Seek and destroy (5)

With her hands raised in peace, Thalia made her presence known.

"Calm down, it's all right. I won't hurt them," said Thalia, trying to calm the frightened people.

"A boy," asked the same female voice.

Thalia didn't know why, but that comment bothered her. Very much so.

"I'm a girl," she said bitingly.

She recognized that, with her short spiky hair and her choice of clothing, she could confuse many people about her gender, but Thalia had always considered herself as a girl. A girl who had the tastes, mannerisms and attitude of a boy, but still a girl.

Inspecting the camp, she was able to identify the people. There were three; two teenagers, a girl and a boy, along with an adult male. The teenagers looked no older than sixteen. They were sitting by the fire, looking expectantly and frightened at Thalia. The adult male, who was standing in front of her, was holding a hunting rifle and pointing it directly at Thalia.

"I heard the scream," said Thalia, without taking her eyes off the gun. growl. I came to help.

"How would a milk-smelling brat like you help us," Thalia wanted to kick him in the testicles for that, "Surely you and your stupid friends wanted to play a joke on us. Well, let me tell you, I don't think it's funny at all."

There was the click of the gun ready to be fired.

"Roy, stop it," said the girl, "You saw and heard that thing too. It wasn't human. There's no way she had anything to do with it."

"You'd better listen to her. She seems smarter than you," Thalia said bitingly to the man named Roy.

"But she's not the one with the loaded gun," said Roy.

Behind Thalia, there was the sound of bushes moving. Roy immediately pointed the gun in that direction, expectant of what might emerge from there. One more series of muffled sounds and Luke emerged into the clearing, a gun pointed directly at his face. He didn't take his eyes off the gun, but his face went pale as a sheet of paper and he gulped audibly.

"Luke?" asked Thalia.

"Hey, Thalia... Could you tell him to put the gun down? I don't want to die being so young and handsome."

A few seconds later, Annabeth appeared, coming along with Sammy and Percy, who, looking at the gun, narrowed her eyes.

"Thalia," said Annabeth, in a reproachful tone, "Don't leave us behind like that! You'll make us worry!"

"Yes... I'm sorry, Annabeth."

"All right, you brats, it's time for you to talk," said Roy, pointing his gun, "Who are you? And what the hell are you doing out here in the middle of the forest?"

Luke looked at the man with an urge to punch him or kick him in the balls, either would be fine with him. It would have amused him to know that both Thalia and Percy shared that opinion.

"That's none of your business, old man," said Luke, in a disgusted voice, "You should be more concerned about what's in these woods."

"Did you see it too?" asked the girl with obvious fear.

"We heard a scream, followed by two gunshots," Annabeth explained, "Then we heard some kind of growl."

"It was just a grizzly," said Roy condescendingly, "I shot it and it ran away."

"No, that wasn't a grizzly," said the boy, in a weak voice. He was visibly shaking and rubbing his arms to calm himself down. "That thing was too fast to be one."

"Did you see it?" asked Thalia in a soft voice that surprised even her.

The boy looked down at the ground, completely terrified. The girl, who was sitting next to him, put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Tell them, Alan. You saw it better than we did," said the girl in a reassuring tone.

The boy, Alan, bit his lip before speaking slowly.

"I... was sitting by the fire, cooking some marshmallows. That's when I started to hear something moving through the bushes, I thought it was some kind of animal, or something that was attracted to the smell or the fire, so I ignored it. Until I heard something snort audibly behind me. When I turned around, I saw it.... I saw that...thing."

"What was it?" asked Annabeth, intrigued.

"I couldn't tell you for sure...it looked human, but at the same time it didn't. It was very thin, so thin that I could see it. It was very thin, so thin that I could see its bones. He was almost six feet tall and his arms were incredibly long, with long claws. His teeth were crooked and sharp and his eyes looked like empty sockets. Its ears were pointed and its skin seemed to droop on some parts of its body."

When he finished describing the creature, everyone was absolutely silent. Luke, Thalia and Percy were the ones who seemed most curious about the creature's description. They had never seen or heard anything like it, and they were the ones who had seen the most monsters.

'Wait... If it's a monster, then Alan shouldn't be able to see it, unless he's not a mere mortal.

"Anything else?" asked Luke, "Did he say or do anything to you?"

Alan shook his head.

"He just stared at me. He was there, right where you guys came out of."

Involuntarily, everyone gave a small gasp and moved away from the bushes. They didn't want the strange beast to come out and slit their throats with its claws.

"Was it you who screamed," Annabeth asked.

"Yes, anyone would when they saw a monster for the first time."

Annabeth turned and looked at Roy. He had lowered his gun, but still looked suspiciously at the small group that appeared.

"I guess you did the shooting. Did you see anything?"

Roy grunted in annoyance, before giving the little girl a sour look.

"Yes, it was me. I heard the boy scream and I came out armed. There was something in the bushes. So I did what anyone would have done; I shot. Whatever was there... got away."

Thalia looked at it in disbelief. If that strange roar she heard meant anything, it was that whatever was in those woods was still roaming around. She glanced at Luke and Percy, who apparently thought the same as she did. Percy shook his head slightly, implying that she shouldn't say anything, not wanting to scare them even more than they already were.

"Anyway, that thing won't be coming back," Roy continued, as he grabbed his gun and headed inside a small tent that was near the fire, "You brats better get back to camp. Your parents must be worried."

Only Thalia and Annabeth snorted in amusement at the older man's comment, if their parents really cared about them, they wouldn't be in the middle of the forest with a monster roaming around.