Independence & Heartbreak // [Percy Jackson OC] // Book 2

{Chapter Four}

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"Oh, but I'm scared to death/ That there may not be another one like this
But I confess/ I'm only holding on by a thin thing thread"
- Sad (Maroon Five)

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AND THE QUEST GOES TO!

    "AFTER YOU TWO LEFT FOR THE SUMMER, I went to Chiron. I wanted to leave camp secretly, by myself, in order to go find him because I know deep down that he's not completely gone. That I can convince him to come home." Arya started with a sigh, refusing to look Annabeth and Percy in the eyes and instead letting her gaze shift between everything that was hung up on the walls. "He agreed, but I wasn't allowed to leave until I had a lead, some solid evidence for where to start. Chrion didn't want me running around the country on my own. For the greater part of the year it was all I did. Listening and reading the news, thinking through the conversations I had with him from the time he came back from Olympus to the time he left, to see if he dropped any hints, reading more Greek myths than I ever wanted just to figure out Kronos' ways of thinking and if any of his old plans were worth repeating."

    Percy and Annabeth were both listening intently to Arya's story as their own attention was drawn to the research Arya had done over the last year. Each individually festering guilt for leaving her alone during the year knowing that the most important person in her life left her like she was nothing. Arya had seemed fine in her letters and Iris messages, but clearly neither of them were getting the whole story. She had been so closed off since either of them got to camp, she had a right too. But it was hard on both kids to listen to her now, with the pain and vulnerability that came with talking about Luke.

    "A few weeks ago I got my first lead. But by that time Thalia had been poisoned and Chiron told me I was needed here. Especially, if he was leaving. And so I did my duty and I stayed. But I didn't stop this-" She gestured to the covered walls that held anything that might be important. "I still made sure that I continued to look for him. But now with your dreams about Grover and the Golden Fleece I have a pretty strong place to start."

    "Arya..." Annabeth started, concern lacing her voice, taking a step towards the older girl who now had tears in her eyes.

Arya shook her head and took a step back.

    "I know that you're going to sit here and tell me that it's unhealthy, that I'm driving myself into the ground for nothing. But you don't understand. This is something I have to do." She said looking up at Annabeth and Percy with bloodshot eyes, a crack in her voice from trying hard to keep her tears from falling.

    "How many people know about this?" Percy asked, moving on trying to get his sister's mind on something else other than the incident with Luke.