Percy Jackson, Son of Olympus, The Titan's Curse

| Chapter II || Grover Spills the Punch |

*December 14 XXXX*

*Percy's Point of View*

***

As soon as we were enveloped in the loud music and a boisterous crowd of dancing students, Thalia turned to me and whispered in a low voice, "How did you do that finger-snap thing?"

"You mean the Mist?" I asked, perplexed, "Chiron hasn't shown you that yet?" Indeed, I was confused. Thalia was one of the old centaur's top students, and sure, he didn't teach me – my dad did (Artemis helped more) – but I was almost absolutely sure that he would've taught Thalia to do that pretty quick, especially given this mission that he sent us on.

"That was close!" Grover said, interrupting me and Thalia from questioning each other further. "Thank the gods you got here!"

Annabeth and Thalia both hugged him, while I stood to the side, smirking at his statement. He wasn't wrong (seeing as dad drove us). Then again, maybe he could've just teleported us? Whatever. When the two girls pulled away, I clasped my hand with his and pulled him into a half hug. Though I didn't know him well, it was great to see him again. He'd grown a lot in the past few months. He was even taller than before – which was really saying something – and had even sprouted a few more whiskers, but otherwise, his curly reddish-brown hair stuck out from under his cap as usual and his baggy jeans stood out against the fancy attire of the other students.

"So," I said, "What seems to be the emergency?"

I kind of wish I hadn't said that because the mood suddenly deflated around us. Grover took a deep breath, and when he looked up at me, his expression was one of complete seriousness. "I found two."

"Two half-bloods?" Thalia asked, amazed. "Here?"

Grover nodded, and I let out a breath. Nowadays, finding one half-blood was rare enough. This year, Chiron had put all satyrs on alert for possible new recruits, going back as young as fourth graders all the way through high school. They were shipped out all over the country looking for them, but with the impending darkness looming over us, it seemed that more and more were disappearing. That, or the gods just weren't getting it on, and I heard enough gossip on Olympus – unfortunately – to know that option two is totally out of discussion.

Even worse than that, we were losing campers. After Luke left to join the dark side, others began following him. The campers he'd been nice to, who looked up to him as a leader. Some left just because they thought it would be "cool", like drinking underage or taking their parents' car for a joyride, and they got in too deep to ever get out by themselves.

"A brother and sister. Ten and twelve," Grover said. "I don't know their parentage, but they're strong. Like, really strong. We're already running out of time. I need help getting them out with monsters roaming around."

"How many?"

"One, I think." Grover worried his bottom lip, eyes darting around. He looked nervous. "He suspects me. I'm not positive that he's fully sure about those two yet, but it's the last day of term. Demigods or not, he's going to do something. I'm pretty sure he's going to make a move on them tonight, if I don't. That's why I called you. He won't let me get close to them, and I don't know what to do!" He looked at me, desperation in his eyes.

I ignored the strange look I got from Thalia to answer Grover. "Right, and they're here now? At the dance?"

Grover nodded.

I grinned. "Then let's dance." I took Annabeth's hand in mine and whisked her away onto the dance floor. It was great – ever since my dad insisted Artemis teach me to dance, I've been practicing every night, getting ready for the Olympus Winter Ball, held every year. I was finally considered "old enough" to attend, which was stupid because I was only thirteen. Maybe because I was a teenager? I didn't know, but Artemis asked me to escort her to the ball, and how could I say no to one of my oldest friends?