𐌙/𐌍 Ᏽ𐌵𐌀𐌋𐌄 & 𐌕𐋅𐌄 Ᏽ𐌐𐌄𐌀𐌕 𐌌𐌙𐌕𐋅𐌔 ¹

Chapter 9

9 | The kindly-ones ruin our bus

It didn't take too much time to get all of my things sorted out. I decided to leave the dino tooth in my cabin, over my night stand. So I only had a couple of clothes and a toothbrush that Grover gave to me, Percy got one, too.

The camp store gave me some money to spend on our trip. About a hundred human bucks and twenty golden drachmas. The drachmas were coins made out of pure gold and the size of at least three times a normal coin, they had a bunch of gods printed on one side, and the Empire State on the other side. The ancient human drachmas used to be silver, Chiron told us, but the Olympians never used any less than solid gold. Chiron said that these coins might be useful for non-mortal transactions. He gave me, Annabeth and Percy a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. They were goldly foods, meaning we shouldn't take too much of them. We're only half-bloods, our human parts would combust our whole bodies in huge fever if we ever overdid ourselves.

Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure that it would get us arrested if we ever went by a metal detector.

Grover wore fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's “So Yesterday,” both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

After I waited for the other three to do their stuff around the camp, we all headed to the half-blood hill.

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wear-ing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.

"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."

Large footsteps hurried behind us.

I looked back to see Luke running up the hill with a pair of basketball shoes on his hands.

"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."

Annabeth's face flushed with a prominent pink blush. Like if always did when Luke was around.

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told Percy. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."

Luke handed Percy the shoes. They did looked pretty normal.

"Maia!" Luke yelled.

White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, Percy flinched so badly he dropped the shoes. The shoes flapped around in the ground until the wings retreated back onto the heels and stopped.

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days...." His expression turned sad.

"Hey, man," Percy called out. "Thanks."

"Listen, Percy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"