A/N (I recommend reading this): I'm going to MAKE THIS CLEAR. Just like I mention on my bio page about every other fanfiction I done: I DON'T OWN THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIAN SERIES or AND THE KANE CHRONICLES OR IT'S CHARACTERS as the rights goes to Rick Riordan. Also I suggest you guys start paying attention to the Author notes and my warnings that I left on EVERY chapter of EVERY story.

Sorry if this chapter is too much like the book.

This is a The Tales of version of the Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles crossover and takes place after 'The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus part of the series. So if you haven't read them yet read before reading this story as stuff that happened in them will be mentioned:

The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Early Adventures
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Lightning Thief
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Sea of Monsters
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Titan's Curse
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Magical Labyrinth
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Stolen Chariot
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Sword of Hades
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Bronze Dragon
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Last Olympian
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Staff of Hermes
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Quest for Buford
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Son of Sobek
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Staff of Serapis
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Crown of Ptolemy

Also if you haven't got the chance feel free to read:

The Tales of Classical Mythology

A crossover with The Tales of series with my dictionary on Greek/Roman Mythology where The Tales of Percy Jackson tells his version of stories behind famous names in Greek and Roman Mythology.

And if you are a fan of Stephen King:

The Tales of the Heroes of the Stand

Which is basically a crossover of The Tales of series with one of Stephen King's best novels The Stand.

Lastly, any one who wants to do a Demigods and Olympian reads story using 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon' is allowed as long as you inform me about it.

I Finally Start Receiving Offerings and it is all for My First Trial

Sun gods are not good at sleeping during the day, but somehow, I managed a fitful nap.

When I woke in the late afternoon, I found the camp in a state of agitation.

Kayla and Austin's disappearances had been the tipping point. The other campers were now so rattled, no one could maintain a normal schedule. I suppose a single demigod disappearing every few weeks felt like normal casualty rate. But a pair of demigods disappearing in the middle of a camp-sanctioned activity—that meant no one was safe.

Word must have spread of our conference in the cave. The Victor twins had stuffed wads of cotton in their ears to foil oracular voices. Julia and Alice had climbed to the top of the lava wall and were using binoculars to scan the woods, no doubt hoping to spot the Grove of Dodona, but I doubted they could see the trees for the forest.

Everywhere I went, people were unhappy to see me. Damien and Chiara sat together at the canoe dock, glowering in my direction. Sherman Yang waved me away when I tried to talk with him. He was busy decorating the Ares cabin with frag grenades and brightly decorated claymores. If it had been Saturnalia, he would have won the prize for most violent holiday decorations.

Even Athena Parthenos stared down at me accusingly from the top of the hill as if to say. This is all your fault.

She was right. If I had not let Python take over Delphi, if I had paid more attention to the other ancient Oracles, if I had not lost my divinity—

Stop it, Apollo, I scolded myself, You're beautiful and everyone loves you.

But it was becoming increasingly difficult to believe that. My father, Zeus did not love me. The demigods at Camp Half-Blood did not love me. Python and the Beast and his comrades at Triumvirate Holdings did not love me. It was almost enough to make me question my self-worth.

No, no. That was crazy talk.

Chiron and Rachel were nowhere to be seen. Nyssa Barrera informed me that they were hoping against hope to use the camp's sole Internet connection, in Chiron's office, to access more information about Triumvirate Holdings. Harley was with them for tech support. They were presently on hold with Comcast customer service and might not emerge for hours if they survive the ordeal at all.

I found Meg at the armory, browsing for battle supplies. She had strapped a leather cuirass over her green dress and greaves over orange leggings, so she looked like a kindergartener reluctantly stuffed into combat gear by her parents.

"Perhaps a shield?" I suggested.

"Nuh-uh." She showed me her rings. "I always use two swords. Plus I need a free hand for slapping when you act stupid."

I had the uncomfortable sense she was serious.

From the weapon rack, she pulled out a long bow and offered it to me.

I recoiled. "No."

"It's your best weapon. You're Apollo."

I swallowed back the tang of mortal bile. "I swore an oath. I am not the god of archery or music anymore. I won't use a bow or a musical instrument until I am."

"Stupid oath." She did not slap me, but she looked like she wanted to. "What will you do, just stand around and cheer while I fight?"

That had indeed been my plan, but I felt silly admitting it. "I have the Kopis," I reminded her.

"Which you obviously don't know how to use," Meg said. "At least take your own advice and get a shield."

"Fine." I scanned the rack and took out a descent shield.

Meg sighed and returned to the bow to its place.

"Fine," she said. "But you'd better have my back."

I had never understood that expression. It made me think of the KICK ME signs Artemis used to tape to my toga during festival days. Still, I nodded and strapped the shield to my back for now. "Your back shall be had."

We reached the edge of woods where a small going-away party waiting for us: Will and Nico, Paolo Montes, Malcolm Pace, and Billie NG, all with grim faces.

"Be careful," Will told me. "And here."

Before I could object, he placed a ukulele in my hands.

I tried to give it back. "I can't. I made an oath—"

"Yeah, I know. That was stupid of you. Especially since you knew you were going to the Labyrinth that day," Will said. "But it's a combat Ukelele. You can fight with it if you need to."

I looked more closely at the instrument. It was made from Celestial bronze—thin sheet of metal acid etched to resemble the grain of blond oak wood. The instrument weighed next to nothing, yet I imagine it was almost indestructible.

"The work of Hephaestus?" I asked.

Will shook his head. "The work of Harley. He wanted you to have it along with this." Will handed me a large jar of gray gunk.

I opened it a whiff of the must disgusting corpses and rotting food hit me, forcing me to close it.

"What the H- is that?" I responded.

"Myrmekes Gunk," Will said. "It repels monsters and cover scent of even a child of the big three."

Memories of me hearing about Myrmekes gunk came to my mind. Even on mount Olympus the creation of this pungent gunk reached our ears, but I never imagine it stinks this much though. And the coloring—Aphrodite always complain how it can make anything look ugly, and now that I see it up close, I can see how it does just that.

"You don't have to smear it on you," Will reassure me. "Leo discovered if you burn the gunk it increases the scent several times sending the scariest monsters running. I should warn you; we haven't been able to restock on supplies for a while and that's the last batch we been able to make."

Well that is reassuring. Still, having a natural monster's repellent sound like a good idea.

Nico handed me some ambrosia wrapped in napkin. "You might need it." He glanced at Meg; his eyes full of misgiving. I remember that the son of Hades had his own ways of sensing the future outside of Delphi—futures that involves the possibility of death. I shivered and tucked the ambrosia and Myrmekes gunk in my coat pockets—separately. As aggravating as Meg could be, I was deeply unsettled by the idea that she might come to harm. I decided that I could not allow that to happen.

Malcolm was showing Meg a parchment map, pointing out various places in the woods that we should avoid. Paolo—looking completely healed from his leg surgery—stood next to him, carefully and earnestly providing Portuguese commentary that no one could understand.

When they were finished with the map, Billie NG approached Meg.

Billie was a wisp of a girl. She compensated for her diminutive stature with the fashion sense of a K-Pop idol. Her winter coat was the color of aluminum foil today. Her bobbed hair was aquamarine and her makeup gold. I completely approved. In fact, I thought I could rock that look myself if I could just get my acne under control.

Billie gave Meg a flashlight and a small packet of flower seeds.

"Some of them came from Garden of Persephone II," Billi NG said. "Just in case."

Meg seemed quite overwhelmed. She gave Billie NG a fierce hug.

I did not understand the purpose of seeds, but it was comforting to know that in a dire emergency I could hit people with my ukulele while Meg planted flowering plants left by late nature spirits.

Malcolm Pace gave me his parchment map. "When in doubt, veer to the right. That usually works in the woods, though I don't know why."

Paolo offered me a green-and-gold scarf—bandana version of the Brazilian flag. He said something that, of course, I could not understand.

Nico smirked. "That's Paolo's good-luck bandana. I think he wants you to wear it. He believes it will make you invincible."

I found this dubious, since Paolo was prone to serious injury, but as a god, I had learned never to tur down offerings. "Thank you."

Paolo gripped my shoulders and kissed my cheeks. I may have blushed. He was quite handsome when he was not bleeding out from dismemberment.

I rested my hand on Will's shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll be back by dawn."

His mouth trembled ever so slightly. "How can you be sure?"

"I'm the sun god," I said, trying to muster more confidence than I felt. "I always return at dawn."

…

Of course it rained. Why would it not?

Up in Mount Olympus, Zeus must have been having a good laugh at my expense. Camp Half-Blood was supposed to be protected from severe weather, but no doubt my father had told Aeolus to pull out all the stops on his winds. My jilted ex-girlfriends among the air nymphs were probably enjoying their moment of payback.

The rain was just on the edge of sleet—liquid enough to soak my clothes, icy enough to slam against my expose face like glass shards.

We stumbled along, lurching from tree to tree to find any shelter we could. Patches of old snow crunched under my feet. My ukulele that both hang on my back as the sound hole filled with rain. Meg's flashlight beam cut across the storm like a cone of yellow static.

I led the way, not because I had any destination in mind, but because I was angry. I was tired of being cold and soaked, I was tired of being picked on. Mortals often talk about the whole world being against them, but that is ridiculous. Mortals are not important. In my case, the whole world really was against me. I refused to surrender to such abuse. I would do something about it! I just was not quite sure what.

From time to time we heard monsters in the distance—the roar of a Drakon, the harmonized howl of a two-headed wolf—but nothing showed itself. On a night like this, any self-respecting monster would've remain in its lair, warm and cozy.

After what seemed like hours, Meg stifled a scream. I heroically leaped to her side, hand on my Kopis. At Meg's feet, wedged in the mud, was a glistening black shell the size of a boulder. It was cracked down the middle, the edges splattered with a foul gooey substance.

"I almost stepped on that." Meg covered her mouth as if she might be sick.

I inched closer. The shell was crushed carapace of a giant insect. Nearby, camouflaged among the tree roots, lay one of the beast's dismembered legs.

"It's a myrmeke," I said. "Or it was."

Behind her rain-splattered glasses, Meg's eyes were impossible to read. "A murr-murr-key? Wait as in that gunk stuff Will gave you?"

"Sort of. Myrmeke are giant ants. The gunk came from carcasses and rotten remains from their nest. We must be close to a colony somewhere in the woods."

Meg gagged. "I hate bugs."

That made sense for a daughter of the agriculture goddess, but to me the dead ant did not seem any grosser than the gunk Will gave me, or the piles of garbage in which we often swam.

"Well, don't worry," I said. "This one is dead. Whatever killed it must have had powerful jaws to crack that shell. Will said the Myrmeke been acting up lately, this could be related to why."

"Not comforting. Are—are these things dangerous?"

I laughed. "Oh, yes. I am amaze any demigods been able to sneak into a nest. They range in size from as small as dogs to larger than grizzly bears. One time I watched a colony of Myrmekes attacks a Greek army in India. It was hilarious. They spit acid that can melt through bronze armor and—"

"Apollo."

My smile faded. I reminded myself I was no longer a spectator. These ants could kill us. Easily. And Meg was scared.

"Right," I said. "Well, the rain should keep the Myrmekes in their tunnels. Just do not make yourself an attractive target. They like bright, shiny things."

"Like flashlights—or a glow of a celestial bronze sword?"

"Um…"

Meg handed me the flashlight. "Lead on, Apollo."

I thought that was unfair, but we forged ahead.

After another hour or so (surely the woods were not this big), the rain tapered off, leaving the ground steaming.

The air got warmer. The humidity approached bathhouse levels. Thick white vapor curled off the tree branches.

"What's going on?" Meg wiped her face. "Feels like a tropical rain forest now."

I had no answer. Then, up ahead, I heard a massive flushing sound—like water being forced through pipes… or fissures.

I could not help but smile. "A geyser."

"A geyser," Meg repeated. "Like Old Faithful?"

"This is excellent news. Perhaps we can get directions. Our lost demigods might have even found sanctuary there at one point!"

"With the geysers," Meg said.

"No, my ridiculous girl," I said. "With the geyser gods. Assuming they're in a good mood, this could be great."

"And if they're in a bad mood?"

"The we'll cheer them up before they can boil us. Follow me!"

A/N: Besides Catch-88, there is another reason getting what is needed from Myrmekes Hill for Myrmekes Gunk be difficult, and if you remember from the original The Hidden Oracle, you can probably guess what that is. If not, I'll be coming to that in a later chapter. But yeah, the fact Will gave Apollo their last supply of Myrmekes gunk is why it hasn't been brought up until now, even with the Three-Legged Death Race through the Labyrinth.

In case some of you forgot, along with Percy's thermos, the Myrmekes gunk was another creation of mine for The Tales of series.