Chapter 4

My sincere excuse to the birds, but they suck

"Some more information please!" Frank called as we ran to the house of the mayor.

"Oh yeah. We need a lot of speakers."

"You've already said that!" Frank exclaimed and ran up next to me.

"Okay, about the story that you told me, about the baby with the vocal cords."

Frank nodded.

"We can do that to the birds. If we use speakers and go higher and higher until they can't they'll be silent."

"Genius!" Frank and I high fived. "You're smarter than you look Percy."

I chuckled "Thanks. Wouldn't have come up with it without you Frank."

"I know, you would be helpless without me."

"Same for you."

"Can't disagree."

"To be frank, I can't either."

"Haha, funny."

"Shut up we're here. Mr. Blofis will help us with getting the speakers."

We entered the office of Mr. Blofis and explained our plan. Mr. Blofis said that we just needed to ask the people to give their speakers.

So we went on our way.

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"Do you think that thirty is enough?" Frank asked as we were placing the speakers near the birds, since we didn't want to kill them they didn't attack us. Suddenly I felt a pang of guilt. But these birds had killed people, ruined people's lives. And they could still live.

"Yeah, I hope so. We just need to get higher and higher."

We put on our silence proof headphones since we didn't want to go deaf. All the people in Decibel had them. But today would be the last day that they would need to wear them at certain times of the day.

It took hours, but eventually we couldn't hear a vague sound from the birds. Which we normally did. I grinned at Frank, he grinned back. They were silence.

I hugged Frank, but muttered an apology to the birds. Though they sucked a lot. Killing and making people miserable? Not cool.

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"I'll miss you Frank." I told Frank as I hugged him goodbye at the train station, I needed to go back to Wiss for my next task.

"I'll miss you too Percy. Promise to visit me sometime."

"I promise, if you come to visit me too."

"Sure."

"Good." I was going to miss Frank. He was such a nice person and I had spent almost all my time with him.

But just like with Chiron I waved and walked to my train.

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As I did the ride to Decibel I slept and listened to music most of the time. Only this time there wasn't anyone to whom I could talk to.

"Chiron!" I shouted and ran up to him. He hugged me tight and muttered something like a thanks that I wasn't dead. The trust that he had in me.

"You didn't need to come." I said as we walked out of the train station of Wiss. "Of course I did."

"Thanks."

"Always."

And we had a happy day. We didn't really talk or did I think about my task and what was about to come. I was just happy to be home.

But of course that couldn't last long according to my friends the ministers.

I found a letter in which my second task was. I was happy that I didn't have to see them again.

"What does it say?" My uncle asked, curious and concerned at the same time.

"I need to go to a place called Waepenfield. It says that they will tell me about the problem there." I rolled my yes. "And I thought that we were friends."

"When are you going?"

"I don't know, I think a couple of days. Maybe in two days, I don't really want to leave again if I'm going to be away for such a long time again." I admitted looking down at the ground and feeling incredibly selfish. These people needed help and I wanted to stay home for a few more days.

"Good. I can't say goodbye again already. And you can do some research." I rolled my eyes. Research wasn't really my style. I wanted to take the problem on like I did in Decibel, observe the situation there and take my time to think of something and try not to die. The waiting part is really difficult if you have ADHD, but crucial if you don't want to die.

"Yeah, maybe. Or we can do stuff together. I could tag along to your work. Just like the old times."

"I would love that." Chiron eyes sparkled. "Just like the old times."

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Time flies when you have fun, they say. And I suppose that it's true, when I was with Chiron the two days had flown by already standing at the train station again. But when I was sitting on the grass for two weeks observing stupid birds with Frank, though it was bearable with Frank there to talk to, it took us two weeks to think of something.

We said goodbye again, and though I was getting used to it, I was not getting used to it either. I would always have trouble saying goodbye to people.

But it would all get better for me really soon.

As I had discovered on my previous train trips, I decided to do my ritual. Listen to music, stare outside, sleep and sit. Maybe talk to someone. And I did all that. Only when I woke up the train was a lot of busier and somebody was sitting across from me.

It was a beautiful girl with blonde hair and grey eyes, the grey eyes were vaguely familiar to me, but I ignored that. I shot up and sat up straight.

The girl looked up at me as she was previously reading a book. My stomach did a weird flip, a feeling I hadn't felt before.

"You drool when you sleep."