CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
—stupid biplanes

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—AS demigods, it was imperative that to have a huge pool of stamina, absolutely essential. There would be a time in every demigod's life where they needed it. And this, this would be one of those times.

"We will never make it," Zoë said, her voice raspy from the frigid wind. Even as an immortal, it was hard to find the motivation to continue sprinting in this weather. They all stopped for a breather on the sidewalk next to the shoreline, smiling awkwardly at the passerby's. "We are moving too slow. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus."

"I don't get it," Percy interjected, hands on his head ( still topped with the rainbow beanie as he had yet to change out of his hobo clothes ). "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

"The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset," Zoë explained. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"Couldn't they make an exception? Just this once. We're trying to save the world right now, they could show some courtesy," Judith mumbled. "You're their sister."

Zoë hesitated and thought about it for a moment before shaking her head slowly. "Even if they wanted to, it's out of their power."

"What happens if we miss it?" Percy asked.

"Tomorrow is winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening. And by then, the Olympian Council will be over. We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

"No pressure or anything," Percy huffed to Judith quietly. She conceded with a nod.

"We need a car," Thalia said.

"I am not carrying the fish." Judith held her hands up and stepped away from the shore.

Percy rolled his eyes. "We are not taking Bessie in a car."

Judith shrugged but smirked in amusement then. "Why do you continue to call it Bessie?"

Percy's already flushed cheeks turned redder, knowing the Ophiotaurus probably didn't enjoy the name either. "Force of habit, I guess."

Grover stopped in his tracks. "I've got an idea! The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?"

"Well, yeah," Percy said. "I mean, he was in Long Island Sound. Then he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam. And now he's here."

"So maybe we could coax him back to Long Island Sound," Grover said. "Then Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

"But he was following me," the son of Poseidon said. "If I'm not there, would he know where he's going?"

The Ophiotaurus gave a low droll in reluctance.

"I ... I can show him," Grover offered. "I'll go with him. I'm the only one who can talk to him," he added. "It makes sense." He bent down and said something in the creature's ear. It shivered then made a contented, lowing sound. "The blessing of the Wild. That should help with safe passage. Percy, pray to your dad, too. See if he will grant us safe passage through the seas."

Percy stood at the water's edge for a moment. "Dad, help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp. Protect them at sea."

"A prayer like that needs a sacrifice," Thalia said. "Something big."

Everyone looked around and Percy sighed when he realized he had nothing to give. Judith went to itch her forearm beneath her arm guard but remembered she still had the Nemean Lion coat on her. "Percy," she said, already taking it off her shoulders.

He hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether he wanted to use it or make her wear it. She'd already been shot once on this quest, he didn't think the next wound would be so forgiving.

Judith seemed to understand where his mind went and shoved it into his hands forcefully. "You'll just have to pay extra attention to me now." Percy's breath hitched at her statement, afraid she had actually read his mind. But he took the coat back with no eye contact.

"Percy," Grover said. "Are you sure? That lion skin ... that's really helpful. Hercules used it!"

"I'm not Hercules," Percy said. "And Judith's right. We just all need to watch out for each other. That's the only way for us all to survive."

He threw the coat into the bay. It turned back into a golden lion skin, flashing in the light. Then, as it began to sink beneath the waves, it seemed to dissolve into sunlight on the water. The sea breeze picked up, letting them know the gift was received and appreciated.

Grover took a deep breath. "Well, no time to lose." He jumped in the water and immediately began to sink. The Ophiotaurus glided next to him and let Grover take hold of his neck.

"Be careful," Percy told them.

"We will," Grover said. "Okay, um ... Bessie? We're going to Long Island. It's east. Over that way."

The Ophiotaurus and Grover were gone within moments, sinking beneath the surface and the satyr's face was only a little panicked as he submerged.

"Well, that is one problem addressed," Zoë announced. "But how can we get to my sisters' garden?"

"Thalia's right," Percy said. "We need a car. But there's nobody to help us here. Unless we, uh, borrowed one."

"There are plenty of taxis here," Judith looked around, seeing the cabs pull up and then away with passengers.

Percy nodded but then shook his head. "But we don't have the type of money for that trip."

"Wait," Thalia said. She started rifling through her backpack. "There is somebody in San Francisco who can help us. I've got the address here somewhere."

"Who?" Percy asked.

Thalia pulled out a crumpled piece of notebook paper and held it up. "Professor Chase. Annabeth's dad."

—JUDITH stood stiffly behind Percy and Thalia, next to Zoë as they waited for Mr. Chase to open the white apartment door. She rocked back and forth on her heels, earning a painful nudge to her side from the lead Hunter.

"Thine twitching is bothersome," she whispered.

"Good," Judith rushed back, only increasing her irritating shifts. "Annabeth said she doesn't really like her dad. There's got to be a reason. He probably won't even help us so we're just wasting time."

Zoë had to admit that this was an I calculated risk. She hesitated before saying her next words. "I trust Thalia Grace's judgement."

The statement hung in the air, surprising each member of the quartet. It was apparent that Zoë and Judith had reached some sort of middle ground after Bianca's sudden loss, but relations between her and Thalia hadn't improved in the slightest. So to hear the words 'trust' and 'Thalia' uttered in the same sentence was a little astonishing.

They weren't given much time to wonder where the tension had disappeared to when the door was suddenly swinging open. Judith hadn't drawn up a picture in her mind of what she imagined the man to look like, but the one who showed his face wasn't even close to what she would have thought. The man shared no resemblance to Annabeth, wearing an old-fashioned aviator's cap and goggles over his brown and blond peppered hair.

"Hello," he said in a friendly voice ( also not what Judith would have imagined ), "Are you delivering my airplanes?"

The teens looked at each other warily.

"Um, no, sir," Percy said politely.

"Drat," he said. "I need three more Sopwith Camels."

"Right," Percy uttered, if just to appease him. "We're friends of Annabeth."

"Annabeth?" He straightened as if given an electric shock. "Is she all right? Has something happened?"

"She's missing," Judith outright said, alarming her friends. They all were under the impression that they would ease into the information. But the way Judith saw it, they didn't have time for niceties.

The man's eyes widened at her blunt reveal and he ushered them in. "Come inside."

Judith was confused by the amount of hominess that was inside. There was a great deal of mess and toys splayed everywhere, nothing at all what Judith thought there would be. Athena had fallen in love with ... this? But then she realized, the warm environment could probably be attributed to the smaller bodies living in the place.

"Dad!" a little boy screamed. "He's taking apart my robots!"

"Bobby," Dr. Chase called absently, "don't take apart your brother's robots."

"I'm Bobby," the little boy protested. "He's Matthew!"

"Matthew," Dr. Chase called then, running his forehead, "don't take apart your brother's robots!"

"Okay, Dad!"

Dr. Chase turned to the older kids. "We'll go upstairs to my study. This way."

"Honey?" a woman called. Annabeth's stepmom appeared in the living room, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She was a pretty Asian woman with red highlighted hair tied in a bun. "Who are our guests?"

"Oh," Dr. Chase said. "This is..." He stared at the group blankly.

"Frederick," she chided. "You forgot to ask them their names?"

"Judith," the girl introduced first since she was not about to be caught up in pleasantries and everyone followed up awkwardly.

"Dear," Dr. Chase said. "They came about Annabeth."

The next half an hour was spent trying to keep Annabeth's dad on track. He would often go on a tangent about something related to the World Wars, and although Judith did want to listen about war and conflict, she really didn't like talking about what planes were used and that was what he was most fascinated with.

"Dude," Judith slammed her hands down on the table, scaring him out of his string of questions targeted at Zoë. "Your daughter is in danger and I really don't care about biplanes or what formation the Sopwith Camels were in."

"Oh, y-yes," he crossed his shaking fingers. Annabeth had mentioned briefly of her blunt and violent friend, but he didn't quite understand until now. "What do I need to do?"

"Sir, we need transportation to Mount Tamalpais," Zoë said. "And we need it immediately."

"I'll drive you. Hmm, it would be faster to fly in my Camel, but it only seats two."

"Whoa, you have an actual biplane?" Percy said.

"Down at Crissy Field," Dr. Chase said proudly. "That's the reason I had to move here. My sponsor is a private collector with some of the finest World War I relics in the world. He let me restore the Sopwith Camel —"

Judith was about to slam her fist down on the table again but Thalia caught her wrist and held it down. "Sir," Thalia said. "Just a car would be great. And it might be better if we went without you. It's too dangerous."

Dr. Chase frowned uncomfortably. "Now wait a minute, young lady. Annabeth is my daughter. Dangerous or not, I ... I can't just —"

Zoë said, "I can drive, sir. I'm not as young as I look. I promise not to destroy your car."

"That's not what I'm worried about, but thank you for your reassurance. And you're sure there is nothing else I can do?"

Judith stared at his worried smile and, for a moment, wished her mother could see her now and wish her good luck on this quest and possibly fret over her wellbeing, but she shook her head. What was she thinking? She didn't need luck or her mom to cry over her. Judith crossed her arms. "You would just be another person we have to watch out for," she said harshly, not at all jealous of where her thoughts had wandered.

"Right!" Dr. Chase jumped up and started patting his pockets, obviously still nervous around the daughter of Ares. "My keys ..."

—"CAN'T this thing go any faster?" Thalia demanded as they all sat in the convertible. Judith relished in the feeling of space she got in her seat, but soon retracted her legs after remembering why they were short in numbers. Their group of six had been reduced to four with some sudden bumps in the road.

Zoë glared at her. "I cannot control traffic."

"You both sound like my mother," Percy said.

"Shut up!" they said in unison.

The sun was sinking on the horizon when the overwhelming smell of eucalyptus attacked Judith's nose.

"Why does everything smell like cough drops?" Percy asked.

"It's eucalyptus," Judith answered, recognizing the scent from her mother's aromatherapy diffuser. It was her least favorite oil.

"The stuff koala bears eat?"

"And monsters," Zoë said. "They love chewing the leaves. Especially dragons."

"Dragons chew eucalyptus leaves?"

"Believe me," Zoë said, "if you had dragon breath, you would chew eucalyptus too."

"Well, Barnacle Breath here, is as close as you can get to dragon breath," Judith looked at Percy out of the corner of her eye to see his offended face.

"My breath does not smell like barnacles!" He cried indignantly. But one look at Judith's amused face made him settle down. "You're so mean." She just shrugged.

The two then looked out at the looming Mount Tamalpais ahead of them. "So that's the Mountain of Despair?" Percy asked.

"Yes," Zoë said tightly.

"Why do they call it that?"

She was silent for almost a mile before answering. "After the war between the Titans and the gods, many of the Titans were punished and imprisoned. Kronos was sliced to pieces and thrown into Tartarus. Kronos's right-hand man, the general of his forces, was imprisoned up there, on the summit, just beyond the Garden of the Hesperides."

"The General," Percy said. Clouds seemed to be swirling around its peak, as though the mountain was drawing them in, spinning them like a top. "What's going on up there? A storm?"

Zoë didn't answer, making the three others in the car realize it wasn't just a typical storm.

Judith was staring out at the coast down on side of the mountain when something caught her eye. "Guys..."

They all hummed and she pulled on Percy's sleeve to get him to sit closer to her. "What?" He asked, noticing her odd urgency.

"Luke's ship," she pointed. Percy leaned over her to look over her side and saw what she had pointed out.

"The Princess Andromeda," Percy told the two in the front.

"We will have company, then," Zoë said grimly. "Kronos's army."

Judith wasn't sure what incited it, but her muscles tensed involuntarily and she clenched her hand around her belt. "Something's wrong."

Thalia also felt the shift and shouted, "Stop the car. NOW!"

Zoë must've sensed something as well, because she slammed on the brakes without question. The yellow VW spun twice before coming to a stop at the edge of a cliff.

Everyone was scrambling to get out and since Percy still hadn't moved from his close proximity to Judith, they were left to jump out the same direction. Judith, knowing Percy's recent plight of clumsiness, latched onto his wrist and yanked him further from the car.

Lightning flashed, and Dr. Chase's Volkswagen erupted like a canary-yellow grenade. Judith and Percy were left at the mercy of the shrapnel as it blew.

Judith felt a stinging in her upper arm and a pulsing on her thigh, but she stayed in her position beside Percy until the booming had died down. They looked up at the same time, both checking over each other briefly for damage. Percy had a slight cut on his lip and his arm was also pretty banged up, but Judith thanked the gods that that was it; she didn't want to have to carry him around again.

They nodded at each other before looking around at the wreckage. The convertible was dispersed everywhere, smoldering pieces melting the ground.

"Nose goes on telling Annabeth's dad," Judith said to herself as she absentmindedly brushed her nose.

NOTES;

AGAIN, I HATE THIS CHAPTER AS WELL. NOTHING TO LIKE ABOUT IT BUT WE HAVE TO GET THROUGH THE PLOT CHAPTERS TO GET TO THE GOOD STUFF. I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND

edited : 07 / 24 / 2020