The Betrayed Hero

Chapter 4

Grover and Nico walked towards Percy; he was sitting in the water, looking straight ahead and smiling a little. Grover belated and asked,

'Why did he feel the need to sit in water?' to no one in particular and continued to walk. Before they could get in the water, Percy stood up and started to walk out towards them. He knew they were here to talk to him and that Grover would not like to get his hooves wet; after reaching them, he just raised his eyebrows at both. Nico cleared his throat and said, "If we are going to talk, then let's sit down." He continued to walk away from the water and sat down in the sand, while Grover and Percy followed him and sat down on either side. The sea was still calm while they sat down in silence. No one spoke. After a few moments, Grover was the first to break the silence. He shifted forward, so he was facing Percy.

Grover sadly bleated, "I'm sorry, Percy, I could not do anything; I could not even use my Lord of the Wild card, and" he was cut off by Percy, shushing him.

"Hey G-man, it's okay; why are you apologising?"

"I could not do anything."

"It's okay," Percy said, smiling a little.

"Hey, Grover." Grover turned to look at Nico, who had called him. "You said you could not use your Lord of the Wild card, so is it that bad?" Grover's body was still, his posture stiff, and his eyes filled with tears. "Hey, you don't have to say anything." Nico hurried, noticing tears in the satyr's eyes. Grover sniffed and nodded.

"Grover?" Percy asked after a moment of silence.

"When did this meeting happen?"

"Two days after your date, after Annabeth came back,"

"Okay," and then again Percy was silent, eyes narrowed, looking straight ahead. Grover looked worried, and suddenly, as if a light bulb went on, Nico looked at Grover and asked, "How did you know about this meeting? Aren't you supposed to be in the wild?" that drew Percy's attention; they were both looking at Grover intensely. Grover bleated tiredly. "I was ordered to return and attend the meeting." Nico nodded, satisfied with the answer, while Percy just looked ahead. His eyes looked tired and dull. They had lost their shine since Tartarus. He was tired, and now he was overthinking the situation they had going on. Grover and Nico looked at each other worriedly.

Percy let out a tired sigh and asked, "Why was Hades not invited?"

Grover shook his head, his wild curls bouncing in every direction. "He was invited, but the gods chose not to let Nico come because he would not like the decision and would go against them." Nico frowned at the answer but remained quiet. "And what about me? Do I come in the same category as Nico?"

"Something like that," Grover whimpered suddenly, finding his hooves more interesting than Percy's questioning sea green eyes that were trained on him. After realising that he was not going to answer him, he let it slide, but Nico was on roll and asked more questions.

"Then what does this have to do with me and Percy not agreeing? or Poseidon being all moody, and who all were invited to Olympus?" Grover looked up, staring straight ahead.

"The gods know that you both will not like this decision, so they don't want you to know about it now, and Poseidon is just angry about this decision, and not only Poseidon but also Hades, Hermes, and Hestia are also against this decision, and also me, Clarisse, Will, Chiron, Coach Hedge, and a few more campers that I can count on my fingers are also supporting us on this, even Mr. D to some extent, but Zeus, Athena, and Hera are sure about this, and the other gods are supporting them." He said this, frowning, and spat out their names as if it physically hurt him.

By now, both the demigods were frowning at the Satyr, his brows furrowed in a frustrating look. He was angry at everyone, and he wanted to do anything to get out of this situation. Whoever came up with this idea wanted to turn them into trees like the Satyrs had done to Hyperion during the first war.

They were all sitting in silence, but Grover asked Percy, looking directly into his eyes.

"P-percy?"

"hmm"

"Do you want to break our empathy link?" Percy was shocked; his face clearly showed his shock. He did not expect Grover to ask this; he let out a weak "Do you want to?"
"No, no gods, no, I don't want to." Grover said his actions were frantic; his hands were on Percy's shoulders, but he calmed down. "I don't want to," he whispered. "Then why did you ask that?" Percy asked.

"Because I always go in the wild, and I don't know what will happen to me then." Grover said, looking anywhere but at Percy. Percy knew Grover was not telling him the truth, or at least the full truth. "Grover," Percy pressed, stressing out the 'er' Grover sighed, looking down, and said,

"I thought, maybe after you know what's happening, you would not want to be friends with me anymore and cut all ties with me. Because you helped me so much and I could not help you even once, I could not even use my Lord of the Wild card for " Grover was trembling by now, and Percy did not know if he should be happy or sad about this situation, but he snapped out of his thoughts when Grover clapped his hands with fierce determination in his eyes. "But don't worry, Perce; when the next meeting is held, I'll force them to listen to me, and if they don't, we will run away from there again."

"Hush G-man," Percy stopped him.

"You were rambling." Percy smiled at him, trying not to laugh at the wide eyes and pink tint at the tips of his ears. He knew Grover was embarrassed for all the rambling he had done.

"But I don't want to."

"What!" Grover sputtered, "Are you sure?" he asked. Percy just smiled at him and said,

"Of course," and then the conch was blown. It was time for lunch.