Hey! Chapter 12! Yay!

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Last time: After what had to be the quickest meal in the world everyone finished and headed back to the main room.

Now:

Zeus picked up the book, and opened it to the correct page. When he looked up everyone was staring at him in shock.

"What?" he bellowed. Athena shook her head and answered, "Father, it's just that most of us have never seen you pick up, let alone open, a book. We are all in shock."

Zeus decided then that it would just be best to ignore them and start reading.

12 WE GET ADVICE FROM A POODLE

Everyone burst out laughing. Advice from a poodle that's a new one.

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.

All of the gods rolled their eyes. Leave it to humans to pollute their most beautiful places without a second thought.

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.

"For once Percy didn't jinx us!" Annabeth shouted in mock surprise. "Oh ha ha."

We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.

"The first of many times Percy has volunteered for first watch with no intention of ever letting someone else take second." Annabeth accused. Percy didn't even bother denying it.

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. 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."

"Meaning not at all." Annabeth translated, while also backing up Annabeth's previous statement.

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?"

Eye rolls from all of Percy's friends.

"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."

He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast …

Percy looked at Grover, "Ya know sometimes it's hard to remember that you're not human." Percy told his friend. "Good, that's part of my job!" Grover replied.

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?" Leo asked the young satyr.

"Pan! P-A-N!" Grover yelled at Leo.

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"

"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"

"I don't know, the world's best enchilada?" Percy said jokingly making everyone laugh.

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.

Percy still looked nostalgic for that scent, but he and Annabeth almost seemed sad when it came up.

Grover meanwhile looked surprised, Lord Pan was reacting to something he and Percy would talk about.

"Tell me about the search," I said.

Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.

Percy looked offended, "I wouldn't make fun of you if you're this serious about it!"

"I know Percy, I know."

"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."

Annabeth honestly looked like she was about to cry, and Percy wasn't far behind.

Apollo looked at the two worriedly, had something happened to Pan?

"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."

"You aren't the first satyr to say this, and you probably won't be the last." Apollo said seriously. Surprising Artemis, who didn't think her brother could be serious outside of war.

"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."

"Ya know, now I'm kinda glad Coach Hedge didn't want to be a searcher." Clarisse said, actually smiling fondly along with Piper, Jason, and Leo.

"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?"

"It is pretty amazing how many satyrs are willing to go on this suicide mission." Mr.D said, almost sadly.

"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."

Now Percy, Annabeth, and Nico really were fighting back tears.

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?

"Nope!"

"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

Despite his sad eyes, Percy actually looked like he was fighting back a laugh. Everyone who wasn't on his first quest looked at him like he was crazy. Percy just motioned them on vaguely suggesting that it'll be explained later in the story.

"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."

"Of course I do kealphead. Because every time you try to plan it backfires somehow."

"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.

Thalia, Thalia, Percy, Annabeth, and Luke all groaned, "It wasn't your fault Grover!"

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"

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-"

"And seaweed brain finally figures it out!" Thalia shouts, making Percy shove her in the shoulder.

"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. Some-thing isn't what it seems."

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunder-bolt that Hades took."

Hades growled at the Percys, "Careful boy." Percy looked on almost defiantly, but not quite, Percy just rolled his eyes.

"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."

"Trying to rip us to shreds isn't as aggressive as they could've been?! Good! If their holding back that means that we are less likely to die!" Percy said, hyperventilating slightly. Percy nudged his younger self, "Don't worry too much about it. It'll make you gray prematurely." Then he pointed to one side of his head, that had a single streak of gray hair. Unsurprisingly this did not calm Percy down.

"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."

Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"

This made a few of the gods sit up straighter. Was it possible that something of Hades's had been stolen?

"Asking about me," I said.

"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."

Hades seemed to pale even more if that was possible, was his helm missing?

"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.

"Then we can't misunderstand the quest."

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."

Zeus growled at Percy, "Choose your next words carefully." To the gods, and all of the younger kids surprise, Percy, Thalia, and Nico all more or less did the same thing. They all rolled their eyes.

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."

Grover rolled his eyes, he hadn't even lived through it yet and he could already sense how much Percy wanted to please his father. Prove that he was worth 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."

Both Percy's blushed.

"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."

At this everyone from the future, bar Percy, groaned. They each had an assortment of things say.

"Don't be so modest!"

"You just killed Medusa! Brag a little!"

"You are too modest!"

"Seaweed Brain, take some pride!"

"Everyone is allowed to brag a little!"

"Kelp Head, if you don't take credit I will personally electrocute you."

"Percy you need to be a little more confident."

"Prissy, I will punch you into next week if you keep up the modest act."

"You've achieved more without training than most demigods do with years!"

"How are you so modest!?"

(A.N./ If you're wondering the order goes: Rachel, Leo, Jason, Annabeth, Piper, Thalia, Hazel, Clarisse, Frank, Nico.)

Percy and Percy blushed. They hadn't meant to come off as so modest. They just really didn't see themselves as great, besides they clearly had a lot of help!

But something told them that if either of them tried to voice this they would be yelled at again.

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.

"You tricked me."

"Yep!"

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.

Percy, Annabeth, and Nico started to shake.

They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.

Thalia got up and grabbed each one, she whispered something that the others couldn't hear.

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 some-thing was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.

She continued to whisper and slowly they stopped shaking.

'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.

Zeus started to sweat, it couldn't be him. It just couldn't.

'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!

There were mutterings of, 'That's just cruel.' and 'I'll send him back myself!'

I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.

I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.

An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.

Annabeth and Nico went wide eyed, they didn't know he had almost been pulled in that early.

'Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!'

"How about I don't and say I didn't?" Percy replied, trying to get his older self to snap back to his regular self.

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.

Everyone shuddered at that.

'Good', it murmured. 'Good.'

Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!

Someone was shaking me.

My eyes opened, and it was daylight.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."

Everyone laughed, until they saw how serious everyone from the future was. "I'm not joking! In fact it would probably be easier to wake a zombie!" Annabeth said, and the other futures agreed.

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."

"I don't think tossing a bag of corn chips counts as cooking."

"Shut up."

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.

Everyone gave the two Percy's a strange look. They both ignored them.

No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.

"Why would anyone want a pink poodle?" Ares muttered.

The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."

Percy looked at Percy and Annabeth, "What did the poodle say?" Annabeth and Percy shrugged, "Don't know. Grover never told us."

I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"

The poodle growled.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover looked at Percy who was staring at him, "You do know that I'm half goat right?"

"Yea yea yea."

Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

Everyone burst out laughing. Leo gasping for air asked, "Who would name a poodle Gladiola!?"

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."

"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

Some people were still giggling, "I love the way you manage to say that with a straight face."

The poodle growled.

I said hello to the poodle.

That just sent the demigods back into a fit of giggles, even some of the gods were hiding their smiles.

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.

"Me thinks that the poodle has a crush on Grover." Leo said in a horrible Sherlock Holmes impression.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"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."

"And you say I'm the one that jinxes things?" Percy said, while looking at the two Annabeths. Annabeth rolled her eyes, and Annabeth replied, "You are."

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.

"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."

"I'm not even going to question how he knows that."

"It's better that way."

Zeus slammed the book shut. "That's the end of that chapter." He said relieved that he was done reading. Without even looking he tossed the book towards Hades.

Hades read the chapter title to himself, glanced at Poseidon and gulped.

And done!

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See ya next time!