NEVER BE THE SAME . . . percy jackson

thirty nine: the grain.

"BROOKS! CAN YOU slow down for a second?"

"I don't slow down for anyone, Jackson!"

"What are you gonna do, run into the ocean?"

"Watch me."

"Do not." Percy grabbed Brooklyn's arm, hindering her from running into the ocean.

"Cheater!" she turned toward him with a pout. "I won the race."

"As long as you don't get hypothermia and die by coldness, I'm okay with losing," he said. Then he thought for a moment, and said, "never mind. I like winning."

Brooklyn clicked her tongue, sitting down on the dock and taking off her shoes, dipping her feet in the water. "Then can I dip my feet in the water?"

"You know this was only gonna take a few minutes, right?" Percy got onto the boat and grabbed his pack, shouldering it.

"Can't we stall a little bit?" she leaned back on her hands behind her, a smirk on her face.

"Frank and Hazel could be in danger."

"Danger's fun."

In the moonlight, she could still see him roll his eyes. "Only for you, princess. Not for anyone else. Come on."

Brooklyn groaned, but she reluctantly took her feet out of the water, slipping on her shoes and walking with him back up the cliff. She grimaced at the sound of her wet feet against her shoes and her unsteady walking, but ultimately she ignored it. Brooklyn Hayward is confident as fuck.

"What were you dreaming about earlier, Sleeping Beauty?" Percy asked.

Brooklyn scrunched up her nose. "Do not."

"What? Ask you what you're dreaming about or the nickname?"

"Both."

"Sorry. You seemed like you enjoyed the dream, though. You sleep talk."

"No fucking way."

"You were talking about Thalia at one point? And something about being a princess."

"Oh," Brooklyn shrugged. "I was a princess in my dream, and I was talking to my brother."

Percy frowned. "Jason?"

"Mhm," she said. "I was telling him about our quest, 'cause he wanted to know or whatever. And then you rudely woke me up."

"Sorry that we couldn't wake Hazel up," he huffed.

"And you needed me to do it because I'm a girl?"

"No—"

"Brooks! Percy!" Frank was running toward them, once again panicking. "Hazel's gone!"

"Gone?" they said at the same time.

"The grass took her!"

Brooklyn stared at Frank. "Wha—"

"Doesn't matter," Percy took out Riptide, the sword emitting a small amount of light. "Let's go find her."

They were running around the field looking for Hazel when they heard yelling.

"Well, that sounds like her," Brooklyn pointed out, spinning her ring and there her club was.

They ran toward the sound of the voice, seeing Hazel stand on a rock, something climbing on it — grain?

"Now you will die," one of the grains promised, gnashing its teeth. "You will feel the wrath of grain!"

Percy nodded at Frank, who shot an arrow at the grain that had spoken. It looked down at the golden arrow that had just pierced its chest. Then it dissolved into pieces of Chex Mix.