𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖔𝖕𝖍𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖆 - 𝖆𝖕𝖔𝖑𝖑𝖔

Chapter 4 - Mother teaches us bullfighting

The storm was hitting us from all sides. The car swayed on the rode, but mum kept on going. There was no one else on the street, luckily. If there were, we would've surely died and killed someone in the process. 

In the midst of it all, I kept glancing back every now and then at our very not human friend. My brother, who sat next to him in the backseat, didn't even bother to hide his staring. He was backing away from Grover as much as he could.

 "So, you and my mom...know each other?" Percy said, dumbfounded. Grover grabbed my shoulders to move me from his view of the rearview mirror after I turned to look back at them. I was about to protest, but he didn't even pay attention to me. 

 "Not exactly." He said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

"Watching me?"

"Well, both of you." Grover answered, throwing me a quick glance.

"Why, exactly?" I asked, a little creeped out. It was definitely the truth that mum was in on this. She wasn't denying the accusation, instead she just kept on driving. I tried to catch her eye in hopes she would start explaining, but she just stared ahead.

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

"Um...what are you, exactly?" Percy asked the obvious question.

 "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, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"  

"Did you just-" I stopped myself from finishing the sentence. I was thrown back to that night at Yancy when I heard something very similar to that noise. Bleating. There was also the sound of hooves. Guess we know now where that came from.

 "Goat!" He cried, utterly offended. As if he had any room to talk.

"What?"

"Huh?" Percy and I said together.

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter." Percy added.

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"You're a satyr?" I asked, skeptically. As far as I remembered, and that went short, they were half goat mythical beings that went around following illegitimate children of the Greek gods. My mind started racing. It went through all the possibilities of the reality. I let my eyes wonder all over Grover, making him shy away from my burning gaze. He couldn't meet my eyes. 

I thought about all the times something strange happened to us. Like seeing imaginary things no one else seemed to. Except apparently they weren't all that imaginary. 

My mind wondered to the time we definitely killed our teacher. How I could read the names and stories under the statues. How they most certainly weren't in English. How the said teacher had wings and turned to ash when a sword that was unfolded from a pen killed her. How no one seemed to remember her, except for us. She was wiped out from everyone's memory, completely. 

With the realization, I fell back into my seat. My eyes widened as I started at my brother, who remained oblivious to what was being said. I turned to glance at mum again, her lips remained shut, but pulled into a thin line. I touched her arm, making her look at me. The guilty tear that escaped her all but confirmed my suspicion. She looked away without another word.