This chapter may be fairly boring at the beginning, but at the end you'll (probably) be begging for the next chapter. Another cliffie, of course. I love to torment you readers…
Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. Or am I?
(Okay, I was kidding. I am NOT Rick Riordan. For anyone who thought I was, shame on you.)
I was falling to my death, again. Thalia was screaming, Grover was yelling, I was silent, and Tyson was still asleep. I was stunned. What in Hades is Zeus thinking? He just blasted his daughter, and me to our deaths! I couldn't think much probably because we were falling at about ten million miles per hour.
Ok, maybe not that much.
I couldn't see what was below us, but I had a sickening feeling that I'd end up speared on the antenna of the Sears Tower or something. Zeus didn't leave loose ends (usually).
It came into view. It was a really, really big lake. Thank the gods. I prayed to Poseidon. Father, help me! A huge hand-like thing burst out of the water, taking Thalia, Tyson, Grover, and me in its wet grip. Thalia shuddered. She hated water.
We landed lightly on the lake. Thalia immediately started flailing and began to sink. Grover was desperately treading water, and Tyson had woken up. He was swimming easily, like me, but he looked confused. I would explain later.
I went under to get Thalia. I saw her still flailing, bubbles flying from her mouth. I grabbed her by the arm and willed the bubbles to come to us. The bubbles came…but they weren't strong enough. They popped as soon as they reached us. I was desperate. The air! I thought. I brought water up so it enveloped the air, creating huge bubbles. I drew the bubbles toward Thalia and myself, and this time the bubble held.
Thalia glared at me. "What were you thinking?" she yelled. "I could've got back up myself!"
I chose not to answer that. I willed the currents to rise to the surface. The bubble popped as soon as it came into contact with the air. Grover eyed me with an air of being about to burst out laughing.
I looked down at my arm. It was still intertwined with Thalia's. I hastily pulled it away. Thalia seemed not to notice.
We swam back to shore, which was fortunately close by. I helped the others with currents of water pushing at their backs. We climbed up gingerly, and Grover puffed a few notes on his reed pipes.
"Where the heck are we?" I asked him.
"Just south of Lake Erie." He gestured towards the humongous lake.
"How did you know that?" I asked him, amazed.
"It's one of those 'find path' songs," he said. "I perfected it over the fall."
I nodded, and turned to Tyson. He was still confused. "We fell from the plane." I told him.
He said, "We fell from a plane? Into the water?"
"Yes," I told him. "We did."
Thalia was outraged. "Why did Zeus just try to strike me out of the sky? I mean, seriously, I'm his daughter!"
I said nothing to this ominous pronouncement. She was right. Zeus was trying to kill us. What if Luke was right? No, he couldn't be right. It wasn't possible.
"Luke was right," she raged on. "The gods have betrayed us."
Ok, that was going too far. "That's ridiculous!"
She turned her intense eyes on me. "How else are you supposed to explain this? A random gathering of electrons?"
I had no idea what she was talking about. I guess that was the scientific explanation of lightning. "Maybe Zeus got drunk and he-"
Thunder rumbled across the now-clear sky. "O-okay, forget I said anything."
"We need to find shelter," Thalia said.
"Well, duh." I rolled my eyes. "We can just stay here for the night. We have some food in our packs and water from the lake."
"All right," Thalia didn't seem too happy about it. "How are we going to get to L.A.?"
I had almost forgotten about the quest. Almost. Annabeth's last words rang in my head: I love you. I could never forget that, ever.
"We'll worry about that tomorrow." I said, stretching out on the ground. "Now all I need is some sleep."
Grover and Tyson nodded assent. Thalia didn't seem too happy about it, but she lay down as well. Now I could sleep…
The first thing I heard was Kronos. This time, however, he wasn't giggling. He was cursing angrily in some obscure language that I didn't recognize. I didn't even know if he was cursing or not, but his tone made it pretty obvious.
"Stupid good-for-nothing son! He saved the boy and his friends from total annihilation! What kind of respect for his father is that?" Kronos cursed, switching to Ancient Greek. "He deserves to be drowned in the River Styx! Wait… he can't drown!"
He seemed to have ditched his air of eeriness. Apparently he was very volatile whenever he wasn't trying to manipulate someone. He continued cursing to himself until another older sounding voice said, "Hey Kronos, little bro, shut up!" I wonder who that was…
I woke to a bright morning. Apollo was just starting his daily routine across the sky. Grover was preparing breakfast. He was playing his reed pipes, and for some reason, the oak trees began to sprout pomegranates. Weird.
Grover saw me awake, and said, "Percy, you were muttering in your sleep. Something in Mesopotamian." How did he know what that language was? I decided not to ask.
I ignored him and walked over to Thalia. "Thalia, Zeus didn't do it."
She looked over at me skeptically. "What makes you think so?"
I said, "I dreamed of Kronos again. He was cursing Poseidon for saving us. He pretty much said that he struck us out of the sky."
Thalia just looked confused. "Why would he show you that?"
I shrugged. "The way the dream was put, I don't think he meant to."
Thalia was silent. I told her that I'd go look for signs of civilization. I picked up my pack and checked for my pen/sword Riptide. I guess in this case, the pen was mightier than the sword. Kind of.
Before I could leave, a dark silhouette appeared on the horizon. I went to see who it was. Maybe this person could show us to a hotel, or something. I walked closer, and my insides filled with fury. I muttered Mesopotamian curses under my breath (I guess I learned them from Kronos.) and called Thalia, Grover, and Tyson. He would pay for what he did. I didn't even think about how this was even possible.
Luke.
THIS IS A FAIRLY IMPORTANT NOTICE: I will NOT write the next chapter until I get at least three reviews for this one. I want real reviews, don't just complain about cliffies (not naming any names) Thanks for all readers, I appreciate it.