JAWBREAKER

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙞𝙫𝙚

The way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian birds had simply been minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Warren and her friends hadn't disturbed them with their bad chariot driving. And since she didn't cross the finish line with her sister, Warren wasn't allowed to receive the golden laurels. It was so completely unfair, Percy told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut, which didn't help the ghoul's mood.

He sentenced them to kitchen patrol, where they scrubbed pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies.

The harpies washed with lava instead of water, to get that extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of germs, so the demigods had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons. Tyson didn't mind, though. He plunged his bare hands right in and started scrubbing.

But the others had to suffer through hours of hot, dangerous work, especially since there were tons of extra plates. Tantalus had ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse's chariot victory— a full-course meal featuring country-fried Stymphalian death-bird.

The only good thing about their punishment was that it gave Warren, Annabeth, and Percy a common enemy and lots of time to talk. After listening to his dream about Grover again, the girls looked like they might be starting to believe him.

"If he's really found it," Annabeth murmured, "and if we could retrieve it—"

"Hold on," Percy said. "You act like this...whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save the camp. What is it?"

"I'll give you a hint. What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"Messy?" Warren offered.

Annabeth sighed. "A fleece. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool—"

"The Golden Fleece. Are you serious?" Percy asked.

Warren said, "I mean...it makes sense. Remember the Gray Sisters, Percy? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him how to find the Golden Fleece."

"You know the story of Jason and the Argonauts, right?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah," Percy said. "That old movie with the clay skeletons."

Warren rolled her eyes. "Oh my gods, Percy! You are so hopeless."

"What?" he demanded.

Annabeth groaned, then explained. "This is the real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, but they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."