I am SOOOOO sorry this took so long! I was kind of... stuck. But my writing is better. Promise!

Chapter 8

The Egg

By the forest, they slowed to a halt when they felt they were deep enough that they wouldn't be heard.

"Open the egg!" said Nico impatiently.

"You got the egg!" Percy told Thalia. "You should open it."

"It's your clue, Seaweed Brain! You open it!" Thalia snapped.

Percy threw up his arms in exasperation. "Fine!" He reached for the egg that they had so far touched as little as possible and cracked it open hesitantly.

Immediately, an intense screeching, high and eardrum-shattering, filled the air. So much for not being heard.

Everyone but Percy, who only heard a woman's lyrical voice, like singing, heard this. Meaning Thalia, Nico, and anyone within a hundred feet of them. Luckily, this was very few people, mostly centaurs.

So, he was understandably confused when Thalia and Nico simultaneously reached for the egg and slammed it shut before he could hear more than Come seek.

"How are we supposed to figure out the clue if you shut the egg before the entire clue can get out?" he demanded, irritated.

Thalia scowled at him. "Yes, because inarticulate screeching can teach us so much!"

Percy stood up and threw up his arms again. "Inarticulate screeching? How in Hades was that inarticulate screeching? She just said come seek and then you shut the egg! Do you even want to win this?"

Thalia stood up too. "Oh, yes, I forgot that you were so well-versed in the language of screech! The rest of us, however, find the sound rather unpleasant, but if you like it so much you can go solve the hint on your own!"

"Fine, maybe I will!" Percy snapped, scooping up the egg.

"Fine! Go listen to the pointless screeching!" Thalia snapped.

Nico was looking back and forth between them. It was like watching a tennis match. Now, however, as the other two seemed to be completely prepared to storm off randomly in opposite directions, he intervened.

"Honestly, how are we supposed to win this if we can't even get along?" he snapped. Gods forbid that any of the Big Three's children not have volatile tempers. "Thalia… You called it inarticulate screeching, so I'm going to assume you heard the same thing I did. Percy, what did it sound like to you?"

"A woman's voice, kinda like singing," he said shortly, glaring at Thalia reproachfully. She blinked, momentarily shocked out of her anger. Whatever she had expected, that was not it. They sounded absolutely nothing alike.

"Right…" Nico sighed. "I appear to be the only rational one here, so I say that me and Thalia head off to the edge of the forest and you come and get us when the message is finished, got it?"

Thalia and Percy glared at each other.

"Got it?" Nico repeated lowly.

Their gazes broke away from each other and finally glared at him briefly, before they both nodded shortly.

Ten minutes later, Thalia and Nico stopped their pacing as Percy came back out of the forest.

"Long clue?" Nico said skeptically.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Did you really want me to have to open it out here because I forgot part of it?"

Thalia scowled. "What did it say, already?"

Percy sighed and said, "Come seek us where our voices sound, we cannot speak above the ground, and while you're searching, ponder this: we've taken what you'll sorely miss, an hour long you have to look, to recover what we've took, but past an hour, the prospect's black, too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

There was a brief silence.

"Well, that sounds pleasant," Thalia said sarcastically.

I hope you like it! Next chapter, the Yule Ball and solving the clue! Lots of humor! Reviews feed my soul! And my creativity! Bye! Flames will be drowned by Percy's wrath!