Remember Me? (Percy Jackson-- Leo Valdez Fanfic)

Chapter 7: Camping

I smiled as he looked even more excited about this trip than I was, and that definitely said something. I laughed a few times and nodded as I listened, but soon enough his voice started to fade away as my lack of sleep caught up to me.

~3 hours later~ (A/N: say that out loud in a French accent like in Spongebob... it sounds funny :P)

I was sitting on my porch, cuddled with a blanket and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. I sat as I stared into the vast forest surround my house. For a brief second, a thought crossed my mind. Where did the forest come from? But I shrugged it away as I took another sip. Suddenly everything started shaking around me, my cup rattling on the saucer I was holding. I frowned as I looked around me, my eyes widening in shock as the ground seemed to be splitting through the forest as though it were an earthquake. 

"Kristen."  I heard, but couldn't decide where it was coming from. I looked around me, and suddenly realized something. Wait. When did I get a porch?
I heard my name being called again but I couldn't get myself to scream when my house suddenly split in two.

"Kristen!" I heard my name a final time before my eyes opened and I found myself leaning against the door of my parent's car, and saw Alfire shaking me. 

"What the hell Alfire, I thought I was going to die." I groaned as I tiredly sat up. He frowned at me in confusion but I lazily waved my hand, telling him to forget it. "What?" I asked again.

"We're here."

My gaze shot out the window, but disappointment filled me when I still saw no forest surrounding us. I growled slightly in annoyance as I heard Alfire laughing behind me. "You woke me up for this?" I asked him in disbelief. "And I was finally having a good dream too."
"About dying?" He raised his eyebrow at me.
"Well it was pretty peaceful until you started shaking me like I was already dead." I huffed. "So if you don't mind, I'm closing my eyes now."

"No seriously though, your dad said we'll be there in around ten minutes. You should stay up." 
I looked at him and he smiled. I sighed and stayed sitting up, and looked out the window again. He was right. After five minutes we were surrounded by trees that shadowed the road with their soaring branches and thick leaves.

Not long after I heard my dad shut off the engine, and we all slowly climbed out of the car, taking a moment to stretch our stiff limbs before taking in the nature around us. I began to explore a bit, and realized my dad had drove up onto a small hill. A part of it had ended in a cliff, I noticed, as I carefully stepped on to it, my breath caught in my throat as I looked at the sight before me.

"Wow..." I heard Alfire whistle beside me, and I nodded in agreement. The cliff had hung over a few trees, allowing us to take in the lowered sun as it glittered yellow over a huge lake.
"It sure is beautiful, ain't it." My dad's voice came up from behind me. "Your mother and I used to come here a lot a long time ago." He chuckled softly.

"Of course, back then it looked a lot different." My mom said, linking her arm into my father's. A wistful look lingered in her amber orbs. I went up to them again and gave them another hug.

"Thank you." I repeated. They gave me a hug back before backing away from the cliff and to the center of a small opening between the trees. Big enough for a comfortable camp site.

Soon after Alfire and I followed them and helped unpack the car, and I helped my dad set up the tent as Alfire assisted my mom with building the campfire. With my dad's instructions, tent set up had finished pretty quickly. I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead as I marveled at our accomplishment. For the first time, I did pretty well as my dad's assistant.