Chapter 21! Sorry, I was going to do a celebration on the last chapter that we've made it to 20 chapters, but I forgot...

Yeah! 21 Chapters! That's like 7x3! Woo!

Who am I kidding. 21 isn't a cool number like 20. No offence to you "my-favorite-number-is-21" lovers. Ignore my lame attempts to be optimistic up there. I also apologize for not celebrating on the last chapter. You know, because the multiples of 10 are just really popular landmarks, like a decade, 50th anniversary i'mjustgoingtostoptalkingnow.

Let it commence.

Percy

I don't know how long we were sitting like that. It could have been several hours, or even just a minute. I lost track of the time.

Annabeth pulled her head away, squeezed my hand, and stood up. She sucked in a deep, shaky breath and ran a hand through her hair. She winced when she touched the sore spot where the leukrokottas had kicked her.

"I'll find the thermos and baggie," I said, standing up. I walked over and picked up the backpack. It was a miracle that we'd even managed to keep it with us this whole time without losing it. I pulled out the thermos and handed it to her, and she took a small sip. A look of relief passed over her face, and she lifted up her shirt. I could literally see the bruise on her side shrink away. She touched her temple, and after rubbing it cautiously, decided that it was healed, too.

She passed the thermos to me, and I took a tiny drink, and then stuffed half of a magic cracker in my mouth.

As I chewed, I couldn't stop thinking about when I killed the monster. I had barely come to when Annabeth pulled me out of the way. My ears were ringing, and I had blood in my mouth. It felt like I had been trampled by a herd of elephants. But when I had seen Annabeth get kicked in the head, nothing else seemed to matter. I guess it was pure adrenaline pumping, because I'd managed to get up and stab the monster in the neck.

And when it disintegrated, the pure look of fear on Annabeth's face was too much. I knew that she was strong, and she hadn't really opened up to me that much—considering she always seemed to be annoyed with me—but seeing her vulnerable…I felt like there was nothing I could do. So I just held her while she cried. It seemed like the right thing. I felt like I was going to collapse after killing the leukrokottas, but instead I'd helped Annabeth.

I just hoped that things wouldn't be any more awkward between us.

Annabeth pulled her hair back into a ponytail and rummaged through the backpack.

"Where's the whistle?" she asked as she shoved her hands inside.

"I have it, remember?" I said, pulling it out of my pocket.

"Oh."

"What, are you ready to leave?" I asked.

She looked at me like I was crazy. "We just had to kill that thing and we get our memories back. Are you serious?"

"Touché," I said, rolling my eyes. I held the whistle gingerly, the cold biting the tips of my fingers.

"Once I blow this whistle, we can't go back. Are you sure you want to do this?" I said dramatically.

"If you're not going to blow the whistle, I will."

"Fine."

I held the whistle up to my lips and blew hard. It didn't even make a sound, and as soon as I pulled away it shattered. I stared in shock at the fragments in my hand.

"That was a waste," I muttered.

"That's it?" Annabeth said, walking over to me. She took the pieces from me and they melted.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she yelled angrily. "We were this close, and he just set us up! I can't believe this." She kicked a rock and it flew and hit a tree.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll find a way, I promise." I felt mad, too.

She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, the tree that she hit with the rock started to ripple. The shadows on the tree bent and twisted, and there was a whooshing sound. We backed away from the tree, and in the shadows blinked two red eyes.

"Oh, my—" I began.

An enormous howl came from the darkness, and out of the shadows bounded out an enormous dog with glowing red eyes and rippling black fur.

Annabeth screamed.

It pounced at me, paws extended, and knocked me to the ground. I pulled out my sword and was about to slash this massive dog to bits when it licked me on the face.

"What the—?" I grunted, getting flattened under the massive weight of the dog.

Its tail thumped on my feet and it got up, slobbering happily. I noticed that it had a hot pink collar on, and gigantic dog tags.

Annabeth managed to get out of her shock and helped me up, wiping her hand on her jeans when the dog drooled on her. She then tentatively approached the dog, her hand out, and it let her pat it on the nose. Avoiding the dog's teeth, Annabeth gingerly grabbed the dog tag and looked at it. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Percy, you have to look at this."

When I tried to take the tags from her, the dog nosed me playfully, and I staggered backwards. Keeping an eye on it and its teeth, I walked around its head and read the tags:

Mrs. O'Leary

"Her name is Mrs. O'Leary?" I asked in surprise.

"Flip it over."

I flipped it over:

If found, please Iris Message Percy Jackson

"But that's me!" I exclaimed.

Annabeth looked at me like I was stupid. "That means that Mrs. O'Leary is your dog."

I noticed that Mrs. O'Leary had been sniffing my ear during our conversation. I put my hand on her snout and pushed her head away.

"No, way. I can't have a dog. She's huge!"

"She's yours," Annabeth said simply.

I turned around and looked at her. She was sitting on the ground, tail thumping madly, and when she saw that I was staring at her, she perked her ears and stuck out her tongue, panting.

"I guess she is sort of…cute," I said hopefully. "But what kind of name is Mrs. O'Leary? What was I thinking?"

"You tell me," Annabeth said, raising her eyebrows at me. It looked like she was trying hard not to laugh. "You should really see your face right now. It's just frozen in shock."

I scowled at her.

She started to laugh, and I couldn't help but laugh with her. Soon we couldn't stop. I sat down on the ground, trying to calm down my breathing.

"WOOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary barked happily. My heart almost flew out of my mouth. That got me to stop laughing.

"Okay," I said in a strangled voice when my heart put itself where it belonged. "What the heck does my dog have to do with getting back to the Underworld?"

When I said Underworld, Mrs. O'Leary stopped digging a crater and stuck out her nose, like she was looking for something. She flopped down on her stomach, causing the ground to shake, and looked at us expectantly.

"I think she wants us to get on," Annabeth said, her eyebrows furrowed.

"What?"

"Don't be a Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said. She walked over to Mrs. O'Leary and hopped on her back, holding onto her collar. "Are you getting on or not?"

Shrugging my shoulders and pretending like this was completely normal, I jumped on my dog and carefully put my hands on Annabeth's waist. She tensed up but didn't say anything.

"Um, okay, Mrs. O'Leary. Uh, do your thing," I said uncertainly.

She started sniffing a butterfly.

Annabeth smirked.

"Your other thing," I said, rolling my eyes.

She stood up, and let me just say that sitting on a dog is very uncomfortable. The muscles in her back legs coiled, and she sprang forward. Annabeth flew backwards and fell against me, and it took all I had to hold on. I tightened my grip on her and squeezed my legs on Mrs. O'Leary.

She started to run…right towards a tree.

"No! Mrs. O'Leary!" I shouted. She didn't stop. She picked up speed instead.

"Percy! Your dog is crazy!" Annabeth shrieked.

"I didn't know I had one until five minutes ago!" I yelled in defense.

Mrs. O'Leary did one final bound and leaped straight at the tree. Annabeth screamed and flinched into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and yelled, squeezing my eyes shut.

A deep cold suddenly washed over me, and we were moving so fast that it felt like my face was going to peel off. There were creepy noises, too. I opened my eyes, but it was so dark it just looked like they were shut. I couldn't see Annabeth in front of me, and there were cackles and groaning in the background.

The shadows melted away to reveal Hypnos's cave. At least, I thought it was his cave. It was just like the shadow place that we'd just come from.

Mrs. O'Leary staggered, and Annabeth and I jumped off before she could squash us under her weight. We jumped off just in time. She flopped over with a deep groan and started to snore so loud my teeth rattled in my mouth.

"Never…again," Annabeth gasped. She fell over and I caught her. "I'd rather walk across a pit full of Legos barefoot."

"I thought it was pretty cool," I said, shrugging, standing her back up again.

The breathing from Hypnos was back.

"Do you want to wake him up, or should I?" I asked.

"You can do it," Annabeth said. "I feel exhausted."

"Okay." I faced the center—or what I thought was the center, since I couldn't see a thing—of the room and called his name.

MRS. O'LEARY! I love her. She's always been one of my favorite characters. Yeah, an animal is one of my favorite characters, I know. Her and Will. Except he's not an animal.

Anyway, fun fact! I made cupcakes yesterday, and they are delicious. I gave them to the new family that moved in my neighborhood. Boy my age! *fistpump*

I have nothing else to say.

I know. I have the Last Olympian by me, so I'm just going to post a random quote of the first thing I open up to.

Ready? Go!

"Seriously? Who has monogrammed pajamas?" ~Percy Jackson

OKAY BYE.

R&R Mrs. O'Leary!