Thalia Grace

"We can't leave you! Come on!"

Luke's scared too but he's not going to show it so he grabs Annabeth's hand and tries to pull Thalia's arm.

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"We can make it," Grover blurts as he too begins to run up the hill. He sees the little girl is having trouble so he bends over to pick her up.

"Let me carry you," he says so as not to scare Annabeth, "I can run faster!"

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"No one's being left behind!" Thalia yelled back and started her own run up the hill.

Behind them the searching sounds turned to howls of triumph as the hell hounds spotted them.

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architekt

Annabeth grips tightly to Luke's hand, watching Grover with a vague sort of wariness.

She likes Grover, of course, but ... she's only just met him. And she'd really much rather stay with Luke anyway.

"I'm okay," she tells him. "I can keep up. Promise."

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"Go with Grover, Annabeth. He'll keep you safe."

Luke pushes her into Grover's arms and tugs at Thalia again,

"We have to keep running."

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"Here run next to me," Grover says to Annabeth as he pulls out a club, "Luke will need his hands free. I promise I won't pick you up unless we need to run really fast."

They run in silence for a few heartbeats before Grover looks over his shoulder to gauge their speed. They've made it about half way up the hill but the hell hounds are at the bottom now. Why'd they have to be such fast runners?

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Thalia pulls her arm free from Luke's grasp and snaps, "Spread out, we're too tight."

She looks over her shoulder and acknowledges what Grover won't, they aren't going to make it. Testing a theory she pretends to stumble to the right away from her friends. Recovering, she continues running but not before sneaking a glance at the hounds which have changed their coarse to match hers.

Above, Erinyes scream in triumph and anticipation while the clouds seem to boil.

From:

architekt

Oh, no.

Annabeth may only be seven, but she's a daughter of Athena. It's in her blood to be able to plan strategy - or to predict it.

She glances over her shoulder while keeping her stride with Grover, and notes Thalia has fallen behind them only slightly.

She can't help it when she finds herself slowing down.

Thalia needs help.

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Luke stops when Annabeth does and looks back to Thalia, his voice full of desperation,

"What are you doing? This way!"

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"What's wrong you guys, COME ON," Grover bleats, truly bleats. The panic is hitting by now.

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Thalia looks up to the clouds and prays to her father, "Zeus, father if I matter at all, give my words weight." Her only answer is a drop of rain that hits her forehead.

She turns to face her friends while activating her shield and spear and somehow she feels taller and more powerful.

"Go," she whispers before clearing her throat. "Go, run. Get to the camp and get re-enforcements. They're only after me. I'll keep them busy long enough." Her voice is strong now and, as if to punctuate her command, thunder rumbles.

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architekt

"But -"

It's a command. Annabeth knows that well. It's something she should listen to, and follow.

... but.

She can't. She can't leave her. Not after everything.

"We'll all fight with you."

She glances towards the hounds (and already she knows the situation looks bad) then back at Thalia and swallows.

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Luke is so proud of Annabeth and squeezes her shoulder as he looks at Thalia,

"We can't leave you. We're supposed to keep each other safe."

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Grover dances from hoof to hoof in panic before he hears something besides the howling and screeching of the monsters. Barely believing it he runs to the top of the hill and looks down into the valley. Flames flicker from torches with in the trees some distance off and unmistakably he hears the clomping of hooves. Bless Pan, Chiron is coming!

"Chiron!" He yells as he turns back to his friends. "We're saved, the Camp is roused and coming!" He takes out his pipes and bows a note into the night air that pierces through the howls of the hell hounds. His call is answered but the return is still far away.

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Thalia runs after Grover and at the news can't help the smile nor the tears in her eyes. She was so scared. She turns back to the monsters and then back to the flickering torches, the distance is still too great and the torches are very spread out. As if they are searching and don't know where they are.

"They don't know where we are," she states and turns back to the monsters. The first of the hell hounds are much closer than they were, far too near. Thalia screams in anger and lightning arches down from the sky to her spear and then at the hounds. They fall back in confusion but quickly regroup.

"You have to go lead them here," Thalia says to Luke. "I can hold them off with lightning, you can't. Take Annabeth and Grover with you. I can hold them off."

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architekt

That? Was awesome, what Thalia did just now. She'd known a little about the extra powers some demigods possessed, and she was still wondering whether she might have powers of her own - but. Yeah. That was so cool.

Her attention shifts its focus on Grover and on the sound of hooves, her grey eyes searching for the one he called 'Chiron'.

Maybe they're safe, she thinks. Maybe they'll finally be safe.

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Luke looks at Thalia and hugs her,

"Come behind us as soon as you can. We're almost there. Come on, Annabeth."

smiles at her, they're going to make it, all of them.

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Thalia hugs him back and gives him a little shove to get him going. "Damn straight, we've got some answers to get."

She turns to Annabeth. "And you I'm going to see become an architect," she says and looks to Grover, "and you are going to find Pan with me right there. Now get going, you've wasted enough time."

She steps back then and yells, "Now RUN!" and turning to the hell hounds she yells it again, "RUN!" and as she beings to run at the hounds she yells it again as if it's her battle cry, "RUN!"

Lightning flares as she runs scattering the hounds but not before she's forced to bash one aside with the shield and slash at another with her spear. She laughs as the urge to yell "You Shall Not Pass!" occurs to her. Instead she yells, "RUN!!!" again.

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theoi-npc.livejournal.com

From the forest a clear deep voice used to command can be heard.

"They're this way! Gather at the hill! AT THE HILL!"

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"That's Chiron!" Grover yells with a cheer as he runs. He feels bad leaving Thalia behind but she's right, none of them can fight the monsters from a distance like she can. "OVER HERE, We're here!"

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Thalia dodges another hell hound who's gotten past the lightning and, spinning, slashes at it with her shield. Another jumps but she blasts it with lightning before it gets near and then she jabs another with her spear and it disappears in a cloud of dust.

It truly looks as if she will hold them at bay and she likely would...if it weren't for the Erinyes. They swoop out of the clouds they had been hiding in and one catches Thalia by surprise, gouging her cheek with a deep scratch. The scratch burns as if poisoned but Thalis ignores it to throw herself prone as the other two dive at her. She rolls and get her shield up in time but now the hell hounds are back.

Confident in their kill, the Erinyes dive at Thalia again but meeting one with the point of her spear she causes her to swoop away and collide with her sister. The last is met with a shield punch that sends her careening to crash to the ground. A hell hound springs at her then and while she gets her spear up in time to meet its charge, its bulk tears the spear from her grasp. Another barrels into her knocking her into the air where a third catches her leg in its jaws and swings her around.

Thalia's temper is well past the boiling point now and she lets loose a shock to the hell hound that has her which sends it crashing into another. She laughs at the urge to say, "Yippee ki yay", instead thinking it's not far that all the good lines are taken. She stands and can tell her leg is badly wounded if not broken. Her spear is gone but she still has her best weapon...and the aegis.

"Come and get me!" she challenges and the Erinyes comply. The fly at her in a rush and she punches, shocks and bashes at them at they fly about her until another hell hound barrels into he. She looses her shield this time and, with her eyes nearly glowing, she grabs its head and gives it such a shock it explodes into dust.

Falling to the ground, Thalia has trouble breathing now. She can feel a sharp pain in her side which she is convinced is a broken rib. She can't breath. Her leg can't take her weight any more though she struggles to stand.

"We will feast well this night," the first of the Erinyes says. "On you and your friends."

"Go to Tartarus," Thalia spits at them.

The Erinyes laugh. "Oh we will, it is our home after all!"

Thalia looks up at the brooding clouds and smiles; she has her own line now. "Let me light your way then," she says and reaches up to the clouds and pulls down lightning that blasts the Erinyes, the hell hounds and herself.

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theoi-npc.livejournal.com

The lightning lashes at the ground and time freezes for a long moment. Thalia feels the kiss of rain on her face and knows her father is there. She whispers, "Why?"

Zeus look down at her and replies, "Because there must be Law. Law even I must obey."

"No, why so little time. I'm only twelve," she replies but Zeus has turned his attention away from her.

"Brother, can you take her spirit somewhere safe? That it may heal? She needs time and peace, Fate is not done with her yet," Zeus is saying to someone. "I know it is beneath you. I would ask Hermes but then she would face Hera's anger as well as Hades."

"I will do it brother and I know just the place," a second voice says and Thalia feels herself picked up.

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The glare from the lightning strikes takes time to fade but when it does, where Thalia fought there is nothing but a pine tree standing as tall and strong as she once did.

Of her and her attackers there is no sign.

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architekt

It all happens so fast.

Thalia speaking to her, Chiron arriving, Grover leading her and Luke towards the other side of the hill where she distantly notices cabins and fields and other things, the strike of lightning, Thalia falling ...

And finally, after shielding her eyes from the sudden bright glare, there's the single tree that takes the place Thalia had just been standing upon when she saved all their lives.

Annabeth starts to notice that it's hard to see at all. Everything is so blurry.

When she rubs at her eyes, she comes away with tears; a moment later, she realizes they won't stop falling.

She doesn't say anything.

She doesn't scream, or shout, or whimper or moan. She just stands there, rooted to the ground like that tree.

And her tears continue to fall.

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Grover stares in shock and then falls to his knees wailing. He was supposed to save her and he failed. He tears at his hair and beats his head against the ground.

It's all his fault.

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theoi-npc.livejournal.com

"Grover," Chiron says sharply trying to snap the satyr out of what ever has griped him. "Where is Thalia?"

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Luke is shaking with anger and grief, she's saved but she's gone and for them.

Annabeth is near by and he pulls her into a hug, he should explain but she's gone.

That was her father's idea of saving her, making her a tree. Its not right.

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