The Forest That Smelled Like French Fries
The four of them walked through the forest, slightly soaked, while exhaustion and a faint sense of panic, along with the constant anxiety of being attacked out of nowhere, seemed to cling to them. Especially Grover, who kept bleating under his breath and trembling just a little.
"Three Kindly Ones… at the same time," he muttered.
Harry, for his part, did not say much. He walked ahead, lighting the way with a Lumos spell that cast a small glow from his wand so he could see the ground more clearly, which was already hard enough to cross with all the mud. Having light helped a lot. Though they had to be careful; that same light could just as easily make them visible to whatever was hunting them.
Annabeth urged them to move faster.
"Come on. The farther we get, the better," she said, trying to push ahead along a path that was already miserable enough, thick with mud, fallen branches, and rain that soaked through their clothes and left them feeling cold and uncomfortable.
Percy seemed mildly irritated at being rushed right then.
"All our stuff is still on the bus. Money, food, clothes. And three damned monsters are probably tracking us. I do not think having someone rush us helps right now," Percy said.
"And it is exactly because three monsters are tracking us that we need to hurry. They can fly. They could catch up at any moment. We will worry about our things later," Annabeth shot back, her tone just as sharp.
At the reminder, Grover somehow looked even more pitiful as he murmured, "Tin cans…"
His strange snacks had been left behind in his bag.
"Shut up, goat boy," Annabeth snapped, more annoyed at the concern over food than the possibility of ending up sliced into neat pieces by the Furies. She felt like she was the only one actually taking the danger seriously. She shot Percy an irritated look, and he returned it with equal intensity.
"This is stupid," Percy said, breaking the stare, irritation clear in his voice along with a crooked, sarcastic smile as he stopped walking.
"What?" Annabeth asked, staring at him.
Harry stopped too and looked at Percy for a moment, but he did not say anything.
"All of this. It is stupid. I do not even know how I ended up agreeing to something this dumb," Percy went on. "Maybe it was the thrill of an adventure. Or the heat of the moment. But do you realize what this looks like? We are four kids in the middle of a forest, soaked to the bone, being chased by three infernal monsters. I did not even know places like this existed in New Jersey. And look at us. We could have asked the camp for more help. They train for this stuff all the time, right? And they just send the four of us."
"Uh… I am not really a kid. And this specific part of the forest is like this because we are on a satyr path," Grover said, barely raising his hand.
The serious looks from the others silenced him immediately.
"Why are you so afraid of who you are?" Annabeth asked suddenly.
Percy cut himself off and frowned in confusion.
"What?" he said, looking at her.
Grover, sensing the air grow even colder, opened his mouth again.
"The interesting thing about this satyr trail is that my Uncle Ferdinand used it when he set out on his quest…"
No one seemed to be listening.
"What is that supposed to mean? I am not afraid of who I am," Percy said, staring directly at Annabeth.
"Then tell me. Who are you?" she replied without breaking eye contact.
Percy watched her in silence for a moment.
"I am Percy Jackson. Apprentice knight. Terrible student of magic. And someone who would never stand by and watch his brother or his friends get hurt over something like this," he said, stepping in front of her, face to face, his expression truly serious in a way that was unusual for him. "So do not try to tell me I do not know who I am. Because I know exactly who I am. And before I am the son of some god who never even spared me a word, or the descendant of any other stupid god about to start a war because he lost his favorite toy… I am myself."
As if someone up there had very poor tolerance for criticism, the sky answered with a thunderclap that made the entire forest tremble, lighting it up in violent white Flashes.
Grover panicked and looked up. Annabeth's lips parted slightly as she stared at Percy. He stared right back. Harry did too; both of them wore the same sharp, lucid tension on their faces.
"Percy, enough," Harry said calmly, though his voice carried firm authority. "We should keep moving."
He glanced at the sky as well, which looked ready to hurl a bolt of lightning down on them at any second.
At his brother's words, Percy broke eye contact with Annabeth and started walking again.
Annabeth's gray eyes lingered on the backs of the two brothers for a moment before she followed, quieter now. Grover hurried along too, glancing nervously at the sky.
The four of them pressed deeper into the forest. The faint glow of city lights that had once been visible behind them vanished completely, leaving only the narrow path lit by Harry's wand and an almost deafening silence, broken only by the steady drip of rain and the splash of their footsteps in the mud.
That silence was soon interrupted by Grover's flute as he tried to remember a so called pathfinding melody to lead them out of the forest. But if we are being honest, what came out of that instrument was nowhere near a proper song.
Suddenly, Percy stopped and began sniffing the air.
Harry, who had been leading the way as the bearer of light, stopped as well.
"Percy?" he asked, looking at him.
"Do you smell that?" Percy said, trying to follow a strange scent drifting through the air.
"Smell what?" Annabeth asked, frowning as she tried to catch it. All she could pick up was damp earth and rain.
But Grover, standing beside Percy, started sniffing too and suddenly widened his eyes.
"That is… fried food," he said, having by far the best nose among them. "This way."
He immediately took the lead, almost trotting as he pushed through the trees.
The others followed without hesitation, and the closer they got to the source of the smell, the more clearly they could sense it themselves.
It was exactly what Grover had said. Fried food. All kinds of it. And it was coming from what looked like some sort of shop in the middle of the forest. There were several signs, but one in particular stood out; a neon sign glowing above the building.
The place was surrounded by rows of statues of all kinds. For a brief moment, both Percy and Harry felt something oddly familiar about them. As if they had seen something like this before, but could not quite remember where.
Even so, the smell seemed to fog their minds just a little, so they approached slowly.
Percy tilted his head up at the neon sign, making some truly strange and concentrated faces as he tried to read it. He seemed to give up almost immediately.
"What does it say?" he asked, surrendering.
"I have no idea," Annabeth replied, sharing the same dyslexia.
"Aunty M's Garden Gnome Emporium," Grover translated for them.
That made both Harry and Percy frown slightly.
"Aunty M's?" they asked at the same time.
Still, they moved closer, studying the garden gnomes that looked as though they were posing for a group photo. They were not the only statues, though. There were figures that looked disturbingly realistic; people, monsters, even animals.
When they were standing right in front of the door, Grover muttered, "Hey… are we sure about this? This place looks really strange."
He glanced at the parking lot in front of the shop. There was not a single car. Just an overwhelming number of statues. Even a cement satyr playing a flute.
"Mmm… that looks like my Uncle Ferdinand," Grover said quietly.
None of the other three seemed to hear him. Hunger was starting to cloud their judgment.
Before any of them could even knock, the door suddenly swung open with a sharp creak that made all four of them jump.
A woman dressed in arabesque clothing stood in the doorway, staring at them. Or at least it seemed like she was staring, because the veil she wore covered even her eyes. A long robe concealed her entire body except for her hands. Hands that looked old, yet elegant and meticulously kept.
"Children?" she said. And though her gaze shimmered behind the black gauze, it seemed to linger on Percy for just a moment. "It is late for children to be alone in the forest. Where are your parents?" she asked in a gently concerned tone.
"Uh…" Annabeth began, thinking quickly.
But Percy was faster.
"We are orphans," he said at once. "We got separated from the circus caravan."
Harry could already feel his stare burning into the back of Percy's head, but Percy ignored it and kept going.
"Our director said he would meet us at the gas station," he added, pointing toward the only other structure around; an old station across the road. It had clearly been abandoned for years, covered in vines and rusted scrap. "Or maybe he got the wrong gas station," Percy corrected himself when he noticed the condition of the place. "Either way, we are lost and soaked. By the way… is that food I smell?" he shifted topics smoothly.
"Oh, you poor things," the woman said, Her voice carried genuine sorrow. "Come in quickly before you catch cold. I have a food court full of these delights for you. You may eat as much as you like while we find a way to contact your guardians."
Her tone was so warm that, without realizing it, all four of them felt their shoulders relax just a little.
They did not have much choice but to step inside. They thanked her and crossed the threshold.
"The circus? Really?" Harry muttered under his breath.
"It was the first thing that came to mind. Anyway, we kind of are a freak show," Percy replied with a faint grin.
They did not notice that the moment they stepped fully into the shop, the woman quietly closed the door behind them. She slid several locks into place, and finally turned the key.
Then she faced them again.
Beneath the cloth covering her head, something shifted and writhed for just a second.