The Silver Archer (Percy Jackson) 1️⃣

07. We Do Dishes and Figure Out a Plan

1st Person
Adira

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

This was so completely unfair, Percy told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut, which didn't help his mom . He sentenced us to kitchen patrol—scrubbing 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 Percy, Annabeth and I had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons.

Annabeth, Percy and I 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.

The only good thing about our punishment was that it gave Percy and me a common enemy and lots of time to talk. Annabeth stayed quiet, and she probably realized the tension. That's what best friends do.

After listening to the dream about Grover again, I realized Percy actually was telling me the truth.

"If he's really found it," I murmured, "and if we could retrieve it—"

"Hold on," Percy said. "You act like this...whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing that could save the camp. What is it?"

"I'll give you a hint. What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"Messy?"

I laughed, Annie 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?"

I 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," he said. "That old movie with the clay skeletons."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh my gods, Seaweed Brain! You are so hopeless."

"What?" he demanded.

Me and Annie took turns.

"Just listen. The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and
Europa, okay?" The Daughter of Athena said.

"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," I explained.

"Well, actually it carried Cadmus."

"Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."

"It was probably important to her," Percy said.

"The point is, 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—" I continued.

"It could cure Thalia's tree."

Annabeth nodded. "And it would totally strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood. But Percy, the Fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck."

"But Grover found it," I said. "He went looking for Pan and he found the Fleece instead because they both radiate nature magic. It makes sense, guys. We can rescue him and save the camp at the same time. It's perfect!"

Annie hesitated. "A little too perfect, don't you think? What if it's a trap?"

I remembered last summer, how Kronos had manipulated our quest. He'd almost fooled us into helping him start a war that would've destroyed Western Civilization.

"What choice do we have?" Percy asked. "Are you going to help me rescue Grover or not?"

I glanced at Tyson, who'd lost interest in our conversation and was happily making toy boats out of cups and spoons in the lava. I couldn't help but smile. It reminded me of Matthew when he got his first clay kit.

"Percy," I said under my breath, "we'll have to fight a Cyclops. Polyphemus, the worst of the Cyclopes. And there's only one place his island could be. The Sea of Monsters."

"Where's that?"

My jaw dropped. I looked at Annie. "See!? Hopeless." She shrugged, and I continued.

"The Sea of Monsters. The same sea Odysseus sailed through, and Jason, and Aeneas, and all the others."

"You mean the Mediterranean?"

"No. Well, yes...but no," Annabeth said.

"Another straight answer. Thanks."

"Look, Jackson, the Sea of Monsters is the sea all heroes sail through on their adventures. It used to be in the Mediterranean, yes. But like everything else, it shifts locations as the West's center of power shifts," I explained.

"Like Mount Olympus being above the Empire State Building," he answered. "And Hades being
under Los Angeles."

"Exactly," I nodded.

"But a whole sea full of monsters—how could you hide something like that? Wouldn't the mortals notice weird things happening...like, ships getting eaten and stuff ?"

"Of course they notice. They don't understand, but they know something is strange about that
part of the ocean. The Sea of Monsters is off the east coast of the U.S. now, just northeast of Florida. The mortals even have a name for it."

"The Bermuda Triangle?"

"Ding-ding-ding! We have our winner," I said, using my fist as a trumpet.

"Okay...so at least we know where to look."

"It's still a huge area, Percy. Searching for one tiny island in monster-infested waters—"

"Hey, I'm the son of the sea god. This is my home turf. How hard can it be?"

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "We'll have to talk to Tantalus, get approval for a quest. He'll say no."

"Not if we tell him tonight at the campfire in front of everybody. The whole camp will hear. They'll pressure him. He won't be able to refuse."

His plan reminded me of when I was a kid, trying to get Chiron to let Annabeth stay with me in the Artemis cabin. It was the year I left home and got to camp, so I was alone. No one except her, Luke, Grover and Thalia; who was already gone.

"Maybe." A little bit of hope crept into Annabeth's voice.

"We'd better get these dishes done. Hand me the lava spray gun, will you?" I mumbled.