Riptide by Annabeth Chase

Chapter Thirteen: Kindness International

(The Lightning Thief pg 242-351)

By the time I was able to think and process through the events of the day there were even more questions swirling around in my head. The transport vehicle Ares had found us was filthy with three poor animals and it was winding through mountain roads with little light. Not the best place to rest after the day we'd had but it felt safe and as we talked things just got more complicated.

We discussed what had happened while we were split up. Percy and I told Grover about the Hephaestus trap quickly, but Grover was the one with the information.

"Ok so I know a few things. First the info Ares had about your mom. He doesn't think she is dead," Grover told us and even in the low light I could tell Percy paled.

"What?" Percy asked after a few moments, his voice quivering.

"Yeah, Ares said that Hades is holding her hostage as a bargaining chip. That Hades took her from the mortal world before she died, and he might be planning on trading her for something else he wants."

As Grover spoke, I watched Percy carefully. This was a hugely important piece of information; I knew Percy wanted to get his mom back. If she wasn't dead ... well that might actually be a possibility.

After a moment Grover said, "But that's not the biggest thing I figured out. I think Ares knows who actually stole the master bolt."

If I had been shocked by the first piece of information, this information completely floored me.

"How?" I asked.

"I ... um Ares seemed odd, you guys noticed it too, right?" We nodded so Grover continued, "We were talking while you were off getting the shield and he seemed nervous. I pressed a little bit, tried to gain his trust and well ... when he was sent to look for the bolt he found it. But for some reason he is covering up who stole it."

"He's scared of whoever stole it?" I asked.

"I think so, but who would be more terrifying to Ares than Zeus?" Grover asked. We fell silent for a while, unsure what to make of the new development.

"Maybe Hades convinced Ares to not turn the thief in," I suggested.

"I guess, Ares would love a good war and Hades is pretty scary," Grover said and Percy nodded but we all knew that something was not quite adding up.

As we sat and thought about the new information Grover had obtained, we ate some of the Oreos from the backpack Ares had given us. After a while Percy broke the silence and asked about Grover guiding me to camp half blood. Even though it was hard to talk about it, Percy deserved to know and he listened and was surprisingly encouraging. When Grover fell asleep it was just Percy and I again, but I didn't feel like sleeping and Percy didn't seem like he was going to either.

We sat in silence for a while until he asked, "The pine tree bead, is that from your first year?"

I hadn't realized I was messing with it as the motion had become so habitual. "Yeah, every August, the councilors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress – now that was a weird summer –" I was explaining all the beads and maybe subtly trying to move the conversation away from such an emotional topic.

"And the college ring is your fathers?" Percy interjected, pulling me right back into an emotional minefield.

"That's none of your ..." I paused realizing Percy didn't deserve my anger regarding the topic of my father, "Yeah, yeah it is."

"You don't have to tell me." He was sincere and I knew he wouldn't push it if I said I didn't want to talk about it. He was sweet and even though I was scared somehow, I felt like maybe I could trust him. I didn't really trust most people. People tended to let you down whether on purpose or just because they couldn't do the things they promised. Time and time again people I wanted to trust would do everything they could but in the end I still ended up being the one who had to fix things.