Snow White- Percy Jackson¹

Chapter Six

A Surprising and Unexpected Quest Offer (Really, really unexpected)

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The way Tantalus saw the whole situation, the Stymphalian birds were only minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Annabeth, Snow, Tyson and Percy hadn’t disrupted them with their bad chariot driving. 

There were no words to describe the man’s logic of thinking. It was the most stupid, baseless, nonsensical excuse ever and it was clear no one bought this. But no one spoke up either. It was clear that Tantalus had some sort of agenda for the four of them (some more than others), and would use every opportunity to make their lives in camp miserable and unfair. 

It was made worse when Percy told him to go chase a donut, which didn’t help his mood. In Snow’s opinion his presence didn’t help her mood, but she doesn’t use that to act so immature and unfair 24/7. Their punishment for ‘disrupting the birds’ was kitchen patrol– scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies. The harpies washed with lava instead of water, which Snow thought was weird, but apparently it was to make sure the plates and cutleries were extra clean (still weird). So to avoid their skins melting, Snow, Annabeth and Percy had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons.

Tyson didn’t have to worry about the hot lava. In fact, he was enjoying the punishment out of all of them, plunging his hands right into the red liquid and started scrubbing. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the demigods. To add to the frustration, there were extra plates for them to strain their backs out and clean, due to Tantalus holding a special feast to celebrate Clarisse’s victory- a full course meal featuring deep fried Stymphalian birds. 

Honestly the bright side to this kitchen duty was that Snow did not have to participate in the banquet. The thought of having no choice but to eat not only meat, but the meat that once tried to poke your eyes out was horrifying. It gave her the shivers just thinking about the what if scenario. 

Another good thing was that it gave time for Snow and Percy to talk to Annabeth again about the latter’s dream. And this time, she was starting to believe them. 

“If he’s really found it,” she murmured. “And if we retrieve it-” 

“Hold on,” Percy said. “You act like this… whatever it is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save the camp. What is it?” 

“I’ll give you two a hint. What happens when you skin a ram?”

“Messy?”

“Please don’t put that image in my head.” 

Annabeth sighed. “A fleece. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool-”

Ah, now Snow sees where she’s getting at. The Golden Fleece, a classic story. But the idea of using the fleece for Thalia’s tree was risky, considering who was guarding it if Percy’s recollection of the Cyclops that was trying to marry Grover was who she was imagining. But it was a golden opportunity that anyone would be foolish to pass up on. 

“The Golden Fleece? Are you serious?” Percy said in disbelief. 

“It’s our only option,” Snow piped in. 

“You too?”

“Look,” Annabeth said as she scraped a plate full of the bird’s bones into the lava. “Remember the Gray Sisters? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him how to find the Golden Fleece. You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?”