EVE KNEW THAT SHE SHOULD HAVE FELT MORE MISERABLE THAT NIGHT, BUT CAMPING OUT REMINDED HER OF ALL THE TIMES SHE WENT WITH HER MOTHER.
they camped out in the woods, about a hundred metres 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.
eve thought that the pollution was disgusting, but grover looked delighted for supper.
they'd taken some food and blankets from aunty em's, but they didn't dare light a fire to dry their damp clothes. the furies and medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. they wouldn't want to attract anything else.
and so they decided to sleep in shifts. percy volunteered to take first watch.
annabeth curled up on the blankets and whispered a good night whilst looking at eve, even though that was for everyone. she 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.
"go ahead and sleep," percy told him. "i'll wake you if there's trouble."
he nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "it makes me sad, percy."
"what does? the fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"
"no. this makes me sad." he pointed at all the garbage on the ground, no longer happy about free supper. "and the sky. you can't even see the stars. they've polluted the sky. this is a terrible time to be a satyr."
"agreed," eve said. "as a nature lover too."
"oh, yeah. i guess you two would kinda be environmentalists."
he glared at percy. "only a human wouldn't be. well except you eve, and maybe some exceptions. 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."
eve placed a gentle hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
"i know you will grover, you'll be the first. i just know it." eve confided.
"pam? like the cooking spray?"
"pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. the great god pan! what do you think i want a searcher's licence 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.
eve felt at peace, and calm.
"tell me about the search," percy said.
grover looked at him cautiously, as if he were afraid percy was just making fun.
"the god of wild places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told him. "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."
"and you want to be a searcher."
"it's my life's dream," grover said. as he explained to percy.
he also explained how his father and uncle were searchers too- but now he knew where his uncle was.
percy apologised for reminding him and grover trailed off.
"how are we going to get into the underworld?" percy asked him. "i mean, what chance do we have against a god?"
"i don't know," he admitted. "but back at medusa's, when you were searching her office? annabeth was telling us –"
"oh, i forgot. annabeth will have a plan all figured out."
"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..." his voice faltered.
"what do you mean?" percy asked. "forgave you for what?"
suddenly, grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.
"annabeth's a really good person perce, she's a really sweet friend as well. i know you two will warm up to each other eventually." eve said to she changed the subject.
"wait a minute," percy said. "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 –"
"i can't talk about it," grover said, and his quivering lower lip meant that he was going to cry if percy kept pressing on. "but as i was saying, back at medusas, the three of us agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. something isn't what it seems."
"well, duh. i'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that hades took." percy said while looking around.
"the fu – the kindly ones were sort of holding back." grover explained. "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."
"they seemed plenty aggressive to me." eve and percy grumbled at the same time.
"jinx!"
"jinx!"
"double jinx!"
"double jinx!"
"you owe me a soda!"
"you owe me a soda!"
both eve and percy yelled at the same time.
grover shook his head. "you both are going to wake annabeth. and nobody would want to deal with an angry annabeth. anyways, the furies were screeching at us: where is it? where?"
"asking about me," i said.
eve had pointed at percy in agreeance.
"maybe... but annabeth and i at least, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. they said where is it? they seemed to be asking about an object."
"when did this conversation happen?" eve asked.
"you were playing with that hermes' travel show globe, remember? the hephaestus tv exclusive collector item?" grover asked.
"ooh right! yeah, it was really cool..." eve trailed off.
she thought about how she would sneak out with some of her siblings to the big house to use chiron's old antenna-attached tv to watch olympus' got talent.
gods- she really missed her siblings...
"i haven't been straight with you guys," she heard percy admit, pulling her out of her thoughts. "i don't care about the master bolt. i agreed to go to the underworld so i could bring back my mother."
"that's so admirable percy..." eve told him.
grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "i already knew that, percy. but are you sure that's the only reason?"
"i'm not doing it to help my father. he doesn't care about me. i don't care about him."
grover gazed down from his tree branch. "look, percy, i'm not as smart as annabeth. i'm not as good as a healer as eve. i'm not as brave as you. 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."
"yeah? well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. because you're wrong. i don't care what he thinks."
his increased heart rate and his blood flow rushing to his cheeks meant that eve knew grover was spot on and that he was lying.
grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "okay, percy. whatever."
"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, like he was thinking about that problem. "how about i take first watch, huh? you guys get some sleep."
"gods grover, i love you!" eve exclaimed before pecking his cheek and laying down next to annabeth.
she could hear percy wanting to protest, but as grover started to play mozart, soft and sweet, after a few bars of piano concerto no. 12, they were asleep.
the next morning, eve felt a gentle hand moving the hair out of her face.
eve's eyes opened, and eve knew it was daybreak.
"mornin' sunshine." annabeth sleepily said.
eve smiled and got up.
"you sleep a bit longer." eve said. "i'm gonna go up a tree to relax."
annabeth wanted to protest, but she nodded and dozed off again.
as she groggily got up from her sleeping bag, eve carefully placed her shoes on and began climbing up a tree to admire the sunrise.
after a few minutes of struggling, she got to the top, where she saw the sun rising in the distance.
the beauty of it all never ceased to amaze her.
"morning dad..." she whispered softly to the sun in the distance as she layed her head on the tree trunk, smiling at the bright orange-yellow glow of the sun in the morning.
"i've been doing alright for my first quest," she started saying. "i mean i managed to survive the furies and medusa..."
she felt a little stupid for still talking to the sun every morning.
"i hope you have a great day dad! i'll be alright- i've got my friends looking out for me, they're all really great."
eve waved at the sun before hopping down from the tree.
"well," she heard annabeth say, "the zombie lives."
eve saw percy trembling, she could feel his heart rate beating rapidly at over 120 bpm.
nightmare? she wondered.
"how long was i asleep?" he asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"long enough for me to cook breakfast." annabeth tossed him a bag of nacho-flavoured corn chips from aunty em's snack bar. "and grover went exploring. look, he found a friend."
eve thought her eyes had trouble focusing.
she saw 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 percy suspiciously. grover said, "no, he's not."
eve walked over to the poodle and began gently scratching its ear.
percy blinked. "are you... talking to that thing?"
the poodle growled.
"this thing," grover warned, "is our ticket west. be nice to him."
"you can talk to animals?" percy asked.
grover ignored the question. "eve and percy, meet gladiola. gladiola, eve and percy."
"hi gladiola! you have such pretty fur!" eve smiled at the dog.
getting closer to pet him, she saw that gladiola had a splinter in its paw, and petted his fur carefully to get him to relax.
"this might hurt- but it'll be quick." she whispered to the dog.
she then grabbed a pair of tweezers from her bag to remove it quickly, making gladiola yelp a bit, before healing the injury.
gladiola barked happily at her and laid his head on her shoe in affection.
"i'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," percy said. "forget it."
"percy," annabeth said. "i said hello to the poodle. eve said hello to the poodle. you say hello to the poodle."
the poodle growled.
percy 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.
"how does gladiola know about the reward?" percy asked.
"he read the signs," grover said. "duh."
eve almost felt jealous that the dog could read better than her.
"of course," percy said. "silly me."
"so we turn in gladiola," annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money and we buy tickets to los angeles. simple."
"not another bus," percy said warily.
"no," annabeth agreed.
she pointed downhill, towards train tracks eve hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "there's an amtrack station half a mile that way. according to gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."
eve couldn't really complain, she loved trains.
"come on guys! let's follow the pink poodle!" eve grinned as gladiola happily leapt onto the path towards the station.