Son of Chaos: A Story from the world of Percy Jackson

Following The Trail

Percy, Annabeth and Grover had been walking for about three hours when they came to a sign that read,

"Welcome to Montauk, Long Island!"

Following the gold energy strands of the tracking potion, they walked into the town for five minutes until they came to a small diner. The energy strands went into the diner and through the window, they saw one of the booths illuminate in gold light. The three of them looked at each other, then quickly walked to the door. As they walked in, the energy strands softly flowed over to the illuminated booth. To them, the gold light was bright and had little flecks rising from it. To everyone else, they saw nothing. They walked to the booth and examined the spot. There was a gold aura around where Erin had been sitting and a glowing gold spot on the table where the spell book had been. They then sat down in the booth and set their backpacks on the seats. Percy then held up the bracelet and set it down on the spot on the table. The gold energy in the booth was sucked into one spot of the table underneath the bracelet.
A few moments later, a middle-aged waitress walked over to them with a bright smile. "Well hiya little fellas! What can I get started for ya?" "Three glasses of water and a coke please!", said Annabeth. "I'll have a glass of iced tea with a shot of nectar please!", said Grover. "I'll just stick with the water, thank you", said Percy. "Alrighty, comin' right up!", said the waitress.
After the waitress left, they started talking about the mission. "Okay, so, have we actually considered what we're gonna do when we find Erin?", asked Annabeth. "Honestly, I was just thinking we'd talk to him", said Percy. "Talk...to him?", said Annabeth,"that's it?" "Well we're not exactly going to find him to fight him, Annabeth", said Percy,"we're literally going to convince him to come back to camp." "You have considered that he'd possibly try to fight you if he thought anything other than that was going on right?", said Grover,"he's never really been the most trusting person of...literally anyone. Also, he has a knack for screwing around with people if he just feels like it." "Yeah I know", said Percy,"but he trusts me more than he trusts you guys, which is why i was thinking I should talk to him first. After that, well...I guess we just see what he says, or does." Annabeth chuckled sarcastically. "Great, some plan."
A few seconds later, the waitress came back to the table holding a small tray with the drinks. "Here we are kiddies!" She carefully set each glass down on the table and set a small handful of straws on the table. "Well now, are we ready to order or do we still need some time?" "I think we still need a few minutes to decide, thank you", said Grover. "Alrighty", said the waitress,"holler if you need anything!" She walked away again, leaving them to their devices. Discretely, Percy took his glass of water and carefully drizzled some of it onto the bracelet, dosing out the potion. "How much of the potion do we have left?", asked Annabeth. "I think we still have plenty for the rest of the way there", said Percy. "Just don't use too much of it", said Annabeth,"we don't wanna run out and get lost." "Yeah I know", said Percy. "I don't know about you two, but if I don't get something to eat soon, I'm gonna goat the heck out", said Grover. He picked up the menu and started browsing. Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. "Well, I guess we'd better get our strength if we're gonna continue", said Annabeth. They both picked up their menus and started looking through all the options.
About five minutes later, the waitress came back to the table with her little notepad and a pen. "Alrighty kiddos, we ready for some grub?" "We sure are!", said Grover. "Well, what'll it be for you?", the waitress asked. "I'll have the turkey club with a side of fries and some saltines please", replied Grover. "Alrighty, turkey club with fries and saltines", said the waitress,"and for you young lady?" "I'll have the Cali-style burger with the tater-tots and a Oreo shake please", replied Annabeth. "Alrighty, Cali-style with tots and Oreo shake", said the waitress,"and what'll it be for you honey?", she said looking at Percy. "I'll just have the classic burger with fries please", he replied. "Alrighty", said the waitress,"three sandwiches and sides coming right up!" She walked back to the kitchen and set the ticket up on a pin.
The three of them sat in silence for a few good moments. Annabeth looked at Percy and Grover with a rather troubled look on her face. "Something I don't understand is, why is it all of a sudden that Zeus is afraid of Eris, Erin and Nyx? What happened that would make him act that way? I mean, are we sure this isn't just some ruse Eris came up with to get Erin to get her out of her place under Hermes? I mean seriously, why would Nyx, of all the gods, suddenly become involved with something like this? I just don't get it." "Well", said Grover,"I mean, Nyx is the one deity Zeus himself doesn't even dare to go against. She's the primordial night, and a controller of creation. And the fact that a goddess like Eris is her daughter and a half-blood like Erin is her grandson, I wouldn't be surprised if Zeus was afraid of them ever uprising against him." "Yeah but Erin's never done anything to make him feel that way", said Percy,"I mean is Zeus really that paranoid about Nyx getting Eris and Erin to go against him? There's literally been no evidence of that ever happening. Erin doesn't do anything. He just lives his life and doesn't care about anything like that. It doesn't make sense to me either." Grover gave Percy a look that said "really?". "Think about it Percy, Nyx is who and what she is, Eris is the goddess of Discord who literally started the Trojan War, as well as many other wars, and Erin is her son, who has the ability to use magic to cause chaos at will, not to mention he's born half phoenix which partially makes him immortal. And he's not even at full power yet. Three very powerful people and two of them are under the protection of the one person Zeus can't even touch. There is, and unfortunately for Erin's case, cause for concern. There's a reason why Chiron has always been so tough on Erin." "That still doesn't mean Erin should have to live his life like some criminal in a prison with constant high level security watching him at all times", said Percy." "He's a kid, just like us. He's not some world ending threat." Annabeth chuckled. "Well, Zeus certainly seems to think he is. I mean yeah, Erin's never done anything, but sometimes there's certain things that make people scared, and I mean really scared." "If anything the only people Zeus should have his concerns with are Nyx and Eris", said Percy,"not Erin." Annabeth and Grover could see the hurt in Percy's eyes. They both gave him a half smile.
Fifteen minutes later, the waitress came back to the table holding trays with their plates and Annabeth's shake on them. "Alrighty dears, grub is here!" She carefully set each plate and the shake on the table in front of them and set three napkins with silverware in them on the table. "Y'all enjoy now!" "Thank you ma'am!", said Grover. They each picked up their sandwiches and started munching down hungrily. Grover ate his sandwich like he hadn't eaten anything in days. Annabeth took time to savor hers with eat bite, gulping it down with a sip of her shake. Percy at his at a regular pace while taking sips of water in between a few bites. They each took their time to savor and enjoy their food, whilst eating at different paces.
Percy found himself in deep thought as his pace of eating slowed. He began thinking about Erin. He thought about where he could be, what he was doing. He thought about what Erin's motivation could be for going through with these plans and this mission that his mother sent him on, why he would do something like this so quickly and without question. He knew Erin didn't like being at Camp Half-Blood and being tied down by all of Chiron's rules, but would he actually do something that would potentially hurt everyone? Even Percy, Annabeth and Grover? Then again, like they'd been saying earlier, Erin very likely didn't know the major implications of what he was doing. Yet Percy couldn't help but wonder. Would that potentially be worse? For Erin to go through with this mission with no real idea what it would cause for everyone else? Percy knew Erin to have a reckless nature, but he didn't think he would ever be that reckless. He felt all these thoughts beginning to slowly bubble up in him, causing him to feel a little more anxious about their mission in going to bring Erin back to the camp. He knew Annabeth could see it when she bugged her foot against his and he looked up to see her with a reassuring smile on her face. Grover seemed to have has own preconceived notions and reservations about the whole thing. Percy understood why and where he was coming from, but he didn't fully understand why he would let that be the basis of how he felt about Erin.
Given how quickly Grover had been eating his food, it was rather humorous that Percy had finished his food first while Annabeth was coming in dead last, having a handful of tater-tots and a quarter of her shake left. It was about twenty minutes later when the waitress came back with their check and they each paid with a twenty and a few tens. The three of them took some time to put themselves together and do whatever self care was needed before they left the diner.
Just as they wrapped up gathering their things, one of the straps on Percy's backpack nudged the bracelet on the table and the gold leave band came to land directly on the spot Erin's spell book had been resting hours earlier. The spot began to glow in a gold circular hue and caught their attention as small gold sparks began to flow up and around the bracelet. Gold strands of energy began to rise out of the spot and seep into the lines of the leaves on the band. They traveled up the band and absorb into the red gem. The gem began to glow and formed a central gold orb inside it. Then, with a small flash of light, the orb burst out of the gem and produced an image, a sort of magic hologram. In the image, a gold imitation of Erin sitting in the booth took form and in front of him on the imitation of the table formed the spell book, open to the page of the golden apple seeds. Wanting to get a closer look at what was on the page, Percy inched closer to the magic hologram, squinting his eyes a little. He went to go touch the hologram when the image suddenly zoomed into the book and showed a much clearer image of its contents. He could see the intricate lining of the page, the image of the apple tree, and the writing under it.