Chapter 66

After Luke finished packing he caught up towards Annabeth and Thalia who were waiting for him with Chiron wishing them the best on their journey.

"Where's Lucian?" Luke asked looking around, "I would have assumed he would have sent us off or something?" Luke asked Chiron with a confused expression.

"Ah yeah he said he needed to do something important and told me to wish you guys Luck on your journey in his steed"

The three of them sighed before shaking their heads, Annabeth, unable to contain her excitement, asked, "So can we leave now?"

Luke nodded his head, "I have everything ready, so we can leave now if you guys want"

Thalia and Annabeth both nodded before they all said their goodbyes towards Chiron, and started their journey to complete Luke's quest.

Once they made it past the hill Lucian undid his presence concealment and walked up to them with a large pack back on his shoulders.

He looked towards them with a shocked expression, "Woah, what a surprise, I didn't expect us to be heading in the same direction, what a coincidence!"

"LUCIAN!" They all shouted happily.

A look of realization overcame them, "So this was your plan!" They all exclaimed.

Lucian looked at them like they were crazy, "What are you guys talking about? I really do need to do something, it really is just a strange coincidence that we are heading in the same direction"

"Oh yeah and what is it that you need to do?" Thalia teased with a smirk.

"Ah you know I just thought that I've been working myself tirelessly so I decided to go on a road trip to take a break, all work and no play is bad for your health as they say" Lucian retorted in a matter of fact tone.

They all just scoffed in amusement at Lucian's shamelessness.

Annabeth appeared a little bit nervous, "Isn't going to be dangerous if you join? Chiron did say that for quest there was a reason why 3 was the most optimal number"

Lucian just looked confused, "Who said anything on joining you guys, I literally just explained I'm on a road trip, I'm trying to rediscover myself"

"Didn't you say it was because all work and no play was bad for your health?" Thalia continued to tease.

To which Lucian looked at her like she was an idiot, "When did I even say that, this is my journey to discover myself, to find my purpose in life apart from just being born handsome"

Luke snorted at the answer, "Are you sure you aren't the reincarnation of Narcissus"

"Oh please, he wishes he was born as cool as I am"

They all continue to banter with one another as they made their way towards a train station, but before they got on Annabeth looked at Lucian in confusion, "Wait why don't you have your back in your shadow like you always do and why aren't we taking your shadow soldiers instead of the train"

"Oh my sweet, sweet, little Annabeth, how can you be so smart but so dumb at the same time" Lucian said, patting her head.

Annabeth just swatted his hand away, "First off… Ew, don't call me that. And second off I'm just curious okay"

"Well the reason for that is because I'm not supposed to help you, like I have been saying for the past hour, it's a great coincidence that we are going the same direction, if I help you out I would have involved myself too much. Plus if we did take my griffins then this journey wouldn't feel as authentic, which is also the reason why I'm carrying the bag in the first place" Lucian explained carefully.

There was a pause before Lucian then asked, "Wait, do you guys even know where you're going?"

There was an awkward silence before Lucian looked at all of them in surprise, he looked at Annabeth with more surprise than anyone else, "Et tu Annabeth?"

Which caused her to blush, "I was too excited at the prospect of being able to go on an adventure that I didn't really do any research and I was scared that Luke would change his mind about taking me if I took too long so we left quickly." she muttered, feeling embarrassed.

"It's the same for me" Luke said, "but instead of being excited or nervous I was too angry to take notice"

Thalia just had her hands on her leather jacket and shrugged her shoulder, "I thought I was just being brought along cause of my strength so I didn't need to do research or anything, I just thought Luke or Annabeth would have had it covered"

"I don't know if to be impressed at how you all managed to fuck up or disappointed, I can understand Thalia, her reasoning is literally the most logical" Lucian said reprimanding them, he then sighed, "Guess I'm going on a lecture for all of you"

"First off Annabeth" Lucian started, "You shouldn't let your emotions control your rationality, if you need to do research to about anything and you think that it's important then do it, your main issue currently is your impatience"

"Now Luke, you are the Leader of the team, I know you're angry, trust me I do, but don't let your anger become something that guides your actions, suffer from the same thing as Annabeth, you let your emotions get the better of you, an emotional leader isn't really a bad thing, it's a bad thing when emotions are all they have."

Luke looked ashamed of himself after hearing Lucian's words.

"And now Thalia…"

"Wait, I thought you said my reasoning was logical, why am I getting reprimanded? I didn't do anything wrong" Thalia grumbled.

Lucian sighed, "I mean yeah there really isn't anything to say about you, except that You take everything lightly because of your strengths, even if Annabeth and Luke did research, you need to put in effort to do so research as well, since it is after all important and it could help you out when you're in a pickle"

Thalia then grumbled some more before she started pouting at being reprimanded by someone younger than her.

Lucian then pretended to ignore them before pulling out a piece of paper that said bucket list, "Hmmm, here my next objective is going to The Garden of Hesperides, but I don't know where the place is, now what am I going to do?" Lucian said, sounding distressed.

Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia started looking at Lucian weirdly, unsure of what he was currently doing but were slowly getting an idea.

Lucian then snapped his fingers, "Oh I know! My mother had a book with the locations of where to find places like this"

He pulled out one of his mother's books from his shadows and started flipping the pages, "Ah here we go, The Garden of Hesperides, is close to where Atlas is currently holding up the sky as punishment, which meeting him is also a part of my bucket list, around Mount. Tamalpais in California."

"Well then I guess I now have a destination!" He exclaimed before secretly winking at them, which just caused them to smile before getting on a train as they now had a destination.

"As they got on a train Annabeth couldn't help but asked, "Since when did you have a bucket list?"

"Oh since I was little" Lucian smiled, "I wrote things I want to do every since hearing my mother tell me stories about Greek history"

"What other things are there?" Thalia expressed interest as well, as the train took off with them inside.

Lucian grew pretty embarrassed before saying, "I wrote this when I was little okay, don't judge me too much on it" he then handed over the list to Thalia.

And as she read the first one she laughed, "Ahahahaha! Have an arm wrestling contest with Hercules! Hahahahaha"

Lucian buried his face in his hands.

While Luke leaned over and read another one with amusement, "Ride the golden chariot that pulled the Sun"

Annabeth looked over as well and read another one, "'Ask Atlas if he even lifts bro'...? What does that even mean"

Lucian just looked off to the side in amusement, "Don't worry about"

"Beat up at least 1 person named Jason…?, the hell is up with this list" Luke asked as he started noticing some of the things written there were really weird.

"Discover something that doesn't exist…" Thalia said before Annabeth finished it with, "...Give a monkey a shower"

"...Ask Dad if he had ever done it with a skeleton…"

Lucian snatched the list as soon as he heard Luke uttered those words and crumbled it before stuffing it in his pockets.

Nobody said a word, the awkward silence being covered with the sound of the train running on the tracks… Lucian was on the verge of tears due to how embarrassed he was feeling.