𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒍 - 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒋𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝒐𝒄

✯¸.•'*¨'*• 𝑬𝑳𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑵 •*'¨*'•.¸✯

Percy woke up in a rowboat with a makeshift sail stitched of gray uniform fabric. Phoenix and Annabeth sat next to him, tacking into the wind. Phoenix was healing a gash on his forehead.

Percy tried to sit up and immediately felt woozy.

"Rest," Phoenix said. "You're going to need it."

"Tyson ... ?"

She shook her head. 

"Percy, I'm really sorry," Annabeth told him.

They were silent while the waves tossed them up and down.

"He may have survived," Phoenix said halfheartedly. "I mean, fire can't kill him."

Annabeth showed Percy some things she'd salvaged from the wreckage-Hermes's thermos (now empty), a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors' shirts, and a bottle of Dr Pepper. 

Phoenix had fished Percy out of the water and found his knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla's teeth. Most of his stuff had floated away, but he still had Hermes's bottle of multivitamins, and of course he had Riptide. 

They sailed for hours. Now that they were in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too-as if a thunderstorm were coming. Or something even more dangerous. Percy knew what direction they needed to go. He knew they were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of their destination. But that didn't make him feel any less lost.

The three half-bloods took turns sipping from the Dr Pepper, shading themselves with the sail as best they could. And they talked about Percy latest dream of Grover.

By Annabeth's estimate, they had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover, assuming Percy's dream was accurate, and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn't change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier.

"Yeah," Percy said bitterly. "You can never trust a Cyclops."

Annabeth stared across the water. "I'm sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that."

Percy looked at Phoenix who was braiding strands of her hair nervously and staring off into the blue horizon. 

"Phoenix, what's Chiron's prophecy?"

Phoenix's head shot into Percy's direction. "Percy, I shouldn't-"

"I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell me. But you didn't promise, did you?"

"Knowledge isn't always good for you," Annabeth reasoned.

"Your mom is the wisdom goddess!"

"I know! But every time heroes learn the future, they try to change it, and it never works."

"The gods are worried about something I'll do when I get older," Percy guessed. "Something when I turn sixteen."

Annabeth twisted her Yankees cap in her hands. "Percy, I don't know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three-the next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That's the real reason Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three who reaches sixteen will be a dangerous weapon."

"Why?"

"Because that hero will decide the fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods, or destroys it," Phoenix said.

"That's why Kronos didn't kill me last summer."

Phoenix nodded. "You could be very useful to him. If he can get you on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble."