A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Caput XLVIII: Sleep Like a Baby Tonight

"'Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood 
When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form. 
"Come in," she said, 
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."" - Bob Dylan

Caput XLVIII: Sleep Like a Baby Tonight

LATER, Annabeth sat beside Percy and listened as Nico and Piper argued over food rations and watched the fire as it flickered in the dying sunlight. Crickets chirped and bugs bit her legs even though she curled them as close as she possibly could to her chest.

Eventually, she leaned against him and he draped his arm across her shoulders, and she splayed her fingers against his chest briefly. He hummed lowly, deep in his throat, and she took a deep, shuddering breath.

What's wrong with me? Why do I keep coughing up blood? That's not healthy... it's not healthy at all. I shouldn't be coughing blood. Not again. I thought that was only going to happen once... once was enough.

Her hands were still trembling, though she was not sure if they were shaking from fear or because there were lingering effects from her coughing fit. Gods, she wished she knew what was going on with her body. It almost felt like it was failing her when she needed it the most, and she didn't know what to do.

"So, where do we go from here?" Thalia asked suddenly, and Annabeth felt relieved about finally having something to distract her from her morbid problem. She didn't really want to think about it anymore. "I get that there's this psychotic protogenos goddess controlling your country, but I'm not going to be able to run forever. Honestly, my maternal instincts are screaming at me to find a safe place and stay there, and I'm worried about Luke."

Percy dropped his arm off her shoulders, pinched the bridge of his nose like he always did when he felt troubled, and frowned. "I was talking with Annabeth about that, just earlier. As much as it infuriates me to admit it, there's nothing we can do about Rome until we figure out what is going on."

He grabbed a thick stick that was the perfect length to be held, bent over, and began to scratch lines into the mud. She recognized it as a map when he started to draw the heel of Rome.

"We're here in the mountains, northeast of Rome." He marked a large X in the middle of the map and wrote ROMA off to the side and drew an arrow pointing at a squiggly looking mouth. "There are towns here, here, and here, but those are small and I'm not comfortable with staying in such small towns when she could have spies. We could go to the North to Gauls, which might make sense..."

Thalia shook her head. "No, that's too far to the North. It's at least a month's hard march, and I don't think that's a good idea."

Percy nodded. "I suspected that." He drew a line connecting the X to the bottom of the sketch, where she thought Tarentum might be. "My gut instinct was to go to Tarentum... it's only a week's hard march away, and it's a port so if you need to leave..."

"I'm staying here." Thalia lifted her chin up and jutted it out. "I need to find out what happened to Luke, and Annabeth's not going anywhere."

Under different circumstances, she might have been fascinated by the dynamic between him and her closest friend. Thalia, by nature, was a leader and not a follower. Even Luke had given up trying to control her when she had knocked him out that one time and tied him up after he had dared to insinuate that he or Nico should have been the one in control of a mission her father have given to them. So, for her to step down and look to Percy for guidance was unforeseen... and a little sad.