The Truths Spoken In The Sea Of Lies

Medusa .... I honestly don't know what to say...

Zeus tried to harm me,

Medusa finds my face fine,

I'm so done.

***

So there they were, Annabeth, Grover, and Rhea, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind them, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in their noses.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

"I'm going to start blaming Zeus for every miserable thing that is happening and will happen in my life," Rhea said.

*THUNDER*

Rhea rolled her eyes. "Thunder, thunder, crack, crack, boom, boom." She then looked at Grover. "Look at it from the good side, at least we still have our belongings !" She said while pointing at the backpacks.

"I'm glad you acted fast and killed them, and that it wasn't you that died there," Annabeth said.

Rhea's eyebrow twitched. Please tell me that she isn't about to say what I think she will say.

"It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world." Annabeth said.

Rhea's head slowly turned to the side to look at the blond, her right arm slowly raised before she brought her fist down on top of her head.

It was strong enough to make Annabeth see stars.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR ???!!!" Annabeth screamed.

"You know exactly what you said to deserve that punch," Rhea said.

Annabeth groaned before she turned to look at Grover for backup, the satyr turned the other way suddenly interested in the trees more than usual.

The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind them, leaving them in almost total darkness. Rhea couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.

"Camp Half-Blood is my home," Annabeth said after relieving the pain in her head. "At camp, you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not." She paused. "...where did you learn how to fight ?"

Rhea's face went blank as war flashbacks started to appear in her mind.

"My master ... the one who taught me to fight what can I say? I haven't felt so much love for someone other than my mother, he's the cruel sea... and by the cruel sea, I mean my fuckass of a master with blond hair, blue eyes, and an apathetic face who tried to kill me multiple times, but I love him so much to the point of ignoring his faults." Rhea said. "Although he will deny and say that he doesn't have any faults and that he's perfect, kinda have to agree on that one tho, a little bit."

Grover was taken aback by that. "... there's a lot there to unpack and I don't know by what to start."

Annabeth took a deep breath. "I'm sorry who's he? And he tried to WHAT?"

"Also..." Rhea paused for a bit before she smiled. "Master has a weird way of swinging his hips when he walks."

"I do not swing my hips when I walk." Poseidonas immediately denied.