Chapter 27: I realize the real hero was the horse

POV: Percy

Demigod dreams suck. At least the ones I have usually do. Though on the scale of weirdness I cannot even say where to rank this one.

For starters, I was flying over the ocean through a rampaging storm. A hurricane really.

All around me wind was howling, blowing black feathers into my face. It reminded me of Blackjack. I almost felt as if I could hear his voice too, how he would complain about deserving a hundred donuts after this.

Also, I was kind of on fire.

Now you would think all that wind and water would extinguish that pretty quickly, no? Yeah, tough luck. Turns out I was in the eye of the storm, and strangely, no matter which direction I tried to fly in, the edge didn't come any closer. It was almost as if the storm was moving with me; as if I was the center of the storm.

But that wasn't all. Do you know how in films whenever there is a tornado you often see that one cow getting sucked in and then getting carried around and around in the wind? I got that too, only they were dolphins and not cows, an entire shipload of them in fact. Including ship that is.

Now, normally I quite like dolphins, but not these ones because they were trying to shoot me out of the sky with some kind of net-throwing ballista. Which might just be the strangest part of it all, normally all aquatic animals just love me.

And as if that was not bad enough there were also giant tentacles rising out of the water, making a grab for both me and the ship. I would have fought them off with Riptide, wanted to fight them off, but somehow I couldn't find it.

Though maybe I was actually riding Blackjack because while he was clearly struggling, he still not only managed to withstand the storm but also to dodge the Kraken below us. The dolphins fared less well of course. Them being on a ship and all, and every child knew about ships and giant octopi. Not a good combination at all.

They cursed like the worst sailors, hurling profanities at me as they were forced to abandon ship or risk getting crushed. It was nice watching what's left of it getting pulled under the water.

That's about when everything started to shake. There was a loud explosion, a giant fireball, and lots of smoke. The last thing I saw were bits of tentacles flying everywhere before finally everything turned black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by a hammerhead shark drifting through the bedroom window. Yeah, definitely too tired to deal with that, I thought to myself, and just went back to sleep.

"Idiot."

At least I tried to, but my welcoming committee seemed to include a not at all amused Annabeth as well, which meant I was out of luck.

Well, at least I was pretty sure it hadn't been the shark insulting me in an exasperated voice, but then again, my memory was a little fuzzy at the moment and Annabeth's voice sounded mighty weird. Something told me I should recognize why that was, but I just couldn't manage right now.

Instead, I focused on what she had said. I wanted to complain about her being so mean when I just woke up but based on the way I felt as if I was still on fire, it was probably deserved somehow. Not that I remembered yet what exactly it was I had done to deserve it.

"Ugh, I feel like the time I blew up Mount St. Helens," I groaned.

"Really, what a coincidence."

Her tone made me cringe.

"Please tell me I didn't blow it up again?" I begged her.

And prayed, because that would just really suck.

"Well, no, you didn't blow up St. Helens," Annabeth said to my relief. Though that got kind of stuck in my throat when she continued. "What you did do was unleash a hurricane upon the Caribbean, blow up the highest mountain of the Netherlands and cause the evacuation of an entire island."

Maybe blowing up St. Helens wouldn't have been so bad after all.

I wanted to get a few words in on my own, defend myself somehow even if what she said made like zero sense. I had never been to the Netherlands after all. Of course, Annabeth didn't allow me to do either but started force-feeding me nectar instead.

By the time I was finally no longer at risk of drowning in liquid chocolate-chip cookies? Yeah, my mind still hadn't managed to get past that one, so I just had to ask, "Isn't the Netherlands in Europe?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me. "Right, because that was the most important part of what I just said. But for your information, seaweed brain, the Netherlands has special municipalities in the Caribbean too. And on one of them, the isle of Saba, the Netherlands' highest point stands in the form of an active volcano called Mount Scenery. Well, stood I should say, considering that you blew it up."

Well, that explained that at least. The Caribbean was far more believable. Not that I had any more clue what in Hades was going on.

"I mean seriously," Annabeth went on. "Sneaking out like that, do you know how worried I was? Then Blackjack came to Camp and-"

"Wait, wait, hold on just a moment, Blackjack? You do realize you're not making much sense here, do you? Are you feeling alright?"

Annabeth gave me another eye roll, pressing her hand rather ungently against my arm. An arm that was still quite sore from whatever happened to me, and I couldn't help but hiss.

Annabeth smirked. "I feel quite fine, thank you. And unless there is another black-feathered Pegasus with a love for donuts out there, I would assume it was him, yes."

I just stared at her. "Then where in Hades did Blackjack suddenly come from? I figured we would have to break him out of pony prison again first."

Annabeth raised a brow. "You're asking me? I might be able to breathe underwater now, but I still don't speak horse."

Huh, underwater?

Then I remembered the shark I had simply ignored earlier and sat myself up with a groan. I got a sense of déjà-vu when a gossamer sheet floated away.

Only now I recognized this as being part of my dad's palace, something I blamed on my still addled mind and whatever gave me those injuries. It also explained why Annabeth's voice had sounded off.

Right, so why ever would I be in my dad's palace? Unless…

"Finally remembering?" Annabeth asked bemused. "Looking out of the window might help."

I gave her a dirty look but pushed myself to the window… and stared.

There was an enormous monster corpse in the main courtyard below. Like an actual corpse. That wasn't something you see every day, even in the mythical world.

At least it gave my memory the shove it needed to work again, because how ever could I forget something that ugly - even if only temporarily - I really couldn't understand.

"Why didn't it disappear?" I wondered, turning back to Annabeth.

She shook her head. "It's your spoil of war."

My eyes widened to an impossible degree. "Everything?!"

Even as Annabeth confirmed, my mind was still reeling. But this thing surely was humongous. It was so much more than I had hoped for, so much more than I had needed. I should be happy, just…

"What's wrong?"

"Ah, it's nothing." When Annabeth just raised her brow at me, I gave a weak chuckle and elaborated. "Fine, it's just, I remember now facing that… thing, and then making a deal with one of my immortal sisters in a cave when I felt in way over my head. After that though… nothing. Nothing but a strange dream that even now doesn't totally make sense. It's just… it kind of feels like a letdown?"

"A letdown?" came the incredulous question.

I scratched the back of my head embarrassed. "Yeah, you know, I had what was probably a pretty badass fight against that monster but now it's just… missing." I tried putting my feelings into words. "It feels like I was robbed of something. Kind of disappointed, you know?"

I probably should have kept my mouth shut because I could see Annabeth's eye twitch. "Yes, how disappointing it must be not remembering blowing up volcanoes and destroying entire islands. It's a miracle that there seem to be no deaths at all, but poor little Percy doesn't remember being badass. The horror."

I cringed again. Right, now that she said it like that it did sound pretty bad and kind of self-centered of me. Ugh, maybe I should fake having hit my head because that made me sound how I remembered Hercules to have been, and that was the last thing I wanted.

No, wait, maybe I actually had hit my head?

"He's truly just like his father," an amused voice spoke from the open doorway. "Not thinking his actions or words through, then giving you that hurt-baby-seal-face when you scold him for it."

The woman who entered looked beautiful even in the simple white gown she was wearing. She was wearing the same strange little crab claw horns I remembered her wearing when I first met her. This was Amphitrite, my father's wife, which kind of made her my stepmother.

Her behavior caught me off guard for a moment. I remembered the cold look she gave me the last time I had been here, so unlike the one she was giving me now. And with Athena and Poseidon's relationship and having Annabeth here too… I would have expected this meeting to be rather awkward, not… this.

Because as she continued, she did so while giving us a gentle smile. "It is not thanks to a miracle though, but thanks to your actions, my dear."

But even more important than her change of behavior. With her arrival came the smell of freshly baked cookies, and this time it wasn't just boring old nectar. My stomach rumbled loudly.

I turned beet-red when Amphitrite gave soft laugh. Annabeth was rolling her eyes at me again too, though she too was wearing a fond smile.

Then when Amphitrite moved forward, my eyes went wide. Because they weren't just any cookies she brought, they were blue cookies.

"We thought you would wake up about now, and Annabeth told me you were fond of these, so I thought I would make you some."

She doesn't seem to want to kill me, and she bakes me blue cookies?

Best. Stepmother. Ever.

PJ&AC: TTD

By the time we had decimated most of the cookies, I refocused back on the situation. "Can I ask a question? Earlier you said it wasn't a miracle but thanks to me. What exactly did you mean by that?"

"I take it you don't remember then?" she asked, and when I shook my head, she gave a long-suffering sigh. "Whatever did I do wrong to be punished with these children of mine? They take far too much after their father. I raised them better than to encourage such behavior. It seems as if I have to remind them of that fact."

I raised a brow questioningly as Annabeth started to snicker.

"Well, let's just say Poseidon got… grounded," she said in between.

Grounded!?

Amphitrite gave an unladylike snort. "But of course. Really, the stupidity of that man. Making a twelve-year-old fight against a monster like Cetus. And then unarmed at that, giving you no other choice but to unleash your full power. The real miracle is that you somehow managed to win without turning yourself fully into seawater. And I can see my daughter encouraging such behavior, she was always an unruly child, but for Triton to act like such a child himself, really now."

She threw her hands up sounding totally exasperated. But then her eyes narrowed as she focused back on me. "Listen here, young man. You. Are. Only. Twelve. And no matter how much power you inherited from your idiot father, your body is still mortal and you can count yourself lucky your memory is the only thing you lost. You didn't know any better this time, but you will not use this power again until you are at the very least fully grown or you will have to answer to me, do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

She didn't have to raise her voice for a cold shiver to go down my back. That just now was kind of scarier than facing Kronos. But an immortal that actually realizes that we were... well, that we were not. How strange.

Her smile returned as if nothing had happened. "Good, then let's get back to your original question – and I must say I'm really proud of how you ruled in my little 'leia. To challenge her to prevent the deaths of mortals from the storm you unleashed was such an inspiring idea. I wish I had done that eon ago."

My first reaction was a rather eloquent, "Huh?"

Then I frowned, trying to get the meaning of her words from my patchy memory. I could still remember that nobody was allowed to interfere, so how?

No, wait, the idea behind it was that nobody was allowed to help me in my fight, but if she interfered by weakening what I was doing you could count it as her sabotaging me, couldn't you? Could that be what I had done?

Ah, whatever, I was just glad that what I had done hadn't ended up worse than it already seemed to be. And at least I was now forbidden from repeating that. I had more than enough from destroying the world anyway.

"But let me ask you, was this risk you took truly worth what you wanted? Why did you do it, my dear?"

"I- uh..." I scratched the back of my head.

It was a bit embarrassing to admit that I-

"Wished to give someone a gift. Someone special, or am I wrong?"

My eyes flickered into Annabeth's direction before I could stop myself, something Amphitrite didn't fail to notice, and I turned red.

"It was supposed to be a surprise…" I complained.

She sighed, though a smile played around her lips. "Like I said, just like his father. You will have your hands full with this one, my dear."

I glanced at Annabeth again. She looked like she wasn't sure if she should strangle me for doing something so dangerous or kiss me for being so sweet.

In the end, her gratitude won out and she finally flung herself around my neck. I tried to ignore the cooing sound my stepmother made at our… cuteness.

But that was just proving that asking for forgiveness after doing something stupid still was the way to go after all.

A loud giddy voice split the two of us apart only a moment later.

"A little shark told me my favorite brother is finally awake again!" it sang.

And swimming in with what I had to guess was the equivalent to skipping, came my probably least favorite sister so far, though to be fair, I only knew the two. It took me a moment to actually recognize her too. The last time she wore a smile that looked more like a grimace, not that childish happy grin she wore now.

I gave her a smile as well. "I-"

"You just have to take a look at this!" she interrupted, pushing a newspaper into my face.

I had trouble making out what it said, didn't get even past the title. It was enough for my smile to become strained anyway.

Freak Hurricane Kympoo-poo terrorizes the Caribbean!

"Did you see! I did what you said, and they named it after me! Now everyone knows to fear my name!"

Named it after…

I read the title again. Oh, right, that should probably mean Kymopoleia. That made more sense.

"Uh, right, I'm happy for you?"

I mean, what else was I supposed to say? She sounded just so happy and… full of life? Kind of adorable. You know, in a "destructive little toddler takes joy pushing over other toddlers' toy block towers" kind of way. At least as long as you were able to ignore that for her it wasn't just toy blocks but large-scaled coastal destruction she enjoyed.

She beamed at me. "Thanks! But now I understand why Kronos fears you. I would have never thought that making sure everyone survives makes people fear you more! You're just so smart!"

I could hear Annabeth give a snort, but I was more distracted by Kym suddenly floating forward and pushing herself between us before she settled right into my lap. "And so viciously unruly. I quite like that. So, when you talk with daddy about my marriage… you know, I wouldn't mind if it was you. You already did that much damage, just think how it would be once you're a god! Together we could wreak havoc across the entire world! We could overthrow our parents, rule the world! Wouldn't that be just great!"

…not adorable. Definitely. Not. Adorable.

And just because I destroyed Olympus and the world this one time didn't mean I planned to make a habit out of it okay? And marriage? I'd rather drown myself. Right after skinning dad alive and pushing him back down Kronos' throat if he ever even thought about it.

Maybe I should just write Kronos a letter and ask him if he'll take her back? With their entire world destruction dreams and all they were two of a kind anyway, and-

A terrible image flashed through my mind.

On second thought, I'd better keep them somewhere far, far away from each other. Maybe I should just open up a daycare for immortals. Where everyone can drop their crazy relatives so we can keep an eye on them.

"Kymopoleia, my dear," Amphitrite spoke up, causing my crazy sister to startle and jump off me.

She did that and the whirling around to face the voice so fast she even fell over herself. Then again, if my mother had used that tone of voice… boy would I know in how much trouble I am.

I would feel sorry for her, but I was definitely far too relieved at having been rescued from a fate worse than death just now to even care. Also, there was the entire world destruction thing and all, so she really kind of deserved it.

And even though outwards Amphitrite was smiling kindly, Kym was basically a shivering wreck of nerves. "M-mother! I-I did not see you there."

"Yes, quite understandable. You must have been so deeply worried. I could practically hear your relief in your little celebration just now over not having killed your poor little brother with your antics, darling."

"I, uh, yes… Yes! I even stopped doing something… really important and all, that I totally should go back to, like right away. If you excuse me?!"

"Of course, I understand if you are busy," Amphitrite said, at which Kym just nodded stiffly. She was almost out of the door and had just begun to relax again when Amphitrite continued though, "It's just, you never have time to even visit your poor old mother, and I would have just loved to see you again for a while. It has been so long since the two of us had any chance to have a long talk. But if you're so terribly busy I cannot in good consciousness ask of you…"

What followed was pretty much expected. Being faced with Amphitrite's guilt trip, there was absolutely nothing Kym could have said to talk herself out of it. But instead of facing her fate head-on, she fled the room.

Amphitrite gave us a wink, then stood up too. "I'll be going then too; I have a wayward daughter to collect. And don't worry, Percy, I will make sure your father fulfills this promise in a way that does not end in yet another disastrous marriage. We have far too many of those already on your father's side of the family, and I will not accept any marriage of you, except with the nice young lady right next to you. And take your time looking around and amuse yourselves while you're here, my dears."

And with those words, she disappeared too, leaving the two of us alone.

PJ&AC: TTD

We left to go sightseeing as soon as Annabeth had stopped teasing me about what happened. Which was probably only because at the moment she took more interest in studying Atlantis' architecture. It wasn't every day that you had the chance to visit that and Poseidon's palace after all. That Annabeth hadn't even left ever since she arrived spoke about how worried she had been.

As for Atlantis, it was pretty cool. There were all kinds of fish, octopi, and other sea creatures darting through the winding streets and even through windows. The gardens were filled with exotic sea plants I had never seen before. The only downside was that there were far too many people bowing to me for my taste. Only to then start giggling and gossiping behind raised hands as soon as we had passed. I decided I'd rather not want to know what they were talking about and tried to ignore it.

Most of the ones we passed were the merfolk I expected to find here again, and of course, there were quite a few cyclopes around as well. But there were also talking dolphins, what I figured had to be either nereids or oceanids, and I even saw a couple of centaurs. Of course, they weren't your typical centaurs, but more like what you'd get if they had a liaison with the hippocampi, which I was pretty sure was not the case. They were actually brothers of Chiron or something. Or at least some of them were, which made the others his cousins I suppose.

Their looks were finished by different colored skin – mostly tones of blue and green – and what had to be some kind of trend, because they all had a pair of crab claws similar to Amphitrite functioning as horns. They had a specific name too, though it wasn't a demigod-friendly one, so I couldn't remember.

We hadn't been out for long when we ran across familiar people.

There was my brother Triton standing to the side with my stepmother. And riding giggling on his shoulders was none other than Allapsar while the tiniest sea serpent I had ever seen was swimming around them.

Next to me, Annabeth gave a snicker. "She has him wrapped around her little finger already."

I must have given her quite a bewildered look because Annabeth rolled her eyes at me with a grin. "Don't look so confused, she's basically his granddaughter. The two of them completely doted on her the last few days."

Basically… oh, right, Triton had been the one to raise Athena.

As if she had heard us, Allapsar looked up, and with a loud excited squeal of, "Percy!" a tiny torpedo slammed into me with enough force to drive me back a few feet which only amused her more.

"So, I see you still live, brother."

I looked up at Triton, seeing an amused glint in his eyes.

"I'm not that easy to get rid of, brother."

We shared a grin. He wasn't so bad after all.

I turned to Amphitrite as she joined us with a gentle smile, though something I couldn't quite put my finger on was weird about her.

"Lord Triton, Lady Benthesikyme," Annabeth greeted with a bow. "It is good to see you again."

"It is good to see you as well, Annabeth," the woman, who looked like my stepmother but seemingly was not, said. "As it is good to finally make your acquaintance, Perseus."

I hesitated, unsure what I should reply. Frankly, I had no idea who she was, and my meeting with Kym was still in recent memory, as was the warning about not admitting you had no idea who you were talking to. Just in case of spontaneous evaporations.

Right, so her looks and all told me she was in some way related to me, though I couldn't quite place her name. Was she one of Amphitrite's sisters perhaps? It was possible, there were like forty-nine of them, so you couldn't expect me to know them all. But maybe she was her daughter instead, so one of my own sisters? How many immortal sisters did I have anyway? It was quite embarrassing that I didn't even know, though I was pretty sure there was at least a Rhode, but…

I must have hesitated for too long because I could see understanding pass over her face. Well, so much for that now.

Luckily, she didn't seem to be angry at all but gave me a gentle smile instead. "It is alright, I understand that you have not known of your heritage for long and I only play a small role in the history of the world, I prefer it that way. I'm Benthesikyme, the goddess of waves. Or if you prefer, I'm also known as Tritonis, wife of Triton. I'm your sister."

I gave a relieved smile. Hurray for people not knowing we were time travelers. And then a change of subject because of uncomfortable immortal relationships.

"It is nice to meet you as well, sister. In fact, yours was the nicest way I have ever been introduced to any of my immortal siblings," I answered, giving Triton a pointed look that made both of them chuckle. "Though I haven't met Rhode yet…"

The moment I said the last part their chuckles stopped, and their smiles turned pained, making me trail off. This seemed to be some kind of touchy subject.

"Anyway," I continued, deciding it would be best to change the subject and turned to the last being present. "I have not met you face to face yet either, Fis, it's nice to meet you."

The serpent startled, everyone's attention suddenly focused on her. Two tiny eyes became impossibly big, then the next moment she had already disappeared into Allapsar's collar, making the girl giggle.

I gave a theatrical sigh. "Still too shy, or am I just that scary?"

It helped lighten the mood again, the two immortals giving me the barest hint of a nod in gratitude.

"Well, there are quite a few people in the Caribbean who would think so, I'd say," Benthesikyme said drily.

But before anyone had the chance to answer, someone gatecrashed our conversation.

Again.

"What are you doing here?" Triton asked with audible annoyance in his voice.

Kym just rolled her eyes at him. "No need to sound so happy to see me."

"Peace you two," Benthesikyme chided. "It has been quite some time, sister dearest."

Kym just pulled a grimace. "Too little time."

Suddenly Triton's eyes visibly widened as he was looking at something somewhere behind us. "You did not!" he hissed incensed.

Kym granted him one of her too-cold smiles. "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me."

Triton looked like he was ready to throw either some curses or punches, maybe both, but then took on a forced smile instead, and he and my sisters each greeted, "Mother."

A moment later a familiar voice spoke up from behind me. "So here you are, children. It is good to see you all getting along so well."

I suppressed a snort. By godly standards, that probably actually counted as quite well.

"What about you, my dear, did you have a fun afternoon?" she continued, now speaking to Allapsar, as if she couldn't feel the tense atmosphere between her children at all.

Allapsar let loose a flood of words, Amphitrite nodding along, making noises of wonder and appreciation in all the right places while everyone else just awkwardly stood around. Well, more like Triton and Kym gave each other the stink eye while the rest of us were struggling to not start laughing.

"That's great, little princess, but I fear I cannot. I have to talk to two of my children now, so would you help guide your brother to your father instead? It is way past time they finished that boring meeting of theirs anyway. And I'm sure your father will have time to play afterward."

Allapsar's eyes lit up. "Sure! Come on, it's this way!"

Amphitrite shared another wink with us, then grabbed Kym by the ear and started to make off in the opposite direction, dragging her behind.

As we were about to split up too, Triton called after me and Annabeth again, his eyes trailing after Allapsar's retreating form. Then he met our eyes, and to my surprise, he bowed.

"You have my eternal gratitude for what the two of you did. If you ever find yourself in need of help, you need all but ask."

And with those words, he too turned around and swam off.

PJ&AC: TTD

"Please do not ask about our sister in front of mother," Benthesikyme asked, just loud enough for Annabeth and me to hear.

We were on our way to the courtyard where my dad seemed to be waiting for us. Allapsar was swimming a bit ahead, wanting to show off to us how good she was at making loops in the water. I really wanted to know what had happened to Rhode all of them to react like this, though her voice sounded so saddened I couldn't bring myself to ask. So, I just smiled, loudly praised my little sister's latest trick instead, and did not bring it up again.

As we reached the courtyard, it almost seemed as if there were even more people here than earlier.

"I will leave you here," Benthesikyme said, giving us a gentle smile. "Though I assume we will see each other for dinner. Should I be wrong, know that you are always welcome to visit Triton and me."

Her eyes went over to where Poseidon was, right next to the gigantic open mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. With him were a pair of the fish centaurs. One of them with green skin, longish brown hair tied back in a seaweed bandana, and a scraggly brown beard. But he looked almost small compared to the other one. To explain, let's just say Clarisse would have liked the giant sword he had strapped to his back, though I wasn't sure about the giant afro of blueish hair.

"And as a last piece of advice," she continued, "do try and give Aphros and Bythos some face. Should what you believe truly come to pass we will be in dire need of their friendship and assistance. It is not worth risking it for a bit of pride."

She gave us a meaningful look which Annabeth returned, so I guess telling us their names was supposed to mean something to me. It kind of didn't, but I wasn't going to admit that right now.

I was fifty percent sure those two were Chiron's brothers anyway. The beard was a dead giveaway, even if they didn't quite share all the same appendages.

Our greeting with my dad was overshadowed by Allapsar simply shooting herself into his arms though. She didn't seem to care about the entire "no contact with your children" rule. Then again, nobody from the present company seemed to care either. They looked quite happy for the two of them.

Then I felt Annabeth's hand, discreetly push against my side, and both of us bowed to the two fish centaurs too.

"Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson," she introduced us. "We're students of your brother Chiron. He has spoken about you, and he has nothing but high praise for you and the work you do in training the Mer-Heroes. It is an honor to meet the two of you, Aphros, Bythos."

So, I was right after all. They were Chiron's brothers. But that they were training heroes too? Somehow it didn't really surprise me.

"Thank you, Annabeth," the blue one said, though I still wasn't sure which one of the two he was. "From what I have heard, and of course, observed-" He pointed at the cadaver. "-the same can be said about you. Chiron must be quite proud of you."

I just shrugged my shoulders. "Exasperated at our antics mostly, I think. We seem to be giving him grey hairs from worry though."

Both of them laughed deeply.

"Yes, we quite know how that feels," the green one said. "Bill is just like that, but it is our burden as your trainers to bear, and one we bear gladly. Though it just proves that you truly are great heroes already. Which also brings us to what we asked you here for. Aphros?"

So, Aphros turned out to be the blue one, the one with the Afro. How ironically.

Aphros nodded and turned serious again. "You went through quite the trouble to get this spoil of yours. Would you mind telling me what you wished to gain from it?"

Huh, the way he asked that question sounded almost the same as Amphitrite did. So, what was he really after?

"When I spoke with my father about it, I had hoped to get one or maybe two magical items."

"Ah, did you wish for a magical weapon then?" Bythos asked.

I gave a grin when I found the familiar weight of Riptide in my pocket again. When I uncapped the sword, their eyes widened.

"This is Anaklusmos. It was a gift from my father before I started my first quest. And while it has a tragic past-" And even more tragic since I started carrying this blade. "-wielding it feels like it is a part of my body for me. I cannot imagine losing it, much less trading it for something else. No, I hoped to gift Annabeth a weapon able to keep up with her, and something for my sister to keep herself safe. At least that was until I heard the options I had for my quest."

I was pretty sure I knew what they were doing. They were trying to get a read on me, gauging what type of hero I was or something. And I was pretty sure I knew what they wanted too.

"Oh, and what is that? What do you plan to do with all of that?" Bythos asked, pointing at the dead Ethiopian Sea Monster in front of us.

"I wished to gather as many resources for our Camp as I could. To give everyone as high of a chance to stay alive and safe as possible."

"You speak the truth," Aphros stated, sounding completely sure of it, as if he had the ability to tell.

So, I was right, this had been a test. One, that from the looks of it I passed with flying colors. Oh man, if only school tests were as easy as telling the truth and caring about other people. But I also remembered the advice my sister had given us earlier. It had been good advice. Advice I intended to follow.

"But now that I look at it like this," I mused, "I'm not quite sure how good the children of Hephaestus actually are at working with scales, bones, and teeth. I don't think they have much experience with it."

Because that was what this was all about. They were just like me, wanted to give their heroes the highest possible chances of survival. And what was in front of me was some of the most high-quality resources they could get. I mean I supposedly blew up a volcano over it, yet the scales weren't even scratched.

"That might indeed be a problem," my father spoke up, proving he had been listening in after all. "The cyclopes too are far more used to work with metals, though they create quite good magical weapons."

Aphros chuckled goodhumoredly. "I was going to ask for a trade, and it seems we do have something we can offer in return after all."

PJ&AC: TTD

We left the next morning, racing over the ocean's surface on the back of a Rainbow.

All in all, I couldn't complain about our results, even if the battle had almost killed me. The negotiations didn't feel like it at all, more like a friendly exchange. Annabeth picked up on that as well, and she used it in a rational argument and offered to deepen that exchange. One thing led to another, and in the end, we were on our best way to having an alliance with our fellow heroes under the sea.

Aphros even added a brownie recipe of his as a gesture of goodwill. Who would have thought the giant of a centaur had a love for domestic chores and the arts? Though frankly, his taste in music wasn't much of an improvement over Chiron's.

Maybe I should bring my mother to the next round of talks of the alliance. If I introduced her to Aphros I was sure they would easily come to an agreement over some backing. And baked goods were a terribly good way to make both friends as well as celebrate with.

A shadow passing over us called me out of my musing. A moment later a set of beating wings joined us.

"It's good to see you again, Blackjack," I greeted, knowing who it was even before I had looked up.

Knew you'd survive too, boss! his voice spoke in my mind.

I just rolled my eyes, not wasting my breath at telling him to not call me boss.

"Hey, it's Blackjack! Were you able to drive off all the bad dolphins?"

Blackjack seemed to preen under her attention. Ain't that right, little princess!

Allapsar giggled.

But that's kinda why I'm here.

I gave a sigh. "Let me guess, some kind of sea creature needs my help?"

Whoa, how'd you know, boss?

Because that's exactly how our second meeting the last time around went, I thought privately.

I was a little irritated at having to save yet another sea creature, gods knew I'd done that often enough, but I wanted to talk with Blackjack anyway, so this might be just perfect.

"All right," I said. "I'm coming."

Knew you'd come. Just like you saved my sorry mane. You're the best, boss.

"I want to go too!"

I just shook my head. "It's almost time for breakfast already and your friends are probably missing you terribly by now. I'll take you another time, okay? I promise," I said, ruffling her hair. "The two of you should just go on ahead, I'll come along after I help Blackjack, alright?"

She didn't look too happy but lucky she also wanted to tell her friends about all the cool stuff that happened under the water, so she relented. "Fine, but you promised!"

"And no detours, mister," Annabeth added.

I gave her a wink, then jumped off Rainbow's back. Only to let a jet of water shoot me into the air where Blackjack caught me without problems.

Below me, Allapsar gave an excited whoop, and I was pretty sure I could hear Annabeth fondly mumble, "Showoff."

I just gave them a grin, then with one last wave, we split up.

"So, Blackjack, about what happened…"

Oh, right, my bad, boss. Already checked up on Scipio. His wings are broken, but your girlfriend's taking good care of him. He says thanks for getting us out from those damn Pegasusnappers. Pretty sure the chick plans to kill you though.

My what now? He was definitely not talking about Annabeth. She would have definitely added it to the list of my wrongdoings otherwise.

But who else could he mean? From what he said, Scipio was definitely a Pegasus, so Silena perhaps? But she wasn't really the type to give off murderous vibes. And what were Pegasusnappers supposed to be?

Blackjack seemed to pick up on my confusion, because he asked, You okay there, boss?

"Sorry, my memory's a bit sketchy. Can you explain who you meant?"

Yeah, you hit your head pretty bad there in the end. I meant that chick who'd found us after we'd crash-landed escaping from those mad dolphins.

I frowned. Allapsar had said that as well.

"Dolphins?"

The ones you raided and broke Scipio and me out of their evil skippers.

"…right."

And the girl you saved from ending up monster chow. Remember, the big one we totally owned in the storm. The monster, not the girl. The girl helped us get our strength back and we left Scipio with her. Then you blew up that volcano and in we went for round two!

"…right."

And that's it. Blackjack said finally, slowing down and turning in a circle. And down here.

"Thanks." I tumbled off his back and plunged into the sea.

It wasn't like I had a clue what he had been going on about, but I got the feeling asking Blackjack any more questions wouldn't help me either. If anything, it would only confuse me more. If only Blackjack had been more helpful.

Though the deeper I sank, the more the feeling made room for that strange sense of déjà vu. It couldn't have been just me helping my first sea creature since coming back in time. No, it had to be… something else.

My entire line of thought halted when I saw the hippocampi swimming in a circle around an overturned boat. Now I realized why I had been feeling like that, it was because even as distracted as I was, subconsciously I had recognized my surroundings.

All I could think was that I was so glad that Blackjack was so helpful, because seeing this, he really was the real hero here.

What I meant was of course the other thing I recognized, or rather the trapped animal greeting me with a loud and familiar, "Mooooooo!"

AN:

I'm back! Finally, I know, though you can blame the fates for trying to screw over all my plans the entire time. Got writers block, and then every time I hoped to have finally time to write... something always came up. Also, I got all those story ideas for other fandoms that just wouldn't leave me alone and I just had to write their outlines down. I'm not sorry about that one.

As for those people who would have expected and wanted the battle, believe me, me and Percy both as well. It was planned, but writer's block screwed it over and in the end, I decided to drop it. But I got another idea instead, and it works out quite well with Percy not remembering. Got something planned at a later point for that.

Both the fight scene as well as the dinner scene (which was also canceled) I might upload as a chapter in Sidequests at a later point, should I come to write it. It's at least on a list that also includes a breakfast scene on their very first day of Camp, and the longer version of their first meeting with Calypso.

Anyway, there are now four chapters left before the next quest starts (Chapter 32), which are basically done already. Mostly. I plan to update weekly, but I will make no promises. Hopefully, by the time those four chapters are online I have finished with the second quest too. If not, there might be a small break between chapter 31 and chapter 32 until I do. I try to give notice of that on my profile.

In other news, I did an editing run over all my previous chapters when I was trying to get back into the story. There are no major changes, mainly just story flow and a few chapter titles. The only thing that really changed is a slight retcon on Percy's powers. In the first version, he created and threw an ice spear during the capture the flag game, and during the Garden Gnome Emporium one scene was a bit unclear what he did. In the newer version Percy uses water to throw a normal spear instead, and it is made clear that Percy does not bend Medusa's blood, but uses the water to separate it. Decided to want to develop Percy's powers more into Poseidon's other domains, rather than stuff he isn't really associated with.

Now also crossposted on AO3 under the name "Cat_o_pillow".

Next time Camp gets its very own Nessie... uh, Bessie