Percy Accepts Gifts from a Stranger

**Percy Accepts Gifts from a Stranger** is the eighty-fifth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on April 14th, 2019.

## Chapter

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**Annabeth's POV**
To say Jasmine was pissed was an understatement. She was already pissed before with me and Percy concerning Tyson, and again when the Stymphalian birds attacked and pulled her hair. And she looked bad with the cuts that were bleeding all over her face and arms, the worst that I have ever seen her since I’ve known her, and she looked like she lost a bad fight or won one with someone who wouldn’t give up without a fight.
But now, with Tantalus blaming me and Percy for the Stymphalian birds attacking in the first place, Jasmine was no longer pissed. She was furious.
So furious that she launched herself at Tantalus, trying to do . . . I’m not sure what with her bare hands, but Will saw it coming and wrapped his arms around her waist to stop her, and not without some effort. She forced herself forward, and even though she was stronger than Will, he was dragging her to the point that he had fallen to his knees trying desperately to stop her. It was embarrassing for both of them.
Finally, after watching them for a minute, I moved in front of Jasmine and put a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back, and she stopped. Will unwrapped his arms from around her and stood back up, brushing the dirt off his pants and gave me an ungrateful look. I guess I could’ve helped him sooner *before* she dragged him onto his knees.
Anyway, the way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian birds had simply been minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Percy, Tyson, and I hadn’t disturbed them with our bad chariot driving.
This was so completely unfair, Percy told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut, which didn’t help his mood. He sentenced us to kitchen patrol—scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies. The harpies washed with lava instead of water, to get that extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of all germs, so Percy and I had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons.
Tyson and Jasmine didn’t mind. They plunged their bare hands right in and started scrubbing, but Percy and I, and even Jasmine, had to suffer through hours of hot, dangerous work, especially since there were tons of extra plates. Tantalus had ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse’s chariot victory—a full-course meal featuring country-friend Stymphalian death-bird. Jasmine wasn’t punished with us, but she volunteered to help us out, of course.
The only good thing about our punishment was that it gave Percy, Jasmine, and I a common enemy and lots of time to talk. After listening to Percy’s dream about Grover again, I was starting to believe him.
“If he’s really found it,” I murmured, “and if we could retrieve it—”
“Hold on,” Percy said. “You act like this . . . whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save the camp. What *is* it?”
“What do you think it is, Percy?” Jasmine asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I’ll give you a hint,” I said. “What do you get when you skin a ram?”
“Messy?”
“Well, yeah,” Jasmine said. “But not just that.”
I sighed. “A *fleece*. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool—”
“The Golden Fleece,” he said. “Are you serious?”
I scrapped a plateful of death-bird bones into the lava. “Percy, remember the Gray Sisters? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told *him* how to find the Golden Fleece. You *do* know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?”
“Yeah. That old movie with the clay skeletons.”
“That movie sucked,” Jasmine said.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh my gods, Percy! You are so hopeless.”
“*What?*” he demanded.
“Just listen. The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that’s not important.”
“It was probably important to her.”
“I know,” Jasmine agreed. “How about the next we ride on Toothless, I push you off? How important do you think that would be to you?”
“The *point* is,” I continued, “when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom. The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That’s why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land where it’s placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution—”
“It could cure Thalia’s tree,” Percy said.
I nodded. “And it would totally strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood. But Percy, the Fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck.”
“But Grover found it. He went looking for Pan and he found the Fleece instead because they both radiate nature magic. It makes sense, Annabeth. We can rescue him and save the camp at the same time. It’s perfect!”
“It really is,” Jasmine agreed.
I hesitated. “A little *too* perfect, don’t you think? What if it’s a trap?”
“It probably is.”
“What choice do we have?” Percy asked. “Are you going to help me rescue Grover or not?”
I glanced at Tyson, who’d lost interest in our conversation and was happily making toy boats out of cups and spoons in the lava.
“Percy,” I said under my breath, “we’ll have to fight a Cyclops. Polyphemus, the *worst* of the Cyclopes. And there’s only one place his island could be. The Sea of Monsters.”
“Where’s that?”
Jasmine and I stared at him like he was kidding.
“The Sea of Monsters,” I said. “The same sea Odysseus sailed through, and Jason, and Aeneas, and all the others.”
“You mean the Mediterranean?” he asked.
“No. Well, yes . . . but no.”
“Another straight answer. Thanks.”
“I know,” Jasmine agreed. “I already know the answer, of course, but still.”
“Look, Percy, the Sea of Monsters is the sea all heroes sail through on their adventures. It used to be in the Mediterranean, yes. But like everything else, it shifts locations as the West’s center of power shifts.”
“Like Mount Olympus being above the Empire State Building,” Percy said. “And Hades being under Los Angeles.”
“Right.”
“But a whole sea full of monsters—how could you hide something like that? Wouldn’t the mortals notice weird things happening . . . like, ships getting eaten and stuff?”
“Of course they notice. They don’t understand, but they know something is strange about that part of the ocean. The Sea of Monsters is off the east coast of the U.S. now, just northeast of Florida. The mortals even have a name for it.”
“The Bermuda Triangle?”
“Exactly.”
“Very good, Percy,” Jasmine said.
I let him sink that in. “Okay . . . so at least we know where to look.”
“It’s still a huge area, Percy,” I said. “Searching for one tiny island in monster-infested waters—”
“Hey, I’m the son of the sea god. This is my home turf. How hard can it be?”
“Don’t overestimate yourself, Percy,” Jasmine said. “You don’t know what obstacles you might face.”
I knit my eyebrows. “We’ll have to talk to Tantalus, get approval for a quest. He’ll say no.”
“Of course he will.”
“Not if we tell him tonight at the campfire in front of everybody,” Percy suggested. “The whole camp will hear. They’ll pressure him. He won’t be able to refuse.”
Jasmine smiled mischievously. “Hmm. I like that idea.”
“Maybe,” I said, a little bit of hope creeping into my voice. “We’d better get these dishes done. Hand me the lava spray gun, will you?”

That night at the campfire, Apollo’s cabin led the sing-along. They tried to get everybody’s spirits up, but it wasn’t easy after that afternoon’s bird attack. We all sat around a semicircle of stone steps, singing halfheartedly and watching the bonfire blaze while the Apollo guys strummed their guitars and picked their lyres.
We did all the standard camp numbers: “Down by the Aegean,” “I Am My Own Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa,” “This Land is Minos’s Land.” The bonfire was enchanted, so the louder you sang, the higher it rose, changing color and heat with the mood of the crowd. On a good night, I’d seen it twenty feet high, bright purple, and so hot the whole front row’s marshmallows burst into flames. Tonight, the fire was only five feet high, barely warm, and the flames were the color of lint.
Mr. D left early. After suffering through a few songs, he muttered something about how even pinochle with Chiron had been more exciting than this. Then he gave Tantalus a distasteful look and headed back toward the Big House.
When the last song was over, Tantalus said, “Well, that was lovely!”
He came forward with a toasted marshmallow on a stick and tried to pluck it off, real casual-like. But before he could touch it, the marshmallow flew off the stick. Tantalus made a wild grab, but the marshmallow committed suicide, diving into the flames.
Jasmine laughed hysterically about it. I guess it was kind of funny.
Tantalus turned back toward us, smiling coldly. “Now then! Some announcements about tomorrow’s schedule.”
“Sir,” Percy said.
Tantalus’s eye twitched. “Our kitchen boy has something to say?”
Some of the Ares campers snickered, but Percy wasn’t going to let anybody embarrass him into silence. He stood and looked at me and Jasmine. We stood up with him.
“We have an idea to save the camp,” Percy said
Dead silence, but I could tell he’d gotten everybody’s interest, because the campfire flared bright yellow.
“Indeed,” Tantalus said blandly. “Well, if it has anything to do with chariots—”
“The Golden Fleece,” Percy said. “We know where it is.”
The flames burned orange. Before Tantalus could stop him, he blurted out his dream about Grover and Polyphemus’s island. I stepped in and reminded everybody what the Fleece could do.
“The Fleece can save the camp,” I concluded. “I’m certain of it.”
“Nonsense,” Tantalus said. “We don’t need saving.”
Everybody stared at him until Tantalus started looking uncomfortable.
“Besides,” he added quickly, “the Sea of Monsters? That’s hardly an exact location. You wouldn’t even know where to look.”
“Yes, I would,” Percy said.
Even Jasmine looked as confused as I was.
I leaned toward him. “You would?”
He nodded. “30, 31, 75, 12.”
“Ooo-kay,” Tantalus said. “Thank you for sharing those meaningless numbers.”
“They’re sailing coordinates,” Percy said. “Latitude and longitude. I, uh, learned about it in social studies.”
Jasmine seemed as impressed as I was. “Oh my God.”
“30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west,” I said. “He’s right! The Gray Sisters gave us those coordinates. That’d be somewhere in the Atlantic, off the coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!”
“Wait just a minute,” Tantalus said.
But the campers took up the chant. “We need a quest! We need a quest!”
The flames rose higher.
“It isn’t necessary!” Tantalus insisted.
“WE NEED A QUEST! WE NEED A QUEST!”
“Fine!” Tantalus shouted, his eyes blazing with anger. “You brats want me to assign a quest?”
“YES!”
“Very well,” he agreed. “I shall authorize a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying.”
Jasmine became so excited that she grabbed both mine and Percy’s arms. I could understand why. We were going to save Grover and the camp. Nothing would stop us.
“I will allow our champion to consult the Oracle!” Tantalus announced. “And choose two champions for the journey. And I think the choice of champion is obvious.” Tantalus looked at Percy, Jasmine, and me as if he wanted to flay us alive. “The champion should be one who has earned the camp’s respect, who has proven resourceful in the chariot races and courageous in the defense of the camp. *You* shall lead this quest . . . Clarisse!”
The fire flickered with a thousand different colors. The Ares cabin started stomping and cheering, “CLARISSE! CLARISSE!”
Clarisse stood up, looking stunned. Then she swallowed, and her chest swelled with pride. “I accept the quest!”
“Wait!” Percy shouted. “Grover is my friend. The dream came to *me*.”
“Sit down!” one of the Ares campers yelled. “You had your chance last summer!”
“Yeah, he just wants to be in the spotlight again!” another said.
“Well, he’s a lot better than Clarisse,” Jasmine said.
Clarisse glared at Percy. “I accept the quest! I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save the camp!”
“I doubt that.”
The Ares campers cheered even louder. Jasmine and I protested, and my siblings joined in. Everybody else started taking sides—shouting and arguing and throwing marshmallows. I thought it was going to turn into a full-fledged s’mores war.
“Silence, you brats!” Tantalus shouted.
His tone stunned even me.
“Sit down!” he ordered. “And I will tell you a ghost story.”
I didn’t know what he was up to, but we all moved reluctantly back to our seats. The evil aura radiating from Tantalus was as strong as any monster I’d ever faced.
“Once upon a time there was a mortal king who was beloved of the Gods!” Tantalus put his hand on his chest, and I got the feeling he was talking about himself. “This king was even allowed to feast on Mount Olympus. But when he tried to take some ambrosia and nectar back to earth to figure out the recipe—just one little doggie bag, mind you—the gods punished him. They banned him from their halls forever! His own people mocked him! His children scolded him! And, oh yes, campers, he had horrible children. Children—just—like—you!”
He pointed a crooked finger at several people in the audience, including Percy.
“Do you know what he did to his ungrateful children?” Tantalus asked softly. “Do you know how he paid back the gods for their cruel punishment? He invited the Olympians to a feast at his palace, just to show there were no hard feelings. No one noticed that his children were missing. And when he served the gods dinner, my dear campers, can you guess what was in the stew?”
“Oh, God,” Jasmine said.
No one dared answer. The firelight glowed dark blue, reflecting evilly on Tantalus’s crooked face.
“Oh, the gods punished him in the afterlife,” Tantalus croaked. “They did indeed. But he’d had his moment of satisfaction, hadn’t he? His children never again spoke back to him or questioned his authority. And do you know what? Rumor has it that the king’s spirit now dwells at this very camp, waiting for a chance to take revenge on ungrateful, rebellious children. And so . . . are there any more complaints, before we send Clarisse off on her quest?”
Silence.
Tantalus nodded at Clarisse. “The Oracle, my dear. Go on.”
She shifted uncomfortably, like even *she* didn’t want glory at the price of being Tantalus’s pet. “Sir—”
“Go!” he snarled.
She bowed awkwardly and hurried off toward the Big House.
“What about you, Percy Jackson?” Tantalus asked. “No comments from our dishwasher?”
He didn’t say anything. He wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of punishing him again.
“Good,” Tantalus said. “And let me remind everyone—no one leaves this camp without my permission. Anyone who tries . . . well, if they survive the attempt, they will be expelled forever, but it won’t come to that. The harpies will be enforcing curfew from now on, and they are always hungry! Good night, my dear campers. Sleep well.”
With a wave of Tantalus’s hand, the fire was extinguished, and the campers trailed off toward their cabins in the dark.

“Well, that backfired,” Jasmine said on our way back to our cabin.
“You think?” I replied.
“I knew he was going to disappoint us. This camp is doomed if it only has Clarisse to depend on.”
“Well, what else can we do about it?”
“I can think of one thing.”
Jasmine was giving me her mischievous looks, and I knew what it meant.
“Jasmine, we can’t do that,” I said. “We’ll be kicked out of camp if we do.”
“So what if we are?” she replied. “I don’t want to be at this camp anymore if it’s going to be like a military camp with these two damn assholes running it.”
“Well, I guess you’re right about that.”
We reached our cabin and headed inside, followed by the rest of my siblings and Toothless, and we got ready for bed.
I grabbed my pajamas and was heading to the bathroom to change when Jasmine stopped me.
“Wait,” she said, looking at the door.
“What?” I asked.
“Do you hear that?”
I listened.
I heard a faint call in the background, but barely. “What is that?”
“I think that’s Percy.”
“What?”
I marched to the door and opened it. I took a step out and immediately slammed into someone.
“Oof,” I said, taking a step back in surprise and backing into Jasmine.
“Ok,” the boy said, taking a step back too. “I didn’t expect that.”
“Will,” Jasmine said. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“Sorry,” he replied.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I heard what sounded like Percy calling for help.”
“You did?”
Jasmine walked outside and looked over at his cabin. “That’s definitely him, but I’m guessing he’s not there.”
I moved to her side and look out across the field. Tyson was standing outside the cabin, looking out toward the beach. I heard Percy calling again, a little more clearly, from that way.
“Something’s wrong,” I said.
“Clearly,” Jasmine said.
I looked back into the cabin at my siblings. “You won’t tell them we snuck out after curfew, right?”
They shook their heads.
“Good,” Jasmine said. “Just tell them that I was so pissed off that I went home and dragged Annabeth with me. Oh, and Will and Toothless too. Let’s go, guys.”
She took off across the field. Will, Toothless, and I followed after her.
“Tyson, what’s wrong?” Jasmine asked once she reached him.
“Percy needs help!” he said. “He’s saying bad things are attacking!”
“Is he at the beach?” I asked.
“Maybe. I woke up, hearing him call for help. He wasn’t in his bed. I came outside to find him.”
“Then let’s hurry!” Jasmine said. “He could be in trouble!
We ran toward the beach, calling after him. When we got there, we found Percy alone, standing near the surf, staring at the waves. He didn’t seem to be in any kind of distress.
“What’s going on?” I asked when we reached him. “I heard you calling for help!”
“Me, too!” Tyson said. “Heard you yell, ‘Bad things are attacking!’”
“I didn’t call you guys,” Percy said. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” Jasmine asked.
“Yes.”
“But then who . . .”
I noticed five yellow duffel bags at Percy’s feet, then a stainless steel canister—an old-fashioned lunch box thermos with a black plastic lid in one of his hands. The sides of the thermos were enameled with red and yellow Ancient Greek scenes—a hero killing a lion; a hero lifting up Cerberus, the three-headed dog. And in his other hand, he held a little plastic bottle filled with chewable vitamins.
“What—”
“Just listen,” he said. “We don’t have much time.”
He told us about a conversation he had with Hermes, who was just jogging along on the beach. He encouraged Percy to go on the quest without permission and even gave him the thermos, vitamins, and the duffel bags, while also getting to meet his snakes from around his caduceus, George and Martha. By the time he was finished, I could hear screeching in the distance—patrol harpies picking up our scent.
“Percy,” I said, “we have to do the quest.”
“We’ll get expelled, you know,” he said. “Trust me, I’m an expert at getting expelled.”
“We know,” Jasmine said.
“So?” I said. “If we fail, there won’t be any camp to come back to.”
“Yeah, but you two promised Chiron—”
“We promised we’d keep you from danger. We can only do that by coming with you! Tyson can stay behind and tell them—”
“I want to go,” Tyson said.
“No!” I was close to panicking. “I mean . . . Percy, come on. You know that’s impossible.”
“Annabeth,” Jasmine tried.
“Percy?”
We all looked at Percy, waiting for an answer. Meanwhile, the cruise ship was getting farther and farther away.
He seemed as nervous about it as I felt.
“We can’t leave him,” he decided. “Tantalus will punish him for us being gone.”
That didn’t make me happy. Like I could care less what Tantalus did to him.
“Percy,” I said, trying to keep my cool, “we’re going to Polyphemus’s island! Polyphemus is an S-i-k . . . a C-y-k . . .” I stamped my foot in frustration.
“C-Y-C-L-O-P-S,” Jasmine spelled for me.
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.”
“Tyson can go,” Percy insisted, “if he wants to.”
Tyson clapped his hands. “Want to!”
I gave Percy the evil eye, but I knew he wasn’t going to change his mind, and we didn’t have time to argue about it. Not that Jasmine would let us.
“You up for sneaking away onto a quest?” Jasmine asked Will.
“I’m up for anything with you,” he replied. “I have to be.”
“Yeah, that’s probably true.”
“All right,” I said. “How do we get to that ship?”
“Hermes said my father would help,” Percy said.
“Well then, Seaweed Brain? What are you waiting for?”
I knew Percy didn’t always have an easy time calling on his father, but he stepped into the waves. “Um, Dad? How’s it going?”
“Percy!” I whispered. “We’re in a hurry!”
“We need your help,” he called a little louder. “We need to get to that ship, like, before we get eaten and stuff, so . . .”
At first, nothing happened. Waves crashed against the shore like normal. The harpies sounded like they were right behind the sand dunes. Then, about a hundred yards out to sea, three white lines appeared on the surface. They moved fast toward the shore, like claws ripping through the ocean.
This moment felt a little familiar . . .
As they neared the beach, the surf burst apart and the heads of three white stallions reared out of the waves.
Tyson caught his breath. “Fish ponies!”
He was right. As the creatures pulled themselves onto the sand, I saw that they were only horses in the front; their back halves were silvery fish bodies, with glistening scales and rainbow tail fins.
“Hippocampi!” I said. “They’re beautiful.”
“Very,” Jasmine agreed.
The nearest whinnied in appreciation and nuzzled us both. Is it just me, or did that one look familiar?
“We’ll admire them later,” Percy said, “Come on.”
“There!” a voice screeched behind us. “Bad children out of cabins! Snack time for lucky harpies!”
Five of them were fluttering over the top of the dunes—plump little hags with pinched faces and talons and feathery wings too small for their bodies. They weren’t very fast, thank the gods, but they were vicious if they caught you.
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Jasmine said. “Toothless!”
He shot a blast of his fire toward the sand dune in front of them. It hit it, blowing up the sand, and it landed in their faces, blinding them for a moment.
“Tyson!” Percy said. “Grab a duffel bag!”
He was still staring at the hippocampi with his mouth hanging open.
“Tyson!”
“Uh?”
“Come on!”
With mine and Jasmine’s help we got him moving. We gathered the bags and mounted our steeds. Poseidon must’ve known Tyson was one of the passengers, because one hippocampus was much larger than the other two, the one that looked familiar to me—just right for carrying a Cyclops.
“Giddyup!” Percy said.
His hippocampus turned and plunged into the waves. Mine and Tyson’s followed right behind. Jasmine and Will climbed on top of Toothless and flew beside us, but high enough so that the splashes didn’t hit them.
The harpies cursed at us, wailing for their snacks to come back, but the hippocampi raced over the water at the speed of Jet Skis, Toothless following in sync with them. The harpies fell behind, and soon the shores of Camp Half-Blood was nothing but a dark smudge. I wondered if I’d ever see the place again. But right then I had other problems.
The cruise ship was now looming in front of us—our ride toward Florida and the Sea of Monsters.

As I said before, don't expect too much from Jasmine and Will. They're more along for the ride without completely changing the whole story.
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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Annabeth Chase
* Jasmine Saturday
* Percy Jackson
* Will Solace

### Minor Characters

* Tyson
* Tantalus
* Clarisse