Gnossienne (Book 1)

Chapter 10

I didn't take me or Percy long to pack. Grover had found us some travel toothbrushes and toothpaste. Percy had decided to leave the Minotaur's horn behind, deeming it would be safer at camp, leaving us with only packing a spare set of clothes each.

The camp loaned us a hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty-five drachmas. The coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State building on the other. Chiron gave me, Percy and Annabeth a flask of nectar and an airtight bag of ambrosia squares, to be used in only the case of emergencies. For example, if we were seriously hurt. That sort of emergency. Chiron reminded us that it was a food that gods ate. Any mortal would die from eating it. Too much of it, would make a half-blood feverish and an overdose would burn us up, literally.

Annabeth was bringing her magical Yankee cap, which she told us that it was actually a gift from her mother, Athena. She carried a book on famous architecture, written in Greek, in case she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I pointed out that the knife would be busted instantly when we went through a metal detector, but Annabeth reassured me that mortals wouldn't be able to see it, nor the metal detectors. Hopefully.

Grover wore his fake feet and his trousers to pass on as a normal human being. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained and his curly hair flattened, you could see just the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was filled with scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's 'So Yesterday', both of which sounded pretty bad on pipes.

I waved goodbye to Lucy who was flying above on the Pegasus'. She waved back, shouting goodbye. We hiked up the hill where Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, stood.

Luke had told me all about the story behind Thalia. It was one of our favourite places to spend time together.

"Grover, pass me an apple please." Grover huffed, muttering about how I should've brought my own apples, but opened his bag and handed me one. I grinned, thanking him, before I took out the dagger Luke had made me, carving a smiley face into it like mom had taught me when I was younger.

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood Argus (Lucy had introduced me to basically everyone on camp).

"This is Argus." Chiron told Percy. "He will be driving you to the city and keeping an eye on things." I smiled at Argus, acknowledging him as I continued carving out the mouth on the apple.

I heard footsteps behind us.

Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes. I put away my dagger, finishing.

"Hey!" He panted. "I'm glad I caught you." I smiled at him, blushing, the apple in my left hand. "Just wanted to say good luck, and, urm... maybe these could be helpful, Percy, during the quest." Luke turned to me. "I saw how bad you were with heights and thought I'd leave it to Percy to fly about." Luke teased as Percy took the shoes off him.