Chapter 34

[Third Person's PoV]

The next day…

Lucian was walking a few feet behind everyone, still looking a little faded and using his scythe as a walking stick.

Annabeth, who also stood behind, walked right next to him and kept looking at him with worry, afraid that he would simply disappear if she looked away.

This caused Lucian to sigh, "I'm fine, you have to stop worrying about me, sure I look like a ghost and I'm walking with the help of something like an old man with a back problems but I'm mostly find just exhausted"

Annabeth just glared at Lucian, "Your anything but fine… why didn't you say anything if you were feeling burdened by your abilities"

"Because I didn't feel it, for you to understand what happened you need to understand how my powers really work… which I didn't know until recently and just found out thanks to what just happened.

You see, in order to make a shadow soldier a bit of my shadow is used in return. The part of my shadow that was needed to make the Hydra Vines just wasn't there so when I called it forward it started to basically use my body instead, if that makes sense.

As for why I didn't feel it, it was mostly because of the Hydra Vines poison, it made me feel numb so I couldn't feel it, and so when I was cured of it, it all came weighing down on me without me being able to say anything. I'm fine now, I didn't even realize how freeing it feels to not have all of that on me."

Hearing this Annabeth looked at Lucian and asked "so how many do you have then, since you had to release some of them"

"Let's see, I have 1 ravens, 5 giants, 10 Stymphalian Birds, 15 Lamias, 1 large boar, 10 spiders, 12 Empousa, kept the 20 griffins, 30 harpies, 30 hellhounds, and the Hydra Vines. Making it a total of 135, which is still a very decent amount so I'm not anger about it.

I feel like a can store more maybe up 150, that's the max a could take… for now that is. I'm leaving the rest empty incase we encounter something worthwhile"

"Wait so how in the world did you manage to store 500 if you could only take 150." Annabeth asked confused.

"That's my fault, having my literal existence almost erased didn't happen without any consequences. It lowered the amount of Shadow Soldier's I can save. I think I can summoned more than that but I can't store them for later use" Lucian explained.

Grover then turned towards everyone, "Guys I hear a river stream a few feet ahead of us, it's getting late, it's better if we settle down and rest for tomorrow's journey"

Hearing him the others nodded and followed close behind, when they arrive and start setting everything up, Grover started giving them survival advice on the wilderness.

He started showing them what fruits and berries were save to eat, which one's were poisonous, the same with mushrooms.

And while the others were busy setting up came, Lucian was by the river with his spear in hand trying to catch some fish.

As he saw a fish swim by he was about to throw the spear, but before he could something erupted from the water.

Every stopped what they were doing as Annabeth pulled out both her daggers, Luke drew out his sword, and Thalia her spear and Shield.

"WOAH WOAH WOAH, DON'T DO THAT YOU'LL END UP KILLING ME" A river Nymph said appearing from the flowing river.

"ARE YOU CRAZY, WHO HUNTS FISH WITH A STYGIAN STEEL WEAPON" The Nymph.

Lucian got slightly embarrassed, "How was I supposed to know you were in there"

"I guess that's fair but it still doesn't make it right" The Nymph said nodding her head slightly.

"So what then? If you don't want me to fish with my weapon can you, I don't know, will the river to throw us some fish or something?"

"Why would I do that?" She said looking at Lucian weirdly.

Lucian just smiled at her, "Cause if you don't I'll stick this where the sun doesn't reach."

A horrified look appear on her before Thalia appeared and smacked the pole of spear on Lucian's head.

"Stop scaring you her you idiot"

"Ouch" Lucian said rubbing the back of his head, "Fine then you go and Fish us some Fish" Lucian grumbled and went towards the others limping using his spear.

"Woah you're such a ladies man" Luke said snickering.

"Alright golden boy go up there and uses your infinite amount of charisma and tried to get us some food" Lucian said while giving Luke a challenging look.

"Fine just watch and learn" Luke said as he fixed his hair and clothes and calmly walked towards the Nymph with a confident look.

As Luke went up towards the Nymph, he started talking trying to rizz her up with a with a smile. But the Nymph looked at him disgusted, she ended up waving her hand causing the water to rise up and hit him right on his face causing him to be soaking wet.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Lucian laughed rolling on the ground while pointing at him.

Annabeth just had a hand over her mouth and turned her head to side to stop herself from laughing.

Thalia, who was nexted to Luke, was bent over laughing using her spear as support.

After wiping her tears, she shook her head and apologized for Luke's behavior before grabbing the back of his shirt, pulling him towards everyone and the fire they already started.

"Hahahaha, I watched and learned alright, I learned what not to do in the future" Lucian said to Luke who was huddled by campfire.

"Do you guys really want fish that badly? If you guys want I can talk to her and get you guys some?"

"Not really but it would be nice to have to eat, are you sure you can get her to agree, golden boy here boomed it after all" Lucian asked with a raised brow.

"Water Nymphs are delicate creatures, I know what to do in this case" Grover said before walking towards the Nymph.

"You think he can actually do it?" Annabeth asked.

"Doubt it" Luke said shivering, "She's an evil Witch"

Which just caused Lucian to laugh at Luke once again, causing Luke to grumble before looking towards Grover.

They saw how Grover walked towards her and started speaking to her, after a while the nymph started giggling behind her hand before nodding her head.

Grover nodded his head as well and stepped back before started hopping on one hoove, and then the other,

"He's dancing?" Thalia asked tilting her head in confusion.

"Look it seems to be working" Annabeth said in surprise motioning towards the water Nymph that was clapping her hands with a happy expression.

When Grover bowed as if he finished a performance, the Nymph started applaud him.

She seemed pleased with his before diving back into the water, after a few seconds a splash of water landed next to Grover.

When the water retreated a couple of fishes were flopping on the ground next to him. Everyone looked at Grover in shock before Lucian turned towards Luke with a teasing expression.

"You should learn a thing or two from him"

Luke just scoffed and rolled his eyes, before Grover appeared in front of them carrying the fishes.

"What did you do? How did you get her to agree?" Annabeth asked looking at all the fish on Grover's hand.

"Nothing really, I just danced a sacred dance of the wild, it's supposed to be a blessing towards other people saying, "May Pan look over you", alot of water Nymphs are getting sick because of the pollution humans create. So the dance was a way to make her feel better"

"Man Grover you are awesome my guy" Lucian said with a smirk.

"Baahhh" Grover got embarrassed at at before passing the fist to everyone for them to cook.

"You don't want one? We got them because of you you should take some" Thalia asked when she noticed he didn't have any.

Grover shook his head, "No thanks. We satyrs don't eat that stuff, we mostly eat berry's and the likes"

"I see" Thalia said before they all started cooking their fish and eating their dinner.

After a few minutes of them talking to themselves it got completely dark out causing everyone to decide to go and fall asleep…