I would love to say I had some deep revelation while I was tumbling through the air. I understood what I was truly grateful for, came to terms with my mortality, laughed in the face of death and all that jazz. But in truth, my only thought was,

'AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH'

To be fair to me, I didn't have much time to think anything else; a few seconds later, I made contact with the water. A whiteout of bubbles filled my vision and I felt my body sink below the surface.

I closed my eyes as I landed in the silt, preparing to be whisked off to the Underworld. Nothing happened. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was still lying on my back in the river. I pushed myself up into a sitting position. The poison had vanished, my burns had all disappeared. A catfish sailed past me through the silt and bumped lightly against my leg.

I realised I was breathing. I was breathing underwater. I touched my clothes and they were completely dry.

'No way,' I thought. I grabbed a burger wrapper from the silt and it dried up. I picked up a lighter and flicked it. A small flame sparked into life. "No. Way." I touched the flame to the burger wrapper then it caught fire. As soon as I let go the flames spluttered out.

I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs were shaking. I should have been dead. The very fact I wasn't was, well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice that sounded a bit like my mother saying, 'Percy, what do you say?'

"Um... thanks," I muttered into the murky water. "Thank you, father."

No response. Just the drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish swimming by and the sunset glancing off the surface.

The catfish bumped idly into my leg. I gave it a little pat and, surprisingly, it didn't swim away.

Why did Poseidon save me? The more I thought about it the more ashamed I felt. Luke was right. So what I'd been lucky a few times before. Against something like a chimaera, I had no chance. We'd been so lucky to have survived this long with so many of us. Those people in the Arch were probably toast. I wasn't a hero, putting innocent people in danger. I couldn't protect them. Maybe I should just stay down here in the silt with the bottom feeders.

I heard the churning of a riverboat above as its paddlewheel churned the silt.

There was a glint of light and there, not five feet in front of me was my sword, its bronze hilt sticking up out of the mud, the little sunlight there was down there reflecting off it.

I heard the voice again. "Pick up the sword, Percy. Your father is proud of you." I know I hadn't imagined it this time. It seemed to be all around me.

"where are you?" I called.

And suddenly, there she was. Her ghostly form hovered above my sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.

A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"

No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.

"What?"

It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.

"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who-how did you-" There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.

I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts...

Her voice faded.

"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"

She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.

I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning. Your father believes in you, she had said.

She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.

I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.

"Thank you, father," I said again to the dark water. Then I kicked up and swam for the surface.

I came up next to a floating McDonald's.

about a block away, every emergency vehicle in St Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead and the crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Kid pointed at me and said to his mother, "That boy just climbed out of the river."

"That's nice, honey," she said distractedly as she craned her neck to try and see the ambulances.

"But mummy, his dry!"

That's nice, honey."

I walked towards the crowds, trying to look for Grover and Annabeth.

"-probably not a terrorist attack," a reporter was saying. "Though it is still early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is extensive and we are trying to get to the survivors to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the family and the park ranger had made it out alive.

I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

"-adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "CCTV footage shows what appears to be an adolescent boy going crazy on the observation deck and somehow causing the explosion."

I backed off, keeping my head down, and began making my way around the crowd. Police officers and news reporters were everywhere.

I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Grover and Annabeth when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrrrcy!"

Grover tackled me in a hug. "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

I saw Annabeth standing behind him. She was trying to look mad but she could barely keep the relieved smile off her face.

As soon as Grover let me go, she pulled me into her own hug. "I'm glad you're ok, Lady Seaweed Brain." When she pulled away, a grin worked its way onto her face. "Seriously, we can't leave you alone for five minutes."

"I... sort of... fell," I admitted, scratching the back of my head self-consciously.

"Percy. 630ft!?"

"Gangway!" a police officer called out and the crowd parted. One of the dads from the Arch was being wheeled away on a stretcher. "And there was this big dog. This huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"

"It's ok," the paramedic interrupted. "Calm down. You're family is safe. The medicine is kicking in."

"I'm not crazy. The boy jumped out of the Arch and the monster disappeared." He made eye contact with me for a second. "That's him. That's the boy!"

I grabbed Grover and Annabeth by the sleeves and dragged them away, keeping my head down and disappearing into the crowd.

"Was he talking about the Chihuahua in the elevator?" Annabeth asked.

I explained everything about Echidna and the chimaera and the lady in the river.

"We've got to go to Santa Monica," Grover said. "You can't ignore a summons from your father."

I thought back to what Luke had said. 'Never trust a god.' And the river-lady had said, 'don't trust the gifts.' I knew I had to be careful. But Grover was right. I'd have to go, whether I wanted to or not.

"Percy Jackson." I was brought back to reality when I heard a reporter say my name. "That's right Dan, the description of the boy who is believed to have caused the explosion matches the description of the boy who is wanted by the New Jersey police for questioning about the bus explosion a couple of days ago and the disappearance of his mother a few months ago. And he is heading west. For the viewers at home, here is a picture of Percy Jackson."

"But first," I said. "We need to get out of here."

Somehow we managed to make it to Amtrack station without getting spotted. Although there were some close calls. We got a funny look off a pretzel vendor who was reading the newspaper. Annabeth quickly pushed me behind her and we rushed away pretty quickly. But eventually we made it to the train and scrambled on just as it was about to leave.

"That was close," I said as we pulled Grover's shoe out of the door.

Annabeth hummed in agreement. We showed our tickets to the conductor and found an empty compartment to sit in. After the stress of the day I was exhausted and pretty quickly I was lulled to sleep by the steady trundle of the train and collapsed on Annabeth's shoulder.