Children of the Big Three-Book One-Quest for Truth

Chapter 6-Zaylor

Every single camper ran into the forest. I followed the girl Piper into a different section of the forest. As we ran I said, "Whe-"

"Sh!" she said.

"Where are we going?" I whispered. "Why are we going this way?"

"Special instructions from Annabeth," she said. "We're finding the flag and reporting back to base."

"Where's base?"

"Our flag. That's why we have to make sure we're not being followed."

We ran through bushes, trees, rocks, all sorts of forest stuff until we came to one side of a river. On our side was a colossal rock that had a view of some of the forest from the top.

"Come on," Piper said. "We've gotta climb."

"Up there?" I asked nervously.

"Sh! Let's go," she whispered.

We climbed to the top of the rock, Piper going first. When we reached the top, we stood and she examined our surroundings. I looked down.

Good, I thought. This isn't very high. Just don't look down.

"Ugh," she whispered. I jumped. "I can't see anything." She froze. "Wait, Zeus's thumb! Hurry, let's go!"

She jumped off the rock, and, even though I was scared, I couldn't show weakness. I jumped down after her, my eyes tightly closed. Only when I felt my feet hit the solid ground did I open them and started running after Piper, who had ran ahead.

"Wait up!" I whispered.

"Sorry," she whispered back. "No time to loose."

I ran after her until we came to the center of the forest where a colossal rock stood. The rock was high enough to have a view of the whole forest, and it was shaped like a giant thumb.

"Whoa," I said as we approached it. "Are we climbing Gaea's thumb?"

The name made her shudder. "No, Zeus's."

"Huh."

She put a foot on the rock.

I gulped. "Wait, do we have to climb that?"

"If we want to find the red flag," Piper answered starting to climb. "And make Annabeth proud."

"Okay." I gulped again. "Here goes nothing."

I placed my foot on the rock and grabbed on to a slight ledge. As I lifted myself up, I scolded myself in my mind.

You are going to die, I thought. You were a good person, with hilarious jokes.

Thanks, me, I thought back to myself.

This is pathetic, I thought. Thinking to myself.

I know.

"Stop!" I said aloud.

"You okay?" Piper asked looking down at me.

"Yeah, thanks."

Dang, she was brave. More than halfway up the rock and not even glancing back. I finally reached the top. I had to stand close to Piper so we could both fit on the top of "Zeus's thumb."

"You see anything?" she asked.

I looked around. "Well, I see a red flag on the other side of a river a couple of feet from our rock if that helps."