Hello, hello! How are you all? Happy late Halloween! Candy for everyone! … So yeah, here's the next chapter. And thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: Do I look like a middle-aged/whatever age male to you? Yeah NO! I do not own PJO or HoO.

"Okay," Thalia said, picking up the book. "Here we go."

We Get Advice from a Poodle

"I hate poodles." Nico frowned. "They are the meanest dogs alive."

Grover sniffed. "Gladiola was a perfect gentleman."

Jason stifled a laugh while Connor, Leo, and Travis had a full-on hysterical fit.

"Gladiola?" Rachel smiled. "Seriously?"

"And what is wrong with that?" Grover asked.

"So many things." Nico chuckled.

Grover was about to go on a rampage as Annabeth stepped in. "We're all entitled to our different opinions. Alright?"

"Fine," they both muttered and sat back down.

Once the guys managed to calm themselves down and stop laughing, Thalia rolled her eyes and continued.

We were pretty miserable that night.

"No Styx, Sherlock." Thalia said.

We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties.

The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

Grover sniffed. "So sad!"

"Don't start crying, Goat man." Connor warned.

Travis nodded. "Man up!"

"But-" Grover stuttered.

"No!" Everyone shouted.

We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.

We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.

"Bet that worked out real swell." Nico joked.

"Oh, it was fine." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Well, he didn't actually-" Grover started. "Nevermind."

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.

"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."

He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."

"Here we go," Travis sighed.

"One of these days you'll notice how important the wild is." Grover frowned.

"We'll see about that." Connor snorted.

"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"

"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Yeah, who would want hooves?" Leo laughed quietly, to the amusement of Jason and Piper.

"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."

He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast

"I detest that." Rachel said. "Not all humans are."

"Okay, whatever helps you sleep at night." Grover waved his hand.

Connor snickered.

... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"

Everyone but Grover burst out laughing.

"I still have no idea what Pam is…" Grover muttered.

This just caused everyone to laugh harder.

"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"

"I know!" Travis exclaimed.

"Do you now?" Grover asked.

"Yes! You want to search for someone who could take away those hooves." Travis smiled proudly.

Grover silently fumed. "There is nothing wrong with having hooves!"

A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rain water, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.

"Wow." Piper murmured. "If only the world was like that today."

"Yeah…" Rachel agreed.

"Tell me about the search," I said.

Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at Grover.

"What?" Grover shrugged. "It looked like he was."

"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since.

"Something tells me it started before then." Rachel muttered so no one else could hear.

But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."

"That sounds tough." Jason acknowledged. "Especially how Fauns are."

"Excuse me?" Grover asked.

"I meant fauns, not satyrs. All fauns do is beg for money." Jason laughed, remembering something. "Particularly Don."

"Don the faun?" Annabeth asked.

"Yup."

"And you want to be a searcher."

"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there—"

"Ugh," Piper shuddered. "So creepy."

"Oh, right, sorry."

Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."

"Wait, what?" Leo asked.

"You heard me." Grover said.

"Hang on—the first?"

Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."

"And you still want to go?" Leo asked.

"Well, no reason to go anymore." Grover said sadly.

"Oh, right."

"Not once in two thousand years?"

"No."

"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"

"None."

"But you still want to go," I said, amazed.

"Percy and I think alike." Leo laughed.

"Oh boy…this isn't good." Thalia chuckled.

"Hey!"

"I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"

"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."

"That's a good way of thinking." Jason smiled.

"Thanks." Grover nodded.

I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?

"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

"Well," Nico reasoned. "Since your Percy…a good chance."

"Hear hear." Travis laughed.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—"

"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."

Annabeth muttered something unintelligible.

"What's that, Sweetie?" Connor asked, laughing.

"Oh shut up."

"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"

Thalia and Annabeth grimaced.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Grover." Thalia said.

"It's a talent." Grover sighed glumly.

Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't ... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong—"

"He actually got it pretty quick." Nico laughed.

"To that he did." Rachel agreed.

"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."

"Something isn't as it seems for all quests." Jason muttered.

"Too true." Annabeth nodded.

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunder bolt that Hades took."

"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy ... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."

"I thought that they didn't seem very aggressive." Thalia said.

Good for you." Travis patted her on the back.

"And now you get an award for it." Connor grinned.

"Don't touch me." Thalia hit them each in the shoulder.

"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."

Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"

"Asking about me," I said.

"Unfortunately…or fortunately, not." Jason sighed.

"Lets go with unfortunately." Annabeth snorted.

"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Life doesn't make sense." Leo said.

"You don't make sense." Piper laughed.

"You know it." Leo grinned.

"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.

"Nine days is still a lot for a quest." Piper complained.

Annabeth shook her head. "Remember…we didn't actually get nine days."

"Right." Piper nodded.

I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. "I haven't been straight with you," I told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."

"Oh I can't wait to see how this goes over." Jason shook his head.

"Me too." Nico grinned. "I was still in that hotel at this time."

"What?" Jason asked, confused.

"Oh nothing."

Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"

"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."

"Oh the resentment of a demigod." Rachel sighed.

Annabeth snorted. "Oh the resentment of any living thing."

Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."

"You could feel all of that?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Grover nodded.

"Wow."

"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."

Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."

"I agree." Annabeth said. "And I can't believe that I slept through that whole conversation."

"Believe it." Grove grinned.

"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."

Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."

"Yeah, and the conversation." Travis agreed. "I want some more action."

"It slows down for a bit here." Annabeth said.

"Damn." He sighed.

I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.

In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit.

"Oh boy…" Jason said.

Leo snorted. "He goes from soft music to HUGE GAPING PIT!"

"Calm down, Valdez." Piper laughed.

Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.

They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.

"Not a good idea." Nico warned.

"You think?" Thalia laughed.

Looking down made me dizzy.

The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.

"So he dreamed about this and didn't tell us?" Grover asked.

"I think he did…" Annabeth's eyebrows scrunched together. "I can't remember."

"Whatever."

The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, butperhaps you will do.

The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.

Everyone shivered.

They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me.I will give you what you want.

A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold.

"That would have been hard." Piper said sadly.

"Very." Leo agreed, thinking of his mom.

Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!

"Great image to see in your dreams." Jason muttered.

"More like a nightmare." Thalia noted.

I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.

Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.

An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.

"That is not good, not at all." Piper shook her head.

Annabeth sat there with wide eyes.

Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!

The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!

"Now that surprises me." Nico frowned.

"What does?" Rachel asked.

"That the dead were actually trying to help him." Nico answered.

"Hmm, true."

The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.

I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.

Good, it murmured. Good.

"Not good, not good." Travis muttered.

Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!

Someone was shaking me.

My eyes opened, and it was daylight.

"Ah, sweet daylight." Leo sighed.

"Sweet daylight?" Piper laughed.

"You betcha." Leo nodded.

"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."

I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. "How long was I asleep?"

"Long enough for he to cook breakfast probably." Rachel grinned.

Thalia snorted, reading the next sentence.

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast."

Rachel and Annabeth laughed with each other.

Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."

"Oh boy…" Jason mumbled.

"You got that right." Annabeth chuckled.

My eyes had trouble focusing.

Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.

No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.

"He thought it was a stuffed animal?" Grover raised his eyebrows as everyone laughed.

"It kind of did." Annabeth snickered.

"It did not." Grover said.

"You just keep believing that." Annabeth winked.

The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."

I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"

The poodle growled.

"Grr!" Travis growled. "I'm an insulted poodle. I'm going to eat you for breakfast!"

"No dude…just no." Connor shook his head.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

"So this is the famous Gladiola?" Jason asked.

"The perfect gentleman?" Piper added.

"Humans." Grover muttered.

I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."

"It's so very manly though." Connor grinned.

"Yes Percy, you must do it." Travis agreed.

Grover rolled his eyes.

"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled.

I said hello to the poodle.

Everyone laughed quietly.

Travis chuckled. "So menacing."

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family,

but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"I find that story hard to believe." Leo said.

"Why?" Grover asked.

"Only $200? From a rick family? And a pink poodle? I don't know, the price seems low."

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Of course," I said. "Silly me."

"Yes Percy, silly you." Travis laughed. "All animals can read!"

"That is not true." Grover said.

"Really?"

"Yes, worms do not talk."

Everyone laughed.

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

I thought about my dream—the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.

"Lovely thought, isn't it?" Leo snorted.

"Just so very lovely!" Connor smiled.

"Not another bus," I said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west bound train leaves at noon."

"What, does Gladiola know that too?" Jason grinned.

Grover huffed. "You guys are not animal lovers."

"Doesn't matter what we are." Thalia said, putting down the book. "Chapter's over."

"I'll go next. "Jason said.

There you have it! It's short, I know. But it's still a chapter is it not? Anways, what'd you guys think? Let me know…review! I'll post…within the week, probably.

~Sid-Nilos