cymophobia | percy jackson

𝑖𝑣, aka percy is kidnapped by a child

After Percy's mother had given her blessing, the three half-bloods hauled tail to Central Park, where they waited on Grover for over an hour. Ash refused to sing to open the Doors of Orpheus no matter how much Percy begged. He'd been making faces at Nico ever since the boy whispered to him with a smirk: "Guess she only sings for me, then," but now he was getting a look like he was constipated. Then he promptly almost fell over.

"Percy?" Ash exclaimed in surprise.

"What happened?" Nico demanded.

"I got through to Grover," Percy panted. "He's... yeah. He's on his way."

A minute later, the tree next to them shivered and Grover fell out of its branches right onto his head.

"Grover!" Ash yelled. WOOF! Mrs. O'Leary yelled too.

"Blah-haa-haa!" Grover bleated.

"You okay, man?" Percy asked worriedly.

"Oh, fine, fine." Ash reached out a hand and the two old friends grinned at each other as she helped him to his hooves. She immediately engulfed him in a big hug; she hadn't seen him in ages. He looked so much older, so much more mature. He'd stopped wearing his human gear, so the hooves and horns and fur went free, and by the gods he was as tall as Percy by now.

"Good to see you, G-man," Percy said, clapping him on the back when they pulled away.

"You remember Nico," Ash said, gesturing towards the boy. Grover nodded at him before giving Percy a hug too.

"Perrrrcy!" he bleated. "I missed you! I missed Fields! I miss camp. They don't serve very good enchiladas in the wilderness."

Ash patted his back sympathetically. "I'll cook you up some as soon as we get home." Grover had to wipe a tear off his cheek at the thought.

"We were worried about you," Percy told him.

"Yeah, where have you been the last two months, mister?" Ash interrogated, putting a hand on her hip.

"The last two–" Grover's smile faded. "The last two months? What are you talking about?"

"We haven't heard from you," Percy explained. "We tried sending Iris-messages, but–"

"And Juni's worried sick," Ash cut in. "You should definitely–"

Grover held a finger up and looked up at the stars like he was trying to calculate his position. "What month is it?"

"August," Percy answered.

The color drained from his face. "That's impossible. It's June. I just lay down to take a nap and..." He suddenly grabbed Ash's arms and shook. "I remember now! He knocked me out, Ash, we have to stop him!"

"Whoa," Percy said, gently removing his harsh grip from her. "Slow down. Tell us what happened."

As Grover described what went down, Ash and Nico exchanged grim looks. They knew what this was, Ash better than any of them.

She exhaled a shaky breath. "That was my cousin Morpheus you met, Grovey, the god of dreams. You're lucky you ever woke up."

"Two months," Grover moaned. "He put me to sleep for two months!"

"We've got to figure out what Morpheus was doing in the park," Percy muttered worriedly. "I don't like this 'main event' thing he mentioned."

"He's working for Kronos, we know that already. A lot of the minor gods are," Nico said. Ash clenched her jaw and looked away, there was another Underworld deity gone to the Titans' side. "This just proves there's going to be an invasion, Percy. We have to get on with our plan."