𐌙/𐌍 Ᏽ𐌵𐌀𐌋𐌄 & 𐌕𐋅𐌄 Ᏽ𐌐𐌄𐌀𐌕 𐌌𐌙𐌕𐋅𐌔 ¹

Chapter 7

  He grinned and got to his feet—well, his hooves, actually. Since last summer, Grover had stopped trying to disguise himself as human. He never wore a cap or fake feet anymore. He didn't even wear jeans, since he had furry goat legs from the waist down. His T-shirt had a picture from that book Where the Wild Things Are. It was covered with dirt and tree sap. His goatee looked fuller, almost manly (or goatly?), and he was taller than me now. The same height as Percy and around Annabeth's height.

  "Good to see you, Grover," I said. "You remember Nico."

  Grover nodded at Nico, then he gave me a big hug. He smelled like fresh-mown lawns.

  "(yyyy/n)!" he bleated. "I missed you! I miss camp. They don't serve very good enchiladas in the wilderness."

  "I was worried," I said. "Where've you been the last two months?"

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

  "We haven't heard from you," I said. "Juniper's worried. We sent Iris-messages, but—"

  "Hold on." He looked up at the stars like he was trying to calculate his position. "What month is this?"

  "August."

  The color drained from his face. "That's impossible. It's June. I just lay down to take a nap and ..."

  He grabbed my arms. "I remember now! He knocked me out. (y/n), we have to stop him!"

  "Whoa," I said. "Slow down. Tell me what happened."

  He took a deep breath. "I was... I was walking in the woods up by Harlem Meer. And I felt this tremble in the ground, like something powerful was near."

  "You can sense stuff like that?" Nico asked.

  Grover nodded. "Since Pan's death, I can feel when something is wrong in nature. It's like my ears and eyes are sharper when I'm in the Wild. Anyway, I started following the scent. This man in a long black coat was walking through the park, and I noticed he didn't cast a shadow. Middle of a sunny day, and he cast no shadow. He kind of shimmered as he moved."

  "Like a mirage?" Nico asked.

  "Yes," Grover said. "And whenever he passed humans—"

  "The humans would pass out," Nico said. "Curl up and go to sleep."

  "That's right! Then after he was gone, they'd get up and go about their business like nothing happened."

  I stared at Nico. "You know this guy in black?"

  "Afraid so," Nico said. "Grover, what happened?"

  "I followed the guy. He kept looking up at the buildings around the park like he was making estimates or something. This lady jogger ran by, and she curled up on the sidewalk and started snoring. The guy in black put his hand on her forehead like he was checking her temperature. Then he kept walking. By this time, I knew he was a monster or something even worse. I followed him into this grove, to the base of a big elm tree. I was about to summon some dryads to help me capture him when he turned and ..."

  Grover swallowed. "(y/n), his face. I couldn't make out his face because it kept shifting. Just looking at him made me sleepy. I said, “What are you doing?” He said, 'Just having a look around. You should always scout a battlefield before the battle.” I said something really smart like, “This forest is under my protection. You won't start any battles here!” And he laughed. He said, “You're lucky I'm saving my energy for the main event, little satyr. I'll just grant you a short nap. Pleasant dreams.” And that's the last thing I remember."