Just saying, I don't own anything! No suing, please! :p

Chapter 2

My Friends Hide in Gardens

When we got back to my house we found my mom cooking dinner. "Percy?" she asked incredulously.

Paul yelled from the other room, "Is there someone at the door, Sally?"

"Yeah, Will you come here please? I have something to explain to you!" my mom yelled back.

Paul walked into the room. "Sally?" he asked.

You see, my mom had never told him that I was a half-blood (half god, half mortal) and that my dad was Poseidon, the god of the sea. I had a feeling that this was the what she planned on explaining to him.

After we explained this all to him, we sat in silence. Then Paul said rather weakly, "You're...he's...Poseidon?" and slumped to the floor in a dead faint.

"Well, he seems to have taken that well," I said sarcastically. We laid Paul on the couch and discussed why Annabeth had come while he slept.

"Well, the reason I came was because...um...well,"she avoided my gaze and blurted out to no one in particular, "It's Tyson, he's missing. Some of his Cyclops friends have gone out to look for him, but none have come back." Then she burst out crying again. As my mom went over to console her, I still sat frozen in spot, sitting in stunned silence as I felt my own eyes start to sting. I blinked back the tears. No, I thought, I will stay strong for Tyson.

"Wh-when did he go missing?" I asked, stuttering.

"Well,"said Annabeth, "About a month ago."

My mind was reeling. A whole month my half-brother had been missing and nobody had even thought to tell me about it until now? I could almost hear the waves roaring in my ears.

From seeing the look on my face Annabeth said, "Don't look like that! We've been trying to IM you but the connection hasn't been getting through!"

I managed to calm myself down before my emotions busted some water pipes. Being the son of the sea god can have a couple unfortunate side effects. Since when does Iris Messaging not get through? I had a bad feeling about this.

"But it's not like we haven't been trying to find him. As I said earlier we've sent out lots of other Cyclopes to find him, but none have returned," Annabeth assured me.

"So, what now?"

"That's why I came here in the first place! You really are a Seaweed Brain. Chiron sent me here to get you and Thalia to see if we can get a quest to go search for him."

Oh. How did I not see that? Gods, Annabeth was right, I really am a Seaweed Brain.

"So, Wise Girl," I said, trying to change the subject, "How are we going to get to camp?"

"I was thinking about using the Gray sisters taxi, but I've run out of drachmas trying to contact you."

"Sorry, I'm of no help here, I don't have any drachmas. Whenever I get them I seem to lose them right away."

"Gods, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth muttered more to herself than to me.

"Why couldn't Argus drive you?"my mom asked. I'd forgotten she was even there and her voice startled me.

"Argus is helping a satyr at a school where three half-bloods were unexpectedly found," Annabeth stated matter-of-factly.

"Whoa, three half-bloods at one school?" I asked, surprised.

"No, three waffles at one school, yes three half-bloods!" Annabeth said rather impatiently. Suddenly I had an idea.

"Hey, Annabeth, I wonder if BlackJack could bring a friend and we could ride pegasi to camp."

"That wouldn't be a bad idea except for the fact that some prankster lit the stables on fire and injured all of the pegasi."

"Really? Are they going to be OK?" I asked.

"Yeah, they'll be fine, the whole Hephaestus cabin is working on making fireproof stables and they are starting to really look good."

"So, we have to walk?"

"Afraid so. Keep your eye out for monsters, they followed me all the way here. I think Kronos is spying on us." I shuddered. Just hearing Kronos's name reminded me of Luke, with those liquid golden eyes. It reminded me of Ethan Nakamura and how he pledged his allegiance to Kronos and secured his rise to power.

"Percy?" Annabeth's voice jarred me back to reality.

"What?" I said rather stupidly.

"I was just saying that we need to get going if we're going to get Thalia before sundown." said Annabeth as if she were talking to a three year old.

"So where is Thalia and how are we going to get her? I suppose you have a plan, Wise Girl?" I said with a rather mean tone to my voice.

"Well,"she said fiercely, "I was thinking of going to an area of woods were the Hunters are known to stay, hunt, hang out. There is one special place where mortals cannot interfere so it is therefore a safe haven for satyrs and nature spirits, and the Hunters love to go there to hunt. It's called Selnisc Fields and it is smack dab in the middle of New York City."

When we arrived at Selnisc Fields I stood with my mouth hanging open for what seemed like forever until Annabeth waved her hand in front of my face. How could I never have known about this place before, living in New York all of my life? I supposed you could only find it if you really knew where to look.

There was a huge garden filled with all the plants that you could ever imagine. I mean, there were roses, daffodils, and daisies, but there were also exotic plants like hibiscus flowers and others that I couldn't even name. No wonder this was a haven for satyrs. It just felt Wild.

I couldn't help but think of Grover as we stood gazing over the fields. He was out assembling all of the nature spirits for the obviously upcoming war. He was also informing them of the wild god Pan's death, so long as they would listen to him. Grover is just the typical satyr, a nature lover and vegetarian.

Annabeth and I set off to ask around if the Hunters were here. Walking through the garden was like wandering on a distant planet. I imagined that Persephone thought up flowers just for this place.

We asked a tree nymph who seemed spooked by the presence of mortals, a naiad who batted her eyelashes at me, and a dryad who was borderline rude to us before we got an answer about the Hunters. There was a maple tree nymph who told us that she had seen the Hunters pass by a mere half hour ago, going east. We thanked her and set off to find Thalia.

When we were passing by a grove we heard some loud laughter. Annabeth and I gave each other knowing looks and walked into that grove.

We were greeted by many teenage girls, but their appearance didn't fool us. We both knew that the Hunters were immortal and were probably ranging from the ages of 12 to 2000 years old. They weren't very fond of me, as they were all sworn maidens forever, and I, of course, am a boy. They greeted Annabeth with excitement.