The wind blew steadily through the valley, but my thoughts weren't on the weather.
"You're leaving?" My voiced was laced with disbelief and a touch of hurt. I couldn't bear to look at him. I had been so sad the first time he left, but this time it hurt worse. We needed Grover, well, I needed Grover. He was like, my best friend, and he was leaving. Again. He started to explain, but I wasn't listening. I just nodded along. I felt disconnected to my body, like I was a puppet someone else was controlling.
"And so I got you a parting gift," Grover finished. He held out a piece of paper proudly. Well, it was almost a piece of paper. It had a huge chunk bitten out of it.
Grover noticed my quizzical stare and shrugged. "Drinking all that coffee made me hungry," He explained. I just had to smile, But my smile quickly turned to tears. This was just one more thing I would miss about Grover.
I was sitting at the edge of the creek, with nothing to do but feel sorry for myself. But worse than my personal pity, was the pity of others. A Hermes camper, Kevin I think, stole me a soda free of charge. That was great and all, but I was so sick of this sympathy. I needed someone to tell me I was overreacting, being a baby, and to get over myself. I knew the perfect girl for the job.
Clarisse was the super-tough daughter of Ares, and my camp rival. She would give me a verbal (or physical, depending on her mood) lashing that would snap me out of my self pity. I went up to her and pushed her. That was sure to aggravate her. No such luck. She turned around, her eyes full of sympathy. I ran away, full of fear. I sooner expected Mr.D, the god of wine, to give up drinking. Then I remembered the paper Grover gave me. I read it the best I could, but it made no sense. It was a riddle, and I simply couldn't understand what it meant.
The quest seems simple at first look,
Retrieving something a monster took,
Take another look and you will see,
The true essence of monstrosity,
Dark and light shall collide,
And the explosion will give you a free ride,
One shall be tempted by their father's hand,
And one trapped in the region of sand.
Just another riddle. I let out a sigh of frustration. I sought out Annebeth. Her wisdom would make some sense of this puzzle.
Unfortunately, Annebeth was nowhere to be seen. I asked around the camp, and no one had seen her today. This was so not my day. Later, after I had seen Annebeth, I would regret feeling sorry for myself. She was in much more danger than I was.