Chapter 37: Rats, Letters and Flowers

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So here's the new chapter. There will be only one more chapter before this book is finished, then I'll do a two chapter crossover with the Kanes and after that I will begin with Defying fate, also known as Titan's curse.

BTW, my story reached 80.000words which is awesome!

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'Percy POV '

'Boss, they want to kill me.' Blackjack said, looking nervous at Shade and Shadow, who stared at Blackjack, showing their fangs.

'More meat!' Shade said hungrily.

"They won't kill you, right Nyx?" I said reassuring Blackjack.

"Nope, no eating friends today, not even the Satyr." Nyx said proud while Grover paled.

"Blaaaah! What is that supposed to mean?" Grover protested.

I was stroking Blackjack's mane trying to calm down my new pet.

Tyson was showing Katie how to pet the horses, but Katie was still a bit afraid of them.

When Nyx suggested to drive us to camp with her chariot, I asked Nyx to shadow travel me to the ship where I kicked a giant who held Blackjack imprisoned.

I used Blackjack to fly back, he insisted on it, and he had already adopted me and started calling me boss and lord.

He was especially fond when he found out I came to rescue him and only him.

We had just finished dinner by a MCdonalds, and we left the horses outside, after we made them promise not to kill or destroy someone.

When we came back, the horses were already threatening each other, which was worrisome.

Blackjack learned some new curse words and Shade and Shadow were learning how to get extra sugar and apples.

(Linebreak)

Nyx stopped in front of the half-blood hill, Katie and Grover dropped to the ground, pale and puking.

I flew on Blackjack, watching them from above, even though Nyx could've driven a lot faster she decided to drive at a slower speed which was even to much for Katie and Grover. Her domain over the night allowed us to travel faster than it should be possible, not that I complained.

We took a break at Richmont where we took a motel and slept for a few hours and left before dawn so we could catch that little extra time driving in the dark, which wasn't a problem for Nyx but for the other passengers, well let's say I was lucky to have Blackjack.

I got off Blackjack and saw the sun was rising.

'We arrived boss!' Blackjack announced exhausted.

"You did a great job!" I complimented him, "Want to see the camp?"

"Later, I need to visit a donut shop fast as possible." he said and he stormed off.

Katie recomposed herself after puking out her dinner and straightened up.

"Never again." She muttered.

When Grover got up, Nyx made her chariot disappear together with Shade and Shadow.

We got up to the camp borders, and we stopped at Thalia's tree where a small group of campers stood around in full armor, the fleece lay on the roots and the tree already looked healthier then when we've left.

They stood with their back to us, so they hadn't noticed us yet.

"Look who's back!" Nyx yelled, startling all the campers who now I realised were guarding the fleece.

They turned around and I recognized a few of them, a few campers from the minor gods cabins, two Hermes campers and Beckendorf was kneeling in front of the fleece and building something.

"You're back!" Connor called out, "Yay, she is back." Travis said, not as happy as his brother.

"I'm going to inform the rest." he said and he headed of towards the big House.

"Percy!" Ethan called out, "We thought you were dead man." He said and gave me a man hug.

"Tyson, you are back." Beckendorf said, "Can you help me, I need to connect this jar with greek fire to the pressure plate but I can't reach it."

It sounded dangerous to me but Tyson nodded and knelt beside Beckendorf and began talking about technical stuff I knew nothing about.

"We are placing traps around the fleece, so people won't steal it." Ethan told me which was a great idea, except for the fact, well what if someone was just wandering into the woods?

"We heard from Clarisse you three four showed up and rescued her." Conner said with awe, did Clarisse confessed she needed help, that was certainly a first.

"Oh, look who returned." A man in orange prisoner suit said as he strolled up the hill, I gritted my teeth, Tantalus.

Dionysus floated a feet above the ground, behind Tantalus and looked bored, though I saw a glint of surprise in his eyes.

Katie glared at Tantalus while the campers around the tree stepped back.

"I heard you four ran away from camp without permission." Tantalus spat out.

"Yes, to retrieve the fleece, to save the camp!" I protested.

"I appointed Clarisse to this quest. She would've been able to do it herself." Tantalus sneered glaring at me.

"Hey, Dionysus when does Chiron comes back?" Nyx suddenly asked, upbeat.

"Well, not now, unless Tantalus would go missing. Then I would convince my father to send Chiron back, now the camp is safe again all suspicions are falsified." Dionysus said with a bored tone, but he gave Nyx a quick, unnoticeable, wink.

Nyx smirked and lunged forward, Tantalus stepped back but Nyx had already grabbed him by the shoulder.

They both vanished on the spot.

Dionysus threw his hands up in the air. "Oh, no, Tantalus has gone missing. Well, I am going to call back Chiron." he flashed away, presumably to Olympus.

"Where's Meg?" When I mentioned the name, they all glanced at me, some with mischievous smiles while others with worried looks.

'Behind you.' Chaos laughed.

I realised they were not looking at me but at something behind me.

I turned around and faced a golden siccae against my throat.

"Meg?!" I called out before I looked at Meg and I realised something was wrong.

Her choppy black hair was now longer, reaching her shoulder and she was at least a half feet taller than before I left.

Over all she looked older.

"Uh, hey Meg, what happened to you?" I asked, trying not to sound afraid.

"Meg?" Katie said, hesitantly, "What happened."

Meg glared angrily at me, "When Percy and my mom turned me into a rose and connected my life force with Thalia's tree the age of Thalia affected me." she explained.

"O." Katie and I both said.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean too do that.." I apologized and gave her a weak smile.

"And if that wasn't enough, letting me age at least 2 year forward you also decided to retrieve me a week later?"

I blinked, was she mad I rescued her?

Then she smirked, "you should've left me as a rose for at least a month, I would've woken up as a sixteen year old and been able to drive!" she called out and put her sword away.

And gave me a hug and whispered in my ear, "but seriously Percy, a rose? Next time turn me into something cool."and she stepped away.

"So how was the sea of monsters, kicked some ass?"

I nodded, "yes, Katie came with us!" and I swung my arm around her shoulder,

"You should've seen her! She was amazing." I told Meg who looked at Katie with awe.

"You traveled with Percy to the sea of monsters?" Meg asked.

Katie blushed, "Yes, but we had a lot of help from Tyson, Nyx and Thera."

"Don't forget about Anne, " I said, "She might be listening."

Katie laughed, "Look Katie's gonna tell you everything, I need to check on something." and I walked away, heading towards camp.

While I was heading towards the hearth, someone stopped me, "Percy." A voice from behind said, I turned around and saw Annabeth, she looked surprised to see me.

"Percy, you are back, Clarisse told me about how you tree showed up."

I nodded, "Yes, anything happened meanwhile at camp?" I asked, I actually had suspected that Nero would've have attacked the camp while it was weak and I was gone but it seemed undamaged.

"There were a few monster attacks but the Hecate cabin had put up a spell that warned us everytime a monster came close."

"That's great." I said.

Annabeth gave me a thoughtful look, "Don't you think its weird, Kronos hasn't attacked the camp?" she asked me.

Did she read my thoughts, "yes it is weird." I admitted.

She got closer, I felt a little bit nervous when she was face to face with me.

"Percy, this camp was attacked by a couple of Anemoi Thuellai."

"What?" I asked.

"Storm spirits." Annabeth explained.

"O, that's bad."

She looked around to see if someone was eavesdropping on the conversation, when she concluded it was safe she said, "Percy, when the Storm spirits attacked they almost destroyed the Big house but they suddenly fled."

I raised a brow, "Why?"

Annabet shrugged, "I don't know but when they fled I noticed there were a lot less storm spirits leaving the camp then entered."

A shiver ran down my spine, "You think they might be still here?"

She nodded, "A few campers and I looked around everywhere but we can't seem to find any trace of them. Maybe they just died."

"Let's hope it is the last one." I said.

(linebreak)

When I reached the hearth, after stopping so many times to talk with campers, I found it was burning again.

I opened my hand and pointed it outward. I focused on fire.

With ease a burst of fire was send outwards, raising the flames of the hearth even higher.

"Sweet." I mumbled.

"I see the Hero of Hope is victorious!" A cheerful voice behind me said.

I turned around and saw Hermes smiling and leaning on his caduceus.

I rolled my eyes, "Seriously Hermes? Who came up with that name?" I asked.

"Me and Apollo." Hermes smirked.

Of course, and since Hermes was the Gods of the messengers he was probably also spreading rumors.

'Did you hung around with other snakes?' George asked suddenly.

I frowned, "No, of course not."

'You smell like snake." Martha hissed.

I laughed. "Oh, that must been the Chimera."

'Oh, Percy did you brought us a rat?' George asked, slithering up the caduceus and cutting of Martha.

I was about to apologize for not having any rats with me when Chaos suddenly said, 'Here you go! And two rats appeared in my hands.

Hermes looked skeptical at the rats in my hand.

'Thanks for the dead animals.' I mumbled.

'Oh, you did brought me a rat!' Martha gasped.

"Uh, yeah, totally." I said, still a bit shocked.

'They are for me.' George said, 'No, we need to share them.' Martha complained.

'You two behave.' Hermes said and he waved his hands, the rats vanished and appeared inside the mouths of the snakes.

"So how is Luke doing?" Hermes asked unsure and the smile faded a bit.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think he's slowly seeing that joining Kronos was a bad idea."

Hermes sighted, "I think it's my fault he joined Kronos." he admitted.

I shrugged, not knowing what to say.

Hermes coughed and went on.

"So I was here to deliver a message, because I am the God of the messengers."

'And thieves.' George added.

'Shut up, he always gets annoyed when people mention it.' Marha hissed.

"What's the message?" I asked curious.

"Well most of them want to thank you for rescuing the camp, Ares even mentioned you are not as bad as all the other Poseidon spawn."

"Wow."

"Yeah." Hermes said, "Oh, before I forget."

Matha opened her mouth and coughed up a white letter.

Hermes caught it with ease and handed it to me.

"From who is it?" I asked but Hermes had already disappeared.

I opened the letter, inside it was one white paper.

I pulled it out of the letter and noticed it wasn't written with ink but with a red substance.

Blood?

'Edgy.' Chaos commented and I tried to read the letter but it was hard with my dyslexia which was weird, since Chaos was possessing me I did no longer suffer from it.

After a few seconds I could decode the message.

Playtime's over,

Prepare to die.

'What is this?' I asked Chaos but she kept silent.

'I assume your silence means you have no idea who send this?' I asked.

'Maybe Triumvirate holdings.' Hemera suggested.

'No, they would never use something like Hermes express.'

"Percy Jackson." A voice behind me said, startling me.

I put away the letter and silently asked why the Gods always approached me from behind.

I turned around to face, a what seemed to be a twelve year old girl, she had long blond hair wore jeans and a shirt about some kind of farming convention. She smiled at me.

"Demeter?" I asked, seeing right through her attempt to disguise herself.

"Sssttt!" Demeter hissed and put her hand over my mouth, effectively silencing me.

"Call me Flowey." she said, which was the worst name ever and she pulled her hand from my mouth.

"Okay, hi Flowey," I coughed, trying not to burst out in laughing, "What brings you here?"

"I wanted to thank you." she said and gave me a warm smile.

"For what?"

"For helping my daughters." she said.

"What do you mean? Meg?" I asked and she nodded, "Yes Meg but also Katie."

"What have I done for Katie?" I wondered.

"You accepted her as a member of your team, you gave her the confidence she needed."

I waved it away, "She helped us too, without her we would be dead on the bottom of the Sea of Monsters."

"Still I wanted to thank you." She said and she stepped forward, before I could protest she placed her hand on my forehead and her other hand covered my eyes.

I muffled something, wondering if she would abduct me or something, but then she pulled away and stepped back.

"There you go." she said.

"What happened?" I asked, blinking a few times trying to guess what happened.

"I gave you my full blessing, you are now also my champion." she said and smiled proudly.

"Me?" I asked flabbergasted, "Why me?"

"You've done so much for me already, you are one of the few demigods who actually respect me and my children."

'Well, that was unexpected.' Hemera said dryly.

"But...but-" I tried to formulate words but my brain stopped working.

"Don't Percy, just accept my gift."

I nodded and after a few seconds I managed to say, "Thanks Dem, Flowey…So what does this blessing do?"

Demeter shrugged, "There's a lot it can do but it all depends on your powers and if you are smart enough to figure it out."

Great, this was like getting an awesome car for your birthday but without any instructions on how to drive.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Demeter said and she disappeared in a whirl of grains and cereal.

'Hey Percy…' Chaos said teasingly.

"What?" I asked out loud.

'NEW POWERS UNLOCKED!.' She screamed inside my head.

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p atreon : Moonhorse

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