How Do You Say Gods- Last Olympian

8: I DRIVE MY DOG INTO A TREE

"Perseus!" Alex yelped in a truly dangerous tone of voice, Annabeth felt the need to reach for her dagger she didn't have. "What do you do to Mrs. O'Leary?!"

"I swear it's an accident!" Percy looked genuinely stung if he'd hurt her, so much so Alex immediately became gruntled over his outburst.

"Okay, well, head like hers, I'm sure it hurt the tree more," Alex said for both of them.

"I bet she becomes the branch manager of the whole forest," Will snickered.

Alex grinned in delight and tried to continue the mayhem, while Percy groaned at the pun.

"Maybe she even takes it along as a toy, you still owe Cerberus a game of fetch, what if-"

Sweat broke out on Percy's brow, he took a sharp, painful breath and trembled in his seat as his mind flashed with broken, disjointed images of the Underworld, his dog leaping into shadows-

Alex nor anyone protested as Jason started to read, his voice level and ignoring the stirring water starting to pull along them. Annabeth was rubbing gentle circles into the back of his hand until he finally came back.

... saw me first...pretty good trick since she's the size of a garbage truck.

Magnus's stomach still pitched like someone had shoved him down a flight of stairs at the idea of her being real. Of perhaps having to see this monstrosity of a wolf-like shaped creature sometime in his future if he ever wanted to visit camp and eat actual food not out of a garbage can again. She would just, be there, roaming around, ready to pounce on people from the shadows.

Everybody around him burst out laughing in obvious affection for the description and he tried to manage a smile along. He knew she was a sweet girl who would just lick him to death in theory, but he still worried they'd all laugh themselves stupid at him when he had a heart attack upon actually seeing her.

... huge paw on my chest and an oversize Brillopad tongue licking my face.

Thalia plugged up her nose and waved her hand around. "Thank the gods that smell came out." She'd been around plenty of her own wolves to know that breath reeked like the dead things they ate tried to crawl back out.

"Thank the gods my skin resists that kind of torture," Percy chuckled, it had felt probably a lot like what he put those flesh-eating horses through. A painful powerwash from hell.

... pretty much drenched in dog drool.

"Note to self, Percy's powers do not work on dog drool," Jason nodded to himself.

"I already knew that from his own drool," Annabeth smirked, resisting the urge to reach over and rub his chin with just the pad of her thumb to make him blush like a new species of deep-sea fish.

She was rewarded for her restraint by getting to see him just sighing and giving her a friendly, aggravated smile for the teasing, which was just as nice.

...By the way, Mrs. O'Leary is the world's only friendly hellhound.

"And I thank Daedalus every day for that," Alex chuckled, still remiss he couldn't ask him exactly how that had worked out. Maybe he could get Nico to take him down to the Underworld one day.

...Beckendorf took care of her when I was gone... been her best friend.

"He really was great about taking in everything I needed him to," Percy said, thinking of Tyson and all his Annabeth woes mixed in. He hated how his smile already felt forced and tired, how he could sense somewhere not too deep this feeling would increase as time went on. He could traverse as deep into the ocean as he'd like, but that feeling could stay buried where it was as far as he was concerned.