¹𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒 ! - percy jackson

-013

"WE WILL NEVER MAKE it," Zoë said. "We are moving too slow. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus."

"Mooo," Bessie said. 

He was swimming next to Percy as they jogged along the waterfront. They had left the shopping center pier far behind. They were heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was much farther than Stella had realized. The sun was already dipping in the west.

"I don't get it," Percy said. "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

"The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset," Zoë said. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"What happens if we miss it?"

"Tomorrow is winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening. And by then, the Olympian Council will be over. We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

Or Annabeth will be dead, she thought, but she didn't say that.

"We need a car," Thalia said.

"But what about Bessie?" Percy asked.

Grover stopped in his tracks. "I've got an idea! The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?"

"Well, yeah," Percy confirmed. "I mean, he was in Long Island Sound. Then he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam. And now he's here."

"So maybe we could coax him back to Long Island Sound," Grover said. "Then Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

"But he was following me," Percy said. "If I'm not there, would he know where he's going?"

"Moo," Bessie said forlornly.

"I...I can show him," Grover volunteered. "I'll go with him."

Stella stared at him. Grover was no fan of the water. He'd almost drowned last summer in the Sea of Monsters, and he couldn't swim very well with his goat hooves.

"I'm the only one who can talk to him," Grover said. "It makes sense."

He bent down and said something in Bessie's ear. Bessie shivered, then made a contented, lowing sound.

"The blessing of the Wild," Grover said. "That should help with safe passage. Percy, pray to your dad, too. See if he will grant us safe passage through the seas."

Stella had no idea how they were going to swim back to Long Island from California, especially considering Grover's swimming skills. She knew monsters didn't travel the same way as humans, but she couldn't picture Grover holding his breath for that long.

"Dad," Percy said, facing the open sea. "Help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp. Protect them at sea."

"A prayer like that needs a sacrifice," Thalia said. "Something big."

Percy considered what she said, and after a moment of reflection, he took off his coat.

"Percy," Grover said. "Are you sure? That lion skin...that's really helpful. Hercules used it!"

As soon as he said that, Stella realized something.

She glanced at Zoë, who was watching Percy carefully. She realized she did know who Zoë's hero had been—the one who had ruined her life, gotten her kicked out of her family, and never even mentioned how she'd helped him: Hercules, a hero everyone admired.

Stella turned her eyes to Percy, who seemed to have come to the same realization as her. A determined look set on his face, and he looked at his coat.

"If I'm going to survive," Percy said, "it won't be because I've got a lion-skin cloak. I'm not Hercules."