Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
39
39
"Perrrrcy!" he bleated. "I missed you! I miss camp. They don't serve very good enchiladas in
the wilderness."
"I was worried," I said. "Where've you been the last two months?"
"The last two—" Grover's smile faded. "The last two months? What are you talking about?"
"We haven't heard from you," I said. "Juniper's worried. We sent Iris-messages, but—"
"Hold on." He looked up at the stars like he was trying to calculate his position. "What month
is this?"
"August."
The color drained from his face. "That's impossible. It's June. I just lay down to take a nap
and . . ." He grabbed my arms. "I remember now! He knocked me out. Percy, we have to stop him!"
"Whoa," I said. "Slow down. Tell me what happened."
He took a deep breath. "I was . . . I was walking in the woods up by Harlem Meer. And I felt
this tremble in the ground, like something powerful was near."
"You can sense stuff like that?" Nico asked.
Grover nodded. "Since Pan's death, I can feel when something is wrong in nature. It's like
my ears and eyes are sharper when I'm in the Wild. Anyway, I started following the scent. This man
in a long black coat was walking through the park, and I noticed he didn't cast a shadow. Middle of a
sunny day, and he cast no shadow. He kind of shimmered as he moved."
"Like a mirage?" Nico asked.
"Yes," Grover said. "And whenever he passed humans—"
"The humans would pass out," Nico said. "Curl up and go to sleep."
"That's right! Then after he was gone, they'd get up and go about their business like nothing
happened."
I stared at Nico. "You know this guy in black?"
"Afraid so," Nico said. "Grover, what happened?"
"I followed the guy. He kept looking up at the buildings around the park like he was making
estimates or something. This lady jogger ran by, and she curled up on the sidewalk and started
snoring. The guy in black put his hand on her forehead like he was checking her temperature. Then
he kept walking. By this time, I knew he was a monster or something even worse. I followed him
into this grove, to the base of a big elm tree. I was about to summon some dryads to help me
capture him when he turned and . . ."
Grover swallowed. "Percy, his face. I couldn't make out his face because it kept shifting. Just
looking at him made me sleepy. I said, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'Just having a look around.
You should always scout a battlefield before the battle.' I said something really smart like, 'This
forest is under my protection. You won't start any battles here!' And he laughed. He said, 'You're
lucky I'm saving my energy for the main event, little satyr. I'll just grant you a short nap. Pleasant
dreams.' And that's the last thing I remember."
Nico exhaled. "Grover, you met Morpheus, the God of Dreams. You're lucky you ever woke
up."
"Two months," Grover moaned. "He put me to sleep for two months!"
I tried to wrap my mind around what this meant. Now it made sense why we hadn't been
able to contact Grover all this time.
"Why didn't the nymphs try to wake you?" I asked.
Grover shrugged. "Most nymphs aren't good with time. Two months for a tree—that's
nothing. They probably didn't think anything was wrong."
"We've got to figure out what Morpheus was doing in the park," I said. "I don't like this 'main
event' thing he mentioned."
"He's working for Kronos," Nico said. "We know that already. A lot of the minor gods are.
This just proves there's going to be an invasion. Percy, we have to get on with our plan."
"Wait," Grover said. "What plan?"
We told him, and Grover started tugging at his leg fur.
"You're not serious," he said. "Not the Underworld again."
"I'm not asking you to come, man," I promised. "I know you just woke up. But we need some
music to open the door. Can you do it?"
Grover took out his reed pipes. "I guess I could try. I know a few Nirvana tunes that can split