Flowergirl, Percy Jackson

003. Ghosts

"Never mind." She glances at Annabeth, who still looks scandalised at her suggestion. "I'll come with you, I have nothing better to do anyway." 

"Wow, thanks," Annabeth mutters. 

In retrospect, it's probably a good thing Annabeth didn't follow Lila's suggestion, as her cabin is actually a mess. Well, just Annabeth's bunk, which is covered in papers. Her bed is done, probably because she hasn't slept and is running on coffee, while her laptop is still running, charging with a portable charger hanging over the edge of the bed. There's building schematics and random faces of missing demigods, maps with lines drawn all over them, mapping out certain places in Central Park and Manhattan. Some monuments even have circles around them, or large red crosses. Honestly, it looks like Annabeth's planning a murder, or solving one. Knowing her, likely both.

"Vlacas," Annabeth says to herself. 

Malcolm presses his lips together, probably trying not to laugh. "Yeah, um .... we cleaned everything else. Didn't know if it was safe to move your notes." 

That's fair. Annabeth says her knife is only for monsters and people who touch her stuff. 

Lila gingerly looks over at the map. "Hey, are you planning a murder?"

Annabeth narrows her eyes, and Lila steps away, raising her palms in surrender. Who knew Annabeth was so scary when she wants to be?

"So," Percy asks. "Get any good info from that thing?" he points at the laptop. 

"Too much," Annabeth hums, eyes lighting up. "Daedalus had so many ideas, I could spend fifty years just trying to figure them all out."

"Yeah," Percy meets Lila's eyes, and they share one of their classic Annabeth glances where they raises their eyebrows like, what is wrong with her? "That would be fun."

"Three out five," Annabeth mutters, "for a sloppy head counsellor. Come on. Let's finish your reports and get back to Chiron."

They head back to the Big House, walking through the camp. Together, they go through the reports Percy's supposed to sort through. Most of them are pretty depressing, about missing demigods, nymphs, dryads - the worst are from the satyrs and nature spirits. 

" 'Dear Grover,'" Percy reads aloud. " 'Woods outside Toronto attacked by giant evil badger. Tried to do as you suggested and summon power of Pan. No effect. Many naiads' trees destroyed. Retreating to Ottawa. Please advise. Where are you? —Gleeson Hedge, protector.'"

"Giant evil badger?" Lila wonders.

Annabeth grimaces. "You haven't heard anything from him? Even with your empathy link?"

Percy shakes his head. Grover's been missing for a few months. Lila's never been that close to him, so they didn't really keep in much contact while she travelled, but she knew he was working with the nature spirits to protect the wild, seeing as the Council were ignoring him. But nobody has heard from him for a while. He's definitely not dead, but ... there are other fates. 

"Okay," Percy sets his shoulders, as if preparing for a fight. He doesn't even do that when he's actually preparing for a fight. Whatever he's about to tell Annabeth, it must be bad. "Listen, I had this dream about, um, Rachel ... "

Lila listens intently. Rachel's pretty cool. If she were a demigod, she'd probably be a child of Apollo. (For some reason, Lila has wondered about this). Mostly because of her artistic prowess; no other gods beside the Muses take such an interest in it. 

Percy's dream is unnerving. Apparently Rachel's been having dreams about Luke as a child, and about New York. It would honestly be less weird if Percy didn't describe her artwork as strikingly accurate, down to every angle of Luke's face. It's eerie.