Chapter 32

Thalia sighed, a bit thankful to be back on the boat and moving on with the quest as all of this at Iris's organic food store had been a massive fiasco and waste of time. She hadn't been able to even send an Iris message to Annabeth after Percy somehow remembered the technique to call some girl named Rachel.

Sadly neither of them were able to place their calls since Fleecy, the cloud nymph assistant who apparently set up all Iris messages said that something was blocking the calls. She said it was like trying to call someone when you only know half of the number.

"Thalia? You there?" Hazel asked as Thalia was snapped out of her thoughts.

"What? Sorry I was a bit out of it, what were you saying?" Thalia said as Hazel giggled softly.

"I was just telling Frank how Percy and your calls didn't go through but we did call Reyna" Hazel said as Thalia nodded with a soft blush.

"Yeah, Reyna was surprised but we kind of did call her while in the bath" Thalia said as she blushed at the memory of Reyna in her bath, only the bubbles covering her breasts and her soft tan skin. She quickly had to shake the image out of her head as she knew she had a girlfriend already.

"That I would have paid to see" Frank said as a blush creeped up on his face. "I-I meant her expression! Not the baths that is" he added quickly as Hazel blushed as well.

"Frank!" Hazel yelled as she fanned her face like she needed air, an old fashion but cute gesture.

"Never mind Frank's hidden pervert side," Thalia said teasing Frank who blushed darkly "the camp can't stand against that army without some help so we need to keep at this quest and hope that some help falls into our laps" she said as they nodded but on the somber note silence had filled the boat.

Thalia watched as her friend Percy seemed to be talking with a whale before he set some ropes overboard and made it so the whale was moving the boat. "Getting some sleep Perce?" she asked as her friend nodded with a smile.

"Yeah maybe you should get some too since who knows what is ahead of us in Portland" Percy said as Thalia nodded.

According to Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, there was a blind seer named Phineas that had revived in Portland. She remembered a bit of Phineas, a son of Neptune that could see the future and had the power of prophecy but used it to spy on the gods' plans until Jupiter blinded him and trapped him at a buffet with harpies, never to eat.

She knew getting the location of the glacier would make their quest a thousand times easier but she didn't know how she felt about talking to a man that had been brought back to life because of Gaea's Giant.

"Fine we'll both get some sleep until we get to Oregon" she said as Percy chuckled and laid down where he was sitting as she could only do the same due to the lack of size in their boat.

"Wake us up when we get to Oregon" Thalia said as Frank and Hazel, who were still talking nodded with a smile.

"Get your rest, we will keep watch" Hazel said while Frank nodded along, letting them relax a bit and drift off to sleep.

Thalia's dream was a whirlwind of images that she could barely recognize most of them.

She saw a house in what felt like was close to her. It made memories of dinners with a woman she felt like was her mom, one of her moms, and her dad around a table as if it was a normal life. She remembered a wedding, a horde of baby animals, and a pair of twin babies. Her mind was almost screaming at her that they were her sisters and they missed her.

The images continued to swirl before they suddenly stopped and she found herself standing in a forest clearing, a large torii gate in the distance. She looked around confused before she heard the soft laugh of a woman, causing her to turn around to see a woman with pitch black hair and dark red eyes walk towards her.

The woman wore a blood red kimono and a black obi as she gave her a warm and caring smile that told her that the mysterious woman wasn't any danger. Plus somewhere deep inside of her told her the woman was an ally or even family by the feel of things.

"It is okay sweetie, I'm not an enemy" the woman said as Thalia nodded.

"I-I know, or at least I think I do…" Thalia said as she clutched her head as it started to throb before the woman pet her head, making the pain ease away.

"I am so sorry for what had to happen to you sweetie but you are doing such a good job" she said as Thalia frowned.

"W-Who are you?" she asked as the woman smiled happily.

"I am Amaterasu, your great-grandmother on your father's side" Amaterasu said as Thalia widened her eyes in shock.

"A-Amaterasu? A-Aren't you a Shinto goddess?" Thalia asked as her head started to hurt before her great grandmother kissed her forehead, erasing the pain entirely.

"Yes but that is not the issue. Your father called me to make sure you can protect yourself while on this quest so I am here to return the memories of your eye" Amaterasu said as Thalia frowned in confusion before she felt her left eye throb in pain.

"You will need your Sharingan sweetie, trust your instincts and be strong" she said as she closed Thalia's left eye with her hand as a soft glow encased her and her hand before Thalia felt herself fading from the dream and her being awoken.

Thalia gasped slightly as she covered her eye quickly as she looked around to find herself back on the boat and Hazel frowning at her.

"Are you okay?" Hazel asked as she nodded slowly. "I just wanted to wake you up to tell you we arrived at Portland. We woke up Percy already but you didn't seem to want to wake up just yet" she said as Thalia waved her off.

"I'm fine, I was just more tired than I thought. So what's our next move?" Thalia asked as Percy motioned to the city.

"Find a blind man in a rainy city" Percy said as he hopped off the boat and onto solid land again with Frank behind him while Hazel helped Thalia up and off the boat but not before she grabbed the bag that the vials in them as her mind screamed at her to have them on her.

"So how hard do you think it will be to find Phineas?" Thalia asked as Percy shrugged his shoulders.

"We'll have to see and keep an eye out for harpies" Percy said as they nodded and continued into the city.

As they walked through the city they didn't notice much out of the ordinary, normal little shops and people wanting to stay out of the cold before they heard a voice down the street yelling. "Ha! Take that you stupid chickens!" the voice yelled as the sounds of what Thalia thought was a weed whacker buzzed into the air.

"You don't think that's him this quickly?" Frank asked as Percy nodded and they started to run down the street to the next block until they reached a massive parking lot with tree lined sidewalks and rows of food trucks facing the streets on all four sides.

Thalia frowned as in the center of the lot, behind all the trucks she could see a bit of an old man from between the trucks who was in a bathrobe who was currently running around with a weed whacker, screaming at a flock of bird ladies who were trying to steal food of the picnic table that was nearby.

"Harpies, which means that man is Phineas" Hazel said with a frown as they quickly ran across the street and squeezed in between two of the trucks to reach the area behind them all.

The area behind the food trucks were cluttered with stacks of plastic buckets, overflowing garbage cans, and makeshift clotheslines hung with wet aprons and towels. Even the parking lot was just a large square of cracked asphalt, weeds popping up from the cracks.

In the middle of it all was the old man she saw before. He was very old and fat, mostly bald with scars across his forehead and a rim stringy white hair. His bathrobe was splattered with ketchup and he kept stumbling around with fuzzy pink bunny slipper, swinging his gas powered weed whacker at the half dozen harpies who were hovering over his picnic table.

Thalia could clearly see he was blind, the milky white eyes of his still as he missed the harpies by a lot but was clearly able to fend them off pretty good.

"Get back you dirty chickens!" the man bellowed as the harpies back off away from the weed whacker.

Something about the starved and skinny harpies felt unnatural to Thalia. Their human faces had sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, bodies covered in molting feathers, and their wings were tipped with tiny shriveled hands. They all wore ragged burlap sacks for dresses as they dived for food, seeming more desperate than angry and it made Thalia feel bad for them.

The whirr of the old man's weed whacker rang out as he waved it at a harpy, grazing one's wings and making it yelp in pain as it fluttered off with yellow feathers dropping as she flew.

Thalia's eyes followed one as it circled higher than the rest. She looked younger and smaller than the others with bright red feathers. Thalia could clearly see that she was waiting for an opening and the second the man's back turned away she made a wild dive for the table.

She found herself rooting for the harpy as she grabbed a burrito in her clawed feet but before she could escape the blind man swung his weed whacker and smacked her in the back so hard that she winced. The harpy yelped and dropped the burrito before she flew off.

"Hey! Stop that you asshole old man!" Thalia yelled as she stepped out and the harpies quickly looked towards her and scattered behind her as if they were using her as a shield but the red one she defended flew off unsteadily down Glisan Street and out of sight.

"Ha!" the old man yelled in triumph, not knowing the harpies were still around as he killed his weed whacker. "Thank you stranger, your help is most appreciated!" he said as Thalia bit her cheek to keep her from yelling as he seemed to not have clearly heard her yell towards him.

She wasn't sure why but the harpies seemed to clamor around her as if they liked her or felt safe around her. "Shhh you guys be quiet and I'll see what I can do" she whispered quietly to the harpies who all nodded vigorously and held their hands to their mouths showing they understood.

Thalia merely shrugged her shoulders at her friends as she had no idea where the friendliness of the harpies towards her came from but she didn't really mind too much right now. "Whatever, look I'm Thalia Otsutsuki, this is-" she started to say before the old man slammed his hand on the table with a laugh.

"Demigods! I can always smell demigods" he said as Hazel frowned.

"Do we smell that bad?" Hazel asked as the old man waved it off.

"Of course not my dear but you'd be surprised how sharp my other senses became once I was blinded. I am Phineas and you…wait, don't tell me" he said as he went towards Percy and reached for his face before poking him in the eyes.

"Ow!" Percy complained as Phineas laughed.

"Son of Neptune! I thought I smelled the ocean coming this way. What is your name fellow son of Neptune?" Phineas asked as Percy frowned.

"Percy Jackson" Percy said before Phineas turned to Hazel.

"And here, the smell of gold and deep earth. Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. Next to you is a son of Mars but there is much more to your story Frank Zhang" Phineas said as Frank nodded.

"Ancient blood, prince of Pylos. Blah, blah, blah" Frank said as he has heard that too much over the last few days.

"Periclymenus, exactly! He was a nice fellow. I loved the Argonauts" Phineas said confusing Frank a bit before turning to Thalia with a frown.

"You on the other hand are a cocktail of scents. I smell the ozone on you as well as lotus flowers and home cooking. But there is another scent, almost given to you like the lotus and home cooking but it over powers your ozone scent. Goodness Thalia Otsutsuki you are unique if I have ever smelt it" Phineas said with a smile. "What an interesting group. Are you all hungry?" he asked as Thalia frowned.

"Look, we came for info as we were told-" she said as she was thankful that she moved the harpies back, making them sit on top of the food trucks before he came up to them as he most likely would've been able to smell them.

"You heard that the harpies were keeping my food away from me and if you helped me I'd help you. Does that sound right?" Phineas said with a smirk as Thalia sighed as she didn't like where this was going.

"Yeah that's about right" she said with a frown as the harpies started to ruffle their feathers in anger.

"That's old news! Do I look like I'm missing any meals?" he asked as he patted his belly which was the size of an overinflated basketball.

"No I guess not" Thalia said as they all quickly had to duck as Phineas waved his weed whacker in an expansive gesture, nearly hitting them if they hadn't ducked.

"Things have changed my friends! When I first had my gift Jupiter did curse me, sent harpies to steal my food and I admit I had a big mouth and I gave away secrets the gods wanted kept" Phineas said before he turned to Hazel. "Like you, you're supposed to be dead and you," he then turned to Frank "your life depends on a burnt stick" he finished as both Hazel and Frank grew pale and as if they had been slapped and ran over respectively.

"And you two, don't even know who you are," he said as he looked towards her and Percy before frowning at her "though for some reason I can't tell you who you are and it intrigues me" he said as Percy and Thalia frowned.

"So you talked too much and the gods cursed you. Why did they stop?" Hazel asked as she gripped her sword, ready to cut him down.

"Oh they didn't! I had to make a deal with the Argonauts as they also wanted info but they didn't even kill the harpies like I wanted to! An outrage! So this time when my patron brought me back to life-" he said before Frank interrupted him.

"Patron?" he said confused as Phineas nodded.

"Why Gaea of course. Who do you think opened the Doors of Death?" Phineas said with a smile. "Isn't Gaea your patron as well?" he asked as he looked to Hazel who frowned and drew her sword.

"I'm not her…I don't…Gaea isn't my patron!" Hazel yelled as Phineas shrugged his shoulders.

"Fine, stick to the sides you want, even if it is the losing side. That's your business but Gaea is waking up and has already rewritten the rules of life and death! I'm alive again and in exchange for my help – a prophecy here and there – I get my fondest wish! The tables have been turned and now I can eat all I want and have the harpies watch and starve!" Phineas yelled as he revved his weed whacker making the harpies wail from on top of the food trucks.

"They are cursed now! They can eat only from my table and they can't leave Portland! Plus since the Doors of Death are open they can't even die! It's beautiful!" he yelled as Thalia growled, her eye flashing red for a second.

"Beautiful?! They are living creatures! You never had to do any of it!" Thalia growled out angrily. "It was their duty and Jupiter only ordered them too" she defended as the harpies flapped their wings as if to agree with her.

"Oh I'm mad at Jupiter as well. I hear Juno has locked up a humanized Jupiter in Olympus so I look forward to Gaea punishing him and the gods for their horrible job at ruling the world" Phineas said as Thalia growled.

"So you are a traitorous monster still, same as you were back then only magnified now" she said as she summoned her swords, pressing it against Phineas' neck as her Sharingan flared to life.

"You could try and kill me but I doubt I'd stay dead long since Gaea has shown me the easy way back. Besides if you kill me you won't get my secrets" he said as Thalia frowned, wishing she could trap the man in an illusion of the eye she had but with his blindness it was worthless.

"Fine, what's the favor?" Thalia gritted out from her clenched teeth as Phineas greedily licked his lips.

"There is one harpy quicker than the rest" he said as Thalia nodded.

"The red one" she said as Phineas frowned.

"I'm blind! I don't know colors!" he yelled as he waved it off. "At any rate she's the only one I have trouble with. She's wily and always does her own thing, never roosts with the others and she gave me my scars" he said as he pointed to the scars on his forehead.

"Capture her and bring her to me. I want her tied up where I can keep an eye on her…so to speak. Harpies hate being tied up as it causes them extreme pain. I'll enjoy it greatly, especially if I feed her so that she can last longer" Phineas said with a smile as Thalia looked at her friends.

Quickly and non-verbally they came to a silent agreement that they would never help the man but needed his info so they needed to think up a plan.

"Go talk amongst yourselves, I don't care. Just remember without my help your quest is doomed to fail and everyone you love in the world will die. Now off with you! Bring me the harpy!" Phineas said as they walked off with the harpies fluttering after them.

"Okay so what are we going to do?" Frank asked as the harpies gathered around Thalia again like baby chicks cuddling up to their mother.

Thalia smirked as she pet the heads of the harpies, feeling a bit sorry for them before a plan sparked in her head which made her smile massively and the harpies look at her with hope in their eyes.

"Oh I have an idea but we will need the harpy to come with us, not to hand over, and one of these" she said as she reached into the bag and pulled out a baggie that contained a set of gorgon blood vials. "I'm going to do a hell of a gamble and hope if my memory is right my dad's devilish luck is with me as well" she said as Percy already felt worried for his friend.

"Fine, tell us the plan" Percy said as Thalia smiled at her friend happily.