Note: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. All rights go to Rick Riordon.
"I can't believe we're doing this." Grover said as he slipped his book-bag on. "I can't believe you talked me into doing this."
I give a slight laugh at Grover's comment. "Hey, you didn't have to agree. Percy is your best friend, after all." I push my own book-bag on, and then slip my hands underneath my hair, which had managed to get tucked underneath my pack.
"Yea, I know, but," Grover quickly reaches down for a tin can which must have fallen out of his pack while he was slipping it on. "But, how do you know he's there? I mean, neither of us can breath underwater."
I roll my eyes. Can't Grover just go along with it? If that voice wanted me to go underwater, it was probably obvious to the voice that I can't breath underwater, so she must have had a plan for me. "Just trust me on this, okay Grover?"
"Okay, but if we get killed I'm blaming you"
"Grover, I highly doubt that anything will mater if we die.
"Oh you know what I mean." I say. "Come on."
Grover and I make our way outside, and look around every so often to make sure that no one's following us. Grover had to stop every now and then, because apparently there was a hole in his pack, and he kept loosing tin cans.
"Grover!" I hissed. "Can you possible make any more noise!"
"Sorry! Can we please go back to the Big House for a second so I can duct tape this hole up?"
"I've got some duct tape in my pack. I'll fix it for you when we get to the beach. Now come on."
After several stop-and-go's, Grover and I eventually made it to the beach.
"Okay, let's see now..." I try and move the same way I did while underneath the influence of the voice. I added a little bit of swaying, because I remembered almost falling once or twice. Eventually, after a little bit of tripping, and hearing Grover trying to swallow his laugh, I made it to the edge of the water.
"So, I would have ended around here..." I hold my position, and start looking around for something that would give me the ability to breath underwater. Growing around a nearby rock was some reeds. But, they didn't look like usual reeds. There were little bits of blue bubbles on them, and it didn't appear to be water bubbles. They weren't dripping down the reeds, no, they were clearly attached to them. Most people would pass by the reeds, and wouldn't think twice about them, unless they were looking at the reeds very closely.
"There." I point over to the reeds, and get out of my goofy position. Grover goes over to them with me and we pick a handful.
"I...these weren't here yesterday."
"Yea, because the voice grew them. Just for me. Now, come on and eat them real quick before the voice comes and kills the plant."
Obviously, I don't take the first bite, and let Grover take a bite of his first. Just to make sure that this was the right plant.
"Gah!" Grover shouts, pulling me out of my thoughts. I quickly move my attention to him.
"Grover! You okay?"
"No! This thing tastes disgusting!" He holds his tongue out, and attempts to scrape the flavor of his tongue. "I never want to eat that thing again!"
"Come on, Grover. Take another bite. Hold your nose. Do you want to save Percy or not?" I can tell Grover must think about this for a moment, but he decides Percy's more important, and takes a few more bites.
I finally decide that the reeds were editable enough, so I take a bite of my own. "Gross! This tastes like burnt rubber!" Which causes Grover to laugh.
"What I tell you?"
I punched Grover in the arm lightly. "Shut up, now come on."
I take another bite of the disgusting tasting reed's, and then beginning to wade into the water.
"This isn't going to be pleasant..." I heard Grover mutter as he stuck his goat feet into the water. I understood his panic, not being able to swim all to well and all. I wasn't completely sure if the reed's were going to work, but I couldn't think about that, because suddenly Grover began choking and holding onto his neck.
"Grover!" I splashed over to him, getting cold salt water all up my legs.
"Uchhhh" He tried to say, but it appeared that he was somehow suffocating, but there was nothing covering his nose or his mouth.
"Uchhhhh!" Grover tried to say again, and held onto his neck even tighter which apparently was bothering him. I sat down with Grover in the water, trying to think what to do. Was he having an allergic reaction to the reed's?
"Grover, take your hands away from your neck." I tried to think what you were supposed to do when someone was having an allergic reaction to something, but before my mind could process anything, a searing pain went through my neck, and suddenly had a hard time breathing, before I couldn't breath at all. I fell back into the water, trying to gasp for breath, but absolutely nothing helped. I laid my head back into the water, trying to let the waves crash over my face to hopefully wash away anything that might have been covering my face and preventing me to be able to breath.
Except, a big wave crashed over me. I suppose we were farther out then I had thought. The wave crashed over me, and I swallowed part of the water.
And, suddenly, I got a breath! I could breath! I stuck my head back under water and took another gulp of the salty water, and got yet another breath. I stick my head above water, to find Grover still trying to breath, and he was starting to become blue. I wasn't able to say anything, so I was forced to point to the water and do the 'gulping' motion.
Grover gave me a blue-puzzled look, but did what I said and stuck his head under the water, and gulped.
I have to admit, the feeling of drinking dirty salt water wasn't on my top 10 things to do this summer, but at the moment, it was the only thing we could to to breath. With my head in the water, I make my way over to Grover, whose eyes widen.
"Gills!" He says, which I'm surprised. Mainly because I can actually understand him. Sound is supposed to travel slower underwater. I looked over to Grover, who appeared to be just as surprised as I did, except about a different thing. He was pointing to my neck, and I looked to his. My eyes widened again, but for a different reason. There were small slits on the side of his throat that opened slightly whenever he swallowed some water. I nodded, understanding what he meant. The reeds had given us more then just the ability to breath under water, it had given us gills.
"So..." Grover said, taking in another gulp. I hadn't really noticed myself gulping in the water, it became like regular breathing after a little while. "Where do we go now?"
...
Great. I hadn't thought this all the way threw. All I knew was that we had to get under water to save Percy, because he was somewhere under here, which made sense. He was the son of Poseidon after all.
"Ah, hold on a second, Grover." I said. "Let's swim in a little deeper. At least, let's get past the breaker waves." I slipped off my shoes so I could swim easier, but Grover was obviously going to have some trouble. Goats weren't made to swim. " C'mon, gimme your hand, goat boy." Grover pushes his hand into mine reluctantly before I start pulling him along with me, deeper into the water, and eventually, past the breaker waves, and into the open waters.
"Now, wait a second, let me try something."
I began floating the the surface slightly, but thankfully, Grover was here to pull me down, and keep me level. I closed my eyes, and tried calling to the voice.
Hello, Annabeth, I see you've brought a friend.
END OF CHAPTER 4.