DEVOTION, percy jackson

Tallulah Watched The Best Fight In Her Life

Tallulah wondered if she was dead. 'Everyone said death was painful, so this must not be it.' The girl thought. The darkness was becoming too much, but then light broke and Tallulah was at the bottom of the ocean.

The bubble continued to rise until it broke the surface. They had knocked a very startled surfer off his board. Percy grabbed Grover and they swam to a life buoy.

Percy caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. They he grabbed Tallulah by the arm and helped her swim over to the others.

A shark was circling them, a great white about eleven feet long. Tallulah, who did not want to be eaten said, "Not to scare anyone, but there is a huge shark looking hungry."

Percy looked at it and said "Beat it." The shark turned and raced away. Tallulah's jaw dropped in aw. "Close your mouth Lue, or you'll catch flies." Annabeth told her. Tallulah flushed pink and rolled her eyes to cover her embarrassment.

"Does anyone know what day it is?" Grover asked them as they watched the coast guard approach them. "June 21." Percy told them, his voice grave. That gave them not a lot of time to finish the quest.

A Coast Guard boat picked them up, but they were too busy to keep them for long. They dropped them off at the Santa Monica Pier. After reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way-" "It was a trick," Percy said. "A strategy worthy of Athena." Tallulah pursed her lips. "Hey," Annabeth warned angrily.

"You get it, don't you?" Percy said with just as much frustration. She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it." "Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody-" He was cut off by Annabeth. "Percy ..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry...." Percy pretended to not hear her.

"The prophecy was right," he said. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."

Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?" Percy suddenly stopped, and looked down the beach. "I think I have a guess." Tallulah said, still angry with the god for the whole Tunnel of Love situation.

There stood the god of the hour, clad in his leather jacket and sun glasses. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red. "Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased. "You were supposed to die." "

"You tricked me," Percy said, skipping past formalities. "You stole the helm and the master bolt." Ares grinned. "Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power-that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."

"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice." Percy asked. Ares just grinned. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this ..."

From his pocket he took out a ski cap-the kind bank robbers wear-and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately, the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet. "The helm of darkness," Grover gasped.

"Exactly," Ares said. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."