Percy Jackson My Second Quest... AGAIN!

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian birds had simply been minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Annabeth, Tyson, and I hadn't disturbed them with our bad chariot driving.

This was so completely unfair, I told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut, which didn't help his mood. He sentenced us to kitchen patrol, scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies. The harpies washed with lava instead of water, to get that extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of all germs, so Annabeth had to wear asbestos gloves and an apron because she wasn’t fireproof.

Tyson didn't mind though. He plunged his bare hands right in and started scrubbing, I didn't need to wear gloves because I was mostly fireproof, but Annabeth… she had to suffer through hours of hot, dangerous work, especially since there were tons of plates that needed to be washed.

Tantalus had ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse's chariot victory—a full-course meal featuring country-fried Stymphalian death-bird.

The only good thing about our punishment was that it gave Annabeth and me time to talk. After I told her about my dream about Grover, she looked like she didn’t believe me, at least… not yet.

"If he's really found it," she murmured, "and if we could retrieve it—"

“We could save Thalia’s tree.”

"The Golden Fleece…” she said trailing off and scrapping a plateful of death-bird bones into the lava."Percy, do you remember the Gray Sisters, and about what they said?”

“Yeah,” I said nodding. “They said that they knew the location of the thing I seek, and they also mentioned Jason.

“Yes.” She said nodding in agreement. “Three thousand years ago, they told Jason how to find the Golden Fleece. You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?"

"Yeah," I said. "There were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus, and Europa. They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool to pick them up in Greece. It carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor.

“Actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important." She said correcting me.

"It was probably important to her," I muttered.

"That’s not the point.” She said shaking her head. “The point is, when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom. The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land where it's placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution, and even heals, so that means it could cure Thalia's tree."

“It would strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood, preventing monsters from invading.”

“Exactly… but Percy. The Fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck, what hope do we have of finding it?"

"But Grover found it," I said. "He went looking for Pan, but instead he found the Fleece because they both radiate powerful nature magic. It makes sense, Annabeth. We can rescue him and save the camp at the same time. It's perfect!"

Annabeth hesitated. "A little too perfect, if you ask me. What if it's a trap?"

"What choice do we have? And even if it was a trap, it would still help heal Thalia’s tree which, would help the camp. Do you really want to not do this just because it might be a trap?" I asked.