Disclaimer:

I DO NOT own this series. That goes to the wonderful Rick Riordan and Hyperion Books. I am just borrowing the story and characters. I will say that the story lines will be written down because it makes it much easier to follow along and know the current placement, especially if it has been a while since reading the book. Also, this is not beta'd so there will most likely be a few mistakes, feel free to let me know. Enjoy!

Oh, this is also only my second story ever so please be gentle. I've been really enjoying getting to share how I would imagine characters would react to their tales and I hope to continue to do so.

Book

'thoughts'

"speech"

Hello, sorry this chapter has come so late! My internet crapped out and I was only able to get this uploaded today. Bright side is the next chapter should be up in a day or so and this weekend I should be able to get a good chunk of the next book chapter started. Anyway, enjoy!

My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

As soon as the Messenger God read the chapter title Percy and Grover went rigid. Sally, on the other hand, let out a deep sigh. Oh boy, this was going to be interesting.

Poseidon looked to the three worried at what was to come. Would this be as bad as he imagined? Worse? The Sea God clenched his hands into fists trying to control his nerves.

Hermes looked around the room and decided to start reading.

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

"Ah, my kind of driving!" Ares cheered.

"And you wonder why I'm never surprised to see you in my infirmary." Apollo snickers.

"That bike of yours is such a death trap." Aphrodite states surprising the War God since she had never said anything of the sort before. He looked to her questioningly with barely hidden rage.

"Oh, you have to know I hate that bike. Why do you think we always took my car?" the goddess asks sarcastic. That took the god back a bit, he always assumed it was because the car allowed for ease of… activities.

The War God's thoughts were apparently obvious based off the look on his face, brining looks of disgust to everyone's face, not that the God himself noticed.

Surprise was clear on the faces of the virgin goddesses who were still hesitant about their thoughts of the male demi-gods. Artemis was easily beginning to see that this group was not as insufferable as other males; Athena on the other hand was still very against the boys, especially the Sea God's son who seemed too close to her daughter for her liking.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo—lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

"Wow, thanks man." Grover deadpanned.

"No problem, G-man." Percy smirked.

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom…know each other?"

"You couldn't have found a less awkward way to ask that?!" Annabeth laughed out gasping for breath.

"You know me… I'm awkward at the best moment." Percy shrugged.

Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

"Wow, stalker alert!" Travis grinned.

"I am not a stalker!" Grover yelled.

"Uh huh. Totally not a stalker… just weirdly following someone around for information." Connor sniggers.

Grover flushed, though it was unclear if it was from anger or embarrassment.

"Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Um…what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

"Bad idea Perry." Dionysus mutters behind his magazine.

"How was I supposed to know!" Percy threw up his hands.

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

Everyone looks to Hermes in shock at the amazingly accurate bleat.

"What?" Hermes looks around confused.

"That was scary similar to a satyr." Grover stated slowly.

"Well, Pan is my son. I've heard him enough to easily replicate it." The Messenger God pointed out.

"Huh, point taken." Percy muttered.

Hermes decided to start reading again while everyone was quiet.

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter." Nico drawled.

Hermes snorted and read out the next line.

"You just said it didn't matter."

"No!" Nico fake cried causing the others to laugh.

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like…Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

"That's what you choose to focus on?!" Clarisse asks incredulous.

"Sorry for wanting confirmation that I wasn't going insane after months of thinking I was!" Percy yelled irritated.

"Ah, right." Clarisse muttered.

At Percy's claim Chiron had to hide a wince. 'Maybe using the Mist was ill-timed.'

"Of course."

"Then why—"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"Grover!" Many of the demi-gods tell.

"Well, I was technically correct…" Grover said, "… at the time anyways."

At that admission Poseidon turned toward his brother with a hardy glare only to be stopped by a hand settling on his arm. Turning he finds his son giving him a look of warning.

"Don't jump to conclusions, Dad. Anything Uncle Hades does during this quest was reasonable since he didn't know any different." Percy explains.

At that the Sea God relents still nervous as to what would happen. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Underworld was surprised at the ease his brother's son called him uncle. It was rare to hear a demi-god refer to him positively.

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.

My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to…when someone's about to die."

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Huh?" Travis asks.

"Did you even understand that?" Connor questions.

"I didn't understand it…" Hermes muttered, "…and I'm the one who read it."

Athena and Annabeth roll their eyes exasperated, Annabeth's more playful than her mother's.

Hermes decided to move past the confusing section and continue.

"Boys!" my mom said.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

"Gosh, we were just overloading you, huh sweetie?" Sally groans.

"Uh, probably." Percy said rubbing his neck, "Honestly, I try to not think about this much. It wasn't a great beginning to camp."

The other demi-gods wince at the claim. It was a tough just to get to camp, let alone a child of the Big Three. Out of all the ones they knew, Nico's was probably the easiest and that was really because of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover.

Meanwhile, Sally was wincing at the current memory while Poseidon was looking between his son and ex-lover concern growing by the second.

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.

Then I thought about Mr. Brunner…and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

"What happened?!" Poseidon growled grabbing Percy and Sally close.

"Um, it'll probably explain considering how detailed this has been so far." Percy mumbled lost in memories.

I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay.…"

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

"No! Not Goat-boy!" Travis and Connor fake cried.

"Shut up you two! We wanna hear the story!" Clarisse yelled whacking them on the heads.

Simultaneously, Poseidon was giving is younger brother a glare that, if he were his elder brother, Zeus would be dead. Zeus would never admit it, but Poseidon did worry him more so than Hades.

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!

"Aw thanks, Perce." Grover smiled.

"Sure, Goat-boy." Percy grinned.

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

The demi-gods burst into laughter, a few of the gods quietly joining.

"Ah, that's our Goat-boy!" Thalia cheered.

"Shut up." Grover flushed.

"Percy," my mother said, "we have to…" Her voice faltered.

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

"Is that?" Chris whispers.

"Uh huh." Annabeth replies soft looking to Sally and Percy worried.

Poseidon seemed to have caught on to who was after his family and moved his glare to his older brother. Hades refused to show is fear and hid his shutter at the look.

I swallowed hard. "Who is—"

"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"Hey, it's me!" Thalia mentioned.

"Gotta point you out, Pinecone Head." Percy sniggered.

"What?"

Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree–sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too."

"She can't, boy." Hera sneered.

"How was he supposed to know that?!" Annabeth sneered right back causing the Gods to look to her upset. However, looking among the other children they were surprised to see additional looks of disgust towards the goddess.

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head…was his head. And the points that looked like horns…

"Jeez, you're slow kid." Ares snarked wishing for some kind of action, this story was boring.

The god didn't seem to realize that there was no one even listening to him, well other than his mother.

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But…"

"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."

I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

Nico snorted, "Grover the goat."

The other demi-gods fighting to stifle their giggles at Grover's flushed face.

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you—"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."

'Loyalty. Loyal to a fault.' Athena thought. 'Dangerous flaw to have.'

I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.

Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear —I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

It took a minute to conjure up that image in everyone's heads, so once it finally set in of course someone had to make a comment.

"I'm sorry, did you say underwear?" Chris asks baffled at the thought.

"Yeah, it was definitely a weird one. Never seen another monster wear something like that again." Percy stated trying to think back on others he had fought.

Poseidon was struggling between laughing at the picture or clutching his family closer. The idea that they had already experienced this and came out fine didn't assure him in the slightest.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

The demi-gods shuddered.

"Percy, your explanations make me feel more scared than the actual monsters." Chris shuddered.

"Sorry…" said boy apologized.

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

'Smart woman. Shame she fell for the Sea Idiot.' Athena silently mused. If the mortal had fallen for any other god, she would have been less annoyed and more favorable.

"But he's the Min—"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

"Yeah, don't think Percy will ever take that lesson to heart." Annabeth muses while Grover groans in agreement. The Sea God's worry builds more at the concurring nods from the other children.

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.

I glanced behind me again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

"Hehe, oops." Nico snickers.

Oops.

The demi-gods just giggle, Nico not even attempting to joke about sounding like his cousin.

"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way—directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

"Keeping me near you? But—"

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

He'd smelled us.

The tension in the room seemed to sky-rocket. All the demi-gods grew tense, Percy and his mother grow quieter while lost in thought. Annabeth was squeezing Percy's hand trying to give him some kind of support, but this was one fight of her boyfriend's that she didn't know how to handle. Yes, she knew he survived, but she doesn't know how he felt or what it was like for him. It had been his first real monster after all.

The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.

My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.

The tension seemed to ease some at that.

Hermes kept reading hoping to get through this section with as little stress as possible, not that it seemed to be happening that way.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"No…" Poseidon whimpered, hugging Sally to him. He was so confused, Sally was here and the children obviously knew her, so how did they get out of this?

"Mom!"

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply…gone.

Poseidon straightened up some, giving Hades a short nod of thanks. The Lord of the Underworld nodded back but was still curious. Just why would he take the mortal? It didn't really make any sense.

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

"Ooh, Percy's angry." Travis sing-songed.

The gods look to the boy confused at the comment. It was his brother that provided an answer.

"An angry Percy is a scary Percy. He's like a demon when he's like that." Connor stated.

The other demi-gods were making sounds of agreement. Nico was remembering Percy after bathing in the Styx, Annabeth was thinking back during the war against battalions of soldiers, Thalia was remembering Percy at the Museum against the skeletons and the Nemean Lion, and well you get the idea.

The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I couldn't allow that.

I stripped off my red rain jacket.

"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Subpar insults, but I'll blame it on the situation, Prissy." Clarisse joked trying to lighten the mood.

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.

I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

"Decent plan." Ares muttered. 'Not that it would do much, he doesn't even have a weapon.'

But it didn't happen like that.

"Of course, it didn't." Annabeth says. "Percy's plans never really work out, unless it seems like they'd never work."

That didn't bring any confidence to Poseidon.

'Then again, my plans tend to go the same way.' The Sea God mused, getting happier. It seemed his son was more like him than at face-value.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

At that Hermes had to pause and look to Percy amazed, the other gods were quick to follow. Just how powerful was this kid?

Hermes looked back to the book and relaxed slightly at the next lines.

How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like highoctane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.

"Ha good try kid, but no dice." Ares gaffawed.

The children try to keep straight faces, fully aware of Percy's first spoil of war.

The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

"Wait, that's how you got the horn?" Nico asked awed. He had always believed Percy was just lucky to have it after defeating the Minotaur an easier way.

Percy shrugged, he'd never believed it was such a big deal. "The rain was helping, don't know what to tell ya. I'm not that powerful."

Clarisse chuffed "You can't be serious Prissy? You're the strongest demi-god at camp."

"No I'm not."

"Percy, Mount ." Annabeth deadpans causing the demi-gods, Grover and Sally to go wide-eyed remembering what happened with the volcano.

"That's different."

"No son, this is baffling. Rain shouldn't make you feel stronger like that, only the sea would give you a strong power boost." Poseidon explains slowly.

"But all water gives me a boost, always has. Only difference is for how long." Percy says confused.

"Interesting." Hades says. At this point he was rather resigned to the fact that one of his children was not the Chosen One, but based off what he could sense, it was better that way.

Zeus on the other hand was fuming. No demi-god should be that powerful, excluding his own, not that he would willingly admit that.

The monster charged. Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.

The monster was gone.

"Holy Hera. That was awesome." Connor whispered.

Hera had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from cursing the boy using her name. No, she wouldn't sink to their level.

Poseidon had puffed up with pride for his son. He was choosing to focus on Percy's victory rather than the apparently temporary loss of Sally.

Percy, meanwhile, was trying to disappear into the couch, uncomfortable with all the stares he was getting.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.

The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

Both Percy and Annabeth went bright red, the demi-gods snickering at the two.

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

"And done. Whew, no reading for me for a while, 'kay?" Hermes exhaled.

"A princess, ey Perce?" Thalia chuckled ruffling Percy's hair.

"Don't forget, 'He's the one' Thals." Grover added nudging Annabeth.

The couple was trying their hardest to disappear, Annabeth longing for her invisibility cap.

Hestia decided to cut in and spare the couple, "Well, let's break for food. Shall we?"

That caused all the demi-gods to straighten, the thought of food exciting them.

AN: And there's the chapter. Sorry again that this is later than expected. I'm hoping my internet will hold and I won't need to get it fixed again so fingers crossed. I'm hoping to have our interlude up in a day or so and then start the next chapter right after which I should be able to start tomorrow easily. Here's hoping.

As always feel free to comment/review or if you prefer to PM me go ahead. I welcome feedback and love reading what y'all think so far. See y'all next time.