cymophobia | percy jackson

𝑥𝑖

When Ash saw Percy again he looked absolutely exhausted. The Stolls had moved her to a suite on the second floor; the black-haired boy stumbled in to check on her after speaking with Grover and Thalia. Without a word, she opened her arms to him, and after carefully nestling into her uninjured side, Percy was out like a light, the girl following soon afterwards.

The nice thing about having interconnected dreams was that sometimes interpreting them together told them things they wouldn't be able to figure out on their own. The bad thing was sometimes those things ended up being really worrisome. For example, that afternoon, Percy figured out what had happened to the previous Oracle, but didn't think the past had any significance to their future until Ash shot up babbling about Rachel being on her way. Like, right now, on a plane. They were just drifting back off to sleep when Thalia knocked aggressively on the door.

Ash stirred, grumbling curses, as the Huntress poked her head in. Why did this bed have to be so comfortable.... Wait, that was Percy.

"Percy, Fields," Thalia said. "Come on. It's late afternoon. We've got visitors."

"Visitors?" Percy asked disorientedly, sitting up and bringing the girl in his arms with him. She groaned but began to disentangle herself, accepting defeat.

Thalia nodded grimly. "A Titan wants to see you, under a flag of truce. He has a message from Kronos."

₪₪₪

It took a fair bit of arguing on Ash's part, but eventually Percy let her go on one condition: no fighting. If anything were to go wrong, she was to shadow-travel out of there immediately. She sent a guilty apology up to her ancestors for crossing her fingers behind her back as she agreed; not only was she very much lying to Percy about the no fighting thing, but it was also quite a vulgar gesture in her mother culture.

She was hopeful there wouldn't be any conflict, however, because their white flag was hella big, as if screaming WE COME IN PEACE! LOTS OF PEACE! EXTRA PEACE!!! No, like, the thing was the size of a soccer field. Thalia whistled lowly when she glimpsed the bright blue giant brandishing it.

"A Hyperborean," the daughter of Zeus said. "The giants of the north. It's a bad sign that they sided with Kronos. They're usually peaceful."

"You've met them?" Percy asked.

"Mmmhmm. There's a big colony in Alberta. You do not want to get into a snowball fight with those guys."

"That sounds epic," Ash marveled, eyes wide and shiny. Percy made a mental note never to let her near Canada.

As the convoy got closer, the giant's human-size companions became more visible: a half-blood in armor, then an empousa in a pretty black dress on the arm of a tall man in a tuxedo. Ash had to admit, they did look very dapper, even with the she-demon's flaming hair and the brutal scars covering tuxedo man's face.

They approached the playground at which they'd agreed to meet. Percy looked to Grover. "Tux dude is the Titan?"

The satyr nodded nervously. "He looks like a magician. I hate magicians. They usually have rabbits."

Percy stared at him. "You're scared of bunnies?"

Ash put an arm around Grover's shoulder and looked at Percy in mock reprimand. "And what about it, Jackson?"

Grover nodded emphatically. "Blah-hah-hah! They're big bullies. Always stealing celery from defenseless satyrs!"

Ash's mouth twisted while Thalia coughed.

"What?" Grover demanded. Ash shook her head and patted him sympathetically on the back. Thalia still looked like she was trying not to laugh. "We'll have to work on your bunny phobia later," Percy said. "Here they come."