𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒍𝒍

Chapter 12. The Great Forest's Inhabitants

Percy
Princess Annabeth looks like a fucking goddess. She looks like a pirate queen that is sick of the world so she decides to take over the world.

We're currently walking with Prince Alexander into The Great Forest. He was on his guard, making sure nothing would happen. He's starting to grow on me, but that doesn't mean I don't hate him. He kidnapped us, of course, I hate him.

Princess Annabeth starts walking slower, she looks at me and signals for me to get closer to her. I give her a questioning look but oblige anyways.

"We need to find a way to get out of this nightmare of a continent," She whispers in my ear. "Well duh," I roll my eyes.

She glares at me but nods. "You two keeping up?" Prince Alexander glances back at us.

We nod and walk a bit faster to catch up to him.

Something in The Great Forest roars

What was that? Never mind, it's probably just my imagination. Right?

Princess Annabeth starts looking around frantically, I guess she heard it too. I look at Prince Alexander, he had taken his sword out of its sheath.

Now my guard is being put up.

Something in The Great Forest rustles, moving closer to us

Princess Annabeth takes out her throwing knife and throws it in the direction the sound was coming from. I heard something whimper and scamper away.

My eyes widen and I distance myself from Princess Annabeth. She looks at me questioningly.

I shrug and walk a bit faster. "We should be nearing the middle of The Great Forest soon," Prince Alexander tells us.

We nod and I look around for a bit. All that I can see is trees and fog. Leaves are littering the ground and I also see something prance across the ground in the distance.

It looked like a human... on four legs.

"What the hell was that?"

"Just one of the creatures inhabiting this forest, they're territorial so as long as we don't get near them or their home they won't attack," Princess Annabeth explains.

I take a deep breath and walk closer to Princess Annabeth.

Something in The Great Forest growls

I look around frantically, searching for whatever just growled. I couldn't find it though.

"The middle of The Great Forest is the most unexplored part of it, no one knows what lives there," Prince Alexander tells us.

I gape at him and walk closer to Princess Annabeth... again.

She chuckles.

I scoff and walk farther away from her.

Something in The Great Forest howls

Okay, what the actual fuck was that? Are there wolves in here? Or was it something else...

Even Princess Annabeth looks scared now, which was a surprising sight for both Prince Alexander and me.

"Fuck off," Princess Annabeth mutters. I put my hands up defensively and jog farther up the path.

I look ahead and see something small run across the path and fall straight into a hole. There's a little scream and I wince.

Yikes

I see more small creatures jump into the hole and a couple of seconds later hop back out.

Something in The Great Forest stalks behind us

I turn around quickly, only to see fog. Something doesn't feel right here. Maybe I should just write my will right now.

Percy Jackson's Will
All of my belongings will go to my family
My stashed away money will go to Estelle
My clothes will go to Tyson
My-

"WATCH OUT," Prince Alexander screams and tackles me. I hear something slice through the air and then hear the clanging of metal against metal.

Princess Annabeth grunts and continues fighting the invisible force. Something stabs into her shoulder and I kick Prince Alexander off of her.

We're being circled by creatures and they all have their own weapons. I un-sheath my sword and stand above Princess Annabeth.

"No one touches her," I say, glaring at the creatures surrounding us. Prince Alexander glares at them too, getting ready to attack.

They looked at us warily but backed down. I sighed out of relief and kneeled beside Princess Annabeth.

"Are you okay?" I ask. She nods after a second of laying down. "No, you aren't," I say.

She glares at me but can't do anything to stop me from picking her up. "Did you bring any medical supplies?" I ask Alexander.

He nods and takes out bandages... but they seemed to have just appeared.

He hands them to me and takes Princess Annabeth out of my arms to lay her on a nearby rock. It's a long rock, flat, like a pebble. But instead of it being small it's 12ft. long.

I walk over to them and look at Princess Annabeth's wound. It wasn't a deep stab but it was deep enough to hurt.

I went to slowly pull out the dagger but Princess Annabeth winces and covers the dagger as much as she can.

I give her a sympathetic look and hold her hand while I pull out the dagger. She lets out a little scream and covers the wound with her other hand. "I've gotta do this," I say sympathetically.

She nods slowly and squeezes my hand tightly. I remove my hand from hers to wrap the wound.

I wrap the wound after using some disinfecting wipes (to which she screamed).

I helped her sit up and she hugs me. I'm a little surprised by the hug but hug her back anyways.

"Okay lovebirds, let's get moving," Prince Alexander says, sounding like he's gagging.

We nod and we head off through the forest.

☾☾☾♥☽☽☽

We're nearing the middle of The Great Forest and start... hearing things. Like little giggles and then everything seems to go wrong.

"What is happening?" I ask. Prince Alexander shrugs and says, "Pretty sure the things in the middle of The Great Forest don't want us to reach it,"

"No shit, anyways, Princess Annabeth are you feeling okay?" I ask her. "Stop using formalities, we're kidnapped and most likely aren't going to get back to Namasteria," She snaps. I put my hands up defensively and say, "Okay Annabeth,"

"Anyways, I'm feeling... sore. My shoulder hurts, which means my arm hurts, which means my head hurts, don't mind that logic it's just what my brain does," She explains.

I nod and grab her hand to squeeze it but before I even grab it I hear more of the giggling. "What's gonna happen this time?" I groan.

I hear shuffling in the bushes and my head snaps in that direction.

We stop walking and un-sheath our weapons. I watch the bush suspiciously, waiting for something to pop out,

Nothing does, we sheath our weapons and start walking again. We hear the little giggles again and look around warily.

I shake off the bad feeling I have and we continue walking forward.

I look at the sky which is covered in stars and I can see the Milky Way from down here, the giggling gets louder and before I can process it, I'm blacking out.

Author's Note
How was that? Shorter chapter but still good enough lmao. So sorry about said cliffhanger lol.

(Posted On: Sunday, August 13, 2023)
(Word Count: 1205)