The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

seven

MEETINGS

The least the Oracle could've done was walk back to the attic by herself Ariana thought.

Instead, Grover and Percy were elected to carry her. Ariana just went with them since she didn't want to go back to her cabin just yet.

"Watch her head!" Grover warned as they went up the stairs. But it was too late.

Bonk!

Percy whacked her mummified face against the trapdoor frame and dust flew.

"Ah, man." He set her down and checked for damage. "Did I break anything?"

"I can't tell," Grover admitted.

"What an idiot you are Percy." Ariana said.

Percy looked offended. "Oi!"

They hauled her up and set her on her tripod stool, both of them huffing and sweating. Who knew a mummy could weigh so much?

Ariana assumed she wouldn't talk to them, and she was right. She was relieved when they finally got out of there and slammed the attic door shut.

"Well," Grover said, "that was gross."

The whole camp would be mad at Ariana and Percy for losing the game to the Hunters, and then there was the new prophecy from the Oracle.

"What will Chiron do?" Percy asked Grover.

"I wish I knew." He looked wistfully out the second-floor window at the rolling hills covered in snow. "I want to be out there."

"Searching for Annabeth?"

He had a little trouble focusing on Percy. Then he blushed. "Oh, right. That too. Of course."

"Why?" Ariana asked. "What were you thinking?"

He clopped his hooves uneasily. "Just something the manticore said, about the Great Stirring. I can't help but wonder... if all those ancient powers are waking up, maybe... maybe not all of them are evil."

"You mean Pan."

The nature god had gone missing two thousand years ago. He was rumored to have died, but the satyrs didn't believe that.

They were determined to find him. They'd been searching in vain for centuries, and Grover was convinced he'd be the one to succeed.

This year, with Chiron putting all the satyrs on emergency duty to find half-bloods, Grover hadn't been able to continue his search. It must've been driving him nuts.

"I've let the trail go cold." he said. "I feel restless, like I'm missing something really important. He's out there somewhere. I can just feel it."

Ariana didn't know what to say. She wanted to encourage him, but she didn't know how. Her optimism had pretty much been trampled into the snow out there in the woods, along with their capture-the-flag hopes.

Before anyone could respond, Thalia tromped up the stairs. She was officially not talking to Ariana or Percy now, but she looked at Grover and said,

"Tell Percy and Ariana to get their butt downstairs."

"Why?" Percy asked.

"How mature." Ariana rolled her eyes.

"Did they say something?" Thalia asked Grover.

"Um, he asked why and Ariana said how mature."

"Dionysus is calling a council of cabin leaders to discuss the prophecy." she said. "Unfortunately, that includes Percy and apparently Ariana."