An unexpected guest

Part one: Annabeth

"Mmmmm" Annabeth said while chewing on it, and she stuck her tong out at Nico.

After breakfast, they packed up. Pop-up tents were nice, but it was always a struggle to get them back in their case. It was Percy's turn to carry the backpack today. It was bigger on the inside, but that didn't mean it wasn't heavy. Annabeth felt relieved... Sleeping in a sitting position really hadn't done good things with her back.

"If I catch it, I'm going to name it a... mégalopod." Percy declared.

"First, that sounds like a Pokémon name, and second, did you just literally translate "big paw" into Greek?"

"It does have big paws, Annabeth" Will said, pointing at the tracks they were following. "But I would go for a subtler name like will-alliévontai..."

Nico face palmed "Caught by Will? Seriously? Just name it a CBW then"

"Pshh, like you would know a better name"

Annabeth went into Greek culture mode "If we would follow the ancient rules of monster naming, we'd take the animal it resembles most, and then put a city or country name before it."

"Something like the Canadian Jellyturtlefish, then? That sounds awful!" Percy complained.

"I actually like it..." Nico said "It has a nice ring"

"O-kay... Now shush, we don't want the monsters to hear us coming from 5 miles away..." Annabeth suggested.

They continued their path in silence. The footprints they were following started going uphill. Annabeth took a sip from her bottle of water. Man, she was exhausted, even though she slept through her shift of guarding...

"Stop" Percy suddenly said. Everybody stopped abruptly. "I'm getting a strange feeling... As if...
there's a lot of water nearby."

"That can't be possible... We're in the middle of a forest and the map doesn't show any lakes."

"I know, I know... But it just feels so...so-"

"Holy Hades"

Nico had walked a bit further, and must have seen things they couldn't.

"I think I know where your water vibe is coming from..." He gestured for them to come and see.

Annabeth walked over to where Nico was standing. The forest stopped just as abruptly as Percy had.

Instead of trees and shrubs, there was a huge crater, filled with geyser holes. The crater was about the size of Camp half-blood and Camp Jupiter combined.

"How can this not be on the map? It's enormous!"

"Maybe it just wasn't discovered before..." Percy said.

"Ahem satellite pictures"

"Right...mortals use those"

"Look!" Will shouted.

Everybody looked in the direction he was pointing to. The...thing they now had been following... for how long? Two weeks? Three weeks? It was casually walking in the crater, drinking the water some of the geysers had left.

"Now's our chance!" Percy said excitedly. Everybody looked at Annabeth. She always took the leader position on their trips, but that didn't mean she wanted to make all the decisions... "Okay" she said "Let's do this"

The plan was simple: someone used Annabeth's invisibility cap and the rest tried to attract the attention of the creature. When the monster would come running at them, the Yankee-fan of the team would use his/her invisibility to use the ropes.