask Artemis for help too."

"Grover, will you explain to your friend that he needs to pull himself together?" Annabeth ignored everything Percy had said. How stupid was he that he thought the gods would drop everything for a few measly kids who aren't even in real trouble?

"You can't ask her, can you?" The son of Poseidon asked. "When was the last time she talked to you?"

"Percy!" Alana scolded, taking her hand off Annabeth's shoulder.

"Grover." Annabeth called at almost the same time.

"I don't know why you keep pulling him into this. He's on my side. You have Alana. It's a tie."

"Hey. I am not on a side. I'm on you two need to knock this shit off and get over yourselves, and Grover's on MY side." Alana quickly realized as soon as she was done talking that she sounded just liked them. Damn kids.

"What makes you think that?" Annabeth sassily asked, ignoring Alana.

The argument went on until Percy learned that Grover was Luke, Annabeth, and Thalia's satyr protector a long time ago. He got upset that he didn't know until Alana noticed Grover sniffing at the air. "Do you guys smell that?" He asked.

"Grover, I'm not kidding..."

"No, neither am I. Just shush."

Alana furrowed her eyebrows. "What is it?"

Grover sniffed again. "Hamburgers."

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The ended up in a statue garden with Annabeth ranting about how "Auntie Em" was very similar to someone else. Alana agreed, they needed to be cautious because this seemed sketchy.

"Let's get out of here," Alana declared, starting to walk backwards.

"Please," Annabeth agreed. "While we still can."

Right as the girls went to turn around, Alecto appeared behind them, causing Alana to step in front of the other campers and shove them behind her.

"You should've accepted my offer when you had the chance," the fury stated to Annabeth.

The young girl shook her head as Percy looked at her frantically. "Offer? What offer is she talking about?

"Not today friends," the new voice startled Alana, causing her to jump. God, she missed whistling instead of random talking. "Not on my door step."

All four campers looked down quickly, knowing who was speaking. Annabeth and Alana glanced at each other then looked at the boys. Percy was glancing a little too far back for the huntress's liking, so she snapped at him, making him turn to her.

"If you have something to resolve, why not come inside and I'll help? Alecto? Will you be joining us?" The woman asked. There was no answer from the monster, who was covering her face with her wing. "No, well I wouldn't think you would. She won't bother you as long as you're with me. But it isn't as though she'll leave either, not if it means reporting that she failed to retrieve the son of Poseidon."

The girls looked at each other again then back to Percy, who looked at Alana slightly panicked. "How did you..."

"A forbidden child has been claimed." She explained. "How long did you think that secret would keep? It's a pleasure to meet you, son of Poseidon. I'm Medusa."

Percy started to turn around to look at her, when Annabeth stopped him. "Percy, don't. She's a monster."

Alana didn't agree with that. They had never met her, only heard her tale from other people. That was no way to decide if someone is a monster. "We all choose who we make our monsters, but, right now, that one wants to tear you limb from limb... and I'm offering you lunch. The choice is yours," Medusa stated, before turning around and walking inside.

They all stood up as soon as she left, letting out sighs of relief.

"I think we can trust her," Percy said.

"What?"
"Dude!"

"I'm with Percy on this," Alana said, setting a hand on his shoulder.

"Allie!"

The daughter of Artemis shook her head. "We don't get to decide who monsters are based on the heros and villains of someone else's stories."

"Exactly!" The blonde agreed. "My mom used to tell me her story. And the point was always that she isn't what people think. And I definitely trust my mom. So I'm going in. You guys do what you want."

Percy walked toward the house, with Alana right behind him. Grover soon followed leaving Annabeth no choice but to go with them.

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A/N: not a super exciting chapter, but I'm excited for the next one and I don't like making the chapters too long 🤗