Previously:

I looked at my hand for a moment, contemplating my next move. I figured I needed to find answers. As of right now I knew two things, the ring on my hand was the same one from the dream, and the man on the black throne, was my father.

Chapter Three

I walked toward my moms apartment complex, my head full of questions. As I climbed up the stairs I saw the door to my moms apartment slightly open, which confused me seeing as how my mom was never this careless. I opened the door slightly to see Grover pacing in my living room with a worried expression, muttering. In the kitchen my mom was on the phone talking frantically.

Grover noticed me walk in first. "Oh my god, Percy your alive!" He said happily and relieved. Before I could say anything I was tackled by my mom in a tight hug. "We were so worried." She said almost crying. "I'm so glad you're safe." I hugged her back because honestly, wether or not my dad was a god I was happy to see her.

"I'm glad too see you too mom, but right now we need to talk." I said, getting straight to business. "There may not be much time."

My mom looked at Grover for a second and seemed to find out what I wanted to talk about. "I understand," she said, "we should sit down."

My mom sat down in a chair and me and Grover sat down on the long couch. "So what do you want to know, Percy?" My mom asked, already knowing the answer.

"I want to know about dad, who he was, where he is, and how you met him." I said.

"I'm sure Grover has told you already but Percy, your father, was a god. To be more specific...The god of death, Thanatos." She paused for a second. "Wow" I breathed. I had heard about Thanatos before, he was death itself in the Greek world, the one who collected spirits and led them to the underworld. "I know it may be hard to believe but I met your father shortly after my uncle died. He understood my pain and comforted me in my time of need. He emphasized with me. He also brought me you, the best thing that has ever happened to me." She said with a slight smile.

"As of right now, he must be doing his duty's as all gods do. I haven't seen him since the month you were born." She said. "But the fact that you have that," she pointed at my ring. "Means that he may want to contact you. That ring was a gift that was left by your father for protection. But it wouldn't activate without the will of your father."

"So what should I do?" I asked, confused on what to do with this information. "I want you to contact your father." She said. "Wait, what? You want me to go meet dad?! Where would I even find him?" I asked.

"Maybe not your father directly because as I said he is a very busy man, but someone associated with your father." She said. "As for where, you should probably start with the gazebo in Central Park, that is the last place I saw your father."

"Ok..." I said trying to process everything. "But what will you do?"

"I will try to contact Camp Half Blood, a place where you will be safe from monsters." She said.

"Wait, why haven't I heard of this place if I would be safe from monsters?" I asked.

"Percy if you'd had gone to-" She didn't get to finish her sentence as the door burst open. From it emerged Mrs Dodds and two other kindly ones. Mrs. Dodds wore a cruel smile on her face. Perseus Jackson, if have escaped me fro too long. If I had my way you would be dead where you stand. But a certain someone wants you alive, lucky for you. But know this, you have till the summer solstice to find the stone, till then I will be taking her!" She said as she summoned a fiery while and wrapped it around my mom. She pulled her closer and flew out the window.

"No!" I screamed as me and Grover rushed outside." I looked to see the fury flying around the corner, my mom in tow.

I dropped to my knees, stricken with grief trying to comprehend what I had just witnessed. My mom was gone.

After a minute, Grover spoke. "Percy, it's ok."

"No it's not, I just saw my mom be kidnapped by a demon!" I yelled. "We have to go after them."

"No! We can't, didn't you hear what the kindly one said, we have to find the stone she was talking about." Grover said.

"What, why?" I asked

"Because if she took your mom that means she is probably using her as a hostage, otherwise she probably would've killed her on the spot. If we find the thing she was talking about." Said Grover.

"Ok, but what stone is she talking about? It can't just be any random rock?"

"Your right but I think I have an idea of what to do." Grover said. "Remember what your mom said about the gazebo, how your father would contact you then. Maybe we could ask him for help."

"Ok, but the kindly one said something about finishing before the solstice. When is that?" I asked.

"Twelve days, not a lot of time for a quest so we should make the most of our time." Said Grover. "We should probably set out for the gazebo immediately."

"All right," I said shakily, "let's go."

We set out for the nearest bus stop. Our plan was to use the bus to get as close as possible to the gazebo. And then to walk the rest of the way through the woods. We felt that we should avoid walking seeing as how it would give monsters a chance to catch up to us

Once we arrived to the bust stop Grover spoke. "So Percy, what did you do after you left me at the bus stop earlier." He asked. "Oh uhh sorry about that, but I walked into the park to clear my mind. I had a couple weird dreams." I said. "The first one was my father telling a ghost to look after me if he couldn't. The second one was of a my dad and mom and me. It was at the gazebo that we are going to, the last place my mom had seen my dad. That's when he gave me this." I said pointing to my ring.

I decided to leave out the part about the threat my dad was facing seeing as how it probably wasn't important to the current situation and would only worry Grover more. "Hmm," Grover thought for a moment." Maybe we are going to see the ghost you dreamt of at the gazebo. Maybe that's why you hade those specific dreams. But I'm confused as to why I've never seen you with that ring before and why it only appeared now.

"Oh, well it appeared after I woke up and there was this massive brown dog in front of me. I took it off and it became a scythe." I said, somehow forgetting to mention this earlier.

"You killed a hellhound without training? Well I guess that explains the cuts and tears in your shirt. But I'm surprised you were able to do that." Said Grover.

"A hellhound, huh, they sure were scary. But I was only able to do it because my weapon cut through it with ease." I said.

"Well magical weapons will do that. They'll cut through monsters and godly beings like it's nothing. But they have no effect against mortals. They're just not worthy enough for a blade to care for them." Grover said.

"I would like to see the weapon but a bus is not a great place to pull out a weapon, even with the mist." He said.

"The mist?" I wondered?

"It's the thing that obstructs magical things from mortals, transforming mythical things into something they can understand. That's why that bus driver didn't react to hitting the kindly one, probably just thought it was a raccoon." He said.

"Oh," I said. "Grover you seem to know a lot about the Greek world, are you a demigod.?"

Grover chuckled a bit before he replied. "Nah, I'm no demigod. I'm just a satyr, half human half goat." He said lifting his pant leg a little bit to reveal a hairy leg. "Satyrs like me were born for finding half bloods and leading them to safety."

"So why are you on this quest with me? Shouldn't you be trying to take me to Camp Half Blood?" I asked.

"Well part of my mission is to keep you safe, and we can't ignore a summons from your father so staying with you is the best way for me to protect you. And also because your my friend Percy, and I'll stick with you till the end."

"Thanks Grover." I was glad to have someone to count on through all of this crazy stuff happening.

"No problem." He said as the bus came to a stop.

"Well we better get going." He said as he started to get up.

We got off the bus stop and headed into Central Park. I didn't know exactly where to go. All I knew was that the gazebo was surrounded by dead trees in the middle of a forest. "Grover, I don't exactly know where to go." I said. "Don't worry I may be able to use a little bit of satyr magic to find the place." He replied. He opened a pout he from his pocket and pulled out an acorn. "Surrounded by dead trees you said?" I nodded.

"Alrighty then." He said as he crushed the acorn. He spread it out a bit and muttered some sort of chant. After a little bit he spoke. "Hmm I haven't found any dead trees per say, but I found some dead roots in the ground. Wanna check those out? He said.

"Yea, I guess if it's the only lead we have." I replied.

With that I followed Grover into the woods. There seemed to be a lack of wildlife in this area witch I guess was a good sign if your looking for dead things. We went deeper and deeper into the forest till we found something a bit confusing. It was a gazebo but instead of being surrounded by dead trees, it was surrounded by little tree saplings.

"This is the place." Grover said. "Hmm, I guess they cut down the old trees and replaced them with newer ones." I pointed out. "I guess that would explain why only the roots were left." Grover added.

I proceeded to walk forward towards the gazebo before turning back to Grover. "I think you should stay back for this. Just in case something happens, y'know." "Alright, just be careful." He said.

I walked up the steps wearily, expecting the get jumped by a ghost or anything, but there didn't seem to be anything else present. I stood in the middle waiting for someone to appear. "Hello?" I said to the darkness. After a second I saw something shimmer in the moonlight. In an instant appeared a ghost.