Rick Riordan The Titan’ s Curse- 03
" Why?" I asked. " What were you thinking?"
He clopped his hooves uneasily. " Just something the manticore said, about the Great Stirring. I can ' t help but wonder … if all those ancient powers are waking up, maybe … maybe not all of them are evil." " You mean Pan." I felt kind of selfish, because I ' d totally forgotten about Grover ' s life ambition. The nature god had gone missing two thousand years ago. He was rumored to have died, but the satyrs didn ' t believe that. They were determined to find him. They ' d been searching in vain for centuries, and Grover was convinced he ' d be the one to succeed. This year, with Chiron putting all the satyrs on emergency duty to find half-bloods, Grover hadn ' t been able to continue his search. It must ' ve been driving him nuts.
" I ' ve let the trail go cold," he said. " I feel restless, like I ' m missing something really important. He ' s out there somewhere. I can just feel it."
I didn ' t know what to say. I wanted to encourage him, but I didn ' t know how. My optimism had pretty much been trampled into the snow out there in the woods, along with our capture-the-flag hopes.
Before I could respond, Thalia tromped up the stairs. She was officially not talking to me now, but she looked at Grover and said, " Tell Percy to get his butt downstairs." " Why?" I asked. " Did he say something?" Thalia asked Grover. " Um, he asked why." " Dionysus is calling a council of cabin leaders to discuss the prophecy," she said.
" Unfortunately, that includes Percy."
34
The council was held around a Ping-Pong table in the rec room. Dionysus waved his hand and supplied snacks: Cheez Whiz, crackers, and several bottles of red wine. Then Chiron reminded him that wine was against his restrictions and most of us were underage. Mr. D sighed. With a snap of his fingers the wine turned to Diet Coke. Nobody drank that either.
Mr. D and Chiron( in wheelchair form) sat at one end of the table. Zoe and Bianca di Angelo( who had kind of become Zoe ' s personal assistant) took the other end. Thalia and Grover and I sat along the right, and the other head councilors— Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, and the Stoll brothers— sat on the left. The Ares kids were supposed to send a representative, too, but all of them had gotten broken limbs( accidentally) during capture the flag, courtesy of the Hunters. They were resting up in the infirmary. Zoe started the meeting off on a positive note. " This is pointless." " Cheez Whiz!" Grover gasped. He began scooping up crackers and Ping-Pong balls and spraying them with topping. " There is no time for talk," Zoe continued. " Our goddess needs us. The Hunters must leave immediately." " And go where?" Chiron asked. " West!" Bianca said. I was amazed at how different she looked after just a few days with the Hunters. Her dark hair was braided like Zoe ' s now, so you could actually see her face. She had a splash of freckles across her nose, and her dark eyes vaguely reminded me of someone famous, but I couldn ' t think who. She looked like she ' d been working out, and her skin glowed faintly, like the other Hunters, as if she ' d been taking showers in liquid moonlight. " You heard the prophecy. Five shall go west to the goddess in chains. We can get five hunters and go." " Yes," Zoe agreed. " Artemis is being held hostage! We must find her and free her." " You ' re missing something, as usual," Thalia said. " Campers and Hunters combined prevail.
We ' re supposed to do this together." " No!" Zoe said. " The Hunters do not need thy help." " Your " Thalia grumbled. " Nobody has said thy in, like, three hundred years, Zoe. Get with the times." Zoe hesitated, like she was trying to form the word correctly. " Yerrr. We do not need yerrr help." Thalia rolled her eyes. " Forget it."