by Amy Laine
“No more monsters!” She screamed trying to reach her hammer. “No more monsters.” Luke promised. “Thalia put your shield away.” He told me. I tapped it and it shrank back into a silver bracelet. She stopped kicking for a moment. “Are you a monster?” She asked.
I stepped forward as Luke explained. “We’re…well it’s hard to explain but we’re monster fighters like you. Where’s your family?”
The little girl’s expression turned hard and angry. Her chin trembled. “My family hates me. They don’t want me. I ran away.” Her voice is so full of pain I almost break down and hug her.
I exchange a glance with Luke. We can’t take her back. Our eyes meet and it’s a silent agreement. We couldn’t leave this kid. She was obviously a demigod, and she was so young.
I knelt next to the little girl. “What’s your name, kiddo?”
“Annabeth.”
Luke smiles. “I tell you what, Annabeth. You’re pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you.”
She starts to retrieve her fallen hammer but Luke picks it up and doesn’t hand it too her. Instead he turns over his knife and hands her the treasured blade.
I myself had a full size spear with a celestial bronze point. ““How’d you like a real monster-slaying weapon?” Luke asked her. “This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer.” Luke paused for a moment some unknown emotion playing across his face. “Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters, they don’t have the reach or power of a sword, but they’re easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy’s armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you’re pretty clever.”
“I am clever!” Annabeth beamed and held up the blade to the sun. It gleamed almost as much as her golden blonde hair.
“We’d better get going, Annabeth,” I said. “We have a safe house on the James River. We’ll get you some clothes and food.” I patted our new family member on the back. She smiled at us. For a moment, she reminded me of Jason, so innocent and sweet. I erased the memory quickly.
Annabeth’s smile wavered. For a moment, she got that wild look in her eyes again. “You’re…you’re not going to take me back to my family? Promise?”
I wouldn’t do that. Annabeth was so young, but she’d learned a hard lesson, just like Luke and I had. Our parents had failed us. The gods were harsh and cruel and aloof. Demigods had only each other.
Luke put a hand on Annabeth’s shoulder. “You’re part of our family now. And I promise I’m not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?”
“Deal!” she said happily, clutching her new dagger.
I picked up my spear. I nodded at Luke with approval. I was happy he hadn’t left this girl alone. I didn’t sense that he would have done that anyways but I was still relieved. She reminded me of myself in so many ways.
“Now, come on. We can’t stay put for long!” I grinned at our new member.
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We managed to feed all three of us. Luke did the most work, out of all of us. As we were on the run, he managed to get a couple odd jobs for awhile. Random things, like trimming bushes, mowing lawns or helping a guy work on a car for a couple of hours.
Annabeth was smart. She could fix just about anything and sometimes when we were fighting monsters she would call out what we should do. Normally, I wouldn’t take advice from a seven year old, but every time it worked. It was like she had a battle strategy.
One night, I gathered my courage and asked her how she’d survived on her own for so long. Luke came along and sat down by the fire too. They were so close now, and I could tell Annabeth admired him. He was her hero. They sat by one another.
“Athena helped me,” Annabeth said between bites of hotdog, “For the first couple of months,” Another bite of her meal, “My mom. She helped me defeat monsters and survive.” She wiped mustard off her chin. “I think she wanted me too meet you guys.”
I smiled. Luke told Annabeth a story about two demigods and a Sacred Sun Cow. It was a silly story, but it made them laugh. I picked up my camera, which always hung from my belt, and took a picture.
*Later Thalia hung up some of the pictures up in her room in Cabin 1 at Camp Halfblood. Jason in the Lost Hero discovered them.
It was one of those cameras that immediately printed the picture. I looked at it, and there they were. Annabeth and Luke frozen in time in the picture, mid laugh. I took it out of the camera and stuck it in my jeans pocket. Luke got up from the campfire and looked up at the stars for a moment.
“Do we have to go to bed already?” Annabeth made puppy eyes. Luke shook his head. “I planned on something else…but…” He leaned over the bag that held most of our food. (We did carry separate food in our packs as well.)
He held up a bag of marshmallows, and Annabeth squealed in delight.
“If you don’t want any of these, I guess you could just go to bed.” Luke popped one in his mouth.
Annabeth held her hands out and Luke dropped four in her small hands. I reached over and took a few. We grabbed the sticks we used to make hotdogs and roasted them over the fire.
Annabeth kept burning hers so Luke made hers for her. I grinned. We sang a stupid song about __#___ Little Indians. After that, Luke carried Annabeth back to the Safe House. I doused the fire with water and followed them.
“I’m worried about you guys,” I confessed as we walked back. “Annabeth admires you too much. She’d follow you anywhere.”
Luke shrugged. “Is that a bad thing?”
Annabeth rose her head sleepily from Luke’s shoulder. “No it’s not a bad thing,” She said with a yawn. Her head fell back onto his shoulder and she closed her eyes again.
I had to laugh. It felt good to laugh for once. “Never mind.” I told Luke. I had this feeling though…someday something was going to happen I kept it too myself.
I studied the two jars of Greek Fire Annabeth had shared with us. A gift from her mother. I packed one of each into Luke and I’s packs. We had to be extra careful with them.
I tucked Annabeth into her bed and blew out the candle. Luke came in and stocked the small fire inside with a little wood. “Good night.” I told him as I crawled into our little sleeping bags on the floor. Luke nodded. “That’s true. It is a good night.” He sighed and closed his eyes happily. I watched him as he slept for a little while, then rolled over and let sleep consume my body.