A year after meeting Luke

[chameno_koritsi]

"The bus leaves in half an hour," Thalia says to the girl as she sits. "We have time for something to eat if you want?"

They had found the girl a few weeks ago and had taken her in, unexpectedly becoming something like a family. If you could call three kids running from monsters to who knew where a family. Luke always seemed to have an idea of which road to take though so they followed him, maybe it had something to do with his father being Hermes.

Luke had said he needed to go off on his own for a couple of days to check on something and they agreed to met him in the next town as she and the girl, Annabeth, continued on. That was yesterday and Annabeth had been quiet ever since Luke left. Thalia hoped she could get the girl to talk but wasn't going to force the issue. She couldn't give the girl much but respect was something right?

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[architekt]

Glancing up at the older girl, Annabeth seems to take a moment to think about food, recalling that it had been a while since they last ate breakfast.

Then she nods.

"Okay," she says. Her voice fails to hide the worries in her thoughts, but then she's never been terribly good at hiding her feelings. "Um. What'll we eat?"

[chameno_koritsi]

"Hotdogs?" Thalia suggests. Luke had left them with about ten bucks. She had no idea where he had gotten the money but she stopped wondering some time ago. He found it and shared, that's all that mattered.

"I'm bored of them myself but we'll make the money last longer if we stick to cheap. Or we could get poptarts from that corner store over there."

[architekt]

She shakes her head.

"No, hotdogs are fine," she says, already rising to her feet so they can walk to the vendor's. "Thalia, d'you think Luke's going to be okay?"

This is the first time Luke has gone off on his own - without the two of them, after all. Annabeth's gotten pretty used to their always being a pack.

[chameno_koritsi]

Thalia nods and what she hopes is a confident smile.

"Luke's gone off before," she says. He had but she had always waited in the same city for him. Thalia won't admit it but the thought of traveling to another city without him has he worried. "And he always came back."

"Two dogs and two sodas," she tells the vendor as she pulls out the money from her jeans. "Or do you want milk?" She's a growing girl right?

[architekt]

She scrunches her nose.

"I want soda," she says, the first sign of a teasing smile appearing on her face.

And while they wait, she bites her bottom lip. "Okay. It's just - he looked kinda weird. Not really himself. You know?"

[chameno_koritsi]

Thalia looks off in the direction Luke had gone and replies, "Yeah. I know but he has his own stuff to take care of. As much as I or you would like to help, it's his choice to do by himself. That's respect and that's something not many families give each other. We just need to be there for him when he needs the help and he'll be there for us. I'll do the same for you. You can always count on me, I swear it on my leather."

She'd offer the traditional oath on the Styx but her leather means more to her.

[architekt]

"And you can always count on me too. Both you and Luke," she promises in turn.

She already knows she'll pretty much do anything for them, no matter what. This family is better than any she may once have tried to imagine.

And while she might not know what Luke could possibly have to do by himself, she gets what Thalia says. She gets it - and she does respect it.

It won't stop her from worrying, of course. But Thalia's right. Luke's brave and strong; he'll be more than capable of doing whatever it is he needs to do.

[chameno_koritsi]

Thalia meets Annabeth's eyes and gives her a serious nod. She knows she just accepted a very serious gift.

"Here ya go," the vendor says and waves off Thalia's money. "Not my business but the police were askin' around for any runaways. You might want to be careful."

Thalia takes the hot dogs and sodas and mumbles a, "Thank you" before walking briskly away to an alley near the waiting bus. As she walks she looks around but doesn't see any uniforms which could mean plain clothes.

"Keep your eye out Annabeth, we can't meet up with Luke if we're being held in a cell. Look at their shoes. They may be plain clothes but all cops wear pretty much the same shoes."

[architekt]

She nods, her expression solemn and serious.

This isn't one of those times for taking it easy. (It never really is, but there are easier days and harder ones.) In the past few weeks, she's been learning a lot from both Luke and Thalia on how to blend into the crowd, how to run when it's necessary, and of course - how to fight monsters.

She licks her lips, her eyes darting between making sure Thalia is still beside her, the direction ahead, and the feet of the people they pass.

"... and monsters?" she murmurs quietly.

[chameno_koritsi]

"Don't know yet but you keep your eye open and if you see me making a tactical mistake tell me. If you see we're walking into what could be a trap, tell me."

Thalia's grown to trust Annabeth's instincts in this regard.

[architekt]

"Okay."

There is secret, quiet beaming for being given so much of Thalia's trust. She takes her position seriously.

As for those instincts, they are a combination of her natural-born instincts as a demigod and the things she picked up from Thalia and Luke over the past few weeks.

"I won't let you down."

[chameno_koritsi]

Thalia spares her a smile before going back to scanning the crowd of people and saying, "I know. Do you think it's safe to get on the bus early? Seems like we'd just be trapping ourselves. It could be a good place to hide though."

She pauses to look at her watch, "We have twenty minutes until the bus leaves."

[architekt]

She frowns, her brain working quickly through the options.

"I think we should stay out until we have to go on the bus," she explains. "'Cause you're right. It'd be a really good place for monsters to trap us. There are plenty of hiding spots out here if we need 'em."

She gestures to the nooks and crannies of the city's streets and buildings - and if there's a flicker of movement in the shaded alleyway across from them, she doesn't seem to notice it.

"- and more space to fight and run away."

[chameno_koritsi]

"Guys, over here," a male voice calls from across the way.

Thalia freezes and confusion crinkles her face. "Was that Luke?"

[architekt]

Annabeth frowns.

"I thought he -"

She turns her attention towards the direction of the voice, focusing on it as best as she can.

"It sounded like him." Then louder: "Luke?"

[chameno_koritsi]

"Hurry!" the voice hisses urgently.

"Yeah, I thought he was gone too," Thalia replies suspiciously. She pulls her can of mace from her pocket before continuing, "Maybe something happened? Let's go see."

[architekt]

She nods, firming her resolve and trying not to let the suspicious feeling in her gut cloud her senses.

(But just in case, she's got her knife on her - the one Luke gave - easily reachable.)

[chameno_koritsi]

Thalia peaks out of their alley to look for any undercover police and then walks to the alley across the way. To a casual observer, she's just strolling but from Annabeth's point of you her back is tense and her balance is slightly forward.

She waits until Annabeth is with her before entering the alley. They walk a few feet into the alley. "Luke?" she manages to say before a large shape springs out from behind a pile of trash and knocks her to the ground. Her mace canister goes flying but she does manage to roll with the impact and get her feet under her attack. With a kick she sends him flying to hit the opposite wall.

[architekt]

Annabeth doesn't scream.

Instead, she rushes to Thalia's side, crouched by her side for a moment.

"Are you okay?" she asks, before she's back up on her feet, braced for the creature's next attack.

"Aw, what's wrong guys?" the creature calls out to them, using Luke's voice, when it has regained its composure.

It's ... creepy.

[chameno_koritsi]

Thalia nods to Annabeth and turns to face the creature, it was rust colored and sort of a dog-like hyena. When it spoke, they could see it didn't have teeth but bone-like ridges instead.

Thalia stepped in front of Annabeth protectively and slipped her backpack from her shoulder. She was tempted to activate her Aegis but in this narrow alley, Annabeth might feel the effects as well as the monster. Instead she dove for the mace canister to the left of the monster and hoped for the best.

She should have known better for her dive was cut short when the creature clamped its jaws onto her leather but not her thank the Gods. Caught off guard she was shaken a few times as the creature tried to snap her neck before she throw her arms above her and slipped out of the jacket. Her move even managed to box the monster in the ears and leave it a bit dazed.

Thalia crawled desperately and reached for the mace canister. As soon as her finger closed on it, she activated the spear and turned holding it more like a staff due to the narrow alley.

[architekt]

Annabeth's never seen anything like this creature before. It's odd and scary, and she's even more afraid of the fact that it can imitate Luke's voice and sound just like him. It had them fooled.

Staying back, Annabeth watches as Thalia takes care of the creature with expert skill; she watches every single move, every step, studying her with her own knife in hand. She doesn't want to get in the way, but Thalia should know that Annabeth has her back on this no matter what, even if she hasn't learned all that much yet.

She might be small, but she's fierce.

[chameno_koritsi]

Threatened on both sides by Thalia and Annabeth the creature hisses and gathers itself.

Thalia can tell it's going to try a run at Annabeth thinking escape past the child so Thalia attacks before it can. She jabs at it with the base of her spear and when it dodges she swings around and hits it square with the celestial bronze spear head. The monster lets out a cry that sounds too much like Luke before exploding into a cloud of ash.

Thalia deactivates her spear and says, "You okay?' to Annabeth. She crouches to pick up her leather and frowns at the huge tear in the back.

[architekt]

Annabeth lets out a breath of - relief? Happiness? Fear?

She nods slowly, filled with a certain amount of awe now for how Thalia so expertly handled that strange creature.

"What was that monster?" she asks, instead. "How did it know how to imitate Luke?"

[chameno_koritsi]

"I don't know," Thalia says equally shaken but not about to show it. "I didn't even know there were monsters that could do that. Maybe we should come up with codewords or something so this doesn't happen again."

Outside the alley, the bus' horn honks. "I think they're getting ready to board," Thalia says bending to grab her jacket and backpack. She hopes Annabeth doesn't see her hands shaking.

[architekt]

If she does, she doesn't say anything about it. (She'd be scared too. Well, she is a little scared.)

Sheathing her knife discreetly, Annabeth turns towards the street while waiting for Thalia.

"Codewords are a good idea," she says. Quietly - and a little more to herself - she adds, "I hope Luke's okay."

[chameno_koritsi]

"I hope so too," Thalia says with a worried frown. "We won't know until we meet up with him though. Let's get on the bus. I don't know why it's loading now."

They board the bus and Thalia gestures for Annabeth to take the window seat (as it'd be easier for Thalia to defend her that way) and then stows their backpacks int eh over head flip bins.

Sitting finally, she turns to Annabeth and says, "Snark. That'll be our password for now."

[architekt]

She glances out the window once, eyes briefly scanning the alleyway they'd just come from, before turning back to Thalia.

"Snark," she repeats, nodding. "Okay. I'll remember that."

[chameno_koritsi]

As the minutes pass while the bus loads Thalia beings to understand why the bus driver started loading early. Finally, the last passenger stumbles by and the driver closes the door. Just before he lets out the emergency brake however, a metallic tapping along the side of the bus stops him.

He looks out the rear view mirror and opens the door for the late comer.

[fleecy-seeker.livejournal.com]

The late arrival bumbles onto the bus and soon enough his clumsiness is explained by the crutches he awkwardly uses to climb the stairs. Once aboard he smiles an apology to the bus and begins to make his way down the isle to his seat which it turns out is right across the isle from Thalia and Annabeth.

Impatient to get going, the bus driver pulls out before the young in crutches has seated himself and he tumbles into the seat with a cry of alarm.

[architekt]

Annabeth curiously peers over Thalia's arm at the newcomer on crutches.

It's the cry that catches her attention.

But she doesn't say anything for now; she's seven. She's still shy. And they've just been attacked by a monster pretending to be one of her newfound-family members.