Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson nor any of its characters, I just own my own character Antheia/Alyssa.

They were all pretty miserable that night.

They set up camp out in the woods, Alyssa using her powers to create a shelter for them out of tree branches and moss. It was about a hundred yards from the main road, the ground littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

They had taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's but they didn't light a fire to dry their damp clothes, the Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day and they didn't want to attract anything else.

When they decided to sleep in shifts, Percy volunteered to take first watch.

Annabeth and Alyssa both curled up on blankets and were soon snoring. Percy looked down at Annabeth, her face losing the fierce toughness in sleep. She looked almost peaceful, while on the other hand Alyssa looked horrible. She had a grimace on her face and she was clinging to the edge of the blanket with all her might. Percy reached out and started rubbing her shoulder, trying to calm her down and she soon relaxed her body and had a more pleasant expression on her face.

Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest branch of the tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.

"Go ahead and sleep," Percy 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 me 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've heard it enough from Alyssa. You and her are both environmentalists."

Grover looked down at the sleeping Alyssa. "She's something special, isn't she."

Percy clenched his fists. "Grover-" he said warningly.

Grover's eyes widened. "No, Percy! Not like that! I mean she's just not like other people."

Percy relaxed, his fists unclenching. "I don't know what to do.. She's becoming more and more distant with me."

"She's just been going through a lot, finding out that your not her real brother."

Percy's eyes saddened. "Yeah..."

A wind picked up and blew more trash around, a French fry bag hitting Percy's arm.

"Your species is clogging up the world so fast...ah, never mind. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan." Grover said angrily.

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"

"Pan!" He cried indignantly. "The great god Pan. What do you think a searchers license is for?"

A strange breeze suddenly rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and windflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been things in the woods. Percy thought it reminded him of Alyssa. A small litter of leaves blew past and they started circling around Alyssa. It looked as of they were almost bowing to her. Percy instantly looked up to see Grover looking away, missing the small action.

"Tell me about your search." Percy said.

Grover looked at him cautiously, as if he were afraid Percy was just making fun of him.

"The God if the Wild disappeared over two thousand years ago. The people believe that he died, so they began pillaging his kingdom ever since, but us satyrs refuse to believe he was really gone. So we have searched every since, looking all over the earth, trying to wake him from his sleep."

"And you want to be a searcher?"

"Yeah, it's my life goal. To find Pan. You want to hear another secret?"

Percy's curiosity got the best of him. "What?"

"It's rumored that there was a goddess who was born about ten years ago who was suppose to replace Pan, but she somehow vanished and no one knew where she went."

"Oh yeah. Chiron told me about that, but he said its a super sore subject to all the gods because they all loved her."

"Well I want to be the first person to see her. I know she's out there, I can feel it."

Percy suddenly looked down at his sisters sleeping figure. "You don't think she's Alyssa right?" The idea suddenly coming to his mind.

Grover sat up, as if the thought just hit him. "I don't think she could be... Though she is very powerful, I can clearly smell human on her and in her blood. She's probably a daughter of some powerful nature spirit."

Percy started playing with a small blade of grass, twisting it between his fingers. "How are we going to get to the Underworld?" He asked Grover. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

"I don't know," Grover admitted. "But Annabeth was telling me-"

"Oh I forgot. Annabeth always has a plan."

"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she's forgiven me..."

"What do you mean? Percy asked.

Grover suddenly seemed very interested in his reed pipes.

"Wait a minute," Percy said. "Your first assignment was five years ago and Annabeth came to camp five years ago.."

"I can't talk about," Grover said, his voice quivering. "But as I was saying, Annabeth and I agree there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a lightning bolt."

"That's not what I meant. When the Furies were on the bus, they were screaming:"Where is it." Like it was some object they were looking for."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, we've only got nine more days."

"I haven't really been straight with you." Percy told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I'm doing this for my mother."

Grover smiled, like he knew something Percy didn't. He looked up at the night sky, like he was thinking about the problem. "How about I take the first watch?"

Percy wanted to protest, but he started playing Motzart, soft and sweet, making Percy close his eyes.

In Percy's dreams, he stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures swirled around him, tugging at his clothes trying to pull him back, but he felt compelled to walk to the edge.

Looking down made him dizzy.

"The little hero," an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. "Too young, too weak, but you'll have to do."

The voice felt heavy, almost ancient. "They have mislead you, boy. I will give you what you want."

A picture of his mother appeared before him. Her face was still distorted in pain, as if she was still being squeezed.

An invisible force pulled him forward, trying to drag him into the pit.

"Help me rise, boy." The voice became hungrier. "Bring me the bolt, strike down the gods."

The image of his mother began to fade, the thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around him.

Percy then realized that it wasn't pulling him in, but it was using him to pull itself out.

"Good," it murmured.

"Wake!" The dead whispered. "Wake!"

Someone was shaking him.

His eyes opened and it was daylight.

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

Percy was still trembling. He could still feel the grip of the monster on him. "How long was I sleep?"

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." She said throwing him a bag of Doritos. "And Alyssa and Grover found a friend."

Percy looked over to see Alyssa and a Grover sitting cross-legged carrying a small pink poodle in his arms.

The poodle yapped at him suspiciously.

"No, he's not." Alyssa replied.

Percy blinked. "Alyssa, are you talking to that thing?

The poodle growled.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is out ticked west. Be nice to him."

"You two can talk to animals?"

"Percy," Alyssa said, "say hello to Gladiola."

Percy looked at Annabeth wondering if they were going crazy.

"Percy," she said. "If I said hello to the poodle, you can say hello."

He mumbled hello.

Grover explained how Alyssa came across Gladiola in the woods and the had a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich family, and he was willing to return to help Alyssa and Grover.

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice," we get the money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus." Percy said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, towards train tracks they hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's a train station half a mile away. According to Gladiola, the west train leaves at noon."

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