Chapter Twenty-Five:
Quest for the Golden Fleece.
— So we're slaves to any semblance
of touch. Lord, we should quit, but
we love it too much !
There was blatant hatred.
The way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian Birds had simply been minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Percy Jackson, Tyson, and Annabeth hadn't disturbed them with their bad chariot driving. Colette hadn't even done anything but save the campers, and she was getting blamed, too. It was entirely unfair. Percy had even worked up the gall through his anger to tell Tantalus to go off and chase a donut, which didn't seem to help the prisoner's mood. He sentenced the four of them to kitchen patrol — scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning Harpies. The Harpies washed with lava instead of water, to get that extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of all germs, so the demigods had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons. Percy and Annabeth were vocal about their irritation, but he frowned when Colette only shrugged them off.
He remembered that Tantalus had been purposely picking on the Apollo campers, so it wouldn't have been her first time.
Tyson didn't mind the lava though, he plunged his bare hands right in and started scrubbing. Only one of the three demigods didn't complain about having to suffer through the hours of hot, dangerous work — especially since there were tons of extra plates.
Tantalus had annoyingly ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse's chariot victory — a full-course meal featuring country-fried Stymphalian Death-Birds.
Two good things came with the punishment: (1) It forced Colette into either choosing between giving Percy and Annabeth the silent treatment or finally talking to them, and (2) it solidified the common enemy for Percy and Annabeth, while simultaneously giving them plenty of time to talk. After listening to his dream about Grover again, Annabeth looked like she'd finally started to believe him. Colette even had furrowed eyebrows as she scrubbed plates, but remained silent. Percy couldn't help but wonder if they truly were going to get the silent treatment.
"If he's truly found it," Annabeth murmured, really slowly, almost as if she was thinking aloud to herself. There was something so profoundly ethereal about the way her plump lips moved so softly against each other when she spoke lowly like that. Percy had to blink harshly, fighting the thought from his head. "And if we could retrieve it—"
"—hol' on," Percy shook his head so rapidly he felt the barest effects of whiplash to get her to pause for a second. He really needed to get a handle on losing himself within his own thoughts. "You actin' like this ... whatever-it-is Grover found's the only thing in the world that could save camp. What is it?"
"Because it is." Colette mumbled. He was sure it was meant to be quieter than it came out, more so a comment made to herself. Instead, both Percy and Annabeth snapped their heads around to look at her. It was a shame she wouldn't look back at them.
Annabeth pursed her lips, her eyes shining with disappointment before she turned her gaze back to Percy. "I'll give you a hint: What do you get when you skin a ram?"
"Messy?"
Colette closed her eyes mid-scrape at the sound of his questionable answer. The barest of huffs left her nose, almost resembling a laugh. Percy fought the uptick of his lips at the sound. He felt like it had been forever since he'd last heard her laugh so freely and openly.
