Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Falling into Death

We spent two days on the Amtrak train heading west, through mountains and streams and amber wheat waves. We weren't attacked again, but I still couldn't relax.I felt like we were traveling in a transparent display case, with people watching us from above and below, and something was waiting for the perfect moment to reveal itself. I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were in the front pages of several East Coast papers.For example, the Trenton News published a photo taken by a passenger, just as I got off the Greyhound bus.My expression looked crazy, and the sword in my hand was fuzzy but recognizable as metal, more like a baseball or hockey stick.

The caption next to the picture reads: Percy Jackson, who is currently wanted, appears here.He is twelve years old this year and is suspected of committing the disappearance in Long Island two weeks ago. The missing person is his mother.The photo shows him just escaping from the bus.He had struck up conversations with several older female passengers on the bus.Shortly after Jackson fled the scene, the bus exploded on a highway in eastern New Jersey.Based on witness accounts, police believe the boy may have been traveling with two other teenage accomplices.His stepfather, Gabor Ariano, offered to offer a bounty to the public for information leading to his arrest.

"Don't worry," Annabeth told me, "the mortal police never found us." But she didn't sound sure. Most of the day, I was repeating the steps to measure the length of the train car, because I really couldn't sit still, and the rest of the time I just looked out the window. Once, I saw a family of centaurs galloping up and down a wheat field hunting lunch, bows drawn and ready.Among them, the little pony was about two years old according to his figure. When he saw me looking at him, he waved to me.I looked at the passengers in the left and right compartments, and no one noticed it, all the adults buried their heads in their laptops or magazines.

Another time, towards evening, I saw something gigantic moving through the forest.I swear it was a lion, but there are no wild lions in America, and it was the size of a military SUV.Its fur glistened golden in the evening sun, then it hopped into the bushes and disappeared. Our thank you gift for returning the poodle, Gradiola, was just enough to buy a bus ticket to Denver, and certainly not enough to buy a sleeper, so we could just doze off in the seat.I slept with a stiff neck, and because Annabeth was sitting on my right, I had to try not to drool in my sleep. Grover kept snoring and bleating, waking me up several times.Once, his shoes fell out because his feet shuffled around on the floor, and Annabeth and I hurried to pass them back for him before the other passengers noticed.

Another time, when we were helping Grover put on his flying shoes, Annabeth asked me, "So, who wants your help?" "What's the meaning?" "You just fell asleep and said, 'I won't help you.' Who did you dream about?" I hate to say it, but this is the second time I've dreamed about cracking your evil voice.It bothered me so much that I finally told her. After a long silence, she said, "It doesn't sound like Hades, he always sits on the black throne when he shows up, and he never smiles." "He wants to use my mother to make a deal with me. Who would do such a thing?"

"I guess...if he says 'raise me from the underworld' does that mean he wants to fight the gods of Olympus? But why would you bring him a Lightning bolt if he already has one? " I shook my head, if only I knew the answer, I remembered what Grover said, Nemesis seemed to be looking for something when she was on the bus. where is thatWhere? Grover probably sensed my emotions, snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head. Annabeth helped him adjust the hat so that it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't trade with Hades. He's a liar, cruel and greedy. I don't care if Mercy is so easy to deal with this time..."

"This time?" I asked, "You mean you've met them before?" She unconsciously raised her hand to touch her necklace.She fingered a family of white glazed beads with a picture of a pine tree on them, her commemorative pottery beads at the end of each summer. "I just want to say, I don't like Pluto very much, you can't make a deal for your mother." "If it was your father, what would you do?" "Easy," she said, "I'll let him rot there." "You're not serious, are you?" Annabeth's gray eyes stared at me.In the forest of the camp, she also had this expression when she drew her sword to deal with the Cerberus. "Percy, my dad hated me from the day I was born," she said. "He didn't want a baby at all, and when I was born, he asked Athena if he could take me back to Olympus because he was working Too busy. My mother said to him very upset that the hero must be taken care of by the mortal side."

"But what about you... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital?" "I showed up on my dad's doorstep in a gold cradle that Zephyr carried me from Olympus to. You'd think my dad would take that as a miracle and grab a digital camera A few photos as souvenirs. But he didn't, as long as I talked about my presence, it was like it was the most troublesome thing that happened to him in his life. When I was five years old, he got married and completely forgot about Athena. He had A 'normal' mortal wife, two 'normal' mortal children, and pretending I didn't exist."

I looked out the car window, and the lights of the sleepy town drifted past my eyes.I wanted to comfort Annabeth, but didn't know what to say. "My mom married a shitty guy." I told her, "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family, and maybe that's what your dad thought too." Annabeth continued to fiddle with her necklace, holding the gold college ring that hung from it.I guess that ring must belong to her father, if she really hates her father so much, why is she wearing that ring. "He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife, my stepmother, thinks I'm a freak. She won't let me play with her kids, and my dad won't let her. No matter what the danger, you don't have to." I know, it's about those monsters, both of them will look at me with resentful expressions, as if saying to me: "You are so brave, you put our family in danger." Finally, I accepted their hints, They didn't want me, so I left."

"The same year I went to the Half-Blood Camp, seven years old." "But... you can't reach the Half-Blood Camp on your own, right?" "Not alone, there was Athena who took care of me and guided me to help. I accidentally made two friends who stayed with me all the way, even though there was a lot of time." I wanted to ask her what happened, but Annabeth seemed to be stuck in a sad memory, so I just listened to Grover's snoring and watched the dark Ohio fields go back through the car window. Our two-day train journey was drawing to a close, and on June thirteenth, eight days before the summer solstice, we crossed the golden hills and crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis.

Annabeth craned her neck to look at the archway, the thing, I'd say it looked like the handle of an oversized shopping bag nailed to the city. "I want to do that." She sighed. "What?" I asked. "Build something like that. Percy, have you seen the Parthenon?" "I've only seen pictures." "One day, I will see it with my own eyes, and I will build the greatest century-old building dedicated to the gods, a building that can stand for a thousand years." I laughed out loud. "You? Architect?" For some reason, the thought of someone like Annabeth sitting quietly and drawing all day makes me laugh. Her face flushed. "Yeah, I want to be an architect. Athena expects her children to be able to create, not just destroy things, not like the god who is in charge of earthquakes." I look down at the brown, churning water of the Mississippi below. "I'm sorry," Annabeth said. "That's an exaggeration." "Can't we just get along?" I begged her, "Hasn't Athena worked with Poseidon?" Annabeth thought about it. "I think...the chariot," she said hesitantly. "My mother invented it, but Poseidon created the horse out of spray, so they had to make the chariot together." "Then we can work together too, right?" As we drove into the city, Annabeth watched the arch until it disappeared behind a hotel. "I suppose so," she said at last. We headed towards the train station in the city center.The radio in the car told us to stop here for three hours before driving to Denver. Grover stretches.When he just woke up, he spit out two words: "I'm so hungry.". "Sheep boy, let's go." Annabeth said: "Go sightseeing." "go sightseeing?" "Great Arch," she said, "this may be the only chance to get to the top of the arch, do you want to come?" Grover and I exchanged glances. I want to say no, but if Annabeth has to go, we can't let her go alone. Grover shrugged and said, "As long as there's snacks and no monsters, go for it." The arch is about a kilometer and a half from the train station.It was already evening, so the queue to go in and visit was not very long.Along the way we passed the underground museum and saw covered wagons and some old things from the nineteenth century.Looking at these things is not very exciting, but Annabeth still happily tells us interesting things in the process of building the arch.Luckily Grover kept handing me fudge, so I figured it was bearable. Even so, I still looked around to observe the people in line. "Did you smell something?" I whispered to Grover. He took his nose out of the bag of gummies, asked about the smell of the air, and said with a little nausea, "The air in the basement always smells like monsters, maybe it's nothing." But I think something is not right and we shouldn't be here. "You two," I said, "do you know what is the symbol of each god's power?" Annabeth was engrossed in the equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked up anyway. "what?" "That, Hei Emperor..." Grover cleared his throat. "We're in public right now... you mean, our friends downstairs?" "Well, that's right," I said, "I mean, our friend downstairs, does he have a hat like Annabeth's?" "You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "That's a symbol of his power. Yes, I saw it at the Winter Solstice meeting, and it was placed next to his seat." "Did he go to the meeting?" I asked. She nodded. "That was the only day he was allowed to visit Olympus, and it was also the darkest day of the year. But the helm of darkness is far more powerful than my invisibility cap, if I'm right..." "His rudder allows him to blur," Grover affirms, "allowing him to blend into shadows or pass through walls, where he cannot be touched, seen, or heard. He can also spread extreme to drive mad or stop a heartbeat, or why do you think all rational animals are afraid of the dark?" "In that case... how do we know he's not here now, not watching us?" I asked. Annabeth and Grover exchanged glances. "We have no way of knowing," Grover said. "Thanks, that makes me feel better." I said, "Do you have any blue fudge over there?" When I saw the little elevator we were about to take to the vault, my nerves tensed.Big trouble, I hate confined spaces, it's driving me nuts. We squeezed into the elevator with a bulky lady and her dog.Her dog was a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar and I assumed it might be a guide dog because the guards didn't say anything. We began to ascend in an arch, the kind of elevator that climbed a curved slope like I had never done before, and my stomach was obviously not very happy. "Aren't Mom and Dad here?" the fat lady asked us. She has sharp eyes, has coffee-stained fangs, wears a denim cowboy hat, and a denim denim dress is bulging, and the whole person looks like a denim hot air balloon. "They're down there," Annabeth told her. "They're afraid of heights." "Oh, how pathetic." The Chihuahua started to bark, and the lady said, "Hey, hey, baby, be good." The dog, like its owner, has sharp eyes and a sense of intelligence and evil. I said, "Is the baby his name?" "No." The lady told me. She smiled, as if she had made it clear. The enclosed observation deck at the top of the arch resembles an oversized carpeted can, with rows of small picture windows overlooking the city on one side and the river on the other.The scenery is good, but if there is anything more annoying than a confined space, it is to stay in a confined space nearly two hundred meters high.I'm ready to get out of here as fast as I can. Annabeth continued to talk about the structural support, and how she wanted to make the windows bigger and design a 360-degree panoramic view layer.She could probably stay there for a few more hours, luckily I was lucky as the elevator operator announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes. I pulled Grover and Annabeth towards the exit and pushed them into the elevator.When I was about to enter the elevator, I realized that there were already two other passengers in it.I can't squeeze in. The elevator attendant said, "Sir, please take the next one." "Let's go out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you for the next one." But this would disrupt everyone's order and waste a lot of time, so I said, "It's okay, I'll meet you on the first floor later." Both Grover and Annabeth were nervous, but let the elevator doors close.The elevator car slides down the ramp and disappears. The only people remaining on the observation deck are me, a little boy and his parents, the elevator attendant, and the fat lady and her Chihuahua. I smiled uncomfortably at the fat lady, and she smiled back.Her forked tongue quivered faintly between her teeth. Wait a moment. Forked tongue? Before I could reconfirm that I was actually seeing the thing, her chihuahua jumped down and started barking at me. "Hey, hey, baby," said the woman, "How's the time now? We've got so many good people here." "Doggie!" said the little boy, "Look, doggy!" His parents pulled him back. The chihuahua bared its teeth at me, drool dripping from the sides of its black mouth. "Well, son, if you insist." The fat lady sighed. My body starts to freeze. "Well, did you just call this chihuahua 'son'?" "Honey, it's a Camilla." The fat lady corrected, "It's not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake." Her denim sleeves were rolled up to reveal her arms, and her skin was scaly and green.When she opened her mouth with a smile, I saw that she had sharp teeth.The shape of her pupils is thin and slanted, like a snake. The camilla barks louder and grows bigger with each bark.At first it became the size of a poodle, then the size of a lion, and its bark became a roar. The little boy screamed. His parents dragged him to the exit, and bumped into the elevator operator. The operator was frightened and stared at the monster dumbfounded. Camilla was now so tall that her back was touching the ceiling.Its lion head has a blood-brown mane, body and hooves. This is an extra-large goat, with a row of diamond-shaped back plates on the back covered with rough hair, up to three meters long, and a snake tail.The rhinestone collar is still around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag, now easily read, reads: Camilla, Fierce, Fire-breathing, Poisonous, Call Catarlos, Ext. Nine five four. I can no longer remove the pen cap from the sword because my hands are numb.I am only three meters away from Camilla's bloody maw.As long as I move, the monster will rush. Snake hissed, probably laughing. "Percy Jackson, you should be proud. King Zeus rarely allows me to send out my little baby to test heroes. I am the mother of monsters, the most terrifying Echina!" I stared at her, and had no choice but to say what I was thinking: "Isn't Aiqina just an echidna? It's an anteater." She howled, the snake's face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate humans saying this! I hate Australia! You even named that ridiculous creature the same as me! Percy Jackson, my son will destroy you for this!" Camilla was about to attack, and it bit its lion teeth.I jumped aside to avoid its bite. I jumped right next to the family and the caretaker, who were screaming and trying desperately to open the emergency exit door. I couldn't hurt them, so I took off the cap and ran to the other side of the observation deck and yelled, "Hey Chihuahua!" Camilla turned around quickly, the speed was completely beyond my expectation. Before I could swing the sword, it opened its mouth wide, and the smell of the world's largest barbecue kiln wafted out.At this moment, a beam of flames shot straight at me. I rushed past the explosion point, and the carpet was on fire, so hot that it almost scorched my eyebrows. Where I was standing was a hollow in the side of the great arch, and now the molten metal around the edge of the hollow was smoking. Well done, we just spit fire on this national monument. The waves in my hands are now gleaming bronze swords.When the camilla turned around, I slashed at its neck. This is my deadly food. The blade of the sword and the dog's collar sparked and bounced off, causing no damage to the collar.I tried my best to keep my center of gravity and avoid the fire-breathing lion's mouth with all my heart, but I forgot that the snake's tail was coming towards me and inserted its teeth into my calf. My whole foot started to catch fire.I reached out and stabbed the wave sword towards Camilla's mouth, but its snake tail wrapped around my ankle and pulled me down.My sword whirled out of the hole in the arch and fell toward the Mississippi. I managed to get up, but I knew I was lost, I had no weapon, and felt the poison go up into my chest.I remembered that Chiron had said that the Wave Sword would be back, but I just couldn't reach the pen in my pocket.Maybe it fell too far, maybe it can only come back when it is a pen.I don't know, and I don't live long enough to find out. I retreated to the hole in the wall, and the Camilla continued to approach, roaring, and smoke rose slowly from its mouth.Echina, the Snake Lady, giggled. "Their heroes aren't as good as they used to be, are they, son?" The monster howled, and seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was defeated. I looked at the elevator man and the family, and the little boy was hiding behind Dad's feet.I have to protect these people, I can't just...die.I tried to think, but I was on fire, dizzy, and without a sword.I was up against a huge fire breathing monster and its mom and I was terrified. There was no place to flash, so I had to retreat to the entrance of the cave. Far, far below, the river water shone with sparkling light. If I die, will the monster leave?Will they spare humans? "If you are the son of Poseidon," Echina roared, "you don't have to be afraid of water, Percy Jackson, jump, water won't hurt you, prove it to me. Jump down and take back your sword, prove your lineage." Yes, I think so.I read somewhere that diving from two stories up is like being on a hard asphalt road.If I jumped from here, under the powerful impact force, I would definitely be smashed to pieces. Kemira's mouth glowed red, and it was about to spout fire again. "You lack faith," Echina said to me. "You don't trust the gods. But you can't blame you, coward. You'd better die, the gods can't be trusted. Kemira's venom will attack you heart." She was right, I was dying and I could feel my breathing slowing down.No one can save me, not even the gods. I pushed myself up and looked down at the river, thinking of my dad's smile in the warm light I had seen as a baby.He must have seen me, he must have seen me when I was in the cradle. I think of the green-lit trident swirling above my head on Capture the Flag night, the moment Poseidon declared me his son. But this is not the ocean, this is Mississippi, the very heart of America.There is no Poseidon here. "Die, you guy who doesn't believe in gods." Aiqina said sternly.Camilla sent a beam of flame towards my face. "Dad, save me." I prayed. I turned and jumped down.My clothes were on fire, poison was running through my veins, and I fell straight into the river.