𝐖𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒 | percy jackson

monsters find you

"What, in Zeus' name, is in that box?" Ciarda watched with disapproving eyes. Percy huffed at her. He held a dirt-stained box with flying trainers and she seemed disgusted. 

Fate may have chosen her, and she may fight by his side when it came down to it - that still didn't make her any less of a pain in the ass. 

"A gift from Luke." Percy didn't expand. The day had just begun and the glare of the lake from the sun was blinding the demigods. Sweat poured from Grover, nerves or heat, it was hard to tell the cause.

Ciarda, Percy and Grover waited for Annabeth, watching as she touched the tree in the distance. Percy looked at Ciarda, his eyebrows raising at her outfit. 

Cargo trousers, which she could combat in well, were her first choice, along with a baggy t-shirt - one of the few she owned that wasn't orange - which displayed the words 'I love to make boys cry'. She thought it was fitting. 

"She's really going to miss that tree, huh?" Percy crossed his arms as they waited. Grover looked to Ciarda who was staring at the ground and biting the inside of her cheek. She uncomfortably kicked sandy rocks around, waiting for Annabeth to finish. 

"When Annabeth, Thalia and Luke came to Camp Half-Blood, they were chased by monsters. Agents of Hades. Sisters." Grover explained, ignoring the ignorant shaking of Ciarda's head. 

"Furies? Like Mrs Dodds?" Percy squinted in confusion. "Yes, one of which was our algebra teacher - Alecto. When.." Grover glanced at Ciarda nervously, "They couldn't fight anymore, Thalia turned back to buy her friends some time. Her satyr protector tried to stop her but she wouldn't listen."

Grover felt the guilt rushing into his cheeks. Watching him redden, Ciarda decided to continue the story and put him out of his misery. 

"So, at the last moment, Zeus intervened to save her life and changed her form," She finalised. Percy used the desert sand as a reason to explain her red-rimmed eyes. 

The girl probably wasn't even at Camp Half-Blood when it happened, he assumed.

"The most powerful being in the universe's best idea to save his daughter's life, is to turn her into a tree?" Percy asked. The Daughter of Athena overheard them as she made her way back carefully over the black desert thorns.

"She was the bravest demigod I ever knew," Annabeth knew she was lying through her teeth, her memories flashing of that night. She'd watched, even with a fractured arm, as Ciarda had fought the Furies until she couldn't get back up. 

The girl had nearly died trying to save the strangers' lives; Annabeth wished to become that brave one day. Even if the Daughter of Ares was especially guarded and rude. 

Ciarda looked up, her dark eyes meeting Annabeth's. She just nodded gently, sending a small smile her way. She knew what Annabeth was trying to say, but that girl - Thalia's - life would always be on her hands.

"She fought valiantly and met a hero's fate," Annabeth stared at Poseidon's son. Percy gazed at her, winking one eye to protect himself from the blaring sun. "She met a pinecone's fate." 

Annabeth's face morphed to still outrage whilst Grover flailed his hands about as if he had already given up. Percy yelped when Ciarda elbowed him hard in the ribs. Bruises would soon blossom.

"This'll be a fun trip, maybe I only need to do half of the provoking," Ciarda beamed. Nobody seemed even half as amused. She tied her curls back into a ponytail, her fringe whispering over her forehead. 

"Forbidden children are always in danger. Even the strongest ones, even Thalia," Annabeth stated, scarily calm. "And you are not Thalia. Do exactly as I say and maybe you'll survive this. Are we clear?"