I don't own any characters in the Percy Jackson universe which is rightfully owned by Rick Riodan. However, the Greek gods and/or other mythological figures are used in my imagination and well you can't claim copyright on history.

Chapter 38

Leneus pales as he sees me walk out from behind the trees. Mrs. O'Leary must've sensed my distress and came bounding back towards me. She walks up to Leneus sniffing and walks around him.

"I refuse to speak with a hellhound sniffing around me!" Leneus screams trying to sound confident.

"I'll walk the dog. Come on, girl." Nico walks the dog off.

"Alright, she's gone. So tell me about Grover."

"Well, you see, he's been missing in action for a couple of days and we can't exactly locate him." He stutters.

"And what exactly did you do to try and locate Grover?"

"Iris messages." He responds quietly.

I grabbed him. Even though I hated being violent, he was being useless. Right now was a horrible time for someone like Grover to get lost.

"So you're telling me that all you did to even attempt to look for him, was by doing something a five-year-old could do? You're the Cloven Elder and he's supposed to be in your care. Now go do something right!" I yelled as I pushed him.

I didn't mean to push him hard, but he was top-heavy and he fell onto the floor. He got up quickly and ran away.

"You shouldn't do that. He is still a powerful enemy to have." Juniper scolds.

"I have scarier enemies right now. Besides, Grover is going to be needed in the next few days. Don't worry, Juniper, I'm going to be outside of camp soon and I promise to look for him." I assured her.

Nico comes back with my dog in tow.

"You shook him up good. There was a trail of goat pellets."

Juniper goes back into her tree and Nico turns serious.

"We need to meet Luke's mom."

"Why? Can't I just go dip in the river?"

"No, there's a process we have to follow. We have to find out about Luke's past and then get your mom's blessing." He insists.

He climbs on Mrs. O'Leary's back and I follow suit. We shadow travel to a rather quiet suburban community.

"Westport, Connecticut, home of May Castellan."

I knocked on the door and I could hear muffled sounds. The door swings open and a disgruntled woman stepped out.

"LUKE!"

She smiles and engulfs me into a bear hug. She turns and faces Nico and does the same thing she did to me. Nico looks at me confused and I could fully understand. We looked nothing like Luke.

"Come on in, Luke! I've made your favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some kool-aid. The cookies are also baking."

She whistles a tune and walks towards the kitchen. We also walked in took a seat. There were sandwiches stacked everywhere, some were going bad. Cookies were burning in the oven and she was spilling the kool-aid all over the place.

"See, I told you Luke would come back home!" She tells a plush medusa toy.

She serves us food and took a couple of bites out of respect.

"Can you tell us when Luke last visited you?"

"You don't remember? You came last year to ask for my blessing! And then you left saying you can't stay or else monsters would come to harm me. They don't harm me do they, Ms. Medusa?"

Getting the information we needed, we got up to leave.

"Thank you for the information, Ms. Castellan." I started.

She cuts me off correcting me, "Mom."

"Sorry, mom. We'll be leaving now."

She starts having fits of laughter then abruptly stops. She turns to face me and her eyes were glowing green.

"No, my son can't go. Horrible fate. STAY!" She screams.

She suddenly ran towards me, the once clumsy woman, gone. She wraps her hands around my neck, cutting off my breathing.

"PERCY!" Nico yelled and surprise and drew his blade.

"Don't kill." Was all I could manage before I blacked out.

Suddenly, I was in Rachel's room. She was making a charcoal drawing of a young Luke and me. She leaves finishing touches to my portrait and pulls out some darts. She threw them out of anger at the drawing.

"Stupid demigod and his stupid quests." She growls as she threw the darts.

I felt bad because she invited me to a vacation with her family. I was really her only true friend due to her sometimes crazy behavior. In reality, she was just lonely and sad.

"Rachel? Are you okay? I'm coming in." Says her dad as he opens the door.

He stares at the chaos in the room. Wrappers littering the floor, charcoal dust everywhere, darts hanging off the portrait and music blaring through her speakers.

"Is your friend not joining us?" He asks.

Her father never called me by my name. It was always 'your friend' or 'mister' in the rare occasion that he spoke to me.

"No, he's busy." She replies simply.

"Honey, it's not the end of the world. You can always invite someone else or just enjoy time with your family."

"What other friends? He's the only one that can tolerate me around him. You're just stuck in your own delusional world, dad."

Her dad surrenders and leaves.

"Percy, why am I seeing these images?"

And like that, the image fades. I woke up and Mrs. O'Leary barks. I get up to see Nico eating and more food was cooking. I turned to see a little campfire and a young girl attending it.

"Nice of you to join us, Percy."

I bowed out of respect.

"Lady Hestia."

"Rise, Percy. I don't need such respect. I am just a mother figure to you and the other heroes."

She points me over to the food and I was surprised she had made a plate full of blue cheeseburgers and blue coke for me.

"How did you know about the blue food?"

"You always summon blue foods with the powers I gave you. Besides, I know a lot more about you than you think. That includes your very interesting situation."

I looked at her surprised but she dropped the conversation.

"Percy, do you understand what you must do? Have you gotten the information that you looked for?"

"Yes. Do you know what happened with May Castellan?"

"Yes, I do. But, it is not my place to tell you."

"No disrespect, Lady Hestia, but we do have to get moving." Nico pipes up.

"Don't worry, you still have time to talk with me. Percy, what is your opinion about the prophecy."

"It's unclear and confusing."

"As all prophecies tend to be. Whatever your choice may be, I will not blame you. However, remember the outcome of both choices."

The choices that I could see were either I join Kronos and not die or join the gods and die.

"I've already made my choice."

"I see. Well, I'll help speed you along your journey."

Suddenly, Nico, Mrs. O'Leary, and I were sitting in my apartment. Mrs. O'Leary smells my mother and starts to wag her tail. She's only met my mother once, but once was enough for her to love my mom.

"What is going on?" My mom asks.

"Ms. Jackson, we have come here to talk about something," Nico said.

"Honey, why is there a wall of fur in front of my door?" Paul shouts.

"Can you stay in there for a second? I'll explain everything to you later."

She pets Mrs. O'Leary to calm her down and walks into the kitchen avoiding the various body parts and fur all over the place. She pulls out some lemonade she has in the refrigerator and hands them to the both of us.

"So, what do you need to talk about?"

I explained the situation as best as I could and Nico joins in when I came short.

"So I need your blessing to actually get along with the plan," I concluded.

She pales as she tries to comprehend everything we had told her.

"And this is the only way you could do?"

"Yes, Ms. Jackson. Kronos has already gone through with the same exact plan and if we don't follow suit, the war will be very short. And that isn't in our favor." Nico confirms.

She purses her lips in concern and then kisses my forehead.

"I give you my blessing, Percy. Also, you better come back alive. We have to talk about the car."

"Mom, that wasn't my fault."

"No excuses and Nico's waiting for you."

I nod and all three of us walk into the shadows and into Central Park. Mrs. O'Leary starts barking as if something was bothering her so we followed her. She bounds on and suddenly stops, sniffing and licking the being lying in the grass. I spot who it was and my heart stops.

"Who is it?" Nico asks as he couldn't see due to the distance.

"Grover..."

End of chapter 38. Thanks for reading and please review to help me grow as a writer. Stay safe and stay inside. Peace!