𝚖𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 ✶ clarisse la rue

004. bullfighting

They drove through the night along dark country roads as the wind slammed against the car. Rain lashed the windshield. It was shocking how she could see anything, but Sally kept her foot on the gas.

    River looked back at Grover and Percy a few times. She wondered if she had gone insane, or if Grover was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But no, the smell was one she remembered from the kindergarten field trip to the petting zoo—lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

    Percy finally broke the nerve-wracking silence. "So, you and my mom...know each other?"

    Grover glanced at the rearview mirror, but there were no cars on the road beside them. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person, but she knew I was watching you guys."

    River looked at Grover, "Watching us?"

    "Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend. I am your friend."

    "Um...what are you exactly?" Percy asked.

    "That doesn't matter right now."

    "It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

    Grover let out a sharp "Blaa-ha-ha!"

    River heard him make that noise before, but she always it was a nervous laugh. Now she realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

    "Goat!" he cried.

    "What?"

    "I'm a goat from the waist down."

    "You just said it didn't matter," River pointed out.

    "They're are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"

    "Whoa. Wait. Satyrs? Like Mr. Brunner's myths?"

    "Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth, River?"

    "So you do admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

    "Of course."

    "Then why—" Percy interrupted.

    "The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said like it was obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You guys started to realize who you are."

    "Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"

    The weird bellowing noise rose again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing them was still on their trail.

    "Kids," Sally said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

    "Safety from what?" River cried. "Who's after me?"

    "Oh, nobody much," Grover said, still irritated by the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest monsters."

    "Grover!"

    "Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

    River's mind was racing. She knew she wasn't dreaming. She couldn't comprehend anything that was happening. She thought she was going to die.

    Sally made a hard turn, onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and "PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES" signs on white picket fences.