CHAPTER ELEVEN
We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium
I don't own Percy Jackson.
Grover had taken Riptide out of Percy's hand and shrunk it back down to a pen, but she still had to rely on Will to actually get out of there. Frustration at her uselessness pricked her mind, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it—with Will's arm around her waist and him practically supporting her entire body weight, the best she could do was hobble along and try not to put too much pressure on her injured leg.
At last, after what seemed like an eternity, the three of them stopped by a little stream to catch their breaths. Will looked more tired than usual, like he had just finished an extremely long night-shift—as one of the best healers in the Apollo cabin, as a senior camper, Lee and Michael, the head and first-in-command of the Apollo cabin, respectively, often had him work longer hours compared to the others. Will had never complained, but Percy could see how tired he would get some days. And right now, he looked almost worse.
Will knelt by the water and hesitantly dipped a finger in it. Frowning, he withdrew his hand and inspected it, and then grimaced. "Yeah, I was thinking about using this stream, but all these pollutants... they could infect your injuries, or worse. I don't think we should risk it."
Very carefully, he unlooped her water pouch from her belt, and instructed Percy to hold out her hands. She complied, trying to ignore the pain in them as Will allowed a small trickle of water to drip into her cupped palm. For the first few moments, the pain screamed—her vision went red and she had to use all her self-control to not cry out, biting her lip so hard she drew blood—but then it started to get better. The pain lessened. Her vision cleared. The water didn't heal her burns completely, but at least she could actually move her fingers.
Will's eyebrows were knitted in concentration as he knelt down beside her, carefully moving aside the ruined jeans from her leg. Percy swallowed down a yelp of pain when he accidentally chafed the material against her leg. His expression was one of pure concentration as he drizzled a small stream of water down her leg, letting it slowly heal it, though Percy's leg buckled under her at the first contact and she almost hit the ground—Will had managed to catch her at the last second and set her back down gently.
"Grover, can you find some aloe vera?"
Grover nodded and bounded into the forest.
"I'd be better if I had my medical supplies," Will muttered. "We'll need medicine soon. Antibiotics, at the least. It'll get infected without proper care." He sighed, mostly to himself, and pulled out a small bottle that looked almost like a test tube. "My emergency nectar," he explained. "I never go anywhere without it. I was hoping we wouldn't have to use it, but seeing as this is the only thing we have on hand..."
He dripped a few drops on Percy's hands and leg before carefully sealing the tiny bottle again and putting it back in his pocket. And then he began slicing his shirt into strips with his knife.
"Hey," Percy said as she watched him work. "Thanks."
He cracked a grin. "No problem. Besides, I should be thanking you. You took out two of the Fur—Kindly Ones. If it hadn't been for you, Grover and I probably would've died. Thanks for coming back. That was brave."
"We're a team, right?"
Will was silent for a few moments as he ripped another chunk out of his shirt. "Percy, there's something..." he hesitated. "Back on the bus... they were saying something funny..."
He was interrupted by Grover who came prancing into view triumphantly with a whole handful of aloe vera. Will promptly forgot what he was going to say as he stood up in relief, taking the plant from Grover with a few grateful words and began stripping the outer layer of the plant. Then he grimaced.
"This might hurt, but it's the only way I can think of to stop the infection without medical supplies. You ready?"
Percy nodded, but she really shouldn't have, because nothing in the world could've prepared her for Will pressing his entire hand against her burn. Somehow, she didn't cry out, but she flinched so hard she smacked Grover in the mouth, who did yelp and leap away. Will didn't break his concentration. He was murmuring something under his breath—something ancient, words too low for Percy to hear. His hand took on a golden tinge, and then her leg started to feel... weird.
When Will pulled his hand away, he looked a little more stooped and tired than before, but there was a triumphant gleam in his eyes. "We'll just need to make it back to camp on schedule and you'll be fine. You probably wouldn't even lose your leg. Or your hands, for that matter."
"Yay."
Percy felt extremely weird just sitting there while her friends acted as her doctors. Sure, Will had technically been her doctor before, but just sitting in the middle of a forest, at night, with one friend humming under his breath about Apollo and healing and whatever while glowing and the other friend who was half-goat was slathering her leg in aloe vera was a strange situation. A week before, she wouldn't have imagined herself in that scenario. Hell, three hours ago she wouldn't have.
"No pressure on that leg," Will instructed as he finished tying off the last makeshift gauze around her hand, his shirt several inches shorter. "If there's a fight, I'll take care of it, okay? I don't want you making your injury worse. I can't rely on a hymn to my dad all the time. It's good, but it takes a lot of energy, and I need a lot of time to recharge."
And so Percy was given a makeshift crutch (which was a four-and-a-half long branch Grover had found) and the three of them stumbled into the darkness.
To say the three of them was miserable would've been an understatement.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
Will and Percy were too tired to even try and comfort him. Percy limped along as best she could, feeling her leg slowly healing itself from the mix of water and godly magic, but what frustrated her most was that the wound was a crippling one—it wasn't enough to kill her, but enough to be a nuisance and make her a burden on her friends. She wished she could shake her crutch at the sky and yell at the gods, but considering what they had just gone through, she wasn't sure if it was wise to push her luck.
"Thanks for coming back," Will said quietly.
Percy blinked in surprise, and then she looked at him. "Uh, no problem, I guess, but what was I supposed to do? Abandon you?"
"That would've been the most logical decision. You've only been training for what—two weeks? Less than that? I wouldn't have blamed you if you ran. It would've made sense. In fact, I would've told you to go." It looked like he smiled a little, though Percy couldn't be too sure. "But you were good. Not gonna lie, I thought taking down the Minotaur had been pure luck on your side, but you have a natural talent for combat. I doubt even few can say they can kill two Kindly Ones after about two weeks of finding out the mythological world is real."
Percy didn't know what to say to that, but Will hadn't been expecting an answer. He just began humming under his breath—a sweet, soft melody that sounded so eerily familiar. Though she didn't understand the words, it made her think of summer skies and golden fields, a shining sun and lazy clouds. Some of her tension dissolved, and the pain in her leg diminished. She found herself almost smiling despite the situation.
Finally, after what felt like another quarter of an hour, Percy realized the trees were beginning to lighten. They must've been approaching civilization, and Percy caught a whiff of food. Fast food. Greasy, fried, excellent food. Without thinking, she excitedly sped up—and then winced in pain when she accidentally stepped on her bad leg. Will's healing magic had been so effective she had half-forgotten about the injury.
"Slow down," Will said, smiling a little at her sheepish expression. "I'm sure the food will still be there. Maybe we should work on a cover story first before we just charge in, yeah? I want to use an actual light to check up on your leg too."
"Wait." Grover had begun sniffing the air, a troubled look on his face. "I smell monsters."
Will tensed. "Any chance it can be the Kindly Ones' scent on us?"
Grover shrugged helplessly. "I don't know."
They both looked at Will, who had seniority here, but Will had looked at Percy, as if he had, for some bizarre reason, decided the new girl was the leader. Clearly caught off guard that everybody was expecting him to come up with a brilliant plan, Will said slowly, "Well, we need food. I don't know how much longer it'll take before we get to another stop. And I really need medical supplies and you need a safe place to rest. Your leg isn't going to heal if you're always putting so much pressure on it."
"So just stay wary?"
"Very," he said, and the three of them crossed the street toward the red neon sign that shone over the little shop surrounded by stone statues.
"Grover?" Percy murmured. "What does that say?"
"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
Will frowned. "Sounds familiar. Why does that sound familiar...?"
"Maybe you bought something from here before."
"And I didn't notice myself lugging around a giant statue?"
As Will and Percy playfully bickered, they missed the way Grover's ears twitched, or his nervous glances, the way he wanted to bolt out of there right then and there. They were too busy thinking about food and rest and medicine to worry about potential death. Besides, what did it matter? If they didn't get help soon, they would've died anyway.
As they approached the entrance, Percy eyed the two cement garden gnomes that were smiling and waving at them, like they were about to get their pictures taken, uneasily. Though she couldn't smell monsters like Grover could, she suddenly understood what he meant—there was a weird feeling around this place. Something was telling her to run.
Grover's mutter of, "That sure looks like my Uncle Ferdinand," while staring real hard at a statue of a satyr, didn't help her nerves.
Will knocked on the door, and then stepped back—closer to Percy, his hand already drifting toward his watch, like he was expecting a fight. That made Percy antsy. If it came down to it, what could she do? Whack the monster with her crutch? If she had to use Riptide, she was sure she would be more likely to kill herself than anything. Yet making Will and Grover do everything didn't sit right with her either.
But there was no time to weigh her options, because the door creaked open.
Behind the door had stood a tall woman, dressed in a long, black gown with a veil, like a widow mourning a late husband. In fact, all Percy could really see were her hands—old, yet well-manicured and elegant, as if she were a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady. Percy felt herself relax just a little. If she looked human, just dressed a little strangely, perhaps she really was a human. Or perhaps she didn't want any witnesses.
"Children, it is too late to be out all alone," the woman said, her accent sounding somewhat Middle Eastern. "Where are your parents?"
"Um..." Percy started to say.
"They're coming to pick us up," Will said at once, cutting over Percy's stutters. "We were at a school event, and they were running a little late, so they told us to wait at a shop where we would be safe. We saw your store so we told them to pick us up here. Is that okay?"
"But of course," the woman crooned, sounding distressed. "Come in, come in. My name is Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."
Percy would've gone in without hesitation if it wasn't for the way Will had said safe, like he had been already half-regretting his decision yet was trying to conceal it. As soon as they passed Aunty Em, Will grabbed both Grover and her's arm and dragged them forward at a half-run, leaving Percy to stumble wildly after him, not even noticing how Aunty Em had locked the door behind them.
"Will, what—"
"I remember now," he whispered urgently, glancing over his shoulder nervously. "I threw that line in about our parents to make it sound like someone knew we were here, but I don't think that's going to work. I remember where I saw the name. It was in the attic."
"The monster trophies?" Percy's heart began racing.
Will nodded darkly. "She's not human, whatever she is. Don't trust anything she says. Don't take any risks. If she's promised us food, let's take it, but we leave immediately after that. Maybe we can bargain for some medicine. Most monsters will actually give you what you want so you can trust them and then they'll kill you when you least expect it."
Grover swallowed. "Thanks for the warning."
"If it comes down to a fight—"
Whatever Will had been about to say, Percy never heard it. Footsteps sounded behind them and he plastered on a fake smile, cutting himself off, and turned around, hand still twisting his watch.
"Come, come," Aunty Em said as she ushered them into the dining area, past all of the life-sized statues whose eyes seemed to follow Percy as she hobbled along, their expressions twisted, as if pleading for her to run.
At the back of the warehouse, just like she had said, there was a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser, along with a few steel picnic tables.
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.
Will hesitated, and the others followed in his lead. "Um, we don't have any money, ma'am."
"No, no, children," Aunty Em cooed. "No money. This is a special case, yes? I'm sure your parents wouldn't want you to starve out here while you're waiting for them. My treat."
Percy tensed. The way she talked about the story Will had told her... it was like she didn't believe the story. What normal adult wouldn't believe the story, and even if they didn't, they would've questioned the kid, made sure that the parents were actually coming? Made sure that the kid had someplace safe to be for the night, at least? Percy found herself silently praying to her father for some help. Maybe not a lot, but at least something....
"Thank you, ma'am," Will said, his smile strained.
The three of them sat down as Aunty Em busied herself behind the snack counter, shooting each other dark looks. Will looked particularly anxious, opening his mouth several times, but thought better of it and closed it, eyes pleading as he looked at Percy, but she didn't know what he was trying to say. Maybe it was a good idea to just get out of there, but there was something starting to fog her mind, make her vision hazy—she fought it, but her body was exhausted from trying to heal her and keep her conscious. It could only do so much.
When Aunty Em appeared with the snacks, Percy hardly hesitated—she all but lunged for the burgers, eliciting a small laugh from the woman, and was inhaling her fries at a frightening pace. Will kicked her from under the table (her good leg, of course) but Percy just glared at him over her shake. Perhaps she wasn't being logical, but something was removing all the logic from her mind, leaving her happy and sleepy and content.
Will and Grover exchanged nervous glances as they picked at the fries, before the latter plucked up the courage to ask, "What's that hissing noise?"
Will stilled, but nobody seemed to notice.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "You must be talking about the fryer. You have keen ears, Grover."
If possible, Will froze even more. "Hey, um, didn't our parents say they were going to be here in a quarter of an hour? We should go. Thank you, Aunty Em, but really, we can't keep our parents waiting. They might not let us do this again if we stay out too late."
"Yes!" Grover swallowed the bit of wax paper he had taken, which Aunty Em hadn't even batted an eye at. "We should go. Thank you, ma'am."
"Oh, please, wait!" Aunty Em pleaded. "I don't get very many customers. Keep an old lady company, won't you? Percy seems like she needs her rest, anyway. Why don't you stay awhile?"
"Percy," Will muttered under his breath, not even trying to hide that he knew Aunty Em wasn't human.
Percy, on the other hand, was trying to fight the comforting lull she had been pulled under. Why didn't Will and Grover feel it? Was she the only one affected because of her injuries? That didn't make any sense to her. Then again, to her fuzzy mind, nothing was making much sense.
"You have beautiful eyes, child," Aunty Em said to Percy, as if Will hadn't spoken. "My boyfriend used to have the same eyes, you know. But then a bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My two faithful sisters stayed by me, sharing in my bad fortune, but after time, they faded. I alone have survived, at such a price."
Something was ringing in Percy's ears. Aunty Em's story sounded awfully familiar, but the fog in her mind wasn't letting her see it. Will looked like all of his worst nightmares had come true, and Grover was shaking beside him, eyes wide and face pale in terror, but Aunty Em wasn't even looking at them.
"Percy," Will said, teeth gritted. "Let's go. Our parents are waiting."
Aunty Em turned toward Will this time. "You have such beautiful blue eyes too. It's been so long since I've seen such eyes."
Will snapped.
Before she knew it, he had grabbed Percy's arm and pulled her stumbling behind him, his knife a flash of silver in his hands as he went to decapitate the woman. Percy yelped in shock but the woman just snarled, all persona of a kindly grandmother vanishing in an instant, dodging Will's strike masterfully.
Her hands shot up to uncover her headdress and Will shouted, "Percy, Grover, cover your eyes!"
As if he knew Percy would argue instead of doing what he asked, he clapped a hand over her eyes and pulled her backwards as Aunty Em hissed in anger, but there was more than one person hissing. It was like an army of snakes, and the peaceful feeling that had once controlled her vanished instantly. Will's hand was on her back as he guided her out of there, the two of them stumbling blindly while Aunty Em approached from behind them.
"Maia!" she heard Grover cry, and she went to turn around, but Will shouted:
"Percy, no! Aunty Em! M! It's Medusa!"
Percy had frozen in her shock, but clearly, Will had been prepared for that because he had grabbed her arm and was pulling her with him, but Percy dug her heels into the ground.
"Will, wait! We have to get Grover!"
"Grover will be fine."
"How do you know that?"
Will didn't even need to answer. There was a sound, like a two-hundred pound hummingbird, and then there was a loud thwack! Medusa roared in rage.
"Because Grover's resourceful," Will said. "How's the leg?"
"Numb, but I can handle it."
"Good, because you might need to."
"What?" Percy was so startled her eyes flew open, but thankfully, she was staring at Will instead of Medusa. "What do you mean, I need to? Did you forget I had, like, five days of training?"
"You're Poseidon's daughter," he explained. "I'm Apollo's son, and Grover's a satyr. Out of all of us, Medusa is the least likely to hurt you. She seems sweet on your dad. As for Grover and I? She'd have no problem turning us into statues and then crushing us to dust. I know you don't want to do this, and gods, I don't want you to do this either, but you've got the best shot. Besides, I can't shoot her without looking and... well, you've got the better weapon anyway."
"Will, I can't. I can't—"
"Yes, you can." He pulled Annabeth's cap out from his pocket and pressed it into Percy's trembling hands. "I'll be right there if you need me, but I can't do it. It has to be you."
Percy's mind was racing. She recalled the story of Perseus and Medusa, but Perseus had only beaten Medusa because she had been sleeping, and he had had the help of at least two gods, if not more. He carried with him the weapons of the gods. What did Percy have? A pen and a hat.
It really did wonders for her nerves.
Will grabbed a green gazing ball from a pedestal beside them. "Use this as a mirror. A polished shield would be better. The ball will distort the image by—you know what? Who cares? Hurry. Grover's got a great nose but he'll eventually crash."
Great nose. Something dropped in Percy's stomach. She had heard the occasional thwacks of Grover's attacks but she hadn't really considered how he was fighting Medusa without looking at her. It was only until Will had mentioned it that Percy realized, with creeping horror, that Grover must've been navigating by nose and ears alone. That infuriated her.
Percy grabbed the ball from Will's hand and stuffed the cap on her head, feeling the strange sensation of her body tingling; reaching for the pen behind her ear, she uncapped it, letting the cap fall onto the ground as her sword elongated in her hand. Percy took a ginger step back, eyes fixed firmly on the crystal ball. Her leg trembled a little, unused to the sudden weight after such an injury, but Percy decided she wouldn't die. The same couldn't be said for Grover, though. His luck would catch up with him soon.
Will was facing the other direction, his knuckles white against the hilt of his knife as Percy backed away. He could clearly hear her, and he was twitching, like he wanted to turn around, but he resisted the urge, eyes fixed firmly on the statue of two lovers in front of him.
Medusa must've also heard her approaching.
When Percy got close, she heard the woman snarl—she didn't see what happened, but she heard Grover yelp and crashing sounds—Medusa must've managed to land a hit on Grover.
Percy got even madder.
"Percy, my dear," Medusa crooned as Percy finally turned the corner, "you wouldn't hurt a poor old lady, would you?"
Percy decided there could be no way that Medusa was that ugly. The crystal ball had to be disorienting her face. Then again, though Percy hadn't taken physics yet, she had been blessed with a dash of common sense, and she knew that reflections didn't just make up things—Medusa's hair was moving unnaturally, tusks jutting from her lips—Percy felt a strange sense of pity wash over her.
"I have no use for your friends," Medusa continued, her voice a comforting purr. "I will crush their statues. But you need not to suffer, Percy. Do you really want to help the gods? Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."
"You're right," Percy said evenly, desperately trying to buy herself some time as she moved backwards. "The gods haven't exactly helped me much. But unlike you, they haven't tried to kill my friends."
Medusa lunged, but Percy wasn't there anymore.
Knowing that the monster would follow her voice, Percy darted to the side, almost dropping the crystal ball as Medusa came up empty-handed... or -clawed, hissing and spitting in rage as she whirled around, trying to find the demigod. Percy's hand tightened on Riptide and she silently prayed to her father for help.
Medusa had once been his lover, but if he wanted to start proving that he truly loved Percy, maybe saving his daughter would be a good first step.
"The gods did this to me, Percy!" Medusa cried. "The cursed, jealous Athena turned me from a beautiful woman, the most sought after in my entire city, into this! A hideous monster! How could you ever believe the gods, trust in them? Can you not see? They use you for their entertainment, and cast you aside when they're bored! We are nothing but pieces on a chessboard for them—we have no purpose to them but to provide entertainment and use to win wars, but we can be discarded when they wish.
"Do you not see that you are their pawn? Even I had been! Poseidon had told me he loved me not for my beauty but for who I was, but when Athena had cursed me into this, he too had left me in disgust. It was only my sisters who stayed by my side, only my sisters who saw me for who I was past this hideous face—in this world, Percy, family is the only one you can rely on. What have the gods done for you, anyway? They made you and your mother suffer. They sent you on a foolish quest. They accused you of theft. Why do you remain on their side?"
Percy knew her answer well enough.
She wasn't on the god's side, nor was she on Medusa's. She was on her own side, on Grover's side, on Will's side, but, most importantly, she was on her mother's side. If going on a dangerous quest and bargaining with Hades was the only way she would be able to get her mother back, Percy wouldn't even think to hesitate. If sucking up to the gods for nine more days did the trick, so be it.
Medusa was right. Family was important. But not always family by blood. Family was chosen. Relatives weren't. And that was why Percy was on this stupid quest in the first place.
To save the only family member she had left.
Percy lunged.
Medusa was too slow.
Riptide passed cleanly through her neck, and the woman screamed. Something fell at Percy's feet. She almost looked, but something told her not to. Her hands were trembling. Her narrowed eyes were fixed firmly on the darkening storm clouds above her, threatening Zeus to do what he wanted to do to prove her right. Yet she still sent a small thank you to her father in her head. Perhaps her father didn't do anything and everything had been Percy's own skill. But if her father had done something and Percy hadn't thanked him for it... well, gods were apparently drama queens.
"Don't look," Will said from somewhere behind her. "The head can still petrify."
Percy caught a flash of gold—Will's hair—and used her crystal as a mirror to watch Will carefully pick up Medusa's severed head with the discarded black veil, his hands surprisingly gentle and steady despite slowly being drenched in green, icky blood. Perhaps that was what happened after you became a medic. Blood and other bits of gore didn't bother you as much as others. Or perhaps Will was simply putting on a front. He was the most experienced out of all of them, after all. Maybe he thought he needed to be an example.
Grover had recovered from his crash into a tree. Though he had a small cut on his left cheek, Will assured him that it would be fine, but the three of them went back into the warehouse to find some bandages anyway. Percy hadn't wanted to, but Will reminded her that now that Medusa was dead and her Gorgon sisters clearly weren't there, it would've been foolish to not restock on anything considering they had nothing.
While Grover went rifling for bandages, Will and Percy sat down heavily on the steel benches, double-wrapping Medusa's head for safety. Then Will checked up on Percy's leg, which was still tingly, but he simply took the water pouch from Percy and drizzled the rest of it over her burn; she sighed in relief as the pain vanished, leaving behind only a large, slightly-reddish patch of new skin.
Then Will went to refill the water pouch and brought it back to heal her hands.
"Why didn't the head evaporate?" Percy asked as Will dripped water onto her hands.
"It's a spoil of war," he explained. "Like your Minotaur horn. Once it isn't attached to the rest of the monster's body anymore, it's technically yours. Morbid? Yes. But certainly not the weirdest thing to happen in Greek mythology. I'm not even sure what counts as the, you know, original body and what counts as the severed part, but we have a lot of weird rules."
While Will went to help Grover clean out the cut with some alcohol packets Grover found, Percy guzzled down the water Will had brought, staring at the plastic wrap that contained Medusa's head. Perhaps it was the exhaustion and the adrenaline of the water talking, but she was suddenly angry—angry at the gods for everything.
For what Medusa said, that Percy was just a pawn in a long game of chess for them, like she was some sort of investment they were hoping would pay off. For sending her on a quest that three adults shouldn't have been on, much less three kids. For taking her mother away from her, like the two of them hadn't suffered so much already. For giving them so much trouble on their first day, having them get into two major fights.
Going by how things were going so far, Percy thought it highly-unlikely they would ever make it to Los Angeles alive, much less in nine days.
She stood up abruptly.
Will was too busy fussing over Grover to notice, and Grover was too busy complaining to Will that he wasn't a baby to notice, but Percy stalked toward the counter and refilled her empty water pouch again before going into the back of the warehouse, searching until she found Medusa's office. Her account book showed the Underworld's billing address: DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. Percy folded the bill and put it in her pocket.
Then, snooping a little more (though Percy, in all honesty, thought that after all the hell Medusa put her though, she deserved it), Percy found twenty dollars, a small handful of golden drachmas, and a few boxes with the words Hermes Overnight Express stamped on them, a little bag attached for coins. Percy rummaged through the collection of cardboard boxes until she found one the right size.
Finding a pen, she quickly scribbled down on the delivery slip:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
Then she went back to the picnic table where Grover and Will were waiting anxiously for her.
"Thank the gods," Will said in relief as soon as he saw her. "We thought something happened. We were just about to look for you."
A small smile tugged at Percy's lips. Despite being the main reason the three of them were in trouble all the time, Will and Grover had both been worried enough about her to try and find her in a place where Medusa had resided.
Percy picked up Medusa's head and slipped it into the box, and both Grover and Will stopped looking relieved and adopted more horrified expressions.
"Percy, think about this carefully," Will said worriedly.
"They won't like it," Grover agreed warily.
"I don't care," was Percy's swift reply as she placed three golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as she closed it, there was a cash register sound. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
Will and Grover exchanged wary glances but they didn't say anything. Percy was grateful for that. They stuffed a couple bags they found with some extra goodies and snacks and left, but Grover paused at the entrance, staring at the statue of the satyr he had been looking at before.
"Uncle Ferdinand," he whispered, his voice cracking, his eyes shining—he reached out and touched the satyr's terrified yet determined face gently, before he pulled his hand away and turned back to the forest. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
Percy and Will didn't argue.
They plunged back into the forest.
Hey guys!
Sorry for the late update, but these last weeks have been hectic. I've been doing a lot of schoolwork and unfortunately didn't find much time to write. I did today, though, and managed to finished the rest of the work in one sitting!
It's not that impressive, though. This chapter is definitely one on the shorter side, just 5.5k words—I actually got rid of a lot of things because I didn't think it useful for the plot and I also wanted to change it up a little to deviate from Rick's canon.
To any old readers: you'll see I changed up the Medusa conversation.
Let's hope the next chapter won't take so long. Based on my memory, it clocks in at just barely 2k words, so it shouldn't.
As always, reviews are appreciated, and thank you readers!