[1] something new | pjo

xv. fifteen

AFTER THALIA ALMOST CAN'T RESIST THE POWER TO THREW OLYMPUS,

Percy decided to call the camp to let them know about what's going on with a broken water fountain.

Daphne, who seemed to have the same idea as Percy fishing around her pocket to find a coin. She threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the mist and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!"

The mist rippled.

"Camp Half-Blood!" Percy said.

And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to them, was the last person Daphne wanted to see: Mr. D, wearing his leopard-skin jogging suit and rummaging through the refrigerator.

He looked up lazily. "Do you mind?"

"Where's Chiron!" Percy shouted.

"How rude." Mr. D took a swig from a jug of grape juice. "Is that how you say hello?"

"Hello," Daphne amended stood next to Percy. "We're about to die! Where's Chiron?"

Mr. D considered that. Daphne wanted to scream at him to hurry up, but she knew that wouldn't work. Behind them, footsteps and shouting—the manticore's troops were closing in.

"About to die," Mr. D mused. "How exciting. I'm afraid Chiron isn't here. Would you like me to take a message?"

Daphne and Percy shared a glance before said to their friends. "We're dead."

Thalia gripped her spear. She looked like her old angry self again. "Then we'll die fighting."

"How noble," Mr. D said, stifling a yawn. "So what is the problem, exactly?"

Percy told him about the Ophiotaurus.

"Mmm." He studied the contents of the fridge. "So that's it. I see."

"You don't even care!" Daphne screamed. "You'd be glad to watch us die!"

"Let's see. I think I'm in the mood for pizza tonight."

Daphne wanted to slash through the rainbow and disconnect, but she didn't have time. The manticore screamed, "There!" And they were surrounded. Two of the guards stood behind Percy.

The other two appeared on the roofs of the pier shops above them. The manticore threw off his coat and transformed into his true self, his lion claws extended and his spiky tail bristling with poison barbs.

"Excellent," he said. He glanced at the apparition in the mist and snorted. "Alone, without any real help. Wonderful."

"You could ask for help," Mr. D murmured to me, as if this were an amusing thought. "You could say please."

Daphne wanted to make an acrostic poem full of cursed word directed to the wine god. But of course she can't do that or they'll die faster with a painful death.

Zoe readied her arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Percy gripped his sword. Thalia raised her shield and Daphne noticed a tear running down her cheek. Suddenly it occurred to her: this had happened to the daughter of Zeus before.

She had been cornered on Half-Blood Hill. She'd willingly given her life for her friends. But this time, she couldn't save them.

How could Daphne let that happen to her?

"Please, Mr. D," Daphne muttered. "Help."

Of course, nothing happened.

The manticore grinned. "Spare the daughter of Zeus. She will join us soon enough. Kill the others."

The men raised their guns, and something strange happened.

SNAP!

It was the sound of many minds breaking at the same time. The sound of madness. One guard put his pistol between his teeth like it was a bone and ran around on all fours. Two others dropped their guns and started waltzing with each other. The fourth began doing what looked like an Irish clogging dance. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so terrifying.

"No!" screamed the manticore. "I will deal with you myself!"

His tail bristled, but the planks under his paws erupted into grape vines, which immediately began wrapping around the monster's body, sprouting new leaves and clusters of green baby grapes that ripened in seconds as the manticore shrieked, until he was engulfed in a huge mass of vines, leaves, and full clusters of purple grapes. Finally the grapes stopped shivering, and Daphne had a feeling that somewhere inside there, the manticore was no more.

"Well," said Dionysus, closing his refrigerator. "That was fun."

Daphne stared at him, horrified. "How could you... How did you—"

"Such gratitude," he muttered. "The mortals will come out of it. Too much explaining to do if I made their condition permanent. I hate writing reports to Father."

He stared resentfully at Thalia. "I hope you learned your lesson, girl. It isn't easy to resist power, is it?"

Thalia blushed as if she were ashamed.

"Mr. D," Grover said in amazement. "You... you saved us."

"Mmm. Don't make me regret it, satyr. Now get going, Percy Jackson. I've bought you a few hours at most. And Daphne Clarke, I've got something from your dad," he said resentfully but Daphne too stunned to notice and grab the white envelope with a wild boar seal—her father symbol that latched itself on the vine.

"The Ophiotaurus," Percy said. "Can you get it to camp?"

Mr. D sniffed. "I do not transport livestock. That's your problem."

"But where do we go?"

Dionysus looked at Zoe. "Oh, I think the huntress knows. You must enter at sunset today, you know, or all is lost. Now good-bye. My pizza is waiting."

"Mr. D," Percy and Daphne together said at the same time.

He raised his eyebrow.

"You called me by my right name," I said. "You called me Percy Jackson."

"And me, you actually said my name right after all this time,"

"I most certainly did not, Peter Johnson. And Miss Aislin your path would be different, you need to trust yourself. Now off with you!"

He waved his hand, and his image disappeared in the mist.

All around us, the manticore's minions were still acting completely nuts. One of them had found their friend the homeless guy, and they were having a serious conversation about metal angels from Mars. Several other guards were harassing the tourists, making animal noises and trying to steal their shoes.

Daphne still looked confused while held the envelope. She had a few assumption but all of them are crazy enough she doesn't think it would make sense to be real. Like there actual demigod like her—a Roman. Or perhaps a camp like camp half-blood but not Greek.

Percy looked at Zoe. "What did he mean... 'You know where to go'?"

Her face was the color of the fog. She pointed across the bay, past the Golden Gate. In the distance, a single mountain rose up above the cloud layer.

"The garden of my sisters," she said. "I must go home."

"And Daph, what does Dionysus mean?" asked Grover.

She stared at Grover, annoyed, "Do you think I will stare blankly at the sky while thinking what the fuck is happening if I know the answer,"

"Chill, dude," Percy said.

"I just, I know this has to do with my father, and I have a feeling I can't open it...yet,"

"Your father?" Percy snickered, "Ares? What stupidity did he do this time?"

Daphne want to smack Percy head but no. Not her father Ares, but Mars, his Roman form. 

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