This story has been running around my head for a looong time now. It takes place (and I wrote it) before Battle of the Labyrinth, so some of the elements in it might be a little off later. Oh well. It's an AU that sort of runs parallel to the real story (at least I tried to keep it as close as I could). It features an OC of mine, and will be slash. Grover/OC. Rated T now and T+ in later chapters. So don't like, don't read. : ) And don't flame, seriously.

SPOILERS: for all the books, especially the Sea of Monsters, and with that said, if you haven't read them, you will be completely lost.

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians and all of its characters belong to Rick Riordan. Dap belongs to me. : )

Chapter 1: I'm leaving the Garden: a quest of my own

My name's Dap. Well, that's what I like to be called anyway, my real name is longer and …uh, embarrassing. I've lived here with my father for all my life. Here in this Secret Garden, which he made a long time ago. He says it's the last place on earth that's completely wild. I wouldn't know. So the Garden and my father have been here for over two thousand years, it's moved with "Western civilization," as my father told me bitterly once, something I'd kind of like to know more about.

And I've been here, well, significantly less than that. But, c'mon, it's not like I'm getting any younger! Well, actually, I'm not getting any older either, being the child of a god will do that for you. But that's not the point.

I sighed and turned away from the sight of him, lying against an enormous tree, the heart of the Garden, to which he seemed to be physically connected. Indeed, he hadn't moved in months. Sleeping, probably. I could look at him in his divine form, though I didn't really like it. So he didn't show it often, which was nice.

I don't dislike him. He is my father and he treats me well. After all, he gave me—us—this Garden.

It really should be everything I'd ever want. Being a satyr in the perfect wilderness with nothing even remotely human or worldly to disturb me. But that was kind of the problem. I'd lived here my whole life, and I didn't even know anything worldly. I'd never been outside my father's walls.

I walked away, looking down at the dark fur that coated my legs, and my hooves snapped twigs on the floor of this precious wilderness. Yeah, so I was a little bitter. I think anyone would be.

I reached the boarders of the Garden. It was actually really far, but I can travel fast and far if I want to. Like the gods. I couldn't see the outer world, just the magic illusion that the Garden went on forever.

My father's voice sounded in my head. He knew what I was thinking most of the time. Trust me, you don't want to go.

Yes, I did.

I was back at my father's tree. I looked at him and sighed. I'm sure he knew what I was thinking…again. See, father is set in his ways and he won't move or come out of hiding until "someone finds him." Apparently, people have been searching for him for a long time and for some reason, no one had succeeded yet.

It bugged me. Why hasn't anyone found him in all this time?! Satyrs should really be more acute than that…

That night as I slept on it, something kept nagging at my mind. Trust me, you don't want to go. Same as he always said, but this time it rang in my head like…I had a choice. I did have a choice.

So when morning came, nymphs fluttering in to wait on father with breakfast, I made my choice.

He looked at me. "If you're really going to go, you must make me an oath first. You cannot lead anyone to me, to this Garden. Or tell them in anyway. Swear it."

I wondered what he knew…. I swore it anyway though.

"And, son, keeping that oath might be easier if you don't tell who you really are," he added with a knowing look that showed his years. I was skeptical.

After I'd packed a couple things I thought I might need, (I really had no idea what to pack, seeing as I'd certainly never traveled) I left to find what was hindering searchers from finding this place. The sun rose to its zenith and speckled the grassy ground through the trees as I left the heart of the Garden. As I headed to the outskirts of the Garden, a chill ran up my spine wondering how long it'd be before I'd feel such lush warmth again: I didn't know if there were even such things in the outer world. So I crossed the magical borders with one look back that confused me a little because I felt…a little sad.

As soon as I set hoof beyond the large trees that made up the outside guard, I blanched. There was a smell…well, I guess it was more like a lack of smell. The smell of the Garden's wilderness was gone, and the smell of the outside was like that of a wilderness drained of life and cluttered with other unrefreshing things. My heart broke for what I saw, too. Small, struggling plants were clustered in patchy woods, fighting for ground amongst several types of unknown garbage. There was a sickly tinge to the vegetation that I had never known in the perfection of my father's Garden. As I walked by, the plants leaned towards me and surged back to life around my hooves. My father's way with plants had been somewhat passed to me.

But then what caught my attention was the smell of other beings. A lot of them, too, not all of them pleasant. After a while I realized that I was near a city full of humans, (which accounted for most of the smell) and when I moved beyond that, the human scent dulled and more vegetation got through.

I walked (and some not-walked) for about two hours, when I noticed a new and, at the same time, well-known scent on the air. It was a smell I knew very well. It was the heavy, wet, freshness that went with the wilderness surrounding my father. I sniffed the air. It was coming from the east, with a salty after breeze. It was coming to me carried by winds off the sea.