Me: Yo!
Hazel: Hi there! Here are the results for the question asked in the previous chapter: Coke, Pepsi, or neither?
Me: I can't believe it! Some people actually answered! What we got: Coke-4, Pepsi-1, lemonade-2, coffee-1.

~Percy's POV~

When…Spongebobeniqua…was done telling Ron his special news, she immediately dismissed us.

"Go. Finish your quest," she proclaimed from her door.

Daniela shoved her way through me and Annabeth, and got in Spongebobeniqua's face. "OH, NO! What about my news? I am part of this group too!"

Spongebobeniqua simply shut the door, smashing Daniela's nose.

As Daniela kicked and squirmed when Itsi tried to stop the blood from gushing from her nose, Annabeth gathered us around her and told us about what Spo—I mean, what SB had told her and Itsi.

When she finished, there was a moment of silence as the information sunk in.

"Okay," Thalia mumbled, "so she's going to tell us when your spirit becomes more…accustomed to the body you're in right now..?"

Annabeth nodded. She rubbed her chin, and gasped lightly.

I asked what was up, and Annabeth responded with "I think I need to start shaving."

And she was right. The first signs of stubble appeared on her chin and under her nose. That's all I got to see, though, because Annabeth stuffed her face in the duck. I heard a muffled "My body is getting more and more used to this."

She was right. We needed to get a move on.

After a while, Annabeth looked up and sighed deeply. "Whatever. Ron, you still have the baby girl?"

Ron raised the baby in his arms. "Yeah, I think it may be time to feed her, too."

She nodded, but it seemed she wasn't really listening. She looked at all of us in turn, and sighed again.

"Well, before we head off, we have to fix this problem we have."

Clarisse frowned. "We have too many people in our group."

"I agree," Annabeth whispered, and tilted her head back. "Who is willing to leave the group?"

Nobody raised their hands.

"Fine then, you're making me choose. There are…" Her head bobbed as she counted all of us in her head, "eight of us…right?"

We all nodded.

"Hey!" someone shouted.

"Nine, plus Nero," Annabeth added, smiling a little. "We were pushing our luck with four people, but nine quest members is just asking for trouble. We can't have a group this big. Thalia, Clarisse, Ron, Sti- I mean—Itsi, Daniela, Cujo, Percy and I..."

"Plus the baby girl," Thalia added.

"Ten, then."

Itsi looked down at Daniela. "You're staying here."

Daniela's eyes got as big as saucers. "NO…no! Why me? You guys don't need a stupid dog! Get rid of Cujo!"

"We're leaving you here with SB. You were given to me when your momma died, so in a weird way, I am like your legal guardian. My mom isn't here anymore, so no one else but SB can take care of you. You're staying here, you little gremlin!"

They began to argue in Spanish, and Clarisse had to smack the two to make them be quiet.

Clarisse barked out "You two! Chill! It's Andy's decision, as quest leader, to dismiss anyone."

All eyes turned to her. Annabeth rubbed her chin again, and gestured at Daniela. "Listen, I think it's better if you stay here. I don't want to get in your 'family matters', so I'm taking Itsi's side, since, yeah, she's the only one here with real authority over you."

Daniela froze. Annabeth looked at Itsi. "Do you really think SB can take care of her until we come back?"

"Sure, she will. I'll have to pay her, though, but you know, whatever."

Annabeth motioned for Itsi to take Daniela now. Itsi grabbed her arm and dragged her back to SB's mansion.

I looked at Cujo. "She was right, you know. Daniela, I mean. We don't need Cujo. Not really."

Annabeth thought about it. "You think SB will be ok taking care of a dog as well?"

Ron sniffed. "Probably. Most of those people in the party over at SB's house acted worse than animals. One more couldn't hurt. We may as well leave the baby with her too. We can't…we can't endanger the baby, either."

"Wait, guys." Clarisse interrupted.

"What?" Annabeth asked, but Clarisse quickly shushed her. She seemed…to be listening to something.

I counted thirty seconds when Clarisse unfroze from her position, nodding as though she had agreed to something, even though none of us present had spoken a word.

"My father—Ares—just told me to keep the dog. He said that Cujo will help us locate another ride."

"Locate...a ride?" Thalia said, not getting it.

"Yeah, he probably meant that Cujo'll sniff out a certain car or something."

I thought about this. "Wait guys, why are we going to listen to Ares? I mean, for all we know, Cujo is infected with rabies and Ares knows that soon he will attack!"

Thalia snorted, and Annabeth shook her head. "Percy, he's a god, so maybe should listen to him. I doubt he still hates you as much as when we were twelve. And besides," she grunted, looking up at the sky, "it's all we have. We don't exactly have clear instructions on where we're going. Just 'head west.' We will need a ride at some point in time. Might as well get one now, right?"

I hate it when she's right.

"It has been decided then; we keep the dog."

Clarisse leaned against a wall. "But then we will have only gotten rid of one person. Nine people…well, that's still way too much. Who else do we get rid of?"

On their own, my eyes slid over to Thalia.

She caught me looking. "What?"

Clarisse seemed to agree with what I was thinking. "If Percy was looking at you for the reason I think, then I agree with him. You're not fit for this quest anymore. I mean, look at you; you're shaking, coughing, sweaty, and really pale from the over-exertion you cause yourself just by walking."

I looked at Thalia in the eye, pleading her to listen. "You're sick, Thals. I don't know why, and I suspect that SB told you why. But I do know this: If your problem worsens, then pretty soon, you will collapse. Imagine we're fighting something. We're surrounded. Suddenly, you pass out."

Thalia shut her eyes and weakly covered her ears. Clarisse continued for me, speaking louder so Thalia could hear. "If we're surrounded, it's going to be hard to get to you and make sure you're all right. You might cause problems."

"Worse if we don't find out you pass out at all," Ron added. We all nodded. "I don't know you as much as there other three," he pointed at Clarisse, Annabeth and me, "but I would really hate to lose a good…comrade."

Thalia coughed into her hand, and shook her head. "No, I'm going with you guys. I'm not going to join this quest and then drop out halfway. If I die, that's too bad for me. I'm going—" she stopped to cough—"with you. Please, Annabeth."

We were putting a lot of pressure on Annabeth. She scratched her hair awkwardly, and for the billionth time, she sighed. "OK, ok. We'll only leave Daniela."

"Yay!" Ron whisper-shouted, because he didn't want to wake the baby. "No one suggested I leave! I feel so special!"

"Yeah, well, we do need an adult with us to look like a guardian," Annabeth replied with a smile on her face.

We waited for Itsi to start heading out. When she finally returned, we began walking west. We put Cujo out in front, because of what Ares had told Clarisse.

Itsi sped up to match my pace.

"I really hope we survive this," she said, "so I can take Daniela on some easy quest. That way, she won't be so mad at me."

I nodded. "We'll make it. This quest can't be too big, right? I mean, it's just getting ingredients for a reversal potion."

"Ah, I see," Itsi said. "Not something someone will really have a reason to stop, huh?"

I nodded again, but one the inside, I knew that was wrong. That guy, Nameless, he seemed like he was against this quest. Maybe this quest was… Nah, it can't be more than just returning Annabeth back into a girl.

"Hey, Percy-cat, you know any easy quests I could take Daniela on?"

My eye twitched at my incredibly cheesy nickname. "Not really."

"What about getting golden apples from…the garden of the Hesperides? Easy right?"

"NO!" Thalia, Annabeth and I screamed.

"What?!" Itsi backed away, spooked.

"NOT a golden apple from that garden!" Annabeth choked out.

The three of us shared a look. Luke had gone on that quest a long time ago. Ladon the guardian dragon had given him that horrible scar.

"Ok! Jeez! Sometimes you guys can be really weird."

A chuckle escaped Clarisse.

I grinned. "Yeah, well, when it comes to us, 'weird' freaks out and starts screaming."

Me: Oh, globs, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the baby girl.
Hazel: Don't kill her off!
Me: I kind of have no other choice!
Hazel: Think of other things! Don't kill babies! Not even fictional ones!
Me: Meh!