craving |PERCY JACKSON| [book 1] UNDER EDITING

XXXIII

THE FOUR MOVED TOWARDS the monster. The middle head snarled at them, then barked so loud that Selena's eyeballs rattled, "Can you understand it?" Percy asked Grover.

"Oh yeah," he nodded slowly, "I can understand it."

"What's it saying?"

"I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly." Grover gulped,

Percy took the big stick out of his backpack. It was a bedpost he had broken off Crusty's Safari Deluxe floor model. He held it up, and tried to channel happy dog thoughts toward Cerberus. Alpo commercials, cute little puppies, fire hydrants. Percy tried to smile, like he wasn't about to die.

"Hey, Big Fella," He called up. "I bet they don't play with you much."

"GROWWWLLLL!"

"Good boy," Percy said weakly. He waved the stick. The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on him, completely ignoring the spirits. Percy had Cerberus's undivided attention. He wasn't sure that was a good thing.

"Fetch!" Percy threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw. They heard it go ker-sploosh in the River Styx. Cerberus glared at Percy, unimpressed. His eyes were baleful and cold.

So much for the plan.

Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats. "Um," Grover said. "Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"I just thought you'd want to know."

"Yeah?"

"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the God of our choice. After that... Well ... He's hungry."

"Wait!" Annabeth said. She started rifling through her pack.

"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"

Annabeth produced a red rubber ball the size of a grapefruit. It was labeled WATERLAND, DENVER, CO. Before anyone could stop her, she raised the ball and marched straight up to Cerberus. She shouted, "See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"

Cerberus looked as stunned as they were. All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated.

"Sit!" Annabeth called again.

Percy was sure that any moment she would become the world's largest Milkbone dog biscuit.

But instead, Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat, immediately crushing a dozen spirits who'd been passing underneath him in the EZ DEATH line. The spirits made muffled hisses as they dissipated like the air let out of tires. Annabeth said, "Good boy!"

She threw Cerberus the ball. He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy.

"Drop it." Annabeth ordered.

Cerberus's heads stopped fighting and looked at her. The ball was wedged between two of his teeth like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud, scary whimper, then dropped the ball, now slimy and bitten nearly in half, at Annabeth's feet.

"Good boy." She picked up the ball, ignoring the monster spit all over it. She turned toward her friends. "Go now. EZ DEATH line-it's faster."

"But-" Selena hesitated,

"Now." She ordered, in the same tone she was using on the dog.

The three inched forward warily. Cerberus started to growl. "Stay!" Annabeth ordered the monster. "If you want the ball, stay!" Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.

"What about you?" Percy asked Annabeth as they passed her.

"I know what I'm doing, Percy," she muttered. "At least, I'm pretty sure... "

The three of them walked between the monster's legs and made it through without being sat on. Cerberus wasn't any less scary-looking from the back.

Annabeth said, "Good dog!"

She held up the tattered red ball, and probably came to the same conclusion they did-if she rewarded Cerberus, there'd be nothing left for another trick.

She threw the ball anyway. The monster's left mouth immediately snatched it up, only to be attacked by the middle head, while the right head moaned in protest.

While the monster was distracted, Annabeth walked briskly under its belly and joined the others at the metal detector.

"How did you do that?" Percy asked her, amazed.

"Obedience school," she said breathlessly, and they were surprised to see there were tears in her eyes. "When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman..."

"Never mind that," Grover said, tugging at Percy's shirt. "Come on!"

They were about to bolt through the EZ DEATH line when Cerberus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Annabeth stopped.

She turned to face the dog, which had done a one-eighty to look at them. Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet.

"Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded melancholy and uncertain. The monster's heads turned sideways as if worried about her, "I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised faintly. "Would you like that?"

The monster whimpered. They didn't need to speak dog to know Cerberus was still waiting for the ball, "Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I-I promise." Annabeth turned to the other three. "Let's go."