~The Pet Shop~

‘We’ll just discuss it!’ Percy yelped quickly before they could be thrown out. ‘Big decision, lots of money, parents to think about. We won’t be too long.’ He smiled at the worker, ‘Could you give us a little while to talk it over?’

The worker crumbled and winked at him, ‘Sure. But you’ll have to put him back.’ Then she headed back behind the counter, flashing Annabeth a glare over her shoulder.

‘What do we do now?’ Piper hissed worriedly. ‘We can’t leave Frank here.’

Hazel lowered Frank back into the glass case, murmuring an apology. Frank put a paw up against the glass like he wanted to get out.

‘I don’t know,’ Hazel breathed.

‘How much money have we got?’ Annabeth asked Percy who began rummaging through the backpack.

Percy pulled out a Ziploc back full of cash, ‘Not enough. Chiron only gave me enough for bus tickets or something in case we broke down. There’s not enough to buy a hundred dollar rabbit.’

Piper sighed resignedly, ‘I could charmspeak them into giving me Frank?’

‘No,’ Hazel said sharply. ‘Charmspeak is what got us into this mess, we’re not using it to get out. It’ll only make things worse.’

‘Besides,’ Annabeth reassured a hurt Piper, ‘if you used charmspeak, they’ll realize what you did and you’ll get in trouble again.’

‘They can’t find me at camp,’ Piper pointed out

‘No, but they can find your dad,’ Annabeth said. ‘Then he’ll know and you don’t want to disappoint him.’

Piper bit back a wave of frustration, ‘Then what do we do?’

‘Guys,’ Percy said in alarm, placing a hand on both Hazel and Annabeth’s shoulders. ‘Um, you might wanna turn around.’

‘Why?’ Hazel asked, but she did anyway. ‘Oh no!’

‘Mommy, mommy! This one’s so fluffy!’ a little girl of about five ran up to the rabbit case where Frank still stood against the glass. The girl put her face right up against the surface and Frank jumped back. ‘Mommy, I want this one!’

‘Frank!’ Piper yelped.

Jason held her back, ‘We can’t just rush in and stop them. We don’t have the money to buy him and there’s no time to get back to camp and come back.’

‘Then what do we do?’ Hazel cried. ‘If we don’t do something now, Frank’s going to be stuck as a pet bunny forever!’

No one answered her; no one had an answer for her.

The group only watched as the girl’s mother came over and inspected Frank. She compliment his beautiful white fur and the intelligent look in his eyes.

Frank hopped back a few bounces, trying to hide amongst the other three rabbits who crowded forward, all hoping to be chosen. Frank was more than happy to let them get picked instead of him. But his hopes were dashed when a large pair of hands wearing more rings than he could count reached into the tank and wrapped around him.

Oh my gods, Frank thought. Mars, save me.

‘Frank,’ Hazel whispered softly, tears running down her cheeks.

Frank’s large rabbit ears picked up the quiet sound and he looked a Hazel sadly, his big, brown bunny eyes glistened with tears a rabbit shouldn’t be able to shed.  He continued to stare until the girl’s mother handed of one hundred dollars, and the girl picked him up and left the store.

‘Frank…’

~Outside the Pet Stop!~

‘Which way, now?’ Percy asked from behind the wheel.

‘Uh,’ Annabeth tipped the map to the side. ‘Left.’

‘No, right,’ Jason said, pointing over Annabeth’s shoulder from the back. ‘See?’

‘Oh, right then!’ Annabeth shouted. ‘This is driving me crazy! We have to hurry up and find Frank before this map stops working!’

‘W-what makes you think it’ll stop working?’ Piper asked nervously.

Annabeth shrugged, ‘I don’t know. Maybe the fact that nothing is ever easy when it comes to these stupid holiday quests we find ourselves on?’

‘This is the first one that’s taken us outside camp,’ Percy pointed out as he swerved to avoid an accident.

‘Well, we don’t really know where those tunnels went when we were looking for Cupid’s stupid bow,’ Jason muttered. ‘We could’ve gone outside camp for all we knew.’

‘The glow!’ Annabeth yelped in alarm. ‘I think it’s starting to fade! Oh, I knew something was going to go wrong. It always does.’

‘We need to hurry,’ Hazel yelled from the back hysterically. ‘Hurry, hurry, hurry!’

‘Calm down,’ Piper commanded her, entwining a little charmspeak to stop her freaking out.

Hazel’s breaths came a little slower, but the wild look didn’t leave her eyes, bright with worry. Annabeth yelled another few directions out to Percy who had to jerk the wheel more than once to escape a collision. Piper covered her face in the back seat next to Hazel who stared out at passing cars, almost glaring like she was accusing them of taking Frank.

Jason eyed the petrol tank nervously, ‘Guys, we’re running low on gas.’

Annabeth looked up from her map and paled. Hazel twisted in her seat to look at the gauge, her eyes widening. She bit her lip.

‘What I wouldn’t do to have Leo right about now,’ Piper muttered.

‘We’ll have to stop,’ Percy said despairingly.

‘We don’t have enough time!’ Hazel shouted. ‘We can’t stop!’

Piper grabbed her shoulders, ‘We have to. If we don’t refill, we’ll end up losing Frank anyway. At least this way we have a chance of filling up and getting back on the roar before that dot fades completely. Okay?’

Hazel hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. The daughter of Pluto fell against the daughter of Aphrodite and began to sob. Piper hugged the broken girl to her as Percy turned the car around and headed away from the golden glow. The entire van fell silent except for Hazel’s crying which echoed through Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Jason like a gong, filling them with dread and despair.

‘We’ll find him,’ Piper promised hollowly. ‘I swear on the river Styx that we will find him.’