Aven Wilson has never once been happy. Thanks mom.
To this date, she is the only known daughter of Akhlys, goddess of misery and poison, and, oh boy, can you tell. It's hard to stick around her, and Aven doesn't blame the people that avoid her gaze...
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▬▬▬𝖶𝖤 𝖲𝖯𝖤𝖭𝖳 𝖮𝖵𝖤𝖱 𝖳𝖶𝖤𝖭𝖳𝖸 𝖬𝖨𝖭𝖴𝖳𝖤𝖲 searching for Percy. I'd almost lost hope of ever finding him when Grover's keen eyes latched onto a figure weaving through the crowd. He bleated, "Perrr- cy!"
Before Percy had even fully turned, Grover tackled him and squeezed him tightly. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"
Annabeth stood behind Grover, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see him.
"What happened?" I asked him, trying to calm my raging aura. It seemed. . . quieted, now that Percy was back.
"I sort of fell."
"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?" Annabeth demanded.
Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!"
The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She'd been stuck with Percy.
She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"
"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."
"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw our group. "There he is! That's the boy!"
Percy turned quickly and pulled us along after him. We disappeared into the crowd. His grip was oddly warm on my wrist, and it was only when I started squirming did he let go.
"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"
Percy told us the whole story. The Chimera, Echidna, his six-hundred-thirty-feet-high-dive act, and—because our lives aren't difficult enough already—the underwater lady's urgent message.
"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."
"Yeah," I agreed, "it's too important." And dangerous, I wanted to add. Poseidon, summoning Percy? That wasn't good for my plan for ignoring the large threat brewing.
