I was hit with feels when I was writing this chapter. Yay! more Elias POV!
I have decided to write short stories for this 'verse at a later date, instead of interludes. The shorts will be in a separate fic.
Disclaimer: See CH.1
Elias' POV:
In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.
So there we were, Annabeth, Grover, and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses. I had switched with Percy, so he could get a bit of rest. My dearest brother was out cold.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
"I know, calm down. It will be okay." I tried to calm the poor satyr.
"Come on, we need to keep moving!" Annabeth
"I'm just glad I thought to have Percy put our money in the wallet that was in the backpack. At least we have that." I sighed. I noticed that Annabeth had a cut on her arm.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."
"We're a team, right?" I asked. I mentally sighed. "Let's put aside our differences for now, shall we?" I asked
"Yeah. For now." The blond smirked
"Give me your arm, Miss Chase." I said as I lifted he arm up to look at her cut. It had mostly stopped bleeding. I breathed deeply and concentrated. Soon enough I could feel energy building within my brother's body. I opened my eyes and a glob of water was pressed against Annabeth's wound. Grover Annabeth and I watched as it healed, leaving a faint scar. The two of them were stunned. I just started walking again.
"How in the world did you do that?" She asked.
"Yeah, man, that was amazing!" Grover was in awe.
"Percy and I are opposite in abilities. His water abilities lie more in combat. Mine are more along the lines of defense and healing. In video games I would be the white mage and he would be the black mage. The same is true with our physical abilities. He is a fighter and I am a pacifist. Albeit, I am a pacifist that will fight if I absolutely have to. I prefer words over weapons. Although, if used correctly, words can be even more deadly than a weapon." I explained. The two seemed to get it.
The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.
"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her, trying to get to know her, if only for Percy's sake.
"No ... only short field trips. My dad... well, it didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."
"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.
"You think so?"
"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a kindly one is okay by me." I gave her a wink she could not see. I couldn't really see either, but I thought she might've smiled.
"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you ... Something funny back on the bus ..."
Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"
He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.
I dodged around a tree. Percy's brain was addled enough, he didn't need brain damage.
After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, food. Percy would have been drooling.
We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the smell.
It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I had thought. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate read: Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. It had taken me a few seconds to in-scramble the letters.
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken. I had a bad feeling, but there was food and we needed to eat.
"Hey ..." Grover warned.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."
"I know, Grover, but we need to eat to regain our strength." I told him.
The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
We stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian. So is Elias!" Grover exclaimed while pointing at me.
"Maybe we should-" I started.
Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman, at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"
"We were camping and my cousins and I decided to take a quick hike and we got lost, ma'am." I explained before the other two could say anything.
"Oh dear! Well, come inside. You poor dears."
I smirked at Annabeth and Grover and winked.
The warehouse was filled with more statues: people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. The bad feeling had increased. I wasn't going to leave without Percy's friends. (They were more acquaintances to me, personally.)
The eyes of the statues seemed to follow us and I thought I heard the door lock behind us as I was studying a statue of a girl that vaguely resembled Bianca.
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.
"Alright." I said, deciding to observe for now.
"Um," Grover said, "we don't have much money, ma'am." 'Bless him' I thought, charmed at his manners.
Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice children."
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.
Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done some-thing wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, I filed it away for now.
"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." I stayed silent, but now my mind was racing
Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.
I nibbled at my fries, giving Annabeth the burger. I never ate much, anyway, even if I ate meat.
Annabeth slurped her shake.
Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.
"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.
I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."
"I take vitamins. For my ears."
"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax." I was slowly starting to piece things together in my mind.
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head-dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, to be honest. My unease was mounting and Percy was picking up on it in his sleep. I quickly soothed him deeper into slumber. This one was on me. I decided to gather more intel.
"So, you sell gnomes?" I asked
"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."
"A lot of business on this road?"
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."
"I'm sure." I said.
My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.
"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."
"You make these statues yourself?" I asked, the picture coming together quicker now.
"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.
Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"
"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."
She sounded tense, but then again, so was I.
"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."
The picture snapped together with startling clarity.
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.
"We really should go." She and I said in unison.
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "our parents are waiting!"
"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.
"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
"I am sorry, madam. We really must get going." I said, grabbing my companions' hands. I pulled them closer. "Grover, I'm sure that is your uncle Ferdinand." I told him sadly, softly. It finally clicked in their minds. 'Aunty Em' lunged and we scattered.
"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, child. All you have to do is look up."
I looked to the side and into a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.
How did Medusa die in the myth?
But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my brother's namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my brother's face.
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, child." Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, some-where in the statuary. "Run, Elias!"
"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Elias. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Elias, you need not suffer."
"Sorry, ma'am. I already have a god creeping on me. I don't need you to as well" I quipped.
She really didn't like that. She swiped her claws at my face and I dropped to the floor and rolled away. I scrambled back to my feet.
"Eli!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"
I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone. I was impressed.
"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!" He dove.
Then Medusa roared with rage.
"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.
Ker-whack!
"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spit-ting.
Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Elias!"
I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Shit! Don't do that!"
Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."
"I know." I groaned.
Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distor-tion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of-"
"I get it!... sorry." I said while I fumbled in Percy's pocket for Riptide.
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"
"Roooaaarrr!"
"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.
"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."
I took out the pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand. It felt strange and slightly off. I preferred my bow that I had yet to name.
I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.
I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.
Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"
Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Snake-face!"
I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.
But she let me approach, twenty feet, ten feet.
I could see the reflection of her face now. I felt kind of bad for her. Athena was really vindictive, I guess.
"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Elias," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
"Hmm... Sorry, yeah I would, Slytherin reject." I told her dryly as I raised Percy's sword.
She lunged at me with her talons.
I slashed up with the sword, praying I would actually hit her. I heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern-the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces. I felt like I was going to vomit.
"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck." I gagged.
Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."
Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.
"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling. I ran over to a potted plant and lost the contents of my shared stomach.
"Yeah," I decided after I was done, though I now had a massive headache and tears in my eyes. "Why didn't ... why didn't the head evaporate?"
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
"Good thinking, Grover." I told him.
He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."
He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped the sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the ware-house.
We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
Finally I said, "So we have our parents to thank for this monster?"
Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Yeah. Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."
"Lovely." I drawled.
"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable."
"You're-"
"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"
I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!
I was annoyed at the gods and their proclivities. I was annoyed at Percy and I's father especially. I couldn't even care enough to be angry. I had an idea.
I got up. "I'll be back."
"Elias," Annabeth called after me. "What are you-"
"I'm pulling a Percy." I said, cheerfully.
I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Lord Hades and Lady Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my twin's pocket.
In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box. I also found a few more bills, bringing our cash up to two-hundred dollars.
I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes and regards to our father,
Elias and Perseus Jackson ;)
"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."
I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
"I am impertinent, dear Grover" I said.
I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.
She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."
I grinned and laughed.
...~...
We were pretty miserable that night.
We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obvi-ously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.
We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.
We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch. Percy was still snoozing away. I was worried about him. Everything that had happened was exhausting normally. I hated that having two souls in one body put an unnoticeable strain on him. On both of us, really.
Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.
"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."
He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Eli."
"What does?"
"This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."
"I see. I heard some other satyr's talking about Lord Pan. That is your dream, correct?" I asked, curling up slightly under my thin blanket.
A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rain-water, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.
"Tell me about the search?" I asked softly, gently, sadly.
Grover looked at me, really looked at me.
"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."
"And you want to be a searcher."
"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there-"
"Oh, right, sorry." I got up and walked over to the tree. I climbed up to a lower branch that was still next to Grover.
Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."
"The first?"
Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."
"Not once in two thousand years?" I bit mine and Percy's lower lip, worrying it between our teeth.
"No."
"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"
"None."
"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?" I asked, my eyes half lidded and head tilted.
"I have to believe that, Elias. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."
I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better? Was Percy?
"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me-"
"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."
"Don't be so hard on her, Eli. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what? If you don't mind me asking?"
Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.
"You don't have to say. I won't push. I'll listen if you need me to, though." I reached up and laid a hand on his hoof.
"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."
I made a sound of agreement.
"The Fur-The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy ... why did she wait so long to try to kill Percy? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."
I motioned for him to go on.
Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"
"Asking about Percy and I?" I asked.
"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."
"That doesn't make sense." I raised an eyebrow.
"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.
I thought about what Medusa had said: We were being used by the gods. What lay ahead of us was worse than petrification. I shivered.
Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."
I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep on the branch.
...~...
Percy's POV:
In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.
They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.
Looking down made me dizzy.
The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that some-thing was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.
The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.
The voice felt ancient-cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.
They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.
A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!
I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.
Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.
An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.
Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!
The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!
The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.
I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.
Good, it murmured. Good.
Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!
Someone was shaking me.
...~...
My eyes opened, and it was daylight.
"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."
I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. Elias stirred lazily within our mind. "How long was I asleep?"
"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."
"Chips aren't breakfast." My twin grumbled, sleepy.
My eyes had trouble focusing.
Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.
No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.
"Cute!" Eli squealed, yes, squealed.
The poodle yapped at us suspiciously. Grover said, "No, they're not."
I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"
The poodle growled.
"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."
"You can talk to animals?"
Grover ignored the question. "Percy and Elias, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy and Elias. They are twins sharing a body. Yeah, it's weird." Elias laughed at the poodle's name.
"Poor puppy"
I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on us, but she looked deadly serious.
"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "For-get it."
"Hello, Gladiola!" Elias said, cheerful.
"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."
The poodle growled.
I said hello to the poodle. I told them Eli did, too.
Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.
"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.
"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."
"Neat!"
"Of course," I said. "Silly me."
"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."
I thought about my dream-the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and our mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West. Elias was alarmed at my dream.
"Not another bus," I said warily.
"No," Annabeth agreed.
She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak sta-tion half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west-bound train leaves at noon."
"I like trains!" Eli said, excited. I groaned at his cheer.
Please review and favorite! (But mostly review~ They give me the will to go on~)
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I would love to see Elias and Percy together!
TTFN!