"Er... correct me if I'm wrong..." Travis blinked in confusion, "but what kind of advice can you get from a poodle?"
"That is a fair point." Katie blinked, "No offence to poodles or anything... but I'm not sure how a dog is going to help you get to Los Angeles. Or how to get to the Underworld. Or how to get the master bolt."
"The poodle helped." Annabeth insisted, "He actually helped quite a bit."
"That would be a first for me." Jason smirked, "Come on, I want to know how a little poodle helped you guys."
Hera glared at the chattering demigods, but softened as she watched Jason speaking up, and continued reading.
We were pretty miserable that night.
"I don't blame you guys, honestly." Demeter shook her head, "You're tired, nearly got killed, and you probably have monster slime all over you. Did Medusa have some cereal?"
"She didn't have any cereal, Lady Demeter." Percy sighed.
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.
Everyone growled at this.
"Who were the humans who littered!?" Hermes scowled, angry at the beings who had contributed to the suffering of his faded son, "I'd like to give them a piece of my mind!"
"Get George and Martha to reroute all their packages!" Apollo suggested, "And disrupt their mobile data services! And scrambled their email inboxes."
We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes.
"Couldn't Prissy just use his powers to make you dry off?" Clarisse asked in confusion.
Percy flinched so subtly at the mention of his powers, that even Annabeth didn't notice; he's had a lot of practice hiding his feelings and reactions from Gabe so that he wouldn't hurt him as much.
"He's just found out he's a child of the sea." Triton stated, "He probably didn't even know how to use his powers yet. So far, his usage of his powers has only been when he's angry, or when he's hurt and desperate."
"But Uncle Poseidon couldn't like... I don't know, give him a teeny tiny nudge in the right direction?" Apollo frowned, "I doubt you'd want them to come down with pneumonia or something."
Poseidon winced, "As much as I hate to say it, I think I'd prefer my son and his companions sick for a few days rather than dead by my brother's wrath."
"For once, I agree with Barnacle Beard." Athena scowled at her father.
The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.
"Good idea. Last thing that you'd want at that point is another monster fight." Athena nodded approvingly.
We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.
Annabeth glared at Percy, remembering what he did in Tartarus, but Percy just grinned at her, his smile not quite reaching his eyes, "Hey! I got distracted by pizza! You can't blame me!"
Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground.
"I don't snore." Annabeth huffed.
Malcolm laughed, "Sure you don't, Annabeth."
Jason grinned, "You definitely do snore."
Annabeth glared at the Son of Jupiter, and Jason flinched, "I mean, not all the time! Sometimes you overwork yourself on the Argo and you just fall asleep at the dining table or something, and you do snore when that happens!"
"Everyone snores when they're tired." Percy interjected, and Zoe frowned, "The Hunters do not snore."
"Sure they do." Thalia grinned at the dead Hunter, "We don't snore when we're camping in the wild, since that would just attract more prey and monsters, but at the Artemis Cabin in camp? Half the Hunters are snoring like freight trains!"
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.
"So... do you have any apples on hand, Percy?" Nico asked, and Percy grinned while Grover turned red, and bleated, "That was one time, okay!?"
"Don't worry, we can get you apples anytime you like." Demeter smiled kindly, "Along with cereal, if you'd like."
"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."
"Who wouldn't be?" Chris grumbled, "No supplies, barely any mortal money, no transport, your clothes are wet, and two of the Big Three were out for your blood."
"Yeah. Even for quests... those are pretty miserable circumstances." Jake sighed.
"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"
Percy winced at his harsh wording, "Sorry, G-man."
"It's alright." Grover smiled at his best friend, before deciding to pull a Percy, "It was a stupid quest, anyways."
Zeus glared at the satyr, but Hera rolled her eyes at her husband, "He's not wrong. I know the bolt was important and all, but if you would just talk instead of pointing fingers, everything would be much easier."
"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.
Zeus grumbled about all the smoke and other chemicals that have been released into his domain, and no one bothered to stop him. After all, it was a legitimate issue, and Zeus wasn't in one of his hissy fits, complaining about something stupid again.
This is a terrible time to be a satyr."
"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."
Artemis snorted in amusement, "An environmentalist is an understatement."
He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be.
"Not all the humans." Grover corrected himself.
He knows that Percy didn't exactly go out of his way to collect rubbish, but the few times they had been to the beach or park, they'd always spend an hour or two picking up trash and throwing them away, all the while chatting about random topics like they were scrolling through television programs instead of cleaning rubbish.
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."
The four people who had been on the Labyrinth quest sighed, alongside Hermes and Dionysus.
"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"
"Seriously?!" Zoe groaned.
Dionysus and Hermes looked at Percy weirdly, unsure whether to be amused by the boy's antics, or insulted that he had gotten his son mixed up with a brand of cooking spray, of all things, while the other demigods were all cracking up.
"Sorry, Hermes, Mr D." Percy winced at the Messenger God and the Wine God, and Chiron tried to bow in his awkward kneeling position, "Apologies, Lord Hermes, Lord Dionysus. I'm afraid we didn't cover much of Lord Pan during our lessons."
"It's fine." Hermes sighed sadly. He couldn't exactly fault them for that, and he knew he was just upset at the fading of Pan. Dionysus just waved his hand, "No need to be so formal, Chiron."
"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"
Grover winced, "Sorry, Perce. I didn't even tell you what the searcher's license was for, and I blew up at you for that."
"It's fine. We evened out." Percy smiled back.
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's eyes widened, "You felt that too? I thought it was just me."
"I definitely felt it." Percy nodded, as Hermes turned to Grover seriously, "Pan was giving you a sign."
Apollo clapped Hermes on the back, "Don't be so strict. I can guarantee you that Grover's doing a great job! Also, that serious look doesn't suit you at all."
Grover and Hermes both shot Apollo a grin. Grover, because Apollo acknowledged his hard work, especially since they had to plunge into the Labyrinth a second time for his Lester situation, and Hermes, because his best friend was always looking out for him.
"Tell me about the search," I said.
Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.
Grover winced, "You could read that much off of me? Even in the dark?"
"It's pretty obvious." Percy sighed, "You know I'd never make fun of you for that, right? We all have dreams that seem unobtainable."
"I know that." Grover nodded, "It's just... a lot of satyrs got made fun of for wanting to search for Pan. not just because a lot of them never came back... but some people believe that there was no reason to search for him if they already had gotten news about his passing."
"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!'
Hermes started tearing up, muttering silently, "Now he really is dead."
Chris looked up at his father sadly, while the Stoll brothers shifted so they were closer to their father. The other gods looked at Hermes sympathetically; none of them liked hearing about their children dying.
When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since.
Artemis snarled angrily. She may not have been close to Pan, but she still respected him as the God of the Wild. And now, he was truly gone, because of humans.
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.
Grover let out a sad sigh, and Juniper tried to comfort him.
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."
"You kids found him in the Labyrinth, right?" Hermes asked, and the demigods (and mortal) who had been on that quest nodded.
Dionysus huffed, trying to act apathetic, "That's why he couldn't be found for so long. The Labyrinth would be the last place that any satyr would go searching for him."
"And that's why Grover's the best satyr ever." Percy stated resolutely, "He's the only Satyr that's gone into the Labyrinth and survived."
"Twice." Grover added. The duo locked eyes, and gave each other air high-fives.
"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—"
"May Uncle Ferdinand rest in peace." Hermes stated resolutely, "As well as all the satyrs who have fallen, trying to search for my son."
Hera gave Hermes a few minutes to grieve, which was very generous, by her standards. She remembered how sad she was when Jason died, how she mourned his loss, and she could sympathize.
She continued reading, ignoring the confused looks from the demigods and gods.
"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."
Everyone cheered for Grover's accomplished dream.
"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."
Grover huffed angrily, "And that stupid Polyphemus definitely wasn't helping the situation."
"You don't say." Clarisse grumbled sarcastically, remembering how the old blind cyclopes had tried to eat her... then had tried to marry her. That was just ew!
"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"
"None."
"I still wonder what happened to him. At least I found my uncle's body..." Grover sighed.
"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"
Grover grinned at Percy, "Well, you know that the best, don't you? I mean, it's literally your fatal flaw. Doing anything and everything for your friends and people you care about."
However, Grover's words didn't have the intended affect on Percy. His face twisted into something unreadable, but in a split second, Percy was smiling back at him, and Grover would seriously think that he had been imagining things if he hadn't felt a wave of sadness and... was that guilt? roll in through their empathy link.
"Yeah. I get that." Percy grinned, hoping that no one could see through his facade.
"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.
"That's just depressing." Reyna sighed, and Leo laughed, "So, who spread the depression from who? Grover to Percy, or Percy to Grover?"
"We're both depressed over how annoying you are." Percy rolled his eyes at Leo, but they could tell he was just joking.
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?
"Hey, you both suceeded eventually." Annabeth stated firmly, and Percy hugged her tightly while the satyr smiled at the girl.
"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"
Nico and Grover burst into laughter at the irony of that statement, while Hades and Ares groaned.
"What?" Percy asked, confused, because he was fairly sure that he had only won against Ares because the War God had underestimated him, and against Hades because his uncle hadn't expected him to dip in the Styx yet. If it had been a fair fight... there was no way he would have won.
And then, there was Akhlys.
Percy sucked in his breath, trying his best to keep his hands from shaking.
"Nothing." Annabeth wanted to be proud at her boyfriend for being able to take on Ares... but she couldn't help that small memory lingering at the back of her mind, the memory of how Percy choked Akhlys, how he might have gone all the way had she not stopped him.
Akhlys had turned her rage to him because Percy had tried to protect her. He had only been acting in self defense. It wasn't his fault that Tartarus brought out the very worst in people, that people had been hurting Percy for so long that it had taken falling into literal hell for him to finally snap.
And even with Tartarus messing with them, Percy had still listened to Annabeth, hadn't given in to the darkness within, and had even let Akhlys go.
What more could Annabeth ask for?
And yet, Annabeth knew that Percy would forever blame himself for that incident, another mental and emotional scar that would never heal and, if he had it his way, would fester until the the day he died. Because there was no way he was going to tell anyone about it, in fear that they'd push him away.
His fatal flaw, excessive personal loyalty. He would do anything to protect his friends and family, and that gave him the power to fight on.
And yet, that very same flaw was eating him from the inside out, as they lost friend after friend, as the circumstances grew more and more dire, and Percy had no choice but to bring out more power to fend off their foes.
"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."
"Well... at least Annabeth was asleep and didn't hear you." Katie pointed out, but Percy winced at his bad attitude, "Sorry, Wise Girl. That was mean of me."
"It's alright. We were all tired and cranky at that point in time." Annabeth sighed apologetically, "And I wasn't exactly the nicest to you as well."
"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.
"Grover." Thalia frowned at the satyr, "You do know that it was my choice to stay and protect them, right?"
"I know. But she was seven... and she was screaming that we couldn't leave you behind..." Grover shook his head, but Annabeth looked at the satyr right in the eye, "Grover. I may not have understood what exactly was going on at the time, but I did know that Thalia made her choice. I never blamed you in the first place. I would never blame you for a choice that Thalia made."
"If anything, blame my dad." Thalia offhandedly shrugged, ignoring the choking sound that came from Zeus, "Percy was right. Our camp didn't have any proper protections. Before I "died", we had to protect ourselves, even within our own camp borders."
Zeus couldn't find it in himself to tell Thalia off, and Hera turned her attention back to the book.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"
Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.
"Grover! That's a terrible way of trying to change the subject!" Hermes berated.
"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—"
Annabeth winced, "You caught on that early?"
"It was kind of obvious... the way that Grover talked about you, and how well he seemed to know how you thought." Percy stated, "And if he thought you forgave him for something, then you'd had to be pretty close. And your camp beads lined up with his keeper mission. It's have to be a pretty huge coincidence if you two didn't have some sort of history."
The demigods all stared at Percy, slack jawed.
"What?" Percy blinked uneasily. He wasn't liking the attention one bit.
"Nothing." Thalia sighed, "I don't know... I just didn't expect you to be able to read Grover that well... I mean... I get that you're super observant... but satyr mannerisms isn't exactly the easiest to translate into human mannerisms..."
Percy just shrugged, "I don't know... learning how to read people is just something I had to grow up with, I suppose."
Everyone scowled at that, especially Hera, and the goddess just glared at the book like it had offended her in some way as she continued reading.
"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him.
"Sorry, Grover." Percy sighed, but the satyr shook his head, "Seriously, Percy, you've got to stop apologising for things that aren't your fault."
"But I brought the topic up."
"No, I brought the topic up. You were just connecting the dots." Grover corrected the eighteen year old boy.
"But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest.
"This is just confusing. It definitely isn't Percy. Gods can't take each other's Symbols of Power, and I don't know why anyone would even want my father's bolt." Jason groaned, "And I know you guys were there on a field trip, but surely Chiron would be keeping an eye on you, and none of you would even think of stealing from a god. Even the Hermes kids know better than to do something like that, no offence."
"None taken." Chris, Travis and Connor scowled. Luke had known better than to steal Zeus' bolt, but he had done it anyways. It just gave them a bad name.
Something isn't what it seems."
"How about the fact that we're twelve?" Percy raised an eyebrow questioningly, "And I was literally studying Greek and Roman Mythology for Latin, emphasis on the "Mythology"."
As much as Athena hated to admit it, Percy was right. Chiron and Grover had known Percy for a year, and Chiron was even in contact with Sally. It was obvious that Percy had nothing to do with the bolt's disappearance, but he was getting blamed for stealing something he didn't even believe was real.
And gods could read people's minds if they so wished to do so. Surely Zeus could have gotten Apollo, the God of Truth, to subtly question Percy, or just read his memories outright. Then they wouldn't have to waste their time reading this book.
"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."
"Sorry, Uncle." Percy winced at his own words.
"More like we're both being blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that neither of us took, or would even have the motives to take in the first place." Hades rolled his eyes at his youngest brother.
"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?
"If she waited that long anyways, wouldn't it be clear to her that Percy didn't even know he was a demigod?" Nico asked, confused.
"I'm afraid I was... preoccupied... with matters that didn't pertain to the master bolt." Hades sighed.
Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."
"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."
"If they were being aggressive, they wouldn't be yelling questions at you." Hades calmly explained, "They'd tear you apart before you'd even notice them."
"Gee, thanks for the heads up, Uncle." Percy sarcastically sighed, which elicited more snickering from his friends, as well as the two immature gods.
"See? King of Sassy Sarcasm!" Connor and Travis both lit up, and the demigods all burst into laughter.
Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"
"Asking about me," I said.
"Percy, Percy, Percy..." Apollo shook his head, grinning teasingly, "You do know that you aren't an "it", right?"
"I sure got called that enough times." Percy grumbled harshly, "Who knows?"
Once again, everyone got upset at how Percy was treated when he was young. Hestia shot Hera a glance that urged her to continue reading before Poseidon or Hephaestus blew up a volcano or something; Poseidon was definitely mad at the treatment of his child, and Hephaestus was more than familiar with extremely sub-par parental figures that he couldn't help but get upset for Percy.
"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."
"Okay, so Lord Pl.. Lord Hades is either looking for the bolt, or he's lost something as well? And if it's the latter... then they're both just taking it out on Percy because he's Lord Poseidon's son?" Frank frowned.
"You can drop the "Lord", Frank. No need to be so formal with me." Poseidon just smiled at Frank, "And I'm afraid you are correct."
"Uh... are we're related too?" Triton asked, looking at Frank in confusion. He had initially been overwhelmed by Percy's presence, but now that he had somewhat settled things with his half-brother, he had some sort of odd feeling... like there was another being in the throne room that also had the blood of the seas, even if it was nowhere near as strong as Percy's.
And now that Triton had his attention on Frank, due to his father's conversation, he could confirm that odd feeling had been emanating from the Praetor.
"Periclymenus, Argonaut, Legacy of Poseidon." Frank explained, and Triton nodded, "Ah. Well, at the very least, you definitely seem to be less heart-attack inducing than Percy over there."
"Hey!" Everyone laughed at Percy's indignant outburst.
"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.
"Not to be mean, but how did you expect Prissy to have the answer? He didn't even have any of the basic demigod knowledge, and I thought Grover of all beings would know that, given that you hung out with Prissy for a whole year before camp." Clarisse raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Well, Perrrcy nearly figured out what happened between Annabeth and I." Grover defended himself nervously, "I thought he might be able to put more dots togetherrr if I told him more!"
I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification.
"I'd rather have my Uncles angry at me, thank you very much. At least I won't be dead yet." Percy snorted, "Until Lord Zeus decides to smite me."
"And I'm not going to let him do that." Poseidon glared at his brother.
"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."
Zeus grumbled something about how important his bolt was, while Thalia rolled her eyes, "Even I could tell, Kelp Head!"
"But you were a tree!" Percy stuck his tongue out at Thalia.
"Well, true, but if I weren't a tree, I'm sure I would have known." Thalia retorted.
"If you weren't a tree, you'd be in the Underworld." Percy countered.
That argument did nothing to help Zeus' mood, but he couldn't hurt Percy without angering Hades and Poseidon, and probably Artemis, Apollo and Hermes as well. Instead, he thundered, "Can we stop talking about whether my daughter should be dead or not!?"
Percy and Thalia just glared at Zeus, but remained quiet, and Hera continued reading.
Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"
Annabeth looked up, "That wasn't the only reason? What else could he want out of this quest?"
"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."
"Percy, my dear boy." Hermes stifled his laughter, "Don't bring up something if you want to hide it. You're practically admitting that you want to help Uncle P."
Amphitrite smiled down at Percy. Sure, the boy might be disrespectful to the gods, but he was still loyal to his father, even if he didn't know Poseidon.
Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you.
"You're plenty brave yourself, G-man. No ordinary satyr would take on a Gorgon with flying shoes and a tree branch, especially without being able to see." Percy turned to Grover, and the satyr grinned, "Well, your bravery is contagious, man. We might have to classify it as a new disease!"
"We can call it Percititis!"
"Don't be silly, Connor! Percititis is where you think the same as Percy!" Travis corrected his brother, "We need a name when Percy's traits start spreading to other people!"
"I hate you guys!" Percy complained, but the Stoll Brothers merely grinned back at Percy, "Nah! You love us!"
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.
"Not just that, he was really angry and didn't think before acting." Thalia shook her head affectionately at her cousin.
"Either way, I am proud of you, Percy." Poseidon looked down at Percy, smiling kindly, and everyone pretended not to notice the watery smile that the Son of the Sea God was trying to hide.
You wanted him to notice what you'd done."
"Well, that's one way to make sure he definitely notices you!" Apollo burst into laughter at the reminder of what Percy had done, "I'd imagine it would be really hard to miss that!"
"Mail it to his underwater palace then!" Zeus yelled, "And don't address it to all of us!"
"Well, he didn't know about the underwater palace. He just learnt about Olympus." Demeter rolled her eyes, "Seriously, brother, have some cereal. It'll help you clear your head."
"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."
Grover snorted, "You were definitely lying. One hundred percent!"
"Well, no one told me that satyrs could read emotions!" Percy laughed.
Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."
"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about.
"Erm... excuse me?" Pollux looked at Percy incredulously, "You defeated a Kindly One, a Minotaur, two more Kindly Ones, and then Medusa? How's that not anything worth bragging about?"
Percy just raised an eyebrow at Pollux questioningly.
We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."
"Now that you put it like that... it's just depressing." Apollo shook his head, "But that's Father's fault, not yours. Those monsters you defeated, go brag about them!"
"Pretty sure we had more pressing matters at hand." Percy deadpanned, "And even if they were worth bragging about, there'd be no one to brag to if the gods are busy whacking each other during World War III."
"Fair point." Calypso shrugged, Annabeth narrowed his eyes at Percy worriedly. The others seemed to have brushed it off, but she caught onto the "even if they were worth bragging about" part like a fish on a baited hook. She really needed to talk to Percy about his complete lack of self esteem.
Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."
"Oh, he's not going to like that." Nico shook his head.
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.
"Grover always cheats with that!" Percy complained good naturedly, "I can't argue with him if I'm asleep!"
"That's the point, Prissy." Clarisse deadpanned, knowing just how stubborn Percy could be, especially when it came to taking watch over taking care of himself; she's had enough experience with the Son of Poseidon when Tantalus was at camp.
In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit.
Percy immediately tensed up, and tightened his grip around Annabeth. His girlfriend spared a glance at him, and she could immediately tell what the Son of Poseidon was thinking about, and she shuddered.
"Oh..." Grover's expression twisted into that of horror, as his eyes widened, "It's that place..."
Hades immediately realized which pit the trio were talking about, and he glanced around at the demigods, more specifically, the Seven who had travelled onboard the Argo II. Some of them had fallen in, and somehow made their way out.
Maybe it wasn't the exact same entrance they had used to enter Tartarus, but he was fairly sure that none of the demigods wanted to enter Tartarus in the first place.
Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.
Hades frowned, "Spirits don't usually go near that chasm."
They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.
"But why!?" Poseidon squeaked out, "Please get away from that hole. Actually, please don't go the Underworld in the first place."
"It's just a dream, brother." Hestia comforted her brother, "Perseus will be fine. You have proof right in front of you that he's alright."
Looking down made me dizzy.
Thalia winced, being reminded of her own fear of heights.
The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless.
Nico shuddered and shook his head, "Not bottomless."
Will wrapped his arms comfortingly around the Son of Hades, letting the younger boy lean into his chest as he tried to block out the memories of his solo trip into the pit.
Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.
"Even the boy could tell!" Hera rolled her eyes as she interrupted herself, glaring at Zeus, "And just two weeks ago, he thought we were all myths!"
"Because logically, it shouldn't be him!" Zeus thundered, "If it weren't for that child, he wouldn't have the chance to rise!"
"Hey! Don't bring my kid into this!" Hermes growled, "Even if he didn't join him, he would have manipulated someone else into doing his bidding! He would have rising eventually!"
"Dude..." Leo looked around at the three arguing gods, "Who is a what now? Who are we talking about again? Cause I totally lost track at the second "he"."
"Kronos." Percy shook his head, which immediately caught the attention of trio, "Seriously, can we just stop with the pronoun game and continue this reading, please, Lady Hera?"
Apollo snorted in amusement, and Hermes sank back into his seat, pulling Travis and Connor closer as he pouted. Zeus glowered at Percy, but Hera just glared at him, before continuing.
The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.
"Weak?!" Annabeth spluttered angrily, "Young, yes, we were twelve! But weak?!"
"Annabeth, you're talking to a book." Silena deadpanned.
"I know that!" Annabeth groaned.
The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.
The tension in the room continued to grow, and everyone was listening quietly.
They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.
"I want you dead and never to come back ever again. Can you give me that? Because if so, I'd totally barter with you." Percy asked sarcastically, breaking the silence.
Leo and the Stoll Brothers burst into hysterical laughter, while the Greek demigods were all chuckling under their breath, or trying to stifle their laughter with their hands.
"You shouldn't be bartering with our Father at all!" Zeus growled, but Poseidon rolled his eyes, "Seriously? Can't you take a joke?"
"I don't even think he understood the joke. Or that it was a joke in the first place." Hades stated, with an amused twinkle in his eyes, "No wonder Father mistook him for a rock."
"Enough with the rocks already." Zeus groaned, but his two older brothers just snickered at him.
A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold.
Hera growled at the book, "Using his mother against him!? That's just low!"
"He's called the Crooked One for a reason, Sister." Demeter sighed, "He's trying to manipulate the poor boy."
The demigods could tell just how serious Demeter was, as she didn't mention anything about cereal.
Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!
Poseidon glared at the book. As much as he hated the fact that Hades had, yet again, abducted another woman against her will (though Persephone definitely didn't seem too upset about her marriage), he still preferred that Sally was in the hands of his brother rather than his father.
Hades might be the God of the Dead, but he wasn't cruel and sadistic, and Poseidon knew that he definitely wouldn't hurt Sally for no reason, especially since he was using her as a bargaining chip against Percy.
I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.
Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.
"Stupid farmer Titan of harvest." Percy grumbled, "Go reap some wheat instead."
There was silence, as everyone stared at the Son of Poseidon weirdly, before they all burst into laughter.
"Reap... some... wheat..." Connor cackled, unable to breathe as he was laughing so hard. Poseidon nearly tumbled out of his seat with laughter, as Hestia let out a light chuckle. Hera, Zeus and Hades were snickering, while Demeter was cheering about gardening and agricultural scythes.
It took some time, but eventually, everyone managed to calm down and stop laughing. Poseidon and Hestia conjured up enough water for everyone, and Hera continued.
An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.
"I would suggest getting out of there as fast as possible." Michael stated dryly.
"You think we didn't know that?" Annabeth asked.
Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!
"But you don't even have the bolt!?" Piper asked, "How are you supposed to bring him the bolt if you didn't even have it?"
"Maybe he was expecting Percy to somehow find the bolt before heading to the Underworld?" Jason reasoned, still confused, "But that would mean that Lord Hades definitely doesn't have the bolt in the first place, and he knows it."
The Greek demigods all shared a look. Of course Kronos would know that Luke stole the bolt, and that Percy had chanced upon Ares and they fought...
They still weren't too sure how the God of War fit into this entire situation, but given that Zeus was threatening war over the missing bolt... they could see how that would be enticing to Ares. Though they were fairly sure that Ares wasn't that dumb as to toss Kronos the lightning bolt just to watch his father and uncles fight.
The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!
"Yes. Please wake up." Will shuddered, "Or get away from that place in your dream... somehow."
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.
"Well, we all know that Percy comes out live and well, so don't worry!" Leo said cheerily, immediately clearing the tension in the room.
The gods all looked relieved for a second, as the demigods let out fake chuckles. Kronos might not have been able to pull Percy into the pit, but eventually, he had ended up in there anyways.
Good, it murmured. Good.
Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!
Someone was shaking me.
Beckendorf let out a sigh of relief, "Good. That was one terrifying dream for a twelve year old."
"Are your dreams always like that?" Athena asked curiously. She knew that gods sometimes visited their children in dreams, but other than that, she didn't know anything about demigod dreams at all.
"Yeah. But the Big Three kids, specifically Percy, usually have more vivid dreams than the most of us." Annabeth sighed.
"This was nothing." Percy frowned, "It gets worse."
The gods all froze. If a dream about getting pulled into Tartarus by Kronos was considered nothing... then just how bad did their dreams get?
My eyes opened, and it was daylight.
"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."
"No, that's Nico." Thalia grinned, and Will threw a pillow at her, since Nico was still snuggled cozily in his arms.
I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. "How long was I asleep?"
"Sorry." Percy winced.
Annabeth and Grover blinked at him, "For... what?"
"You know... for not apologizing that time for not taking watch..."
The Daughter of Athena just stared at him with the most unimpressed expression on her face, and smacked him lightly, "Seriously? You had a dream like that, and the thing you decide to focus on is not taking watch?"
"Well... yeah? I got to sleep through the entire thing, and you and Grover had to pick up the slack for me..." Percy tried to argue, but Annabeth used her hand to cover his mouth, "Seaweed Brain, really, you need to learn to stop apologizing for things that are out of your control."
"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar.
Rachel whistled, "Man. Those corn chips must have taken forever to cook!"
Annabeth glared at her, before they both burst out laughing.
"And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."
My eyes had trouble focusing.
"Honestly, the first time I saw him, I thought I was hallucinating or something." Grover admitted.
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.
Thalia, Zoe and Artemis all looked horrified.
"Why is the poodle pink!?" Artemis hissed.
"That sounds adorable!" Aphrodite squealed, but Artemis glared at her, "It's not! Poodles aren't naturally pink! And I don't even know what kind of chemicals they use in all that dye -"
"Pink is such a cute colour!"
"Not on poodles! Or on the fur of any living animal!"
Hera just rolled her eyes as the two bickered.
The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."
I blinked. "Are you… talking to that thing?"
Zoe raised an eyebrow at Percy.
Percy looked at her sheepishly, "I think I still thought Grover was talking to a stuffed toy."
The poodle growled.
"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."
"Who dyed a male animal pink?" Clarisse blinked in bewilderment, "Not to be sexist or anything, but seriously?"
"You can talk to animals?"
"No, duh, Pierce Johnson!" Dionysus rolled his eyes.
"Mr D, shall I remind you that he didn't watch the orientation video, and Latin lessons do not usually cover topics about satyr's abilities"? Chiron asked.
The wine god merely shrugged, "Whatever."
Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."
"Great. Now we have to introduce ourselves to every single dog and cat we meet on the streets!" Connor groaned, but Travis lit up, "That would be the best prank ever! Just imagine how confused everyone would look when we go to that dog part and just introduce ourselves to all the doggos and puppers, but not their owners!"
Connor grinned back, "That does sound epic! We should totally do that!"
I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.
"First off, I'm not sure where or how we'd get a pink poodle on our quest with no supplies." Annabeth shook her head, "Secondly, why would we be playing a practical joke on a quest?"
"To keep things light." The three Sons of Hermes said in sync, while Hermes looked at his kids proudly.
"I had a dream where some evil voice was using my mom as a bargaining chip, and then I see a pink poodle. What was I supposed to think!?" Percy defended himself.
"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."
"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."
The demigods all burst out laughing.
"Of course! Percy would listen to Annabeth, and no one else!" Silena giggled, and Katie nodded, "Yep! If anyone can get Percy to say hello to a pink poodle, it's Annabeth."
The poodle growled.
I said hello to the poodle.
They all dissolved into even more laughter. Even Zoe and Artemis looked amused.
Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation.
Apollo raised an eyebrow, "Is it just me... or does that sound like they just happened to meet at a bar or a nightclub, and Grover started hitting on Gladiola? Or Gladiola started hitting on Grover?"
The demigods, as well as some of the gods, started snickering, while Artemis shook her head, "I don't understand how we're twins."
The poodle had run away from a rich local family,
"Of course!" Piper groaned, "It's always the rich people that do weird stuff to their pets."
"Like dressing them up in clothes isn't enough!" Rachel added in agreement.
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.
"That is one nice poodle." Apollo grinned.
"So you just gave him back?" Pollux asked; he figured Grover would want to set that poor dog free.
"Gladiola told me that if he could escape once, he could escape again." Grover shrugged, "I was asking him for directions, really, and he was the one that suggested the reward money."
"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.
"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."
"I don't really get that." Percy scratched his head, "How do animals know how to read? Why do they know how to read in the first place? It's not like trees in the wild and plastered with maps and directions and stuff like that?"
"That is a valid question, but animals are smarter than you'd think." Grover shrugged, "Probably basic knowledge from living in cities for so long, and maybe some nature magic."
"So... if you had a dog in New York, and you brought it to Spain, would the dog be like... super confused because they can only read English and not Spanish?" Leo asked curiously.
"I don't know. Of course, we're never going to try that." Grover shut down Leo's suggestion before he even voiced it.
"Of course," I said. "Silly me."
"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."
"Simple. Yeah. Except two hundred dollars is nowhere near enough to get three kids all the way to Los Angeles." Hermes shook his head, "If my calculations are correct, I'd say it might be enough to get to Denver, give or take a station."
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.
"Okay, we really need to deal with Percy's pessimistic thoughts." Thalia shook her head.
"Not another bus," I said warily.
"So... you hear the The Crooked One in a dream, and your mother is being used to barter with you..." Malcolm trailed off, "And you're worried about a bus?"
"Let's just say I have no love for buses after all the field trips I've been on, and the last two bus rides put such a huge twist in my toga that I had to wrestle with my bedsheets for a good five minutes just to get it off." Percy stated.
Frank and Hazel snickered, as Reyna looked amused, "You sound like you had first-hand experience with that."
"Yeah. The day before the Senate meeting that you guys arrived on the Argo II, we tried to help Percy with his toga so we didn't have to rush in the morning." Frank grinned at Percy, and Hazel continued, "We got it on, Percy tried to walk, and somehow tripped. He did spend quite some time on the floor trying to wiggle free."
The demigods all laughed, and Percy grinned at his friends. He didn't mind being the butt of a joke, as long as it made them all happy.
"No," Annabeth agreed.
She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrack station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."
"That's good." Hermes nodded, "Even if you won't be able to get to Los Angeles, you can get more rest on the train, and see what other free supplies you could maybe snag on board."
"Like pickpocketing!" Connor grinned.
Percy frowned, "We weren't going to steal from other passengers!"
"You still need to get from Denver to Los Angeles. And you need some form of transportation. You wouldn't be able to get there on foot alone." Travis reasoned.
"Percy already has the police after him." Grover sighed, "We don't need more of a reason for him to be arrested."
"But still!"
Hera just glared at Travis, and teleported the book onto his lap, "If you can talk that much, you can read."
Travis just pouted, but he flipped open the book to the correct chapter, and stared at the title.
"Uh..."
"What is it?" Apollo asked, as Travis winced, reading the title out loud.
