Naturally, me being me, with my very unique experiences, I immediatly asked, "Why?"
Apperantly one should not ask gods why they decide to help puny mortals like us, because he looked at me and asked me, "What do you mean?"
"Because...gods as...powerful as yourself...don't usually...um, help us." Astra replied for me. And probably everyone.
Hermes looked away, (and I could've sworn he said, "Why does everyone ask me that?") then looked at me and said,"I'm here because of what you did for Luke."
I stared at him, speechless. I mean, wouldn't you?
"I,... I thought that Luke was a lost cause." He looked down to his feet, "I thought that there was no saving him. No way to turn him to the right path." He looked at my face, "But then you came into camp, and managed to persuade him to not-not continue in that path. Thank you, Perseus Jackson."
We all just stood there. We had a crowd not-so-descretly listening to us.
So naturally, I said, "Yeah, no sweat. Wouldn't want a friend anyone to fall into drugs like." I grimaced, "Glad to know he's doing better. Especially with your support," I gave him a look, "That kind of stuff would ruin us all."
Hermes followed through without blinking an eye, "Yeah, he's-he's doing better. I'll check up on him next week at rehab." He then leaned over to whisper in my ear, "But seriously, thank you."
"So anyways," Hermes continued, "I'm here to help you guys with the errands you...four seem to want to do." He began sorting through some item in a bag which he had brought, "See, I tried to look for you guys at camp." He gave Astra a thermos with a sticky note folded in half stuck to it, "but you guys weren't there so I had to go look for you kids." He then handed Tyson some vitamins, which also, had a sticky note folded in half stuck to it.
"Umm...thanks. Really looking forward to getting all those important vitamins..." Astra said, looking down disdainfully at what Hermes gave Tyson.
"The sticky note explains it all," Hermes said. "Anyways, good luck!" Then he left us to stare at the objects he gave Astra and Tyson"
"Well..." Astra was the one to break the silence while sup looking at the vitamins, "What do we do with them?"
"Ignore the sticky notes and fill the thermos with hot chocolate and eat the vitamins," muttered Clarisse sarcastically, "That'll surely go swell."
"Read the note." Tyson said.
Clarisse scoffed, "Oh yeah? Where did you get that, genius."
"Hey! Hey, hey, lets not freak out from seeing Luke's dad guys. Lets go outside and talk about this."
Astra lifted her head up towards me to mouth, "Whose Luke?"
I mouthed back to her, "A friend."
"Hey." Clarisse snapped her fingers in front of pur faces, "If you two are done with your silent conversation, I asked Percy a question."
"Oh," I said dumbly, "What was the question?"
"Where should we go?"
"Umm...maybe just walk around?"
"Walking aimlessly, got it." Clarisse replied.
So we left the restaurant and began walking right from the exit. After a few minutes of complete silence, Tyson asked a crucial question.
"When are we going to read the notes?"
"You have the object," responded Clarisse, "Why don't you read the fuc-"
"Woah," Astra said, putting her right hand on Clarisse's mouth, "The no cursing rule still stands. There are children." She pointed to two kids with their parents. The parents having had pushed the kids away from us.
Clarisse rolled her eyes and forcibly took Astra's hand away from her mouth. "I don't give a fucking damn, Astra. So shut the fuck up, bitch."
One of the kids next to us said, "Mommy, those are bad words," before being taken away by both parents along with the other kid.
Astra slapped Clarisse gently on her shoulder, "Look what you did, Clarisse." She gave her a pout and crossed her arms, "Those were our future kids."
After seeing the look on Clarisse's face, I couldn't hold back a chuckle. Her face was priceless.
"Alright then," I said, "Let's read the notes Hermes put on the thermos and vitamins."
After Astra took off the sticky notes from both objects and unfolding them, she began to read them outloud.
"'Okay you little-,' yeah no. Not saying that. Anyways, 'the thermos-in short-acts as a compass and releases winds from the four corners of the earth. Have fun with this you-' holy crap, why do people feel the need to cuss anyways?" Astra then moved to the next note. "'These very special vitamins do all sorts of things. Just don't eat them unless you absolutely have to, though.' Thanks for that Hermes, but when is that absolutly have to moment? "
  'Probably with Circe, but you guys don't need to know that', I thought.
  "Don't know," I said instead. "But I'm sure we'll find out when we get there."
  "You're always so optomistic, Percy." Astra said, "Which is why your my favorite." She pointed at me but kept on looking at Clarisse.
  "Whatever your trying to do here Atalanta," Clarisse guestured towards everything around us, "It isn't going to work. You're gonna have to run harder than that."
  Astra pouted but relented. "Fine. So, Percy," she finally looked at me, "Whats the plan?"
  "I'm getting to it!"
  She raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
  "Yes really! Just got to...remember..."
  "Remember what?" Tyson asked. "Did you have a dream?"
  "I - yeah, I did."
  "When?" Astra asked.
  "A week before coming to camp," I said. "Of course, me being me, didn't really think to mention it." At all.
  "Okay then," Astra said, "All we have to do is remember your dream and then we can go and finally start the quest?"
  I nodded, "Yeah." Then I remembered that Hermes dropped us off at the Princess Andromeda, which we then left. Somehow... Then we got picked up by Clarisse on the warship her father gave her, the CSS Birmingham, which got blown up.
  "Okay," I said, "Clarisse, did your dad, by chance, offer you a warship?"
  She looked at me suspiciously, "Yeah,... why?"
  "We're gonna need it."

(Hah, thought i would end it there, huh?)

  "What the fu-"
  Astra put a finger to Clarisse's lips. "Hush child, none of that now."
  Clarisse rolled her eyes, but didn't cuss this time. "What the frick," Clarisse looked at Astra who looked back approvingly, "are we doing Percy."
  "Following some cordinates I got in that dream I had." I said, handing a piece of paper with said coordinates to one of the zombie crew mates. "Hand this to the one driving the ship."
  "Perce," Astra whispered in my ear, causing me to jump, "I don't think driving's the right word." I turned around to see her smirking. "It'd be more like sailing if you ask me."
  I laughed, "Yeah. I'm-I've been told that I'm pretty dumb." I placed my hand behind my neck, "But yeah. Anyways, how did I not hear you coming? The floor creaks pretty badly." To prove my point I stepped one step to the left, causing the wooden floor to creak, very loudly.
  Well, you couldn't really tell because everyone was walking.
  And causing loud creaking noises.
  "The noises everyone else makes hides your noise sometimes."
  I nodded, "That makes sense, to be honest."
  "So...where are we going Perce?" Astra asked me.
  "We're going to the Sea of Monsters," I responded. "Where else would we find something as impprtant as that?"
  "That's true..." Astra said. "Okay, so were is the Sea of Monsters?"
  "The Bermuda Triangle." I responded as casually as I could. Which is not as casually as most people would probably make it.
  "Holy crap Percy," Astra said under her breath, "Are you sure?"
  "Yeah," I said, "In the dream I had, I was...on this ship. I was surrpunded by monsters...and some demigods...But anyways, there was a girl in the middle. She...was talking about how to get the golden fleece. Then she mentioned these coordinates -the one that I gave to the zombie, don't tell Clarisse I called one of the sailors her a zombie- " Astra rolled her eyes, but promised she wouldn't tell. "And, she said something about how... Grover had been trapped on Promytheus' island...with the golden fleece. They were going to save Grover," Astra looked like she wanted to say something, but then I said the next words, "And...persuade him to join their side." Astra made and 'oh' shape with her mouth, "Then take the Golden Fleece to resurrect Kronos."
  "Okay." Astra whispered.
  I rubbed my eyes. "Maybe we should get some sleep..." I said.
  "Yeah, let's."

  That night, Grover talked to me.

Word count: 1477