[Cassidy POV]
Percy, Annabeth and Grover and I were walking through the woods on the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once." "And you had to kill all three before I got there" I said bitterly. Annabeth glanced backwards at me with a frown.
She kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The further away we get, the better." "All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything." "Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight –"
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?-" Percy countered back, he had a point, but I muttered "No, you just wanted to do the killing yourself, remember that time you threw me out of a bus?"
He heard me, frowning, "That wasn't my fault. It was probably a god or something." He said angrily, that got the cogs in my head turning, which God hated me enough to do this to me? I came up with a lot of names but there was only one who could do this. It was Zeus. He was the one who smote the bus, but it wasn't just to kill Percy
He did it because he wanted to keep me away from the Furies, because if I ever got my hands on one, he knew I'd start asking questions, and a hunter asking questions is not a thing he needs, especially now he's lost the bolt.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine." Annabeth insisted "Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine." "Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth. Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry. After a few minutes, Groves trotted up beside me looking nervous and downtrodden, "Look, I'm sorry about the Kindly Ones, I wasn't thinking, I should have remembered, I know you wanted-"
"Grover, as much as I appreciate it, not right now. We have to get out of here or they'll be the least of our worries." He brayed again but placed a hand on my shoulder, I held it and smiled. "Thanks G-man."
For a while all I could hear was our footsteps and New York traffic off in the distance, that was until my thoughts were interrupted by a shrill toottoottoot, like the sound of an owl being tortured. "Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.
"I take it back, this day got much worse." I groaned. "If I could just remember a "find path" song, we could get out of these woods!" He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff. Nothing of note happened. Apart from Percy almost braining himself on a tree.
As we walked Annabeth kept pace with me, I suppose it was her time for a pep talk. "Why were you so angry seeing the Kindly Ones? I mean, I don't have the best history with them either, but they really set you off. Why were you so upset?"
"What, you mean apart from the part where they threatened us with fire whips and claws? Let's just say we have history and leave it like that." "You should open up more. After all. Hiding info can get you killed on quests." She quoted to me.
"And I wonder who it gets killed?" I sighed, answering a few seconds later.
"They attacked me years ago, hurt people important to me, I want answers. They could have given me them until Percy dusted the three of them."
"Nemesis!" She said suddenly. I laughed, she was trying to make me feel better, "Sorry, but just because I want revenge doesn't mean she's my mom, if you must know. My mother was mortal." She smirked. "That narrows it down."
"Does it?" I smiled knowing she'll never guess it. She paused for a while, "Eros!" I chuckled, "So you think I'm so attractive that it must be divine?" I teased.
Her cheeks flushed, she began stammering through her words, "No...it's just you... seem to can use chamspeak!" She said as if she was defending herself on a trial.
"Good save, it's a very cool answer. But you're overthinking this. The answer's pretty simple, you'll never get it though, it makes no sense." Her face scrunched up in annoyance and we kept walking.
Our luck finally changed when I started to see light up ahead: the colours of a neon sign. I could smell food. I immediately got on my new skateboard and rode over to find it.
I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.
The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. I squinted at the sign above the entrance as I waited for the others, trying to break it down one at a time, with little success. By process of elimination, I had cracked the secrets of the sign.
It was a sign for Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. The others caught up quickly, spurred on by food as I had been. "storium. Annabeth, what's a storium. Do they store stuff? Do they sell food? For..." I patted my pockets, "A couple of nickels and a bent dime?" I checked my back pocket, "Oh, I found a quarter, we're saved." I usually have a lot of change on me because I forget that I put change in my pockets in the first place and then find it later.
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken, I had the urge to smash them. We crossed the street, following the smell of the food.
"Hey..." Grover warned. "The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open." "Snack bar," Percy said wistfully. "Snack bar," she agreed.
I resisted the urge to kick the door open and steal all the food in the building. "Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird." We ignored him.
The front garden was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps. "Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
We stopped at the warehouse door. "Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters." "Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?" "Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"Good for you goat boy, I'm sure they can accommodate, if not, you can have the leftover containers" I pat him on the back. "You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminium cans," Percy reminded him. "Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are... looking at me."
I looked around and got what he was saying, each statue seemed to be angled in just the right way that we met their gaze no matter where we looked. But my stomach was telling me If I didn't put food in it soon, it would kill me faster than any monster could.
Then the door creaked open and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman – at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled.
Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-coloured hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?" "They're... um..." Annabeth started to say.
"We're orphans," I said. "Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But my dears! Surely not!" "We got separated from our caravan," I said, thinking of a mobile home.
"Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station." Percy added...for some reason.
"Yup, circus orphans, that's us!" I said cheerily, grabbing Annabeth and Percy by the shoulders. "Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?" "Oh, my dears," the woman said.
"You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."
We thanked her and went inside. Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?" I pointed to Percy, shifting the blame "Always have a strategy, right?" He defended. "Your head is full of kelp."
The warehouse was filled with more statues – people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces.
"How did you even drag these all in here?" I asked Aunty Em, noticing there were no drag marks or heavy lifting equipment in sight. "I'm stronger than I look dear. Now enough of that, come in, eat." She said sweetly.
I don't know if it was my growling stomach, and I refused to believe it was the pills I took, but I felt perfectly at ease, even when she wrapped an arm around me and pushed me forward.
I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us, insisting I left my skateboard at the door.
All I cared about was finding the dining area. And, sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said. "Awesome," I said. "Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am." "Well, that's not entirely true, we have this." I said, passing her my change which she examined quickly.
Before I pass it to her, she pressed it back into my hand, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said. Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly.
It sent a twinge of something up my head. Like that little voice who tells you when something is wrong, my senses going into overdrive for some reason, I began feeling a bit wearier of this place.
My fear that something was up got all but confirmed when Aunty Em said "Quite all right, Annabeth," and began heading to the back of the store.
"You have such beautiful grey eyes, child." I elbowed Grover, "We have to leave!" I mouthed, not wanting to alarm Aunty Em. Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking.
Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes and XXL servings of French fries. Even some more specific options for Grover, though he and I did not partake.
In that time, I had been taking in my surroundings, looking for exits and possible choke points in case of an ambush, and I one hand resting on the grip of my new sword. I closed my eyes to focus on my surroundings but was interrupted by Grover piping up.
"What's that hissing noise?" he asked. I listened but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head. "Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover." "I take vitamins. For my ears." "That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."
Easy for her to say, I only noticed it a few seconds ago, but the door had been locked behind us. Right now, I just didn't want to do anything that would give away the fact that me and Grover were on to her.
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was more than a little unsettling, her and Percy were engaged in conversation, I was trying to signal Annabeth.
"You make these statues yourself?" Percy asked, oblivious to danger, "Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them; you see. They are my company."
The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?" "It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said.
"Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me."
My senses went crazy as I began to understand, my body getting ready for a fight. I looked around and kicked myself for not realising it sooner. Who would keep this many statues? Someone who had to, someone who could make them whenever they wanted.
Aunty Em would. Because she wasn't Aunty Em. She was Aunty M. I tried my best not to let out an audible gulp of terror as she continued her story, and I began to fear that she might discard the veil at any second.
"They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price." She looked genuinely distressed and saddened by these events, but I was too worried to feel any pity for her right now.
As I hit Annabeth in the right side of her thigh and motioned to the door when she looked at me affronted, she seemed confused, but I also caught the attention of Aunty Em. "Cassidy, are you doing alright dear? I hope the food is to your liking, I noticed you haven't eaten much."
I looked at her and tried not to seem nervous, "Oh yes, it's lovely thank you, I just had a big breakfast is all. You shouldn't do trapeze on a full stomach you see, actually, speaking of, we should probably be heading off soon."
"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking him to get his attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting." She sounded tense. Understandably so. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.
"Such beautiful grey eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen grey eyes like those." She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.
"We really should go." "Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!" I nodded and tried not to stumble over my words.
"Yes, thank you for your hospitality Aunty but we got to head out. Big circus show tonight. I'll put in a good word for you if anyone needs a statue."
I was just about to drag Percy out by the ear when Aunty Em almost wailed and stood up in front of us, conveniently blocking the door. "Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily. "A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children." Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy –"
"Sure we can," He said in his daze, probably from the food "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?" "Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm." I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.
Good, that was what I hoped for. A larger area to manoeuvre in if I had to fight and a clear view of the exit if things got bad. Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr.
"Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the three young gentlemen on either side and in the back." "Not much light for a photo," I remarked. "Oh, enough," Aunty Em said.
"Enough for us to see each other, yes?" "Where's your camera?" Grover asked. Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. Ignoring Grover. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?" Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him.
"That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand." "Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear." She still had no camera in her hands. "Percy –" Annabeth said. Trying to make him snap out of it," "That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
In that moment, I decided our chips were on the table already, we'd played along long enough, I just hoped I got to her in time. But first I had to get the others safe, luckily, I could reach all three of them from my spot at the back of the 'photo.'
I started by pushing Annabeth forward so that she was facing downwards and then Grover and Percy to either side of me, away from her gaze, I hopped over Annabeth and the bench like a hurdle, putting my chin to my chest and charging forwards.
The second I thought I was at the correct range I swung my new sword towards Aunty Em, I couldn't see her face for obvious reasons, but from the noise she made, the blade had made contact, though it was too shallow to kill her like I hoped it would.
Aunty Em wasn't too happy with the way her new guests were treating her, so I saw a gnarled and warty hand press against my chest, I jumped back just in time that she couldn't claw a chunk out of me, luckily keeping my eyes glued to the ground. "Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted.
I spun around on my heel and took one last look at my surroundings, I watched Annabeth as she whipped her Yankees cap on to her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and Percy both off the bench.
Closing my eyes and sprinting back into the shop, I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. Once I got to what I thought was inside, I rounded a corner and placed my back to it.
I thought back to the myth in question and knew I had the perfect tool for this scenario thanks to my friend in the Hephaestus cabin. I put my sword in front of me before opening my eyes, barely enough to even call them open, through my eyelashes, as I didn't feel any more pain than usual, I risked it.
The reflection of the polished sword almost blinded me, but I saw Percy on the ground in it's reflection, looking at Aunty Em's sandalled feet, too dazed to move. Then I heard Grover bleat "Run!" I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.
I saw him fly into the sight of the reflection, suspended by his sneakers, but then back out of it again as he tried to get them to work as he intended. I saw movement on the other side of the blade as I angled it to find Percy.
I saw her, my stomach turned, and my blood ran cold. I could see 'Aunty Em's' reflection in the bronze; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.
I saw the damage I had done, a large gash where her collarbone was. I had missed her neck by a hair. Gritting my teeth in frustration, I knew she'd turn to me or cut me to ribbons before I reached Percy, so I had to wait and pick my moment.
"The Grey-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. She still hid behind the voice of a kind old woman "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!" "Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr.
"You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer." "Percy she's tricking you!" I yelled.
"Think of the statues, did they look happy to you? How many of them heard the same promise!" I stressed as I drew my dagger and leaned back to the corner, trying to get into a position to throw it without seeing my target.
"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."
"Percy!" I heard a buzzing sound, like a ninety-kilogram hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!" I turned my sword and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat.
His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone. "Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!" Then 'Thwack!'
Medusa roared with rage. "You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!" "That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
Now she was distracted, I had enough time to do what I was trying to earlier. Closing my eyes for twenty seconds, breathing slowly, I saw them all around me and my heart sank. The statues lit up with faint light, some faded, others gone entirely.
Wisps of lives trapped eternally in the moment of death; remnants of souls Medusa had killed. With my eyes still closed, I turned towards the garden where Grover was attacking Medusa and I saw them, two lights clashing with one another.
I heard Grover bleat in panic and knew I couldn't just sit here looking at a reflection and let him do all the work, so I rushed forwards to help my friend, no longer totally blind, throwing my knife and hoping it met its target, thinking, "Don't worry Grover, I'm coming!"
It was moments like this that I regretted doing some of the stuff that comes into my head, here I was, charging at a Gorgon with my eyes closed while my friend tried to clobber her with a tree branch.
To be fair, it worked a lot better than I thought it would, as my dagger hit Medusa in the shoulder from my blind throw, her torso was rocked forward, meaning Grover was able to clock her under the chin with the tree branch, knocking her off her feet.
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above me. "I think she's unconscious!" With this knowledge I skidded to a halt at her side while she was downed, thrusting down with my sword. I hit something, but I didn't get the satisfying noise of a displaced monster.
Instead, I got an angry "Roooaaarrr!" which told me I had missed Medusa's head and instead probably given her a haircut as she rolled away. "Maybe not," Grover corrected a bit too late.
I had an idea, "Grover, keep your eyes closed!" I said, dropping to my knees and feeling along the floor quickly. I found what I was looking for, a snake head, keeping it in hand, I stood up. Brandishing the severed reptile at Medusa.
It didn't do what I hoped, "So it's not the snakes that petrify then? That part's always a little iffy in your story" I chuckled nervously as Medusa turned to me, utterly enraged at the insult of killing one of her snakes and showing it to her.
With a hideous roar Medusa delivered a swift uppercut to my gut as I panicked and backed up. I got airtime, I was launched a couple of yards backwards, my body impacting and toppling over the stone bench that she had us pose on earlier.
It was impossible not to open my eyes at the impact, if Grover hadn't gone in for another pass with the tree branch and made Medusa turn her back to me, I'd be joining the stock in her emporium.
I forced my eyes shut, but I was too late, the charm was up, I was as blind as anyone else right now, and unfortunately for me, my nose wasn't as good as Grover's. "Where's the other Perseus when you need him?" I thought as I held my ribs.
I felt like I was just kicked by a mule on steroids. I think that was karma for making fun of Pan. As I tried to catch my breath I was counting down the seconds before my sight kicked back in. A few more seconds and I'd be able to help.
It was then another jolt ran up my neck and I heard it, hissing, she was stepping over to me, "Such a pretty one for my collection!" she hissed, knocking Grover to one side, and getting closer to me.
Even when I couldn't see her, I could feel it, she was closing in, towering over me as I lay splayed out near the bench, I swung my sword blindly trying to keep her at bay, but her talons knocked it aside and all I could do was wait blindly for her to attack and accept my fate.
A silky-smooth voice found itself in the back of my head, "Attack straight up Cassidy." Normally, having this voice in my head would have set me off, but right now, I was in no position to argue. "It will buy you time." It spoke.
I almost ignored it out of pure spite, I was so used to doing the exact opposite of its instruction, but I did as it said, just this once. Grabbing my sword with two hands and desperately swinging upward, I was met with nothing, no impact, no resistance.
For a second I thought it was a mistake, that I should have ignored it again, that following its instruction would get me killed and this was a ploy by the gods, but I heard a cry of discomfort that ended with another hiss.
As the voice faded away into the shadows, my sight returned to me through closed eyes, I saw the swirling mass of the monster clasping her face in discomfort. It seems that even in near pitch blackness, the shine from my sword had blinded her for a split second.
I could have attacked, but in this moment, I was more concerned with self-preservation, so I untangled myself from the bench and dove to one side as a talon cracked the stone, I ran back into the shop.
"Beckendorf you're a lifesaver" I smiled at the sword, thankful for his craftmanship, "Thank your friend later, you still have a job to do." said the voice, appearing again for one last barb. "I don't need your help!" I snarled in my own head. It chuckled "Of course not."
I growled as Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"
Even with my 'sight' back, I wouldn't have made it back to him in time, luckily, Percy finally decided to do something as I slid down the wall and tried to recover, confident that Annabeth was with him and could probably handle dear old Aunty Em.
Medusa was about to lunge at Grover when he yelled, "Hey!" and advanced on her holding a sword and a glass ball. She let him approach, ten metres, five metres. It took me until her response to know why, "You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
"Percy, cut her head off before I cut yours off!" I shouted and she hissed, "Not helping!" said a voice beside me, "Ah!" I panicked, if my eyes weren't closed, I probably would have ended up lopping Annabeth's arm off, thankfully I saw her before I did.
I was in shock, "Wha- Why weren't you in there stabbing her in the neck from behind?" I asked Annabeth in shock as she took off her cap. "How did you see me?" She asked with a puzzled look.
I was wondering why that was her biggest concern, I thought surely Percy would be her top priority, the guy couldn't fight a Gorgon alone,
But I couldn't reach him, my attention was drawn by Medusa's cackle. I turned my head to see her preparing to lunge at Percy. Thinking on my feet, I snatched Annabeth's dagger from her.
Standing up and turning the corner again I threw it as I heard Medusa screech "Too late!" But this time the blade hit her squarely in the heart and she paused in shock, still holding her claw above her head for the final blow.
To top it off I heard a sickening 'shlock!' then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern, I knew it well, the sound of a monster disintegrating. In my distorted vision behind my eyelids I saw Medusa's head roll off her body.
"Oh, yuck," Grover said from his perch, I heard the clatter of two bronze daggers on the ground and knew Medusa's body was gone. But strangely I could hear the thing gurgling and steaming and the sound of shattered glass.
"Mega-yuck." Annabeth wrapped an arm around me, and we came up next to Percy, on seeing the aftermath of the fight, I knew why. With her eyes fixed on the sky she let me rest on a stone lion before grabbing Medusa's black veil.
She said, "Don't move." Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. "Are you okay?" she asked Percy, her voice trembling.
"Yeah," He replied, "Why didn't... why didn't the head evaporate?" "Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your Minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves.
The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head. I watched them flutter as I finally stood up, "Don't stand!" Annabeth warned, I waved her off, "I'll be fine. She's left me a gift" I pointed to two vials that had been resting where her body should have been.
"Smart," Annabeth said, Percy and Grover looked worried and confused. She explained, "She's a Gorgon, blood from her right side can cure anything, but the blood from her left side is deadly," "Gross." Percy said, Grover wrinkled his nose, but then shrugged.
One was smashed, I scooped up the remaining vial, hoping it was from the right side of her body. "Fifty-fifty, place your bets." I joked. "How are you going to test-" Started Annabeth, but I already downed the vial, it was in my mouth, too late now.
I retched and shook my head, but just from disgust, not agony, a burning sensation began in my throat and I felt a stomach-ache coming on, I felt strange tingle in my chest, suddenly it felt a lot better and I breathed easier.
"Tangy." I commented. "That...that...-" Annabeth was lost for words. "How...You...That was so reckless!" I just smiled at her and shrugged, "It worked...I think." She put her head in her hands. As I discarded the vial Grover spoke.
"That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun." "Tell me about it" I said as I strained to bend as I picked up my short sword, sheathing it, along with the longer one, both of which I had come up with excellent names for.
Grover snatched his shoes out of the air. Percy recapped his sword. Together, the four of us stumbled back to the warehouse. "You should have said something cool though, like. Heads up!" I told Percy, who was not amused.
We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
As I was finally indulging in some food and grinning at my own cleverness, the others began to bicker again. "So, we have Athena to thank for this monster?" Percy chided; Annabeth flashed an irritated look.
"Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster." "Sure...meet... lets go with that, they 'met' in the temple. Found two kids in there too." I scoffed. She glowered at me too.
Turning to Percy she elaborated, "Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple; they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."
"Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa." Annabeth straightened putting on a bad imitation of Percy's voice, she said: "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?" I laughed, "She's got a point, even if you didn't cause it, you didn't help much." I said as I ate.
"Forget it," Percy said. "You're impossible." "You're insufferable." "You're –" "Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"
"Well, if we find a really long stick, we could weaponize it. Like they did back in the day, only safer." While we debated that option, Percy got up. "I'll be back." Was all he said bluntly, "Percy," Annabeth called after him "What are you –" But he was gone.
We looked between us and all understood, something was wrong with this whole scenario. Even for a child of the Big three, something sinister was brewing. We all discussed it and realised we were in for a whole lot worse than just Aunty Em.
He came back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head in a large cardboard box, and filled out a delivery slip: 'The Gods Mount Olympus 600th Floor, Empire State Building New York, NY With best wishes, PERCY JACKSON'
I hollered and clapped, "That's the spirit Perce." I said as he signed off on it with a smirk. "They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."
Percy poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as he closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a 'pop!'
"I am impertinent," He said. I looked at Annabeth, waiting for her to criticize. She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that Percy had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."
We camped out in the woods, a hundred metres from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties, I loved it, it was more what I was used to, I hated sleeping on most beds.
The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers. We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.
We decided to sleep in shifts. Percy first watch. Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. I couldn't sleep, of course not, he was calling in favours now to torment me for not giving him credit. Typical.
As I finally settled Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky. I listened in to their conversation, turning away from them so they couldn't see I was awake.
"Go ahead and sleep," Percy told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble." Having closed my eyes, I knew that Grover nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy." He said mournfully.
"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?" Percy joked, "No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr." Grover sighed.
I spoke up, trying to be of comfort before I drifted off to sleep. "Well, that's why you're here Grover, to inspire people to change, and to eat their leftovers if they don't. We've still got time to turn things around, even humans know that. With or without Pan"
"Pam? Like the cooking spray?" Percy said cluelessly, looking to Grover for answers. "Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's licence for?" A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck.
It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known. "Tell us about the search," Percy said.
Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I'd say something bad. "The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told us. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!'"
"When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died."
"In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden and wake him from his sleep." "And you want to be a searcher." Percy said in understanding
"It's my life's dream," Grover said, pride in his voice. I felt guilty for not finding Pan as it was another hunt I never completed, because I understood that finding 'Flute guy' was more important to Grover and Satyrs in general then I had thought possible.
It was them trying to find a shade of hope that their lives could go back to normal. Grover continued, "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand... the statue you saw back there –"
"Oh, right, sorry." Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive." "Hang on – the first?" said Percy in shock, a bit too loudly, Annabeth rolled over and mumbled and we all hushed down a bit.
Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again." "Not once in two thousand years?" I asked, shocked at the sheer magnitude of searchers that must have disappeared.
"No." Grover said almost comically, shrugging. "And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?" Percy asked, concern evident. "None." "But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?" Percy said, looking to me in amazement too.
"I have to believe that Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened." He sighed, "I guess, sometimes it feels so hopeless though."
I decided to sit up in my blanket so I could look at him with open eyes, "But you're still here aren't you? Trying? That's what matters, besides, if anyone could put the world right again, it isn't Pan, it's you G-man" I got embarrassed at the sappiness of that and rested my head again.
"Maybe..." Grover said as he looked down at his pipes. Out of the blue Percy asked, "How are we going to get into the Underworld?" Grover shrugged again; his sights still set on his flute.
Percy seemed worried "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?" "I don't know," Grover admitted. "Well, I know it'll be a better one if we get some sleep" I groaned.
Grover tried to put Percy at ease, but ended up revealing some stuff he didn't want to, "Back at Medusa's when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me –" He began, Percy rolled his eyes.
"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out." He said childishly, Grover snapped at him, "Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..."
His voice faltered. "What do you mean?" Percy asked, my heart sank a little. "Forgave you for what?" Suddenly, Grover seemed interested in playing notes on his pipes. "Percy, just go to sleep." I urged, we all had baggage, if Grover wasn't ready to share his, that was his choice.
He didn't take the hint. "Wait a minute," he said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong –" "I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if we pressed him.
"But as I was saying, back at Medusas, Cassidy, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems." "Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took." Percy retorted, thinking he was smart.
"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fu – The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs Dodds at Yancy Academy... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."
"They seemed plenty aggressive to me." Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'" "Asking about me," He said. "Maybe... but we all got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said, 'Where isit?'"
"They seemed to be asking about an object." I clarified. Grover added "Cassidy managed to pin one, that shouldn't be possible." I nodded, not realising it at the time, but that would have gotten me filleted normally.
"That doesn't make sense." "I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." Grover shared his worries, but Percy cut him off.
He finally spoke up, "I haven't been straight with you all, I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother." Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "We know that Percy."
"Yeah, who would've guessed that?" I yawned, "Trust me Percy, that's the only reason I've stayed here this long." I rolled over as Grover asked Percy "But are you sure that's the only reason?" Percy got a little upset at the insinuation.
"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him." Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you. Or as strong as Cassidy-" He said as I smiled into my blanket.
"But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."
Percy got defensive "Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks.-" And that's how I fell asleep to the sound of Percy Jacksons daddy issues.
My dreams were hazy, as they always were, and they were over quickly, but I understood them. I was in the Underworld, facing Hades. Armed with my new weapons.
Shade, the long blade that protected me from any danger I might face and Shine, the short blade that was the last line of defence, the last light of hope I had with me as I battled anything that came next.
And I would, to get back what the gods had taken from me, I would destroy anything that Zeus, Hades or any other god put in my path to reach my goal, just like I had sworn I would, and after I had, Zeus would answer to me, just as I promised.
After being woken up at four in the morning to take watch, I settled into the tree that Grover had slept in, I was supposed to wake Annabeth after my shift, I didn't, instead I climbed the tallest tree I could hoping to get a glimpse of the sunrise.
I watched as it rose over New York, smiling like a madman, I really loved moments like this, it made everything feel worth it. It put me in a better mood, so once Grover had woken up, I left to cook breakfast.
Heading back into Aunty Em's shop and taking advantage of her useful cooking facilities, I managed to cook up a half decent breakfast, nothing fancy, making sure to feed myself too.
"Now I just need an apron that says, 'Don't petrify the chef.'" I said as I handed out breakfast. Annabeth scoffed down hers gratefully and Grove had returned from his morning walk with a new companion.
After introducing myself to said companion, it seems Percy was roused by the smell of food, he woke up groggily 'How long was I asleep?" He yawned, stretching. "Long enough for me to cook breakfast." I said, placing it in front of him and escaping up the tree.
Annabeth nodded, "Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend." she pointed to the spectacle, Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, it was a pink poodle. The poodle yapped at Percy suspiciously.
Grover said, "No, he's not." Percy blinked, just as I had upon our introduction to the little beast. "Are you... talking to that thing?" The poodle growled. "This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."
"You can talk to animals?" Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy." Percy deadpanned, "I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," He said. "Forget it." "Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. Cassidy said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."
Reluctantly, Percy said hello to the poodle. Then he turned his eyes skyward to me in my perch, "Why are you up there?" He asked, sighing, I explained "I don't do well with animals, especially dogs."
I frowned at the poodle, who barked at me angrily, growling in my direction, "What? You're scared of this thing?" Percy chuckled. "You wish, I'm not afraid of anything Jackson." I jumped down from the tree,
"I like animals, they just don't like me." I explained, holding my hand out to the poodle, who snapped at it. It kept yapping away until I retreated to the tree with my breakfast.
As we ate, Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return.
Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover. "How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked. "He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."
"Of course," I said. "Silly me." "So, we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple." "I'm willing to bet my bent dime that it's not going to go that smoothly." I groaned.
Percy agreed. "Not another bus," he said warily. "No," Annabeth agreed. She pointed downhill, towards train tracks. "There's an Amtrack station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."
