As we followed the guy - Andy - into the woods, I begin to actually think about what we did, and mentally face palming at our (okay, fine, my) impulsivenss. Two girls, following a guy they just met who has either an amazing storytelling ability, is a compulsively lying rapist, or is telling the truth. Honestly, I'm most scared of the last one.

I want to know what is happening; all this weird stuff has to have an explanation and it's driving me crazy not knowing what that explanation could be. Whether or not the explanation is believable honestly doesn't matter to me right now, because at this point I think could believe almost anything. Things happen for reasons, and right now, any fears I may have are heavily outweighed by my curiosity. So I follow the boy, and Penn follows me.

He leads us through the trees, leading us on no visible path, but still obviously knowing where he's going . Andy looks back at us occasionally, saying encouraging little things like "getting closer", and "almost there".

While the walk feels like forever, in actuality it only took ten minutes tops. Except for Andy's encouragments, there isn't any talking. I know Penn is probably a bit scared, but I'm trying to think of an escape plan for it something goes horribly wrong and don't have time for feelings.

Our little hike ends when we come to a pathetic housing arraignment--basically a saggy lean-to made of sticks and branches, propped up against a willow tree. Then again, I guess we can't exactly be picky right now, seeing as how we're currently homeless.

Lordy Lordy picca, I'm already thinking of this place as my new home. Swell, why don't I just pick out curtains, I grumble inwardly. Maybe I can use them to cover up the holes in this ridiculous excuse for a living space.

Andy turns and makes a grand, sweeping arm gesture towards the lean-to.

"So this is home?" I ask, nearly wincing at how sarcastically it comes out. I don't though; when I feel threatened, my strategy is acting overconfident. It's worked so far, no need to stop now.

Andy starts to glare, then for some reason changes his mind, saying only "ladies first".

As I am in front of Penn, I make the first move, walking up to the lean-to and immediately having to resort to crawling to enter. I make my way to the end of it and sit down, pulling my knees to my chest to give the appearance of there being more space than there actually is. You know that phrase, "it looks bigger on the inside"? Yeah, that's a lie, at least in this case. The shelter is probably about five feet long, with its highest point being only about four feet. This means that with the slant of the branches, the highest your head can go is about three feet. That being said, the shelter is just big enough for three people to sit side-by-side with a tiny bit of elbow room. I feel bad for Penn, as she is stuck between Andy and I and looks distinctly uncomfortable.

We aren't quiet for a moment before Penn decides to break the silence and the start the inevitable conversation herself.

"So," her voice wavers with just the tinist bit of nervousness. "Would you please explain?"

Andy gives her a wry smile. "Anything in particular first?"

"The monsters," she answers promptly.

"Well...okay. I might have to explain some other stuff first to explain that," he replies, fiddling with his shoelaces. "But I must warn you, there is no gentle way to hear or tell this stuff," he continues, looking us each in the eye.

"You guys have heard the Greek myths, right? You know, gods and monsters and excuses for how and why weather and stuff happens?"

I nod slowly. "Yeah, who hasn't? And so what?" I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this, and it's making me feel surly, ready to pick a fight. Or maybe just prank him to death. At least the second one would make me feel better.

He just ignores me, talking on as if I hadn't said a thing. "Well, when the gods had a thing for a mortal, they would get together and would... would..." he trails off for a moment, trying to think of a delicate way to say it.

"Do the cheeky bum secks," I stage whisper, causing Penn to go red and Andy to roll his eyes.

"...make children. Those kids were called demigods, and they usually inherited some of the powers and talents their godly parents had. These demigods were special, but the blood of the gods inside them attracted monsters and they had to defend themselves." He shudders and squeezed his eyes shut for a minute. "Those demigods either learn to fight the monsters or they - and sometimes mortals close to them - die."

Penn looks horrified. "But -"

Andy's eyes snap open and he glares at her. "But what? There are no buts -monsters certainly aren't going to wait for you to explain your excuse."

"Hey, shove off," I growl, making him focus on me instead of her. "She just asked a question - a question you promised to answer - so there's no need to be a prat."

Andy and I have a scowl-down, and Penn seems to shrink between the two of us.

"Please don't fight," she whispers. "We're stuck here together and I would prefer that we didn't hate each other right from the start."

He keeps his anger for a moment longer, then his face slowly loses its tension. He looks back to Penn and then lowers his gaze.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. It's just that sometimes, when you're not strong enough, or too young, or whatever, a monster will find you, and it will hurt someone you love. It may sound like - like a game - fighting monsters and having cool powers - but it's really not. It's dangerous, and people die, and the powers aren't always worth what you have to go through in exchange." He sighs heavily, as if by breathing out hard enough, he can evict a painful memory.

Great, now he's got some memory I have to be careful of triggering. I'm good at many things, but being tactful isn't exactly one of them. Why is does this have to be such a heavy conversation? As if she can sense me ready to blunder my way through this talk, Penn looks at me and gives a tiny shake of her head. Being the peacemaker, she's going to have a rough time, because my smart mouth gets me in trouble more often than I'd like.

"I'm sorry Andy. I didn't mean to bring up something painful to you," she says in a calming voice, placing her hand gently on his arm. He jerks a bit at her touch, but doesn't pull away. The feeling of another person also seems to snap him out of whatever miserable flashback he's having, and he shakes his head firmly.

"You're fine," he says, his voice perfectly even. "Crying is for the weak and dying is too." Looking up resolutely, with his usual cocky mask on, he asks "Any more questions at the moment, or do you need some time?"

"Why do you care?" I ask.

Andy just stares at me; Penn glares. Way to go, she mouths.

Oops. Maybe that wasn't the best way to put it.

"Not 'why do you care about our questions'," I amend quickly. "I meant that more like 'why do you care about helping us'?"

Penn is obviously relieved, but Andy seems almost amused.

"Why do I care?" He asks, mostly to himself, then louder: "Why do I care? Maybe," - he pauses to smirk at me, something I find oddly infuriating - "just maybe, I'm a good person. Maybe I care about other people, especially when I suspect that they're like me and they could use my help. Maybe they can even help me, too."

I raise an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"You guys also kinda saved my arse back there," he adds, rolling his eyes. "Dogs are kind of my kryptonite, especially hellhounds." He seems uneasy admitting his fear, but also as if he's trying to make himself more human to gain our trust.

I knew it, I think to myself. I knew he had to have a reason for sharing his fears and helping us. Before you judge me and call me cold, think about it from my point of view: some guy is saved by strangers - attractive, lost, female strangers - and decides to help them back for no reason other than that it's out of the goodness of his heart? Yeah, right. That may sound kind and ideal, but it's not very realistic. Now, on the other hand, helping someone to return a favor (plus not have any debts or 'owing') - and the added fact that they might also have special powers - that makes much more sense.

"Well," Penn says in an attempt to connect, "I'm claustrophobic."

Oh shoot - I didn't know that. And I had made her sit in between Andy and I - no wonder she looked so uncomfortable. I quickly make to scoot over and possibly get up, but Penn lays her other hand on my arm and stills me. "It's okay, Jesse. Sometimes you have to face your fears, a tiny bit at a time."

"Are you sure?" I ask, still willing to get up and move (but also stalling just in case they wanted me to share my weakness too). "Because it's not a problem or anything-"

Andy, however, sees right through me. "Sit down, son, and tell us what your weakness is," he says with a lazy smile.

I sigh and untense my legs. "Firstly, I'm not your son. I'm not even a boy, for goodness' sake. If you must know, I'm afraid of hurting other people because of my own stupidity. I don't care about getting hurt or in trouble myself, but someone else... I... I... it's happened before." I duck my head in shame.

"Nothing wrong with that," he says, and I can't detect even a hint of condescension in his voice. "Now can we try to trust each other? I mean, we're probably going to be together for a while, and I need to be able to trust you if I'm gonna tell you this next thing."

My curiosity is instantly perked. He has a secret. Well, maybe not a secret. But he obviously wants us to feel like we're all in this together - which, to be fair, is safer and smarter - and not gonna backstab each other at whatever chance we get.

"I trust you," Penn says, smiling. "I mean, we just met you, and I was scared at first, but I do feel better with you than on my own."

Andy smiles. "Thank you, Penn. Welcome to the crew," he says, shaking her hand as best as he can in the small space.

I snort at this. The crew? What crew? Two people - three if you count me - is not a crew. And on her own? Was I not good enough? Well, I mean, three is better than two, but still...

Penn nudges me, giving her head a small nod towards Andy. I sigh. A questionable alliance is better than no alliance, right?

"Yeah, yeah," I grumble, although I know Andy can tell I'm not entirely unhappy about this. "I trust that you will help us to the best of your abilities and that we will do the same in return."

Penn looks a bit miffed on Andy's behalf, but Andy himself seems fine with my reluctance. "That sounds fair to me," is all he says, smiling and shaking my hand firmly, holding on maybe a bit longer than is acceptable.

I let go quickly, feeling uncomfortable with how sincerely he grasps my hand, and sit on it to keep with from shaking.

"Now for the Secret?" I ask, not being able to help sounding a tiny bit eager.

He chuckles and nods, probably at my classification of his information as 'secret'. "Yeah, now for the Secret. It's not that big of a deal, but I did want your trust first. The 'Secret'" - he makes annoying air quotes at the word secret - "is where we need to go. There's a camp, or a training ground, or some place that demigods can go when they're young to be safe." His eyes light up, and even in the fading light I can tell by his expression that he feels this is something to get excited about. "I don't know what it's called, but I think it's a place for people like us to train or maybe just be sheltered from monsters. I want to go there, and since you guys are with me, you can come too. Y'know, if you want," he adds, blushing.

After this big burst of information, the light in his eyes fades a bit. "The only problem is that it's in New York, and I don't know the exact address. Plus, we're in New Hampshire, and that's pretty far to walk, especially while being stalked by various monsters."

"Well, we don't have to go entirely on foot," Penn pipes up. "Jesse and I have bikes, you know. I'm sure we can take turns riding on the handlebars until we find you your own bike in the next city." She looks mildly disturbed - "We don't have any money though."

"Then we'll have to steal one," Andy says, warming up to the idea already.

Penn opens her mouth to protest, but both Andy and I cut her off.

"Think of it as borrowing," I suggest, at the exact same time he says, "We have a good reason." We look at each other, and for pretty much the first time, smile for the same reason, with no malice or sarcasm, just in delight that we found a fellow devious thinker.