{BOOK 2} Percy Jackson's Sister

I Get a Job in the Airplane Delivery Business

     "We will never make it," Zoë looked nervously at the sky. "We are moving too slow. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus."

    "Mooo," Bessie said. We jogged along the waterfront to make sure no other harm came to him. The sun was dipping quickly. No matter how fast we tried to run towards the Golden Gate Bridge, it didn't seem to get any closer.

    "I don't get it," Percy said. "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

    "The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset," Zoë explained. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

    "What happens if we miss it?"

    "Tomorrow is winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening. And by then, the Olympian Council will be over."

    "And Annabeth might be gone," I added.

    Zoë nodded. "We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

    "We need a car," Thalia said.

    "But what about Bessie?" I asked.

     Grover stopped abruptly. "I've got an idea! The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?"

     "Well, yeah," Percy said. "I mean, he was in Long Island Sound. Then he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam. And now he's here."

     "So maybe we could coax him back to Long Island Sound," Grover said. "Then Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

   "But he was following me" Percy said. "If I'm not there, or Cassie isn't there, would he know where he's going?"

   "Moo," Bessie sounded sad.

   "I... I can show him," Grover said. "I'll go with him."

    We all stared at him in disbelief. Grover was no fan of water and he definitely didn't wang to go alone, yet here he was offering us an easy solution to one of our problems.

    "I'm the only one who can talk to him," Grover tried convincing us. "It makes sense."

    He bent down to Bessie's level to whisper something in his ears. The Ophiotaurus shifted in the water and did a small spin of content.

    "The blessing of the Wild," Grover said. "That should help with safe passage. Percy, Cas, pray to your dad, too. See if he will grant us safe passage through the seas."

    I looked at Percy, who was already looking at me with sad eyes. He knew I had given up on asking our father for help. Poseidon never answered. I just felt more humiliated every time I'd even try.

    Percy stepped a little more into the tide.

    "Dad," he said. "Help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp. Protect them at sea."

    "A prayer like that needs a sacrifice," Thalia said. "Something big."

    Percy looked around. When he saw nothing, he patted his pockets. Then he got an idea. He began taking his coat off.

   "Percy," Grover said. "Are you sure? That lion skin... that's really helpful. Hercules used it!"

    Zoë made a strangled noise in her throat and when I looked at her, her eyes were troubled. The name Hercules seemed to have triggered unpleasant memories in her mind. Memories of grief and heartbreak.

     And that's when it hit me. The girl in my dream, the girl I had been in that dream, speaking to Hercules. It was Zoë.

    "If I'm going to survive," Percy said, "it won't be because I've got a lion skin cloak. I'm not Hercules."