RED ¹ / Percy Jackson !

21

"HE'S A ROTTWEILER."Was all Percy said.

"You don't say."Viviene said,glaring at him as she took her daggers out.

The EZ DEATH spirits walked right between his front paws and under his belly,

which they could do without even crouching.

"I'm starting to see him better," Percy muttered. "Why is that?"

"I think ..." Annabeth moistened her lips. "I'm afraid it's because we're getting closer to being dead."

The dog's middle head craned toward them. It sniffed the air and growled.

"It can smell the living," Percy said.

"But that's okay," Grover gulped nervously,trembling. "Because we have a plan."

"Right," Annabeth said in a small voice."A plan."

They moved toward the monster.The middle head snarled at them, then barked so loud Viviene's eyeballs rattled.

"Can you understand it?" Blake asked Grover.

"Oh yeah," he said. "I can understand it."

"What's it saying?"

"I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly."

Percy took the big stick out of his backpack-a bedpost He'd broken off Crusty's Safari Deluxe floor model.

"Hey, Big Fella," Percy called up. "I bet they don't play with you much."

"GROWWWLLLL!"

"Good boy,"Percy said weakly.

He waved the stick. The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on Percy, completely ignoring the spirits. He had Cerberus's undivided attention.

"Fetch!" Percy threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw. They heard it go ker-sploosh in the River Styx.

Cerberus glared at Percy,unimpressed.

"Um," Grover said. "Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"I just thought you'd want to know."

"Yeah?"

"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that... well... he's hungry."

"Wait!" Annabeth said. She started rifling through her pack.

"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"

Annabeth produced a red rubber ball the size of a grapefruit. It was labeled WATERLAND,DENVER, CO. Before anyone could stop her, she raised the ball and marched straight up to Cerberus.

"See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"Annabeth yelled.

Cerberus looked as stunned as the other's were.

All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated.

"Sit!" Annabeth called again.

 Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat, immediatelycrushing a dozen spirits who'd been passing underneath him in the EZ DEATH line. The spirits made muffled hisses as they dissipated, like the air let out of tires.

Annabeth said, "Good boy!" She threw Cerberus the ball.

He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads 

started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy.

"Drop it.'" Annabeth ordered.

Cerberus's heads stopped fighting and looked at her. The ball was wedged between two of histeeth like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud, scary whimper, then dropped the ball, now slimy and bitten nearly in half, at Annabeth's feet.

"Good boy." She picked up the ball, ignoring the monster spit all over it.

She turned toward the others. "Go now. EZ DEATH line-it's faster."

"But-"Blake started,eyes wide and her jaw on the floor.

"Now.'" She ordered, in the same tone she was using on the dog.

Grover,Blake ,Percy and Viviane  inched forward warily.

Cerberus started to growl.

"Stay!" Annabeth ordered the monster. "If you want the ball, stay!" Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.

"What about you?"Blake asked Annabeth as they passed her.

"I know what I'm doing, AJ," she muttered. "At least, I'm pretty sure... ."

Grover,Blake,Viviane and Percy walked between the monster's legs.

Please, Annabeth, Viviene prayed. Don't tell him to sit again.

They made it through. Cerberus wasn't any less scary-looking from the back.

 "Good dog!" Annabeth said.

She held up the tattered red ball, and probably came to the same conclusion I did-if she rewarded Cerberus, there'd be nothing left for another trick.

She threw the ball anyway. The monster's left mouth immediately snatched it up, only to beattacked by the middle head, while the right head moaned in protest. While the monster was distracted, Annabeth walked briskly under its belly and joined the group  at the metal detector.

"How did you do that?" Blake asked her, amazed.

Viviene and Percy shared a knowing look.

"Obedience school," she said breathlessly,and Blake was surpised once she saw small tears that gathered in her eyes."When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman... ."

"Never mind that," Grover said, tugging at Percy's shirt. "Come on!"

They were about to bolt through the EZ DEATH line when Cerberus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Annabeth stopped. She turned to face the dog, which had done a one eighty too look at  the other four.

Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet.

"Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded melancholy and uncertain.

The monster's heads turned sideways, as if worried about her.

"I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised faintly. "Would you like that?"

Cerberus whimpered.

"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I-I promise." Annabeth turned to the rest. "Let's go."

The five of them pushed through the metal detector, which immediately screamed and set off flashing red lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"

Cerberus started to bark.

They burst through the EZ DEATH gate, which started even more alarms blaring, and raced into the Underworld.

A few minutes later, they were hiding, out of breath, in the rotten trunk of an immense black tree as security ghouls scuttled past, yelling for backup from the Furies.

"Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"Grover murmured

"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"

"No," Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!"

From the corner of her eye,Viviane stared at Blake who was looking at Annabeth with a frown on her face. Blake watched as Annabeth wiped the tears from her eyes.

"What?"She snapped at Blake impatiently. Blake's frown deepend.

"Nothing."