Sunburn- phoebus apollo

-xii. they get advice from a poodle

THEY WERE PRETTY miserable that night. They camped out in the woods, a hundred meters from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

They had taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but didn't dare light a fire to dry their damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. They didn't want to attract anything else.

After Apollo had left Rhea's body, the girl didn't remember anything that had happened since he took over. Apparently, him and Percy didn't really take off on the right foot. This resulted in Percy becoming salty that she had kept this from him and stopped talking to her for a whole hour.

They decided to sleep in shifts. Percy volunteered to take first watch.

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Rhea always had trouble sleeping in something that wasn't her bed, so she didn't even try. She sat with her back against the tree trunk, shoulder-to-shoulder with Percy.

"Go ahead and sleep," Percy told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."

He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."

"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"

"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage in the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Oh yeah," Percy said. "I guess you'd be an environmentalist."

He glared at him. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"

"Pan!" He cried indignantly. " P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searchers license for?"

A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods.

Rhea suddenly felt nostalgic for something she'd never known.

Her eyes grew heavy. Perhaps it was Apollo's doing, because there was no way that she could fall asleep that fast on her own. She laid her head on Percy's shoulder, closing her eyes and falling asleep to the sound of her brother and friend talking.

*******

When Rhea woke, there was a pink poodle in their camp.

She blinked, lifting her head off of Percy's shoulder, squinting at the new member of their group.

"Morning," Annabeth said, tossing her a bag of hot cheetos from Aunty Em's snack bar. "Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."

"Rhea, meet Gladiola," Grover said. "Gladiola, meet Rhea."

Rhea pursed her lips. "Hi.... Gladiola."

The poodle barked, making Grover smile. "She says hi."

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen." She mumbled, taking a bite of her cheeots, her gaze still on the poodle. The poodle stared right back at her, unfazed.

Her eyes narrowed. Oh so this was a staring contest now?

She didn't even waver when Percy woke up.

"Well, the zombie lives." Annabeth said, tossing another bag of chips at him.

Percy looked shaken. "How long was I asleep?"

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast," Annabeth said. "And Grover went exploring. Looks he found a friend. Your sister has been in that staring contest for a while now."

The poodle broke eye contact.

"Ha!" Rhea cheered victoriously, pointing at the poodle. "I won."

The poodle yapped at her.

Grover said, "he says he let you win, Rhea."

Rhea scoffed. "Yeah right."

Percy blinked. "Are you.. talking to that thing?"

The poodle growled.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

Percy glanced at Rhea and Annabeth, as if waiting for one of them to crack a joke, but they looked deadly serious.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," Percy stated. "Forget it."

"Percy," Rhea said. "I said hello to the poodle. Annabeth said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled.

Percy said hello to the poodle.

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Rhea asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Of course," Rhea said. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus." Percy said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks Rhea hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrack station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

OMG Y'ALL, 1k views already?! Thank you all so much for the love and support. It really means a lot. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Bye!