Becoming a Hero

"We will never make it," Zoe said. "We are moving too slowly. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus."

"Mooo," Bessie said. He swam next to Percy as we jogged along the waterfront. We'd left the shopping-centre pier far behind. We were heading towards the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was a lot further than I'd realised. The sun was already dipping in the west.

"I don't get it," Percy said. "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

"The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset," Zoe said. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"What happens if we miss it?"

"Tomorrow is the winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening, And by then, the Olympian Council will be over. We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

"We need a car," Thalia said.

"But what about Bessie?" Percy asked.

Grover stopped in his tracks. "I've got an idea! The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?"

"Well, yeah," Percy said. "I mean, he was in Long Island Sound. Then he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam. And now he's here."

"So maybe we could coax him back to Long Island Sound," Grover said. "Then Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

"But he was following me," Percy said. "If I'm not there, would he know where he's going?"

"Moo," Bessie said forlornly.

"I...I can show him," Grover said. "I'll go with him." I stared at him. He probably couldn't swim that well for a variety of reasons, such as his hooves. "I'm the only one who can talk to him," Grover said. "It makes sense." He bent down and said something in Bessie's ear. Bessie shivered, then made a contented, lowing sound. "The blessing of the Wild," Grover said. "That should help with safe passage. Percy, pray to your dad, too. See if he will grant us safe passage through the seas." I didn't understand how they could possibly swim back to Long Island from California. Then again, monsters didn't travel the same way as humans. I'd seen plenty of evidence of that.

"Dad," Percy said. "Help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp. Protect them at sea."

"A prayer like that needs a sacrifice," Thalia said. "Something big." Percy thought about it for a minute before taking off his coat.

"Percy," Grover said. "Are you sure? That lion skin... that's really helpful. Hercules used it!"

Zoe was watching Percy very carefully. "If I'm going to survive," he said, "it won't be because I've got a lion-skin cloak. I'm not Hercules." He threw the coat into the bay. It turned back into a golden lion skin, flashing in the light. Then, as it began to sink beneath the waves, it seemed to dissolve into sunlight on the water. The sea breeze picked up.

Grover took a deep breath. "Well, no time to loose." He jumped into the water and immediately began to sink. Bessie glided next to him and let Grover take hold of his neck.

"Be careful," Percy told them. I started to think of ways we could get to the garden as Grover had an odd conversation with Bessie.

"Well, that is one problem addressed," Zoe said. "But how can we get to my sisters' garden?"

"Thalia's right," I said. "We need a car. But there's nobody to help us here. Unless we, uh, borrowed one." As much as I liked that option, I wasn't sure if the others did.

"Wait," Thalia said. She started rifling through her backpack. "There is somebody in San Francisco who can help us. I've got the address here somewhere."

"Who?" I asked.

Thalia pulled out a crumpled piece of notebook paper and held it up. "Professor Chase. Annabeth's dad." That was not good. He would definitely recognise me.

We stood at the door of the house belonging to my aunt and uncle. I pulled my hood up and put my sunglasses on. I rooted around in my bag and found a mask. I put it on. Hopefully, it would hide my identity from them. Uncle Frederick wore an old-fashioned aviator's cap and goggles. He looked so weird , with his eyes bugging out through the glasses, that we all took a step back on the front porch. "Hello," he said in a friendly voice. "Are you delivering my aeroplanes?" Thalia, Zoe, Percy and I looked at each other warily.

"Um, no, sir," I said.

"Drat," he said. "I need three more Sopwith Camels."

"Right," Percy said. "We're friends of Annabeth."

"Annabeth?" He straightened as if Percy had just given him an electric shock. "Is she all right? Has something happened?" None of us answered, but our faces must've told him that something was very wrong. He took off his cap and goggles. He had sandy-coloured hair and intense brown eyes. It looked like he hadn't shaved in a couple of days, and his shirt was buttoned wrong, so one side of his collar stuck up higher than the other side. "You'd better come in," he said.

There were LEGO robots on the stairs and two cats sleeping on the sofa in the living room. The coffee table was stacked with magazines, and a little kid's winter coat was spread on the floor. The whole house smelled like fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. There was jazz music coming from the kitchen. It seemed like a messy, happy kind of home - the kind of place that had been lived in forever. "Dad!" a little boy screamed. "He's taking apart my robots!"

"Bobby," Uncle Fred called absently, "don't take apart your brother's robots."

"I'm Bobby," the little boy protested. "He's Matthew!"

"Matthew," Uncle Fred called, "don't take apart your brother's robots!"

"Okay, Dad!"

Frederick turned to us. "We'll go upstairs to my study. This way."

"Honey?" a woman called. Annabeth's stepmother, my aunt, appeared in the living room, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She was a pretty Asian woman with red highlighted hair tied in a bun. "Who are our guests?" she asked.

"Oh," Frederick said. "This is..." He stared at us blankly.

"Frederick," she chided. "You forgot to ask them their names?" We introduced ourselves a little uneasily, but Mrs Chase seemed really nice. I didn't tell them my real name, but I told them to call me 'R'. My aunt asked if we were hungry. We admitted we were, and she told us she'd bring us some cookies and sandwiches and sodas.

"Dear," Frederick said. "They came about Annabeth."

I expected her to say something but she just pursed her lips and looked concerned. "All right. Go on up to the study and I'll bring you some food." She smiled at Percy. "Nice meeting you, Percy. I've heard a lot about you." She turned to me. "R, can you help me?"

I looked at Zoe. She nodded. "Sure," I said.

I followed her into the kitchen as the others followed my uncle into the study. "What do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Answer some questions," she responded. I tensed. Questions? That was never good. It was also not what I had expected. I nodded. "What's your real name?"

"What?"

"Your real name? What is it?"

"All I am allowed to tell you are my initials."

"Why?"

"I died a few years ago and went to an afterlife in a different pantheon but was invited to join the Hunt in an effort to create a sort of bridge between the two."

"Did...did I know you when you were alive?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing here?"

"Just like the others, I am on a quest to save Lady Artemis. We were in the area and decided to stop by for a bit. Also, to ask for a car. We need one, to get to our destination."

"And where is that?"

"Zoe's old home. The Garden of the Hesperides. It is where we believe Lady Artemis is being kept."

"I see. When did you join the Hunt?"

"Just over three years ago now. It was roughly a couple of months after I was killed."

"What afterlife did you go to?"

"Valhalla."

We continued to prepare the snacks and then took them up to the study. We had talked more about things, like the quest. It left me questioning a few things. "Snacks," My aunt announced. She pushed through the door with the tray of peanut-butter-and-jam sandwiches and Cokes and cookies fresh out of the oven that we had prepared. I carried my drink and sandwich in my hand. I wasn't a fan of peanut-butter-and-jam sandwiches or Coke so I had a cheese sandwich and a hot chocolate. I finished off the sandwich then Percy, Thalia and I inhaled a few of the cookies. They were really good.

"I can drive, sir. I'm not as young as I look. I promise not to destroy your car."

Aunt Helen knitted her eyebrows. "What's this about?"

"Annabeth is in danger," Uncle Fred said. "On Mount Tam. I would drive them, but apparently it's no place for mortals." Aunt Helen already knew all of this as I had told her what was going on, but it seemed that she was a very good actress. She had given me her number in case I needed her help and given me an old phone of hers.

"Then they'd better get going."

"Right!" He jumped up and started patting his pockets. "My keys..."

"Frederick, honestly. You'd lose your head if it weren't wrapped inside your aviator hat. The keys are hanging on the peg by the front door."

"Right!" my uncle said.

"Zoe grabbed a sandwich. "Thank you both. We should go. Now." We hustled out the door and down the stairs, the Chases right behind us. As I left the house, I nodded at my aunt. I felt guilty for not telling her the truth about my identity. Would she tell my mom about my visit? We ran out to the yellow convertible parked in the driveway. The sun was going down. I figured we has less than an hour to save Artemis and Annabeth.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Thalia demanded.

Zoe glared at her. "I cannot control traffic."

"You both sound like my mother," Percy said.

"Shut up!" they said in unison. Zoe weaved in and out of traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun was sinking on the horizon when we finally got into Marin County and exited the highway. The roads were insanely narrow, winding through forests and up the sides of hills and round the edges of steep ravines. Zoe didn't slow down at all.

"Why does everything smell like cough drops?" Percy asked.

"Eucalyptus." Zoe pointed to the huge trees all around us.

"The stuff koala bears eat?"

"And monsters," she said. "They love chewing the leaves. Especially dragons."

"Dragons chew eucalyptus leaves?"

"Believe me," Zoe said, "if you had dragon breath, you would chew eucalyptus, too." Ahead of us loomed Mount Tamalpais. I guess, in terms of mountains, it was a small one, but it looked plenty huge as we were driving towards it.

"So that's the Mountain of Despair?" Percy asked.

"Yes," Zoe said tightly.

"Why do they call it that?"

She was silent for almost a mile before answering. "After the war between the Titans and the gods, many of the Titans were punished and imprisoned. Kronos was sliced to pieces and thrown into Tartarus. Kronos's right-hand man, the general of his forces, was imprisoned up there, on the summit, just beyond the Garden of the Hesperides."

"The General," Percy said. Clouds seemed to be swirling round its peak, as though the mountain were drawing them in, spinning like a top. "What's going on up there? A storm?" Zoe didn't answer. I got the feeling she knew exactly what the clouds meant, and she didn't like it.

"We have to concentrate," Thalia said. "The Mist is really strong here."

"The magical kind or the natural kind?" Percy asked.

"Both." The grey clouds swirled even thicker over the mountain, and we kept driving straight towards them. We were out of the forest now, into wide open spaces of cliffs and grass and rocks and fog.

"Look!" Percy said suddenly.

"What?" I asked.

"A big white ship," Percy said. "Docked near the beach. It looked like a cruise ship."

Thalia's eyes widened. "Luke's ship?"

"We will have company then," Zoe said grimly. "Kronos's army."

I was about to say something, when suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Thalia shouted, "Stop the car. NOW!" Zoe must've sensed something was wrong, because she slammed on the brakes without question. The yellow VW spun twice before coming to a stop at the edge of the cliff. "Out!" Thalia opened the door and pushed me and Percy hard. We rolled onto the pavement. The next second: BOOOM! Lightning flashed, and my uncle's car erupted like a canary-yellow grenade. Percy and I probably would've been killed by shrapnel except for Thalia's shield, which appeared over us. I heard a sound like metal rain, and when I opened my eyes, we were surrounded by wreckage. One of the car's doors had impaled itself in the street. The smoking bonnet was spinning in circles. Pieces of yellow metal were strewn across the road. I walked away from Percy and Thalia in order to try and see how much further it was till the summit.

I saw Zoe leading Percy and Thalia, so I went to join them. Sheets of fog were drifting right across the road. Zoe stepped into one of them, and when the fog passed, she was no longer there. Thalia, Percy and I looked at each other. "Concentrate on Zoe," Thalia advised. "We are following her. Go straight into the fog and keep that in mind." I went into the fog first. When the fog cleared, I was still on the side of the mountain, but the road was dirt. The grass was thicker.  The sunset made a blood-red slash across the sea. The summit of the mountain seemed closer now, swirling with storm clouds and raw power. There was only one path to the top, directly in front of us.  And it led through a lush meadow of shadows and flowers: the garden of twilight.

If it hadn't been for the enormous dragon, the garden would've been the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. The grass shimmered with silvery evening light, and the flowers were such brilliant colours they almost glowed in the dark. Stepping stones of polished black marble led round either side of a five-story-tall apple tree, every bough glittering with golden apples, and I don't mean yellow golden apples like in the grocery store. I mean real golden apples. I can't describe why they were so appealing, but as soon as I smelled their fragrance, I knew that one bite would be the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted. "The apples of immortality," Thalia said. "Hera's wedding gift from Zeus." I wanted to step right up and pluck one, except for the dragon coiled round the tree. The serpent's body was as thick as a booster rocket, glinting with coppery scales. It had more heads than I could count, as if a hundred deadly pythons had been fused together. It appeared to be asleep. The heads lay curled in a big spaghetti-like mound on the grass, all the eyes closed.

Then the shadows in front of us began to move. There was a beautiful, eerie singing, like voices from the bottom of a well. I grabbed Zoe's hand. Even if she didn't need reassurance, I definitely did. Four figures shimmered into existence, four young women who looked very much like Zoe. They all wore white Greek chitons. Silky black hair tumbled loose around their shoulders. It was strange but I'd never realised how beautiful Zoe was until I saw her siblings, the Hesperides. They looked just like Zoe - gorgeous and probably very dangerous. "Sisters," Zoe said.

"We do not see any sister," one of the girls said coldly. "We see two half-bloods and two Hunters. All of whom shall soon die." I squeezed Zoe's hand.

"You've got it wrong." Percy stepped forward. "Nobody is going to die." The girls studied him. They had eyes like volcanic rock, glassy and completely black.

"Perseus Jackson," one of them said.

"Yes," mused another. "I do not see why he is a threat."

"Who said I was a threat?"

The first Hesperid glanced behind her, towards the top of the mountain. "They fear thee. They are unhappy that this one has not yet killed thee." She pointed at Thalia.

"Tempting sometimes," Thalia admitted. "But no thanks. He's my friend."

"There are no friends here, daughter of Zeus," the girl said. "Only enemies. Go back."

"Not without Annabeth." Thalia said.

"And Artemis," Zoe said. "We must approach the mountain."

"You know he will kill thee," the girl said. "You are no match for him."

"Artemis must be freed," Zoe insisted. "Let us pass."

The girl shook her head. "You have no rights here any more. We only have to raise our voices and Ladon will wake."

"He will not hurt me," Zoe said. I loved her confidence in a dragon that had not seen her in thousands of years.

"No? And what about thy so-called friends?"

Then Zoe did the last thing I expected. She shouted, "Ladon! Wake!"

The dragon stirred, glittering like a mountain of pennies. The Hesperides yelped and scattered. The lead girl said to Zoe, "Are you mad?"

"You never had any courage, sister," Zoe said. "That is thy problem." The dragon Ladon was writhing now, a hundred heads whipping around, tongues flickering and tasting the air. Zoe removed her hand from mine and took a step forward, her arms raised.

"Zoe, don't," Thalia said. "You're not a Hesperid any more. He'll kill you."

"Ladon is trained to protect the tree," Zoe said. "Skirt round the edges of the garden. Go up the mountain. As long as I am a bigger threat, he should ignore thee.

"Should," Percy said. "Not exactly reassuring."

"It is the only way," she said. "Even the four of us together cannot fight him." Ladon opened his mouths. The sound of a hundred heads hissing at once sent a shiver down my spine, and that was before his breath hit me. The smell was like acid. It made my eyes burn, my skin crawl and my hair stand on end. Thalia and I went left. Percy went right. Zoe walked straight towards the monster. "It's me, my little dragon," Zoe said. "Zoe has come back." Ladon shifted forward, then back. Some of the mouths closed. Some kept hissing. Dragon confusion.

Meanwhile, the Hesperides shimmered and turned into shadows. The voice of the eldest whispered, "Fool."

"I used to feed thee by hand," Zoe continued, speaking in a soothing voice as she stepped towards the golden tree. "Do you still like lamb's meat?" The dragon's eyes glinted.

Thalia, Percy and I were about halfway round the garden. Ahead, I could see a single rocky trail leading up to the black peak of the mountain, The storm swirled above it, spinning on the summit like it was the axis for the whole world. We'd almost made it out of the meadow when something went wrong. I felt the dragon's mood shift. Maybe Zoe got too close. Maybe the dragon realised he was hungry. Whatever the reason, he lunged at Zoe. Two thousand years of training kept her alive. She dodged one set of slashing fangs and tumbled under another, weaving through the dragon's heads as she ran in our direction, gagging from the monster's horrible breath. Percy drew Riptide to help. "No!" Zoe panted. "Run!" The dragon snapped at her side, and Zoe cried out. Thalia uncovered her shield, Aegis, and the dragon hissed in pain. In his moment of indecision, Zoe sprinted past us up the mountain, and we followed.

The dragon didn't try to pursue. he hissed and stomped the ground, but I guess he was well trained to guard that tree. He wasn't going to be lured off, even by the tasty prospect of eating some heroes. We ran up the mountain as the Hesperides resumed their song in the shadows behind us. The music didn't sound so beautiful to me now - more like the soundtrack for a funeral.

At the top of the mountain were ruins, blocks of black granite and marble as big as houses. Broken columns. Statues of bronze that looked as though they'd been half melted. "The ruins of Mount Othrys," Thalia whispered in awe.

"Yes," Zoe said. "It was not here before. This is bad." Everything about this quest was bad.

"What's Mount Othrys?" Percy asked.

"The mountain fortress of the Titans," Zoe said. "In the first war, Olympus and Othrys were the two rival capitals of the world. Othrys was -" She winced and held her side.

"You're hurt," I said. "Let me see."

"No! It is nothing. I was saying...in the first war, Othrys was blasted to pieces."

"But...how is it here?"

Thalia looked around cautiously as we picked our way through the rubble, past blocks of marble and broken archways. "It moves in the same way that Olympus moves. It always exists on the edges of civilisation. But the fact that it is here, on this mountain, is not good."

"Why?"

"This is Atlas's mountain," Zoe said. "Where he holds -" She froze. Her voice was ragged with despair. "Where he used to hold up the sky." I looked where she was looking and gasped. We had reached the summit. A few metres ahead of us, grey clouds swirled in a heavy vortex, making a funnel cloud that almost touched the mountaintop, but instead rested on the shoulders of a twelve-year-old girl with auburn hair and a tattered silvery dress: Artemis, her legs bound to the rock with celestial bronze chains. "My lady!" Zoe and I rushed forward, but Artemis said, "Stop! It is a trap. You must leave now." Her voice was strained. She was drenched in sweat. Zoe and I were crying. We ran forward despite Artemis's protests, and tugged at the chains.

A booming voice spoke behind us: "Ah, how touching." We turned. The General was standing there in a brown silk suit. At his side was a blonde boy I assumed to be Luke Castellan and half a dozen dracaenae bearing the golden sarcophagus of Kronos. A girl I recognised as Annabeth stood at Luke's side. She had her hands cuffed behind her back, a gag in her mouth and Luke was holding the point of his sword to her throat. Despite all this, she looked surprised to see me.

"Luke," Thalia snarled. "Let her go."

Luke's smile was weak and pale. "That is the General's decision, Thalia. But it's good to see you again."

Thalia spat at him.

The General chuckled. "So much for old friends. And you, Zoe. It's been a long time. How is my little traitor? I will enjoy killing you."

"Do not respond," Artemis groaned. "Do not challenge him."

"Wait a second," Percy said. "You're Atlas?"

The General glanced at him. "So even the stupidest of heroes can finally figure something out. Yes, I am Atlas, the general of the Titans and terror of the gods. Congratulations. I will kill you presently, as soon as I deal with this wretched girl."

"You're not going to hurt Zoe," Percy said. "I won't let you."

The General sneered. "You have no right to interfere, little hero. This is a family matter."

Percy frowned. "A family matter?"

"Yes," Zoe said bleakly. "Atlas is my father."