𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖊𝖋

THAT NIGHT THEY CAMPED OUT IN THE WOODS, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans, red solo cups, streamers, and fast-food wrappers.

They'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but they didn't light a fire to dry their damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa were enough excitement for one day. They didn't want to attract anything else.

Even Phoenix didn't mind the idea, at least for a couple of hours she wanted to rest her legs. She wasn't too used to walking for so long.

They decided to sleep in shifts. Percy volunteered to take first watch.

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and after a while he drifted off.

Then there was Phoenix.

"Go ahead and sleep," Percy told her. "I'll wake you if there's trouble." He nodded, but still, she didn't close her eyes.

"There are no stars here..." Phoenix looked up, she lied in the middle of a clearing. Her back pressed to the grass as her obsidian eyes glared at a blank sky. "Why not?"

Percy looked stuck, "Um...Pollution. The artificial lights don't let you see them."

He was surprised to see her sit up and frown deeply. Phoenix's face was usually stoic and hard. He didn't even think she could get sad. Which he realized was kind of messed up of him.

She picked out her sketchbook, her hands began to trace over the paper with her charcoal. She began to draw, her hand moving as if it were automatic rather than controlled by her.

"Can you see well? It's kind of dark out—"

"It's sad." She stated. Her hand not ceasing. "Humans are sad. There's garbage here when there should only be grass and trees. There's black in the sky when it should be filled with constellations."

"You didn't exactly strike me as an environmentalist." Percy quipped,

Phoenix shrugged, "I just see what I see. Just because I like fighting and like when things aren't boring doesn't mean I like sad things."

Percy swallowed, "Well your definition of boring can be a little questionable but yeah—"

"Chaos isn't always sad." Phoenix cut him off. She turned to look at him. She signaled him over with a nod.

He hesitated, but he made his way forward. He sat beside her. Phoenix stared down and kept drawing. Percy watched her hand moving across the paper.

Phoenix's charcoal brought life to the paper as she sketched a scene that left Percy mesmerized. The figure of an adult satyr with a large pointed beard, adorned with a wreath of vibrant flowers, sat amidst a tapestry of nature.

Phoenix's charcoal strokes brought the satyr to life amid the play of light and shadow. Blooming poppies emerged as intricate charcoal sketches, their petals unfolding in grayscale. Ivy crawled up the trees, and oak leaves rustled in delicate lines.

There was an owl perched on a branch, its feathers rendered in varying shades to capture its speckled feathers. A sleek fox, with its black fur, peeked out from behind a bush, its curious gaze fixed on the satyr.

A horse grazed peacefully, its mane drawn to look as if it was swaying with the wind. Beside the horse, a nimble goat stood on a rocky outcrop, surveying the floral haven below.

Beneath the satyr's hooves, forget-me-nots, and daisies emerged
intricately outlined, creating a mosaic of shapes on the ground. The playful rabbits, a nimble squirrel with one eye, and butterflies, all captured in shades of charcoal, danced around the satyr, adding movement to the static medium.

In her monochromatic art, Phoenix's skillful strokes conveyed a dance of nature, where every element, from the satyr to the blooming flowers, to the wild animals, came together in a harmonious tapestry of untamed beauty.

"Not sad." She told him, she dropped her charcoal stick onto her lap. "Alive... and Wild..."

Percy muttered, "It's...Beautiful."

Caught off guard, Phoenix looked up, questioning, "What?"

Meeting her surprised gaze, Percy stammered, "Nix, it's incredible. I knew you were talented, but I've never seen anything like this. It's...Beautiful."

Puzzled, Phoenix sought clarification, "What does that mean exactly?"

Percy's face twisted in shock, prompting her to save face, "I've heard it before, of course. I've just never understood it. Bella calls everything beautiful...I don't get that."

Attempting to bridge the gap, Percy asked, "Do you know what ugly is?"

She nodded, acknowledging that she understood the concept of ugliness. "I do."

Percy struggled to come up with the right way to explain. "Umm—Well, I guess. Beauty is like the opposite of that. It's like when you see something that feels right, not always in appearance but in the way it makes you feel."

"So what makes you feel?" Phoenix asked, "Is beautiful?"

"Err. Yeah, Something like that." He tried.

Phoenix nodded. She glanced at the blonde girl who lay asleep just a few feet away from her. Then looked back at her sketch.

"So...." He tried breaking what felt to him like awkward silence. "You kind of aged Grover real bad there."

Phoenix furrowed her eyebrows together, "It's not your goat friend." She denied, "I think it's someone more powerful. I-I think it's Pan?"

"You think?" Percy asked, "You drew it."

Phoenix shrugged, "And?"

"Okay fine. Well, who's Pan." Percy asked.

"The God of the wild. There's a search for Pan. Every Satyr wants to get a searcher's license to find him. He disappeared two thousand years ago," She told him "In every generation, satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep. No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."

Percy looked worriedly over at Grover. "Does he want—"

"You'll have to ask him." Phoenix shrugged,

"But why did you draw Pan?" Percy asked, "Why now?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?"

"Why are you so suspicious?" Percy grunted.

Phoenix rolled her eyes, "If this is about the stupid prophecy. I'm not your friend remember? Calm your tits."

Percy stared in bewilderment. "How do you understand that and not beautiful?"

Phoenix shrugged, she stuck a stick into the dirt and started digging into the soil mindlessly. "I don't know, but Connor and Travis say I sound cooler when I say that instead of Calm down."

Percy scrunched his eyebrows together and shook his head, "Of course they did."

"I don't know why okay?" Phoenix answered, "Not that it's any of your business. But sometimes, things just come out when I draw. and sometimes..." Phoenix stopped herself, she looked up to see who she was talking to. Her face hardened.  "You know what? I don't have to talk to you about anything."

Percy's face fell. "Alright fine. Look, I know I hurt you...I-I really didn't mean it in that way. And I shouldn't have lashed out like that. I'm sorry—"

Phoenix raised an eyebrow, she scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself, Fishface. We're quest partners, all I care about is doing my job and getting out of this with as many monster kills as I can get. So I can throw it in all their faces. You. You don't have the power to hurt me."

"Fine. I tried." Percy looked away. "Go to sleep. I'm on watch,"

"Don't tell me what to do." She countered.

"You really stress me out." He said.

She raised a challenging eyebrow, "Feelings mutual."

"Fine, 'Questmate' since you're up. How are we going to get into the Underworld?" He asked her. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

"Slim to none," She admitted. "And no idea."

Percy looked done with her. He sighed in exasperation.

"But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office I was telling Annabeth something. She agreed and—"

"Let me guess. She came up with a brilliant plan."

"She always does." Phoenix defended, though she did feel bitter every time she thought of Capture the Flag. She admired Annabeth for always being able to think things through. Phoenix sometimes wished she had a mind like that. One that knew things, and knew how to handle situations with more than just fighting. "Luke says that she even came up with them when they were on the run. That she always always knew a way to get them out of sticky situations. She was a kid then. And she still managed to lead your little goat friend and two older demigods around."

"Wait a minute," Percy thought out loud. "Grover's first keeper job was seven years ago. Annabeth has been at camp for seven years. That was his first assignment?"

She nodded, "Anyway. Stop changing the subject Fishface you're distracting me from the point."

"Yeah, Yeah, Go on sweetheart."

She grumbled at the nickname, "Back at Medusa's, Annabeth, Grover and I agreed that something strange was going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."

"No Barnacle brain, That's pretty spot on for the gods." Phoenix hissed.

She continued, "The Fury, The Kindly Ones were holding back. On the bus, they just weren't as violent as they could've been."

"They seemed plenty violent to me."

Phoenix shook her head. "That was child's play. They can do much much worse...They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?"

"Asking about me," Percy said.

"But they said 'Where is it?' not 'Where is he' They seemed to be asking about an object."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I guess. But we have nine days to find out what does in this quest..."

Percy nodded, he looked off, likely to wallow in the weight of this newfound responsibility. For a few seconds, they sat in silence, before Percy spoke up again, "I really do mean it. I'm sorry. For everything I said Phoenix. You didn't deserve that...Even if you aren't my friend. You're still a person. One who agreed to help me."

Phoenix shrugged, "Okay, It's fine..." She responded, " She looked at the night sky, thinking about how she would get through the night without constellations. "How about I take the first watch, huh? You get some sleep."

"Are you sure—" He began to protest.

"Sleep." She demanded. "Trust me, You'll need more sleep for what's coming than I do."

Percy didn't appreciate her reminding him of that, but he yawned and mumbled out a 'gee thanks'. He turned his back to her and in minutes, she could hear the soft snores emitting off him, Leaving Phoenix on her own.

Phoenix stared at the drawing she recently made. Her hand softly pressed at the Satyrs horn, traced over the owl, squirrel, fox, horse, and goat.

She felt a shiver run up her spine when she looked up at the dark sky.

There was a swift breeze. The pages of Phoenix's book turned. There Percy was again, Fighting a figure with glowing eyes.

Phoenix slammed her sketchbook shut. She decided that was enough drawing for one night.

𓌪

PHOENIX HAD TO SHAKE PERCY AWAKE AND YELL OUT 'FISHFACE' JUST FOR HIM TO EVEN BEGIN TO STIR FROM HIS NIGHTMARE.

Finally, his green eyes opened and met the obsidian and grey ones that glared down at him in the daylight.

"Well," Annabeth said, addressing Phoenix. "The zombie lives."

Phoenix noticed he was trembling. She could feel the fear that swirled within him. Her powers told her that what he dreamt about was anything but pleasant.

"How long was I asleep?" He asked

"Long enough for you to miss breakfast." Phoenix tossed him a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from her bag. She was now the one holding all their supplies because she was the only one who had a backpack.

"And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend." Annabeth informed.

Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, pink poodle.

The poodle yapped at Percy suspiciously.

Grover said, "No, he's not."

He blinked. "Are you...talking to that thing?"

The poodle growled.

"Gladiola is a He."  Phoenix pointed at Percy accusingly   "Don't disrespect Gladiola."

Gladiola barked in agreement.

Grover warned, "He's our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

Percy stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at the practical joke Grover and Phoenix were playing on him, but she looked deadly serious.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," He said. "Forget it."

"Percy," Annabeth demanded. "I said hello to the poodle. Phoenix said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled.

He said hello to the poodle.

Grover explained to Percy he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation.

The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping out Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked.

"He read the signs," Grover stated. "Duh."

"Of course." He said. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

Phoenix looked over and saw that Percy was hesitant, she could feel the conflicting and fearful emotions that emitted from him. She wondered what he dreamt about...

"Not another bus," He said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks They hadn't been able to see last night in the dark.

"There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."