PYRRHIC, percy jackson

━━ X

A SATYR AND AN OPHIOTAURUS LESS LATER, who had decided they would go on their own to Camp Half-Blood via sea-diving, Lyra and her friends went towards the Chase's house, as they needed transport and none of them wanted to draw any more attention by stealing someone else's car.

     Annabeth's dad was exactly like Lyra thought an older Annabeth would be. Not because of his old-fashioned aviator's cap and goggles, his eyes bugging out through the glasses, but because there was a look in them, something in the excitement in them, that made her think fondly of the girl that found pleasure in learning about anything. He still looked a bit weird, enough to make all her companions take a step back on the front porch, leaving Lyra alone in front of the man.

     "Hello," he said in a friendly voice, "Are you delivering my airplanes?"

     Thalia, Zoë, and Percy looked at each other warily. Lyra smiled at the man.

     "No, sir," she said. "We're friends of Annabeth."

     "Annabeth?" He straightened as if she had just given him an electric shock. "Is she all right? Has something happened?"

     None of them answered, but their faces must have told him that something was very wrong. He took off his cap and goggles. He had sandy-colored hair like his daughter and intense brown eyes, which interfered with Lyra's view of the man as an older version of Annabeth. She could not imagine the girl with anything other than her steely grey eyes, a never-ending storm inside them. But the same hunger for information lied within them, so she could see how they were related, and how Athena had taken a liking to the man.

     "You'd better come in," he said.

     There were robots on the stairs and two cats sleeping on the sofa in the living room, though one woke up when they entered, and as soon as it fixed its eyes on Lyra, it approached her. The coffee table was stacked with magazines, and a little kid's winter coat was spread on the floor. The whole house smelled like fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies, like the ones Sol had once received from her mom and had decided to share with the whole cabin (Lee had been thankful they were so few, as he said that after winter Will would come back and, given his extreme love for cookies, Sol would not have shared with any of them). There was music coming from the kitchen, a relaxed rhythm guided by a strong saxophone, filled with feeling. It seemed like a messy, happy kind of home. It reminded her of Cabin Seven, though its warmth was of different kind.

     They walked around the room as the small cat reached her legs and rubbed its head against them. Lyra bent down and took it in her hands, ignoring the confused looks from her friends, and the black cat started to purr as she held it against her chest and started caressing it. It made her quite happy.

     "Dad!" a little boy screamed. "He's taking apart my robots!"

     "Bobby," Dr. Chase called absently, "don't take apart your brother's robots."

     "I'm Bobby," the little boy protested. "He's Matthew!"

     "Matthew," Dr. Chase called, "don't take apart your brother's robots!"

     "Okay, Dad!"

     She was confused by the man who did not seem to remember his own sons's names, but when the little boys appeared from around the corner and ran around the room, she understood: they were twins. And they were completely identical, for she, at first, thought she was experiencing double vision. She figured out she was not once they went their separate ways.

     Dr. Chase turned to them. "We'll go upstairs to my study. This way."

     "Honey?" a woman called. Who she guessed was Annabeth's stepmom appeared in the living room, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She was a pretty woman, her eyes beautifully similar to Drew's, with red highlighted hair tied in a bun.