The Mark of Athena

Chapter 8

Nothing much to say. Just wanna thank everyone for reading my story.

Here is chapter 8!!!!!!

**************************************************************************************************************

Frank

Frank felt totally vulnerable, staying on guard every second. Someone had his stick. His life was hanging on a thread. He could literally feel his life force fading with his lifeline in the wrong hands. Also, it was affecting his powers. Each time Frank changed into an animal, he felt more wild, more feral. His head went all fuzzy and he had diffculty remembering things, like that he was a human and not an animal.

But he was more worried about Hazel. She seemed so down and timid, exspecially with Leo/Sammy around. Frank wished that the guy would spill out the truth. It would make it a whole lot easier.

He saw Hazel on Arion. He remembered when he had rode the horse during the quest to save Thanatos. He felt sick just thinking about it. "Hey, Hazel!" He shouted. Hazel looked up. She seemed to be lost in thought. She broke out into a grin and trotted towards Frank.

"Hey," She said. "Hey," Frank said. "How're you doing?" "Oh, fine, just fine." Hazel stared at Arion's honey gold coat and black mane. "Right." Frank rolled his eyes. Hazel jumped off or Arion, landing right next to Frank. Her cavalry sword hung on her side. "Do you think we're going to get another quest?" Hazel blurted out. Frank blinked. "Uh. um. yeah. Probably. I'm pretty sure there are six of us, but I'm not sure about the seventh." "It might be Annabeth." Hazel suggested. "Remeber? Wisdom's daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome." "Yeah, I remember." Frank studied Hazel. "Do you think we might find..." Hazel's voice trailed off. Frank gulped. He knew who she was talking about. "Don't worry. We'll find Nico somehow." Frank said. While Frank, Hazel, and Percy had gone on their quest, Nico had tried searching for the Doors of Death but ended up being captured by Gaea. "It's all my fault." Hazel gulped down a sob. "If I had been there, I could've-" "It wasn't your fault, Hazel." Frank said firmly. "But I could've stopped Gaea." Hazel said in a whisper. "Oh, Frank, what if he's-" "Don't think like that." Frank snapped. "He's out there somewhere, and we're going to find him." "I hope." Hazel sighed. "Hey, how much do you think Percy and Annabeth know about Nico anyway?" Frank shrugged. "All Percy said was that he knew him."

"C'mon." Frank put his large hand on her shoulder. "There's an after party in the mess hall. I'm sure Percy wants us to be there." Hazel smiled faintly. "Bye, Arion." Hazel patted Arion's side. He was wild. He never stayed, but he visited the camp often to see Hazel. Arion snorted, then narrowed his eyes at Frank. Frank backed away. The gold-eating horse didn't really like him. He gave Hazel one last nudge and was off.

"Race ya." Hazel said. Frank grinned. They ran, tripping over each other all the way to the Mess Hall.

"There you guys are!" Percy met them. "C'mon. We're exchanging stories." Frank and Hazel sat down at the table. Jason, Piper, Leo, Thalia, Annabeth, Tyson, Grover were all there. Frank still couldn't believe that Jason had a sister. He couldn't believe that Thalia was his sister. He also couldn't believe that the faun, Grover, was the Lord of the Wild. Plus, Tyson was his great great great-whatever. Weird. Percy's hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary, was sitting next to Percy, licking him. Even thought he didn't get wet underwater, hellhoud drool soaked him.

"I just started telling them about our quest." Percy filled them in. "I'm at the part when we meet Iris." "I remember that." Hazel laughed. "She threw Ding Dongs at Polybotes's and his army." "Ding Dongs?" Leo asked in disbelief. "Yes, Ding Dongs." Frank shuddered. "And I had to fight all those basilisks with my dad's spear. I'd much rather have my bow, thank you very much." "A son of Mars who does archery?" Jason eyed Frank. "Now that's something different." "I hated that." Percy shuddered. "There were centaurs in the army. Also Cyclopes. I felt sick to my stomach. It kind of jogged some memories." Frank remembered when Percy had turned all pale and shaky when he had seen the army. "Oh, yeah, remember that one called Ma Gasket?" Frank added. "You guys fought her?" Piper sqeauked. "Yeah, she mentioned you guys." Percy nodded. "I made Ma Gasket go bye bye!" Tyson beamed proudly.

"So after that, Iris sent us to find this blind seer, Phineas." Percy continued. Annabeth laughed. "Your adventures are crazy, as usual." Percy rolled his eyes. "Phineas has this curse. You see, he kind of talked too much and harpies kept trying to steal his food. That's where we found Ella." Percy pointed at the red harpy who was flying around the room. "We...tricked Phineas into...ummmm..."

"He drank Gorgons blood." Frank said.

Thalia spit out her soda. Annabeth's eyes went wide in worry and anger. Leo, Piper, and Jason looked grossed out and shocked. Grover was chewing a tin can which went flying into a son of Mercury's head. "WHAT?!" Everyone exclaimed.

Percy turned red. "It was nothing. Just a little sip." "Dude, you are underexagerating!" Frank piped up. "You got the poisonous vial of blood! He almost died! Luckily , he's important to Gaea, and she killed Phineas instead."

"YOU SEAWEED BRAIN!" Annabeth punched Percy. She seemed to do that a lot. Percy doubled over and sent a "I'm gonna kill you," look towards Frank. "Annabeth, calm down, it's no big deal." Percy groaned. "No big deal?" Thalia smirked. "That was just stupid." "That's completely normal for me." Percy said defensively. "Man, that's just gross." Leo gagged. "Let's just move on." Hazel said. She continued from there. She told everyone how they'd met the Amazons and Arion, leaving out how she and Frank had shared a blackout. Frank was relieved. He didn't want anyone to know about the stick. When they got to the part when they had battled the Laistrgonians, Annabeth glared at Percy. "You fought them again? They must really hate you! How'd you fight thwm off without Tyson." "Oh, so that's how he made it out alive." Hazel teased. "I've had many close calls." Percy said. "Like when I fought the Minotaur, when I blew up the Princess Andromeda, when I got poisoned by Luke's scorpian-" "Whoa." Frank said. "I have nothing to say about that." "Anyway," Hazel said. "We escaped, but the house blew up, but Frank's grandmother..." Frank stiffened as Hazel mentioned this. Everyone knew what Hazel was saying. They looked at Frank with sympathy. "Sorry, man." Jason said sadly. "That's ok." Frank could still hear his grandmother's nagging voice. He never thought he'd miss it. "What about your mom?" Grover asked. "She--died." Frank gulped. "In the war. Afghanistan." Everyone nodded and stopped asking questions.

"I thought it was unfair." Hazel broke the tension. "They got cannonballs on fire. All we got was a hose and potato guns." "Seriously?" Piper giggled. Hazel nodded. She told them about the Gryphons. Frank noticed how she skipped the part when they had stopped by her old house and when Percy had sunk into the mud. Hazel had jumped in to save him and both almost died. Frank had been so worried. Hazel had been visited by Gaea, unfortunately.

Frank zoned out through the rest of the story. Riding on Arion to the Hubbard Glacier, finding the Golden Eagle, Percy falling off the edge, Frank and Hazel defeating Alcyoneus, finding Percy alive, going back to the camp to defeat Polybotes. Hazel concluded the story when Percy had become praetor and they had went to meet the Greeks on the Argo II.

"Cool." Leo said simply. "Man, Kelp Head, your stories are always exciting." Thalia shook her head. "Yeah, that's how awesome I am." Percy grinned. "You got turned into a guinea pig." Piper said. "That can't be awesome." Percy scowled playfully.