"you could be the king, but watch the queen conquer"
-
Rosalyn Carter is the daughter of Aphrodite and the last thing Percy expected to find at Camp Half-Blood.
But he wouldn't want to fight deadly battles with anyone else.
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The first thing Percy did when he woke up was seek out Rosie. He found her practicing her archery, and the words exploded out of his mouth in an instant.
"Percy?" Grover said. "Please, I don't have the strength to project any better. You have to hear me!"
"I hear you," I said. "Grover, what's going on?"
From behind the boulder, a monstrous voice yelled, "Honeypie! Are you done yet?"
Grover flinched. He called out in falsetto, "Not quite, dearest! A few more days!"
"Bah! Hasn't it been two weeks yet?"
"N-no, dearest. Just five days. That leaves twelve more to go."
The monster was silent, maybe trying to do the math. He must've been worse at arithmetic than I was, because he said, "All right, but hurry! I want to SEEEEE under that veil, heh-heh-heh."
Grover turned back to me. "You have to help me! No time! I'm stuck in this cave. On an island in the sea."
"Where?"
"I don't know exactly! I went to Florida and turned left."
"What? How did you—"
"It's a trap!" Grover said. "It's the reason no satyr has ever returned from this quest. He's a shepherd, Percy! And he has it. Its nature magic is so powerful it smells just like the great god Pan! The satyrs come here thinking they've found Pan, and they get trapped and eaten by Polyphemus!"
Percy sank to the ground and panted. From his place in the dirt, he looked to Rosie nervously. She'd given him her full attention when he began recalling his dream, but her face was blank.
"I know it sounds crazy, okay?" Percy whispered. "But it was real."
"After everything we've been through, I believe you, Percy," Rosie sighed. "That's the problem."
"We have to save him."
"The Sea of Monsters is serious. Give me some time to think, and we can make a plan. Don't do anything stupid before then."
"Yeah, okay," Percy nodded. While he was itching to do something right then, it eased his restlessness to know Rosie was with him.
-
Before the chariot race began later that day, Percy tried to approach Annabeth and tell her about his dream. She perked up when he mentioned Grover, but when Percy told her what he'd said, she seemed to get distant again, suspicious.
"You're trying to distract me," she decided.
"What? No, I'm not!"
"Oh, right! Like Grover would just happen to stumble across the one thing that could save the camp."
