Ch.12

It didn't take us long to pack. We only had an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for us to share.

The camp store loaned us one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might

come in handy for non-mortal transactions—whatever that meant. He gave Percy and me

each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in

emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.

I was bringing the axe the Hephaestus guys made , it somehow only took them a day to make it. They told me if they had another day they could make it expand like I had wanted. I honestly couldn't wait.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the

ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude Percy said he'd seen when he was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security.

He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.

"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on

things."

I heard footsteps behind us.

Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.

"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."

'Here comes the traitor,' I thought to myself.

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke said. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use

these."

He handed Percy the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.

Luke said, "Maia!"

White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling Percy so much, he dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I

don't use them much these days...." His expression turned sad.

I didn't know how to turn him down. There was no proof he was a traitor so I knew no one would even think to believe me. That's when Percy came to the rescue,

"Hey, man," he said. "Thanks."

"Listen, guys ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ...

kill some monsters for me, okay?"

We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns.

Percy picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. He looked at Chiron. "We won't be able to use these, will we?"

He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise

for you two."

I guess Percy had the same idea he did in the book because he turned to Grover,

"Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"

His eyes lit up. "Me?"

Pretty soon he'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy

was ready for launch.

"Maia!" he shouted.

He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.

"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"

"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading

toward the van.

Before Percy could follow, Chiron caught his arm. "I should have trained you boys better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."

"That's okay. I just wish—"

Percy stopped himself, I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I could tell he was worried though.

"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to Percy. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.

"Gee," Percy said. "Thanks."

"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was

waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."

I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when Percy'd vaporized Mrs.

Dodds. Chiron had thrown him a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ... ?

Percy took off the cap, and the pen grew longer in his hand. In half a second, he held a

shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the I'd studied the weapon so closely.

"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."

"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily, even though I knew it should.

"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."

Percy looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?"

"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you both: as demigods, you can be

killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."

"Good to know." Percy responded.

"I'm sorry Adrian, but I don't have a weapon, or any magic item for you."

"That's fine. I have this axe and when I get back the guys in Hephaestus's cabin said they'd finish this axe for me." I responded while holding up the axe they'd given me.

Chiron turned to Percy,

"Now recap the pen."

He touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. He tucked it in his pocket, you could tell he was nervous, even at school he never seemed to have a writing utensil.

"You can't," Chiron said.

"Can't what?"

"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."

Percy threw the pen as far as he could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.

"It may take a few moments," Chiron told him. "Now check your pocket."

Sure enough, the pen was there as Percy pulled it out and showed me.

"Okay, that's extremely cool," I admitted.

"What if someone sees me pulling a sword?" Percy asked.

Chiron smiled. " The Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."

"Mist?"

"Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous

elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."

Percy put Riptide back in his pocket.

Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare. So we didn't have one. We had only our wits and weapons to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead, because while I knew Hades hadn't stolen anything I wanted to get our mom back.

"Chiron ..." Percy said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time before them, right?"

"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes

called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."

"So what was it like ... before the gods?"

Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually

the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."

"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're

alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?"

Chiron gave Percy a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."

"Yes, now let's go follow our destiny Percy. We are going to get the bolt and save mom." I jumped in, I didn't need this info dumb Chiron was giving Percy and honestly Chiron was to stubborn for me to be around right now.

When we got to the bottom of the hill, we looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.

Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a

highway again, Percy and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After our time at Half-Blood Hill and my time in Yharnam, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at

every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.

"So far so good," Percy said to me. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

I gave him an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, Punny Percy."

In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his

neck winked at me.

Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and

starting to rain.

Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom

and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with mine and Percy's picture on it: HAVE YOUSEEN THIS BOY?

Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"I have an idea," I said ripping the poster down and turning to Percy and Grover. "I bet you old smelly Gabe has I new car already, how bout we steal it? I'm getting super bad vibes from this bus station and I'd rather not endanger any mortals in case a monster tried to join us on the bus."

"What?" Percy asked, "You don't even know how to drive, none of us do."

"Incorrect, I do know how to drive. With how hard it is for us to read much of anything I decided to study in the school library."

"So, that doesn't mean you know what you're doing." Grover yelled.

"Just trust me on this one guys." I pleaded.

"Fine but one fender bender and we are taking the bus." Percy groaned.

It didn't take us long to get back to the apartment, and it took even less time to find out if Gabe had a new car. He didn't but his gambling buddies did and they were bad people to so I didn't really care if we stole their car. Snatching the keys was easy and we raided our apartment for what little cash Gabe had managed to win during poker night that hadn't been spent on cheap booze and cigs.

Getting to the car, I made sure no one could see what I was going to do. I switched the plates with some other random car near us.

Percy looked at me confused,

"Why'd you do that?"

"Have you never looked up crime movies at school?" I asked, " The first thing cops do is look for a car with the liscense plate of the stole car. Now this car has a totally different plate so we should be able to hide for just a little longer, we will have to switch plates every once in a while though."

"I see," Grover said, "You don't want cops pulling us over and seeing that you're just a kid."

"Correct, cause then we'd be arrested and they'd find out who we are pretty fast. Our faces are all over the news and papers."

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What do you all think? I always hated when FFs with Mcs that know what's going to happen never go out of their way to fix/change it. The Mc knows about the furies showing up on the bus from his past life so why wouldn't he change their mode of transport?

For everyone saying the Mc shouldn't visit the Romans because he should leave it to Percy, I didn't mean he would be there to help the two camps get along. He'd be there like Nico was, just a roaming guy that they know about and he visits them every once in a while.

I do 100% plan on him meeting the Kanes before Percy does though, I'm also pretty sure that's not canon but I like to think it is. Plus they have a new form of magic he can learn.