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"
Sorry this chapter took me so long to get out. My semester got hectic: all my professors decided to start final projects basically all at the same time and returning home after was a task and a half. Either way enjoy the chapter!
We Get Advice From a Poodle
"A Poodle?" Clarisse balked.
"Oh, I love poodles!" Aphrodite clapped, giddy at the thought of the animal.
"He did help us out." Percy shrugged.
"You thought he was a stuffed animal." Annabeth snickered.
"This is true."
"You don't want to know what he thought of you two." Grover laughed in remembrance.
Hestia soaked in the laughter and began reading.
We were pretty miserable that night.
We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.
"Oh, I forgot about the night before." Percy blanched, "Was a heavy talk, right?"
"It had its layers." Grover agreed.
Percy let out a harsh exhale, his doubts were going to be aired once again. Better prepare himself.
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. I volunteered to take first watch.
Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground.
"I DO NOT snore!" said girl complains.
"Hate to burst your bubble, but you totally do Annie." Thalia grins.
Annabeth just looked scandalized.
"I think it's cute, Wise Girl." Percy commented kissing her cheek resulting in the blonde looking to him with bright eyes and a smile.
"Nice save." One of the Hermes kids muttered, lucky for them Annabeth didn't hear it.
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.
"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."
He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."
"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"
"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."
"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."
The comment resulted in glares thrown Percy's way by a few.
"What? I am technically correct, it's a reasonable explanation! Simple and understandable!"
"He does have a point… How else would you explain it easily?" Annabeth came to her boyfriend's aid.
"I will admit I was being rather short with Perce. After the bus and dealing with Medusa, camping out and the state of everything wasn't helping." Grover added.
Hestia decided to cut the growing argument short and continued reading.
He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast ...
ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."
"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"
"Percy!" Sally chastised.
"I misheard him I swear!"
"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a
searcher's license 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.
Grover gasped, "You felt that too?"
"Guess he really was waiting for us, huh?" Percy muttered.
Hermes couldn't help but smile at the obvious power of his beloved son. He missed Pan, how could he not? Hopefully this satyr really did find him.
"Tell me about the search," I said.
Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.
"I would never!"
"I know, but many have with all satyrs, so it becomes habit to hesitate."
Both Hermes and Dionysus scowl at the information, irritation clear.
"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "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."
"It's my life's dream," he said. "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?"
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?"
"No."
"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"
"None."
"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find
Pan?"
"And you were." Percy mumbled ruffling his friend's curls, much to Grover's dismay.
"That's gonna be hard to listen to, for quite a few of them." The satyr discreetly motioned to the group.
"Yeah, we'll have to play it by ear, I guess."
"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."
I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a
dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?
"Woah, harsh thoughts man." Travis exhaled.
Percy just shrugged, he had thoughts like this more often than not.
"You're always your own worst critic." Sally wisely stated, the goddesses looking towards her with well-hidden pride.
"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we
have against a god?"
"Pretty good odds I'd say." Grover smirked.
"Wait, what?!" Poseidon jerked.
"Ah, yes, uhhh I may or may not have gone against a god before." Percy scratched his head flushing.
"You dare to go against a god!" Zeus bellowed.
"I dare when they choose to endanger the many just for their enjoyment or want." The Son of the Sea replied neutrally, leaving no room for debate in his tone.
"Yup! Percy here is all for fighting for the good of the world, even the good guys when they make dumb decisions!" Connor cheerfully interjected.
"Connor, you are not helping… just quit while you're ahead." Annabeth groaned; she could tell the tension in the air was thick.
"Okie dokie!" the Stoll gave her a sloppy salute.
"You don't go fighting gods frequently, do you son?" The Earthshaker asks groaning.
"No dad, but I do um start early…" his son mutters hunkering down to hide his face.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office?
Annabeth was telling me—"
"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."
"Oh, I can just imagine the sarcasm."
"What can I say? I do excel at using it." Percy grins.
"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?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"
"It wasn't your fault, Grover!" Thalia yelled, "I chose to stay behind!"
"Didn't help when plenty blamed it on the searcher in question." Grover scowled.
"The Council?" Percy asked.
"They were the main ones."
"Of course, they were."
Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.
"Wait a minute," I 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 I
pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."
"Ugh, it was so obvious… it took us forever to realize." Percy groaned scrubbing his face.
All the campers were nodding while the gods were looking between the group confused.
"Looking back, yes, but we also didn't have a lot of information to go on." Annabeth added.
"What's obvious?" Aphrodite shocked everyone by asking.
"Well, I won't say anything exactly, but everyone was being played easily. Many things were timed a little too coincidentally."
"Basically, anything I supposedly do or get blamed for ever was never actually my fault, I was just the biggest player out in the field at the time." Percy said clearly annoyed about the fact.
"Yeah, at this point whenever it's said Percy has done something we go check with him and Annabeth if it's true or not." Chris points out.
Poseidon could be seen with a rather stoic expression on his face, but inside he was seething. Figures it's his son that gets blamed, just like his father; no doubt most of the blame coming from his youngest brother and his progeny. Hades he could understand the grudge, the Sea God certainly hasn't been best brother of the year and it's easy to hurt those closest to you when you hurt. The Earthshaker let out a slow sigh, 'well, I guess that's a part of why we're getting to read these.'
Sally was unfortunately not surprised with Percy's admittance; it made too much sense. It even happened when he was in school. Gods deciding to do the same thing? Nothing new.
"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."
"Sorry again, Uncle H." Percy apologized, shocking the other gods and some campers with his easy use of the familial title.
"It's fine, nephew-mine," the Lord of the Underworld waved him off. "As long as in the end I am proven not guilty I will ignore it."
"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur—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," I said.
"You know if there wasn't something missing the gods were looking for I'm sure they'd be talking about you, Perce." Travis joked.
"Yeah! 'Cause demigods can only be 'it' for monsters!" His brother finished.
"Funny, you are absolutely right." Hades deadpans, he knows how his Furies operate.
"Why do you think I still call her Mrs. Dodds?" Percy grinned, "She hates it, which means I love it."
"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person.
They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."
"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..." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.
I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me
was worse than petrification. "I haven't been straight with you," I told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."
"Boy…" Zeus growled.
"Oh, give it a rest brother. You'd do the same in his position." Hades admonished his sibling.
"I would never ignore my mission!"
"So, if Mother Rhea had never been kidnapped and you had to choose between her and your precious bolt, you'd take your zap stick?" Poseidon sneered.
That stopped Zeus, mouth agape. Obviously, he knew he'd choose his mother, but he wasn't about to admit it around these demigods. Turning away from his brothers he hunkered down in his chair clutching his weapon to his chest once again.
Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only
reason?"
"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."
Poseidon had barely managed to muffle his whine; Percy heard him anyway.
"I didn't mean it Dad. I was venting." He winced trying to soften the blow.
His father could only nod. The Sea God understood, of course he did; didn't mean it hurt any less to hear it.
Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not
as brave as you. 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."
"Well, it'll definitely get someone's attention." Travis snickered.
"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're
wrong. I don't care what he thinks."
Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."
"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and
we're stuck here with no money and no way west."
"'Nothing worth bragging about'! Are you kidding me Prissy?" Clarisse scowled. "What do you call the furies, minotaur, and medusa?"
"Inconvenient." He deadpanned causing many to snort and giggle.
"Wow, okay then."
"Besides we had no supplies and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing."
"Ooh," the War child had to flinch, "right." She forgot about that part.
Poseidon slung an arm over Percy's shoulder, "I am proud, you know."
"I know, it was just… hard in the beginning. Everything was still so new and I still kinda had lingering doubts that things were as real as they seemed." Percy shrugged.
Poseidon gave a noise of understanding tightening his hold on his son.
Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take
first watch, huh? You get some sleep."
I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.
In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all
around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.
The Sea God's grasp tightened once again at the description.
"Oh," Percy exhaled, "I forgot about this dream."
The other gods had tensed as well, many still sticking to their claims of denial.
"It can't be."
"Not the pit."
"Father's not…"
"You'll find out everything through each of these books, so we might as well continue." Annabeth motions for Hestia to pick up reading again.
They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the
very edge of the chasm.
Looking down made me dizzy.
The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had
a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.
"Percy, are you ever not so descriptive?" Nico shudders, "I've lived in the Underworld and seen the pit, but it's never freaked me out as much as you describing it has."
"Sorry…"
The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but
perhaps you will do.
The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.
"Well, I thought I couldn't get any more uncomfortable… turns out I was wrong." Nico hugged his knees to his chest, his father pulling him close.
Zeus still had an air of disbelief, but you could tell the dream was making him antsy. The other gods seemed to be in the same boat; many did not want to believe Kronos was rising once again, they had been lucky to not have been born yet. The idea of another war against the Titans was a nightmare come true.
They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.
A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd
dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still
squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!
"Right away with the hard bargaining." Chris says.
I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.
Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.
An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.
Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the
treacherous gods!
The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!
The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around
me.
I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.
Many were tensing in their seats, the tension in the room elevating as the story progressed.
Good, it murmured. Good.
Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!
Someone was shaking me.
My eyes opened, and it was daylight.
There was an almost unanimous exhale of relief. The group began to relax and settled in for hopefully more light topics.
"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."
"You're one to talk, Annie. You are pretty much dead to the world once you knock out." Thalia joked.
"Thals!"
"Personally, I envy you. I wish I wasn't such a light sleeper." Sally comments.
"I think all demigods are pretty heavy sleepers. Helps when we have limited time to sleep on quests." Percy shrugs.
"That doesn't make it okay."
"But it is handy."
I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my
chest. "How long was I asleep?"
"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn
chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."
My eyes had trouble focusing.
Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty,
unnaturally pink stuffed animal.
No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.
Aphrodite managed to get everyone to flinch with the pitch of her excited squeal.
"I didn't know they could be pink!" she cheered.
"They don't." Artemis muttered. "Poor thing probably isn't even a girl."
"He wasn't." Grover answered.
The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."
I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"
"Rude much?"
"I had just woken up and thought it was a stuffed toy. I didn't even know Grover could understand animals." Percy refuted.
"To be fair it is a widely known ability of satyrs that most would assume he would already know." Grover shrugged.
"We did often forget Seaweed Brain was new to this stuff. He tends to do well with just his instincts most of the time it became natural to just follow his lead. Once he got confused it was much more apparent." Annabeth detailed.
"Prissy does have the best plans out of all of us." Clarisse agrees, "And usually he's just following his gut instinct."
"Just like his father." Hestia smiles at the beaming duo before continuing.
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."
"Wait, you said it was a boy?" Connor asks.
"Yup."
"And his name is Gladiola?" Travis adds.
"Mhmm."
"Oh, that poor dog." The Stolls moan as one.
I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me,
but she looked deadly serious.
"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."
"Bet you're gonna say hello to the poodle." Nico grinned.
"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."
The poodle growled.
I said hello to the poodle.
"Ha!"
"Congrats, you didn't bet anything to win!" Percy laughed.
"Dang it! I knew I forgot something." Nico growled.
All the campers were stifling giggles while the gods looked at the two cousins, still surprised at the ease of which they interacted.
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.
"Asking the real questions." Travis comments, completely serious; the others were fighting laughter. Well other than Connor who was nodding along just as serious.
"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."
"Of course," I said. "Silly me."
"The sarcasm is strong in this one." Will snickered.
"Was that supposed to be a Star Wars joke? Because I will take it." Percy grinned.
"Just call me Obi-Wan." Will strokes his chin, not unlike said character.
"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and
we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."
"Not much of a plan, but it's a start." Hermes said.
"Better than nothing."
"Fair enough."
I thought about my dream—the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.
"Not another bus," I said warily.
"I still struggle with getting on buses. School trips don't help." Percy shuddered.
"I'm glad I don't have to be at schools anymore. Buses were only marginally better smelling than locker rooms." Grover whined rubbing his nose at the thought.
"No," Annabeth agreed.
She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark.
"There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train
leaves at noon."
"And that's it. Let's stop for the day and continue tomorrow." Hestia offered closing the book.
"Sounds good Auntie Hestia. I'm starving!" Percy groaned.
"You're always hungry Seaweed Brain. You're basically a black hole."
"You're not much better Wise Girl!"
"Don't even start!" Annabeth tackled her boyfriend, and they began to wrestle.
"Should we stop them?" Hestia asked, barely stopping herself from laughing as Percy is flipped by the daughter of Athena.
"Oh no, they'll burn energy better this way. And anyways this is pretty much how they flirt with each other." Thalia explained much to the dismay of the couple's godly parents.
"I got 5 drachmas on Annabeth winning!" Connor yells.
"I heard that Stoll! Don't think I won't help you on your next prank!" Percy yelled while avoiding Annabeth's next lunge.
"Oh, don't fight it Seaweed Brain, you know he's right." Annabeth jeered.
"Hey!"
"I say we let them just got until they crash, and we eat and rest once they stop. Start reading again after breakfast tomorrow." Sally plots.
"Might as well." Hestia nodded agreeing, noticing some of the other gods joining the campers in their cheering and planning upcoming bouts.
AN: Sorry again for taking so long to update. I can't promise any timeframe of when I will be updating for my availability to write comes and goes and I want to save my sanity and not force myself to write otherwise this story will not be as enjoyable for the both of us. Anyways I am currently on winter break so I should be able to write much more than previous and the beginning of the new semester is always much slower than the rest so fingers crossed. Thanks for sticking with me!
As always feel free to review and tell me how I'm doing or if you prefer to PM go ahead. See y'all next time!