Percy Jackson: The new recruit

11: we tornado across the country.

I was stunned.  I rose quickly and managed a lopsided smile.  Hermes mirrored it, and it looked sinister on him.

"Um, lord Hermes.  We need your help with a quest.  I am looking to trace the lineage of our oracle.  You're the god of travel, so I was wondering if you could point us in the right direction."  I asked.  I realized how unprepared I sounded.  Pollux and Kato were walking over.

Hermes considered me.  "You've been to many places.  California, Boston, Colorado, Washington, New York.  Well traveled."

I smiled, but I felt queasy.  Not one of those moves were because of my free will.  "Yes.  I have dreams about where the oracle is from, but never a real location I am familiar with."

"You are destined to be a big part in many more prophecies.  You will travel to many more places.  I am happy to say this time it will be of your own will.  As for the Oracle's location, I cannot provide that."  He said flatly.  I blinked slowly.  "Another immortal requests your presence, so he will lead you where you wish to go."

Huh?  "I'm sorry.  But, um, what?"  I stuttered.

Kato seemed interested.  "Which immortal?"

Hermes seemed to just notice him.  He regarded Kato with sad eyes.  "Well you guys will know soon enough.  I will send you to him.  Goodbye now."

Before I could react, a gust of wind lifted me off the ground and out of the store so fast I passed out.

I woke up seconds later, falling.  I screamed as I fell underwater, along with Pollux and Kato.  I quickly thrashed around.  I didn't know how to swim.

Pollux grabbed me by the arm and yanked me up.  I coughed and breathed, filling my lungs with air.  I hurried out of the pool.  In a lawn chair stood one of the most attractive person I had ever seen.

He was muscular, and had a hard jaw, and shaggy black hair.  His eyes were electric blue.  He looked up from his newspaper at us and smiled.

I forgot my own name.  He put on a pair of sunglasses and stood up.  He was tall, maybe six feet four inches.  I gave him a stupid grin.

"Yo.  Stop gawking.  It's weird."  Pollux muttered.  Kato looked like he wanted to say something to the guy, but nothing came out.

I managed to hold eye contact with the guy.  "Hey."  I said stupidly.

He looked amused.  "Hey."  He had an accent that I couldn't quite place, but it was so beautiful I wanted him to talk to me all day.  

Kato elbowed me, which snapped me out of my trance.  "Uh, I'm sorry but who are you, where are we, and what are we doing here."

"That's Perseus,"  Kato said slowly, "Son of Zeus."

The guy did a head nod to us.  "Yeah, that's me.  And to answer another one of your questions, we are in California.  San Luis Obispo, to be exact."

Something clicked in my brain.  "And we are here because you want to tell us about the oracle."

He looked amused.  "Go on, gorgeous."

I tried to focus.  "Um, well your grandfather- a king, I think- got a prophecy that his grandson would one day kill him.  So he locked his daughter in a castle.  Zeus fell in love with her, and she got pregnant with you.  The king found his daughter pregnant and thought that his, uh, his brother impregnated his daughter.  The king found out and sent you and your mother into the ocean to die."

Perseus nodded thoughtfully.  "In many ways, the oracle shaped my life.  If not for that, I may not have had a happy ending.  Please, sit.  Dry off."

I looked down and turned bright red.  My white shirt was soaked and see through.  Our backpacks and weapons had just reappeared.

I wrapped myself in a towel and sat opposite Perseus.  "So why did you ask Hermes to bring us here?"

"Do you know how I beat Medusa?"  He asked.  Kato sat next to me.  

"You cut off her head?"  He asked.  Perseus seemed unsettled by him.             

He handed Pollux a towel.  "No.  Well yes, but I mean how I got that opportunity.  I had faith in the gods.  They had gotten me there and believed in me.  So had the oracle.  But, the oracle at your camp was not always an old skeleton."

Pollux continued for him.  "It was a family gift.  A person who could see through the mist would take on the spirit of the oracle.  But the gods cursed her.  They ruined her life."

"Yes, child of the wine god.  They trapped the oracle in that body and over time, the oracle has grown impatient.  A prophecy is a prophecy, but some are held back.  Nothing lasts forever, even immortality.  The right prophecy at the right time could end them."

That washed over me and settled.  The oracle had a lot of power.  Could the oracle take sides in the war?  Perseus seemed to read my mind.

"Yes, it is a troubling thought.  That is why this prophecy is so important.  Now I have told you guys what you needed.  And I need a favor."

Pollux gave a small smile.  "Of course you do.  What can we do?"

I was dry, but my shirt was still damp and see through.  The wind bit at my back.  Perseus was the one hero who seemed to have a happy ending.  Maybe doing him a favor would give us that kind of luck.

"My woodworking office, where I go in my spare time, seems to be inhabited by a monster.  It can sense an immortal like me and hides when I'm around, but it is eating my wood I think.  Go kill it please, and then inform me on what is is."  He asked.  His perfect eyebrows were creased like he was thinking too hard for someone that pretty.

He looked at me and smiled as I got up.  "No no no.  You must not go out without a jacket.  You'll freeze, daughter of war.  Such a beauty should not be jeopardised.  I will fetch you a jacket, and the son of the wine god will stay here with me while you two kill a monster."

His tone was friendly, but the words were clear; if you don't succeed, I'll kill your friend.