Here's chapter 10. I would of updated yesterday but my laptop decided to act stupid and lose it's Wi-fi connection. I had to wait three hours for it to come back on and when it did it was ten at night. This is a really long chapter (longer than any of my other chapters by thousands of words) and I am only thirteen so I couldn't finish it on time to update the story yesterday. (Since I have pratically no way of knowing if your real or not I'm just going to say it: Thank you, Hermes.) I hope (If he's real) he notices that that was sarcasm. Please review. It makes me write better.
This is going to be a really long chapter because I need to fill in some gaps. Paranoid Athena. :)
After about thirty seconds of shrieking, Aphrodite finally calmed down. Well somewhat. She was crying and sniffling and cooeing and...
"Wait a minute," Poseidon said. "This does NOT mean anything."
"Yes." Athena agreed, which was a rare event because Athena rarely agrees with Poseidon. "Just because she says 'it's a little slice of Percy' does not mean that they're together. Thalia probably just said that because Percy's the son of Poseidon."
For once Athena wanted to listen to part of her heart rather than her brain. The part of her heart she wanted to listen to was telling her: THERE'S NO WAY ON EARTH THAT ANNABETH IS WITH PERCY.
The part of her heart she didn't want to listen to was saying: I GUESS IT"S OKAY IF THEY'RE TOGETHER. IF SHE REALLY LOVES HIM AND HIM VICE VERSA THAN I SHOULD LEAVE THEM ALONE... GODS I SOUND LIKE APHRODITE.
Her brain was pratically screaming, in fourteen different languages,:OH MY FRICKIN' GODS... They're together. There's no way they're not. It makes total sense. But just because she likes Poseidon's domain, and she seems a little worried about Percy, doesn't exactly mean they're together. They could just be really good friends.
Oh sure, really good friends that make out all the time.
Oh shut up.
...
Great now I'm thinking to myself.
Poseidon was sweating so much at this possible revelation that he lost his cool. (Literally. Because Poseidon doesn't get sarcasm and thought I meant for him to increase his body temperature. Seriously people, get with the 21st century.)
His skin began to boil like one of those Japanese hot springs. He had no idea what to think what-so-ever. His mind was pratically blank. (Again literally because Poseidon STILL doesn't get sarcasm. Huhhh... Connor and Travis are going to have to teach him that.)
Apollo was pratically smiling with glee. He took the camera from Hermes and pointed it right at Athena.
"Thena's kid dating,
Poseidon's kid dating too,
Together they are."
Artemis hit Apollo on the head with her hunting bow. "That was the worst haiku that you've ever made! If you're going to bother us with them you might as well make them good."
Hermes who was rubbing his hands like he won the lottery said, "I bet thirty drachmas and twenty aureus'(the ancient roman currency) that they're together."
He placed the money on the table. Apollo sided with Hermes and placed his money on the table.
"Wait a minute," Athena nearly shrieked. Her brain was going on overload. "We are not betting on whether they're together or not."
Dionysus shrugged. "I'm not an expert at love like Aphrodite but I heard a thing or two when you were all drunk so I'm going with what I think is best and I'm siding with Apollo and Hermes." He placed his money on the table.
Everyone gapped at him. "What?"
"You're actually interested in this?" Zeus asked.
Dionysus merely shrugged again. "This is probably going to be the most gossip that we get on Olympus for a long time. If were going to get into it then I'm going to suck up every moment of it. It does get boring on Olympus with Hera's strict rules. Besides, if you think about it, a son of Poseidon dating a daughter of Athena is very ironic but totally believable. We all should of seen it coming. Besides, if Poseidon and Athena are agreeing with each other on something it would only be smart to disagree with them."
Aphrodite sighed happily. "It's almost like Paris and Helen all over again."
Hades agreed. For once Dionysus was making very good sense. And they pay Athena to be the Wisdom Goddess. Not that he would ever say that outloud.
"I agree with Dionysus." Hades said putting down his money.
"Sure," Demeter said. "I can either take the side that has the god who agrees with his son's crazy solutions and explanations. Or I can choose my side; which would be way more logical. I disagree." She placed her money on the opposite side of the table.
Artemis was a little surprised that Dionysus would say something like that. Then again, when you thought about it Dionysus was smart, he just didn't put much effort into it and that's why he remained the god of wine.
She knew that it was something that she would never do but she decided that for once in her immortal life, she would side with a bunch of boys.
She sighed. "I agree with Dionysus."
Some people raised an eyebrow at her. "Well Annabeth does seem to be worried about Percy alot and when they first met it did seem like he had a crush on her. Why wouldn't they be together now?"
Hephaestus thought about it. It didn't seem like the daughter of Athena cared much for Percy. Then again she did lay down in Poseidon's domain. He thought about how Aphrodite had said that it was almost like Paris and Helen all over again. Did that mean that there was going to be another war with the god's taking sides. Well one thing was sure; the gods were at this moment taking sides. In the original story, Paris and Helen fled still in love and caused a full fledged war. Maybe this time Paris and Helen- Percy and Annabeth would know what the outcome would be and split up to stop the war.
"I agree with Demeter." Hephaestus said.
Ares, who had no idea which side to choose and was still angry that Hephaestus had gotten a compliment from Aphrodite, wasn't about to have Hephaestus show him up again. He decided that the only way Hephaestus couldn't show him up was if he agreed with him, so he said, "I agree with Demeter."
Zeus, who knew how Poseidon and Athena were like and had no doubt that their children were the same, said, "I agree with Demeter." He placed his money on the table along with Ares.
Everyone looked to Poseidon and Athena, who were deep in thought.
"I vote to stay neutral." Athena said.
Poseidon merely nodded. He had no idea what to think. Then they all looked to Aphrodite who shrugged.
"I can't tell if they're together unless they're in the same room with each other or if it's revealed in the book. Since Percy's not here and I'm sure that they won't get together at twelve years old, the only way would be to ask Annabeth. Annabeth can't tell us because of the note we got before we started reading the story that warned them not to say anything about the future. So... we can only guess to her reactions or the other demigods' reactions.
"I vote to stay neutral along with Poseidon and Athena because I'm pretty sure if I choose a side that you all might call off the bet."
Everyone groaned but they didn't provoke Aphrodite. She could be very tempermental.
Then they all left Hermes' palace and really did go to their jobs this time.
The demigods relaxed extremely in the short time that they had alone in the palace. Annabeth, Thalia, and Rachel ended up taking a short nap in the room that they had found and had woken up an hour later to go get something to eat.
They hated sleeping in the day time and decided to only come back in the evening or when they needed time to think.
When they walked in the kitchen they found Travis, Connor, Nico, Leo, and Chris pigging out and stuffing food into their mouths. All five boys stopped what they were doing and looked up. Of course a cheeze doodle just had to fall out of Connor's mouth.
They all put their bags of chips down and finished what was in their mouths. Right on cue, Clarisse, Jason, Piper, and Katie came in and surveyed the mess.
"Wow..." Thalia said as she stepped over an open bag of Lay's. "When's the last time you guy's ate junk food?"
Connor wiped his mouth. "Eternity."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Well were not going to clean up your mess so...good luck with all of this." She gestured to the spilled Reeses Puffs on the floor. The other's agreed with her and went to a seperate part of the kitchen to make their own food. Soon everyone started to leave with their food to go to the dining room except for the five who were still stuffing their faces with food.
Piper turned around and said, "I'm sure the queen of the gods will have fun hunting you all down when she sees this mess."
"Yeah, right beauty queen." Leo said. "The queen of the gods is going to borrow a bow and arrows and a bunch of hunting knives from Artemis and try to track us down."
Piper raised an eybrow. "I'm not kidding Leo." Then she jumped over some spilled soda and walked out of the room.
At this the five glanced at each other. Then simultaneously they all started to scramble around with brooms and mops, yelling at each other over the smallest stain. When they all finished they walked into the dining room exhausted.
Nico raised his head, "I have total respect for women now."
"Oh," Clarisse said. "And why is that?"
"'Cause cleaning is like going through the fields of punishment. I'm surprised you can don all of that."
The other guys shivered.
Later on after the gods flashed back into the palace, they called the demigods into the room to start reading.
"We Capture a Flag," Rachel read.
"Woo!" Ares shouted. "Go Clarisse!" Nobody bothered to tell him that Clarisse didn't win. The demigods just snickered while Clarisse face-palmed.
The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.
Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth,
Aphrodite smiled to herself. As long as they spent time with each other her plans would work perfectly.
and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird.
"Well I don't think he would like it if we talked about him in the past tense when he's still living." Hephaestus muttered. Aphrodite nodded. Poseidon noticed that she was leaning a little more towards Hephaestus than to Ares. He pointed that out to the other gods.
"And I don't think it would matter." Ares said seethingly. He was starting to hate Hephaestus more and more.
The deities raised an eyebrow at this. Ares usually didn't get mad just for any reason. The demigods glanced at each other. They all knew what was going on. They expected a fight to occur soon.
I discovered Annabeth was right
"When am I ever wrong?" Annabeth mused.
Nico who decided that it was his job to provide an explanation to her question stood up and said, "Well you were wrong when you... no that's not it... well there's that time when... no not that either... well... oh, just forget it..." he whined.
Thalia rolled her eyes at him. "It's alright Nico. Nobody has a crazy explanation for everything."
He pouted. "But I do. At least I did."
He got up and walked to Hades because he was the only one who understood Nico's explanations. He sat on Hades' lap and said in a very innocent voice, "Hold me?"
Some of the demigods snickered because Nico looked down right serious. The gods just gaped at Nico.
Hades, who understood where Nico was coming from, sympathesized with him and patted his head. "It's okay son. Your imagination will come back soon."
Demeter just stared at Hades along with everyone else. Hades looked up and said, "What? At least I'm acting like a parent towards my son. What about you all?"
The other gods squirmed in their seats and Hades looked at Rachel. "Read Rachel."
about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English.
After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.
The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,
"Oh," Poseidon said. "That's not going to end well."
Annabeth and Thalia shivered. "No," Thalia grimaced. "It isn't."
but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow.
He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.
Several people snickered when Rachel read this.
Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.
The 'lovesick gods' smiled in a daze at this. The goddesses rolled their eyes at this.
But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.
"Wow." Leo said. "Slower than a tree. That's almost as weird as your explanations Nico."
Nico glared at him from where he was sitting on Hades lap and stuck his tongue at him.
And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.
Clarisse grinned evilly which made some people scootch away from her.
"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.
The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing,
"Of course." The gods mumbled.
and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.
I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids,
"Thank the gods." Ares mumbled.
Apollo grinned. "You're welcome."
Artemis rolled her eyes and smacked her brother on the head with her bow.
or as good at archery as the Apollo kids.
Apollo frowned. "I thought we went through that already."
I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork
"No. But if he ever meets a cyclopes they could teach him." Hephaestus muttered.
or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants.
"Well," Dionysus said. "The feeling's mutual Perry."
"The feelings not mutual," Poseidon rolled his eyes. "Because it's Percy. Not Perry."
Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
Hermes frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?" Nobody answered him. (But then again 'Nobody' isn't here so...)
But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.
Chris shrugged. "None of us did."
Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields
Connor winked at Travis.
in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night.
Leo frowned. "I never got used to that."
Thalia shrugged. "I did."
"Yeah, but you pratically live in the woods so..."
"Dude," Travis snickered. "You just kinda called Thalia a woodland creature."
Connor snickered with Travis and then looked at Leo. "Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, and woodland creature."
Several people snickered until Travis and Connor got shocked with lightning.
Leo's eyes bugged out. "I didn't mean it like that, honest. I just meant that since you're with the hunters that you-"
Thalia raised a hand and rolled her eyes. "I know what you mean Leo. Keep reading Rachel."
I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came.
Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...
Hades and Nico both chuckled darkly which actually scared all of the gods. They both looked scary and maniacal like they could enter your dreams at night and scare you. Which they could.
Katie found herself agreeing with her mom wholeheartedly. Although maybe there was a way to save Nico. It was obvious that it was too late for Hades.
I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes.
Hermes sighed. "They always start to feel like that don't they?"
He turned to Dionysus who shrugged. "I get complaints every week."
The demigods shifted in their seats and couldn't meet the gods' eyes.
So okay, maybe gods had important things to do.
"Yes."
But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something?
Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air.
Poseidon sighed. "We could if a certain person hadn't made that stupid law."
Almost all the gods glared at Zeus.
Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?
All of the Olympians sighed.
Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.
We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.
The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long.
Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.
Thalia smiled. "Imagine what he could do with a balanced blade."
"It's too bad he wasn't good at first," Clarisse said. "He could've taken cared of Luke for us."
The others nodded.
Zeus sat up. "What does that mean?"
Apollo groaned. "Don't try to find out. They'll all go quiet. The only way we can find out is if we read."
We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.
"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."
All the demigods except for Jason, Piper, and Leo snorted.
The deities raised an eyebrow at this.
"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.
The camper snorted.
Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!
Hermes grinned.
By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.
Now Hermes frowned and Poseidon grinned wildly. Thalia smirked. She still hadn't forgiven Luke for everything.
Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.
"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."
Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.
Travis stood up. "Oh! I love that show."
Connor said. "Yeah, it was pretty funny."
Obviously they hadn't learned from the lightning shock that Thalia had given them because then Poseidon blasted them with ice cold water.
They stood up like they had been zapped and yelped. Travis stood there shivering while Connor, who ovbiously had a death wish, ran to Hephaestus and hugged his legs. Immediately he became warm and dry. He sighed and passed out on the floor.
Hephaestus raised an eyebrow while the demigods snickered.
The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.
"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."
He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.
"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"
I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.
The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right.
I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?
I tried the disarming maneuver.
My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.
Luke's sword rattled against the stones.
"Yes!" Poseidon roared startling everyone. "In your face Hermes." He did a little victory dance while everyone snickered at Hermes' expression.
The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.
The other campers were silent.
Travis who was still soaking wet said, "That's when the show went bad." He got blasted with hot water this time.
He yelped and went to hug Hades' legs. Hades' furrowed his eyebrows. "Why are you hugging my legs?"
Travis looked up innocently. "Don't you have a cold heart?"
Nico looked up. "No, it's actually warm."
Hades rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. Skeletons rose out of the ground and grabbed Travis who was almost dry. Travis started to yelp like a little girl over and over which made some people laugh. It started to get annoying so one of the skeletons clapped his hand over Travis' mouth which scared him so much that he fainted.
I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."
For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.
"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"
I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.
This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.
After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"
Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword..."
Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall.
Several of the gods chuckled and rolled their eyes.
Travis woke up and looked down at himself. "Oh, it was just a dream." Then the skeletons looked at him and he continued yelping.
"Aaah!... Aaah!... Aaah!-" he fainted again.
Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.
Leo smirked. "Fried fish." The demigods chuckled and Poseidon huffed.
We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.
His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.
"Fine," he said. "Just great."
"So your career's still on track?"
He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"
"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"
Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."
My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"
"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"
"Of course I'd want you along!"
Aphrodite cooed. "Percy's so sweet that there's no way that you can add sugar to him."
Some of the gods rolled their eyes and Ares said. "Yeah, but I'm way sweeter aren't I?"
Aphrodite raised an eyebrow at him. She considered it for a moment. "Hephaestus maybe, but you no."
Ares gapped at Aphrodite. She rested her head on Hephaestus' shoulder. Hephaestus looked at her for a moment and then smiled. "Thanks." For a moment Hephaestus' face flickered and changed into something more handsome until it changed back. Some of the gods raised an eyebrow at this and the demigods gaped at the couple.
"Now wait a minute-" Ares started to get up until Zeus glared at him. Zeus enjoyed the fact that Aphrodite and Hephaestus were getting along more. That's how a married couple should be. Oh great. Now I sound like Hera. I guess she's rubbing off of me a little.
"Read Rachel." Zeus said.
Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."
Piper raised an eybrow at this. "Grover has almost no self-esteem."
"We need to knock some into him when we get back." Clarisse grinned.
"I hope you don't mean literally." Annabeth stated.
I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.
"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."
Artemis shrugged. "That's kind of true but my hunters do need somewhere to stay when they visit."
"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"
Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals.
"If she did then we'd know that the end of the world would be coming." Katie said.
Everyone agreed whole heartedly.
"Besides," Nico said. "Zeus knows what some of the kids at camp would do if Hera had a kid."
Thunder rang around the palace. Everyone looked at Zeus who raised an eyebrow.
"Okay," Nico reconsidered. "Strike that. Zeus doesn't even know."
That's her husband's job.
Zeus huffed while everyone else snickered.
When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."
Everyone shivered at the mention of Kronos.
"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."
The said brothers grinned smugly.
"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."
"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."
"Uh-huh."
"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."
"I should." Hades complained. "I do have a growing boy here." He gestured at Nico on his lap who nodded furiously.
The other gods squirmed a little.
Nico stood up in his father's lap and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry about that. They'll see your point soon."
Hades grinned and whispered, "Really?"
Nico nodded. "You'll find out how when we finish reading the books."
Nico sat down on his lap again and found everyone staring at them. He sighed and said, "Continue Rachel."
"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either.
Hades snorted.
He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."
Nico frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?" He was still a little upset that he hadn't had an explanation for Annabeth yet.
No answer.
"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"
Piper grinned. "They're not anymore. Well at least one of them."
"Yeah," Poseidon said. "With Jason at the roman camp and Thalia with the hunters Zeus' cabin is empty while mines has Percy in it."
The demigods shared a glance and just nodded at Poseidon. He would find out soon enough.
Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably.
"About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes.
Athena rolled her eyes. "Look how long that lasted."
Hades glared at Zeus and Poseidon.
Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."
Thunder boomed.
Like it did now.
I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."
Grover nodded.
"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"
Everyone except for Zeus and Poseidon scoffed. "Yeah right."
"Oh great." Thalia sighed. "Here comes my story."
Zeus' expression darkened a little.
Connor woke up. "Ooh! Story time."
Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon.
"Like he always does." Demeter stated. Zeus stared at her and she stared back daring him to say something. Zeus is her little brother. He would do well to shut his trap.
There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself.
"Oh yeah," Connor said while combing his hair and wiggling his eyebrows. "The eighties chicks are always hot."
Everyone rolled their eyes at him except Zeus who said fondly, "Yeah."
...
Poseidon and Hades started laughing uncontrollably.
"What's wrong Zeus?" Hades asked. "Still not over your eighties chick?"
"I bet you every time he goes to visit her he wears a fake afro." Poseidon continued.
"Yeah," Apollo joined in. "And a wrist band that says 'Stick it to the Man'."
At this everyone burst out laughing.
"I do not!" Zeus yelled. After everyone finished laughing Nico turned to Connor with a confused look on his face.
"Where'd you get the comb?"
Connor looked at him in confusion. "What comb?"
"The one in your hand."
Connor looked down at his hand and furrowed his eyebrows. "I-I don't know."
When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."
Thalia sighed. Everyone was looking at her with sympathy. "I don't need your pity. Read Rachel."
"But that isn't fair. It wasn't the little girl's fault."
Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia.
Zeus glared at Hades. Nico who felt like he had to stick up for his father said, "Oh, let it go Zeus."
"Excuse me? Hades control your boy."
"Nico-" Hades started.
"No!" Nico stood up on his father's lap. "Zeus is always taking it out on you for Thalia and I agree that you do deseve it sometimes-"
"Nico where is this going? Your making it worst." Hades whispered.
"I'm not done yet." Nico turned to Zeus. "You should let it go because even though my father did do something bad to Thalia you did something almost as bad to him."
"Oh," Zeus said seethingly. "And what is that?"
Nico jumped from where he was sitting on Hades and walked up to Zeus. Zeus stepped down and shrunk to human size to meet him.
"Do you remember Maria di Angelo, Zeus? Do you?" Nico asked threatingly. "I dare you to forget what you did to her." His voice was oozing with sarcasm and hate. Hades' expression got gloomy.
Zeus took a step back at this reminder. He stared at Nico for a second and then went back to his seat. Everyone else raised an eyebrow at this. Zeus had never stepped down from somebody except for maybe Poseidon. But here he was stepping down from a mortal, a demigod.
"No." Nico muttered. "I didn't think so."
He turned around and went back to sit on Hades' lap. The minute he sat down he put his head against his father's chest and told Rachel to read.
The others glanced at each other wondering what Nico had meant. They had never seen him so angry. Rachel decided to read. It would be best not to provoke Nico.
A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do.
He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."
He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters.
Thalia ran her hand through her hair shakily.
She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died,
Thalia took a shaky breath.
Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."
I stared at the pine in the distance.
The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much.
Athena shook her head. It hadn't seemed much like a victory. Annabeth didn't care if it was a victory or not, she was just glad that Percy had made it out safe. She snapped herself back to reality because Rachel had kept reading.
Aphrodite sat up a little. Somebody was emanating a giant wave of love. She was about to zero in on who it was when all of a sudden it stopped. Whoever had been emanating that wave had stopped. She thought it might be Chris and Clarisse but this wave was much more different than what she had felt for those two.
I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?
"Probably not." Poseidon muttered.
"Grover," I said, "Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"
"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."
Leo grinned. "We met his skeleton this morning."
"What?"
Hades perked up a little at this. He, Hermes, and Hephaestus, who remembered what had happened, suppressed their giggles so that the demigods couldn't find out that they had had been spying on them.
Nico smiled a little. "It was so cool. We made him look like Hermes and juggle fire."
Chris smiled. "He juggled the fire in mid-air."
Everyone looked at them funny.
"You guys are so wierd." Piper said.
"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"
"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"
"No," I lied.
Hermes looked at Poseidon. "I like your son."
In response Poseidon rolled his eyes.
"I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"
Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."
"That's an understatement." Annabeth muttered.
Nico and Thalia glared at her while Jason shrugged.
"It is true." Piper said.
"Yeah." Leo said. "It's hard work just trying to keep Jason alive."
"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."
"This is only helping his ego." Katie stated.
"I know." Annabeth groaned.
Apollo raised an eyebrow at Annabeth and then grinned at Athena who glanced worriedly to Poseidon.
Hermes, Dionysus, Hades, and Artemis smiled while Hephaestus, Ares, Zeus, and Demeter frowned.
After a couple minutes of silence the gods realized that Rachel wasn't reading. They looked at the demigods who were staring at them confused.
"What are you all doing?" Annabeth asked.
Some of the gods widened their eyes. They all glanced at each other and realized that it would only be a matter of time before Annabeth figured it all out.
Hermes shrugged. "Nothing important. Keep reading."
Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes.
Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"
Artemis raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure that Nemesis is a goddess."
"It's a good thing that she won't read this then." Apollo smiled.
I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.
That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.
At last, it was time for capture the flag.
Ares grinned wildly.
When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.
Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree.
Annabeth smirked.
From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.
Clarisse smiled a little.
I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"
"Yeah."
"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"
"Not always," he said. "But often."
"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"
He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."
"Whose side are we on?"
He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.
"He probably wasn't playing about looking evil." Travis said with a grimace.
"Yeah," Connor said. "He probably knew about the attack too."
"What attack?" Poseidon asked.
"You'll find out really soon." Annabeth grimaced. She remembered the hellhound attack. She looked up and found Apollo wiggling his eyebrows at her mom.
"Apollo? Are you hitting on my mom?" She asked incredulous.
"What?" Apollo blushed. "No!"
The other gods grinned at Apollo and supressed their laughter while Athena just looked horrified.
"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."
The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.
Athena smiled. That was a very smart idea that Annabeth had planned.
Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.
"Which is basically what Aphrodite does most of the time." Hermes said.
Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.
Hephaestus smiled. It wasn't that his kids might be a problem. It was that they were going to be a problem.
That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.
"That's partially true." Aphrodite said. Athena and Artemis agreed that it was true.
"Oh," Ares said. He was fed up with Aphrodite leaning towards Hephaestus and insulting him. "You think my kids are ugly?"
Aphrodite stared at him incredulous.
"Well I got news for you, Aphrodite. Your kids are ugly." Everyone gasped. Piper looked offended and Aphrodite started to get red and mad.
She stood up and everyone scootched a little bit away from her. An angry goddess is not good. "For your information Ares, I was talking about how mean your kids can be. I never said they were ugly. Clarisse is a very good example. She can be mean but she's not ugly. The next time you want to say something think about it first."
Piper was proud at her mom for telling off Ares.
Ares opened and closed his mouth like a fish. He tried to apologize but Aphrodite said, "Read Rachel."
She leaned on Hephaestus' shoulder and after a moment of hesitation he put an arm around her to comfort her.
Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.
"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"
He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.
"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"
Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."
My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine,
The Stolls grinned. They didn't announce their thoughts though because the others wouldn't allow it.
but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.
Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"
We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.
I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."
She kept marching.
"Ooh. Rejection." Nico said. Annabeth glared at him momentarily and the other demigods snickered a little. If Aphrodite didn't know that there was something going on between Annabeth and Percy then she sure did now.
"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"
Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.
When everyone looked at Annabeth she said, "I thought that he was a son of Hermes. Poseidon hadn't claimed him yet."
"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"
"Border patrol, whatever that means."
"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."
Thalia smiled a little. "You always say that."
Annabeth shrugged. "'Cause it's true."
She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.
"Ooh. Rejec-" Nico stopped because at the time Annabeth was examining her knife.
"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."
It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.
Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.
There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?
"Oh. Sure." Apollo said. "Our motto is: If you die we'll clean your cabin for you."
"No it isn't." Artemis said. "It's: don't be a sap when you're dying."
"Seriously?" Katie asked. But Artemis just smiled and told Rachel to keep reading.
Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.
Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.
Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.
I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling some thing was stalking me.
Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.
Poseidon frowned.
On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.
"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.
Clarisse smiled a little.
Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.
They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.
I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur.
"If they were then it would be stupid for them to be the kids of the god of war." Athena stated.
They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.
Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric.
Ares grinned forgetting his whole ordeal with Aphrodite.
I fell back.
Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.
They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.
"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."
Poseidon glared at Clarisse but she shrugged it off.
I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.
"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."
"The flag is that way," I told her.
Ares smiled. "Thanks alot Prissy. Now we can win."
Clarisse face-palmed. The other demigods snickered.
"I assume it didn't work that way?" Jason asked looking at Clarisse's face.
The others nodded but Ares didn't see anything.
I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.
"Nope." Clarisse stated.
"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."
"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.
"No."
Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek,
"Good." Poseidon grinned.
tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed.
As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.
Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.
"No maiming," I managed to say.
"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."
Poseidon huffed. Nico looked up. "I wouldn't want to lose my desert privileges."
He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.
Poseidon grinned wildly now.
They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.
Connor began to drool at the thought of jelly beans.
Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.
Jason raised an eyebrow at this.
Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.
"Ah!" Ares screamed. "That idiot! That corpse-breath worm!"
"Excuse me?" Poseidon demanded.
"Nothing."
"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"
Everyone snorted. "Wow." Piper said.
She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.
Now Poseidon grinned smugly at Clarisse, who sighed. Jason was impressed that Percy could do that. Now he knew that there was no way he couldn't make it at the roman camp.
Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids.
Hermes smiled.
The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.
"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."
They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.
The game was over. We'd won.
I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."
I looked, but she wasn't there.
"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.
I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."
Athena beamed at Annabeth. "That was smart."
Annabeth blushed and smiled. She wasn't used to getting compliments from her mother.
"Ahah!" Nico jumped off of Hades' lap. "You were wrong to leave Percy alone. I found something a Annabeth chase was wrong at. Yes!" He fist-pumped.
The other's rolled their eyes at him. "Well, at least Nico's back to normal." Thalia stated.
Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."
"A plan to get me pulverized."
Annabeth shrugged nonchalantly. "It worked."
Athena sighed. Maybe her daughter wasn't with the son of Poseidon.
"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."
Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"
"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"
"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "The water heals him."
Poseidon nodded.
The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.
"I—I don't get it," I said.
Annabeth was thinking hard.
"When is she never?"
I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."
"What—"
"Just do it."
I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.
"You're his maiden in a beige dress." Connor stated.
"What?"
"Well instead of knight in shining armor because Annabeth is a girl I said, 'you're his maiden in a beige dress'."
Annabeth face-palmed while the others chuckled. Now both Hermes and Apollo were wiggling their eyebrows at Athena.
"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..."
Zeus huffed and glared at Annabeth. "Well most of the time it is." Annabeth said gesturing at Thalia and Jason.
Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.
Everyone in the room tensed.
The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"
Annabeth drew her sword.
There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.
"Wow." Nico said. "I never thought about it that way."
It was looking straight at me.
Poseidon sighed. "Oh, great."
Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"
"See, you are his maiden in a beige dress."
She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.
By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.
Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.
"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."
"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."
Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.
Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"
Everyone looked at Clarisse with an expression like, Are you serious?
She shrugged and said, "I was angry and ready to get him kicked out of camp. My anger clouded my better judgement."
"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.
We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.
"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."
"I'm okay."
"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."
I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.
Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.
"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."
But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.
Leo gasped. "He's claimed."
Everyone else nodded.
"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."
By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.
"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."
"It wasn't." Annabeth remembered. Some of the gods raised an eyebrow at this. Hades smirked at Athena and Poseidon.
"It is determined," Chiron announced.
All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.
"We weren't." Clarisse said.
"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.
"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."
"Percy sounds really powerful when you say it like that." Travis commented.
"Percy is very powerful." Thalia rolled her eyes.
That was long. No promises that I'll update tomorrow. I have alot of things to do.
Check out my new story: "When the Time Is Right"
Erudite19