σɾɳιƚԋαʂ (ρʝσ x ɱαʅҽ σƈ)

I Meet the Parents & a Deadly Dragon

Percy's POV

Zoe: We will never make it. We are moving too slow. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus.

Bessie mooed as he swam next to me as we jogged along the waterfront. We'd left the shopping center pier far behind. We were heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was a lot farther than I'd realized. The sun was already dipping in the west.

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

Zoe: The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset. We can only enter their garden as day changes to night.

Percy: What happens if we miss it?

Theo: We miss the winter solstice, which is tomorrow, and Annabeth and David will die. Is that a good enough answer for you?!

Thalia: We need a car.

Percy: What about Bessie?

Grover stopped in his tracks.

Grover: I've got an idea! The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?

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

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

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

Bessie mooed forlornly.

Grover: I...I can show him. I'll go with him.

I 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.

Grover: I'm the only one who could talk to him. It makes sense.

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

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

I didn't understand how they could possibly swim back to Long Island from California. Then again, monsters didn't travel the same way as humans. I'd seen plenty of evidence of that.

I tried to concentrate on the waves, the smell of the ocean, the sound of the tide.

Percy: Dad. Help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp. Protect them at sea.

Thalia: A prayer like that needs a sacrifice. Something big.

I thought for a second. Then I took off my coat.

Grover: Percy, are you sure? That lion skin... that's really helpful. Hercules used it!

As soon as he said that, I realized something.

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

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

I threw the coat into the bay. It turned back into a golden lion skin, flashing in the light. Then, as it began to sink beneath the waves, it seemed to dissolve into sunlight on the water.