Chapter 16: An eagle, an owl, and … a flying goat boy?

POV: Annabeth

A few minutes later, all of us were dry again and we were on our way to the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. A slight manipulation of the mist would make sure the driver wouldn't remember anything but a bunch of kids talking about video games.

Not that it would be a problem, considering we were seated in a shuttle van that could hold thirteen people. We had the luck to catch something that was actually big enough because I didn't particularly care for an hours-long uncomfortable ride all the way to Los Angeles. It would probably be a lot more complicated to actually get one of those than to simply sit down as we had done, but one of the casino cards should be enough to repay any kind of damage we might have done with it. Not that I had an idea for how long they would actually work or where exactly you could even use them.

We had left the front seats empty, and I was sitting next to Percy, Grover, and Bianca behind us, as Allapsar and Nico had taken the back row seats immediately.

Bianca took a deep breath, before slowly exhaling.

"Ok, tell me please, what's going?" she asked. "What just happened, you were there looking for us specifically, right? Nico and I. Why?"

Grover was grumbling unhappily.

"Yeah, I would love to know that myself," he mumbled under his breath.

I gave a quick glance to Percy, wondering what he had told them. As he had been there when they had been told last time, I decided it would be best, for now, to let him handle it.

"The game Nico is playing, Mythomagic," Percy began, "what would you say if I told you those myths it is based on are actually true? That everything from it actually exists."

"Cool!" Nico immediately said.

Bianca furrowed her brows.

"I want to say you are nuts, but somehow I feel like I am having a déjà vu," she admitted, giving me a strange look, almost as if my presence felt out of place for her. She started rubbing her temples.

"Ok, let's say I believe you, what exactly does that mean," she finally asked.

So, while Percy, with the help of Grover, started explaining to them, I chose to stay silent instead and observe for now. They explained about the gods, about camp and monsters. Nico grew more and more ecstatic the more he learned, but Bianca's reaction was… strange, to say the least.

At one point she gave me another strange look, right after Percy told them about the dangers of monsters like that information reminded her of me in some way. I got the feeling I was missing something here.

I could see that she accepted what she heard as truth, but after a while, her eyes stayed glued on Nico. He luckily was too distracted to even notice because her gaze was filled with terror and pain.

I wasn't the only one attentively studying her reaction and what he saw made Percy take a thoughtful look on his face.

"Demigods also sometimes have dreams," he said testily.

The reaction was immediate. Bianca first froze, then her head whirled around, a piercing gaze directed at Percy now.

"Dreams?" she asked in a small voice.

Percy nodded giving me a quick glance, and I now had a good guess what this was about. Could this be possible?

"They give us insight, hints about what is happening or might come to pass. And they warn us from danger or could tell us where to find somebody," he explained. "It is best not to ignore them, though you need to be guarded of that nobody is trying to manipulate you with them."

"Can you change something you see in them?" she asked her voice slightly quivering.

"Yes," I answered now, my mind razing, trying to figure out how much she had seen. Was it only a common demigod dream, or something more? She clearly had seen something at least, but it didn't seem as if she had her memories from last time like we had, or had she? No, she would have reacted differently to the information, but it didn't mean she hadn't at least dreamed about something from it.

Bianca closed her eyes, and I could see her visibly relax. For a while, nobody said anything else. But Nico and Allapsar seemed to get bored quickly and they started playing Mythomagic, with Nico explaining the rules to her.

I was only listening with one ear, but the game actually sounded like a good way to teach younger campers about the strengths and weaknesses of monsters without boring them. I decided to put it on my list for things to look into when we returned to camp.

"Better now?" Percy asked Bianca after a while.

She gave him a grateful smile. "Yes, thanks."

"Was that why you thought we looked familiar?" he asked, glancing to Nico and then lowering his voice. "Talking about it helps, you know? It gives you other perspectives, things you might have missed."

"I don't really know. We had been sleeping, and when I woke up today… I think I had a nightmare," she answered after a moment of hesitation, looking confused and unsure. "At least I think I had. I don't know, it was different? I can't really remember much of it though. Mostly feelings as if… I really don't know… Only..."

Bianca was biting her lip, lost in thought. Grover seemed in deep thought too. I could see him glance between me and Percy, then at Bianca, an idea clearly forming in his head.

"The one thing I clearly saw, was Nico crying. I didn't know why in the beginning, and I wanted to comfort him, take him in my arms. But when I tried, I just passed through him and he couldn't even hear me," she whispered, tears starting to flow down her cheeks. "I- I don't know how I know that, but I think I died somehow."

Without saying anything I offered her a tissue. She gave me a grateful smile, blew her nose, and used her arm to wipe her tears away. I gave a quick glance, but the children in the back were too immersed in their game to have heard our whispered conversation.

"I spent the entire day watching Nico thinking about it. Then you arrived. I couldn't remember anything in specific, but I had the feeling we had already met sometime before. I felt… safe near you. I think in my dream you had been trying to protect us and were trying to find Nico to help him."

"That's why you trusted us and agreed to come with us," Percy said, and Bianca nodded.

So, Bianca did indeed remember what had happened the last time. Not like Percy and me to have actually lived through it, but she did see it in her dreams. Sure, she didn't seem to consciously remember much of the dream itself, but it did influence her subconsciously. The only thing left to find out was why she remembered.

Themis had told us that while for us it really had happened, as far as the world was concerned, it had been nothing more than an overly realistic prophetic dream Percy and I had shared. She had also said she would be able to repay us for every time we helped those who are disadvantaged.

Was this her way to repay us? Before we fell asleep, Percy and I had talked about how we miss our friends, how we wished they were here with us. Was this her way of saying, that they still were? Kronos was sending dreams to influence demigods to join him. Was Themis letting them see some of what happened if they do join him? To prevent mistakes they made?

"So, do you have any idea who your goldy parent is?" Grover asked loudly, pulling me out of my thoughts and attracting even Nico and Allapsar's attention. "Now that the lotus smell has started to disappear, I can tell that your scent is strong."

"Hades," Bianca immediate answer, and the certainty in her voice surprised even herself.

If somebody had said that at camp the reaction would have been anything but raucous. Luckily there was no chance for an awkward silence to build up, as Nico started to happily jump in his seat. "Really? That's so neat. He is the Lord of the Underworld and dead guys, right? His abilities…"

I tuned the rest of his ramblings out, distracted by the crestfallen look Allapsar was showing.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, interrupting Nico's word-vomiting.

She was looking down and I couldn't hear her mumbled reply. It was Percy who must have realized what was wrong and answered my question.

"We do have a guess who your godly parent is," he told her gently.

Her reaction was instantaneous. "Really?" she asked, her eyes full of hope.

Of course, I had totally forgotten that we hadn't shared that information with her yet. Then again, we still weren't totally sure of her. Her relation to Poseidon was practically a safe bet after she had shown she could talk to horses. It was her relation to my mother we were unsure about. Having two goldy parents should make her a goddess herself, but there were cases where such a child had been mortal instead. It usually involved a curse, or… a broken oath. So, it was possible, but not something we would reveal just like that.

"Remember when we talked to the zebra on the truck? That's something only children of Poseidon usually are able to do."

Yes, there was little risk to reveal her father to her. He himself might end up in the line of fire for breaking his oath multiple times though.

"Does that make you my brother?"

Percy smiled kindly at her. "You know what? When we reach Los Angeles I need to talk with a nereid, so why don't you come with me and we can check if we're right. But even if it isn't the case, I'll always treat you like a little sister, if you want."

There were now two jumping children in the backseats, already deep in another discussion, this time about their godly parent. What Percy had said, had been really nice, but I could tell that after Tyson, the thought of having younger siblings had really grown on him.

"Right," Grover said, shaking his head. "We are going to clear Poseidon's name and find his daughter, now that we are on our way to the Underworld to deliver his Helm of Darkness, we find his children. We found three children of the Big Three within a few days from each other, after there had been none for half a century. Totally normal phenomenon. Now we're only missing a few children of Zeus."

By now he seemed to be completely done with being surprised and had decided to just accept all the strange things happening. But his last comment reminded me of Thalia. I wondered how he would react to her being revived.

And while I felt sorry for Grover, what he pointed out was a good point. It really was dangerous. With how fast we were moving right now it wouldn't pose a problem, but as soon as we reached Los Angeles we would have to be on guard.

"Just one request," he added. "Can we hurry to the Underworld and then home, so I can retire? It was already bad with one or two of you, but I don't particularly fancy being close to four children of the Big Three on a quest, you know?"

"Is that bad?" Bianca asked unsurely. "Being his child, I mean?"

"Not really," Percy answered. "Only that we have a stronger scent than most, which means there are going to be more monsters attacking us. But we are also normally a lot stronger than other half-bloods and have useful abilities, so it really balances itself out."

"And well, there is the fact that your fathers swore an oath not to have mortal children anymore. So what Grover meant is, that it is surprising to even find one, much less so many in such a short time," I added, and then gently pointed out another problem they would have. "But we don't even know how long you were trapped in there, so it's possible you were actually born before that, you know?"

After that, there was an unspoken agreement not to talk about this topic again for the rest of the ride. We did answer all of Nico and Bianca's questions – they seemed to take it a lot better than I would have assumed – in regard to what had changed since they had been imprisoned in there.

PJ & AC

At sunset, the taxi dropped us at the beach in Santa Monica.

"Why don't we split up now and meet up here," I said. "That way there are not all of us in the same place. While Percy and Allapsar go meet with the Nereid, we can try to find a way to contact Chiron. I would really like to give him an update."

Mostly to make sure he kept an eye on Luke. I would have preferred if we had done that after the waterpark, but I had totally forgotten back then. The truth was, there was a risk that he would try something before we returned to camp, now that it was obvious that we were aware of Kronos' interference.

Percy and me being the only ones with knowledge of what was going on already posed a problem. We just couldn't be everywhere at once. Maybe telling Grover as Percy had hinted was a good idea. And we probably should share information with the other councilors.

After a little bit of searching, we finally found a fountain we could use without attracting too much attention, but there was not a lot of daylight left, so we had to make this short. We really should look into a better way to do this.

"Chiron, Camp Half-blood," I said.

We were lucky, because having his back turned to us, stood Chiron in front of his stereo. If Chiron was going to listen to his music, there was no way anybody would stick around. And I really didn't want anyone to eavesdrop on this conversation.

"A centaur!" Nico exclaimed. "So cool!"

Chiron turned around. He looked tired but had a relieved smile upon seeing us.

"I'm Chiron, my child. And Annabeth, Grover my dears. I'm so relieved to finally hear of you," he said, his eyes traveling over Nico and Bianca, a hint of worry still left in his face when he didn't spot Percy among us.

"They are fine," I answered the silent question, "the two are talking to somebody at the request of their father. Those two are Nico and Bianca, we just met earlier today."

Chiron's eyes widened. He knew about the girl we had freed in Medusa's and I knew he understood my subtle hint of who her father was.

"But what do you mean finally hear from us, hasn't Luke told you that we called?" I asked, pretending to be confused. "You were busy with some kind of problem last time and he answered for you."

Chiron raised one of his brows. "He seems to have… forgotten. Could you fill me in?" he answered, clear suspicion in his voice.

Yeah right, as if somebody can "forget" to inform Chiron about information of an ongoing quest. Especially if that specific quest was the first one in years and something of that importance.

I quickly filled him in up to the point of the water park, only leaving out our run-in with Nike and Victoria.

"That is not good," Chiron said, looking deeply troubled. "If the titan lord is already powerful enough to influence even Ares…"

"That's not all," I said, "Ares revealed that he only took it from the true thief, who is still at camp right now. It had to be somebody who was on Olympus that day. Somebody who would know what he is doing."

Chiron seemed to age in years, looking at me with sadness in his eyes. He seemed to have understood that it had most likely been Luke. I gave him a quick shake of my head and a strained smile.

"Not to worry, my dear, I will keep my eyes open," he said kindly, stroking his beard. "But it is better to keep this quiet for now. It would do no good to voice suspicion without any proof. The situation at camp is quite fragile right now."

Most of our conversation had gone straight past the others listening, only Grover seemed to have a rough understanding of just how much had gone unsaid just now, though he clearly had no idea who the spy would be.

"What happened?" Grover asked, clear worry showing on his face.

"Well, the Hermes cabin was slightly put out about a certain event that happened. As happy an event it is supposed to be," Chiron offered.

I had to think for a moment what he meant when it hit me.

"It worked?" I asked.

Chiron smiled. "Quite so. They are at the infirmary at the moment until we found a solution for their lodging."

Right, the Hermes cabin would be appalled upon hearing there would be so many people joining them at once. That reminded me about one piece of information Percy had filled me indiscreetly on the ride.

I told Chiron about the Lotus eater and that we suspect there to be other demigods among them.

"You should probably send satyrs over to check it out," I advised.

"Ah, yes, I will do that," he said with a tense smile, and in a bad attempt to switch topics he added, "Now you better start moving again and deliver the items. I have to say, I am really proud of you and wish you luck for the rest of your journey. Please relay it to Percy as well. But even so, stay careful in the Underworld."

"Not to worry, Chiron," I told him. "I'm sure everything will go fine when we go and meet Nico's and Bianca's father. See you soon!"

And with that I cut the connection, inwardly laughing at his dumbfounded expression.

A little bit later, we had returned to our meeting place again, finding the other two already waiting. Seeing Allapsar's dazzling smile there didn't seem to have been any problems and she did have her confirmation whose child she was.

We ended up taking the bus into West Hollywood just like last time, but this time I knew where we had to go. The location of the entrance to the Underworld wasn't something easily forgotten after all.

Yet, we hadn't been on the bus for long when Nico attracted all of our attention. "Hey look! There is a bird following us!"

He was right, there was a small bird flying next to the bus, but it wasn't just any bird.

It was an owl.

A little owl.

"That's my mother's owl!" I exclaimed. "We have to get off. Right now."

We were in luck as we had reached the next stop just now, so we didn't need to draw unwanted attention by hijacking the bus. But we had hardly left the bus, when the owl already shot down the street again, only stopping at the next crossroad, indicating to follow.

"It's trying to lead us somewhere," Grover said. "We better follow."

We ended up getting lead on a wild chase through the streets of Los Angeles, following a bird that simply flew over any hindrance, yet barely gave us enough time to keep up. But much worse than being out of breath was, that what was happening reminded me too much of my recent dream to be comfortable with. Something was going to happen; I just didn't know what yet.

I looked back to the others, noting that only Percy seemed to still be able to keep up with my tempo, but I knew that wouldn't be for long, as he hadn't trained for long enough to have a lot of stamina.

Grover had different problems, namely running in shoes. The other three had fallen further back already, and if we didn't stop soon, we would leave them behind.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have looked back while running.

I painfully slammed with my hip into an obstacle I had overlooked and started staggering to the side.

I would have fallen too, had a hand not grabbed me by my shirt and forcibly pulled me back. A good thing too, or I would have been run over by a speeding car shooting down the street just now, looking like nothing more than a black shadow.

"Thanks," I ground out. "It-"

The rest of what I wanted to say was lost when another black shadow shot past us, but this time there wasn't a car accompanying it.

"What was that?" Percy asked, but I was already looking up, just in time to see a silhouette of something really big against the darkening sky.

I opened my mouth to answer but was interrupted again, this time by honking, followed by a crashing sound from the direction the car and shadow had disappeared to. The direction the owl was heading to, as well.

Grover had already passed us, but when I took the next step, pain shooting up my leg and it buckled, forcing me to fall to my knees.

Seriously? That just had to happen right now.

Percy stopped giving me a worried glance, but there were more important things right now than looking after me.

"Go already!" I growled at him.

He hesitated only for a moment before he gave me a sharp nod and he went after Grover. I pulled out the bag from my pocket breaking off a small piece of ambrosia. That had to be the stupidest reason for having to take some, that ever happened to me.

The others came to a stand next to me. "Are you ok?"

I grimaced but nodded, nonetheless. "Can you help me for a moment?"

Bianca helped me up and I tentatively put my leg down again. There didn't seem to be anything broken and the pain was already dulling, but it would still take a few minutes until I would be able to painlessly walk again.

Another crashing sound told us that it had to do for now.

With Bianca helping me, we followed after Percy and Grover. When we finally reached what we had been looking for, I could immediately see what the first crash had probably been. The car that had shot past us, had crashed against the traffic lights while rounding the corner.

As for the second crash…

There was a gigantic eagle sitting on top of the car, squashing it under his weight. Which wasn't surprising the least, considering that the eagle was bigger than said car. Absently minded I noted that all of the other cars were driving around the accident, completely ignoring what was happening. But a lot more important was the eagle itself.

With its beak, it was busy snapping after Grover, who was hovering around its head, attempting to hit it with what looked like the bumper of a car. Percy meanwhile was attempting to sneak up on it from behind.

The eagle seemed to have noticed him though because one of its wings moved to strike him. Percy ducked, the wing harmlessly passing over his head, only to end up easily slicing through the traffic light. Both Percy and Grover blanched and retreaded further from it.

I had to think. I couldn't risk letting Nico and Bianca and Allapsar get closer without any weapon, let alone without any kind of training. My knife wouldn't be of much use either, and looking closer at its bronze shimmering feathers, I doubted that that bumper would do much damage to it either.

That left Percy and Riptide, but how would he get close enough to use it?

The decision was taken out of my hands though when the eagle rose to the air and went after Grover. It seemed as if Grover's buzzing around its head was more annoying than Percy, or maybe it just felt insulted by his flying.

"Woah!" Grover shouted, diving to the side to dodge its launch.

Alright, change of plans. Get the people out of the car and find a way to escape it is. My eyes fell at the car looking like a crushed tin can. If there were any survivors at all, I amended.

We hurried over to Percy who seemingly had the same thought as I and had already started to try to pry the driver's door open with Riptide but had little luck so far. I studied the way the doors were dented, and at what point we would possibly have the best bet for it to work and couldn't help but grimace. It likely would be impossible without any specialized tools, as part of the roof had folded around the doors, jamming them completely.

I could only see inside parts of the front of the car, the driver seat clearly occupied and the shotgun seat empty, but I couldn't make out anything more than that. The middle of the car, where the eagle's main weight had landed, showed deep claw marks and was deeply pushed in. I had still hope for the driver, though could only hope nobody had been sitting on the back seat.

The only thing undamaged was the trunk, which wasn't of much help at all.

"That won't work Percy," I told him.

Percy looked up grimacing. I could tell he felt as useless as I did.

"Which one is that?" he asked, pointing at the eagle. "It looks familiar?"

I followed his gaze, seeing Grover dodging all of the eagle's attempts at him so far, his makeshift weapon already nowhere to be found.

"The Caucasian Eagle," I answered easily enough. "Zeus sent it as punishment to the chained Prometheus."

"Right, the one that picks his liver. I now remember where I saw it," he said. "It was in that prophecy."

Inwardly I cringed. That wasn't a good thing. And the problem was, Grover was flying above it and didn't look like he was able to get past it again.

"Grover needs help," Allapsar shouted at us, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You have to do something!"

"We can't," I answered miserably. "There is nothing we can do to help him."

And it was the truth. There was nothing we could do, not with the weapons we had at hand, and not against a flying foe. All we could do was watch and pray to the gods that Grover would be alright.

But the gods didn't seem to be in a helpful mood, because above us Grover set for another dive, only to get intercepted by the eagle again. My breath caught in my throat when he ended up only barely being able to doge.

At least that was what I thought, but he suddenly started tumbling in the air, his flight becoming erratic.

"No!" somebody screamed, and I wasn't even sure who it was.

Grover didn't seem to be able to control his movements any longer. With a terrified scream, he fell, the eagle coming from under him, and I was sure that any moment now he would get engulfed by it whole.

Then suddenly there was a thud behind us – something hitting the metal of the car – followed by the hoot of an owl and a small blur shot past us. The three figures met in the air and I lost sight of the smaller two, Grover's scream cutting off abruptly.

For a terrible long moment, I wasn't sure what had happened.

Then two somethings were tumbling to the ground, but neither were big enough to have been Grover. The owl flew off again, the eagle's beak far off its mark. Only, there was still no sign of Grover and fear started to grip my heart.

Then Bianca shouted, "There!"

The eagle turned further, going after the owl now, and I too could see what she meant. Grover was clinging to the eagle's back.

The eagle seemed to realize his blind passenger too and didn't seem to be very happy about it. It started to wildly twist and turn, trying to shake him off, but Grover clung tightly to its feathers. The owl was seeing this as her cue to go on the offense, diving for the eagle's head.

Now it was the eagle's turn to give an indigent cry. Hadn't the situation been so dangerous, I might have even laughed. The image just looked too ridiculous. A little owl picking after a gigantic eagle's eyes and a boy with cloven hooves clinging to its back.

None of us moved, standing there just staring at the sky. I couldn't say for how long it went on, but it seemed as if the owl and our goat boy were slowly winning. Grover had used the eagle's distraction to slowly start climbing up its back and was now clinging to its neck. I didn't know what he was trying to do, but it was fascinating to watch.

We got pulled off our stupor only when the eagle landed a few minutes later, right in the middle of the crossroad, forcing cars to swerve in an orchestra of car horns. We immediately went for our weapons, but the strange thing was, there didn't seem to be any need.

The eagle seemed pacified for some strange reason, Grover sitting on its neck waving his hand at us as if nothing happened. There was no sign of the owl. I hadn't even seen when it had disappeared.

"What just happened?" Bianca asked flabbergasted.

I couldn't even do that much, feeling as if I had just missed some key information even though I had watched the entire thing. This was even worse than after the Nike incident.

Grover slid down the eagle's neck, and after what I guess to be a quick conversation with the eagle it flew off again, disappearing in the sky.

A moment later a blur crashed into Grover and he found himself on the floor with a crying girl clinging to him. Nico was a step slower to start bombarding him with questions and shouts about how cool that was.

My eyes met Percy's in a silent question. He just shrugged his shoulders, returned Riptide to its pen form, and went over to talk to him as if nothing even mildly entertaining had happened.

For once I decided I rather follow Percy's lead of simply going with the flow of things, rather than try to seek answers.

Bianca was just staring at all of us as if we were mad.

But there was something else that took my attention now. There was still the situation with the car. There was nothing we could do to help, but now that the mist was lifting, I hoped that help would arrive soon and that us fighting off the eagle would have been enough.

Then my eyes fell on something I remembered to have ignored earlier, in favor of watching what happened in the sky. Before the owl had appeared again, there had been a sound behind us, and now I saw what it was.

There was an open book lying on top of the trunk of the crashed car. Its Greek letters giving an explanation to a picture showcasing a sword move. I immediately realized where I had seen this book before. It was in the dream I had until now assumed to have only been a warning for the eagle. In hindsight, I should have known better, but I had been too distracted worrying over the situation with Grover.

A heartbeat later the book landed on the floor, and I had broken the trunk open.

Uncomprehending I stared at the sight of the unconscious but still breathing girl in the trunk.

The girl that was still wearing the same things she had in my dream.

The girl that looked like Thalia.

AN: Like always, thanks a lot for your reviews. Always happy to read them.

Next time: Children aren't objects!