PERCY
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The demigods emerged in Central Park just north of the pond. Mrs. O'Leary looked pretty tired as she limped over to a cluster of boulders. She started sniffing around, and Percy was afraid she might mark her territory, but Nico said, "It's okay. She just smells the way home."
Percy frowned. "Through the rocks?"
"The Underworld has two major entrances." Nico said. "You know the one in L.A."
"Charon's ferry."
Nico nodded. "Most souls go that way, but there's a smaller path, harder to find. The Door o fOrpheus."
Percy stared at it. He knew a lot about Orpheus and Eurydice. Mostly because Sen admired them so much. Percy figured if Sen was dead, he'd probably go and storm up to Hades and demand her back any way he knew how.
But he was still mad at her, and wanted to make it clear.
"The dude with the harp."
"Dude with the lyre." Nico corrected. Sen glared at Percy and he ignored her. "But yeah, him. He used his music to charm the earth and open a new path into the Underworld. He sang his way right into Hades's palace and almost got away with his wife's soul."
Percy remembered the story very clearly. Orpheus wasn't supposed to look behind him when he was leading his wife back to the world, but of course he did. It was one of those typical "and-so-they-died/the-end" stories that always made everyone feel warm and fuzzy.
"So this is the Door of Orpheus." Percy tried to be impressed, but it still looked like a pile of rocks to him. He figured it'd be more... glamorous, or something. "How does it open?"
"We need music." Nico said. "How's your singing?"
"Um, no."
Nico glanced at Sen.
She shook her head. "Voice sucks from all the yelling and shadow travel."
Percy frowned and looked back at Nico. "Can't you just, like, tell it to open? You're the son of Hades and all."
"It's not so easy. We need music."
Percy was pretty sure if he tried to sing, all he would cause was an avalanche.
"I have a better idea." He turned and called, "GROVER!"
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The demigods waited for a long time. Mrs. O'Leary curled up and took a nap. Percy could hear the crickets in the woods and an owl hooting. Traffic hummed along Central Park West. Horse hooves clopped down a nearby path, maybe a mounted police patrol. Percy was sure they'd love to find three kids hanging out in the park at one in the morning.
"It's no good." Nico said at last.
"Just wait." Sen insisted.
Percy had a feeling. His empathy link was really tingling for the first time in months, which either meant a whole lot of people had suddenly switched on the Nature Channel, or Grover was close. And if Sen was agreeing with him on this, it meant he was close.
"My spidey sense is tingling." Percy insisted. Sen bit back a snicker and Nico just looked confused.
"I don't get it."
Percy frowned. Nico was from the '40s, so naturally he didn't understand the really good reference Percy just made. Sen started to explain it and Percy turned away.
He shut his eyes and concentrated. Grover.
Percy knew he was somewhere in the park. Why couldn't he sense Grover's emotions? All he got was a faint hum in the base of his skull.
Grover, Percy thought more insistently.
Hmmm-mmmmm, something said.
An image came into Percy's head. He saw a giant elm tree deep in the woods, well off the main paths. Gnarled roots laced the ground, making a kind of bed. Lying in it with his arms crossed and his eyes closed was a satyr. At first Percy couldn't be sure it was Grover. He was covered in twigs and leaves, like he'd been sleeping there a long time. The roots seemed to be shaping themselves around him, slowly pulling him into the earth.
Grover, Percy said. Wake up.
Unnnh—zzzzz.
Dude, you're covered in dirt. Wake up!
Sleepy, his mind murmured.
FOOD, Percy suggested. PANCAKES!
His eyes shot open. A blur of thoughts filled Percy's head like Grover was suddenly on fast-forward. The image shattered, and Percy almost fell over.
"What happened?" Sen asked, worry in her tone.
"I got through. He's... yeah. He's on his way."
A minute later, the tree next to the demigods shivered. Grover fell out of the branches, right on his head.
"Grover!" Percy yelled.
"Woof!" Mrs. O'Leary looked up, probably wondering if they were going to play fetch with the satyr.
"Blah-haa-haa!" Grover bleated.
"You okay, man?" Percy asked.
Sen surged forward and wrapped her arms around Grover. She was crying again, which honestly didn't surprise Grover. "Grover, we missed you! So much stuff has happened! Where the hell were you?! Oh, I've missed you so much! Are you okay?!" She sobbed as she hugged him.
"Oh, I'm fine." Grover rubbed his head. His horns had grown so much they poked an inch above his curly hair. "I was at the other end of the park. The dryads had this great idea of passing me through the trees to get me here. They don't understand height very well."
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 as tall as Percy now.
Sen clung to him. "Grover, we missed you so much!"
Grover wrapped an arm around her and smiled. "Sorry. Didn't mean to."
"Good to see you, G-man." Percy said. "You remember Nico."
Grover nodded at Nico, then he gave Percy a big hug. He smelled like fresh-mowed lawns.
"Perrrrcy!" He bleated. "I missed you guys! I miss camp. They don't serve very good enchiladas in the wilderness."
"I was worried." Percy said as Sen hiccuped and wiped her tears away. "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." Percy 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." Sen answered as she wiped her nose.
The color drained from Grover's face. "That's impossible. It's June. I just lay down to take a nap and..." He grabbed Percy's arms. "I remember now! He knocked me out. Percy, we have to stop him!"
"Whoa." Percy 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."
Sen frowned. "Like a mirage?"
"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."
Percy stared at Sen and Nico. "You guys know this dude 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. "Percy, 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."
Sen gaped and put her hand on Grover's arm. "Grover, you had a run-in with Morpheus, the god of dreams. You're lucky you ever woke up."
"Two months." Grover moaned. "He put me to sleep for two months!"
Percy tried to wrap his mind around what this meant. Now it made sense why they hadn't been able to contact Grover all this time.
"Why didn't the nymphs try to wake you?" Percy asked.
Grover shrugged. "Most nymphs aren't good with time. Two months for a tree- that's nothing. They probably didn't think anything was wrong."
"We've got to figure out what Morpheus was doing in the park." Percy said. "I don't like this 'main event' thing he mentioned."
"We know he's working for the Titans." Sen said. "A lot of the minor gods are. This just proves we've got an invasion on our hands in a matter of days. Maybe even by morning or something." She looked at Nico. "We gotta go."
"Right." Nico nodded.
Percy frowned and looked at Grover, who was confused. "We're not allowed to know the plan. This might kill her."
Grover paled and looked at Sen. "Sen, bestie, I love you and all, but-"
"Not listening." Sen shook her head.
Grover moaned, "Poo!"
"But, we have to get to the Underworld." Nico said. "We need you to open the door of Orpheus."
"You're not serious." He said. "Not the Underworld again."
"I'm not asking you to come, man." Percy promised. "I know you just woke up. But we need some music to open the door. Can you do it?"
Grover took out his reed pipes. "I guess I could try. I know a few Nirvana tunes that can split rocks. But, guys, are you sure you want to do this?"
"Please, Grover." Sen said. "For old times' sake?"
He whimpered. "As I recall, in the old times we almost died a lot. But okay, here goes nothing."
He put his pipes to his lips and played a shrill, lively tune. The boulders trembled. A few more stanzas, and they cracked open, revealing a triangular crevice.
The demigods peered inside. Steps led down into the darkness. The air smelled of mildew and death. It brought back bad memories of Percy's trip through the Labyrinth last year, but this tunnel felt even more dangerous. It led straight to the land of Hades, and that was almost always a one-way trip.
Percy turned to Grover. Sen was hugging him.
"Thank you." She said softly.
Grover nodded, but still looked really uneasy. "Perrrrcy, is Kronos really going to invade?"
"I wish I could tell you better, but yeah. He will."
Percy thought Grover might chew up his reed pipes in anxiety, but he straightened up and brushed off his T-shirt. Percy couldn't help thinking how different he looked from fat old Leneus. "I've got to rally the nature spirits, then. Maybe we can help. I'll see if we can find this Morpheus."
"Better tell Juniper you're okay, too."
His eyes widened. "Juniper! Oh, she's going to kill me!"
He started to run off, then scrambled back and gave Percy another hug. "Be careful down there! Come back alive!"
Once he was gone, Nico, Sen, and Percy roused Mrs. O'Leary from her nap.
When she smelled the tunnel, she got excited and led the way down the steps. It was a pretty tight fit. Percy hoped she wouldn't get stuck. He couldn't imagine how much Drano they'd need to un-stick a hellhound wedged halfway down a tunnel to the Underworld.
Percy glanced at Sen. After the Labyrinth, it wasn't exactly a secret that Sen was the most affected one. It had been so bad, she needed the god of madness himself to help set her right, and she still went to therapy afterwards. Now, she was shaking a little bit and her eyes were wide and buggy, and Percy couldn't really bring himself to stay mad at her.
"Are you okay?"
Sen flinched like he'd yelled, even though he hadn't, and she went red before nodding. "I'm fine."
Percy knew she wasn't. For some reason, she seemed to jump at the slightest of sounds now. He wanted to console her, but not only did he suck at it, he and Sen had been fighting. He gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.
"Ready?" Nico asked. "It'll be fine. Don't worry."
He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
Percy glanced up at the stars, wondering if he would ever see them again. Then, the demigods plunged into darkness.
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teehee what do yall think sen's plan is