Heir of a Titan - Book 2 PJO

Chapter 15: Piccolo Demone

I continued to scan reports with Percy while he followed Annabeth as she inspected a few more cabins. Demeter got a four. Hephaestus got a three and probably should've gotten lower, but with Beckendorf being gone and all, we cut them some slack. Hermes got a two, which was no surprise. (All campers who didn't know their godly parentage were shoved into the Hermes cabin, and since the gods were kind of forgetful, that cabin was always overcrowded. And something deep inside me got angry again.)

Finally we got to Athena's cabin, which was orderly and clean as usual. Books were straightened on the shelves. The armor was polished. Battle maps and blueprints decorated the walls. Only Annabeth's bunk was messy. It was covered in papers, and her silver laptop was still running. I raised an eyebrow.

"Vlacas," Annabeth muttered, which was basically calling herself an idiot in Greek.

Her second-in-command, Malcolm, suppressed a smile. "Yeah, um . . . we cleaned everything else. Didn't know if it was safe to move your notes."

Probably safest, I thought. Annabeth had a bronze knife that she reserved just for monsters and people who messed with her stuff.

Malcolm grinned at me. "We'll wait outside while you finish inspection." The Athena campers filed out the door while Annabeth cleaned up her bunk. I spun on my heel and left. I didn't want to be in here.

I waited on the front steps reading another report. It was hard to concentrate. I watched blankly as a few more Ares and Apollo campers fought. One shook a fist clearly yelling in rhyming words, while Apollo shot arrows that looked more like cooked spaghetti. I snorted, I wasn't sure if it was sadness, resentment, amusement, derision, frustration...maybe all of it. I laid the reports to the side and ran my hands through my hair and pressed the heels of my hands into my eyelids.

Percy was facing the end of his days, quite possibly. I had some dark and creepy prophecy- I still had no idea who these 'Heavenly Light and Splendour Sight'  were, and why I needed to conquer them. Within a week, Olympus might fall. If the Age of the Gods really did end, the world as we knew it would dissolve into chaos. Demigods would be hunted to extinction. There would be no more summers for us...I might not be coming back.

The door behind me opened and Percy and Annabeth came out. They both looked rather agitated. I sighed, this wasn't going to go well.

🔆

On the way to the Big House, we read the last report, which was handwritten on a maple leaf from a satyr in Canada. If possible, the note made me feel even worse.

" 'Dear Grover,'" Percy read aloud, he did so slowly so I could focus on lip reading (signing, reading and walking with his hands full of reports was difficult, I cut him some slack.) "'Woods outside Toronto attacked by giant evil badger. Tried to do as you suggested and summon power of Pan. No effect. Many naiads' trees destroyed. Retreating to Ottawa. Please advise. Where are you? -Gleeson Hedge, protector.'"

Annabeth grimaced. "You haven't heard anything from him? Even with your empathy link?"

Percy shook his head dejectedly.

Last I'd heard he was in Central Park organizing the dryads, but nobody had seen or heard from him in two months. We'd tried to send Iris-messages. They never got through. Percy had an empathy link with Grover. He had hoped he would know if anything bad happened to him- so he told me. Grover had told me one time that if he died, the empathy link might kill Percy too. But I wasn't sure if that was still true or not, seemed a bit extreme. But who knows.

I wondered if he was still in Manhattan. Then I thought about Percy and our shared dream of Rachel's sketch—dark clouds closing on the city, an army gathered around the Empire State Building. Percy seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me because he finally stopped. Shoved all the papers under his arm and used both hands now to sign.