Chapter 2 - I Have Blue Cookies (and Milk)

The dreams made no sense, as usual. I honestly don't know why gods can't just write you a to-do list or something. No, instead, we get omens and portents and get generally confused and muddle along and hope we don't make anything worse. But ever since the gods went silent a month ago, the dreams changed. Now, they were never full messages. Just bits and pieces. The Grand Canyon, a giant Greek trireme, a golden horse, Percy. Then dark. When I woke up, I may have cursed a lot in ancient Greek. Thankfully, the three half siblings who were here slept like the dead. They were fairly new - they would learn to sleep lightly, half-bloods always do. When I got up, it was light out. Barely. I went to search Percy's cabin. Nothing. Again. I picked up his sweatshirt and put it on. It was big on me, but it made me feel a bit better.

Soon, the other campers were up and we all ate breakfast. After breakfast, Chiron announced that all activities were cancelled. Everyone was to begin searching for Percy, and we would meet back up for lunch. Chiron split up groups again, making sure everyone got a new place to look. I went up to him, as everyone was leaving.

"Chiron," I started, "I want to go to New York. See if I can get to Olympus. Talk to my mom. Maybe she can help."

I could see in his eyes that it was doubtful. A month ago the gods had gone silent, no messages, no visions, no Christmas cards. Mr. D was even called back to Olympus, which doubtless thrilled him to no end. I had been barred from finishing the work I had started on redesigning Olympus. My ID card just wouldn't buzz me in anymore. But Chiron nodded, slowly.

"Annabeth… it's… a long shot." He said with a sigh. "But at this point…. I think it is worth a try."

I went to my cabin and packed a quick bag - just the basics. My knife, a canteen of nectar, a couple foil-wrapper bars of ambrosia, my invisibility cap, you know, your normal day bag. At least for a demigod. Argos came to knock on my door.

"Hey Argos. I'll take Blackjack. Keep looking for Percy, if you don't mind."

He nodded, looking upset.

"Is there… something else?"

He shook his head, then pointed to a photo of Percy on my nightstand.

"You're worried about Percy?"

He nodded, looking sad.

"We'll find him! He'll probably be back at camp before I am."

Argos smiled faintly, nodded, and went off to join the search. As I walked to the pegasus stables, everywhere I looked someone was looking for Percy. Calling his name, asking if he was ok. The Apollo and Ares cabins had been discharged to check the myrmekes' cave, and most of the others were scouring the woods. It made sense, it was most likely that Percy would be wounded and in the woods somewhere, attacked by some monster. But it made me worry. Percy bore the Curse of Achilles now. He should be invulnerable. So what kind of monster could wound him or take him away?

I found Blackjack, nervously pacing in the stable. I explained to him what was happening, and that we were going to try to go to Olympus. I wasn't sure whether he understood or not, since unlike Percy, I have no ability to talk to horses. But he let me saddle him and ride him to the city. We touched down in an alley that looked fairly deserted but close enough to the Empire State Building. I walked in, trying to look normal. I went to the elevator, inserted my ID card and waited. No button appeared to get me to Olympus. Nothing happened. No movement, no sign from the gods. And I'll admit it. That's what broke me.

I sat there, in the middle of an empty elevator and cried. I tried to be as quiet as I could. There might be mortals outside, waiting for the elevator. But I cried with the fear, the worry, the anger at the gods. Everything came out all at once. After a while, I got back up. Because that's just what demigods do. We might fall every once and a while, but we stand up and keep going. We just… have to. We don't really have any better options. So I left the building and headed back to Blackjack.

"Hey buddy. Uh, no, it didn't work. But I need you to take me somewhere besides camp first, ok? I need you to take me to Sally Jackson's apartment."

When I knocked on the door, I honestly wasn't sure what I was going to say. But when Percy's mom opened the door, I did what came naturally. I hugged her, and didn't let go.

"Annabeth, wha-" Then I squeezed her too tight for her to answer. After a minute, I let go.

"Uh, sorry."

She was trembling a little. "Does that mean bad news or no news?" Oops. I hadn't realized she might take it that way. I shook my head. "It means I don't know any more than yesterday and that I hate not knowing and that I might have just had a slight breakdown in an elevator at the Empire State Building."

For a mortal, Percy's mom was sharp as a tack. Heck, she was sharper than most gods I knew. She nodded gravely. "I talked to Rachel, she doesn't know anything either. She tried to contact Apollo but didn't get an answer. She said she is going to try to look as well and that she will come to camp as soon as she can."

I nodded, but I still felt sick inside. After the war with the Titans, we were supposed to have it easy. That was the deal. We had done our part, now we got a break. At least for a decade or two. I must've looked like I was on the verge of another breakdown so Sally Jackson sat me down and fed me blue cookies and blue milk.

"The, uh, milk. That's new."

She smiled at me, sadly. "I was trying to bake the cookies yesterday, to keep my mind off of it. I accidentally added the food color to a lot of things I didn't mean to. Paul had blue coffee this morning." I laughed. It was a small laugh, but I let it happen. I needed it. I talked with Sally about everything we could think of to keep our minds off of Percy's disappearance. But finally I told her I needed to head back. It was almost lunch, and I had promised Chiron to be back to report. She nodded and gave me another hug. I could tell one of us was trembling, but I was no longer sure which one. As we pulled away, she asked me, gently,

"Annabeth, could you… could you try to keep me updated? To stay in touch? I know its dangerous, but-"

"I will." I promised it, and so easily.

She smiled at me. "And if you ever need a hug, or someplace better than the floor of an elevator to cry, you can always come to me."

I nodded and pulled her back to me for a last hug. Then I headed back to Blackjack and flew back to camp.

When I got back to camp I realized I was a bit late. I ran straight to the dining pavilion for the lunch meeting. Every eye turned to me. I couldn't say it, so I simply shook my head. Everyone looked back at their food, disappointed. I looked around. I kept thinking of the time we were all sure Percy was dead, only to have him crash his own funeral. Yep, the dude has a sense of humor like that. I wanted to make sure he wasn't waiting in the bushes or something for a grand entrance, but I could tell that wasn't the case.

I slumped onto my seat at the Athena table. My other three siblings caught me up on all the places they had searched. I nodded, listlessly. If Percy wasn't at camp, and I had a pretty good idea now that he wasn't, then that left two bad possibilities - a monster or a god. Neither was really better. A monster had taken him to eat, or kill, or torture or something, or a god had taken him for a quest. Either way, it would be almost impossible to find him. I had to hope that he was smart enough and strong enough to get out of whatever situation he got himself in. After lunch, Chiron sent all the campers off for some free time and rest. Grover and I stayed behind.

"Chiron, we need to expand the search. Outside of camp."

Chiron nodded gravely. "Yes, child, I fear we must. However, I will not sent campers to search."

I was about to interrupt when he silenced me with a look and continued, "We can contact Thalia, she and the Hunters know more places where he may be." I nodded, slowly. That made sense, even if I wanted to be out there personally, hunting for Percy.

Grover piped up, "That's a good idea. I'll send out messages to the nature spirits. Maybe Percy got put to sleep by Morpheus or something. Surely my nature spirits can find him."

Relief flooded me. Grover was right - nature spirits were everywhere. They would be able to find him. Grover was a Lord of the Wild, able to command all the nature spirits to help in the search.

An idea caught me. "I'll call Tyson. Maybe if Percy is on some kind of quest for Poseidon, he will know."

Chiron nodded. "Yes. Good. You call Tyson and Thalia. I will see if I can contact my brethren centaurs. Perhaps they can also be useful in a search."

I wasn't sure the Party Ponies would even be able to stay on track long enough to help, but hey, at this point, I wanted every single person in the world to be looking for Percy. I wanted him found and I wanted him found right now.