Disclaimer: Not mine.
I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs Kerr – a perky blonde woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip – had been our maths teacher since Christmas. Every so often I would spring a Mrs Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.
"I am psycho." Percy and Perseus said simultaneously. Poseidon winced.
It got so I almost believed them – Mrs Dodds had never existed. Almost.
"Grover." Hermes said.
But Grover couldn't fool me.
Apollo and Hermes high fived. Artemis shook her head at their immaturity.
When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.
"Anyone would know that he was lying." Hermes sniffed disdainfully.
"Hermes, we want Percy to know that Grover is lying so that he'll be better prepared for monsters." Athena explained impatiently.
"Professional pride." Hermes excused himself.
Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.
Poseidon looked at Perseus, remembering his earlier theory that Perseus suffered from nightmares and decided to keep and eye on him in the night. After all, they would need to sleep at one point. If Perseus woke from nightmares, Poseidon would know about it.
The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.
"You two are really having a go of it, aren't you?" Ares said gleefully.
Both Poseidon and Zeus glared at Ares. Hades glared too, but only so he wouldn't feel left out.
One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.
Glares directed at Zeus.
I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.
Athena sent Percy a look of disappointment. "If you're going to be friends with my daughter, Perseus, you had better start getting better grades than that."
Percy chuckled. "Don't worry Lady Athena, they get better with Annabeth's help."
"Wait, so Annabeth is your daughter?" Poseidon asked.
Athena rolled her eyes. "Obviously."
Poseidon turned to Percy. "Why are you friends with a daughter of Athena?" He asked.
"Why not?" Perseus butted in. "I don't see why our parents' rivalries should be ours, and anyway I owe Annabeth my life several times over."
"Me too." Percy nodded his agreement. Athena looked at Perseus with pride.
Finally, when our English teacher, Mr Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.
Athena choked out a guilty laugh.
"You know, I still don't know what that means." Percy said thoughtfully.
"Old drunkard." Perseus elaborated.
The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.
Fine, I told myself. Just fine. I was homesick. I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.
"Obnoxious stepfather?" Poseidon asked.
"Poker parties?" Dionysus questioned. Percy looked pleadingly at Athena and she nudged Demeter to continue reading before Poseidon could question him further.
And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.
"He cares." Hestia smiled. Silently, Artemis agreed.
I'd miss Latin class, too – Mr Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me.
"Good." Poseidon whispered, having been reminded of the danger his son was in.
I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.
"Don't throw books." Athena said severely. Percy shifted uncomfortably but Perseus looked Athena straight in the eye and spoke.
"I apologize Lady Athena, it won't happen again." Athena watched him closely as if measuring his worth before nodding once and telling Demeter to carry on.
There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.
"Latin is easier for Romans, that's why." Perseus said, staring into space.
"Romans? What's that got to do with anything?" Percy asked. Perseus waved his hands dismissively. "You'll find out in eight months."
I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. I remembered Mr Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.
I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat 'F' I was about to score on his exam.
Athena smiled at Perseus. "Well done for trying." She praised him.
"Thank you, Lady Athena." Perseus replied.
I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried. I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.
I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said, '... worried about Percy, sir.'
"Uh oh. Here comes trouble." Hermes sang. "Percy's going to eavesdrop. I take it back Uncle P, I don't need to teach him anything."
Poseidon scowled. "That's fine, I just don't want you corrupting him."
Hermes opened his mouth to argue but Demeter just talked over him.
I froze. I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.
I inched closer. '... alone this summer,' Grover was saying. 'I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too –'
"Then take him to where he will be safe." Poseidon yelled. Athena opened her mouth to tell him he was just talking to a book, but Perseus caught her eye and she closed her mouth without speaking.
'We would only make matters worse by rushing him,' Mr Brunner said. 'We need the boy to mature more.'
Percy started laughing and Perseus had a faint smile on his face.
"Why is that funny?" Poseidon asked bemused.
"I still haven't matured." Percy laughed.
"In all fairness, you have now." Perseus told his younger self.
"Oh? What started it?" Percy asked.
"Memory loss. All I knew was my name and I remembered tons of architecture facts from Annabeth."
Percy winced. "Ouch."
'But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline –'
'Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.'
'Sir, he saw her...'
'His imagination,' Mr Brunner insisted. 'The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that.'
"It will convince him he's crazy." Poseidon grumbled.
'Sir, I... I can't fail in my duties again.' Grover's voice was choked with emotion. 'You know what that would mean.'
"What would that mean?" Demeter asked.
"He was the satyr who saved my daughter and Luke Castellan on the mission that Thalia died." Athena answered, looking at Zeus who was scowling. "He was told he had to complete a successful mission as a keeper before he would be given his searchers licence to look for Pan."
"Not dead." Perseus spoke up suddenly.
"What?" Zeus asked him.
"You turned her into a tree. She isn't actually dead. It would be possible to restore her."
"How do you know this?" Zeus asked, hope half-hidden in his tone.
"The Golden Fleece." Percy said.
"It restores the tree, and her with it, but as a separate being. It flushed her out after healing her, so to speak. What you did was basically put her on life support. It should be in the second book."
"She's alive?" Zeus said. Percy nodded. Hera glared.
'You haven't failed, Grover,' Mr Brunner said kindly. 'I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn –'
Poseidon winced.
The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud. Mr Brunner went silent.
"Never give away your position." Hermes said.
My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.
"Because it is." Artemis said, stroking her own bow lovingly.
"Why is he out of his wheelchair?" Hephaestus rumbled.
Poseidon shrugged helplessly. "I'm going to have to talk to him about his methods." He said. "I don't appreciate him trying to convince my son that he is crazy."
I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.
A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Somewhere in the hallway, Mr Brunner spoke. 'Nothing,' he murmured. 'My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice.'
"Neither have mine." Zeus moaned.
'Mine neither,' Grover said. 'But I could have sworn...'
"Zeus thinks like a goat." Hermes and Apollo yelled.
Zeus stared at them evenly. "Artemis?" He said.
"Yes?"
"The next time those two give you a reason - any reason - shoot them for me please. I do not appreciate being compared to a goat, let alone the goat that didn't save my daughter."
"I can shoot them anywhere, Father?" Artemis began grinning evilly.
"Anywhere at all." He promised.
"It would be my pleasure."
'Go back to the dorm,' Mr Brunner told him. 'You've got a long day of exams tomorrow.'
'Don't remind me.' The lights went out in Mr Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.
"He got away with it." Hermes sighed in relief, then leaped out of his throne and ducked behind it in time to avoid a silver arrow. "Hey!"
"In a way." Athena began, paying no heed to the antics of her siblings, "It would be better if Percy had been caught. If Chiron knew that Percy knew as much as he did, he might have taken him straight to camp."
Poseidon nodded mournfully. Anything that made his son safer was okay with him.
Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night. 'Hey,' he said, bleary-eyed. 'You going to be ready for this test?' I didn't answer. 'You look awful.' He frowned. 'Is everything okay?'
'Just... tired.' I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed. I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.
"He can read your emotions." Dionysus said. "That isn't going to work."
"We know, Dionysus, but he doesn't." Aphrodite snapped.
But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.
"You are." Poseidon whispered mournfully.
The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr Brunner called me back inside.
"Three hour Latin exam?" Zeus asked looking mildly ill.
"Never mind that, why has he called Percy back?" Poseidon asked.
For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.
'Percy,' he said. 'Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... it's for the best.' His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear.
Hestia frowned. "Do not be disheartened, Hero, he doesn't mean it like that."
Perseus nodded. "I know." They said.
Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. I mumbled, 'Okay, sir.'
"Even I have to admit that the girl needs to be taught a lesson." Artemis commented, her nose scrunched up in disgust.
"Yes! If she used concealer to hide the freckles and dyed her hair a nice brown, she'd be much prettier!" Aphrodite squealed.
" ... not the point." Hades mumbled.
'I mean...' Mr Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. 'This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.'
Ares laughed. "Punks not gonna like that."
Aphrodite glared at him. "That's not nice Ares."
"What?" But she was ignoring him.
My eyes stung. Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.
"No one is destined to get kicked out, everyone can succeed if they try hard enough." Athena said. "You know, I don't think that Chiron has much awareness of the feelings of the demigods he trains."
"No shit." Dionysus said. "I'm insensitive, but at least I'm aware of it."
'Right,' I said, trembling. 'No, no,' Mr Brunner said. 'Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be –'
"I'm going to kill him." Poseidon said flatly.
"Please don't." Perseus said. "He did train me, and he was quite good at it. His training helped."
Poseidon glanced at his son. "I'm still talking to him about his decisions though."
'Thanks,' I blurted. 'Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.'
'Percy –' But I was already gone.
"Badly handled, Chiron." Hestia shook her head sadly.
On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month.
They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.
"Nobodies?" Zeus asked a dangerous glint in his eye.
"Sorry, but I didn't know who I was at the time!" Percy protested.
"Still -" Zeus began. Perseus cut him off.
"If you'd been raised the way I was, you'd believe that too." Zeus quieted down after that, looking at him thoughtfully. As far as he knew, Percy had never had a bad home life. Not that he'd taken the time to look, but still.
"What do you mean?" Poseidon asked.
"It isn't mine to tell." Perseus said, looking at his younger self.
Percy shook his head violently, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "If I remember rightly, you'll see more than I'd like soon enough anyway."
Poseidon was going to press for more details but Athena shook her head and urged him to let it go with her eyes. He hesitated, but complied. Enemy or not, she was the wisdom goddess and she had shown a fondness for Perseus.
They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city. What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the autumn.
"He has a hard life." Hestia said sadly.
"Tell me about it." Perseus muttered.
'Oh,' one of the guys said. 'That's cool.' They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.
The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover but, as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.
"Stalker." Apollo and Hermes sang. Hermes yelled in pain when an arrow sunk into his foot and Apollo managed to shift sideways enough that the arrow heading towards him hit his hip.
Zeus sighed. "I think I mentioned only shooting them once each, Artemis." He said. "This is the second time you've shot at Hermes."
"Yes, but the first one didn't hit, so it doesn't count." Artemis grinned innocently. Apollo groaned and started to heal himself before helping Hermes.
During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.
"Understandable." Hephaestus said. "That particular satyr seems to have a knack for finding powerful demigods and powerful monsters follow them."
Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. Finally I couldn't stand it any more.
I said, 'Looking for Kindly Ones?' Grover nearly jumped out of his seat.
Poseidon smiled. "Oh, that would have scared him out of his mind."
"Yes, and that's my job." Dionysus glared.
'Wha – what do you mean?' I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr Brunner the night before the exam. Grover's eye twitched. 'How much did you hear?'
'Oh... not much. What's the summer-solstice deadline?' He winced.
"Not much, just all of it." Hades grinned.
'Look, Percy... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon maths teachers...'
"Bad liar." Hermes commented.
'Grover –'
'And I was telling Mr Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs Dodds, and...'
'Grover, you're a really, really bad liar.' His ears turned pink. From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. 'Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.'
"He's going to take it the wrong way again." Hera said.
The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:
Grover Underwood,
Keeper
Half-Blood Hill
Long Island,
New York(800)009-0009
'What's Half –'
"Names have power, young demigod, best remember that." Zeus pointed out.
"I don't know that yet." Percy added. He still looked pale, but at least he was talking. He had a fragile look about him, and Poseidon was glad he'd followed Athena's unspoken command not to push him.
'Don't say it aloud!' he yelped. 'That's my, um... summer address.'
My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.
'Okay,' I said glumly. 'So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion.' He nodded. 'Or... or if you need me.'
'Why would I need you?'
"Harsh." Ares grinned. "Maybe they'll fight now."
Aphrodite looked disgusted. "Or maybe they won't because some people don't turn everything into a fight."
It came out harsher than I meant it too. Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple.
"He knows he was wrong." Hestia smiled at Percy and Perseus.
'Look, Percy, the truth is, I – I kind of have to protect you.' I stared at him. All year long, I'd gotten in fights keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.
"You lost sleep worrying about him?" Artemis asked. Percy blushed and looked away in embarrassment. Perseus just looked at the ground, lost in bad memories.
'Grover,' I said, 'what exactly are you protecting me from?'
No one in the room said anything, all well aware of what Grover was protecting Percy from.
There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off.
"Naturally." Poseidon groaned. "Does anything go right for you?"
Percy shook his head and Perseus said, "Only inasmuch as I never die."
Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. We were on a stretch of country road – no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.
"Oh dear." Athena said in a small voice.
"What?" Poseidon asked. Athena just shook her head and looked at Perseus in horror.
The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood-red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.
"Oh no." Poseidon said in a dread-filled voice. He understood Athena's reaction now.
I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.
All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.
A chorus of dismay went up as the rest of the room realized who the newcomers were.
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.
'Grover?' I said. 'Hey, man –'
'Tell me they're not looking at you. They are. Aren't they?'
'Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?'
"Not funny. Please, don't joke about this."
'Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.'
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors – gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.
'We're getting on the bus,' he told me. 'Come on.'
"It won't do any good." Apollo said. "Distance won't stop them, and if they want Percy to watch, then watch he will."
'What?' I said. 'It's a thousand degrees in there.'
'Come on!' He prised open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.
Poseidon flinched, as did the gods who had begun to like Percy.
Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla.
At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. The passengers cheered.
'Darn right!' yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. 'Everybody back on board!'
"Too late." Hades said sorrowfully. Perseus had called him a friend, after all. Not many were willing to do that.
Once we got going. I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. 'Grover?'
'Yeah?'
'What are you not telling me?'
He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. 'Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?'
'You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like... Mrs Dodds, are they?'
"Worse." Artemis muttered.
His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs Dodds.
He said, 'Just tell me what you saw.'
'The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.' He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost – older.
"Observant." Athena complimented, but everyone could see that her heart wasn't in it.
He said, 'You saw her snip the cord.'
'Yeah. So?' But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.
"Indeed it is, young hero." Hestia said.
'This is not happening,' Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. 'I don't want this to be like the last time.'
'What last time?'
'Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.'
'Grover,' I said, because he was really starting to scare me. 'What are you talking about?'
'Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.' This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.
"He won't." Dionysus said flatly. "Not if Grover continues to creep him out."
'Is this like a superstition or something?' I asked. No answer.
'Grover – that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?'
"Yes." Hades said.
He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.
"Accurate enough." Ares said. He was promptly hit by two arrows (one silver and one gold), skewered with a trident, tied down by grass and strangled by vines. He even got electrocuted.
Apollo towed him away to be healed later. He'd survive till then, and maybe he'd learn something in reflection.
The room was silent after the appearance of the fates in the story. Percy broke it.
"It wasn't mine, you know." He said.
"What?" Poseidon asked.
"It wasn't my thread the fates cut. Their life was tied to my choice, but it wasn't me who died."
Poseidon - and a number of others in the room - sighed in relief. "How do you know for certain that the electric-blue thread wasn't yours?"
"Because mine is sea-green mixed with gold and white." Perseus said. Poseidon turned to look at the older version of his son. "I've seen it."
"Did they cut it?" Poseidon asked fearfully. "No, although at that point I wouldn't have minded much if they had." He stared off into space.
"What do you mean?" Poseidon asked gently. He and his son were very alike in many ways, and he knew that Perseus wouldn't have said as much as he did unless he was willing to talk about it. He also knew that he had to be careful not to push him too far, lest he snap. Still, maybe Poseidon could ease some of the pain he saw in his son's eyes.
"I wasn't suicidal exactly." Perseus said tonelessly. "But I didn't much care if I lived or died at that point. After seeing so many friends die, watching my string being cut would have made me feel better, knowing that I was going to see them again one way or the other." He said the whole thing emotionlessly, matter-of-factly, like it didn't mean anything. Most of the goddesses were in tears by now, and a few of the gods were as well, Poseidon included.
Poseidon got off his throne and shrunk himself to human size, walked over to his son and conjured a sofa. He then hugged Perseus. The twenty year old tensed at first, but relaxed when Poseidon showed no signs of letting go. Poseidon sat down on the sofa, pulling Perseus against him as if he were still a child and a lot smaller. Perseus struggled. "Let me go."
"Nope." Poseidon said. "You say things like that, you get a hug till you feel better. Besides," he used the one tactic he was sure would work on Perseus. "I have a feeling that you'll be almost dying a lot in this book of yours, and it makes me feel better to know you're alright."
Perseus sighed, but gave in at that as Poseidon knew he would. Even hurt as he was, his son would still try to make others feel better. Poseidon looked at the younger version of his son and wondered what it must be like to meet your future self and find out that at one point, you would be so hurt as to not care if you lived or died.
"Come over here, Percy." Poseidon ordered. Percy thought about saying no, but the look in his fathers eye suggested that he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He sighed and walked over. After reaching grabbing distance Poseidon pulled Percy down to join them, holding the younger version of his son against his side and giving him no opportunity to escape.
One by one, all the gods shrunk themselves down to human size and conjured their own chair or sofa to sit on.
"Who wants to read next?" Demeter asked.
"I will." Hestia volunteered.
"Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Trousers." She read.
So, another chapter done. I confess, it's hard to think of things the gods would say that everyone else hasn't already done.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Till next time, Shib.
