I threw the last T-shirt in my closet into a large duffel bag. I yawned wearily and rubbed my eyes. The clock that sat on my nightstand read 5:30 am. it was early, but we had to get to Camp Half-blood to tell Chiron about Rachel and find some kind of transportation. Last night, Annabeth suggested that we summon the Gray Sisters again, but after the first encounter, I refused quickly. I shuddered at the separate eye that they all shared. Not only that, they nearly killed me, Annabeth, and Tyson, just from that one ride. Not exactly what I'd like to do to get to New Hampshire.

I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and pushed it open horizontally to send a quick text to Annabeth. Done packing, I texted. Meet you at half-blood hill.

I shut off my phone and grabbed my duffel bag off the floor. I shoved open the door and found my mom sitting at the table drinking coffee. I showed her my duffel bag.

"You're done?" She asked.

"Yeah." I said.



My mom pulled up at 3.141 farm road. I could see the camp boundaries. The large dragon that guarded Thalia's pine was still asleep, with puffs of smoke rising from his nostrils as he breathed. My mom hugged me before I got out, murmuring in my ear to stay safe. I got out of the car and swung my duffel bag over my shoulder as I waved bye to my mom and waited for Annabeth. After I couldn't see my mom anymore, I felt my phone shake in my pocket. I pulled it out and found a text from Annabeth.

Almost there, it read.

In a few minutes, I saw Annabeth emerge from the bottom of the hill. I'd gone to the top to wait for her. When she emerged in her usual jeans and Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, I couldn't help but smile. She had been wearing it for a long time, and it brought back memories. I took her hand and lead her though the magical boundaries.

Everything was quiet. None of the campers were awake yet, and the only movement was the nymphs in the forest, but only occasionally. I saw Travis and Connor Stoll sneaking out of their cabin with a bag of stuff, but they dropped it when they saw that they'd been caught. Then they realized who it was.

"Percy!" they called together. "Annabeth! What are you guys doing here? and so early?"

"Can't say." I replied. "I need to talk to Chiron."

I noticed that there was an entirely new row of cabins. there weren't any workers or tools around anymore, so I guess they must have finished making the new cabins.

Soon, the Big House came into view. I saw Chiron waiting for us inside.

The Stoll brothers left right after they dropped us off. After explaining to Chiron, he just nodded at us.

"So what do you plan on doing there?" Chiron asked us.

"Not complete sure yet." Annabeth admitted before I could say anything. It was the first time she had talked since we arrived. "All we know is that we have to find Rachel and find out what's going on."

"Do you know how to get there yet?" Chiron asked us. "You can't take a plane, bus, or car, because that won't be fast enough."

"We have a few ideas." Annabeth told him. "But none of them are that fast."

A sudden thought occurred to me when I saw a shadow flicker across the floor. "Chiron," I started. "Where's Mrs. O' Leary?"

"IN the same place she always is," Chiron replied. "Why?"

"I suddenly had an idea," I told him. "C'mon Annabeth-" I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her away, "We've got an old friend to visit."



Mrs. O'Leary saw me before I saw her, which was a cool trick seeing how she was the size of a garbage truck. I'm still not completely sure how she does that, but I didn't care that much.

I was just walking and a wall of darkness slammed into me. Mrs. O'Leary licked me vigorously with her giant brillo pad tongue, getting my hair wet with dog drool. I could see Annabeth laughing at me, which made me feel a little embarrassed.

"Hey," I said, petting her fur. "They treating you well?"

"WOOF!" She replied, panting and smiling at me.

"Listen..." I started. "We need a ride to New Hampshire."

Mrs. O'Leary perked up and made a whining noise.

"I know its tiring, but we really need to."

Mrs. O'Leary whining again, but settled down so that I could climb onto her back.

"Hop on," I called to Annabeth.

She climbed on behind me and put her arms around my waist and asked, "What, are we going to ride her to New Hampshire? That'll still take about a day."

"We're riding her, definitely," I said. "It'll be much faster than you'd expect. I grasped the chains of her collar tightly and checked my phone one more time. I tied our stuff to her collar and grasped it tightly before she took off. When I tugged her collar, She ran towards a tree at full speed and passed through the shadows into the darkness.