Rick Riordan The Sea Monsters - 02
The god arched his eyebrows . " Uh , we saw him , all right ," I said , " but —" " You weren ' t able to talk sense into him ?" " Well , we kind of tried to kill each other in a duel to the death ." " I see . You tried the diplomatic approach ." " I ' m really sorry . I mean , you gave us those awesome gifts and everything . And I know you wanted Luke to come back . But ... he ' s turned bad . Really bad . He said he feels like you abandoned him ."
I waited for Hermes to get angry . I figured he ' d turn me into a hamster or something , and I did not want to spend any more time as a rodent . Instead , he just sighed . " Do you ever feel your father abandoned you , Percy ?" Oh , man . I wanted to say , " Only a few hundred times a day ." I hadn ' t spoken to Poseidon since last summer . I ' d never been to his underwater palace . And then there was the whole thing with Tyson — no warning , no explanation . Just boom , you have a brother . You ' d think that deserved a little headsup phone call or something .
The more I thought about it , the angrier I got . I realized I did want recognition for the quest I ' d completed , but not from the other campers . I wanted my dad to say something . To notice me .
Hermes readjusted the mailbag on his shoulder . " Percy , the hardest part about being a god is that you must often act indirectly , especially when it comes to your own children . If we were to intervene every time our children had a problem … well , that would only create more problems and more resentment . But I believe if you give it some thought , you will see that Poseidon has been paying attention to you . He has answered your prayers . I can only hope that some day , Luke may realize the same about me . Whether you feel like you succeeded or not , you reminded Luke who he was . You spoke to him ." " I tried to kill him ." Hermes shrugged . " Families are messy . Immortal families are eternally messy . Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we ' re related , for better or worse … and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum ."
It didn ' t sound like much of a recipe for the perfect family . Then again , as I thought about my quest , I realized maybe Hermes was right . Poseidon had sent the hippocampi to help us . He ' d given me powers over the sea that I ' d never known about before . And there was Tyson . Had Poseidon brought us together on purpose ? How many times had Tyson saved my life this summer ? In the distance , the conch horn sounded , signaling curfew . " You should get to bed ," Hermes said . " I ' ve helped you get into quite enough trouble this summer already . I really only came to make this delivery ." " A delivery ?" " I am the messenger of the gods , Percy ." He took an electronic signature pad from his mailbag and handed it to me . " Sign there , please ." I picked up the stylus before realizing it was entwined with a pair of tiny green snakes . " Ah !" I dropped the pad . Ouch , said George . Really , Percy , Martha scolded . Would you want to be dropped on the floor of a horse stable ? " Oh , uh , sorry ." I didn ' t much like touching snakes , but I picked up the pad and the stylus again . Martha and George wriggled under my fingers , forming a kind of pencil grip like the ones my special ed teacher made me use in second grade . Did you bring me a rat ? George asked . " No …" I said . " Uh , we didn ' t find any ." What about a guinea pig ? George ! Martha chided . Don ' t tease the boy . I signed my name and gave the pad back to Hermes . In exchange , he handed me a sea-blue envelope . My fingers trembled . Even before I opened it , I could tell it was from my father . I could sense his power in the cool blue paper , as if the envelope itself had been folded out of an ocean wave . " Good luck tomorrow ," Hermes said . " Fine team of horses you have there , though you ' ll
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