CH.24 The Pit And Poodle

Once again, I was in the cave with the bottomless pit, the red glow from the pit illuminated the dark-filled room, showing that I wasn't the only one that was in the room.

"Help me, rise boy," the voice said hungerly "bring me the bolt, strike a blow against the treacherous gods!" the voice said making the pit glow redder.

A woman soon came out, I didn't know who she was, but she seemed important to Percy and the voice was using her to get to him.

"Don't listen to him, Percy!" I yelled making him recognize me.

"It lies, NOW WAKE UP" I yelled and woke up to Annabeth shaking me.

"Well, the zombies live," Annabeth said looking at us.

"How long was I asleep for?" Percy asked groggily.

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast," Annabeth said and tossed us both a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunt Ems's snack bar.

'As soon as we get to the city I'm stealing some food, no way I'm going to stick eating this' I thought looking at the bag of chips.

"And Grover went exploring, look he found a friend," Annabeth said causing both me and Percy to look at Grover who was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with a pink fuzzy poodle.

The poodle yapped at Percy suspiciously and looked scarred at me which was expected almost all animals are naturally scared of me like they know that I'm their end.

"No, he's not, and he won't hurt you," Grover said petting the poodle.

"Are you talking to that thing?" Percy said making the poodle growl.

"This thing is our ticket west, be nice to him" Grover warned.

"You can talk to anima?" Percy asked.

"he's a creature of nature, if he can't talk to him, he can at least understand it," I said to Percy.

" Thank you, Percy, Adrian, meat gladiola, gladiola meet Percy and Adrian" Grover introduced us to the poodle.

"Hello," I said to it causing it to bark back.

Percy started to Annabeth as if asking if Grover was serious, but one look was enough for him to see Annabeth was just as serious as Grover.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," Percy said.

"Percy, I said hello to the poodle, Adrian said hello, you say hello to the poodle" Annabeth seriously.

The poodle growled and Percy said Hello reluctantly, the scene made me laugh a little, a boy forcing himself to say hello to a growling poodle, how can I not laugh at that.

Grover explained that he came across Gladiola in the woods, and they stuck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who had posted a $200 hundred dollars reward for his return. Although gladiola did not want to go back to his family, he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked.

"He read the signs, duh," Grover said.

"of course, silly me," Percy said.

"Percy, we live in a world where the Greek gods are real, is it so silly that a poodle can learn how to read English," I said making gladiola bark

"I guess," Percy said rolling his eyes.

"So, we turn in gladiola, we get the money and buy tickets to Los Angeles, simple" Annabeth said.

"Bus?" Percy asked.

"No, there's an Amtrak station half a mile that way according to gladiola the westbound train leaves at noon," Annabeth said.

"Okay let's get moving then: I said and started putting our stuff in my inventory.

"Also, Percy, well talk about your dream on the train," I said to Percy as we were leaving.

After getting the money from the rich family we got on the Amtrack train heading west for two days. Percy was worried about the police finding him because there was a bunch of pictures with his face on them, it seemed Percy ran away from home or not I haven't had time to know that guy. Annabeth told him that he had nothing to worry about and mortal police would never find them, she's most likely talking about the mist, the barrier that keeps the mortals from seeing the godly world.

"So, who wants your help?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"she's talking about the pit," I said interrupting their conversation.

"The pit? You mean that thing" Percy said.

"that's what I call it since it won't give me his name," I said.

"Wait both of you are dreaming about it, tell me now," Annabeth said making that last part sound serious.

So, I and Percy both told her about our interaction in the pit "that doesn't sound like hades, he always appears on a black throne and he never laughs" Annabeth said.

"Well, I wouldn't say never," I said causing her to raise an eyebrow.

"He offered my mother in a trade, who else could do that" Percy said.

"I guess… if he meant 'help me rise from the underworld' he could want to start a war with the Olympians, but why to ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it" Annabeth said.

"that's because it's not hades," I said angrily causing them to look at me with shock.

"I get he get he has a bad image, but he wouldn't do that, especially to your mother, and if he did, I promise ill help you get her back, I know what it likes to lose a mother," I said little sad.

"What happened," Percy asked.

I just started at him thinking "I don't want to talk about it" I said and then left to somewhere quiet Percy tried to follow me, but Annabeth stopped him.

I soon got far enough where I couldn't hear their conversation, I brought out my cassette tape player and started playing my music. For the rest of the ride, I thought about my mother, remembering the good times and forcing myself to remember my goal.

When the train stop the group had the idea to go sightseeing the gateway arch, I told them I would catch up, and after I was able to convince them, I went to sleep only to see the person we were just talking about, my father Hades.