•as the world caves in•

•we visit an interesting statue garden•

"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once." Grover shivered.

"Come on! The farther away we get, the better." Annabeth sighed.

"All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—" I started.

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" He asked.

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread, but fine." Grover put it.

"Shut up, goat boy," Annabeth snapped.

"Tin cans... a perfectly good bad of tin cans."

I walked next to Percy. "Look, I... I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?"

I was silent for a bit. "It's just that if you died... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

It had stopped raining, but walking through mud sucked. I was ruining my good pair of shoes.

"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?"

"No. Only short field trips. My dad—"

"The drunk."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." I knew I was talking fast, but I couldn't stop. "At camp you train and train. And that's cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."

Sure, Luke always said I was doing good. Sure, I was evenly matched with him. Sure, I always beat Annabeth.

But I was used to them. I know what they would pull on me. I knew them like I knew the back of my hand.

These monsters?

I didn't know them.

I had no clue what they could try to pull on me.

What they would do when I least expected it.

"You're pretty good with that sword." Percy said.

"You think so?"

"Anybody who can tie up a Fury is okay by me."

I smiled.

"You know, maybe I should tell you... something funny back on the bus..."

I was going to tell him how I was annoyed he had a cool sword like me, but a shrill noise came in front of us.

"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"

We kept walking and I heard something slam into a tree. I could barley see, but I noticed Percy backing away from a tree next to me.

I smiled to myself and we kept walking.

After a bit, we came across a road. Across from us was a closed gas station, a billboard for some 90s movie, and one business.

It looked like some low building that was a warehouse with some land around it.

There was a neon sign above the gate and I tried to read it.

ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.

"What the heck does that say?" Percy questioned.

"No clue," I shrugged.

Grover translated for us: "Aunty Em'e Garden Gnome Emporium."