Tiffany Hanson, A Percy Jackson Fan Fiction

Chapter 9, long, but important.

Over the next few days, I was placed in charge of teaching Percy archery with Chiron. And I don't want to sound like an archery snob, but he wasn't very good. We have just about run out of arrows between Chiron, Percy and I, and Percy had shot them all. Only three had hit the target, and they were on the outer rim. But Chiron had a bit more patience, even though there had been a few incidents with arrows and his tail. He was fabulous at canoeing, which just made my theory ever more plausible. 

It was a Thursday afternoon, and the kid himself was taking a break with Grover and I after he just about killed himself on the climbing wall. Grover, being a satyr, had no problem with it. The lava had got him. I just made it out of the way in time, and had to save the kid. Oh well, he'll learn fast I guess.

We were sitting on the pier. Percy was staring at the naiads basket-weaving underwater, which I had never found interesting. I was watching the sun. I knew Dad was up there. And I desperately wanted help. I was broken out of my trance when Percy asked Grover how his conversation with Mr. D had gone.

Grover turned yellow, and I decided to be on standby.

"Fine." he said. "Just great."

"So your career's still on track?" Percy asked.

Grover looked at Percy nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searchers' licence?"

"Well... no." Percy said. he didn't ask what that was. "He just said you had big plans, you know... and that you needed credit for completetong a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down, watching the basket weaving. "Mr. D suspended judgement. He said I hasn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

"Well, that's not so bad, right?"

"Blaa-haha! he might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty."

"What Grover means is," I said, "that it was pretty rare that someone got a quest as it was. And now, well, it hasn't happened in a while. Even so, you're pretty new yet Percy, and I doubt that you'd get  one, even if a quest was announced."

"And why would you want me along?" Grover asked miserably.

"Of course I'd want you along!" Percy cried.

"Basket-weaving." Grover mumbled. "Must be nice to have a useful skill."

Percy and I spent the next few minutes trying to convince Grover that he had lots of useful skills, but it clearly wasn't working out so well. Percy finally decided to ask us about the four empty cabins, which I was grateful for,

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis, my aunt." I said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So, no kids. Her cabin is honorary. If she didn't have one she'd be a little ticked off."

"Yeah, okay." Percy said. "But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"

Grover tensed, and I raised my eyebrows. "No." Grover said. "One of them, number two, is Hera's. That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades." Percy said.

"Right. You know. After the battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky, Poseidon got the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh."

"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."

"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

I felt hurt. I mean I didn't like it, but Hades was family, my grandfather.

"But Zeus and Poseidon- they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"

Grover shifted uncomfortably, so I answered for him. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were really strong, so much so that they were affecting human events to much. After World War II, which was basically sons of Zeus and Poseidon verses sons of Hades, Zeus and Poseidon won. The two of them made Hades swear with them that they wouldn't have any more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on River Styx. That's kind of a big deal."

Thunder.

"That's the most serious oath you can make." Percy said, and I nodded. "And the brothers kept their word? No kids?"

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus  fell off the wagon. There was the TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo- he juts couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... well, the River Styx is serious about promises.  Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that isn't fair! It wasn't the little girl's fault." Percy said.

"Doesn't matter." I said. I had very little sympathy for the children of the Big Three that entered this world. considering my condition. But I couldn't let that on. "Percy, I'm going to make this clear now. The children of the Big Three are the strongest Demi-gods. This being said, they have the strongest aura, which is the scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about her, he wasn't happy about Zeus breaking the oath. He sent the worst monsters out of Tartarus to basically ruin Thalia's life."

"A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve," Grover said, "but there wasn't much he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all to was to the top of that hill." Grover pointed across the valley to Thalia's tree. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off he monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. her spirit still helps protect the boarders of the pine tree. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

Percy stared at her tree. I stared into the water. The story always made me sad, because I knew what Thalia had done, knowing some of the details from Annabeth and Luke. Made my life up until now seem fairly uneventful.

"Grover, Tiffany." Percy asked. We both looked up. "Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"

"Sometimes." I said. "Orpheus. Hercules.  Houdini."

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"

"No. Never. Orpheus did  come close though." Then I realized. "Percy, you can't possibly be thinking what I think you're thinking."

"No." he said quickly. "I was just wondering. So... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"

Grover looked at him curiously, and I pondered his intentions myself. "Not always." Grover said. "We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tried to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems." 

"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."

Grover looked worried, like he'd been led into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were-you know-you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my licence."

"You're probably going to be claimed as a child of Hermes, or maybe one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the goddess of revenge. Don't get worried, okay?"

Percy didn't look very re-assured. As soon as I said it, I was hoping for it. If Percy was a son of Nemesis, then I'd have my son, and I'd be alright. Right?