/ thálassa | pjo \

/ chapter seven | a side-quest for the future \

edited.

__________________________________________________________________________

 I don't think I have hated anyone more than Tantalus.

Okay–that's a lie. I may hate Poseidon, but that's beside the point.

The prisoner who was currently on parole in the summer camp blamed us for the pigeons attacking the chariot race, saying we irritated them, sending them into their violent frenzy. The looks on a variety of campers' faces were wild; some of them were absolutely confused, others were upset, and others looked like they were dancing on the line of wanting to be mad at me, Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson but also then wanting to throw something at the new activities counselor.

Will was one of the campers who looked ready to throw hands, but with a stern look in his direction–he kept his lips shut.

My brother, however, did not get the memo, telling the guy to go chase a donut. To be honest, I would have said something far worse if I had no impulse control, but either way, no comment did/would have anything for us.

And as punishment for the disaster at the race and for Percy being himself, we had dish duty.

Which meant–we cleaned every single magical dish at dinner– with flesh-destroying lava and the harpies.

I loved washing dishes—honestly, it was therapeutic, and I could entertain myself with the water as I did them. But the lava and the obscene fire-proof gloves were driving me crazy.

Tyson was the only one keeping me from ending it all about two hours in. He was quite entertaining–enjoying playing with the lava with his bare hands while Percy, Annabeth, and I were all dressed up with our abeseto gloves and aprons.

I had been really distracted watching him until Annabeth brought up Percy and me's dreams and Grover. I immediately dialed in when she pointed out that Grover might have found the Golden Fleece. I was about to actually geek out when Percy, being himself–not remembering anything we learned last summer in our summer sessions–asked what the Golden Fleece was.

After giving me an annoyed look as if Percy not knowing anything was my fault, Annabeth scolded, "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, that old movie with the clay skeletons," Percy replied confidently.

A loud laugh exploded from my mouth as Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Oh my gods, Percy! You are so hopeless."

"What?!" Percy glowered at me, and he probably would have sprayed lava at me if I wouldn't get severely injured by it.

"Just listen," Annabeth sighed. "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."

"Bet it was pretty important to her," I teased. Then I added, "Don't forget–Orpheus was there too."

Percy looked over at me again, "Who?"

"You know...Orpheus? The guy with the lyre?" He just stared at me. I continued a little further with my explanation, "He's the one who was married to Eurydice and tried to save her from the Underworld after she died. Hades told Orpheus he and Eurydice could leave if he didn't turn around and look at her until they were actually out of the Underworld, but he messed up?" I sucked in a breath as that all rushed from me in one go. "Then he got shredded up by river naiads or something–I don't really like that part, but yeah. That Orpheus–he saved Jason and his crew from Sirens."