Chapter 20: HP

It was hard to let Annabeth go. But we were so close to their camp. She would've died without the assistance. Minimal medical supplies and without knowing where exactly they would be going... An infection wasn't unlikely.

This is why I like magical camping while adventuring so much better!

Compared to the small town we had first stopped in, Prussia was much bigger, not as big as London or New York, but big enough to easily find a taxi without having to schedule one in advance. Which, in our case, was helpful.

The taxi Percy hailed, was, in all descriptions, unique.

He tossed a drachma into the road while shouting "Stêthi, Ô hárma diabolês!"

How sane are the people I am with?

But the coin sunk into the ground like smoke, but instead of rising into the air, it faded into the ground.

Moments afterwards, after lots of strange looks from fellow pedestrians, I didn't want to know what they saw through the Mist, a taxi appeared from the ground.

This... World, had to be either insane or very, very backwards.

We crammed inside the car, four to a backseat wasn't comfortable, but we made it work.

Percy tossed another drachma at them which they grasped, the coin being tossed between their hands greedily, bouncing into the air.

Finally, one of them spoke.

"Perseus Jackson," she said, but his name sounded as if it was being spoken by a snake, the 's"s in his name being drawn out. I looked at him, but he didn't seem worried, more relieved. "This is very far outside our range of service. Why did you call us?"

I almost threw up at their reptilian voice, if we had to deal with that for the entire trip to wherever Delphi and Rachel would direct us to... Rachel looked like the most sane person in our quest so I decided to ask her my question.

"Are you sure they aren't monsters?" I whispered to her.

Apparently, even if they only had one eye and one tooth, they still both had two perfectly good ears on each of their heads.

"We are the Gray Sisters, Harry Potter. We delivered Jason, we delivered Perseus, curse him!" The one in the middle spoke. That was when I noticed that they were crammed into one, large front seat, not three separate ones.

"What did Perseus do?" Delphi asked, almost shouting.

The car had suddenly become chaotic as the one on the far right began shouting directions, "Left on 68! Right on 71!" and so forth.

Still, the one in the middle spoke, "I am Wasp, she is Tempest, and her, she is Anger. Perseus was looking for Medusa, the cause of all our problems, Perseus, Hercules, bah! He hit me, whacked the eye out of it's socket, took it, demanding her location. Then he threw it into the lake, the lake! Took us years, years to find."

The car accelerated suddenly and we were passing through Pittsburgh. How we had gotten there in minutes was alarming. Looking through the window, I saw that we were traveling at the speed of sound, darting past red lights, stop signs, and cars traveling at a normal speed along the roads. A glance at the speedometer showed the speed ticking higher and higher.

"We know where you need to go. The prophecy is clear. You must-" Suddenly, Tempest hit Wasp, and in seconds the front seat had become a free-for-all cat fight, they scratched, slapped, and bit at each other.

Then, as soon as it had started, it stopped.

Anger had slapped Tempest across the face, the eye flew out of it's socket and hit the back window of the car. Gooey ooze dripped down the window.

Then the silence was over and they were clamoring for it back, begging almost.

Delphi reached over to it and picked it up, pinching it between two fingers.

"What about the prophecy. Where do we need to go?" She asked, her voice level. The Gray Sister's attention snapped to her, and slowly Anger spoke.

"Give us back the eye and we can tell you dear." Was all she said.

"No. Wasp knew where we needed to go before. Where is it?" Delphi responded.

They bent their heads together, whispering. With their hands out of the way, I could see that the speedometer was still ticking up, at a much faster rate than before.

They broke apart and Tempest spoke.

"37*47'52.2"N, 122*28'21.6"W. That's where it is! Now give us the eye back!" Delphi tossed her the eye and the car screeched to a halt.

As soon as I stepped out of the taxi, I threw up. Luckily, we were on the side of the road, a long driveway stretched up to a farm house. A truck sat parked in the driveway.

"This is it." Rachel announced as soon as I was done. "A Delphi lives here."

We marched up to the front door, and rang the doorbell, prepared for anything.

Almost, anything.