The Gift of a Best Friend

Percy Accepts Gifts from a Stranger

Annabeth's POV

To say Jasmine was pissed was an understatement. She was already pissed before with me and Percy concerning Tyson, and again when the Stymphalian birds attacked and pulled her hair. And she looked bad with the cuts that were bleeding all over her face and arms, the worst that I have ever seen her since I've known her, and she looked like she lost a bad fight or won one with someone who wouldn't give up without a fight.

But now, with Tantalus blaming me and Percy for the Stymphalian birds attacking in the first place, Jasmine was no longer pissed. She was furious.

So furious that she launched herself at Tantalus, trying to do . . . I'm not sure what with her bare hands, but Will saw it coming and wrapped his arms around her waist to stop her, and not without some effort. She forced herself forward, and even though she was stronger than Will, he was dragging her to the point that he had fallen to his knees trying desperately to stop her. It was embarrassing for both of them.

Finally, after watching them for a minute, I moved in front of Jasmine and put a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back, and she stopped. Will unwrapped his arms from around her and stood back up, brushing the dirt off his pants and gave me an ungrateful look. I guess I could've helped him sooner before she dragged him onto his knees.

Anyway, the way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian birds had simply been minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Percy, Tyson, and I hadn't disturbed them with our bad chariot driving.

This was so completely unfair, Percy told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut, which didn't help his mood. He sentenced us to kitchen patrol—scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies. The harpies washed with lava instead of water, to get that extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of all germs, so Percy and I had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons.

Tyson and Jasmine didn't mind. They plunged their bare hands right in and started scrubbing, but Percy and I, and even Jasmine, had to suffer through hours of hot, dangerous work, especially since there were tons of extra plates. Tantalus had ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse's chariot victory—a full-course meal featuring country-friend Stymphalian death-bird. Jasmine wasn't punished with us, but she volunteered to help us out, of course.

The only good thing about our punishment was that it gave Percy, Jasmine, and I a common enemy and lots of time to talk. After listening to Percy's dream about Grover again, I was starting to believe him.

"If he's really found it," I murmured, "and if we could retrieve it—"

"Hold on," Percy said. "You act like this . . . whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save the camp. What is it?"

"What do you think it is, Percy?" Jasmine asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know."

"I'll give you a hint," I said. "What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"Messy?"

"Well, yeah," Jasmine said. "But not just that."

I sighed. "A fleece. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool—"

"The Golden Fleece," he said. "Are you serious?"

I scrapped a plateful of death-bird bones into the lava. "Percy, remember the Gray Sisters? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him how to find the Golden Fleece. You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?"