Theo's POV
I was convinced that we were cursed by Tyche or something. I mean, all three Furies AND Medusa in the span of like, what, 2 hours? That kind of shit luck cannot be normal.
We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers. We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.
We decided to sleep in shifts. Percy volunteered to take first watch.
Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky. I tried to sleep, but I couldn't. I just wasn't feeling tired enough to sleep.
Yeah, turns out I can stay awake for 7 days straight at a time without any repercussions. I slept 2 days ago, so I still have plenty of energy.
Anyway, I decided to stay awake and help Percy keep watch.
Percy: (to Grover) Go ahead and sleep. I'll wake you if there's trouble.
Grover nodded but still didn't close his eyes.
Grover: It makes me sad, guys.
Percy: What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?
Grover: (points at the garbage on the ground) No. This makes me sad. And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr.
Percy: Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist.
Grover glared at Percy.
Grover: Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast ... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan.
Percy: Pam? Like the cooking spray?
Theo: (sighs) Oh, for the love of...He meant Pan. P-A-N. As in the God of the wild.
Grover: Exactly! Thank you, Theo. What do you think I want a searcher's license for?
A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods.
Percy: Tell me about the search.
Grover looked at Percy cautiously, as if he thought he'd make fun of him.
Grover: The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago. A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep.
Percy: And you want to be a searcher.
Grover: It's my life's dream. My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there—
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.
Grover: You sure that's the only reason, though?
Percy: I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him.
Grover: Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you. I'm not as versatile as Theo. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done. (turns to Theo) And I'm sure you want the same with your mom.
I didn't argue because I knew he was right.
Percy: Yeah? Well, maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks.
Grover didn't seem convinced.
Grover: Okay, Percy. Whatever.
Percy: Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west.
Grover looked at the night sky as if thinking about that problem.
Grover: How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep.
He started playing Mozart before Percy could protest, and Percy fell asleep quickly. But I couldn't, so I stayed up.
Theo: I'll take the shift after Annabeth, okay?
Grover: Sure.
Timeskip
Two hours passed, and I still couldn't sleep. I saw Annabeth sitting on a log twirling her bronze knife in her hand while keeping watch, so I got up and walked over to her.
Theo: You want some company?
Annabeth stopped twirling her knife and looked at me.
Annabeth: Shouldn't you be sleeping?
Theo: I can't.
Annabeth: (sighs) Sure. I don't mind.
I sat down next to Annabeth and materialized my bow and quiver. I took out an arrow and absent-mindedly started twirling it around my fingers like a drumstick.
Annabeth: I've been trying to figure out who your grandfather is. And I think I got it.
I looked at Annabeth.
Theo: Yeah? Lay it on me.
Annabeth: It's Hermes.
I raised my eyebrows. She sounded so sure.
Theo: Okay. Expound.
Annabeth: Well, first of all: Your winged shoes.
Theo: So? Grover has a pair too.
Annabeth: Yeah, but he barely knows how to use them. Whereas you...You've been using them as if you had them on all your life.
I nodded but still wasn't convinced.
Annabeth: Then there's your versatility. How you're a jack-of-all-trades. A lot of Hermes campers are as well.
Theo: Even Luke?
Annabeth: (blushes) Y-Yeah, even Luke.
Theo: Okay.
Annabeth: Then there's the time when you spoke Spanish despite having not learned it.
I started realizing that she was making some very solid points.
Annabeth: And you said you drove a McLaren to camp, right?
Theo: Yeah, an F1. Top speed of 240 miles per hour, 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. I was driving well over 200 before we got hit by lightning.
Annabeth: Hermes is the god of speed and travel. It would explain how you managed to drive all the way to camp and how you know so much about cars.
I thought about what she said and...holy shit, she's actually right.
Theo: (chuckles) I guess you got it all figured out. Thanks.
Annabeth nodded in response.
Annabeth: I still don't know how Artemis is your mother, though.
Theo: Yeah, that makes two of us.
We both sat in silence for about a few minutes until I spoke up.
Theo: I'm guessing thievery is a Hermes thing?
Annabeth: Yeah. Why?
Theo: Nothing, it's just...Back in school, there was this rich kid two grades above me and Eric. He was always strutting around the halls, bragging about how his dad was this "hotshot millionaire"...
Annabeth: So basically Draco Malfoy?
Theo: Exactly. He...wait, you watch Harry Potter too?
Annabeth: I read the books.
Theo: (chuckles) Cool. Anyway, at some point, he decided to mess with me and Eric. He was talking smack about how my real parents don't love me, or how Eric's parents hated his guts. It went on for a while, and then I had enough.
Annabeth: What'd you do?
Theo: (smirks) Stole his wallet. Took a couple hundred bucks, then stashed the wallet under a dumpster at the back of the building. The sheer panic in his face when he noticed that his wallet was gone was priceless.
Annabeth: (chuckles) Did you get caught?
Theo: Nah.
I started laughing, and Annabeth did as well. After a few minutes, we calmed down and sat in silence.
Theo: You should get some sleep. I'll take watch.
Annabeth: (yawns) Yeah, I probably should. Goodnight, Theo.
Theo: Night, Annabeth.
She got up and walked to her pile of blankets before falling asleep immediately while I kept watch.
Percy's POV
In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead. They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.
Looking down made me dizzy.
The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.
And then a voice echoed far down in the darkness.
???: The little hero. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.
The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.
???: They have misled you, boy. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.
A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!
I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.
Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.
An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.
???: Help me rise, boy. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!
The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!
The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me. I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.
???: Good. Good.
Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!
Someone was shaking me. My eyes opened, and it was daylight.
Annabeth: Well, the zombie lives.
Theo: Wakey wakey, Sleeping Beauty.
I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest.
Percy: How long was I asleep?
Annabeth: Long enough for Theo to cook breakfast.
She tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar.
Annabeth: And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend.
My eyes had trouble focusing. Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.
No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.
The poodle yapped at me suspiciously.
Grover: (to the poodle) No, he's not.
Percy: Are you...talking to that thing?
The poodle growled.
Grover: This thing is our ticket west. Be nice to him.
Percy: You can't talk to animals?
Theo: Yeah, I found it weird too at first. Apparently, all satyrs can do that.
Grover: Percy, meet Gladiola. (turns to the poodle) Gladiola, Percy.
I stared at Annabeth and Theo, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but they looked deadly serious.
Percy: I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle. Forget it.
Annabeth: Percy, I said hello to the poodle. Theo said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle.
The poodle growled.
I said hello to the poodle.
Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods, and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.
Percy: How does Gladiola know about the reward?
Grover: He read the signs. Duh.
Percy: Of course. Silly me.
Theo: So the fucking dog can read, but I can't. (chuckles) You can't make this up.
Annabeth: So we turn in Gladiola, we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple.
Theo: I don't know. The money would get us a good chunk across the country, but it won't be enough for LA. Could be enough to get us to Colorado.
Grover and I looked at him, confused as to how he would he know that. But Annabeth looked a bit upset, but nodded, as if she knew exactly how Theo knew.
Theo: (shrugs) Turns out my grandfather is Hermes. Make of that what you will.
Grover and I looked at each other and shrugged. I guess it makes sense.
But then I thought about my dream—the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.
Percy: Not another bus.
Annabeth: No.
She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark.
Annabeth: There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon.