Melancholy Kaleidescope | PJO

Ch. 4: Jinora's Dad Commissions Their Exile

Tantalus was still holding onto letting Tyson–a Cyclops–into the camp, so when those demon birds had finally been dealt with, of course he had decided that Jinora, Annabeth, and Percy had clearly been responsible for the disruption. The way he saw it, the Stymphalian birds had been been harmlessly minding their own business and were provoked–somehow–by Percy and his friend's atrocious chariot driving. Tantalus was also still holding Jinora's objection at dinner over her head, so her joining Percy in bringing Chiron's boombox was just icing on the cake.

Percy telling Tantalus to go chase a doughnut certainly didn't help the ghoul's mood, and neither did Jinora's snickering. She had forgotten for a moment that she was supposed to be mad at Percy and couldn't stop herself. So now here she was, washing the boatload of dishes from the extravagant celebratory meal that Tantalus decided they just had to have in honor of Clarisse winning. Jinora honestly wouldn't have minded too much washing dishes if the harpies didn't wash with lava. Tyson was fireproof so this was nothing for him, but Jinora, Annabeth, and Percy had to wear special gloves that rode up past their elbows so they didn't leave dish duty with fourth degree burns (or something like that).

On the bright side, the trio finally had common ground after several days of high tensions and ignoring each other. Percy started trying to tell the girls about Grover in his dream. Just as he started, Jinora let out a chuckle. She cleared her throat and apologized.

"I'm still thinking about 'chase a doughnut.' I'll behave. Please, continue."

Percy smirked before dropping it and recounting his dream. They were skeptical at first but, after listening to the full account of his dream, Jinora and Annabeth looked like they were starting to believe him and share his concern.

"If he's really found it," Annabeth murmured, her forehead creasing in thought, "and if we could retrieve it–"

"Hold on," Percy interrupted. "You act like this...whatever it is that Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save the camp. What is it?"

"I'll give you a hint," Annabeth said as she finished scrubbing another greasy pan. "What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"A mess," Percy and Jinora answered at the same time.

"No," Annabeth replied tersely. She had to refrain from rolling her eyes. She sighed before continuing. "A fleece. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool–"

"The Golden Fleece. Are you serious," Percy asked.

Annabeth nodded. "Remember the Gray Sisters, Percy? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him how to find the Golden Fleece. You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts, right?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah, that old movie with the clay skeletons."

Jinora groaned. "You're helpless, Percy. The real story, you dolt."

"Just listen," Annabeth cut in. She felt like a chaperone. "There were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? 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, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."

"It was probably important to her," Percy mumbled.

"The point is," Annabeth continued, trying to keep the three of them on track while Tyson continued turning the dirty cups into boats, "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—"