A Prophecy of Two Boys

Chapter 64

Chapter 64

Harry's Point of View

It wasn't until just after lunch that we managed to corner Clarisse. She had been kept up in the Ares cabin, making preparations and finding her companions. The large Ares girl took one look at us and shook her head, before even listening to us.

"You can't come, guys. No way. You had your quest last summer. This time it's my turn. Besides... my father would kill me if I let you take the credit again." Clarisse all but whispered the last sentence, clearly nervous of angering Ares.

Percy wrung our hands, his nerves echoing my own. We had to do this. We had to rescue Grover. Percy turned on the pleading baby seal eyes.

"We don't want the credit, Clarisse. This is your quest, your glory. But please, let us save Grover."

The guilt in Clarisse's normally unreadable eyes was disconcerting and off-putting. Percy sighed, knowing what we were going to hear even before Clarisse voiced the words; "I can't. I can promise you that I'll look out for Grover - I'll try and save him. But I can't take you with me."

With one last glance our way, Clarisse moved off. Disheartened, Percy sat down on the porch of our Cabin. He put our head in our hands and began tugging at the messy locks of black hair, desperately trying to think of something.

'Hey, hey!' I poked him mentally. 'We had a backup plan, remember?'

'What, sneak out? Let's be realistic here, Harry. We don't have resources or transport. What exactly are you expecting us to do?'

'Have faith. Poseidon owes us from last summer, right? Surely he'll help us out here.'

Percy wasn't completely convinced, but he perked up a bit.

A gentle swish of our cabin door, and the slightly heavy footfalls approaching alerted us to Tyson's arrival. Our friendly brother Cyclops sat beside us, and threw an arm over our shoulder comfortingly. His gentle cow-like eye blinked at us.

"Brothers!" The delight at the title in Tyson's tone made us smile. "What's wrong?"

"Clarisse won't let us go with her on her quest. We were considering sneaking out anyway but... would you be ok here at camp alone?" Percy met Tyson's gaze, trying to convey our concern in that look. Tyson merely smiled widely.

"I'd come with you of course. What else are brother's for?"

Panicked, we opened our mouth, but Tyson simply glared at us.

"If you are going, then I am too. Mummy sent me to help you. I can't do that if I'm stuck at camp. Besides..." Tyson suddenly found his shoes very interesting as he mumbled. "Some people aren't nice here. I want to stay with you!"

Percy immediately felt guilty. Now don't get me wrong, I felt sorry for Tyson too, but 'not nice' people were still a heck of a lot safer than the real monsters we were going to face.

'Percy... we can't. He'll get hurt. You can't seriously want that.'

Percy shook our head. 'No, but you also know how truly horrible people can be. They don't always hurt you physically, but sometimes emotional hurt is just as bad.'

'We already need to look out for Annabeth and Luna, and then Grover when we find him. Tyson can't even fight!' I pleaded, unwilling to take our younger brother into danger.

'Harry!' Percy laughed. 'Annabeth and Luna are as skilled as we are, if not more after all their years at camp. And Grover isn't useless either - he protected Annabeth and Luna and Luke to camp didn't he? Let Tyson come. He can't seriously get into that much trouble.'