❦𝓕𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓒𝓻𝓲𝓶𝓮❦ - 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓬𝔂 𝓙𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓼𝓸𝓷

𝐼𝒳. 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒢𝑜𝓁𝒹𝑒𝓃 𝐹𝓁𝑒𝑒𝒸𝑒... 𝑀𝒶𝓎𝒷𝑒

𝒯𝒽𝑒 way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian birds had simply been minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Annabeth, Tyson, and Percy hadn't disturbed them with their bad chariot driving.

Zoe thought that was utter bullshit and said so, landing her kitchen duty with the other three. Percy told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut, which Zoe laughed at and none of that helped the former king's mood. In the kitchen, they had to scrub 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 all germs, so Annabeth, Percy, and Zoe had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons.

Tyson didn't mind. He plunged his bare hands right in and started scrubbing, but the other three 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.

While they were cleaning, Percy explained his dream. How Grover was on an island in the Sea of Monsters, pretending to be a lady cyclops so that Polyphemus won't eat him. How he and Percy had an empathy link. How Grover was pulled to the island because of something that radiated nature magic so strong, satyrs thought it was Pan.

Zoe couldn't believe Grover might have found the Golden Fleece. The blond and brunette shared a look.

"If he's really found it," the daughter of Aphrodite 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," Annabeth said. "What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"Messy?"

The blond 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?"

Annabeth scraped a plateful of death-bird bones into the lava. "Percy, remember the Gray Sisters? 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 do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?"

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

Zoe laughed as Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Oh my gods, Percy! You are so hopeless."

"What?" Percy demanded.

"Nothing," Zoe chuckled, shaking her head.

Percy narrowed his eyes at the brunette but let it drop.

"Just listen." Annabeth said. "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, when 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."

"It was probably important to her."

"The point is," Annabeth stressed as Zoe snickered, "when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom. The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land where it's placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution—"