Yay! I kept my promise! Here is the next chapter…finally! It's a long one too. 16 pages on a word document…whew! Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the wonderful, fantastic, amazing PJO or HoO series. I'm not RR.
About 8 hours later, everyone was awake and back in the reading room, ready to get started. They were showing down on various food items that had appeared all over the room as the reading started.
"Who reading now?" Jason asked, his mouth full.
"Everyone's read already, so I guess I'll start again." Annabeth shrugged. She picked up the book and started reading.
We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium
Grover shivered. "Dangit, I forgot this was next."
"How could you forget this?" Annabeth raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"I don't know," Grover shrugged. "I repressed the bad memory."
"Okay, it wasn't that bad." Annabeth said.
"Yes it was."
"No, it wasn't"
"Okay, can we please continue?" Piper asked.
"Fine," Annabeth grumbled.
In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.
"Rofl, too true!" Leo exclaimed.
"Really? Rofl?" Jason asked.
"You got a problem with that?" Leo countered.
Jason snorted. "Not at all."
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;
"Well, when you're Percy, it is partly bad luck." Thalia reasoned.
when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.
"That too." Thalia said.
So there we were, Annabeth and 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.
"Stupid mortals polluting the wild." Grover mumbled.
"Hey! Not all of us are like that." Rachel protested.
"Still…the wild just keeps getting worse."
"Enough about the wild!" Travis exclaimed.
"I want to finish this book before I die, thank you very much." Connor agreed.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror.
"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."
Jason nodded. "That was the right move."
"I know." Annabeth smirked.
"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"Young love!" Connor yelled.
Piper smack him. "Do you ever shut up?"
He pretended to think about it. "Nope."
"Yeah, well. Shut up!" Piper charm-spoke and Connor looked stunned.
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
"Oh, Grover. You crack me up." Travis laughed.
Grover frowned. "I'm not taking that as a compliment."
Travis grinned. "Of course not."
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."
"Awwww, is Annie spilling her heart out?" Connor asked.
"Shut up." Annabeth muttered.
"We're a team, right?"
She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."
Nico snorted. "That's real nice."
"In my defence…I didn't know him well at all then." Annabeth defended herself.
"Ah, don't worry." Nico said. "I don't think any of us were too nice to him at first."
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.
"That's a long time." Piper said amazed.
"Sounds…somewhat suffocating." Leo nodded.
"I've been at Camp Jupiter longer." Jason shrugged.
"But from you've said, it's bigger and has more people to interact with. Not to mention many more village type things and-" Annabeth acknowledged.
"We get it." Nico stopped her.
"No ... only short field trips. My dad—"
"The history professor."
"Yeah. 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.
"I guess I did kind of feel that way." Annabeth realized.
"It must have been good to get it out then." Rachel smiled.
"Yeah," Annabeth agreed. "It was.
"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."
If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.
"Damn," Annabeth muttered. "He heard that."
Every laughed.
"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.
"You think so?"
"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."
I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.
"He really does notice the small details." Thalia laughed.
"Makes you wonder how he can miss the big picture." Nico said jokingly.
"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.
"Who would torture an owl?" Grover gasped.
Annabeth laughed, knowing what the sound was.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.
"Hey!" Grover cried.
Connor laughed. "Grover, can you demonstrate the sounds of an owl being tortured for me?"
"It would increase our nature knowledge." Travis added.
Grover huffed and looked pointedly at Annabeth.
"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.
Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.
There was laughter and snorts all around.
"Okay, who snorted?" Nico asked.
Rachel laughed again and a snort escaped. She put a hand to her mouth. "Opps!"
Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.
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, excellent food.
"Dude, you're making me crave a double cheeseburger!" Travis groaned.
"I want more junk food!" Leo chanted.
Junk food, junk food, junk food!" The Stolls and Leo shouted together.
"Shut up!" Piper rolled her eyes.
I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.
"It's even worse now!" Travis complained. There was a bright light and a double cheese burger fell from the sky. "OMG! Free food!"
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "It appears out of nowhere and all you think is 'free food'?"
Travis nodded, his mouth full. Everyone had envious looks on their faces and wondered where the hades it had come from.
"Moving on." Thalia said.
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 good smell.
"I like neon." Connor said. "It's so neony."
"Only you, would say neony." Piper laughed.
"And I am very proud." Connor nodded.
It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. 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.
"Sounds…interesting…" Leo said.
"Nope, sounds downright creepy." Jason decided. He figured there would be a monster attack or something close to it soon.
The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.
To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.
"What did you just say?" Rachel asked Annabeth. "What's that supposed to be?"
"That's how Percy saw it." She defended. "I'm just saying it as it is."
"What the heck does that say?" I asked.
"I don't know," Annabeth said.
She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.
"Hey, so had I!" Connor exclaimed.
Travis grinned wickedly. "Oh how fun!"
"Don't you dare." Annabeth muttered.
Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
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.
Jason's eyebrows scrunched together. Something about that seemed very familiar but he couldn't put a finger on it. Meanwhile, Grover and Annabeth's faces had clouded over.
I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.
"Hey ..." Grover warned.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."
"Snack bar," I said wistfully.
"Snack bar," she agreed.
"If only." Leo sighed wistfully.
"Dude, just build one when we finish these books. I know you could." Connor's eyes light up.
"That would be EPIC!" Travis shouted.
Annabeth rolled her eyes and kept reading.
"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."
We ignored 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.
"I wonder why." Grover muttered.
"You got something to say, Goat Boy?" Thalia laughed.
"Not at all."
"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.
Grover his mouth to speak but Annabeth put her hand up. "Don't say 'I told you so'. And technically, it kind of was. Plus, her food had, like, this magical aroma or something."
Grover smirked. "I wasn't going to say a thing."
"All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.
"How are those of the meat category?" Piper laughed.
"Those are vegetables.
"Okay, how are those of the vegetable category?" Leo asked.
Everyone was grinning at Grover who muttered "Don't judge."
Come on. Let's leave. These statues are ... looking at me
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.
Jason gasped. "It makes sense now."
"What does?" Leo asked.
"Who she is?" Jason answered.
Piper frowned. "And that would be who?"
"You'll see soon." Annabeth told her.
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.
Thalia snorted. "Like father like son."
"Too true." Nico smirked.
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"
"They're ... um ..." Annabeth started to say.
"We're orphans," I said.
"Oh, this should be good." Rachel laughed.
"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"
"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan.
"Where is he going with this?" Piper wondered.
"Too far." Grover grinned.
The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"
"Straight to the point!" Travis said.
"More like straight to the food." Connor added.
"To food!" They cheered together.
"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."
We thanked her and went inside.
Jason snorted. "How did you guys not realize right away?"
Grover shrugged. "Blame the magic food."
Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"
"Always have a strategy, right?"
"Your head is full of kelp.""
Everyone laughed at the familiar insult/tease.
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. But mostly, I was thinking about food.
"As am I." Leo sighed.
"There's food on the table." Piper pointed. "Eat it, and stop complaining.
Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair—it made everything else go away.
"See," Annabeth reasoned. "It had to be magical."
"Yeah, but maybe Percy just has that whole guy/food thing going on." Thalia said.
"Excuse me?" All the guys in the room asked.
"Guys always seemed to be hungry." Thalia shrugged.
"I resent that." Grover told her.
"Whatever." She conceded.
I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.
"She did?" Annabeth and Grover asked at the same time.
"Neither of you noticed?" Nico asked.
"Apparently not." Annabeth's brows furrowed.
All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.
"Nacho cheese dispenser!" Travis shouted.
"It's like a dream come true!" Connor said dreamily.
Thalia smirked. "Point taken."
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.
"Awesome," I said.
"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."
"Way to ruin the moment." Leo said.
"Way to ruin the food." Rachel sighed.
Everyone looked at her weirdly and she went "What?"
Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.
Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.
"Nope, I noticed too." Annabeth said.
"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.
"Huh…creepy." Leo shook his head. "Who is this again?"
"You'll see." Nico said impatiently.
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 was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.
"I know how he feels." Connor nodded.
Someone's stomach growled. Piper smiled sheepishly and took some food from the table.
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.
"Sna-" Jason tried but Thalia put a hand over his mouth.
Annabeth shook her head. "Don't spoil it. And no, it wasn't."
"Oh…sorry." Jason mumbled.
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."
Everyone snorted and Grover blushed.
Travis appraised him. "Okay, you can little a little. But I still say you need lessons."
"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."
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, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face,
"You think?" Nico asked sarcastically.
Leo shrugged. "Not all the time."
"You're weird, Leo." Rachel laughed.
"And proud of it." Leo smiled.
but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.
"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.
"How did you guys make it out of this?" Jason wondered.
"With difficulty." Annabeth admitted.
"I'm not even going to ask." Piper shook he head.
"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."
"Including Uncle Ferdinand." Grover muttered.
Annabeth snorted but quickly covered it up when Grover stared at her.
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.
"Oh!" Piper gasped. "I get it now…wow."
Leo groaned. "Well I don't."
"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.
"In more ways than you can imagine." Jason said.
"Ugghh." Piper shuddered.
"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?"
"And Annabeth gets it." Rachel laughed.
"Of course." Thalia added.
"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.
Nico snorted. "Yeah, that's what happened."
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."
"You know, I still don't get that. How can monsters fade?" Connor asked.
"It's complicated." Thalia said.
Annabeth nodded. "Right. Very."
I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?
"Me." Jason muttered. "And probably you."
"That food really is spiked." Travis said.
"Spiked?" Connor asked. "Really?"
"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."
She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.
"Who wouldn't find that strange?" Rachel asked.
"Satyrs." Grover told her. "So namely, me."
"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."
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.
"We really should go."
"No Styx!" Nico said.
"Ugh, she almost touched." Piper grimaced.
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"
I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.
"So basically, Percy is to blame for getting you guys in that situation?" Jason laughed.
"In a way." Annabeth shrugged. "But he's also the reason we got out."
Thalia smiled. "True that."
"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 are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
"Except the camp director." Rachel shook her, laughing. "Ironic isn't it?"
"More like our misfortune." Nico said.
"He's okay at times." Annabeth told them.
Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy—"
"Sure we can," I said.
I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"
"There is plenty of harm!" Piper exclaimed.
"He still hadn't figured it out yet." Grover mumbled.
"He will soon." Jason said.
"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."
I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.
"I think we should get a statue for the Hermes cabin." Travis suggested.
Connor grinned. "Totally. It could be this giant beaver with-"
"Moving on." Thalia cut in.
Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."
"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.
"There is something called the flash." Nico laughed.
"Would you be thinking about that in a situation like this?" Thalia asked he cousin.
Nico scowled. "…no."
"Then shut up." Thalia said.
"Geez, I was just joking." Nico rolled his eyes.
"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"
"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.
Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"
"Yes, smile big." Connor held up his and pretended to take pictures.
Travis hit him in the shoulder. "Not the time dude."
Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."
"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."
She still had no camera in her hands.
"Percy—" Annabeth said.
"I still have no idea how you guys got out of this." Piper shook her head.
"My nose." Grover exclaimed.
"…"
"Nevermind." Grover frowned.
Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.
"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."
"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.
"Nope, everything is dandy." Connor grinned.
"What did I just tell you?" Travis asked.
"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
"Whoa!" Leo gasped. "What?"
"At least he wasn't eaten by Polyphemus." Grover said glumly.
"Hmm, never thought of that." Annabeth mused.
"What?" A few people asked.
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.
I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.
"Good move." Jason nodded.
"Why thank you." Annabeth smiled.
I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.
Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.
"She has talons?" Piper asked.
"Apparently." Rachel said.
I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"
More rasping—the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from ... from about where Aunty Em's head would be.
"Hate snakes." Travis muttered.
"Slimy little things." Rachel agreed.
"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.
I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.
"Stupid food." Annabeth muttered. "Good thing we didn't have more of it."
"You got that right." Nico nodded.
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."
I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens— a gazing ball.
"Hmmm." Jason thought.
"Yup." Annabeth said.
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.
Aunty Em.
Aunty "M."
How could I have been so stupid?
"I don't know." Thalia agreed as everyone laughed.
"Oh!" Leo exclaimed. "I get it too."
Thalia face-palmed.
Think, I told myself. 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 namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.
"I guess it helped, him being the son of Poseidon and all." Jason realized.
"Yeah, it did." Grover agreed.
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," 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, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"
"Percy's lucky he had Annabeth." Rachel smiled.
"And not just here. Many times and places and situations." Thalia nodded.
Annabeth smiled, thinking of all of the good times.
"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."
"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.
Everyone was on edge. They knew all three of them would get out of this, but it didn't make them less nervous. Meanwhile, Grover and Annabeth were thinking how weird it was going through this in Percy's perspective.
"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."
Annabeth snorted. "And she thinks that happened there was bad. Try anything that happened later on I his life."
"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"
"Go Grover!" Connor and Travis cheered.
"You hit that monster!" Leo added.
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.
"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"
"Oh this should be good." Thalia grinned.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Grover asked.
"Nothing at all."
That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me.
"Hey!" Grover yelled as everyone snickered.
I dove to one side.
Thwack!
At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.
"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"Cause that's gonna happen." Nico said sarcastically.
"You got that right." Grover agreed.
"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, "Percy!"
"Bet that scared him." Piper laughed.
"Bet he screamed." Nico bet.
"Bet he didn't," Leo said.
Annabeth grinned.
I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"
"Ha!" Leo pointed at Nico. "He didn't scream. Give me that drachma."
"We didn't actually come to a deal." Nico frowned.
"So?" Leo asked.
Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."
"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."
"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission.
Everyone laughed. Annabeth grumbled something about not believing that he noticed that.
"But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You—you've got a chance."
"What? I can't—"
"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"
"Good idea, hit his weakness there." Thalia nodded.
"And I didn't even know it at the time." Annabeth smiled.
She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.
"That so sad." Piper muttered.
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 distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"
"Would you speak English?"
"Agreed." Nico grinned.
"I was!" Annabeth exclaimed.
"I am!" She tossed me the glass ball.
"Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"
"Roooaaarrr!"
"Roooaaarrr!" Travis yelled.
"Rooooaaaarrrr!" Connor shouted. "Ha, mine was louder."
"Was not." Travis argued.
"Was."
"Wasn't."
"Was."
"Shut up!" Piper shouted.
"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 my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.
I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.
"Using the ears." Connor sang.
Everyone looked at him strange.
"What?"
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.
"Uh oh." Rachel said.
"Uh oh is right." Grover nodded.
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, "Hey!"
"Thank you Percy." Grover thanked the book.
"Please don't talk to the book." Jason said. "It's just weird."
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.
Go Percy, go Percy, go Percy." Everyone chanted.
I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.
Yeah, right." Piper snorted.
"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass—the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.
"Hmmmm, even reflected it has an effect." Annabeth murmered.
"Here we go." Nico joked.
From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"
Medusa cackled. "Too late."
She lunged at me with her talons.
I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern—the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Everyone cheered.
"Whoo Percy, whoo Percy, whoo Percy!" Connor, Travis, and Leo whooped.
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.
"Eww." Piper grimaced.
"That is nasty." Rachel agreed.
"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."
"That's even worse." Thalia exclaimed.
Everyone shuddered a bit.
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.
"Is he trying to make me barf?" Rachel asked.
"No, but I could." Leo suggested.
"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.
"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "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."
Annabeth suddenly grinned, remembering what he did with the head.
"What're you so happy about?" Jason asked.
"You'll see."
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.
"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."
"Ya, good job!" Travis slapped his back.
"Thanks…I think." Grover said.
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."
"Lol," Connor laughed.
"What is it with you today?" Travis asked.
"What would you mean be that?"
"…"
He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my 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.
"Hearing about it made me tired." Rachel said.
"You just slept for, like, 8 hours." Nico pointed out.
"Shut it."
Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"
Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girl friend. 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."
"He does look remarkably like Poseidon." Thalia shrugged.
"Just like Annabeth and Athena." Nico added.
Connor and Travis grinned evilly.
"Uh oh." Leo muttered, looking at them.
My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"
"It wasn't that bad." Annabeth mumbled.
Grover snorted.
"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 bet I could change that." Connor said.
"Nooo!" Grover yelled.
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!
"We really do!" Travis shouted.
Piper shook her head.
I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.
"Doesn't help that we were out of commission for 5 days." Annabeth murmered.
"Umm, what?" Rachel asked.
"Nothing."
What had Medusa said?
Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.
I got up. "I'll be back."
Nico grinned. "This should be good."
"It is." Grover laughed.
"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you—"
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 Hades and 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 pocket.
"That was a good idea." Jason noted.
"Didn't help that much though." Annabeth said reluctantly.
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.
"He did not!" Thalia exclaimed.
"He did!" Annabeth said
"Hahaha!"
I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:
The Gods
MountOlympus
600th Floor,
EmpireState Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
"How is he not dead?" Jason laughed.
"We have absolutely no idea." Rachel shrugged.
Everyone agreed.
"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."
"He is impertinent." Nico said.
Annabeth snorted.
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," I said.
"Cousin like cousin." Thalia grinned.
"He agrees!" Nico laughed.
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."
"That's the end of the chapter." Annabeth said, putting down the book.
"I'll go next," Thalia said.
There you have it! What'd you think? Good? Bad? Okay? Remember, review!
Okay, now for the results of that question. There were quite a few people who couldn't decide between more than one character, so I'll just count them all.
Ella: 8
Hazel: 5
Reyna: 4
Frank: 2
Octavian: 1
Dakota: 2
Terminus: 1
I'm going to delete the author's note thing, there's no point in it being there.
Hmmm, another question. What is your favourite book in either the PJO series or the HoO series?
Answer and I'll post the results again. And remember Review!
Au revoir!
~Sid-Niols