"Come on, Grover," I shouted. "You swim slower than an angelfish!" I flipped my fins faster, creating a vaster distance between the two of us. A few twirls for show wouldn't hurt either.

"I'm not slow," Grover protested, trying to catch his breath. "You just have some abnormal oxygen capacity."

I snorted, a few bubbles floating over to my best friend. "But hurry up," I said, glancing down at the sunken ship below us. "I want to search it before the counselors realize I'm missing."

"Why don't we just turn around?" Grover suggested instead, clearly not thrilled. He gulped. "It's not like that stuff's worth anything."

"Do you even hear yourself, Grover? Not worth anything-yeah right." I sped faster towards the ship, and he swam faster in pursuit.

The ship looked like it had been down here for ages. The wood was tearing away and falling around the sand; massive holes had formed on the sides of the ship from either erosion or sharks. I didn't really care what did it. It gave me an easy entrance, and therefore, I was thankful.

Once I was inside, I turned around and spotted Grover. "Come on. Don't be such a guppy, Grover."

This got him going. It always did.

"I am not a guppy," he snapped.

"You are not a guppy," I agreed, arms crossed.

"I am a goatfish. I am a brave goatfish."

"You know it."

"I am going to go into this ship-"

"Yeah you are."

"-and no one is going to tell me otherwise!"

With a loud battle cry-I didn't know why that was always necessary-Grover zipped through the hole, and hit the opposite wall with such a force that half of the room shuttered. He wasn't that big a fish, but boy, he could get a lot of power behind that fin.

We searched the room, finding nothing but rocks, wood, and water. Despite his grand entrance, Grover seemed to be extremely jittery as we swam through the ship. His distress wasn't soothing in the least.

"If you want," I told him, "you could go watch for the hippocampi. We don't need any of those horse-butts to rat us out."

Grover nodded, grateful to have an excuse to leave the ship without actually leaving his duties. The goatfish were set to protect the demigods, at least, of the underwater realm. (Rumor is there's some kind of goat-human up on land that protects the human demigods. Weird.) By watching out for the hippocampi, he was still technically protecting me. The hippocampus weren't violent, not in this land. It was more of the fragile state of peace between me and my father, Poseidon. Hippocampus were the biggest tattletales I knew. If they told my father I was down here searching yet another sunken ship for human things, I would surely get in trouble. Being grounded caused yet another problem-I wouldn't get to search for more human things.

Grover left to guard the entrance, and I delved further into the ship. There had to be something down here, I thought angrily. The humans couldn't have possibly rescued all of their belongings.

Just then, I spotted something. The barest amount of light skimmed it, making the object twinkle. As I neared it, I realized the object was bronze. Celestial bronze, it seemed. I picked it up, and examined it.

It almost looked like a trident.

If this was a human trident, how did they ever get stuff done? I doubted this little thing welded as much power as my father's did. This was only barely longer than my hand.

I'd ask the Oracle about it, I decided. She seemed to be the only one willing to answer my questions lately. Plus, she didn't tell my father anything. The benefits of being friends with birds.

I met Grover by the entrance. He was a shaking. "Get yourself together, dude," I told him before slipping out through the hole in the wall.

"W-what are talking about, Perc?" Grover asked, swimming up beside me. "I'm perfectly fine. Nothing can scare this f-fish."

Just as the words left his mouth, a scream quickly filled it.

A dark, huge shadow had fallen over us.

I tried to cover his mouth, but boy, this fish was persistent.

"Shut up," I whispered ardently.

"B-but-"

"It's only Tyson," I told him, rolling my eyes and gesturing to the big fish that had swam up behind us. My half-brother had a goofy smile on his face, flipping his fins to and fro. He would pop up out of there sometimes-like just now. It almost always scared the living daylights out of us.

Grover seemed to calm down, realizing our threat was not in fact a threat. Tyson could be a threat, if he wanted to be. Being a cyclops-fish had its perks, like perfect voice-acting and issuing utter terror on its victims. But no, Tyson wouldn't hurt a thing. Nobody needed to know that, though. His company was beneficial in that fact: nobody ever dared to mess with you when you had a cyclops for a brother.

"I'm sowy fer scarin you, Gwover." Tyson tried to snuggle up next to him, but Grover shied away. He had a previous trauma with a different cyclops-fish that hadn't left him yet. We didn't like to talk about it.

The three of us began our trip back to the camp, trying to avoid the Ichthyocentaurs at all costs. They were so annoying when it came to protocol. They literally hung on Dad's every word. I guess that makes sense, considering he is the god of the oceans and seas. But seriously, guys-get a grip.

The three of us managed to slip through the fence without getting stopped by the guards. They were kind of oblivious sometimes. Especially when that one guy bakes brownies-the guys go nuts. That, unfortunately, wasn't the case today. Had it been, I would've tried to sneak some for myself-but only if they were blue.

I had this allergy-I didn't really know how to explain it. In short, I could only eat things that were blue. Seriously. I know, it sounds funny-but really, it's not. Whenever I eat anything ranging in color, whether it be some coral flakes or a seaweed salad-I just puff up like a blowfish. It seriously sucks. Apparently, it's also a really rare disease. Lucky me, to be graced by its presence.

Grover left me to go to the Reef, where the rest of the goatfish reside. I spotted water nymphs frolicking through the seaweed. One noticed me and smiled, waving. I nodded, and swam towards my cabin.

Since the camp was only used for training, I only kept my "souvenirs" and weapons in my cabin. My bed currently resided in Poseidon's palace, in the west wing. Everything seemed to be in the west wing, really. Maybe that's why I spent so much time out of the palace.

Plus, it was really boring. Aside from my father and his wife, Amphitrite, I was the only merperson in the kingdom. Apparently, their son Triton's palace was thriving with merpeople. The guy had seven daughters! But Triton couldn't stand me; stupid sibling rivalries. Alas, I was stuck here in this boring town.

My cabin was just as clean as I'd left it: not at all. Celestial bronze shields and coral knives littered the floor, as well as several blue candy wrappers. My sword, Riptide, was sitting in my pocket. (Yes, fishtails have pockets!).

I walked to the opposite end of the room, and knelt down on the floor. I pushed aside the sand covering the floor, and yanked open the door leading to my treasure chamber. It took me an entire week to dig that thing out, but man, it was AWESOME. Even better were the things that occupied it. Human things of all kinds: small, short, tall, long, fat, thin. Half of the things I had never heard of, or even seen for that matter. Each new discovery only led me to wonder what the world above the surface was like.

Man, I wish I could be a part of their world.

(That didn't mean I was gonna sing about it.)