As much as I don't want to say this, I was kinda disappointed when last update only got a few reviews. So once again, I would like to request more reviews. As much as I find people favoring and following the story to be very promising, I kinda personally think that reviews are a more meaningful kind of feedback. Others may think otherwise, but those are my thoughts. Just saying.
I Have A Dam Problem
Percy's POV
The tow truck ran out of gas at the edge of a river canyon. That was just as well because the road dead ended. Not to mention it meant I didn't have to sit on my butt any longer, which was getting sore and cramped up from sitting on it for so long. And it helped me put some distance between and Annabeth. Couldn't quite say the others were very happy about it though. Especially when Thalia got out and slammed the door, one of the tires immediately blew.
"Great. What now?" Thalia asked agitated.
I scanned the horizon. There wasn't much to see. Desert in all directions, occasional clumps of barren mountains plopped here and there. The canyon was the only thing interesting. The river itself wasn't very big, maybe fifty yards across, green water with a few rapids, but it carved a huge scar out of the desert. The rock cliffs dropped away below us.
"There's a path, we could get to the river." Grover said.
I tried to see what he was talking about, and finally noticed a tiny ledge winding down the cliff face.
"That's a goat path." I said.
"So?" Grover asked.
"The rest of us aren't goats, dumbass." I continued.
"We can make it, I think." Grover said.
I thought about that. I'd done cliffs before, but I didn't like them. If it involved ice like with when we fought the Erymanthian Boar, it'd be no problem. Just some more ice skating to me. Then I looked over at Thalia and saw how pale she'd gotten. With her problem with heights, she'd never be able to do it. As much as I could care less, I wasn't in a position to listen to Grover.
"No, we should go farther upstream." I said.
"But—" Grover tried.
"A walk won't hurt us. Now get that fury ass of yours moving before I drop kick the shit out of it" I said.
I glanced at Thalia. Her eyes said a quick "Thank you". I just gave one nod and started walking. We followed the river about half a mile before coming to an easier slope that led down to the water. On the shore was a canoe rental operation that was closed for the season, but I left a stack of golden drachmas on the counter and a note saying, "IOU two canoes".
"We need to go upstream, but the rapids are too swift." Zoe said.
"I got it." I sighed as we put the canoes in the water.
Thalia pulled me aside as we were getting the oars.
"Thanks for back there." Thalia said.
"Don't let it go to your head." I commented.
"Can you really . . . you know?" She nodded to the rapids.
"I may not be on pleasant terms with my father, but I'm not disowned by him. Not yet at least." I said.
"Would you take Zoe? I think, ah, maybe you can talk to her." she asked.
"She's not going to like that, nor will I really." I commented.
"Please? I don't know if I can stand being in the same boat with her." Thalia practically begged.
It was about the last thing I wanted to do, but on the other hand, I'd prefer her company over Annabeth and Grover. Thalia, maybe, but I don't know. So, with a sigh, I nodded. Thalia's shoulders relaxed.
"I owe you one." Thalia offered.
"Seven." I corrected.
"What're you talking about? How do I owe you seven?" Thalia asked.
"1. Getting the Golden Fleece so you wouldn't be just a tree anymore. 2. Keeping you from being killed by the Stymphalian Birds when we were riding in Apollo's chariot. 3. Ending the Hunt's winning streak for you like how you wanted it to end. 4. Keeping you from becoming a scratching post for the Nemeon Lion back at the Museum. 5. Keeping you on thick ice so you didn't get ran over by the Erymanthian Boar. 6. Having us go elsewhere rather than the cliff Grover wanted us to go so you wouldn't worry about your fear of heights. And 7. Actually, riding with Zoe for you when I don't even want to." I explained.
"You can't be serious." Thalia said.
"Look at me and tell me if I'm joking." I challenged.
She just looked at me for a moment before she turned and helped Grover get their canoe into the water. As it turned out, I didn't even need to control the currents. As soon as we got in the river, I looked over the edge of the boat and found a couple of naiads staring at me. They looked like regular teenage girls, the kind you'd see in any mall, except for the fact that they were underwater.
"Hey." I offered.
They made a bubbling sound that may have been giggling. But I wasn't sure. I had a hard time understanding naiads.
"We're heading upstream, could you . . . ?" I started.
Before I could even finish, the naiads each chose a canoe and began pushing us up the river. We started so fast, Grover fell into his canoe with his hooves sticking up in the air, which I found pretty funny.
"I hate naiads." Zoe grumbled.
A stream of water squirted up from the back of the boat and hit Zoe in the face.
"She-devils!" Zoe went for her bow.
"Don't even think about it." I said getting my pen out.
"Cursed water spirits. They've never forgiven me." Zoe said in a defeated tone, slinging her bow back over her shoulder.
"Forgiven you for what?" I asked.
"It was a long time ago. Never mind." Zoe answered, her gaze turning to the pen in my hand with a pained expression.
There was nothing but silence for a little while after that. We sped up the river, the cliffs looming up on either side of us along the river were getting taller. Long shadows fell across the water, making it a lot colder, even though the day was bright. I was happy to enjoy the silence, that is until I noticed Zoe's pained gaze towards my pen hadn't gone away. Feeling the need to put an end to that, I just decided to speak at this point.
"You made this." I stated.
"Who told thee?" Zoe asked.
"I had a dream about it actually." I answered.
She studied me. I was sure she was going to call me crazy, but she just sighed.
"It was a gift. And a mistake." Zoe said.
"Who was the hero?" I asked.
"Do not make me say his name. I swore never to speak it again." Zoe said and shook her head.
"I feel like I should know him, somehow." I commented.
"I am sure you do, hero. Don't all you boys want to be just like him?" Zoe asked in a bitter tone.
"That depends on who you're asking. You familiar with the phrase "Don't judge a book by it's cover"? If not, then you might want to learn it. Because by making assumptions without legitimate proof, you only succeed in making a complete ass out of yourself." I answered.
Zoe seemed a bit shocked about my answer but didn't let it show for very long.
"A son of a water god is proving to be unusual company." Zoe commented.
"You say that as if you're a daughter of another deity involving water." I stated.
"Yes, Pleione. She had five daughters. My sisters and I, the Hesperides." Zoe clarified.
"The girls who lived in a garden at the edge of the West with the golden apple tree and Ladon guarding it. I thought there were only four." I said.
"There are now. I was exiled. Forgotten. Blotted out as if I never existed." Zoe explained.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I betrayed my family and helped a hero. You won't find that in the legend either. He never spoke of me. After his direct assault on Ladon failed, I gave him the idea of how to steal the apples, how to trick my father, but he took all the credit." Zoe answered, pointing at my pen.
It was at that moment I figured out who she meant.
"The hero was Hercules." I stated.
Zoe was about to say something when the canoe started slowing down. I looked ahead, and I saw why. This was as far as the naiads could take us. The river was blocked. A dam the size of a football stadium stood in our path.
"Hoover Dam. It's huge." Thalia said.
"Well I'll be damned." I said to myself.
We stood at the river's edge, looking up at a curve of concrete that loomed between the cliffs. People were walking along the top of the dam. They were so tiny they looked like fleas. The naiads had left with a lot of grumbling, not in words I could understand, but it was obvious they hated this dam blocking up their nice river. Our canoes floated back downstream, swirling in the wake from the dam's discharge vents.
"It's seven hundred feet tall, five million cubic acres of water, and the largest construction project in the United States. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives." Annabeth stated.
"This ain't an after school special Annabeth." I commented.
Annabeth looked hurt by that comment, which she knew was me saying that no one cared.
"Let's go." Zoe said, bringing this conversation to an end.
We had to walk for almost an hour before we found a path that led up to the road. It came up on the east side of the river. Then we straggled back toward the dam. It was cold and windy on top. On one side, a big lake spread out, ringed by barren desert mountains. On the other side, the dam dropped away like the world's most dangerous skateboard ramp, down to the river seven hundred feet below, and water that churned from the dam's vents. Thalia walked in the middle of the road, far away from the edges. Grover kept sniffing the wind and looking nervous. He didn't say anything, but I knew he smelled monsters. Annabeth was in state of "shock and awe", clearly enjoying the chance to be on her favorite monument. Zoe and I just remained as our usual selves for the most part.
The whole time, I was having a lot on mind, and gripping my pen in my pocket. With how things have been for this quest so far, I didn't like any of this. I would've been surprised if we didn't encounter any monsters here. Another thing that I really hated was the fact that it was already Wednesday, only two days until winter solstice, and we still seemed to have a long way to go. We've been delayed quite a bit already with how many monsters encounters we've had so far; we didn't need anymore. And the worst part about all of this is that the longer all of this took, the longer I was away from Clarisse, and that was adding a lot of fuel to the fire of my anger towards all of this.
"There's a snack bar in the visitor center." Thalia suddenly said.
"You've been here before I take it?" I asked.
"Once. To see the guardians." She answered, pointing to the far end of the dam.
Carved into the side of the cliff was a little plaza with two big bronze statues. They looked kind of like Oscar statues with wings.
"They were dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built. A gift from Athena." Annabeth said.
Tourists were clustered all around them. They seemed to be looking at the statues' feet.
"What are they doing?" I asked.
"Rubbing the toes. They think it's good luck. Mortals get crazy ideas. They don't know the statues are sacred to Zeus, but they know there's something special about them." Thalia answered.
"Well, as Tommy Lee Jones said: "a person is smart, but people are stupid.". I replied.
"Who's Tommy Lee Jones?" Zoe asked.
"No one you'd know, that's for sure." I answered.
"Then let us find the dam snack bar. We should eat while we can." Zoe said.
"The dam snack bar?" Grover asked, cracking a smile.
"Yes. What is funny?" Zoe asked confused.
"Nothing, I could use some dam French fries." Grover said, trying to keep a straight face.
Annabeth and even Thalia smiled at that.
"And I need to use the dam restroom." Thalia said.
"Some dam souvenirs would be nice to have." Annabeth said.
"I do not understand." Zoe said, not getting any of this.
"When you said "dam", you made it sound like you were saying the cuss word "damn". And that's what they're doing right now to." I explained, not laughing or smiling one bit with how I didn't really find this funny.
"I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said.
"And . . . I want to buy a dam T-shirt." Thalia said laughing.
"Then we better get to the dam store." Annabeth said laughing.
I just remained how I was. I swear a lot and say a lot worse than just "damn", there was no reason for me to laugh really.
"Why aren't you smiling to Percy?" Grover got out.
"When I spit in the eyes of the goddamn gods, then I'll smile." I answered irritated.
That got everyone to settle down pretty quickly.
"Percy, are you okay?" Thalia asked.
"I will when this dam quest is over." I said and then started walking away.
"Where're you going Percy?" Grover asked.
"Getting away from all of you. I can only handle so much bullshit at once." I answered and just left them where they were, not looking back at them.
I walked to the north edge of the dam and looked over. I just stood there, not really paying attention to anything or anyone. I was just happy to finally get some peace and quiet, but disappointed that it couldn't last. But my peace was interrupted when I heard what sounded like a cow.
"Moo." I heard.
I looked around to try and locate the supposed cow I heard, but only ever saw people around me. I was about to just assume that the stress was getting to my head and I was starting to go crazy when I heard the sound again.
"Moo." I heard again.
I looked down in the water and saw a creature that looked like half a bull and half a serpent. She was about thirty feet below in the lake, but I could see her clearly. I looked around. There were groups of kids running along the dam. A lot of senior citizens. Some families to. But nobody seemed to be paying the creature any attention yet. I then looked back down at the creature that was underneath the water and noticed it seemed like it was in a state of panic. I then noticed that it was under a net down there. It was trying to get free from it, but didn't seem to have any luck in getting out of there.
Looking around to make sure no one was paying any attention to me, I jumped into the water and swam down. I went over to the creature that was trying to free itself. When the creature noticed me, it stopped squirming. It was a little weary of me when I was next to it.
"How'd you end up here?" I asked.
"Moo!" It said.
I had no idea what it was trying to tell me exactly. I could communicate with horses and other sea creatures, but this one I was not able to communicate with at all. I couldn't read it's thoughts or hear anything from it other than "Moo!". Even though I didn't know why with how I've never really seen or heard of a creature like this, I somehow had a feeling that I should know this creature somehow. But I was gonna waste time in dwelling on that later. For the time being, this creature was trapped and needed help getting free.
"Alright, hold on. I'll get you out of here." I said as I got out my pen and uncapped it so it could turn into my sword.
The moment the creature saw my sword, it started to thrash around even more than before and even seemed to be wailing at a louder volume.
"Woah. Hold on. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to cut the net so I can get you out of here." I said, trying to assure the creature that I meant it no harm.
But it did no good. It still wailed and thrash around in a very frantic and panicked manner. I was starting to wonder if this thing could even understand a single word that I was saying even, or not. But either or, the sword was scaring it, which made the option of cutting the net not acceptable.
"Alright, alright." I said as I put my sword away.
"See, no sword on my hand now. No reason to feel scared or threatened by me." I said with my hands raised in front of me, empty.
The creature began to settle down, but was still trying but failing to get out of the net it was trapped in. So I went straight to untangling it section by section, getting lead weights and fishing hooks straightened out, yanking out knots around the creature's hooves. It took forever though. It really made me wish I would just go right ahead and use my sword, no matter how much seeing it would freak the thing out. The whole time, I kept trying to talk to the creature, telling it that everything was okay while she just mooed and moaned. And still aside from the animal noises I kept hearing from it, I still had no idea what it was telling me.
"It's okay, Bessie. Good cow. Nice cow." I said.
Don't ask me why I started calling her that. It just seemed like a good cow name. Not too mention I've never encountered this creature before, so it's not like I'd be able to come up with a more appropriate name for it. What better job would anyone else do really?
Finally, the net came off and the creature zipped through the water and did a happy somersault.
"Moooo!" The cow serpent that I named Bessie nuzzled me and gave me the big brown eyes.
"You're welcome." I said, petting its head.
It leaned against my chest and nuzzled her whole head against it. I just sat down on the underwater floor, petting the cow-serpent's head with one hand and rubbing its side with the other as I held the creature in my arms. We were like this for probably quite a few minutes. I didn't know really. As I was holding the creature in my arms and petting it, I couldn't help but think of Clarisse, and the baby I put in her. As I thought about those two in my mind, I couldn't help but picture a cute little baby with sea green eyes in my arms in the creature's place. My mind was picturing me holding a son. My son. Clarisse and I didn't know if we were expecting a boy or a girl. Not that anyone at camp would be able to tell us anyways. But we were both expecting a healthy child, and me holding Bessie in my arms had me becoming all the more eager to have our child born.
After a while of just sitting down, holding, and petting Bessie, she eventually stopped nuzzling against me and started looking and around and sniffing. She seemed like she was trying to locate something her senses were picking up.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"Moo!" Bessie went, though I still couldn't understand what she was trying to tell me.
The only thing I could get was her tone seemed urgent, like she was trying to warn me about something. She got out from my arms to swim in a circle and butted her head against mine.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
She looked at me with her sad brown eyes. Then she gave one more urgent "Moo!", did a flip, and swam away.
I hesitated. Something was wrong. I knew she was trying to tell me that. I just didn't know what or why. I considered just following her. It definitely would've been better company for me than Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, and Zoe. That's for sure. But then I tensed. The hairs on my arms bristled. I felt my own sensing kicking in and alerting me about something. I had no idea what was coming, but I intended to deal with it so I could get the rest of this quest finished ASAP. So, I rose up and began to ascend back on dry land.
Quick question: Is the Hoover Dam a goddamn? Because I thought by being here, I was gonna end up having a dam problem, maybe even a damn dam problem. But it would seem like I was wrong. I might have a goddamn dam problem. Pun intended.
Sorry to keep you all waiting. Despite how I'm still employed and working, my hours have been pretty random overall. It's been driving my nuts and pissing me off to say the least, making it harder for me to write and even plan my updates. It's been making it hard to get a decent sleep to. I'll update again whenever I can, and I'll have something up or my other stories and one-shots as soon as I can. Thank you and enjoy your reading.
