Percy's POV
Malcolm's sword slashed down. I countered the strike, rolled to one side and came up swinging. He ducked and jabbed at my stomach. I locked his sword hilt with mine, twisting it out of his hand, and swept the point of Riptide up to his throat.
Just then, Chiron cantered into the sword fighting arena. "Percy!" he called. "Come with me. I have a message for you."
I capped Riptide, which immediately shrank to a ballpoint pen. Pocketing it, I jogged over to Chiron.
"Grover's found another one," he told me. "In his words, 'Nothing like I've ever smelled before.'"
"Grover's got a great nose," I joked. "If he said that, I'd better listen."
"You'll be with Nico," Chiron said. He handed me a sheet of paper. "This is the address of the school. The boy's name is Theo Quinn and he's in eighth grade. Thirteen years old."
"Okay." I folded the paper and put it in my pocket. I was about to run off to my cabin to get packed, but Chiron caught my shoulder.
"I just wanted to say…good luck, Perseus," he said.
I mumbled a thank you and dashed off. I didn't know why, but whenever somebody used my real name like that, I got nervous.
As I was walking towards Cabin Three, I spotted Nico outside the Hades cabin.
Evidently, he'd seen me too. "Hey, Percy," he said, jogging over. "Chiron tell you about the assignment yet?"
"Yeah," I said. "He was a little vague about it, though."
"Mm-hmm," Nico agreed. "I mean, Grover's found three Big Three demigods. If this one's like 'nothing he's ever smelled before'…I don't know what to make of it."
"Ah, well," I said. "First, let's concentrate on getting him to camp alive."
