35 Chapter 35 Thanks, Jakob.

Andromeda looked to the Son of Thor. "You want to sign too?" She asked with a grin, knowing he was pissed about this too.

Jakob raised a brow. "Do I look like I want the Olympians more annoyed at me than they probably are?"

"Yes." Andromeda said with a straight face.

"Go for it." Jakob shrugged.

Andromeda poured the drachmas in, along with her note, and sealed it closed. There was a sound like a cash register, the package floated off the table and into the air with a pop.

Both of them looked at Annabeth, daring her to say something. She didn't. She looked resigned to the fact that Jakob and Andromeda loved pissing off the Gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were doing pretty good for the night.

They camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids have obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

The group made some bags out of some of Aunty Em's clothes. They didn't light a fire, not wanting to attract more attention to themselves.

"Get some sleep, all of you. I'll keep watch." Jakob said, leaning against a tree with Mimir's head placed next to him and the Leviathan Axe close by in case he needed it. His jacket hung up on a tree branch above him.

Annabeth didn't argue as she curled into a bag and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground.

Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back on the trunk, and stared into the night sky.

Andromeda was lying on the ground, eyes open and also watching the sky, seeing the almost-covered stars above.

"It makes me sad, you know." Grover suddenly, said, causing Jakob and Andromeda to look at him.

"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?" Andromeda asked with a scoff.

"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist." Andromeda chuckled.

"Nothing wrong with that." Mimir piped in.

Grover glared at Andromeda, agreeing with Mimir. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."

Andromeda frowned at that. "Pan? The god, Pan?"

"Yes! What you do think I want a searcher's license for?" Grover said.

A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods.

"Tell me about the search." Andromeda said.

"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago." Grover told them. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he's hidden, and wake him from his sleep."

"Wait… so, what happens if you don't find Pan?" Jakob asked, intrigued.

"You die like my father and Uncle Ferdinand, the satyr you saw before." Grover said solemnly. "They knew the risks. Hopefully, I'll be the one to find him. The first in two thousand years." They fell silent after that.

Then Andromeda asked, "And you really think so? That you'll be the first satyr in two thousand years to find Pan?"

"I have to believe that, Andie. It's the only thing that gives us hope. The only thing that keeps us going." Grover said with a sigh.

"Don't give up on hope." Jakob told him, turning his gaze back to the distance. "Hope is what makes us strong. If you strongly hoe and believe you'll find him, then you will."

Grover nodded gratefully to him. "Thanks, Jakob."

There was silence for a while, then Andromeda asked a question. "So, how are we going to get to the Underworld? What chance do we have against a god?"

"I don't know. But while you were ahead of us, Annabeth said-"

"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out for us." Andromeda rolled her eyes.

"Don't be so hard on her, Andie. She's had a rough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me…" Here, Grover's voice faltered.

"What do you mean?" Andromeda asked, frowning. "Forgave you for what?"

Jakob thought about it for a while, then thought back to what Chiron told him, about Grover's last assignment five years ago. Annabeth was at camp for five years. This lead to him coming to a conclusion. "Thalia." He said at last. "That was your last assignment, taking care of Thalia. And I guess Annabeth is a part of it too."

Grover's head was down, looking depressed. "I… I don't want to talk about it." He seemed so sad, like he was going to cry. Then he sobered up a little. "But as I was saying, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't as it seems."

"Well, duh-me and Jakob are getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took." Andromeda shook her head.

"I still don't think he took it." Jakob said seriously. "There's something we're missing. My gut tells me not everything is as it seems. For Hades, a war between the gods would fill his realm up with more subjects."

Andromeda frowned. "But isn't that what he wants? Wouldn't that make him stronger?"

Want to read 20+ chapters ahead from here or just want to support take a visit on my patreon.

Link ---> patreon.com/V22

-------------------------------------------------------------

P A T R E O N

-------------------------------------------------------------

patreon.com/V22

-------------------------------------------------------------