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

The Ambrosia Garden

As the bright light faded, they slowly opened their eyes and lifted their heads to see if the spell worked. When they fully looked up, they saw a vast landscape with large, lively trees with bright green leaves and rich brown bark. The ground beneath them was a lick and green grass that looked freshly watered. There were small flowers growing out of the grass in many different colors, shapes, and sizes with many different patterns. There were some bright green bushes scattered all around with berries and grapes growing from them. Above them was a bright sky with that they quickly realized was actually an enormous magic dome around the entire landscape. The three of them looked at each other. "Well, I guess we start walking", said Percy. They began walking into the vast field of the trees and bushes, looking around not only at the scenery, but also looking for Erin. As they looked, they came to see that each of the trees were growing the Rose Quarts Ambrosia. The color was rich and bright, but the fruit itself also seemed to be made of the crystalline substance. "You know", said Grover,"I'm not sure how these fruits are supposed to combat the effects of them golden apples." "I think I might", said Annabeth. "The golden apples contain the seeds of chaos, the very essence of disruption and disorder to creation. The Rose Quarts Ambrosia contain the seeds of order and peace, essentially coming from Gaia herself." "Hope they'll be able to do what they're supposed to", said Percy.
They continued walking, looking around each corner to see if Erin would be there. They didn't see him for a good long while. Grover looked at each of the bushes containing the berries and grapes and felt the sensation to want to eat them. Annabeth caught him seemingly going to a few of the bushes. She saw that his hand was extended to pluck them from the bushes. She quickly went over to him. "Grover don't!" "What? They're just fruit", said Grover. "No, they're not just fruit", said Annabeth,"this is the Ambrosia Garden, and in Hades domain at that. Eating any of these could do gods only know what." They continued on for a bit, looking around at each tree, trying to see if they could spot Erin anywhere. After walking through the trees for a few minutes, they came to a small clearing and saw a leather central tree. On the ground to the right of the tree was a basket filled with the Rose Quarts Ambrosia. They then saw a hand putting a few of the fruits into the basket. When they looked at who the hand belonged to, they saw a head of long, dark curly hair with faint purple streaks, a shiny gold shirt with black mesh sleeves, a pair of crimson red shorts, and a pair of black sneakers. When they saw the right hand of the person, they saw a gold glow surrounding it and several strands of gold magic flowing into the roots of the tree. "Guys, it him!", said Percy in a slight whisper. He started to run to the tree. "Erin!" Erin quickly turned his head to see Percy running up to him and Grover and Annabeth following after him. He stood up and stood there with shock all over his face. Erin looked confused. "Percy? What are you doing here?" "We came to find you after you went missing from camp", said Percy. Seeing Erin closer now, they could see he was wearing a pair of gold hoops and a gold chain around his neck. They could also see a new brightness to him. "Hey Erin!", said Annabeth. "Yeah hey Erin", said Grover. Erin looked at them with a confused expression. "Uh, hey." He took a moment to look at all three of them, wondering why they were here all of a sudden. "Sooo...why exactly are you guys here?" "We came to bring you back to camp", said Percy,"Chiron's really worried about you." Erin then grew an expression will dull eyes and an annoyed smugness. "Oh, of course he sent you after me. Why am I not surprised? But seriously, how did you even find me here?" "Chiron gave us a tracking potion to use on one of your things", said Percy. "What?", said Erin. He looked down and saw the bracelet on Percy's wrist. His eyes slightly widened. "Oh, of course he gave you MY bracelet for the damn tracking potion." He rolled his eyes. Grover and Annabeth looked at the tree and the basket. They saw the Rose Quarts Ambrosia growing from the branches and the gold energy running up through the roots into the tree. "So, what are you doing here?", asked Annabeth. Erin raised his brows and smiled as he turned back to the tree. "I was sent here to look after the tree by Hermes. The letter just got on mail day was from him. He told me if I did a task for Zeus, he would be allowed to lessen my mom's sentence. So he told me to come here and use my magic to look after this central tree. This tree powers the rest of the trees growing the ambrosia. Without it, they don't grow the fruit." "And do you know what the ambrosia is?", asked Grover. "Well", said Erin,"I know they're called Rose Quarts Ambrosia, and that they're supposed to be really important for something. I figured I should at least do something to help my mom get out of her...predicament." "So you've been helping grow the ambrosia?", asked Annabeth. "Yup", replied Erin. "Besides, I needed to get outta that camp after being cooped up for so long. I mean all those restraints and rules? Gods, it just feels so good to get outta there and doing something fun for once!" "So what do you do with the fruit after you've put it in the basket?", asked Percy. "Well", said Erin,"Hades comes to collect the baskets and bring them back to his...palace, if that's what you can even call it, and Hermes goes to the palace to take the baskets to Olympus. He gives them to Zeus who does...well I don't even know what he does with them. But I know he does something with them, haha!"
Percy smiled widely and looked over at Annabeth and Grover. "See, I told you he wasn't doing anything bad", he whispered. Annabeth looked at Erin curiously. "I don't know, something seems really...different about him." "Well I mean", said Percy,"he's finally gotten to get out of the camp and doing something different than his day to day routine put on him by Chiron. I'm not surprised he's acting more...bubbly." "Yeah", said Annabeth,"I guess so."
Grover could see another basket off to the left in front of another tree. He could feel the want to eat the fruit getting the best of him. He started walking over to the basket with a hungry and rather gluttonous look on his face. He kneeled down in front of the basket and put his hands on the handles. He stared down at them wantingly.
Meanwhile, Erin went back to tending to the tree and Percy and Annabeth went to go check out his handy work.