The Riptides: Percy's Sister (Percy Jackson And The Olympians)

Book Two, Chapter Seven 2.7

The way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian birds were just minding their own business and would not have attacked if Annabeth, Tyson, Percy and I, though I don't know how I got roped in, hadn't disrupted them with bad chariot riding.

"This is so completely unfair!" I told Tantalus.

Percy told him to go chase a donut, which I don't think helped his mood. 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.

Tyson didn't seem to mind. He plunged his bare hands right in and started scrubbing, but the rest of us 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 demon death bird.

The only good thing about this punishment was that it gave us a common enemy and lots of time to talk. After listening to Percy's dream about Grover again, Annabeth seemed like she was actually starting to believe Percy.

"If he's really found it," she murmured, "and if we could retrieve it-"

"Hold on," I 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. What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"Messy?" I guessed.

She sighed. "A fleece. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if the ram happens to have golden wool-"

"The Golden Fleece. Are you serious?" Percy said, amazed.

Annabeth scrapped a plateful of demon death bird bones into the lava. "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."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Oh my gods, Percy! You are hopeless."

"What?" He demanded.

"Just listen. 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." Percy said nonchalantly.

"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, strengths nature, cleans up pollution-"

Percy's eyes got wide. "It could cure Thalia's tree."

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

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