Chapter 13: What's That Smell?

AN: Okay. Posting. I won't again for two weeks probably as I'll be in camp. I just finished writing this, 40 something chapters so I can start Demigod Files but I need a break first.

Also, anyone ready the Brooklyn House Magician guide? I loved it. Like Camp Half Blood Confidential it made references all the time, was fun, wacky and all around amazing. I loved all the references to Percy hidden in there. I've missed the Kanes. Been too long since we've seen them. I just want all my favs together, is that too much to ask?

Looking at the scene then Percy with a raised an eyebrow Carter silently surveyed the scene yet again. "I'm guessing you fell asleep."

"Not on my shift. Only when I woke Annabeth up," Percy said. Her glare was then returned again. He didn't back down. Yes, he no longer woke her up on quests, not when he could manage with little sleep and she could get the rest she needed. Plus there were no more dreams if he didn't sleep.

They were back in the labyrinth prison's workshop. The boy from Percy's last dream now taller was stoking the forge. Outside it was daytime the top of the maze peeking out to the sky. The old man looked sick as he worked, his white hair hanging in his eyes as he bent over the table fitting a piece of bronze into place and then picking it up announcing it was done. It was a large pair of bronze metal wings. One still sat on the table as Daedalus stretched the frame of the wings in his hands to twenty feet. The boy ran over to him and grinned calling his father a genius. The old man smiled and told Icarus to tell him something he didn't know. He told him to hurry. It would take an hour to attach them. He urged his son to come. Icarus told him to go first.

Annabeth looked at Percy. "Icarus falling."

Percy nodded grimly.

All the Greeks and romans seemed to have recognized what was about to happen, as well as a few others. Icarus was the subject of many songs, paintings, poems and other things.

Daedalus protested but Icarus insisted that because he made them his father should have the honor of wearing them first. He helped his father into the harness and fastened it using a wax-hot glue gun device. Daedalus said nervously that the wax would hold for several hours, but only if they let it set first. They would have to avoid flying to high or too low. The sea would wet the wax seals. Icarus finished that the sun would loosen them then reminded his father they'd been over so many times.

Many people wince.

Daedalus said they couldn't be too careful. Icarus exclaimed he had complete faith in his fathers inventions. No one had ever been as smart as Daedalus. Daedalus smiled at him and said he'd to his son's wings as his set properly. Daedalus fumbled as he kept his own wings in position but he muttered he was too slow. Icarus told him to take his time. THe guards weren't due yet. Then the workshop doors boomed and Daedalus tried to bar them as Icarus yelled for him to hurry.

"He jinxed them saying that. You never say something, it'll just ruin your luck," Percy advised.

"That's some pretty good advice," Sadie agreed. "Carter could use it."

Carter scoffed. "Look who's talking."

The door was hit again and it cracked on the left side. Daedalus worked faster and spilt hot wax onto Icarus who winced. THe left wing was sealed and they started on the right one. Daedalus murmured they needed more time. The guards were to early and there hadn't been enough time for the seal to set. Icarus assured him to be fine as he finished the right wing.

"Just jinxed them again," Sadie muttered. "The guy should just shut up."

Carter winced knowing his sister probably didn't know the story like he did. It was one of their father's favorites, not of Egyptian origin that is. He'd tried to use it to warn Carter to keep safe. But of course Sadie had never been able to hear it from him.

Icarus asked him for help with the manhole but then the doors splintered open and two armed guards came in with the king who asked if they were going somewhere. Daedalus said they were leaving. Minos chuckled he was curious to how far they'd get on this project before he stopped them. He was impressed. He then said they looked like metal chickens. Perhaps they would be a good soup once plucked. The guards laughed stupidly.

"Don't worry," Nico said seeing his sister's disgust. "He wasn't like tantalus. At least not in that aspect. In the fact that he was a horrible person, there they're very similar."

King Minos yelled at Daedalus saying he let his daughter escape, drove his wife insane, killed his monster and made him the laughing stock of the mediteranean. He'd never escape.

Hazel shivered once again at the mention of Pasiphae, Percy however was glaring thinking of the minotaur, Adriane and Theseus.

Icarus sprayed the wax gun at the king but it was intercepted by the guards. He yelled to his father saying the vent. Minos yelled to get them. Daedalus and Icarus pried open the manhole and hot air blasted out. The updraft lifted Daedalus and Icarus by their wings. Minos yelled for someone to shoot them but there were no bows. A sword was thrown but it was to late. They were already soaring over the sea.

Several people cheered but many others winced and looked down.

Icarus said they free. His father had done it! He spread his wings and soared away. Daedalus told him to wait and be careful. Icarus was already far away. He scared an eagle away then plummeted further down again. He pulled out of a nosedive last second and his sandals skimmed the waves.

"I thought going too low was bad," Alex said. "I mean I don't usually listen to adults but I think he should probably here."

Daedalus seemed to agree. He yelled for his son to stop. He tried to catch up over the see when Icarus finally looked back to see his father's expression. He told his father not to worry he trusted his father's inventions. He was a genius! Then a feather fell of the wings. Then another. Icarus wobbled.

"Didn't listen!" Alex said in a sing song voice.

Samira looked at her disapprovingly. Alex had the decency to look a little apologetic.

Icarus lost more bronze feathers. His father yelled at him to glide and try extending the wings and glide by staying as still as possible. Icarus kept flapping though.

This time though sorely tempted Alex didn't say a thing.

The left wing ripped off the straps. Icarus cried for his father as the other wing stripped off the harness and he flapped his arms desperately, then tried to glide. But without wings it was useless. Percy snapped up sitting suddenly straight panting.

He gasped suddenly in real life then too. "I hate waking up from dreams about falling."

"Feels like you're falling yourself," Thalia agreed.

Zia frowned. "Yes, but unlike Percy falling into the sea wouldn't do anything for the boy in the dream."

"Icarus died," Nico said.

"And his story is used to teach to listen to direction and stay on the middle path, not to fly to close to the sun or to low and put yourself in danger of failing," Annabeth explained

A few people seemed like they were pondering quite a lot on that advice but everyone else turned their attention back to the scene back in the Labyrinth.

As soon as Percy had woke the scene changed again to them standing in tunnels lined with wooden support beams. Angrily Annabeth said that it couldn't be right. It should still be stone. They kept walking to where here was a cave of stalactites and a grave like pit. Grover shivered saying it smelled like the underworld.

Everyone turned to Nico who looked down for just the smallest second then back at Grover looking all at once amused, annoyed and curious. "Do I really smell like the underworld?"

"Just a little," Grover said. "The musty scent, but it's more like you smell like dirt and underground. It was the spirits I smelled there. You don't smell as much like underworld magic as much as some complaints may make it seem like."

"Wait, do all of us smell different to you?" Magnus asked curiously.

"Yeah," Grover bleated. Tyson nodded as well.

Juniper nudged her boyfriend to say he should probably explain. Grover bleated. "Sorry, it'll probably take a long time to explain but the more powerful the person or monster the stronger the smell. And I can definitely tell that you two are dead."

Alex and Magnus looked at each other then him. "We smell dead?"

"Not like a dead body or the underworld. I just can't explain it. Otherwise Alex smells a lot like clay and animals, Magnus a lot like a summer breeze or something."

"A summer breeze?" Alex laughed.

Magnus blushed but thought that maybe that'd smell good to her. Alex turned back to Grover though. "So does Samirah smell like a demigod then?"

"Not a greek or Roman one. She smells like Alex mostly. But without being dead. I can tell Blitz and Hearth are definitely not human though."

Carter looked to Grover then. "Wait, what do we smell like? Cause we're not demigods or magical creatures."

"Not like demigods, but I can smell the magic. Walt smells as lot like Nico. Zia smells like fire or heat, kind of like Leo. I can smell the healing herbs and stuff on Jaz. I can tell you and your sister are related and smell really powerful magic from you both."

"Wait, so we smell like our powers?" Jason asked. "Cause Coach hedge and the fauns in camp Jupiter were never really specific."

Grover was getting impatient and seemed a bit eager to get it over with. "Fine. You and any of the big three kids smell a bit more powerful. You and Thalia both smell like a lightning storm but a bit more of lightning for her and a bit more of rain and wind for Jason. Hazel smells like underground and magic. But Percy's scent is a lot stronger. He used to smell just like the ocean but now there's more a of a hurricane and earth scent too. Kind of similar to Jason, Nico, Thalia and Hazel's. You five definitely have the strongest scents though. Other demigods have not as much though Annabeth's scroll and book smell has mixed a lot with Percy's. Clarisse smells like her spear and anger. Chris, I don't know how to explain what a child of Hermes smells like, Rachel I can smell the oracle in, and in Will I can smell the sun and the same healing herbs as with Jaz. Calypso smells like flowers, magic and the wind. Piper smells like lots of good things and I already said Leo smells like fire. Which leaves frank who smells like animals but the scent of Ares is there too. It's similar to the scent Bellona must have that I get from Reyna. Am I done now?"

"Yeah, thanks. I've kind of always wanted to ask," Percy told him. "Either way the important thing is that your sense of smell helps a lot. Like with Nico's raising the dead here."

Percy picked up a cheeseburger wrapper floating in the bubbling muck. He said that Nico had been there summoning the dead again.

Grover glared at him for the litter. Nico winced. "Sorry. It usually disappears with the sacrifice."

Grover made a grudging noise of forgiveness.

Tyson whimpered there were ghosts there. He didn't like ghosts. Percy insisted they find Nico and started to run.

"Thanks," Nico told him.

"Hey you're my cousin and my friend. I felt responsible for you and though I'm not I'll always come for you. I just wanted to make sure you were safe."

Annabeth called his name as he ducked into a tunnel. By the time his free friends caught up his was in the streams of daylight shining through a steel grate. He turned and asked where they were. Suddenly the light disappeared and a bright red cow was looking at Percy. It mooed and stepped on the grate then stepped away.

"Those are my sacred cows!" Apollo preened. "Such an awesome color. Am I right?"

"An unusual one for sure," muttered Piper.

Grover said it was a cattle guard. Percy asked what he meant. Grover explained they were put at the gates of ranches so cow's couldn't get out. They couldn't walk on them. He was asked how he knew that and Grover huffed saying if he had hooves he'd know about cattle guards they were annoying.

"You wear shoes though," Leo said.

"Only sometimes!" Grover said. "They hurt!"

Everyone laughed.

Percy asked Annabeth asked if Hera had said something about a ranch. They needed to check it out now. Nico could be there.

Nico sent him a grateful look again. He'd have been with in Minos's clutches still, or even worse with the titan army if it wasn't for Percy.

Annabeth said all right and asked how they got out. Tyson hit the cattle guard with both of his hands. It popped off with a clang and a large moo. Tyson blushed.

He blushed in real life too as everyone laughed at the distressed moos.

He yelled sorry to the cows then started to boost his friends out of the tunnel. Annabeth looked around the red cattle roaming around and commented they were the cattle of the sun. Percy asked what. She replied they were sacred to Apollo.

"See! Because I'm awesome I have awesome sacred animals."

"Holy cows?" Leo asked snickering.

Percy said holy cows confused. Annabeth agreed saying exactly but then asked what they were doing there. Grover interrupted her telling the to listen. Then there were several dog barks.

"Leo, truth or dare," Piper asked.

"Dare!" Leo scoffed as there were any other choice. To be honest he was offended he hadn't even said the same thing as Percy before now. The guy was intimidating, scary and super powerful. But he also was like Leo, too focused on other things and used humor and the stupid questions to make him underestimated among other things.

The barking got closer. Then there was rustling in the bushes. A dog with two heads broke through snarling at them. Tyson yelled for the bad Janus dog to stop. Grover raised a hand in greeting and barked at it. The dog just bared its teeth. Then a man came out of the woods following it. He had white hair beneath a straw hat and a braided white beard. He wore a don't mess with Texas t-shirt, a denim jacket with ripped off sleeves. There was a tattoo on his right bicep of crossed swords. He held a wooden club with spikes on the end. He told the dog, Orthus, to heel.

"Monster?"

"No actually," Percy held back a small grin as he answered Magnus. "But there will be one."

"So who's this guy? He has a tattoo like Reyna's. Is he Roman?" Alex asked.

"No," Reyna said. "I don't believe so. Though the tattoo makes me curious. Crossed swords like that could be the symbol of a god, likely a war god."

Clarisse grinned. "The symbol of Ares."

"So do you know who he is?" Chris asked. Demigods paid more attention to their famous siblings stories then others.

"No. Just that they shouldn't mess with him," she told him grinning evilly.

The dog growled again then sat back at the man's feet. He asked what they had there. Cattle rustlers? Annabeth said just travelers on a quest. The man's eye twitched as he guessed they were half-bloods. Percy asked how they knew but was interrupted by Annabeth introducing herself as the daughter of Athena then her friends the same way. She was interrupted in the middle of her introduction of Tyson by the man saying he could see Tyson was a Cyclops. Then he turned towards Percy and said he knew about half-bloods because he was one. Eurytion, the cowherd and son of Ares. He guessed they came through the Labyrinth like the other one.

Annabeth mused with a thinking face. "Why are there so many mythological figures named Eurytion?"

"There are?" Percy asked.

"Some centaurs and kings," Annabeth waved them off.

"I only know of the one. Him," Clarisse said fiercely. Though from what she had heard he'd been killed by Hercules. How he was there she didn't know.

"I'm more focused on the other thing he said. The other one. He was talking about you," Jason turned to Nico.

Nico didn't answer.

Percy asked the other one? Did he mean Nico di Angelo? Eurytion said they got lots of visitors from the labyrinth, though most never left.

"What does that mean?" Thalia asked threateningly. This rancher wasn't touching her cousins and friends.

"We're fine," Annabeth assured her.

Percy said that made him feel welcome. The cowherd glanced behind him warily then lowered his voice speaking to them. He told them he would only say this once. They should get back into the maze before it was too late.

"Why's he there if this place obviously is so bad?" Piper asked.

"I asked him the same thing," Percy said which meant he wasn't giving an answer and they'd have to wait.

Annabeth said they weren't leaving. Not until they saw the other demigod. She said please again for good measure. Eurytion said that gave him no choice but to take them to the boss. He walked alongside them with his club over his shoulder leading them down a dirt path. They passed stalls of fire breathing horses and several other animals. All of them sweated like crazy. As they passed the horses Percy asked what they were for? Eurytion said they raised horses for lots of clients like Apollo, Diomedes and… others. Percy asked who but he was told no more questions.

Everyone turned to Apollo who was frowning. "I….I asked someone to arrange the keeping of the cows for me. I didn't look to see where they ended up. If they're being sold too…."

He trailed off. Percy shook his head. "I think your cows were the one thing they didn't really sell off, or eat."

Everyone looked a bit disgusted by that revelation.

They came out of the woods to see a big ranch house on the hill.

Rachel's and Piper's eyes widened. "No way."

"When did he build that?"

"He was a demigod," Annabeth grinned.

"Who?" Leo interrupted. "This is an architecture thing. Right?"

Annabeth's response was to point forward at the image before them.

Annabeth yelled it looked like a Frank Lloyd Wright.

There were a few understanding noises but most seemed not to care at all. Though there were a few mumbles about that it was way to fancy to be a regular ranch house.