Chapter 64

Harry's Point of View

It wasn't until just after lunch that we managed to corner Clarisse. She had been kept up in the Ares cabin, making preparations and finding her companions. The large Ares girl took one look at us and shook her head, before even listening to us.

"You can't come, guys. No way. You had your quest last summer. This time it's my turn. Besides... my father would kill me if I let you take the credit again." Clarisse all but whispered the last sentence, clearly nervous of angering Ares.

Percy wrung our hands, his nerves echoing my own. We had to do this. We had to rescue Grover. Percy turned on the pleading baby seal eyes.

"We don't want the credit, Clarisse. This is your quest, your glory. But please, let us save Grover."

The guilt in Clarisse's normally unreadable eyes was disconcerting and off-putting. Percy sighed, knowing what we were going to hear even before Clarisse voiced the words; "I can't. I can promise you that I'll look out for Grover - I'll try and save him. But I can't take you with me."

With one last glance our way, Clarisse moved off. Disheartened, Percy sat down on the porch of our Cabin. He put our head in our hands and began tugging at the messy locks of black hair, desperately trying to think of something.

'Hey, hey!' I poked him mentally. 'We had a backup plan, remember?'

'What, sneak out? Let's be realistic here, Harry. We don't have resources or transport. What exactly are you expecting us to do?'

'Have faith. Poseidon owes us from last summer, right? Surely he'll help us out here.'

Percy wasn't completely convinced, but he perked up a bit.

A gentle swish of our cabin door, and the slightly heavy footfalls approaching alerted us to Tyson's arrival. Our friendly brother Cyclops sat beside us, and threw an arm over our shoulder comfortingly. His gentle cow-like eye blinked at us.

"Brothers!" The delight at the title in Tyson's tone made us smile. "What's wrong?"

"Clarisse won't let us go with her on her quest. We were considering sneaking out anyway but... would you be ok here at camp alone?" Percy met Tyson's gaze, trying to convey our concern in that look. Tyson merely smiled widely.

"I'd come with you of course. What else are brother's for?"

Panicked, we opened our mouth, but Tyson simply glared at us.

"If you are going, then I am too. Mummy sent me to help you. I can't do that if I'm stuck at camp. Besides..." Tyson suddenly found his shoes very interesting as he mumbled. "Some people aren't nice here. I want to stay with you!"

Percy immediately felt guilty. Now don't get me wrong, I felt sorry for Tyson too, but 'not nice' people were still a heck of a lot safer than the real monsters we were going to face.

'Percy... we can't. He'll get hurt. You can't seriously want that.'

Percy shook our head. 'No, but you also know how truly horrible people can be. They don't always hurt you physically, but sometimes emotional hurt is just as bad.'

'We already need to look out for Annabeth and Luna, and then Grover when we find him. Tyson can't even fight!' I pleaded, unwilling to take our younger brother into danger.

'Harry!' Percy laughed. 'Annabeth and Luna are as skilled as we are, if not more after all their years at camp. And Grover isn't useless either - he protected Annabeth and Luna and Luke to camp didn't he? Let Tyson come. He can't seriously get into that much trouble.'

'Fine.' I conceded with a sigh.

"Alright, pack your stuff then." Percy grinned. "But you'll be protecting us from Sally if you get so much as scratched on this journey."

We left Tyson to quickly pack a bag - ours we had packed earlier, in the hope that Clarisse might take us. We wondered down to the beach, hoping that our prayers to Poseidon might reach him better there.

"Lord Poseidon, if we may be so impertinent to ask, we need to save our friend Grover, and the camp as well. If you could help us with some form of transport into the Sea of Monsters, then we would be very grateful."

If the sea god heard us, he made no sign. Just the warm sea breeze blowing salty air in our face, and the steady lap of waves against the shore. Percy turned a smooth flat pebble in our hand, having picked it up off the sandy beach. Frustrated by the lack of response, rose our hand to let the stone fly into the ocean, but a light touch stopped us.

"He heard you, don't you fear."

Spinning around, we saw a young man in jogging clothes smiling at us. We narrowed our eyes at him. Only demigods could cross the barrier, and strong monsters. The barrier hadn't weakened to the point yet that mortals could cross. So what was this man - a demigod, or a monster? His smile had a familiar mischief to it, but we couldn't quite place it.

"How would you know?" I knew I was snappish, but I was on edge at the ease this man had snuck up on us.

He smiled again, but this time the mischief was replaced with a sad, solemnness. "We always listen to our children, especially because we can't raise them in person. If your father can't hear you, it will be because he can't, not because he is ignoring you."

We stared at the guy blankly. This wasn't Poseidon - he seemed to have genuine taste in his jogging outfit, which the sea god seemed to be lacking in his choice of Bermuda shorts. Before we could reply to the god (or at least, I assumed that was what his strange comment alluded to him being) his phone rang.

We watched with curiosity as he pulled the device from his pocket. It glowed with some blue light - possible an anti-monster shield? - and two snakes were curled around it. The man answered the phone with barely a glance at the caller ID.

"Hello?"

The silence drew on as he listened to the other person talking. The pair of snakes writhed next to his ear, on the phone's pull-out antenna.

"Look, I'm sorry, even if he is chained to a rock with vultures picking out his liver, without a tracking number we can't track his parcel... Brilliant, a gift to mankind, we get a lot of them... Never mind, listen - just refer him to Eris in customer services. I got to go."

He hung up, and turned back to us. "Sorry about that. Never get a job in the delivery industry, all you get is 'my parcel is late' or 'this wasn't complete'. It's awful I tell you."

Nodding warily, we watched as he sat down with a sigh beside us, moving to put his phone away.

"You have snakes on your phone." Percy just blurted out, before looking slightly contrite. "Sorry, that was rude, we shouldn't interfere..."

"That's fine!" The man laughed. "They don't bite. Martha, George, say hello.

Hello. It was a rather odd experience, hearing the English spoken within our mind, even as we translated the hissing Parseltongue.

Hello, sea-son. A female voice chimed in afterwards.

Hearing the voices of her kind, Alyssa poked her head up from under our shirt. $Snakes. I hear snakes.$

The god did a double take, shocked by the appearance of the Basilisk. He looked between us and the snake a few times.

"You have a basilisk."

"Don't worry," I teased, "Alyssa doesn't bite. Often."

Alyssa tasted the air, flicking her tongue at the man in front of us. She hissed softly in gentle warning. $The man is not human.$

$No, he is a god. The question, is which...$

The god chuckled. "Would you like to guess, or should I tell you?"

We held up one finger in the universal "give-me-a-minute" gesture. After puzzling it out for a few minutes, the snakes started getting excited.

Can we do it? Please can we?

Full power mode! Please!

The god grinned, and in a wash of light, his phone grew and expanded into a familiar wand, with George and Martha wrapped around it. A caduceus, just like the one in prime place on Cabin 11.

"Lord Hermes?" I raised an eyebrow in question. Of all the gods to visit us, Luke's father was not at the top of who might visit us list. Though it might explain why he was so familiar - Luke definitely took after him. The blinding grin was answer enough.

"You heading off to save your friend and camp, then?" Hermes smiled. "Friends and family are worth fighting for, aren't they? Even breaking the rules."

We nodded distantly, wondering where this was going. Hermes blue eyes twinkled merrily.

"Martha, may I have the first package?"

The female snake unhinged her jaw, and belched out a stainless steel canister. The sides were decorated with red and black depictions of what looked like the labours of Herakles. Percy grinned.

"Herakles! I think he's one of my favourite constellations." Percy exclaimed happily.

I snorted. 'Because of his exceptional bad luck. Is that really a good reason for favouring a hero? You know, he was also a massive twat, right?'

Percy mentally stuck his tongue out at us. 'If you always expect the worst, you'll never be disappointed. Why shouldn't I set my targets low? Then I can only be excited when I over-achieve on them!'

I rolled my eyes at him, but didn't bother replying. Percy had a... unique outlook on life.

"...limited addition," We tuned back into Hermes talking, "Of course, it would be worth more if I had the whole lunchbox, but... Here. As a gift."

He passed it to us. We rolled it other in our hands, noting how no matter which way we turned the flask, it remained cold facing the same direction. North, unless I was very much mistaken. "Thanks... Is it some sort of glorified compass?"

Hermes chuckled again. "I'd never thought of it like that. It holds the winds, cousin. So just be careful to only open it a crack to aid your travel. Otherwise you'll release them all. Now, for the second gift... George?"

George grumbled, but opened his jaws wide to give Hermes a bottle of what looked like multi-vitamins. Shaped like Minotaurs and Hydrias and Chimeras. The messenger god handed them over with a wink.

"Now this is very potent stuff, cousin, so only use them if you absolutely have to. You'll know when."

With that one cryptic message, Hermes suddenly became serious, his smile dropping off his face. "But if I may ask one favour... if you see my son out there on the high seas... don't give up on him. There is room for redemption in everyone. He's not a bad person, just he's been influenced by a less than kind life."

We nodded, and smiled slightly. "You can't choose your family, but you can fight for it to be how you want it to be. If we see him, we'll talk to Luke."

With a grateful smile, Hermes snapped his fingers, summoning two duffle bags. "I've packed some extra stuff for you to smooth your journey along - after all, you aren't going to get any support from camp if you're going out without permission."

I dipped our head in thanks. "Thank you, Lord Hermes. May the gods be with you."

Hermes moved off, shrinking his caduceus back into phone form, picking up a call from what sounded like Demeter, so appeared to be threatening his flower service should she not get her way. A few minutes later Annabeth and Luna, trailed by Tyson, appeared with their bags. Tyson also had ours swung over his shoulder. We grinned at them, waving.

Annabeth's grey eyes narrowed, focusing on the duffle bags and the flask and pill bottle we were holding. We quickly summed up Lord Hermes visit, leaving out a few parts (mainly Luke). Our friend nodded slowly. Tyson grinned and handed us our bag.

"So how are we getting out of camp?" Annabeth asked. "Clarisse is due to leave in an hour - her father has given her a steam-powered battle ship to aid her travel. We could use that as cover when everyone sees her off?"

Percy nodded excitedly, eager to break the rules, the little Gryffindor. "We could head out though the forest, then head to the coast after we've made it past the borders."

The plan set, we waited by the edge of the woods for about half an hour, chatting and mock sparring, trying to look as casual as possible while we waited to hear the loud clamour that would be camp seeing of Clarisse and her chosen companions. Annabeth also went off to find Leo, and reappeared a few minutes later, having obviously dragged our young friend from the forges.

"You're going away again, aren't you?" Leo asked, his eyes sad.

We nodded. "We have to save Grover."

'I don't want to leave him behind again.' Percy voiced what we were both thinking.

'But at the same time, I don't want him to get hurt.' I nodded in agreement. 'Beckendorf would murder us for even asking him.'

Luckily, Annabeth and Luna took the decision from us. "Leo... You've been on the streets before, and you've been training here a year already. The Sea of Monsters is - as the name suggests - a fair shot more dangerous than the streets but you could still come with us, if you wanted."

Leo looked up, delight in his eyes, before he dropped his head again. "Beckendorf would have my head if I snuck out."

Beckendorf was a strong influence over his younger siblings. Being cabin leader of cabin 9, he dealt with everyone - small insecurities to nightmares to misbehaviour. After being alone on the streets for so long, and then Annabeth and Luna and us having to disappear off to school, Leo seeking his brother's approval in important things was most understandable. It made us smile too, because last summer Leo definitely would have lept at the chance regardless. I was nice knowing that he knew people worried about him now.

"Message me? As often as possible?" Leo begged, meeting our all our eyes as he made us promise. Behind him we started to hear the noise of camp parading Clarisse and her companions to the ship. We promised, but also made sure he knew that as often as possible could still be very rarely, especially in such a monster-intensive place.

Leo nodded, then pulled a bracelet off his wrist, strapping it around ours. He tapped the metal plate in the centre of the bracelet, and the metal expanded, creating a solid celestial bronze shield. It was currently undecorated, but the mere quality of the craftsmanship was beautiful beyond belief.

"Stay safe, ok?" Little Leo grinned at us.

"You too, Little Guy." Percy grinned back, shouldering our bag. "See you on the other side!"

We crept out through the forest, fortunately managing to avoid any monsters in our way as we travelled. A good hour or two of trekking later, we finally passed through the tattered remains of the camp border, and heading in the direction of sea.

It admittedly wasn't until we reached the beach that we found a plan of how we were going travel. We spotted a cruise ship in the distance. If we could just reach that ship, we could steal a life boat, which Percy was pretty sure he could definitely control and no doubt that flask of wind Hermes gifted us with would further aid our travelling...

I explained this reasoning to Annabeth and Luna and Tyson. "So. Any ideas of how to reach the cruise ship?"

"Fish-ponies!" Tyson exclaimed, pointing behind us. In the shallows stood three sea-creatures which looked not unlike horses, except for the fact that they had fish tails instead of back legs.

"Hippocampi." Annabeth nodded, impressed.

Sea-lord! Little sea-lord! The happy voices of the hippocampi filled our head, and we smiled indulgently.

'Hello. We don't suppose you'd be able to help us over to the cruise ship, do you?'

Yes! Yes! Help the sea-lord!

"Well they're willing to help us." Percy summed up for Annabeth and Luna's benefits, laughing as Tyson had already mounted a large rainbow coloured hippocampus, and was splashing around with him.

Warily, Annabeth and Luna allowed us to help them onto their steed, before we swung up onto the remaining hippocampus. With a few more words of encouragement, we were speeding through the waves, spray dampening our faces as the hippocampi swam over the waves, appreciating our (well, mainly Annabeth and Luna's) need to breathe air.

When we reached the ship we manage to climb up onto a lower deck. As we walked around though, we noticed that none of the passengers seemed particularly surprised to see us climbing over the rails. In fact, most of them seemed to have rather blank expressionless faces. Something was wrong. Really wrong. However, until we turned the corner and ran face-first into our... least favourite cousin, that we realised how badly 'wrong' summed up the situation.

Hey guys! Sorry, it's been a really long time :/ But I hope you enjoyed it :D I also hope you all had great summer holidays and best of luck to those going back to school (I had to go back today :( )

I don't know when my next update will be - this month especially is going to be the month from hell. I have a long essay to finish, my uni application to sort out and hand in, and my 'normal' school work on top of that! But I shall donate spare time to an update, I promise!