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halothenthehorns · 1 year ago

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Chapter 11: GROVER GETS A LAMBORGHINI

"Did Grover win the lottery?" Percy asked swiftly this time when Rachel read the new one, getting his guess in first. At least if this was a game he wasn't getting out of he might as well play, and for once it wasn't about him.

"And buy a gas guzzling vehicle that's destroying his precious environment?" Alex looked at him blankly. "You really are the worst at these Perce."

"The obvious answer is he gets a magic lamb and names it Genie," Magnus nodded sagely.

Thalia busted out laughing, not having trusted herself to offer up a solution this time since she vividly remembered what led them all into those cars. It was hard to even pretend be mad at Apollo when he flirted with the rest of the hunters when she remembered him in that grimy look.

We were crossing the Potomac when we spotted the helicopter. It was a sleek, black military model just like the one we'd seen at Westover Hall. And it was coming straight toward us.

"They know the van," I said. "We have to ditch it."

"And walk the whole way?" Jason asked dubiously.

"I was going to stop and ask them for directions," Percy said with the pen in his hand. He still remembered from the last book something about Annabeth and a helicopter. That horrible premonition had come to pass, but it still lingered in his mind. If he had to get kidnapped to get to her faster-

Thalia socked him on the shoulder however to show how she felt about that plan, so he instead sighed and tried another answer. "I vote train again," he said wistfully, remembering Annabeth falling asleep on her bag, her fair hair falling into her face. Nothing bad had happened to him on one of those yet.

Then he grunted in pain and pressed a hand to his temple, glaring at his nose in betrayal. How did everything come back to smite him?!

Rachel started reading very fast to help alleviate that look away.

Zoe swerved into the fast lane. The helicopter was gaining.

"Maybe the military will shoot it down," Grover said hopefully.

"The military probably thinks it's one of theirs," I said. "How can the General use mortals, anyway?"

"Mercenaries," Zoe said bitterly. "It is distasteful, but many mortals will fight for any cause as long as they are paid."

"But don't these mortals see who they're working for?" I asked. "Don't they notice all the monsters around them?"

"Exactly how do you think the Mist works?" Rachel asked in confusion, rather than trying to call Percy an idiot. She really didn't know, she'd never been fooled by it.

He had been called that enough times he insisted, "they'd see strange things they couldn't explain and ask questions!" He'd heard the implied part of her question too and couldn't figure out why he was the only one ever concerned with that when it could fool half-blood's as easily as mortals about what was going on. Tyson had been under the Mist for a whole school year, half his child hood was filled with unexplainable things the Mist had disguised, but he'd always seen just enough to make him scared of the monsters until his mother brushed his tears away with a too understanding smile.

"If you pay a man enough he'll walk barefoot into hell,"* Will quoted from one of his favorite shows with one of those sad smiles that never quite reached his eyes.

Nico watched him critically for a moment, and Will whispered at once, "show on an old VHS tape hidden in the break room behind the orientation film."

Nobody had ever shared a secret like that at camp with him before, and Nico found an easy smile come out erasing entirely his unease that wasn't a crack at him.

It was the only answer Percy was going to get, and he didn't think much of it.

Zoe shook her head. "I do not know how much they see through the Mist. I doubt it would matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters."

The helicopter kept coming, making a lot better time than we were through D.C. traffic.

Thalia closed her eyes and prayed hard. "Hey, Dad. A lightning bolt would be nice about now. Please?"

But the sky stayed gray and snowy. No sign of a helpful thunderstorm.

"Did you expect anything else?" Percy asked harshly. His ire stemmed from a sudden certainty that lightning bolt was delivered, that Zeus favored his daughter when his dad couldn't bother to send him more than a stupid two word letter for communication.

Thalia gritted her teeth and forced herself not to say anything back. It would come out all wrong. That she still wasn't sure some days if it had been Zeus to try and strike her out of the sky and grant her prayer days later on Mount Tam. Percy had no idea how lucky he was his dad had ignored him instead.

"There!" Bianca said. "That parking lot!"

"We'll be trapped," Zoe said.

"Trust me," Bianca said.

Zoe shot across two lanes of traffic and into a mall parking lot on the south bank of the river.

Jason puzzled over that critically for a moment. Zoe at least trusted her fellow Hunters to take blind orders from. If she was helping the other side she could be doing more to delay getting caught. He felt he had no choice but to scratch her off the list, it no longer seemed likely if the General had offered her Artemis in exchange for Bianca it would happen.

That left him no more answers how Luke and the General had just appeared in DC with them, and it left him feeling queasy like nothing of this strangely parallel world ever did who the real stranger in the midst could be. Nobody at Camp had known they'd be stopping at that museum, so it must be the simplest solution that they'd just been followed the moment they left the magical boundary and Luke with his cronies had met them there too fast, somehow. Luke had once used Backbiter to open a portal, it was the last rational conclusion he had.

We left the van and followed Bianca down some steps.

"Subway entrance," Bianca said. "Let's go south. Alexandria."

"Anything," Thalia agreed.

We bought tickets and got through the turnstiles, looking behind us for any signs of pursuit. A few minutes later we were safely aboard a southbound train, riding away from D.C.

As our train came above ground, we could see the helicopter circling the parking lot, but it didn't come after us.

Grover let out a sigh. "Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway."

Bianca looked pleased. "Yeah, well. I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it, because it wasn't here when we used to live in D.C."

Nico's smile was darker than usual. The smirk was really only for him. They'd been to young and stupid to put the pieces together subways didn't pop up like that, but maybe coming back had forced Bianca to keep thinking about it, start questioning things that distracted her, causing...

Grover frowned. "New? But that station looked really old."

"I guess," Bianca said. "But trust me, when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway."

Thalia sat forward. "Wait a minute. No subway at all?"

Bianca nodded.

Now, I knew nothing about D.C., but I didn't see how their whole subway system could be less than twelve years old. I guess everyone else was thinking the same thing, because they looked pretty confused.

Which matched, as usual, pretty well in here except the three Greek kids suddenly avoiding each others eyes. Percy and Jason were glaring at Nico more than ever, and he couldn't keep waving off how he got his memories restored while being a freak out of time forever if they started asking questions.

"One story at a time guys," Will swiftly said into the awkward silence. "I promise it is less confusing that way. You should never ask Connor and Travis for a story, they bounce around from end to middle to start and try throwing in three others, it's a mess."

"Right, yeah," Jason reluctantly agreed, but he again couldn't help but wonder how Nico knew of his home if his own past had so many questions splashed on it. He said the problem had already been resolved, but then what was he looking for in California while stumbling across another camp?

Percy nodded and turned back quickly though. Annabeth would have solved this puzzle by now if she'd been here while rattling off fun-facts about the subway again.

"Bianca," Zoe said. "How long ago..." Her voice faltered. The sound of the helicopter was getting louder again.

"We need to change trains," I said. "Next station."

Over the next half hour, all we thought about was getting away safely. We changed trains twice. I had no idea where we were going, but after a while we lost the helicopter.

Unfortunately, when we finally got off the train we found ourselves at the end of the line, in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks.

"I'm vaguely concerned they just let a bunch of kids get off there alone," Magnus muttered. It sounded like only the kind of place somebody would go to get away from the world and wouldn't be surprised if Percy came across a few people wrapped in ratty clothes and garbage bags out there. He didn't really want to know what new comments would be made about it.

And snow. Lots of snow. It seemed much colder here. I was glad for my new lion's fur coat.

We wandered through the railway yard, thinking there might be another passenger train somewhere, but there were just rows and rows of freight cars, most of which were covered in snow, like they hadn't moved in years.

A homeless guy was standing at a trash-can fire. We must've looked pretty pathetic, because he gave us a toothless grin and said, "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!"

Percy's smile as all sympathetic and sad though. He told them with the same catch in his voice as he always spoke about his mom, "he seemed familiar, I don't know why. Like someone my mom would have given an extra free sample too and he tipped her a secret twenty in a stack of ones." Like a memory he shouldn't have just from her describing it, but one he'd swear he knew.

"We all find hope in the strangest places," Thalia's tone was much more quiet, pulled back in time. This was not the first homeless person who had taken pity on a group of kids she'd known. The last time she'd huddle around a fire was with Luke smooth talking his way into being the center of attention while Annabeth had both of their coats on and had been clinging to his leg. Thalia has used the distraction for a few extra sparks to help feed the flames. None of the homeless people had batted an eye, they'd seen stranger things, like the monster that had chased them away only a few hours later.

We huddled around his fire, Thalia's teeth were chattering. She said, "Well this is g-g-ggreat."

"My hooves are frozen," Grover complained.

"Feet," I corrected, for the sake of the homeless guy.

"Not the strangest thing a homeless person had heard," Alex assured. She was pretty sure even if she did go back and tell this story, some other guy at the soup kitchen would find a stranger one about the DMV he believed just as much.

"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca said. "Chiron—"

"No," Zoe said. "They cannot help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves."

"I'm not even sure what else he could do," Will agreed with all the miserable energy of wishing that would change. "By the time he found out where you were to send another bus, it would be to late to make the trip."

"You need to keep moving," Rachel agreed with her own restless energy. Percy had always been great at that, but she smiled to herself as she realized this was a problem she couldn't have thrown money at to fix and help. You couldn't offer to buy the homeless guys car to get out of this. Her kind of problem she wished she had been there to help solve.

I gazed miserably around the rail yard. Somewhere, far to the west, Annabeth was in danger. Artemis was in chains. A doomsday monster was on the loose. And we were stuck on the outskirts of D.C., sharing a homeless persons fire.

"Thank you for that summary," Nico said sullenly, biting back the rest of the words that was the last good one he'd probably get. He knew Bianca hadn't made it to California.

"You know," the homeless man said, "you're never completely without friends." His face was grimy and his beard tangled, but his expression seemed kindly. "You kids need a train going west?"

"God," Alex muttered at once, not loud enough Percy could hear, but with her usual confidence. Now the question was which one, and what did they want for this ride he should know nothing about.

"Yes, sir," I said. "You know of any?"

He pointed one greasy hand.

Suddenly I noticed a freight train, gleaming and free of snow. It was one of those automobile-carrier trains, with steel mesh curtains and a triple-deck of cars inside. The side of the freight train said SUN WEST LINE.

"Apollo!" Jason yelped in surprise. Percy groaned and fisted his hand in his hair, but he felt that pain in his gut telling him the right answer had just been shouted near his ear.

Thalia smacked Jason and scolded, "thanks, we got that," while Rachel read faster.

"That's... convenient," Thalia said. "Thanks, uh..."

She turned to the homeless guy, but he was gone. The trash can in front of us was cold and empty, as if he'd taken the flames with him.

Will had never been very good at suppressing his good mood, he'd never tried, but he did with all his might now as he turned his face away and buried his mouth into his shoulder to pretend muffle coughs so Percy wouldn't see him swallowing laughter. He knew his dads touch when he heard it, and he didn't want to give Percy more of a headache by lingering on this.

He'd unintentionally turned his face right towards Nico, the two were practically nose to nose for a second as Nico's dark brown eyes glimmered right along with his. He'd clearly caught onto the joke and it took Rachel reading after his false fit was done to remind himself to turn away.

An hour later we were rumbling west.

Jason was still looking blearily at the book like he was waiting for the trick though. Yet another god had interfered on this quest. No angle? Didn't even appear as himself? Not even an offering in that trash can fire to summon him?

There was no problem about who would drive now, because we all got our own luxury car. Zoe and Bianca were crashed out in a Lexus on the top deck. Grover was playing race car driver behind the wheel of a Lamborghini.

There was at lest a friendly chuckle circling the room for such a mild use of the chapter title not apparently having bad consequences on anyone for once.

And Thalia had hot-wired the radio in a black Mercedes SLK so she could pick up the alt-rock stations from D.C.

"Now there's a useful skill," Alex nodded along.

"The one thing I missed about school, access to good music," Thalia grinned. She even risked wearing headphones now to stay up to date on new tunes when they weren't actively hunting.

"Join you?" I asked her.

She shrugged, so I climbed into the shotgun seat.

"What were you going to do if she said no?" Jason asked cautiously.

"Stand there awkwardly until she changed her mind," Percy shrugged with no real clue. Thankfully she wasn't that mad at him then or now as she rolled her eyes at the two.

The radio was playing the White Stripes. I knew the song because it was one of the only CDs I owned that my mom liked. She said it reminded her of Led Zeppelin. Thinking about my mom made me sad, because it didn't seem likely I'd be home for Christmas. I might not live that long.

Melancholy floated into the room like an extra wave for a moment as Rachel hesitated to long and swallowed that. Not one of them besides Percy could claim to have even had a good Christmas in recent times.

It didn't help it was the same time of year up there, and all Rachel could think was if her dad would bother to leave a meeting if he found out she was missing from school. He'd probably just think she reneged on their deal and was ditching.

Will had a smile as bright as any star though as he said, "well obviously you did live through it, but I can still say you haven't lived until you've had Christmas at Camp. Mr. D put's this massive tree in the center on Christmas Eve, he claims it's to annoy us and be in everybody's way, but then the kids that are there split off to decorate it all with anything we can get our hands on before midnight and Chiron lets us play songs on his radio, it's a lot of fun. Last year Selina somehow coaxed a reindeer into Camp and Connor tried to strap a rocket to it."

Talking about orphans having fun was still pretty depressing, but Will really made it seem like they'd forget that while being there.

"Nice coat," Thalia told me.

I pulled the brown duster around me, thankful for the warmth. "Yeah, but the Nemean Lion wasn't the monster we're looking for."

"Not even close. We've got a long way to go."

"Whatever this mystery monster is, the General said it would come for you. They wanted to isolate you from the group, so the monster will appear and battle you one-on-one."

"He said that?"

"Well, something like that. Yeah."

"That's great. I love being used as bait."

"I can see you now wiggling on a hook like a good worm," Alex snorted Thalia was more likely to shove that hook in Luke's eyeball.

"Glad you know me so well," Thalia nodded along.

"No idea what the monster might be?"

She shook her head morosely. "But you know where we're going, don't you? San Francisco. That's where Artemis was heading."

I remembered something Annabeth had said at the dance: how her dad was moving to San Francisco, and there was no way she could go. Half-bloods couldn't live there.

"Why?" I asked. "What's so bad about San Francisco?"

"The Mist is really thick there because the Mountain of Despair is so near. Titan magic—what's left of it—still lingers. Monsters are attracted to that area like you wouldn't believe."

Jason felt such a sharp electric tingle race down his spine he expected it to be Thalia shocking him for some reason. Glancing down he even saw his hair was standing on end, and that had nothing on the throbbing in his temple. He was convinced he could go slam his head against the wall to make it feel better if his legs wouldn't stagger him over to it.

Thalia did look over at him, all of them did which meant a sharp hiss of noise must have escaped, but there was nothing but concern on their face again for him. A stranger in every way. There was something about that making his mind fracture more, on a foggy peak where so many looked to him and his voice didn't croak, the speech he used to rally them came from Jupiter speaking through him-

"Jason?" Thalia had tried to shock him apparently, her choppy black hair was standing on end along with everybody else's as the static in his mind faded. He thought she'd just over done it like everyone else. He oddly didn't hurt though. Maybe he was in shock at such a vivid, specific memory he didn't know how to connect with anything.

Except she hadn't, Jason had been making such a painful noise in the back of his throat she'd merely touched his shoulder and felt the energy course through her and seep out like a conductor.

There was no doubt left in Thalia's mind as she flexed her hand and checked the souls of her boots while waving Rachel on.

She couldn't tell him now. Not when he was fighting the same memory glitches as Percy. She couldn't imagine guessing what right or wrong thing to say to him to help, she was barely making it with the friend she knew. She didn't know how he was even alive, let alone why such a place should have meant his death.

Jason was smoothing down his hair with troubled eyes on the book for more now that he'd stopped torturing himself, and she couldn't begin to find the words right now for her little brother in the flesh as her traitorous hand still longed to reach out and touch his face lest he vanish again. It wasn't possible.

But here he was.

"And Uncle Fredrick knew that!" Magnus sounded just as frustrated as Jason looked examining his own hands, if for an entirely different reason. "He wanted to just pack up and move her to a place she'd somehow be attacked even more often?!"

Thalia's grim expression only made it all worse as she silently wondered how Jason had survived there so long. Annabeth's fretting and worry in their dorm as she'd vented about her dad doing this to spite her, how Thalia had sat beside her on those beds and comforted her it was all for his work and Athena probably admired his dedication, but Annabeth didn't have to go with him.

She hadn't readily agreed with Annabeth's curiosity to join the Hunters to escape the constant disappointment of their life, but she hadn't been as vocal turning it down as she'd once been all those years ago when she'd first met Zoe. Annabeth was old enough to make that decision for herself where she wanted to spend the majority of her time.

Percy looked from Thalia to Magnus feeling as useless as usual as he wondered what other parts of Annabeth's life he had no idea about. She'd rather join the hunters because her own dad cared more about his work than her?

"What's the Mountain of Despair?"

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "You really don't know? Ask stupid Zoe. She's the expert."

She glared out the windshield. I wanted to ask her what she was talking about, but I also didn't want to sound like an idiot. I hated feeling like Thalia knew more than I did, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Argh!" Magnus flopped so hard into his seat in exasperation it moved back a few inches. "I'm going to bash both of your heads together and suffer the consequences!"

"Come give it a shot man," Percy raised a challenging brow and a playful smirk, even beckoning him over with his own sign he knew quite well with his four fingers. "See if that'll knock the memories in faster."

"What do I get out of this head trauma?" Thalia asked, her mind clearly else where and distant in the halfhearted tone.

"Peace of mind?" Magnus groaned, though he obviously wasn't moving anywhere.

Thalia gave a hollow laugh. Considering her first priority when getting out of here was confronting Zeus and Hera to find out what the hell had been done to her little brother, she didn't think she'd ever get that again.

"I don't think the best brain surgeons in the world have figured that out yet, but let me know if it works," Will chuckled.

The afternoon sun shone through the steel-mesh side of the freight car, casting a shadow across Thalia's face. I thought about how different she was from Zoe—Zoe all formal and aloof like a princess, Thalia with her ratty clothes and her rebel attitude. But there was something similar about them, too. The same kind of toughness. Right now, sitting in the shadows with a gloomy expression, Thalia looked a lot like one of the Hunters.

"Literal foreshadowing going on there," Rachel busted out laughing and even applauded him.

"Maybe the homeless guy slipped something in that fire I was inhaling," Percy shrugged as he still glanced worriedly at her silver jacket. It caused a larger rock in his throat every time he pictured Annabeth in the same. The pensive, tight look on her face like she was studying a gravestone in the cracks in the ground only convinced him all the more she just wasn't telling him that part had come to pass.

Then suddenly, it hit me: "That's why you don't get along with Zoe."

Thalia frowned. "What?"

"The Hunters tried to recruit you," I guessed.

Her eyes got dangerously bright. I thought she was going to zap me out of the Mercedes, but she just sighed. "I almost joined them," she admitted.

Nico gave a sardonic laugh. "It's almost easy to forget sometimes you weren't always a Hunter, it's how I've always known you."

Thalia's bow appeared in hand, and Nico's heart skipped a beat in shock for a moment before she merely began twisting the silver wood about in the faint light. She twanged the string and murmured to Rachel to keep going, clearly this wasn't a memory she wanted to share anymore than necessary.

"Luke, Annabeth, and I ran into them once, and Zoe tried to convince me. She almost did, but..."

"But?"

Thalia's fingers gripped the wheel. "I would've had to leave Luke."

She wasn't getting a choice though as the smell of that bog came back, the broken branches snapping loud in her ear, pain flaring sharp in her arm that could have been their doom.

The Hunters had shown up just as conveniently as they did years later, silver arrows heralding their arrival and disposing of Lamia conveniently after Luke had nearly fallen victim to her seduction.

He had tried to win them over with his charming wit, but Zoe had been immune and pushed Luke aside to heal Thalia's broken arm that had stopped her summoning Aegis. Annabeth had been fascinated with them and been gung-ho to join, until she found out what it meant too.

Then she'd brought her knife out on them, making the two smile like proud parents as the child of Athena told Zoe where she could shove her answer.

Zoe had tried to insist on reasons to at least take Annabeth somewhere safe, the fight had almost become physical until Phoebe had stepped in and promised it wouldn't come to that. Zoe's parting words hadn't phased Annabeth, but the lieutenant had looked right at Thalia when she promised, "he'll let you both down some day."

Percy's were the first words she'd heard upon waking up that day. Annabeth's broken answer of what Luke had done were the last before she moved into her own Cabin, Zoe's vow keeping her awake all night.

"Oh."

"Zoe and I got into a fight. She told me I was being stupid. She said I'd regret my choice. She said Luke would let me down someday."

I watched the sun through the metal curtain. We seemed to be traveling faster each second—shadows flickering like an old movie projector.

"That's harsh," I said. "Hard to admit Zoe was right."

"She wasn't right! Luke never let me down. Never."

Percy swallowed the harsh words Luke had done plenty to Annabeth, just because she wasn't around to see it didn't mean it hadn't happened.

"We'll have to fight him," I said. "There's no way around it."

"This boy!" Alex made a motion like she wanted to claw her own face off with frustration. Or his. "Can you not speak every thought!"

"I cannot not," Percy fibbed, apology clear in his tone for his friend.

Thalia just looked miserable. That day on Mount Tam had helped her to see there was no saving him. She'd spent that trip west convinced she'd be able to save her family, and Percy would finally take a hint he wasn't needed. Nothing had come back as planned.

Percy wished more than anything he could do something for her, but he had no idea what had ultimately come to pass. What he could say that would make it better or worse.

Thalia didn't answer.

"You haven't seen him lately," I warned. "I know it's hard to believe, but—"

"I'll do what I have to."

"Even if that means killing him?"

The expression that flashed across her face made Percy brace himself to have an electric eel around his throat any second and still have time to wonder if he'd be immune to that before a shaky breath passed her lips and it faded back. Her bow was flickering in her hands, making a cracking noise threatening to break the blessed weapon.

She hadn't killed Luke, she hadn't been there when it happened.

But for one horrible moment, she'd thought she had, and that had never left her to this day.

That she didn't regret it.

That she'd do it again and hate herself for it every time.

"Do me a favor," she said. "Get out of my car."

I felt so bad for her I didn't argue.

As I was about to leave, she said, "Percy."

When I looked back, her eyes were red, but I couldn't tell if it was from anger or sadness.

'Both,' Jason knew from seeing that in here now. He didn't know who exactly Luke was to her, friend or more. He did know he'd personally stab him in the face right now just for making that look flash across Thalia's face again.

Finally, a fact about himself he was sure of.

"Annabeth wanted to join the Hunters, too. Maybe you should think about why."

Before I could respond, she raised the power windows and shut me out.

Rachel winced, and said in a breathy voice, "I'll pause for your excellent use of props there." Her uneasy voice was all for fearing Thalia was about to storm out of here from all of this being shoved in her face, but it suited Rachel well to keep Percy just as on edge about the answer to that.

Thalia's point about his blunt words didn't concern Percy so much as the idea of being a guy. Was Annabeth unhappy? Felt unloved, without any true friend or family? He didn't know if he'd been enough for her.

Thalia remained in her seat though, swallowing it all down as her past fought to keep rearranging itself like a thread that wouldn't stop unwinding, one the fates kept tightening around her neck.

Luke brushing tears off her face as she cried on her brothers birthday.

Her brother beside her, alive and no idea who she was.

I sat in the driver's seat of Grover's Lamborghini. Grover was asleep in the back. He'd finally given up trying to impress Zoe and Bianca with his pipe music after he played "Poison Ivy" and caused that very stuff to sprout from their Lexus's air conditioner.

"Can he do Firework on command too?" Alex asked eagerly.

"I didn't have a spare car to ask," Percy shrugged.

As I watched the sun go down, I thought of Annabeth. I was afraid to go to sleep. I was worried what I might dream.

"Oh, don't be afraid of dreams," a voice said right next to me.

I looked over. Somehow, I wasn't surprised to find the homeless guy from the rail yard sitting in the shotgun seat. His jeans were so worn out they were almost white. His coat was ripped, with stuffing coming out. He looked kind of like a teddy bear that had been run over by a truck.

"If he was going for a look Zeus finally wouldn't look twice at, I guess he found it," Nico said in quite a bit of admiration a god had lowered himself to such a state.

"Let's hope he never shows up to Camp like that," Will kept blinking in concern his dad was still going around in that getup and it was hurting his head more than if the sun were in his eyes.

"If it weren't for dreams," he said, "I wouldn't know half the things I know about the future. They're better than Olympus tabloids." He cleared his throat, then held up his hands dramatically:

"Dreams like a podcast,

Downloading truth in my ears.

They tell me cool stuff"

"The god of Prophecy gets his knowledge from dreams?" Magnus asked in concern.

"If they're anything like mine where I'm battling a tick in a forest of fur, he can keep his future to himself," Alex nodded, and those were her light dreams. Loki's made her dread sleeping every night.

"Apollo?" I guessed, because I figured nobody else could make a haiku that bad.

"Your stellar deduction skills are at it again," Jason snickered.

He put his finger to his lips. "I'm incognito. Call me Fred."

"A god named Fred?"

"You know a cyclops named Tyson and you mom's dating a guy named Blowfish," Magnus said with a shrug.

"What are names but a choice of who we are," Alex agreed.

Will snorted and said, "say all the wise wisdom you like you two, I will not stop laughing at my dad, Fred the God."

"Eh, well... Zeus insists on certain rules. Hands off, when there's a human quest. Even when something really major is wrong. But nobody messes with my baby sister. Nobody."

Percy felt a bit chuffed at that news. He forgot sometimes that the gods, as unhelpful, useless, and even cruel as they felt to him, were a family. Maybe not a great one to their kids, but at minimum to each other. They argued and clearly didn't always like each other, but he found himself smiling all the same Apollo spoke of Artemis as he would of Thalia.

"Can you help us, then?"

"Shhh. I already have. Haven't you been looking outside?"

"The train. How fast are we moving?"

Apollo chuckled. "Fast enough. Unfortunately, we're running out of time. It's almost sunset. But I imagine we'll get you across a good chunk of America, at least."

A cold sweat broke out on the back of Nico's neck, his stomach churning already. The last time a God had helped Percy across the country he'd wound up in Vegas. A sure enough land without rain, the very same? Was it coming already? No, he had to have more time, more words, more pages...

"But where is Artemis?"

His face darkened. "I know a lot, and I see a lot. But even I don't know that. She's... clouded from me. I don't like it."

The enormity of the situation gave them all a chill in place. If any of them would have hoped a god going missing would have kicked Zeus's butt into gear, pitching his own battle and stopping this war in its tracks, it was dashed. The Gods couldn't find her, the rest probably wouldn't even know to look for her until it was to late.

"And Annabeth?"

He frowned. "Oh, you mean that girl you lost? Hmm. I don't know."

Percy tried not to let his resentment spike to high. He wasn't like Luke. He knew the gods weren't like this on purpose. They cared just enough it would get him to the end of this quest and survive another day, a lesser of two evils than Kronos who had taken Annabeth away and was using her for a pillar in his weird cave, bait, and anything else he could want.

I tried not to feel mad. I knew the gods had a hard time taking mortals seriously, even half-bloods. We lived such short lives, compared to the gods.

"And dogs live such short lives compared to us," Rachel sighed, "but we still love them every day of theirs."

"I think this is him throwing you a bone," Jason muttered, but his eyes were closed and he was kneading his forehead. Apollo was the one name he hadn't flinched and done a double take over in this Greek pantheon, and yet to hear all this still made his brain feel on fire.

"What about the monster Artemis was seeking?" I asked. "Do you know what it is?"

"No," Apollo said.

"Does he know anything to help you guys out?" Alex asked with plenty of frustration. Here was an actually helpful god, wallowing around with the best of them, and still not able to answer a single question. She could paint that annoyed pucker between Magnus's eyes all day onto herself.

"But there is one who might. If you haven't yet found the monster when you reach San Francisco, seek out Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea.

Jason shivered, the name nagged sharply in his mind, even more painfully than Hylla's had. Like someone he might actually know in person?! His attention was riveted, he couldn't wait for Percy to wind up there now!

Both Thalia and Nico watched him with great confusion why he'd know of some old sea God.

He has a long memory and a sharp eye. He has the gift of knowledge sometimes kept obscure from my Oracle."

"I have so many questions about that entire info dump," Magnus said with a concerned look around. "Is he related to Poseidon? Is Percy going to start spouting prophecies? He's not going to show up down here is he?"

"No, no, and no," Percy said with whatever confidence he could, which admittedly wasn't a lot. He just hoped those were the answers.

"But it's your Oracle," I protested. "Can't you tell us what the prophecy means?"

Apollo sighed. "You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear through the search."

"That's a really fancy way of saying get wrecked," Alex nodded, "might have to borrow that."

"He'll be glad to sign whatever you like as long as you credit him as saying it first," Rachel chuckled, they had a lot of pleasant conversations that ended this way.

"In other words, you don't know."

Apollo checked his watch. "Ah, look at the time! I have to run. I doubt I can risk helping you again, Percy, but remember what I said! Get some sleep! And when you return, I expect a good haiku about your journey!"

"I would reread all of these books before I turn in homework given to me by Apollo," Percy said nauseously.

"I volunteer," Rachel offered with delight.

I wanted to protest that I wasn't tired and I'd never made up a haiku in my life, but Apollo snapped his fingers, and the next thing I knew I was closing my eyes.

In my dream, I was somebody else. I was wearing an old-fashioned Greek tunic, which was a little too breezy downstairs, and laced leather sandals.

Alex gave him a catcall whistle while Percy was looking a little flush and mercifully running his hand down his actual pants.

The Nemean Lion's skin was wrapped around my back like a cape,

"Oh gods, you don't dream of all the trophies you get do you?" Magnus asked with whole new concern. "Is that why Annabeth gave up that scarf? Do you dream of the minotaur?"

Percy opened his mouth. He wanted to say it was just a coincidence, but the words wouldn't come out. These dreams always meant something to his quest.

and I was running somewhere, being pulled along by a girl who was tightly gripping my hand.

"Hurry!" she said. It was too dark to see her face clearly, but I could hear the fear in her voice. "He will find us!"

Rachel was really good at infusing dread into her voice like that. Percy wasn't even the one in danger for once and he still shivered and wondered if she'd ever done any acting.

It was nighttime. A million stars blazed above. We were running through tall grass, and the scent of a thousand different flowers made the air intoxicating. It was a beautiful garden, and yet the girl was leading me through it, as if we were about to die.

"The prettiest scenery in the world doesn't stop death," Nico agreed morbidly.

"I'm not afraid," I tried to tell her.

"Well we have confirmation this guy isn't you Percy, maybe just a reincarnation," Will snorted. "Same death defying stunts, you just admit to nearly pissing yourself when it happens."

"Thank you," Percy said, puzzled if that was a real compliment or not.

"You should be!" she said, pulling me along. She had long dark hair braided down her back. Her silk robes glowed faintly in the starlight.

We raced up the side of the hill. She pulled me behind a thorn bush and we collapsed, both breathing heavily. I didn't know why the girl was scared. The garden seemed so peaceful.

"Have you ever read Alice in Wonderland?" Alex scoffed. "Hell, I bet you've seen Avatar, I can list a million more examples. The pretty worlds are the deadliest."

"Remind me to never go to the Demeter cabin again," Percy nodded.

And I felt strong. Stronger than I'd ever felt before.

"There is no need to run," I told her. My voice sounded deeper, much more confident.

"No, no, there's our real proof," but Thalia's smile was as strained as it had been for hours now. She'd never wanted to hear of this in such detail. This was not a memory any other Hunter should have to hear if Zoe hadn't wished to share it. The cold girl who had sneered at Thalia for trusting Luke had never really seen Luke standing there.

"I have bested a thousand monsters with my bare hands."

"That's more terrifying than impressive," Jason shook his head. Hands were capable of both creating and destroying, but the tools were an extension. Someone bragging about doing that with just raw power felt unnatural.

"Not this one," the girl said. "Ladon is too strong. You must go around, up the mountain to my father. It is the only way."

The hurt in her voice surprised me. She was really concerned, almost like she cared about me.

Percy started shifting around uncomfortably in his seat, touching his ear and studying the book with a nauseous feeling. That voice, he knew that voice, but he'd never heard her speak in such a way, didn't think she was capable of it before now...

"I don't trust your father," I said.

"You should not," the girl agreed. "You will have to trick him. But you cannot take the prize directly. You will die.'"

I chuckled. "Then why don't you help me, pretty one?"

"I... I am afraid. Ladon will stop me. My sisters, if they found out... they would disown me."

"Then there's nothing for it." I stood up, rubbing my hands together.

"Wait.'" the girl said.

She seemed to be agonizing over a decision. Then, her fingers trembling, she reached up and plucked a long white brooch from her hair. "If you must fight, take this. My mother, Pleione, gave it to me. She was a daughter of the ocean, and the ocean's power is within it. My immortal power."

The girl breathed on the pin and it glowed faintly. It gleamed in the starlight like polished abalone.

"Take it," she told me. "And make of it a weapon."

I laughed. "A hairpin? How will this slay Ladon, pretty one?"

"It may not," she admitted. "But it is all I can offer, if you insist on being stubborn."

The girl's voice softened my heart. I reached down and took the hairpin, and as I did, it grew longer and heavier in my hand, until I held a familiar bronze sword.

Magnus shivered uncomfortably as Percy grew more pale. These dreams were never described for anything good, and there was a pit in Magnus's stomach this could be what Annabeth could be going through, some horrible mind game with intoxicating flowers where she was destined to keep getting hurt over and over to save a hero.

"Well balanced," I said. "Though I usually prefer to use my bare hands. What shall I name this blade?"

"Anaklusmos," the girl said sadly.

The name of that sword had been mentioned to many times to be anything else, Percy's death grip on it now only drove the point home as he looked like he'd been punched in the face. Chiron had warned him this sword had a past, Mr. D had said much the same. It was an answer he still had no idea what to do with.

"The current that takes one by surprise. And before you know it, you have been swept out to sea."

Thalia swallowed the snide comment how a son of Zeus would dare use such a weapon associated with Poseidon. Whether Hercules had been loyal to anybody but himself was not an ancient question she cared to think on.

Before I could thank her, there was a trampling sound in the grass, a hiss like air scaping a tire, and the girl said, "Too late! He is here!"

I sat bolt upright in the Lamborghini's drivers seat. Grover was shaking my arm.

Percy gazed at nobody in here as he tried for a strained smile, his groggy thought that had come and gone to slow back then. Grover would wish for the dream he had, and it rivaled all of the horrors of that cyclops cave.

"Percy," he said. "It's morning. The train's stopped. Come on!"

I tried to shake off my drowsiness. Thalia, Zoe, and Bianca had already rolled up the metal curtains. Outside were snowy mountains dotted with pine trees, the sun rising red between two peaks.

I fished my pen out of my pocket and stared at it. Anaklusmos, the Ancient Greek name for Riptide. A different form, but I was sure it was the same blade I'd seen in my dream.

And I was sure of something else, too. The girl I had seen was Zoe Nightshade.

"Whoa," Alex said softly, pity in her voice for how that must have turned out.

"I guess she did have her own past with a guy before turning on all of them," Magnus agreed with an uneasy wince.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

I know, big revelation in the middle of the chapter, but Jason had to react to that the same way Thalia couldn't keep denying who this guy is, it just wouldn't make sense any other way. I cannot wait to keep going with these two, even if I have to keep putting them on pause.

*If you know what Will is quoting then you have the same love of an old TV show I do. I still rewatch it once a year.

#pjo #Percy Jackson #reading the books #fanfiction #thalia grace #jason grace #alex fierro #magnus chase #nico di angelo #will solace #Titan's Curse #percabeth #solangelo #fierrochase

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jazzy---j · 2 years ago

Text

Daughter of Poseidon: The Lightning Thief

“even the gods have to bow to fate”

Chapter Summary: A tour turns into a trial by toilet water. They never see the actual orientation film.

Masterlist >>> Read on ao3 (6/23)

My Brother Becomes Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

I still had not gotten over the shock. I had accepted it sure but it still felt like the whole world had shifted under my feet.

We had a nice tour, though I noticed Percy was careful not to walk behind Chiron. I stifled a laugh remembering that he'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times. And was probably wary of Chirons's backside.

We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horns Percy was carrying. Another said, “That’s them."

I tried to clamp down on my pride. My brother and I had fought off a monster as frightening as the minotaur and we are still alive. That's pretty freaking cool. But, the following thought of my mother immediately put a damper on my mood.

Most of the campers were older than me and my brother. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters.

I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I’d realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when Percy nudged my shoulder whispering, "Do you see that?"

I frowned at him and looked to where he was pointing and saw a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct feeling we were being watched.

“What’s up there?” Percy asked Chiron. He looked where Percy was pointing, and his smile faded. “Just the attic.”

“Somebody lives there?" Percy probed. “No,” he said with finality. “Not a single living thing.” I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.

“Come along, Percy, Cassie,” Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. “Lots to see.”

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

Chiron told us the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. “It pays our expenses,” he explained. “And the strawberries take almost no effort.”

He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire.

“Grover won’t get in too much trouble, will he?” Percy asked Chiron. “I mean...he was a good protector. Really.”

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horse’s back like a saddle. “Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper, and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill.” “But he did that!" I argued. “I might agree with you,” Chiron said. “But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I’m afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there’s the unfortunate...ah... the fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover’s part.”

I felt so bad. None of what happened was Grover’s fault. “He’ll get a second chance, won’t he?”Percy asked hopefully.

Chiron winced. “I’m afraid that was Grover’s second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He’s still so small for his age....” “How old is he?” "Oh, twenty-eight.” “Whoa, wait, time out," I exclaimed, "He's twenty-eight and still in the sixth grade?” “Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Cassie. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years.” “Holy... that's- that’s horrible,” I said as a shiver went up my spine.

“Quite,” Chiron agreed. “At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career...” “That’s not fair,” Percy said. “What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?”

Chiron looked away quickly. “Let’s move along, shall we?” Percy's brows furrowed and I found myself doing the same.

For someone who said they would explain everything, Chiron was avoiding answering many of our questions.

“Chiron,” Percy said. “If the gods and Olympus and all that are real..."

“Yes, child?”

“Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?” Chiron’s expression darkened. “Yes, child.” He paused as if choosing his words carefully.

“There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now...until we know more...I would urge you to put that out of your mind.” “What do you mean, ‘until we know more?" My brother pushed.

“Come, you two. Let’s see the woods.”

As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick. Chiron said, “The woods are stocked if you care to try your luck, but go armed.” “Stocked with what?” I asked. “Armed with what?” “You’ll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Have you kept the bracelet?

At first, I didn’t understand until Chiron gestured to my right wrist, and I remember the bracelet that has been stuck on my arm for the past month.

“This a very powerful weapon, use it only in times of severe distress," he instructed seriously, "but it should do just fine for capture the flag this week."

"Umm ok?" I said not mentioning that I had no idea how to use this "weapon." I had not been able to get it off let alone get it to turn back into the spear I used to kill Ms. Dodds.

“Percy,” Chiron motioned “I don’t suppose you have your own sword and shield yet. I think a size six will do. I’ll visit the armory later.”

I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn’t seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights. “Sword and spear fights?” I asked enthused. That sounded pretty cool. Maybe someone could teach me how to use the serpent spear thingy.

“Cabin challenges and all that,” he explained. “Non-lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there’s the mess hall.”

The use of the word usually piqued my interest even more. My brother turned to me, knowing what I was thinking, and just rolled his eyes.

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls. “What do you do when it rains?” I asked. Chiron looked at me as if I’d gone a little weird. “We still have to eat, don’t we?”

Finally, he showed us the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were, without doubt, the most bizarre collection of buildings I’d ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

“Zeus and Hera?” Percy guessed. “Correct,” Chiron said. “Their cabins look empty.” “Several of the cabins are. That’s true. No one ever stays in one or two.”

Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty? Percy stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three. I halted next to him. It wasn’t high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor.

I felt almost a pull as Percy and I walked toward the cabin and peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that!”

Before he could pull us back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Percy grabbed my hand as Chiron pulled us away and said, “Come along you two.”

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers. Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar’s head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared.

The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on Percy and me giving us an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.

That boy from earlier Markus, who I guess was done cleaning the weapons shed, was leaning on the porch yelling at some of the other boys who were wrestling inside the cabin.

Suddenly he wiped his head around and looked dead at me sneering. I don’t know if he was trying to scare me or something but I was kind of tired of his attention.

I stuck my tongue out as I flipped him off.

His face morphed from surprised to mildly impressed. He then proceeded to wink at me.

I frowned as my face started to heat up and quickly turned my attention back to Chiron and Percy's conversation. What was that guy's deal?

“We haven’t seen any other centaurs,” Percy observed. “No,” said Chiron sadly. “My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I’m afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won’t see any here.” “You said your name was Chiron. Are you really...” He smiled down at us. “The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am.” “But, shouldn’t you be dead?”

"Ummm... Percy, he's right here?"

Percy huffed a breath looking at me annoyed.

I shrugged, "Just saying."

Chiron paused as if the question intrigued him. “I honestly don’t know about should be. The truth is, I can’t be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish... and I gave up much. But I’m still here, so I can only assume I’m still needed.”

“Doesn’t it ever get boring?” I asked.

“No, no,” he said. “Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring.”

I frowned “Why depressing?” Chiron again seemed to turn hard of hearing. “Oh, look,” he said. “Annabeth is waiting for us.” The girl we’d met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.

When we reached her, she looked over Percy and me critically. I didn't want her to look at us as a threat so I smiled at her in return. She seemed to be off-put even more but her face relaxed slightly.

I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn’t make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn’t even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book. “Annabeth,” Chiron said, “I have a masters’ archery class at noon. Would you take Percy and Cassie from here?” “Yes, sir.” “Cabin eleven,” Chiron said, gesturing toward the doorway of a nearby cabin with an unordinary amount of mailboxes next to it. “Make yourself at home.”

Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor’s symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it.

What did they call it...? A caduceus. Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.

Chiron didn’t go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

“Well, then,” Chiron said. “Good luck, you two. I’ll see you at dinner.” He galloped away toward the archery range.

I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren’t bowing anymore. They were staring at us, sizing us up. I knew this routine. I’d gone through it in enough schools.

“Well?” Annabeth prompted. “Go on.” So naturally, I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. Percy caught me before I could totally faceplant onto the floors. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.

Annabeth announced, “Percy and Cassie Jackson, meet cabin eleven.”

“Regular or undetermined?” somebody asked. I didn’t know what to say, but Annabeth said, “Undetermined.”

Everybody groaned.

I just sorta looked around confused.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. “Now, now, campers. That’s what we’re here for. Welcome, Percy, Cassie. You can have those two spots on the floor, right over there.”

The guy was about nineteen, and not gonna lie he was hot. Like really really hot. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just below his right eyebrow, barely missing his eye, right down to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

“This is Luke,” Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over her, with eyebrows raised, and could’ve sworn she was blushing. She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. “He’s your counselor for now.”

“For now?” Percy asked. “You’re undetermined,” Luke explained patiently. “They don’t know what cabin to put you in, so you’re here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers.”

I looked around at the campers’ faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets. “How long will we be here?” I asked. “Good question,” Luke said. “Until you’re determined.” “Well, how long will that take?” The campers all laughed.

“Come on,” Annabeth told us. “I’ll show you the volleyball court.” “We’ve already seen it. " my brother replied. “Come on," she gritted out again with a little more force. She grabbed my brother's wrist and dragged him outside.

I turned to look back at all the kids still laughing at us.

"Welp... I'm just gonna go now." I said nodding to Luke as I turned right back to the dorm and ran right after my brother.

I could hear the kids of cabin eleven continue laughing behind me.

When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, “Jackson, you have to do better than that.” “What?” My brother said annoyed.

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, “I can’t believe I thought you were the one.” “What’s your problem?” Percy said louder.

I could tell Percy was getting angry now. It may or may not be obvious but my brother has a bit of a temper. So, did I, of course, an explosive one at that. We've both always struggled with controlling our emotions.

“All I know is, I kill some bull guy—”

“Don’t talk like that!” Annabeth told him.

“You know how many kids at this camp wish they’d had your chance?”

“To get killed?”

“To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?”

Percy shook his head. “Look, if the thing me and Cassie fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories...” “Yes.” “Then there’s only one.” “Yes.” “And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So...” “Monsters don’t die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don’t die.” "Oh great!" I exclaimed, exasperated, "So he's like what, still out there?" “They don’t have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you’re lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form.”

I thought about Mrs. Dodds. “You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a spear—” “The Fur...I mean, your math teacher. That’s right. She’s still out there. You just made her very, very mad.” “How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?”

“Percy talks in his sleep.”

I snorted a laugh, I should have known. I've heard Percy reveal the most ridiculous nonsense in his sleep. From what he's had for dinner to his pet fish named Nemo that I accidentally flushed down the toilet that one time.

“You almost called her something. A Fury? They’re Hades’ torturers, right?” Percy asked miffed.

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. “You shouldn’t call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones if we have to speak of them at all.”

"Ummm, Mrs. Dodds was not very kind when I met her," I said.

Annabeth gave me an exasperated look and I only smiled sweetly in return.

“Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?” Percy whined.

“Why do we have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there.” Percy pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth stiffened. “You don’t just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or...your parent.”

She stared at my brother, waiting for him to get it. “My mom is Sally Jackson,” Percy said. “She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to.”

I stared down at my feet. Every thought, every mention of my mom only made me feel the absence of her even more.“I’m sorry about your mom, Percy. But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about your other parent. Your dad.” “He’s dead. We never knew him.” Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she’d had this conversation before with other kids. “Your father’s not dead, Percy.” “How can you say that? You know him?”

I looked at him strangely, "Percy of course she doesn't!" “Then how can you say—” “Because I know you. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of us," she exclaims.

“You don’t know anything about me. Or my sister!"

I roll my eyes. Oh my god, please do not bring me into this. Nevertheless, he is clearly freakin so I grab his hand to try and calm him down.

“No?” She raised an eyebrow. “I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them.”

“How—”

“Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too.” I blinked at her slowly.

"Uhhhhhhhhh... ok that's kinda personal information."

“What does that have to do with anything?” Percy asked testily.

“Taken together, it’s almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That’s because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you’re impulsive, can’t sit still in the classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they’d keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that’s because you see too much, Percy, not too little. So do you Cassie. Your senses are better than a regular mortal’s. Of course, the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don’t want you seeing them for what they are.”

“You sound like...you went through the same thing?” Percy asked cautiously. “Most of the kids here did. If you weren’t like us, you couldn’t have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar.” “Ambrosia and nectar.” “The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would’ve killed a normal kid. It would’ve turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you’d be dead. Face it. You’re a half-blood.”

A half-blood.

Oh my god, my dad was a God!

I'm related to a god.

I was reeling with so many more questions than before that I didn’t know where to start. Then a husky voice yelled, “Well! A couple of newbies!”

I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. Along with that guy Markus, and three other girls behind her, all big and mean-looking like her, all wearing camo jackets. Excluding Markus in his orange shirt, black cargo pants, and big black combat boots. I also noticed what looked like military dog tags hanging from his neck near the bandolier full of knives across his chest.

“Clarisse,” Annabeth sighed. “Why don’t you go polish your spear or something?” “Sure, Miss Princess,” the big girl said. “So I can run you through with it Friday night.” “Erre es korakas!” Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for ‘Go to the crows!’ though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded.

“You don’t stand a chance.” “We’ll pulverize you,” Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn’t sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward us. “Who’re the little runts?” “Percy and Cassie Jackson,” Annabeth said, “meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares.”

Annabeth gestured towards Markus, "You already know Mark."

Markus gives a smug smile and a wink in my direction.

I blinked. “So like your dad is... the war god dude?”

Markus snorted, "Yeah our dad is the war god dude. Can't you see the resemblance?"

Now that he mentioned it there was a sort of hard ruggedness to his features. He was tall and lanky, but a quick look in his eyes showed an intense ruthlessness in them that was a little unnerving for a kid around my age to have.

Clarisse sneered. “You got a problem with that?” “No,” Percy said, quickly interjecting for me. “My sister just means it explains the bad smell.” Clarisse growled. “We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.” "Percy.” “Whatever. Come on, I’ll show you.” “Clarisse—” Annabeth tried to say. “Stay out of it, wise girl.” Annabeth looked pained, but she kept her mouth shut.

Personally, I wanted Annabeth's help but my brother probably thought since he was the new kid he had to earn his own rep and protect me by extension. Or some totally dumb crap like that.

My suspicions are confirmed when Percy handed Annabeth the box of minotaur horns and proceeded to get in a fighting stance, but before I knew it, Clarisse had my brother by the neck and was dragging him toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.

He was kicking and punching. And I was surprised to see that Clarisse did not seem to be affected at a. I've seen my brother in plenty of fights and they never ended pretty for anyone. Nevertheless, Clarisse continued to drag my brother into the girls’ bathroom.

The three other girls started to converge on me but Markus quickly stepped in and grabbed my arm roughly.

"Go help Clarisse with that dipshit over there," he looked down at me and snorted, "I can handle this one."

Ummm, hello?

One of the girls points a finger at Mark and comments, "That's very sexist Mark, but your right she doesn't look like she'd put up much of a fight." My jaw drops.

All three of them then proceed to follow Clarisse still dragging my struggling brother to the bathroom. Followed by a panicked Annabeth clutching the shoebox.

"Close your mouth you look like a fish."

I whipped my head swiftly to look back at his face as he began to drag me in the direction of the bathroom as well.

"Well... you look stupid!" I respond indignantly as I proceed to try and wrench my arm out of his grip. His eyebrow quirks up in question, as if to say "That's all you got?"

My cheeks burned in embarrassment at the idiocy of my comeback. I really could not have thought of anything better? He looked at me completely bored. "You're gonna have to try harder than that."

"Let go of me!" I scream all my patience gone.

That's right folks, I've had it up to here! I'm done! This dude manhandling me is the final straw!

Markus simply frowned, "Hey I'm trying to help you! So just shut up, keep your head down, and keep walking."

I didn't have time to respond as we finally reached the inside of the girls' bathroom.

There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any other public bathroom. Clarisse’s friends were all laughing as she dragged Percy over to a stall.

“Like he’s ‘Big Three’ material,” Clarisse said as she pushed my brother toward one of the toilets. “Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid-looking.” Her friends snickered.

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers as Clarisse bent my brother over on his knees and started pushing his head toward the toilet bowl.

My stomach dropped at the sight. I bet it reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I started yelling for them to stop and fighting harder against Markus's grasp. Instead of letting me go he just grabbed my other arm to keep me still.

"Shut up and stop it!" Markus jeered at me. I kicked him in the shin making him hiss in pain but still held firmly onto my arms.

Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, and the pipes shudder. Clarisse and her siblings started looking around nervously. Suddenly water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over Percy's head, and the next thing I knew, Clarisse was sprawled on the bathroom tiles and screaming in front of me.

She moved to stand up again but water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.

She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The shower stalls to my left exploded in a huge torrent of water that caused Markus's grip on my arms to fall away as he was blasted into the bathroom wall by the cascade of shower water. Together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.

As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my stomach lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.

The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn’t even been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn’t been pushed out the door. She was standing in the same place, staring at us in shock. I looked down and realized I was standing in a circle of dry floor around me. I didn’t have not one drop of water on my clothes. None.

I looked over to Percy and similarly, there didn't seem to be a drop of water on or around him. Percy stood up on shaky legs.

Annabeth said, “How did you...” “I don’t know, " my brother responded.

I looked over to Markus, who looked like a wet cat with his now darker hair plastered to his face, soaking wet clothes, and his mouth wide open gaping at me.

Percy, Annabeth, and I started walking out of the bathroom, and at the threshold of the door I turned to Markus, still gawking at me, and mocked, "Who looks like a fish now." And walked out the door.

Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to see what was going on. Clarisse’s hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave Percy and me a look of absolute hatred. “You are dead, newbies. You are totally dead.”

Percy smirked and said, “You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth.” Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

Annabeth stared at us. I couldn’t tell whether she was just grossed out or angry because she was wet.

“What?” Percy demanded. “What are you thinking?” “I’m thinking,” she said, “that I want you on my team for capture the flag.”

chapter 7 >>>

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bbwritesmuchstuff · 3 months ago

Text

Magic and Sunlight

Ch; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7(You are here)

7 Things Somehow Get Worse and Less Clear. Great.

“The what?” I asked. Meg gawked at Chiron.

“He- he really is a centaur.” Meg said in shock.

“Well spotted,” Apollo said sarcastically. “I suppose the lower body of a horse is what gave him away.”

Meg punched him in the arm. I got between them and pushed them apart.

“Chiron. Disappearances.” I said, firmly. “What disappearances?”

“Just a moment, dear.” Chiron said, waving his hand at me. “We need to bring Meg up to speed. Welcome, Meg. I understand that you showed great bravery in the woods. You helped Celeste bring Apollo here despite many dangers. I’m glad to have you at Camp Half-Blood.”

Meg asked some questions about Chiron, but I tuned out that bit. I hadn’t heard anything about this and it should have been easy to get a hold of me. This had to be very bad. If any messaging magic was on the fritz, this was more dangerous than I thought.

“Disappearances,” Apollo prompted. “What has disappeared?”

“Not what, but who.” Chiron corrected. “Let’s talk inside. Nico, could you please tell the other campers we’ll gather for dinner in one hour? I’ll give everyone an update then. In the meantime, no one should roam the camp alone. Use the buddy system.”

“And go make sure Will is actually resting, please.” I added as I followed Chiron inside. The familiar living room of the Big House looked almost the same, though the vines that grew in here were now dry and dead. Chiron settled into his magical wheelchair. The corners of my mouth turned up in a half smile as I noticed that his fake legs had been replaced with female mannequin legs in fishnet stockings and red sequined high heels. I probably would have found it funnier if I was in a better mood.

“That’s new.” Apollo commented. Chiron glanced down at his replaced legs and sighed heavily.

“I see the Hermes cabin have been watching Rocky Horror Picture Show again. I will have a chat with them.” Chiron said.

“Let me guess,” Apollo said. “Connor and Travis Stoll are the pranksters?”

“Travis went off to college last fall.” I said. Chiron nodded and threw a flannel blanket over his lap.

“Connor has mellowed out quite a bit since then.” Chiron said. I rolled my eyes. I had nothing against Connor personally, but the pranks he and his siblings pulled can be dangerous for me if they catch me at the wrong time. If I get startled or have my supplies messed with during the wrong spell, it could get very dangerous very fast. Magic could cause serious damage if done incorrectly.

“I poked that guy Connor in the eyes.” Meg commented, looking up from the Pac-Man arcade game. Chiron winced at the thought.

“That’s nice, dear. … At any rate, we have Julia Feingold and Alice Miyazawa now. They have taken up pranking duty. You’ll meet them soon enough.”

Chiron gestured for us to sit down on the couch. Instead of joining Apollo and I on the couch, Meg started to climb the dead vines on the wall. From the looks of it, she was trying to reach the Gorgon hair chandelier.

“Ah, Meg,” Apollo said, looking nervous as he watched Meg scale the wall. “Perhaps you should watch the orientation film while we talk?”

“Also, those vines aren’t going to hold you up for long.” I noted. Meg ignored me.

“I know plenty,” She said. “I talked to the other campers while you two were napping. ‘Safe place for modern demigods.’ Blah, blah, blah.”

“Oh, but the film is very good,” Apollo urged. “I shot it on a tight budget in the 1950s, but some of the camera work was revolutionary. You should really-”

Apollo’s creative project rant was cut off by the vines Meg was climbing on peeling away from the wall and Meg falling unceremoniously falling onto the floor. This didn’t seem to bother her much since she popped back up quickly. Noticing the platter of cookies on the sideboard, she pointed at them.

“Are those free?” Meg asked. Chiron nodded.

“Yes, child,” He said. “Bring the tea as well, would you?”

Meg did as she was asked and brought the food and tea over to the coffee table then hopped onto the couch. She draped her legs over the armrest, which made me need to scoot closer to Apollo. Meg chomped on cookies and threw crumbs at Seymour’s, a mounted jaguar head that was magically enchanted to be alive, snoring head whenever Chiron wasn’t looking. I poured everyone their tea as Chiron talked, though I knew that Meg probably wouldn’t drink much of hers.

“I’m sorry that Mr. D is not here to welcome you.” Chiron said.

“Mr. Dee?” Meg asked.

“Dionysus,” Apollo explained. “The god of wine. Also the director of this camp.”

“After the battle with Gaea, I thought Mr. D might return to camp, but he never did. I hope he’s alright.” Chiron said, looking at Apollo expectantly. Apollo shifted beside me, looking very uncomfortable.

“I… don’t know anything.” Apollo admitted hesitantly. He sipped his tea like it would wash the words out of his mouth. “I’m a bit behind on the news. I was hoping you could fill me in.”

“I see…” Chiron sighed, clearly disappointed. I squeezed Apollo’s shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s fine. Besides, Mr. D was here as a punishment so it might just be that his sentence is finished.” I said. Apollo avoided making eye contact with me, cheeks flushed pink. He cleared his throat awkwardly and turned his attention back to Chiron.

“So what is your crisis?” Apollo asked. “You have the same look Cassandra had in Troy, or Jim Bowie at the Alamo-as if you’re under siege.”

Chiron didn’t argue with Apollo’s comparison.

“You know that during the war with Gaea, the Oracle of Delphi stopped receiving prophecies. In fact, all known methods of divining the future suddenly failed.” Chiron said. He was making an effort to keep his voice level which was common when he was under stress. If Chiron panicked, so would everyone else.

“Because the original cave of Delphi was retaken,” Apollo sighed. Meg bounced a chocolate chip off of Seymour’s nose.

“Oracle of Delphi. Percy mentioned that.” She commented.

“Percy Jackson?” Chiron asked hopefully. “Percy was with you?”

“For a time.” Apollo said.

“He tried to drive us here.” I said. “We ran into trouble and had to come the rest of the way ourselves. He stayed behind to take care of it and, knowing him, he’ll check in when he can.”

Chiron seemed to deflate slightly in disappointment.

“At any rate,” Chiron continued, “we hoped that once the war was over, the Oracle might start working again. When it did not… Rachel got concerned.”

“Who’s Rachel?” Mega asked.

“Rachel Dare,” Apollo explained. “The Oracle.”

“Thought the Oracle was a place.”

“It is.”

“Then Rachel is a place and she stopped working?”

Apollo looked ready to ring Meg’s neck. I sat up between them and turned to Meg.

“Honey, the original Delphi is a place in Greece.” I said. “It was Apollo’s biggest temple and a cavern filled with volcanic fumes. People would go there to get guidance and prophecies from Apollo’s priestess, the Pythia.”

“Pythia is a funny word.” Meg commented. Apollo rolled his eyes.

“Yes. Haha.” He said sarcastically. “Anyway, the Oracle is both a place and a person. When the Greek gods relocated to America back in… what was it, Chiron, 1860?”

Chiron seesawed his hand.

“More or less.” He said.

“I brought the Oracle here to continue speaking prophecies on my behalf. The power has passed down from priestess to priestess over the years. Rachel Dare is the present Oracle.” Apollo said, clearly frustrated at having to explain what was obvious to him. Meg plucked the only Oreo from the cookie platter.

“Mm-kay. Is it too late to watch that movie?” She asked. Apollo groaned.

“Yes!” Apollo snapped. I put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back against the couch so he wouldn’t lunge at Meg in frustration. His frustrated gaze shifted to me briefly before he avoided eye contact. Apollo huffed and pouted against the couch.

“The way Apollo got the Oracle originally was by beating a monster named Python who lived in the cavern.” I explained to Meg.

“A python like a snake?” Meg asked.

“Yes and no.” Apollo said. “The snake species is named after Python the monster, who is also rather snaky, but who is much bigger and scarier and devours small girls who talk too much. At any rate, last August, while I was… indisposed, my ancient foe Python was released from Tartarus. He reclaimed the cave of Delphi. That’s why the Oracle stopped working.”

“But if the Oracle is in America now, why does it matter if some monster takes over its old cave?” Meg asked.

“It’s too much to explain,” Apollo groaned. “You’ll just have to-”

“Meg,” Chiron said, cutting off Apollo. “The original site of the Oracle is like the deepest taproot of a tree. The branches and leaves of the prophecy may extend across the world, and Rachel may be our loftiest branch, but if the taproot is strangled, the whole tree is endangered. With Python back in residence at his old lair, the spirit of the Oracle has been completely blocked.”

“Oh,” Meg said, giving Apollo a look. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

I flicked Meg in the forehead. She whined and I shushed her.

“The larger problem,” Chiron said, cutting off our bickering. “Is that we have no other source of prophecies.”

“Who cares?” Meg asked. “So you don’t know the future. Nobody knows the future.”

“Who cares?!” Apollo shouted.

“Apollo-” I said, but he cut me off.

“No! Meg McCaffrey, prophecies are catalysts for every important event- every quest or battle, disaster or miracle, birth or death. Prophecies don’t simply foretell the future. They shape it! They allow the future to happen!”

I got up and pulled Apollo into the kitchen of the Big House while Chiron explained to Meg how prophecies worked. Apollo ripped his arm from my grasp.

“Apollo, breathe.” I said. He paced around the kitchen.

“She is infuriating and knows nothing!” Apollo huffed in frustration.

“Because she’s twelve and has never had anyone to explain these things to her.” I said softly. “This stuff is obvious to us because we’ve lived with it for a while, but she hasn’t.”

“There is no ‘we’, Celeste. You are a mortal and I am a god.” He snapped.

“A god who has lost his powers and is vulnerable in a way he hasn’t been in centuries.” I argued. “You are in the same scary and new position that basically every demigod has gone through when coming here the first time.”

“Why do you defend her so much?” Apollo demanded. He crossed his arms and looked at me angrily. I sighed in frustration.

“Because I remember how terrified I was when I first came here.” I said. “Demigods are kids who go through shit they never should have to go through. We face death basically every day and never relax. As stupid as this might sound to you, I protect the younger campers so that they can be kids for a while longer. I don’t want you to go through the same stuff I did.”

There was a moment of silence. Apollo looked at me, seeming to search my face for something and looking almost… sad? Hurt? He sighed and walked off. I followed him back into the main room with Chiron and Meg still sitting there.

“Have a nice argument?” Meg asked sarcastically.

“Don’t push your luck, hon.” I said as I sat down. Apollo quietly sat on the other side of me. Chiron briefly studied Apollo and I in concern.

“We covered the no prophecies thing, so… disappearances. What’s that about?” I asked, eager to move on.

“Three in the last month,” Chiron said. “First it was Cecil Markowitz from the Hermes Cabin. One morning his bunk was simply empty. He didn’t say anything about wanting to leave. No one saw him go. And in the past few weeks, no one has seen or heard from him.”

“Children of Hermes do tend to sneak around.” Apollo offered.

“At first, that’s what we thought,” Chiron said. I could see the tiredness and worry on his face. “But a week later, Ellis Wakefield disappeared from the Ares cabin. Same story: empty bunk, no signs that he had either left on his own or was… ah, taken. Ellis was an impetuous young man. It was conceivable that he might have charged off on some ill-advised adventure, but it made me uneasy. Then, this morning, we realized a third camper had vanished; Miranda Gardiner, head of the Demeter cabin. That was the worst news of all.”

“Why was that the worst?” Meg asked, swinging her feet over the armrest.

“Miranda is a powerful, smart and one of the older demigods at camp.” I explained, my expression getting more grim by the second. “It’s highly unlikely that she could be tricked or forced out of camp and there’s no way she’d leave without telling anyone.”

“These problems may not be as alarming as the rise of Kronos or the awakening of Gaea, but in a way I find them even more unsettling, because I have never seen anything like this before.” Chiron said, looking at Apollo. Apollo paused before speaking again.

“These demigods…” He said hesitantly. “Before they disappeared, did they act unusual in any way? Did they report… hearing things?”

“Not that I’m aware of. Why?” Chiron asked, raising an eyebrow.

What Apollo was getting at clicked. He’d been hearing voices in the woods on our way here that Meg and I couldn’t seem to hear. The magic in the forest had shifted to something unfamiliar and Apollo had been driven to delirium by something out there.

“It seems to me,” Apollo said after a moment, “that our priority is to bend all the camp’s resources to helping me regain my divine state. Then I can assist you with these other problems.”

Chiron and I shared a look. My pessimism told me that if we did that, Apollo would just ditch or order some poor group of demigods to do it for him. Chiron had a more practical thought process, though.

“But what if the problems are connected, my friend?” Chiron asked. “What if the only way to restore you to Olympus is by reclaiming the Oracle of Delphi, thus freeing the power of prophecy? What if Delphi is the key to it all?”

Apollo looked like he was a very special kind of distressed. Like he wanted to cry, puke and pass out all at the same time but managed to do none of those things.

“In my present state, that is impossible.” Apollo said. He pointed at Meg. “Right now, my job is to serve this demigod, probably for a year. After I’ve done whatever tasks she assigned me, Zeus will judge that my sentence has been served and I can be a god again.”

“I could always order you to go to this Delphi place.” Meg pointed out as she pulled apart a Fig Newton.

“No!” Apollo cried, voice cracking mid shriek. “You should assign me easy tasks! Like starting a rock band or just hanging out. Hanging out is good.”

“Hanging out isn’t a task.” Meg argued.

“It is if you do it right. Camp Half-Blood can protect me while I hang out. After my year of servitude is up, I’ll become a god. Then we can talk about how to restore Delphi.” Apollo insisted. His denial was astounding.

“Apollo,” I interjected. “This isn’t something that can wait. Camp’s protections are proportional to the amount of demigods in camp. If this keeps up, no one is going to be safe even here.”

“And, forgive me, but Delphi is your responsibility.” Chiron said. I got up and gathered a few things. Charcoal, incense, herbs and a bronze brazier. Chiron only glanced at me briefly since it didn’t take long for him to realize what I was doing. Apollo was protesting his guilt, but I wasn’t listening.

“What are you doing?” Meg asked, cutting off Apollo. He stopped and looked at me.

“I’m summoning Markos-” Meg cut me off with another question.

“Who’s Markos?”

“My familiar. He’s a shadow creature that I can summon for help, usually in the form of a dog.” I explained.

“Can’t you just do that instantaneously?” Apollo asked, a hint of judgment in his voice.

“Yes, but doing it as a ritual takes less energy.” I said. “I’d rather not pass out during anything important. Now, stop distracting me so I can do this.”

I lit the charcoal, herbs and incense in the brazier then started the incantation. The smoke got thicker and darker. The familiar buzz of power under my skin and soft violet glow of my magic manifested. That was always the most difficult part. Summoning the magic was easy, but channeling and controlling it to do only what I wanted was harder. That’s how most magic accidents happened. Magic that was unable to be controlled properly would lash out violently and at random.

Finally, Markos materialized from the black smoke. Markos looked like a black German Shepherd. The only indication that he wasn’t a regular dog was his unnatural violet eyes. He shook to get the soot off and sat in front of me, waiting for his command. I put the lid on the brazier, smothering the fire and opened a window to let the remaining smoke out. Chiron coughed a little.

“Thank you for opening the window.” He said. Meg squealed at the sight of Markos.

“He’s cute!” She said, excitedly.

“He is pretty cute, but he’s not staying. He has a job to do.” I told her. Meg pouted.

I spoke his commands in Ancient Greek. “Go find what you can about the missing campers and bring me what you find.”

With that, Markos dissolved into shadows to do what I’d asked. Meg stared at the shadow that Markos had disappeared into for a moment.

“Where’d he go?” She asked.

“I sent him to find what he could about the missing campers. He’ll be back when he’s done.” I said. “And that’s called shadow travel. You teleport from one shadow to another, basically. I can do the same thing.”

“Really?” Meg asked. I nodded.

“Takes a lot of energy though, so I don’t do it often.” I said. There was a sudden hacking noise and growling. My spell had woken up Seymour. Chiron turned to Meg.

“My dear,” He said, “in that jar on the mantel, you’ll find some Snausages. Why don’t you feed him dinner? Apollo, Celeste and I will wait on the porch.”

We left Meg happily tossing food into Seymour’s mouth. Once we got to the porch, Chiron turned to us. He looked at Apollo.

“So, tell me,” Chiron said, “what did you hear in the woods?”

My brain was running a mile a minute as Apollo explained what exactly he had heard in the woods. ‘Fall of the sun’ and ‘the final verse’ did not sound good. Somehow, even as I got more information, I was even more confused. And stressed. Basically nothing good.

“We will have to warn campers to stay away from the forest,” Chiron decided. “I do not understand what is happening, but I maintain it must be connected to Delphi, and your present… ah, situation. The Oracle must be liberated from the monster Python. We must find a way.”

Apollo looked like Olympus itself just crashed around his head. The subtext of what Chiron said was obvious. Apollo needed to find a way to get Delphi back. In his state, there was no way he was equipped to do that. At least not alone. Meg and I, at the very least, were going to need to go with him. Wonderful, I thought, this is exactly how I didn’t want this trip to go.

“Come, come, old friend,” Chiron said as lightly as he could manage. “You have done it before. Perhaps you are not a god now, but the first time you killed Python it was no challenge at all! Hundreds of storybooks have praised the way you easily slew your enemy.”

“Yes,” Apollo muttered, not looking at all reassured. “Hundreds of storybooks.”

Just as I was about to say something, the conch horn signaling dinner sounded.

“That means dinner.” Chiron said as he forced a smile. “We will talk more later, eh? For now, let’s celebrate your arrival.”

#percy jackson fanfiction #trials of apollo #apollo x oc #daughter of hecate oc #meg mcaffery #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo apollo #pjo fanfic

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