A/N: So here is the next chapter to the story. Sorry for not updating sooner.
XII. You were saying Athena?
Looking down at the new chapter had Ares caught his father's look in the corner of his eyes as the older god signaled to him that he should immediately start reading.
"The next chapter is called…aw man, why do I get a boring chapter?" Ares groaned.
"Believe us grandfather, it will be anything, but a boring chapter." Ace told his grandfather who gave him a skeptical look.
"Really? The title 'We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium' isn't quiet what I consider as the title of an action filled chapter." Ares replied back.
"Though it certainly be one." Sally said while doing her best to not look at her grandmother. "A highly nerve thrilling one."
"We will see." Ares said as he started reading.
In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there,
"It is nice to know that we are appreciated." Apollo said grinning while his kids and the other demigods from the future looked somewhat uncomfortable.
"Sorry granddad, I doubt uncle Percy meant this sentence like that." Enysswe said to her grandfather.
"What do you mean?" Apollo asked blinking in confusion while Ares snorted.
"I got your answer right here Sunshine." he answered while his brother glared at him for the nickname.
because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.
At this looked the gods over at their squirming children who refused to look at them.
For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck;
Zeus flinched by the glared he got from his family and waved to his son that he should hurry up with continuing.
"You know, it is strange to hear about a quest where the most problematic attacks towards the demigod come not from the Queen, but her husband." Perseus whispered to Theseus who nodded gloomily seeing how it was his little brother Zeus wanted dead.
when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.
The legacies nodded at this as the gods kept glaring at their king while the demigods still looked uncomfortable.
So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along 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.
Both Hermes and Dionysus started growling at this while outside felt the other satyrs sympathy for their kinsman.
"Father." they both bit out in annoyance.
"You know, I now kind of can see that our dads are brothers." Travis whispered to Castor and Pollux who nodded carefully.
"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."
"That plan worked well till the complications started." Sally said while looking at her side.
"What do you mean?" Athena asked her granddaughter, worried for her daughter whose younger version was also looking at the black haired girl.
"You will see." she said.
"I'm really starting to hate this sentence." Frank groaned while the others nodded in agreement with him.
"Patience is a virtue." Henry said which earned him more groans.
"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
While Zeus covered in his throne from his family bit Annabeth back a groan, her first quest would start out just fantastic, but no problem not that Luke, Thalia and her had much as they made their way to Camp, she can wing the situation.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"
"Annabeth." Malcolm said as he stared incredulously at his sister.
"You know that if he wouldn't have decided to jump into the fight you might have not made it, right?" Michael asked the blonde with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm probably only still under shock." she defended herself or tried to reassure herself, she was not sure which was correct.
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"
The demigods had their gazes all on Annabeth who did her best to avoid them while farther back her father flinched at the thought about how close his daughter had been to death if not for the boy she would end up marrying.
"I hate to say it, but you can be grateful for that boy that he went back for you two." Athena said finally when she had turned away from her father; everyone could see that this was hard for her to admit.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"Are you kidding?" Clarisse asked Annabeth incredulously while Malcolm only stared gapping at his sister as if he would see her for the first time.
"Annabeth, I know that you are a strong girl and had been the longest at camp, but there are times when no matter how good one is, they need the help of another." Lee said in an admonishing tone.
"I agree with Lee, that situation could have not been solved with only two people drawn into a corner." Reyna said as she looked over at Annabeth.
"Lord Ares, please continue." Annabeth said to escape from more scolding.
"Mom's fatal flaw is acting up." Luke whispered to his sister who nodded, their mom was great, brave, strong and intelligent, but rarely noticed when she needed the help of others if their dad was not near to remind her.
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"Yup, perfectly fine," Apollo said sarcastically while dodging a heavy stone plate thrown by Athena at him.
"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
There were a few snickers at Grover's comment.
We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
Everyone wrinkled their noses at hearing this.
After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."
"It really was." Annabeth said, it was kind of touching that no matter how she had behaved towards him since their first meeting, he still felt obliged to help her when she needed it.
"I need to agree on this." Artemis mumbled under her breath, the boy could have easily escaped, but he went back for his comrades, this was something she had rarely seen.
"We're a team, right?"
At this the legacies snorted which made everyone turn into their direction.
"Dad has just made one of the biggest understatement of the century." Luke said with a small crooked grin on his face.
"Yup, uncle Percy and aunt Annabeth are one of the most dangerous teams one can face in battle." Misty said making her aunt blush.
"Really, are there more such teams?" Trickster asked interested.
"Well, another pretty dangerous team will be mentioned in the fourth book also uncle Nico and aunt Hazel can be pretty dangerous if they fight together" Hades smiled proudly at this while Persephone snuggled closer to him. "Also the storm uncle Percy and dad can bring up is neat to see, but not fun to face" Nathan continued while his father blushed a bit at the compliment "also the current Big Three children can be quiet the force when all together as for other teams you will need to read the books to find out seeing that listing would take to long and we are still at the start of the first book."
"That is true, Ares please continue." Hera told her son who nodded his head before complying.
She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."
Aphrodite and her children groaned in despair.
"I'm starting to see why it took so long for them to get together." Silena said with a bowed head, her dark hair hiding her face.
The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.
"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.
"Not that often." Annabeth said while Ares held back a groan, he saw no excitement in this chapter only a badly written soap opera Aphrodite loves to see, but decided that pointing this out would be not good for either his health or love life so he only continued reading dutifully.
"No ... only short field trips. My dad—"
Frederic perked up about Annabeth mentioning him, but she still refused to turn around, he didn't even notice Sue roll her eyes at his while the twins still shivered a bit from what they have heard in the last chapter.
"The history professor."
Frederic scowled a bit at this, but needed to remember that Annabeth never told the other his name so he picked the most known fact to address him as a person.
"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home."
The made him slump back in his seat.
She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her.
"At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."
If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.
"He is certainly observant for the small details which others would miss." Odysseus said as he looked over at his Lady who nodded her head gracefully at him, indicating that she agreed, even if it was reluctantly seeing which of the gods had fathered this observant hero.
"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.
"You think so?"
"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."
Annabeth blushed while some of the others started snickering at both the comment and at her reaction to it.
I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.
"I probably had." Annabeth admitted, her blush still present.
"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you ... Something funny back on the bus ..."
Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.
"WHAT!" Athena and her children yelled in shock at the thought of someone torturing an owl.
"Athena, no need to overreact and make us all deaf." Ares groaned before turning away from the glare she was giving him and looking down at the chapter. "Try letting me finish before you go overboard with your kids." he told her and started reading again.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.
"See, it was only a satyr with terrible skills on a reed pipe." Ares told his sister while she glared at him, though that blush on her cheeks was kind of taking away from the intended effect.
Meanwhile the demigods only shook their heads at Grover.
"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.
At this a good deal of campers started snickering.
"Who is that?" asked Bellerophon from the demigods.
"She is an actress and singer in our time." explained Gwen who had listened to some of her songs when she had free time.
Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.
There were some finches at this while Hermes, Artemis and Dionysus exchanged wide-eyed glances with each other.
"He certainly messed up that song." Hermes said eventually while the other two nodded, still stunned.
Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.
"Sadly are those two who have got that." Lance said while he pointed at Enysswe and Henry.
"Lance, we don't have infrared vision, we only can see better in the dark then others that is all." Henry said and from his tone could everyone guess that they had this discussion a good few times before.
"That is what I call infrared vision." Lance said stubbornly.
"Just ignore them and continue." Ace told his grandfather who nodded his head.
After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so,
I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.
Those from the antique looked totally confuses about what that was while those from the future had dreamy looks in their eyes.
"First a soap and now food, this chapter is tormenting me." Ares mumbled under his breath before continuing so he failed to see the looks the legacies were exchanging with each other.
We kept walking until 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.
"Why would anyone have an open shop in a completely deserted area?" Mitchell asked frowning.
"There is certainly something suspicious about that." Clarisse agreed, something was not right.
It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.
To me, it looked like:
Suddenly Ares stopped in his reading and was staring at the book strangely before holding it out farther from himself, then turned it to the side and finally upside down.
"Ares, what are you doing?" Zeus asked his son.
"He may need…"
"Not another word Demeter, you have Hermes and his diet now." Hades said, ignoring the panicked wine from his nephew.
"Ares?" Athena asked, she wanted to continue reading.
"I'm trying to decipher what is standing there." he said while showing it to Athena. "You try your luck." he told her.
"Fine, there stands…what is this unintelligent gibberish?" Athena asked in shock while Artemis whispered something to Apollo who nodded and picked up Hermes from his throne and brought him over to the two war gods and showed him the line which was making them so much trouble.
"Wouldn't it have been easier to get me the book?" he asked in annoyance, but read what stood there. "It says: 'ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.'It is only the dyslexia, have seen worse on some of the delivery addresses." the god of messengers said with a shrug as he made his way back to his throne, closely followed by Apollo while Athena gave the book back to Ares.
"What the heck does that say?" I asked.
"I don't know," Annabeth said.
She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.
"Most of us tend to forget by the Athena kids." Jake said as he grinned and both Malcolm and Annabeth who smiled back.
"Now it makes sense." Ares said suddenly as he saw the next line.
Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
"Ah." come it from everyone.
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.
The legacies shuddered at this, this was just what they had thought before they become victims.
I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.
"Hey ..." Grover warned.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."
Everyone started to have a strange, unsettling feeling in their stomachs as Ares stared to realize that the kids were not joking when they said that this chapter would have some excitement in it.
"Snack bar," I said wistfully.
"Snack bar," she agreed.
"I don't like the sound of this." Trickster said frowning at the book.
"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."
We ignored him.
"You should listen to Grover." Beckendorf said nervously as his hands started tinkering much faster with the little machine in his hands.
"They are under an enchantment." Amphitrite gasped making Athena pale in worry while the queen was glad that Poseidon was still out cold.
"That is not good." Katie said worriedly.
The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
Perseus had suddenly a bitter feeling in his mouth after those lines when he suddenly remembered how fast Sally had given up last chapter her argument about what she did to that priestess with whom Lord Po…
"Perseus, are you alright you look about ready to pass out." Andromeda whispered worriedly to her husband who looked not only close to fainting, but also to hyperventilating.
"I…I will be fine, hopefully after this chapter." he said with a forced smile, great Theseus will not be the only one reliving bad memories thanks to these books, his cousin seems to be about to really meet each beast a Greek Hero had fought.
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
"Why do I not like this comment?" Dakota asked in a shaking tone.
"Because none of us like it." Gwen answered back in a faint tone.
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.
"Definitely an enchantment and a strong one at that, it may be the food." Persephone said as the tension in and outside the palace rose as everyone waited worriedly how the young heroes will get out of this.
"All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.
"I don't know what those are, but for satyrs they count as vegetables." Dionysus said while the demigods nodded dumbfounded.
"Those are vegetables.
The wine god nodded at the confirmation of his earlier statement.
Come on. Let's leave. These statues are ... looking at me."
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-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.
"Yes, she had been once really beautiful." Sally whispered to the others as she tried to not send and accusing look at her grandmother for creating that creature.
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.
"You should have made up a cover story before knocking." Connor said to Annabeth in a serious tone.
"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"
"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan.
"And better not let him suggest the cover story." Travis added in to his brother's earlier comment.
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. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"
By this time had Hermes, his children and grandchildren already face-palmed themselves at the ridicilousity of that story.
"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."
"She believed that?" Chris asked incredulously.
"If that is the monster then she would have even let them in if they told her that they were fairies." Octavian said in a nervous tone, something about those statues made him think.
We thanked her and went inside.
Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"
"Always have a strategy, right?"
"Your head is full of kelp."
"Not the time for pet-names." Silena said desperately, she wanted them out of there, but they must be still enchanted to not sense the danger.
The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But mostly, I was thinking about food.
Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry,
"Well, with the enchantment would it have been hard to resist." Orion said, but he was worried about his little brother who got himself again into trouble.
"Perseus, are you alright?" Theseus asked when he saw that his cousin had gone deadly pale and was about to do the same to the couch as he did by the chapter about the…suddenly he stared with wide eyes at the other. "Yo…you know what it is." he whispered in fear as the other nodded, but did not say anything.
but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair—it made everything else go away.
"Then the source is really the food." Athena said in a faint tone while Sue felt at least some relief that her two sons started muttering that they will never accept any food from a stranger, at least have these books some good part to them.
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.
The demigods clustered closer to Annabeth who was glad about their closeness while her mother had grabbed Ares's arm who continued to read, but one could see the slightly pained look on his face because of her mother's hard grip on his arm.
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."
Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "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,
Perseus was breathing hard, he got now his confirmation it was her and this time was she wide awake.
but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.
"Unfortunately not." Perseus said which made everyone look at him strangely.
"You will soon know." Sally said as she looked over at her father's namesake.
"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said.
"If they know your name without you telling them or them being a relative or a person who could know your name then it is a monster." Castor said nervously as he gripped his twin's hand.
"Grandmother." Sally suddenly spoke up earning herself Athena's attention.
"Yes Sally?" she asked in a nervous tone.
"I reopen my case in the debate we started last chapter." she said and gestured for Ares to continue while her grandmother looked at her in confusion while Artemis, Persephone, Hades, Hestia and Hera tensed.
"You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."
Athena narrowed her eyes at this, she had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.
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.
No one reacted at the delicious food list, they were all busy praying that the three get out of there without getting hurt.
I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.
Annabeth slurped her shake.
Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.
"With good ground." Clarisse growled, the situation was bad, those two needed to snap out of it and they needed to do that soon.
"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.
"Hissing noise?" asked Athena, looking at the demigods, but no one answered her.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Perseus said and he really did look green in the face.
"Is your stomach hurting dad?" Perses asked his father worriedly who offered his son a weak smile.
"It is more like bad memories." he said while continuing to grip the couch as those sitting with him started going over the monsters the other had fought before stiffening and the present three sons of Poseidon jumped up from their seats with ashen faces.
"GET IMEDIATELY OUT OF THERE!" they yelled in panic.
"You know what i…"
"Grandfather, please continue." Ace said before anyone could ask what the monster was.
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."
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face,
"Be happy that you don't see it." Perseus said with a shudder while some of the demigods stared at him in realization.
"I share the sentiment of Percy's siblings, get out of there." Lee said while Clarisse, Will, Katie, Reyna, Jay and Octavian also nodded their heads vehemently.
Malcolm stared at them nervously as he tried to figure out what his sister will be facing, he was sure that he knew which monster it was, but it just didn't want to come to him. This was when he felt Mitchell again trail a message on the back of his hand, it were only two letters, but they gave him the feeling as if he would be suffocating. This just could not be happening! 'Me'
but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.
"Don't talk, but get out of there." those who knew what that monster was yelled.
"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.
"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."
"A lot of business on this road?"
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."
"The first time that I find something which destroys nature a good thing." Katie whispered to Will who nodded grimly.
My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket.
The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues.
But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.
Athena suddenly gasped in horror as did the others who also finally found out who she was.
"N…no…thi…this can't be…" Athena stammered in panic.
"I told you that you went overboard grandmother." Sally said in a flat tone and Athena needed to nod reluctantly, now she understood why she had given up so easily on the debate, because her mother had meet the monster she had set into the world.
"I think we will really need to go over to punish people who offend us in which we turn them into plants." Hermes whispered to Apollo who nodded.
"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."
"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.
Everyone nodded shuddering while Athena had gone over to Annabeth and was now hugging her daughter.
"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.
"Dad is the only one who can feel sad for a monster." Luke mumbled to himself.
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,
"I was not jealous!" Athena yelled as she glared at the puddle on the throne. "Poseidon, get up and talk to that delusional bimbo that I was not in any way jealous!" she yelled at the spot of water while others were unsure if the should tell her that Medusa was in the book and not here in person, but decided that it would be healthier if they don't point it out to her.
long ago, when I was young.I had a... a boyfriend,
"Only lover." Amphitrite huffed, she might go out and find this monster and turn her into something with less dangerous powers.
you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart.
"YOU WERE ACTING LIKE CANICLES IN SPRING IN MY TEMPLE, OF COURSE I WOULD BREAK THAT UP!" Athena yelled furiously while all present children of the Sea God blushed, they didn't need to imagine that.
She caused a terrible accident.
"If you call a curse a 'terrible accident' then the gods were quiet accident prone in their days." Misty whispered to the others.
My sisters stayed by me. 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."
I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her.
My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?
"You should have used a more restricted curse which would not have given her dangerous powers beside a hideous look." Artemis told her still worried and sheeting sister who was still hugging her daughter.
"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."
She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.
"She is used to it." Jay said.
"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.
"Get your filthy hand off of my daughter." Athena growled threateningly.
"We really should go."
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"
I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" screamed a good deal of people.
"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 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," I said.
I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"
"Look around and you will see what the harm is." Triton said in a nervous tone while he tried to ignore the fact that his mother was close to breaking his arm.
"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.
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 two young gentlemen on either side."
"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. "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, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."
"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."
The tension started to turn suffocating as everyone fixated their nervous looks at the book in Ares's hand.
She still had no camera in her hands.
"Percy—" Annabeth said.
Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth,
Everyone was too nervous to comment on that or to tease Annabeth who was now clinging to her mother.
but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.
"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."
"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.
"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.
I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.
I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.
Cue groans and the sound of ripping textile as now also Perseus got through on the couch.
Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.
I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"
More rasping—the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from ... from about where Aunty Em's head would be.
"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.
I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.
"Good," Perseus said, "fight the trance."
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."
I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens— a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.
Aunty Em.
Aunty "M."
How could I have been so stupid?
Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?
"Yes, try to remember it." Jay said, he needed to remember to know how to beat her.
But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus.
"Unfortunately is she now awake."
"APOLLO/DAD/GRANDFATHER/LORD APOLLO!"
"Sorry."
She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Athena, I know that you were offended, but in the end were you the one who had created this monster." Amphitrite said in a serious voice as she locked eyes with the wisdom goddess who nodded regretfully, she was currently experiencing what Poseidon had felt when his son was faced with a monster he had let be born, the Minotaur.
"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."
Athena was close to hyperventilating when suddenly found Annabeth herself holding a ball made with a swirling warm breeze in it filled with owl feathers which had the smell of olives.
Great, the pressure had been to much on her mother.
"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.
"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!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"
I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, 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!"
That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me.
"Good thought dad, unfortunately not by that baseball game three years ago." Luke said as he remembered when they had made a friendly tournament between all three Camps and the Hunters.
"We will run when Grover comes near us while swinging something." Travis whispered to his brother who nodded.
I dove to one side.
Thwack!
At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.
The demigods cheered at this.
"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.
Ker-whack!
"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.
Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"
I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"
"Cheer up dad, in the future will you be only having such experiences when uncle Nico visits with En." Sally said grinning, but then added as an afterthought "This is kind of the ground why our house has a shadowy corner completely devoid of anything and we never get to close to it or it might lead to some accidents."
Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. "You have to cut her head off."
"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."
"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission.
"But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You—you've got a chance."
"What? I can't—"
"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"
She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.
"That was a low blow to get him to do it." Chris told Annabeth who was still holding the ball which was her mother.
"I can't know what I will do in the future." she told him.
Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better."
She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"
"Annabeth, not the time." Katie told her friend who blushed.
"Would you speak English?"
"I am!" She tossed me the glass ball.
"Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"
"Roooaaarrr!"
"She is kind of loud for a person who is out cold." Connor said in an attempt to raise the mood somewhat, but the others ignored him.
"Maybe not," Grover corrected.
He went in for another pass with the tree branch.
"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."
The demigods nodded while somewhat under their worry and panic were the Romans really impressed that a faun would act so bravely in a fight against a monster to help.
I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.
I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.
I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.
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!"
Everybody flinched in sympathy for Grover.
"That is an experience I never wish to have." Trickster said shuddering, that will certainly hurt for a while.
Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"
I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.
But she let me approach—twenty feet, ten feet.
At this looked some confused, usually monsters never let a demigod approach them so close, if they were not under a spell from the monster.
"She is doing this because Percy looks like a younger version of his father." Persephone said in realization.
"Awww…she is still in love with Poseidon." Aphrodite cooed before she was doused in cold water, courtesy of the Queen of the Seas.
"Don't you dare bring that up, I'm fine if he will still pine after Percy's mother, but I won't allow any more exes getting into our lives." she said in a threatening tone to the love goddess.
I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.
"Uh…sorry Percy, but it is quiet the opposite, those swirls make her look better." Perseus said carefully.
"As said, grandmother went overboard on that day." Sally said while shaking her head as she looked at the ball of swirling feathers in the lap of her mother's younger version.
"Nice to know." Felix said faintly.
"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass—the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.
From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"
Medusa cackled. "Too late."
She lunged at me with her talons.
I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern—the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this, the danger was finally over.
Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.
"Eeuuwww…" come if from Aphrodite and her children while Malcolm was intently staring at the disgusted looking brunette beside him, he couldn't help it Mitchell was one minute acting like a typical child of the love goddess and in the next he makes really intelligent notices about the things which stand in the books, he even figured out that they were facing Medusa before him. He really had no clue what to think about the other, but they had other things to discuss tonight, which he hoped would turn out as false, but he feared that he was correct.
"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."
Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding 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. It was still dripping green juice.
"Two spoils of war from two mayor monsters, not bad boy." Ares said grinning like a maniac before continuing, this chapter turned out not as boring as he had thought.
"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.
"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger.
"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."
Perseus nodded at this agreeing, this was a good advice.
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.
"He will be having a mayor headache." Connor said.
"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."
He managed a bashful grin. "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."
"Agreed."
He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.
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.
Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"
Annabeth flashed me 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. 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.
"That still means that she was Athena's work and the last part, I could have lived with hearing it only once from Aphrodite." Hera said shuddering.
You probably reminded her of him."
My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"
"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable."
"You're—"
"I can see why this took five years." Silena groaned again.
"D, I think you will be pretty busy curing the Aphrodite kids from insanity." Hermes whispered to his brother who tried not to groan at the prospect.
"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"
I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!
I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.
What had Medusa said?
Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.
I got up. "I'll be back."
"What is he doing?" Michael asked in confusion.
"Something which is still a major tale on Olymphos and if you mention it half of the council cracks up at the memory while great-grandfather Zeus looks as if he would explode any second, but only screams 'Perseus Jackson'." Lance explained laughing, this was one of his grandfather's favourite stories to tell.
"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you—"
I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden.
Everyone looked over at the two rulers of the Underworld.
"They kind of fit well with grandmother's first garden in the front of the palace." Enysswe said at which everyone turned to her.
"First garden?" Persephone asked her granddaughter.
"Yep, seeing how dad is most of the time busy helping grandfather out in the Underworld are my mothers also down there and we figured out that mom's presence can get also normal plants to grow down there so you got a second garden further inside one of the palace gardens." En explained to her now really happy grandmother who jumped down from her husband's lap and hugged a furiously blushing Will before returning to her sitting place.
"Wonderful news." Demeter mumbled to herself in annoyance before flashing a dark look towards Zeus who did his best to ignore her.
According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.
"Good idea," Odysseus said approvingly.
In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.
I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:
Everyone who didn't know what would happen looked in confusion at the book when Ares suddenly broke out laughing.
"That demigod has guts, that I will certainly give him." he said with a wicked grin as he imagined all the chaos that will break loose when they get that package.
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
There was a few seconds stunned silence before a good deal of the gods broke out yelling about such behaviour, Hades watching his family in amusement while the demigods were interrogating the legacies how Percy was still alive after such a stunt. Meanwhile on the outside of the palace were the other guest more busy with laughing as they imagined the various reactions to the delivery, then be offended by it.
It took everyone a good twenty minutes to calm down and continue reading the rest of the chapter.
"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."
I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
"I am impertinent," I said.
"That he certainly is." Pollux said in a dazed tone.
I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.
She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods.
"He's a natural at that." chorused the legacies grinning while some of the others groaned.
"Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."
"So this is the end of the chapter." Ares said as he put a red feather into the book to mark where they had left of.
"So we should now all have dinner and then retire for the night." Hera said as she stood up from her throne.
"What should I do with mom?" Annabeth asked unsure as she gazed down at the feathered ball when Ares approached her.
"Give her to me, our temples are close together and I will take her home." Annabeth reluctantly agreed and handed her mother over to the god.
"Also, could I please get a bucked and some fabric to gather my husband together?" Amphitrite asked as she stood beside the throne of her husband and he water spot on it.
To be continued…
