Camp Half-Blood

We Go to the Wild Side

Sorry for the ridiculously long wait time. I hope this is worth it. My bro read this story recently and wanted a character, so I added one in for him, as if six weren't enough already. (Not everyone has been equally spotlighted *Ahem* Sorry, John and Dale *Ahem* It actually works in my favor for later chapters because I'll be able to do really cool things that haven't been done in a Percy Jackson fanfiction before... Also, sorry for the mediocre writing.

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 As if the end of the world weren't bad enough, we barely made it out of the zoo alive.

We were able to hitch-hike to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park with some old lady who smelled of pumpkin spice, prune juice, and denture cream.  She must have owned a about a gazillion cats, because everything in her car was covered in fur. My allergies were about to kill me by the time we pulled into the parking lot.

We paid our admission and headed toward the Gift Shop. We tried to be inconspicuous, pretending to be regular zoo-goers, but we were worried about people seeing our weapons. So far it had been no problem (after all, we'd just gotten in), but we decided to go buy some kind of duffel bag to put them in.

The cashier didn't seem to know what we were trying to find so it took a while to get what we were looking for. After playing charades for about two minutes, he finally said, "Oh, I see! We've got one in the back room. I'll go get it."

While we waited we looked around. Stuffed animals were everywhere, sitting on shelves, hanging from the ceiling, and sandwiched between some packing boxes and a bookshelf on the opposite wall. There were all kinds of crazy toys shaped like zoo animals and books about them, but what really caught my eye was a  young boy in the corner who seemed to be watching us.

I forgot about him for a second when the cashier came back with a burlap totebag with  a picture of a cartoon monkey and the caption reading "Just monkeying around at theSmithsonian National Zoological Park." Which was really dumb in my opinion.

 "Is this it?" The man asked asked cheerfully.

"Yes, that'll do." Dale replied, clearly not willing to spend any more time here looking for something more tasteful.

"That will be twelve dollars."

I reached for my wallet and felt someone's hand in my back pocket. I grabbed his wrist and spun around. There was the kid grinning  and holding my wallet. The little scamp dropped my wallet and jerked his arm away, saluting me before running off. I sighed, picked up my bill-fold off the floor, and paid the cashier.

 We headed for the Bird House and Great Flight Exhibit. Skye held the map as we hiked up Olmstead Walk.  He kept talking about seeing the lemurs at Lemur Island and Kaire wanted to see the panda bears, but I reminded them that we were on a time sensitive mission. See that's the thing that sucks about being a demigod.  You can't ever have fun. That, and the fact that we had to fight for our lives against hideous monsters all the time. 

I was thinking about this when we ran into that pickpocket kid at the store.  He grinned and started to run. I caught up to him and grabbed his shoulder. "Who are you? Why'd you try to steal my wallet"

"i'm Cole." He said, as if that was supposed to explain both questions.

"Yeah? And...?" I said gripping his wrist tighter. He was clearly thinking about dashing off again.

"I-I don't know..." He stammered. "I just sorta..."

He didn't get a chance to finish his thought as a  hideous roar filled the air. At first I thought it might be a lion, but it was too loud. The lion habitat was on the other side of the zoo. There was no way...