⋰☆✄♘➶⋱
【𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐠𝐬】
ᵍʳᵒᵛᵉʳ❦ⁿᵒᵃ

"Grover, hurry up." Annabeth encouraged him quickly, his scared eyes looking around. Noa hadn't noticed due to looking around herself, the dark and foggy place the epiphany of the underworld. A horrible feeling weighed in on her, like she was sinking.

"Is that a pimple?" Percy's question caught her attention.

Noa whipped her head his way, seeing he was staring right as her. "Excuse me?"

"You have a pimple." he shoved a finger at her face. "Since when do you get pimples?"

"Since when do you not know manners, child?" she shot back as him, removing her glove. "Point again."

"Oh, I thought I needed manners." he mocked her.

Noa gave him a stupid look. "Your blackheads and crooked toes overpower my pimple."

"Speak about manners." he rolled his eyes.

"I'm older." she once again matched his tone.

"Guys." Annabeth snapped at them, a look of disbelief across her face. "Seriously?"

"I didn't even notice it." Grover spoke up as Noa put her finger to where Percy pointed, the power in her touch making it dissolve into her face. "You really have never been down here?"

"Never." she shook her head as they hid behind the bolder together, Percy and Annabeth on the other side. "Really wish I never had to, either."

"Not in Kansas." Percy mumbled under his breath, barely above a whisper.

"Hey, focus." Annabeth rose her eyebrows his way. "We left Kansas four days ago."

"Yeah, no, that's not-" he stated, stumbling over his words but realizing all three of them were confused. "Never mind."

"Guys." Grover got their attention again, slowly squeezing his squeak ball. "Is that who I think it is?"

Noa followed his gaze, looking out at the line of ghost walking within the shadows of the underworld. Grover's ball squeaked over and over, Noa worried it would grab attention as she reached over and placed her hand ontop of his. He put his free hand over the one she had clasped over him. "Charon."

"The boatman." Annabeth further explained. "Taking new arrivals across the River Styx. Which means that over there is the main gate. Let's go. Maybe we can get there first."

"Yeah." Grover agreed as he stood up with Noa's hand clasped within both of his. It was funny, really. She reached over to hold his first, yet he ended up being the one to hold onto hers instead.

He let her go and squeezed the ball over and over again. Annabeth held her hand out. "Why don't you let me hang on to that for now."

Grover passed it her way with a bashful smile. Noa grinned slightly as she out reached her hand again with a wave of her fingers, Grover latched onto her hand tightly as she lead the group toward the line of people. She exhaled half way and stopped, clutching her heart. The group gave a worried look, Annabeth looked at her strange. "Noa, you okay?"

Something was off, her veins flashed black for half a second before fading away. She rubbing her chest where her heart felt like it had dropped. "Yeah, I'm fine...let's keep moving."

They made it over there in no time, the line ridiculously slow. Percy took it upon himself after that to lead the group, pushing through the crowd of the dead. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. Sorry. Behind you."

"This seems so wrong." Grover cringed.

"So wrong." Noa agreed as she held up her shell necklace to a few of the people. "Smile!"

It flashed, her grin dropped at their dull faces. "Or not."

"Only suckers wait in line." Percy shrugged his shoulders. "You know, you should really spend some time in the city with me. I think you'd learn a lot. Plus, all the girls there are like Noa. They like makeup, goat yoga, and taking pictures of themselves, too. You'll have a great time, Grover."

"What about the big rats though?" Noa asked from behind Grover. "Are they really the size of dogs?"

"That's just an exaggeration but close." he shrugged.

"What about the Subject? Is it really fast?" she kept going about what she'd heard about the part of New York she hadn't seen.

"The Subject?" Percy had no clue what she was talking about with frowned eyebrows.

"Yeah, the big time machine that throws you through the city. And people yodel down there." she kept going, Percy was even more in shock as to what words were coming out of her mouth. "It's in the ground."

"Sounds scary and gross." Grover cringed.

"Oh, the Subway." Percy put two and two together as he slapped his forehead. "Not the Subject. And it's not in the ground, it's underneath the ground."

"But they yodel down there?" her eyebrows shot up.

"They really just sing but maybe." he shrugged his shoulders. "It's not a time machine, either. It's kinda like a big bus."

"Where did you hear about all that?" Grover gave her a questionable look.

"Chris." she shrugged her shoulders.

"What would Chris know about New York?" Annabeth questioned from behind her.

"He's a Hermes kid...he probably has an intuition on traveling." Noa shrugged her shoulders in his defense.

The all stopped as they came face to face with the dark figure, the hood over his face a lot scarier up close. Noa stood close to Percy as the voice echoed. "You're not dead."

"I mean...we're all dying, to some extract." Percy tried to reason, Noa reached for her heart again as it did the drop.

"And you didn't pay to cross." Charon huffed in annoyance as he held the bag of coins, trying to walk away.

"Wait!" Noa stopped him quickly. "Hades wishes to see me."

"No, he doesn't. I'd know if he was waiting for someone." he mocked her.

"New Goddess that Olympus wants to take?" she rose her eyebrows. "Aphrodite and Poseidon's secret kid? Ringing any bells? Hades niece that he probably wants to see before anyone else does."

Charon didn't seem impressed with her attempt to get through, blowing his whistle as if was barley audible. Percy shifted slightly. "She can fix your whistle."

"Percy." Annabeth scolded him. The faint grow of Cerberus echoed from a distance, the fours eyes going wide. "I think we better-"

He growled loudly in her direction. "-run!"

"Go! Go!" Grover yelled as the four took off quickly, their legs burning beneath them in an attempt to run faster.

The sharp pain hit Noa's chest again just as Cerberus caught up to them, his mouth opening around Grover as he disappeared into the three headed dogs mouth. Noa paused as she clutched her chest, her eyes going wide as she looked at where he just was. "Grover!"

"This way!" Annabeth yelled, Percy grabbed ahold of Noa harshly and yanked her with him. They ran into the dusty shadows before the pair heard the dogs come to a holt, its paws vibrating the whole ground. They realized Annabeth had climbed up on Cerberus and was rubbing behind his ear, making him still. Percy let Noa go, she breathed deeply before she clutched her heart at the sudden pain. She fell to her knees in agony.

"Noa." Percy dropped with her. "What's the matter?"

"I don't-" she leaned forward, the veins in her arms deepening to a bright black. She sat up, Percy saw them go to her face too as her hair began to fade to black. "-know."

"Noa!" a flash of darkness flooded her vision, a slimy feeling taking over her entire body and clinging on her arms. "Noa, in here."

She blinked quickly when she saw the glimpse of teeth, a large tongue making an appearance. Percy gaped as he saw the black veins become overtaken by the gold color they did when Grover looked at her in a certain way or complimented her. Her eyes had glossed over in black but were coming back to her normal shade, her black hair fading back to red as strands of shiny gold come with it. He'd never seen anything like it...he'd never even heard it before.

Noa took a deep breath, like she came up from beneath water as she stared up at the three headed dog. She pushed back on her knees more and extended her hands, holding them out to Cerberus' mouth and bringing as much saliva forward as she could, with the power of water, until he had no choice but to spit up.

Noa gasped as Grover came rolling out with the disgusting liquid, the force of the spit making him roll right over to the pair where Noa caught him with open arms. She wrapped him like a baby in her hold, cradling his head to her as she held onto him for dear life. He felt and smelt disgusting but she was so overjoyed with the fact that he was alive and somehow spoke to her without her even being there. "You're okay."

"He's a really bad dog." Grover joked, making Noa laugh through her tears as Percy did the same. Grover sat up better and pulled them both into a tight hug, slime and all.

•

kylie speaks

hi babies!! sorry for dipping,
i'm working like a mad woman
lately but it's finally the
weekend and i'm here to write
everyday!!! see you guys either
again tonight or tmr, enjoy
these lovers and all noa's new
abilities that come with grover
breaking the curse that kept her
alive forever