Hey Stranger

Chapter 7

"Sir, sergeant Gr-" He nearly said Grant, imagine. "Chase, yes, sir." Percy saluted with thin lips, trying to hold in his laugh.

"That's not funny." Annabeth crossed her arms and Percy glanced at Grover, he was keeping his laugh in but as soon as he made eye contact with the satyr, he let out a short laugh before covering his mouth with his hands as soon as the stark gray eyes glared at him.

"Sir, yes, sir." Percy saluted her and Grover fell over in his seat, nearly falling face first into his cake. Annabeth was clearly not amused with him, she looks rather angry. "Annabeth, sit." He slid over a piece of cake to the girl, "I'll answer all your questions."

Percy waved around his fork and motioned at the two of the Greek entities in front of him, a satyr and a demigod. "I get to ask questions too, since our quests are intertwined or whatever."

"Sounds fair." Grover said, immediately, disregarding Annabeth's opinion. The girl looked slightly surprised as Grover answered without discussing with her. "Annabeth, I'm redeeming myself and I want to do it with the both of you, for Thalia and for leaving you," His goatee was distracting, "at the military school."

Percy glanced at Annabeth who already looked like she had multiple questions on her mind. "You're the son of Poseidon, one of the big three, how could Grover not smell you?" She asked, in a way, it was directed at Grover and Percy.

"I don't know." Percy answered, "I don't know how satyrs work." He shrugged and motioned at Grover who just bleated, his incompetence being pointed out. The satyr took a nervous bite of his cake.

"There were a lot of different smells," Percy and Grover cringed at the memory of it, "Military is no joke, everyone smells there." Percy blinked a few times and raised his eyebrows, "But there were traces of multiple demigods being there, it was weird. Our room had so many-"

"Frank." Percy said shortly, "He left." He looked at Grover and hoped that it would pass off as a truth. Grover just gave him a small smile.

"I think Frank's smell must've thrown me off, that must be one powerful demigod." Grover let out a breath, "Then Clarisse was attacked." Percy clenched his jaw and poked at his cake. If he had known earlier, he could've helped her fight the monster. In a way he might not even be much of a help because Clarisse on her own can be dangerous to any monster.

"My turn, you're the daughter of?"

"Athena." She answered his question like it was obvious, but Percy hadn't been at camp for long nor had he ever been to the camp in New York. "When did you learn that you were a son of Poseidon?" She asked and Percy blinked.

"The day after I got attacked." He answered, "My brother came to me in a dream."

"Triton?" Annabeth questioned, "Is he taking special interest in you? Why?" She asked.

"When I first met him, he was disguised as my neighbor. He gave me my weapons and took me away after my mom got attacked." Percy explained. "I asked why he was helping me, and he just said that I'm not like his other siblings, that I don't want to destroy, that I don't want the throne."

"Don't you want the throne?" Annabeth further inquired, "It would be a huge honor to have a throne in Atlantis."

"I'm a mortal," Percy raised his eyebrows at Annabeth. "I don't think that a new prince would mean a lot to the people of Atlantis because they know that mortals live on borrowed time." He pursed his lips and drank from the milkshake he had gotten from someone.

"How did you get the quest?" Actually, it was his turn to ask a question but he bit the inside of his cheek instead. They had already lost one person on their quest, it would be suspicious if another just came out of nowhere, as if he was waiting in a diner for them.