Evelyn and Grover knocked out as soon as their heads hit the pillow. The same couldn't be said for Percy and Annabeth

"Hey, you asleep?" Percy questioned. 

"Yes," Annabeth replied sarcastically.

"What was Medusa talking about with Eve? That whole kindness with monsters thing?" He asked Annabeth.

"Eve, she... she isn't like you or me. Eve sees everyone differently and she isn't the type to believe stories or rumors about someone until she meets them herself. That's just who she is." Annabeth responded, "One time, when she was 11, she had to go on this quest all by herself and she had to meet with this sea-dragon who didn't like demigods or the gods." 

"Wait, but I thought Chiron didn't let anyone go on quests until now." Percy asked.

Annabeth sighed, "Well this wasn't an actual quest, more like an adventure. Besides, it was a request from her mother, Aphrodite herself so Chiron couldn't just say no." She continued on explaining, "We were all worried she wouldn't come back alive but you know what she did? Eve came back to camp, with a scale of the dragon as a gift. She had managed to make amends between her mother and it."

Percy was amazed and looked at the girl who was sleeping soundly with her back towards him, how could Eve do something like that? "Wow, that's..." 

"That's Eve for you, she has so much love in her to give to everyone. It's what I admire most about her." Annabeth filled in what Percy trailed off on.

There was silence for a few moments before Percy spoke up again. "So, you and Thalia were really close, right?" He asked Annabeth. 

"Yeah," She responded

"What was she like?" He asked her. 

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"

"She was the last forbidden kid before me, right?" He said. "She must've dealt with the same kind of stuff"

"She was tough," Annabeth stated. "I mean, she knew she was a forbidden kid, she just didn't care. When Luke and Thalia found me, Luke cared for me right away. But Thalia, she made me earn it."

"Is that why I gotta earn with you too!" Percy questioned. 

Annabeth sighed. "Yeah. Maybe." She told him.

"I gotta say, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me," Percy stated. 

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows again. "What doesn't make sense to you?"

"The way you guys all talk." The blonde explained. "The way the gods want us to think. Gotta burn an offering to get a parent's attention. Gotta beat up on Clarissa just to get my father to admit he's my father. It isn't supposed to work that way. People who are close to you aren't supposed to treat you that way"

A sigh left her lips. "You wanna know how I ended up alone on the road in the first place?" She asked. "I started out as a gift to my father. That's how it works with Athena. We're born from a thought in her mind and then given to a partner she feels connected to. And for a while, I was treated like a gift. My father cared for me. He loved me. I knew it. Then. he met a woman. They had their own kids. And to her, I-I wasn't a gift, I was a problem. So I left. I was seven. It isn't the gods who think that way, it's everybody. But at least with the gods you know the rules. Show them respect and they'll be in your corner, no matter what."

"So what about Eve's mortal parent? What was it like for Eve?" Percy asked,

Annabeth sighed, "I won't tell you everything because that's something Eve should tell you...but Eve didn't know who any of her parents were at first, she was raised in an orphanage, completely alone. When she was 8, we found her in the forest with a broken arm and she was surrounded by doves and sparrows. Just like with me, her mother guided her to us. It took awhile for Eve to come out of her shell because the things she faced in that orphanage..." Annabeth shook her head, reminding herself that Eve wouldn't want her to talk about it. "Anyways, Eve and I clicked and here we are."

Percy opened his mouth to respond when Grover let out a groan. "Are you awake?" Percy questioned. 

"Well, I am now," Grover replied, harshness in his tone. "Thanks." 

"Are you okay?" Percy asked, confused with Grover's tone. 

"He's super grouchy when he doesn't get enough sleep," Annabeth told him. 

"He's super grouchy when he doesn't get enough... Nyah" Grover mocked.

"Wow," Percy muttered. 

"You've never been on the road before, a little different than a froofy boarding school," Annabeth commented.

"Who's froofy?" Grover asked defensively. "You're froofy. What's froofy...? I think I need to eat."

"Are you guys done babbling? Some of us need sleep." Eve mumbled as she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Looks like our princess is awake." Annabeth teased and Percy cracked a smile, remembering what Luke had told him about Evelyn being the princess of the camp,

"Yeah, yeah. Just go to sleep, we're gonna need it." Evelyn laid back down, then she whispered to Percy, "You'll get used to the dreams eventually, don't worry,"

"How did you-"

"I can tell, it's something I go through a lot too. Just don't let them get to you."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Evelyn stood in a field of flowers, she quickly realized it was a dream but couldn't figure out where she was.

She spotted a man standing underneath a myrtle tree in the distance. He looked similar to her, and he smiled sadly.

He started speaking, "I'm sorry little dove, I cannot tell you everything yet, but you cannot listen to him. Do not believe anything he says."

"Listen to who?" Evelyn asked, as anemones and roses started to bloom around her. 

"You will know soon, I'll help you the best I can, alongside your mother."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

They had gotten breakfast on the train and were sitting at a table. Evelyn was beside Percy, facing Annabeth. Evelyn just staring at her hands on the table, lost in thought over her dream.

She had never had dreams about that man before, so why would he show up now?

"Two days before we reach Los Angeles," Grover stated, waking Evelyn from her thoughts. "Plenty of time before our deadline to reach the Underworld."

"Can I ask a dumb question? Percy asked,

"Don't you always?" Evelyn said, 

"It's like you need me to make fun of you," Annabeth added, shaking her head. 

Grover nodded at Percy, ignoring the two girls, "Shoot."

"I've never been to Los Angeles before," He said. "I'm guessing no one here has been to Los Angeles. So how will we have any idea of where we're going?"

"No idea," Grover answered. "But that's like step thirty-seven and we're still on step four. cross that bridge when we get there."

"Follow up stupid question," Percy continued. 

Evelyn rolled her eyes, and Annabeth groaned, "Dude."

"And you shall fail to save what matters most in the end," Percy repeated the words that the oracle told him. "Back in Jersey, I told you the oracle said this quest would fail, and no one's mentioned it since, seems like something we oughta be taking a little more seriously,"

Percy looked out of the window, distracted with what he saw, "Are those?"

"Centaurs," Annabeth replied as the four of them looked out of the window at the half-horse and half-human creature.

"No one even knows they're there," Percy looked back, everyone was too engrossed in their conversations, oblivious to what was outside. 

"There used to be herds of them everywhere," Grover spoke,

"What happened to them?" Percy asked. 

"Humans," the satyr answered, his gaze averting to the boy. "A few thousand years ago, the gods of the wild, Pan, disappeared, and ever since without Pan to protect the natural world humans have been trying hard to chip away at it."

"The bravest satyrs volunteer to become searchers, trying to find Pan," Annabeth added. "None of them have returned."

"Your uncle we found in Medusa's, Ferdinand," Percy looked over at his friend but Grover was looking out the window, "He was a searcher?" Grover just nodded, he couldn't get any words out.

Evelyn frowned, "The oracle didn't say the quest would fail" She changed the subject in which Grover gave her a grateful look and she sent a small smile, "There's so many meanings to what 'To fail to save what matter most' means. That's just how prophecies work. With fate, it's inevitable."

Evelyn believed that fate cannot be stopped, no matter what. "The harder you work to understand, the harder it gets to understand. Sometimes you've just gotta let it come to you when it's ready."

There was silence between the four after Evelyn had spoken, but it was broken shortly after when a police officer came up to them. "Excuse me, can I see your tickets please?" Annabeth pulled them out of her bag, and gave them to the officer, "You're in cabin 17b? Come with me please?"

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Evelyn's jaw dropped at the scene in front of her, the whole room was trashed and there was a window broken.

"You wanna explain?" The officer interrogated them, as trash and feathers were flying all over the room.

"Wait, wait, you think we did this?" Percy gestured to the four of them.

"Did you?"

"I mean...how? and why?"

"Sir, when we left to get breakfast, everything was intact." Grover explained. "We don't know how this happened."

"We got a witness here, who says she heard the windows smash and then heard children's voices." They looked over to a woman talking to a different police officer.

"Sir, we are children. Why would we mess up our own cabin?" Evelyn scoffed, she couldn't believe that they were suspected just like that.

"Can you tell me what time you left the cabin?"

"Are we under arrest?" Evelyn was getting fed up with this, her frustration was rising. 

"I don't think you want to take that tone with me, little girl." the officer warned, as Evelyn raised an eyebrow, and Grover grabbed her arm to warn her to not speak

She ignored Grover, and raised her voice, "Are we under arrest?" 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

I really like the story of anemone flowers <3