Curse of the Triblood

Chapter 54

Percy POV

Nico had led Mrs. O'Leary and me through the shadow travel and somewhere in central park. We were in front of two large rocks, and Nico looked at the boulders expectantly. Mrs. O'Leary collapsed and began snoring very quickly after getting me there.

"The doors of Orpheus," I realized. "Instead of going through Charon, you want to go through the express rote."

"It's better than passing out mid-shadow travel. Connecticut to Los Angeles would have been much more energy than either of us had," Nico said, pointing to the sleeping tank-sized dog. "We need music to get through. Can you sing?"

"My older brother is a famous singer, I could play a few instruments, and I'm a billionaire; it's safe to say I took singing classes at some point. But not good enough to charm the literal earth to open up a pathway to the Underworld," I told Nico. "But I have an idea to help me out just a bit."

"I'm all ears," Nico told me.

"Grover!" I screamed loud into the park and trees. Some people turned around and looked at me like I was crazy. Nico looked at me like I was an idiot. "He's close. I could feel him through the empathy link."

I focused on the link and could feel a buzzing sensation like a thousand beehives sprung to life with a warm feeling of a nice campfire but a cotton's soft and comfortable feeling. I focused on it even more and tried to figure out which direction it was coming from. I closed my eyes and could picture a thicket of trees. Some roots and plants were growing over Grover as he was snoring.

"Grover," I screamed in my head.

"Not know, Mr. Flffikins, I'm going to the movies with the tooth fairy," he grumbled in his sleep.

"I'm going to ask about the dream you have when you wake up," I admitted. "Grover, wake up! Food! Pancakes!"

"With extra syrup?" he screamed as he jolted awake. A lot of information flooded my head with everything that crossed Grover's mind in those five seconds he was awake.

I turned to Nico when I opened my eyes. "He'll be here soon." We waited a few minutes before Grover walked up to us, covered in twigs and leaves. "Are you okay, G-man?"

"Fine, some dryads made a path for me to get here; I was on the other side of the park. They didn't take height into consideration," Grover grumbled.

"You had us, worried man. Where've you been for the last few months?" I asked.

"Months? Months! That's impossible," Grover uttered. "What month is it?" Grover asked.

"August," I replied.

"That can't be. It just turned June," Grover said. I took a quick nap then....gods Percy. He did this to me. He put me to sleep!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

"I was walking around the park; something was wrong. Since Pan, I had a connection to nature; I noticed something wrong in the trees. Like something was affecting them. They were growing way too quickly. Heck, the plant life across the world has been overgrowing. The Amazon rainforest doubled in size over the last two weeks."

"That's impossible. We would have noticed something," Nico uttered. Then he looked at me. I knew what was wrong.

"Evolgia, some of its domains are creation, new life, and nature. I noticed the increase in nature and growing plant life but didn't know its reason until recently," I told them. "Kako Dasos, a new primordial giant, child of Typhon and the Norse tree of the world, Yggdrasil. Just moving has sent all of fertility and nature into overdrive."