σɾɳιƚԋαʂ (ρʝσ x ɱαʅҽ σƈ)

I Say Hi to a Poodle

Percy: Oh, right. Sorry.

Grover: (shakes his head) Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. Eric would've been a searcher if he hadn't...

I lowered my head in shame.

Grover: But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive.

Theo: Wait, hang on. The first?

Grover: (takes out his reed pipes) No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again.

Percy: Not once in two thousand years?

Grover: No.

Theo: And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?

Grover: None.

Theo: (amazed) And you still want to be a searcher? I mean, you really believe you'll be the one to find Pan?

Grover: I have to, Theo. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened.

I have to admit, Grover can be really determined when he wants to be.

Percy: How are we going to get into the Underworld? I mean, what chance do we have against a god?

Grover: I don't know. But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—

Percy: Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out.

Grover: Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me...

Percy: What do you mean? Forgave you for what?

Grover had suddenly gotten interested in playing some notes on his reed pipes.

Percy: Wait a minute...Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't...I mean, your first assignment that went wrong—

Grover: I can't talk about it. But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems.

Percy: Well, duh. Theo and I are getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took.

Grover: That's not what I mean. The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy ... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been.

Percy: They seemed plenty aggressive to me.

Grover: (shakes his head) They were screeching at us: "Where is it? Where?"

Percy: Asking about me.

Theo: No, I don't think so. They would've said "he" if they were.

Grover: That's what Annabeth and I are thinking. They seemed to be asking about an object, not a person.

Percy: That doesn't make sense.

Grover: I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt...

He looked at me and Percy as if we had an answer, but we didn't.

Percy: I haven't been straight with you. I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother.

Theo: Yeah, no shit.