A Heroes Blessing: Part 8

Quick Author's Note: This one... Whooo boy, it fought me. Even now, especially with the conversation with Hebe, I don't like it. It does not feel right. But I've got it written down now, and while I'll probably change a bunch once I hand it over to my beta-readers, I've got something to show!

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Herakles POV

When you’ve been on the road long enough, you learn to take advantage of whatever conversation you can. There was only so much silence one could take after all. 

Unless you were Asclepius. 

Iolaus, his nephew, had a particular enjoyment of collecting stories and song that exaggerated Herakles' feats. He’d spend hours upon hours gleefully ‘improving’ the stories in various ways to retell them in other towns. 

… For the record - no, he did not cause an entire battalion to faint by ‘flexing his muscles’… It had been a cohort, and only a few fainted because he had thrown a boulder at them. The others had run.

Theseus enjoyed philosophical arguments, which had delighted Chiron to no end. Peleus was fascinated by the sea. Thersanon knew every constellation and could tell the story behind each. And Jason had a knack for being able to talk to anybody about anything. 

Little things. Traveling on the road with little to do tended to create all sorts of unusual topics, from serious to inane chatter.  

Still, this might be one of the odder conversations he’d been a part of. 

“I’m just saying, you haven’t gotten a big enough sample size.” Mrs Hebert argued with more passion than he thought the current subject deserved, eyes focused on the road as she drove. “What about green pancakes? Have you thought about how they’d taste? Maybe red? There’s a whole color palette out there you’re neglecting!”

In the back of the van, Percy shook his head, equally serious. “Blue is way more appetizing a color. You can’t get that from something like green.”

“I have an aunt that would be quite upset at that statement.” Mrs. Hebert snickered back, “But c’mon, let’s take cookies as an example. If you’ve only had chocolate chip cookies, can you actually say they are your favorite cookies?”

“But I have had others.” Percy retorted. “I’ve tried non-blue foods and blue food, and blue food is superior.”

Mrs Hebert rolled her eyes and glanced at him. “What do you think, big guy?” She asked.

Herakles let out a snort, “Leave me out of this one.” He replied with some amusement. 

He couldn’t name half of the foods they brought up. Let alone adding an ingredient for the some purpose of changing its coloring. 

It was not the topic itself that made it odd, but who they were interacting with. 

It was a unique experience, to see a goddess not only willing to banter with mortals, but indulging in it. 

Before Mrs. Hebert could reply, Thalia interrupted with a loud groan. “Are you guys seriously going to argue about this? Really?”

“Yes.” “Yes.”

Thalia scowled at the both of them. “I swear, I feel myself becoming stupider the longer the more I experience this.”

Herskles let out a snort, “But at least we’re experiencing it together.” He could only shake his head in bemusement as she turned her glare onto him. 

Yes, he was aware that ‘Mrs. Hebert’ was a goddess. The amount of divinity she exuded was enough to put him on guard, his nature as a Heroic Spirit enhancing those senses. 

Herakles had no idea which. The aura wasn’t one he had encountered before, and he had the dubious honor of having met quite a few. Yet the level of divinity he could sense was impressive. Which made him more suspicious. 

Normally he’d have refused her help, politely but very firmly, regardless of what the children thought. They’d already had three other encounters with gods and trespassed on a fourth gods territory in the span of a week and nobody had been cursed or ensorcelled. There was no need to push their luck. 

And yet…

Yet Zoe seemed to know her. Enough to trust her, to an extent at least. So, Herakles deferred to her knowledge on the matter.

And the more he watched, the more he didn’t understand. 

While the gods could, and have, pretended to be human in their interactions with mortals, it was never for very long. 

To give a warning. For amusement. To seduce a mortal. Never for long though.

They didn’t cook dinner and then breakfast for the entire party, they didn’t offer a safe haven to stay the evening, they didn’t provide transportation with no strings, and they certainly didn’t entertain silly conversations with mortals. 

This was the most pleasant experience he’d ever had with the Divine, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. 

Were the gods here actually different than in his universe? 

Herakles sighed heavily. 

On the other hand, the encounter with Ares went fairly on par with what he would consider of the gods, save for the fact that they did nothing but talk. 

Which was the anomaly?

(It was hardly the most unusual conversation he’d been a part of. It could hardly compare to the time Atalanta’s appeal for fresh food somehow turned into a ship-wide discussion on weaponizing food and how best to kill a man with an apple. 

“Ok, ok, fine.” Mrs. Hebert finally gave in after several minutes of back and forth with Thalia. “But then we need another topic.“)

For now, he’d simply keep an eye on Mrs. Hebert. Not knowing who she was and what she was doing here put him on edge, regardless of (or perhaps because of) how nice she was. 

“Oh! What about stories? I’ve taken a bunch of classes on myths and folklore. Some of them can get pretty wild, ya know?”

Herakles had to remind himself that this world… It wasn’t his own. Chiron was alive and well. The Nemean Lion was far from the Divine Beast he expected. Apollo was only sensed that first night, but the fact he had hidden himself was very much out of character. Ares had felt like the God of War he’d fought with in the past, yet he’d given in far too quickly, and without a single blow. 

Even oaths made on the Styx, one of the underlying rules of the World, were different. 

“Let me see… Oh! I know! Let’s start with a more well known one, one everybody probably knows...”

Still, he had one firm advantage. 

For all that he didn’t know which goddess ‘Mrs. Hebert’ truly was, there was no way she knew the truth of who or what he was.

“What are your guy’s thoughts on the legend of Hercules?”

Herakles stiffened, suddenly very aware of ‘Mrs Heberts’ gaze. 

Never mind. 

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Hebe’s PoV

Ok, so it might not have been the wisest of decisions. But, c’mon, she wasn’t Athena! She was the goddess of youth and forgiveness; youth were impulsive, and it was often said it was better to seek forgiveness than permission. 

She hadn’t been able to resist! 

Hebe had told Zoe that she wouldn’t pry, and she hadn’t. This was just conversation. If she learned something from it, well, that was an unintentional benefit.

It wasn’t like she was dissecting everything he said. Of course not. That would be silly. 

But it’d been several hours into the drive, and mystery was driving her absolutely insane! Not to mention the ever increasing urge to turn her car into a chariot and drive straight to Olympus. 

Seriously, she was one twitch away from doing it. Don’t tempt her. 

But asking about Hercules… Ah, that may have maybe been a mistake…

Hebe thought it would be kinda cheeky. A light tease, so to speak, see how he reacted. 

Well he reacted. 

The moment she mentioned Hercules, the man went still, and Hebe nearly froze as an invisible pressure seemingly filled the car.

Hebe was not lacking in power by any means. But at that moment, the goddess genuinely felt like her life was in danger. 

And it was an extremely uncomfortable feeling. 

As she was trying to analyze this unfamiliar sense, she was brought out of it with a scoff. 

“Thou would ask our opinion of an arrogant fool?” Zoe interjected forcibly. Angry, but the side eye she was giving ‘Alcides’ was proof that she felt it as well. 

“What’s the matter, don’t like talking about a story where a male beats back the odds?” Thalia, her most recent half-sister, taunted. 

Zoe rounded on her, eyes flashing dangerously, but as soon as Thalia spoke, the pressure let up. Not vanished, but in a more passive state, and Hebe finally relaxed. 

“Let’s not argue about this right now.” Alcides rumbled, eyes never moving from her. “I’m sure we can come up with a different topic?”

Not letting any of her unease show, she was grateful for the out, and she gave an easy shrug. “Sure!” Hebe said brightly. “There’s all sorts of fun myths out there. If we don’t want to go Grecian, then how about Native American?”

Hebe couldn’t even recall what topic she ended on, she was too busy focusing on her passenger, and the feeling he was giving off. 

This feeling… It wasn’t divine energy… What was it? 

As she said - she was the goddess of youth. And youth were extremely inquisitive.

Hercules was becoming more and more interesting.

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“Hey! You guys haven’t ever seen the Hoover Dam, have you?”

Was it necessary to visit the Hoover Dam for a lunch break? No. Was she still going to recommend it? Absolutely. 

It’d been a couple hours since her, ah, mistake. And ‘Hercules’ attention hadn’t waned at all. She figured they were due a private conversation. 

So, when they arrived at the visitors center, she waved the others in with a smile, asking them to start ordering food while she and ‘Alcides’ parked. 

Thankfully the parking lot was full. Would have been a bit awkward otherwise. 

Zoe gave the two of them a piercing look, but she did lead the others inside. And the moment they were out of sight, she gave a cheerful smile to her companion. 

“Is now the time where we ask each other questions?”

‘Alcides’ folded his arms. “That depends on what we’re going to talk about.” 

So that’s how he was going to play it, huh? 

Hebe hummed as she began driving aimlessly. “Well, to start, is there anything you want to talk about? We’ll start there and figure out the rest as we go.”

Alcides grunted. “What are your intentions?”

Pretty broad. And gives her nothing. 

“I’ve got a few.” Hebe admitted, “I did want to give the kids a lift, that’s not a lie.” No need to tell him he was the reason she was here. 

“I see.” Alcides raised an eyebrow. “So my presence had nothing to do with you being here?” 

Whelp, nevermind. 

“It might have contributed.” Hebe admitted sheepishly. “But c’mon! With who you’re traveling with, you have to know that you’re gonna attract attention. Especially from me!”

“You?” A confused look came over his face. “Am I supposed to know you?”

Hebe froze. 

He didn’t know her.

He knew she was a goddess, but not who she was? 

During their time driving, she’d picked up a thing or two about ‘Alcides’. Random tidbits that was slowly fleshing out what she knew of him. 

He was fascinated by vehicles, but didn’t know how they worked. He was used to eating whatever was in front of him, but not used to the sweetness of stuff like maple syrup on pancakes. He was going with the questers, ‘guiding’ them, but in truth was completely reliant on Zoe for directions, and didn’t mind that.

So, uh, just a thing or two. 

All of this was, more or less, in line with somebody that was from Ancient Greece and hadn’t bothered with keeping with modern times. 

Not at all like the Hercules she knew, mind you. But it gave her more pieces to the puzzle of what was going on. 

If she gained enough puzzle pieces, maybe she’d get a decent picture eventually. 

That this Hercules didn’t know of her…

“Who are you?” Hebe murmured, fascinated by the puzzle. Her Hercules had known who she was since the day he’d died.

‘Alcides’ stiffened at her question, and she quickly backtracked. “Ah, how ‘bout we avoid that particular question? Zoe did tell me to avoid digging, but you make me curious. You’re very confusing, you know.”

Alcides stared at her for a moment, “I can’t say you’re what I expected either.” 

If he didn’t know who she was,.. Did he mean gods in general? 

“So, you’re not here to prevent my presence in this quest?” ‘Alcides’ asked.

Hebe shook her head. “Nope. I told you, I do want to help them and Artemis. And despite the mystery surrounding you, I can tell you want that as well.”

After the quest? Well, that was another matter.

“I see.” ‘Alcides’ gave her a look. “And driving away from the others accomplishes that… How?” 

Huh? 

Hebe looked and realized she’d driven out of the parking lot and was getting back on the road. 

Ah. Whoops, aimless driving seemed to have turned into ‘drive in the direction of Mt. Olympus’. 

Innocent mistake. Could have happened to anyone really. 

Hebe coughed and quickly made a U-Turn. “Sorry, got distracted.”

“I’m sure.” Alcides said dryly. “So, you’re helping out of the goodness of your heart?”

“Aren’t you?” Hebe asked curiously. 

He didn’t answer that, and Hebe hummed as she found a parking spot and parked.

“You’re not going to ask anything else?” Hebe asked curiously. 

‘Alcides’ shrugged. “If you aren’t going to interfere with the quest, then it doesn’t concern me.” He answered bluntly. 

“I see.” Hebe murmured thoughtfully, fingers tapping on the wheel. “Can I ask a few questions then?” 

“Go ahead.” He nodded. “You can ask.” 

Hmmm, she could already tell that he was genuinely helping the questers, so he wasn’t a danger to them… And based on his reactions, he probably wasn’t going to answer much about himself…

“Why this group?” Hebe settled on. “I mean, it’s not the first quest with high stakes, even if the questers are younger than usual.”

Alcides shrugged. “I didn’t hear the others.” 

Hear them?

“What do you mean?” She frowned. 

He just gave the barest hint of a smirk, and Hebe rolled her eyes. Ok, fine, be that way. 

 “And the way you seemed to come into existence the night of the 17th?” Hebe asked, stating the time her oath compelled her to take action. “Do you know what happened then?”

“Perhaps nobody was paying attention before then.” ‘Alcides’ suggested. 

Hebe rolled her eyes. She got the hint - he didn’t ask anything deep from her, and he wasn’t going to answer anything deep from her. 

“You know you’re causing waves, right?” Hebe pointed out. “I mean, I am glad you’re helping these kids out. For both the kids sake, and for Artemis’ sake. But people are taking notice.” 

“There’s not much I can do about that.” He replied brusquely. “I’m aware I’ll be escorted to Olympus eventually. There’s not much I can do about that. The only thing I wish to ensure is that the kids are out of danger before that happens. .”

Oh? Hebe perked up. “I could help with that!”

“Can you?” ‘Alcides’ looked at her curiously. 

“I could stall any attempts for somebody to stop you.” Hebe proposed. It should be easy enough to do. “But in return… You will let me escort you to Olympus after this quest.”

‘Alcides’ gave her a confused look. “That’s all you want?”

“Yep, that's all I want” Hebe replied blithely.

Sure, she was going to do it regardless of what he thought. But it would be easier if he was willing when it happened. 

… And she wasn’t sure she had chains strong enough to force him. 

Maybe she should drop by Hephaestus’ Forge and ask for a favor from her brother…

‘Alcides’ studied her for several moments, and she gave her best innocent look. 

“Fine. I accept. Would you like me to swear by the River-“

“NO!” Hebe shouted, her smile turning to a scowl. “No more binding oaths. I’ll accept your word.”

Sure, it didn’t sound like one that would come back to bite her, but that’s what she thought about the other one! Nuh uh, not happening.

‘Alcides’ looked startled for a moment before snorted. “Very well. I give you my word.” 

“Sounds good!” Hebe’s smile was back. “Now, we should probably be heading inside. They’re probably wondering what’s taking so long.”

They were halfway to the door when Hebe felt another Divine Presence, and groaned.

“Sorry, looks like more family has arrived.” Hebe said to ‘Alcides’ dourly. 

What was Athena doing here?

The large man grunted, “it’s worse than that.” He growled and jerked his head to the side, and Hebe saw several skeleton soldiers. 

“I’ll take care of the skeletons.” ‘Alcides’ grunted and began making his way over. “Tell the others to get ready to move.”

“Oh?” Hebe tilted her head. “What are you going to do? Not even a god can easily destroy a Dragon Tooth soldier permanently.

Not unless they had a domain of death anyways. 

‘Alcides’ scoffed, “Who said anything about destroying them?”

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Herakles PoV

Herakles walked after the skeleton warriors, and they paid him no mind. 

Dragontooth warriors. Zoe had mentioned them. They were supposed to be hunters - relentless and immortal until their prey was captured. And ‘Mrs Hebert’ said a god couldn’t destroy them easily. 

That… Wasn’t quite what he would have expected of them. But by this point he should probably expect that creatures from this world weren’t the same as his own. 

Herakles reached out and grabbed a random guy. “Excuse me.” He greeted as the man turned around and blanched at him. “Could you tell me what those men wanted?” 

“T-those guys?” The guy looked back and forth in confusion. “Uh, sure, they’re asking for a kid. Some teenager with black hair.”  

Percy. 

Herakles thanked him and closed the distance to the skeletons. 

So. the question turned into - ‘are they truly unkillable’? He’d faced plenty of creatures that were labeled as unkillable in the past, and most of the time it was a gross exaggeration. But, even if they were ‘unkillable’, that was far from being ‘unbeatable’. A fact that escaped most he felt. 

“Hey!” He called out as the skeletons were heading to one of the restrooms, and they turned as one towards him. “Heard you’re looking for a kid, right? Boy, young teen, dark hair? Saw him just a bit ago.” 

With military precision, they walked towards him, and Alcides gestured them closer to another hallway. After a bit of walking, he made it to a door, and decided it would work. He had no idea where it led, but it looked less used, which was good enough for him. 

The moment they were close enough, Herakles forced the door open, reaching out his arm and managed to sweep the entire group into the closet. He walked in after, closing the door behind him, forcing them back further. It wasn’t a small closet, but it was hardly big either. Still, he had enough room to move his arms around. 

”I was told you lot are immortal.” Gone was his smile. Had they any thoughts, they’d have frozen at his expression. 

Herakles didn’t even bother when the closest swung his sword. A brief glance told him all he needed. 

It wouldn’t even classify as a C-Rank attack. 

Clang!

The blade skittered across his skin with a grind of metal, doing nothing. 

“Let’s put that to the test.” 

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Percy’s PoV

Percy had no idea how long they stood watching the door. 

The moment he heard Alcides, he’d been ready to jump out and help. Sure, Alcides was strong and could take on any of them, but that wasn’t the same as fighting unkillable skeletons. 

And then he watched as Alcides managed to force all the skeletons inside a closet with one swoop of his arms, where if Percy was hearing right, a fight of epic proportions was happening. 

Or the lot of them were trying to form a band by banging on a kitchen’s worth of pots and pans, but Percy chose to believe it was the former. 

Percy and Rachel both stared at the door as it shook, mouths open as loud crashes and sounds of chaos came from the room. He barely registered as more and more people around were stopping and looking at the closet as well. 

“Don’t worry everyone!” 

Both teenagers jumped as Mrs. Hebert slid forward with a smile and a wave of her hand. “Just a bit of construction work is all, we apologize!”

The various onlookers all nodded, panicked looks fading as they chatted with one another and began walking again.  

Percy felt himself calm down as he heard the words, and his brain felt fuzzy for a moment. Right. Just construction work. Probably expanding the closet or something, that would explain the sounds. Both Herakles and the Dragontooth Warriors. That made… 

… Wait.

Another loud crash, followed by the grind of metal against concrete. 

That made no sense at all!

“They, they can’t have believed that.” Rachel looked in disbelief between the now disinterested onlookers and the shuddering door. “There’s no way…”

“Oh,” Mrs Hebert gave the girl a surprised look that transformed into something more sympathetic. “You have the Sight.” She noted, drawing Rachel’s attention. “You’ve seen a lot, haven’t you?”

Um, what? 

“Uh, well, I uh -“ Rachel stammered, only to jump when the closet door slammed open and one of the Dragontooth workers stumbled out. 

It was… In really rough shape, and although Percy had had every intention of attacking he could only stare. Its shirt had a large hole right in the middle, like somebody had punched right through it, and its pants were in shambles. One of its arms had been torn off, and though the bones of its right leg were healing you could easily tell it was heavily fractured. 

It made exactly two steps as it tried to scramble out of the closet before a large hand grabbed it by its head and yanked it back, the door closing immediately after. 

Cue another loud crash, the noise echoing down the hallway. 

Rachel stared at the closet. “This is probably the strangest I’ve seen.” She admitted faintly. 

“Wait, so you two can see what they are?” Percy was having a hard time understanding that little bit. What, was the Mist on vacation or something? 

“Some people have what is called ‘clearsight’.” Mrs. Hebert explained absently, not looking at them as she appeared to be focused almost hungrily on the closet. Her fingers twitched, like she was restraining herself. ”It, ah, lets them see the truth behind the Mist.”

“And you and Rachel both have that?” Percy looked between the girl he’d just met and the woman that had been helping them since the previous night. 

How common was this exactly? Were there a bunch of humans that knew about monsters and just pretended to not? And how much of them did she know? 

Mrs. Hebert looked taken aback as she finally tore her gaze from the door before giving a small smirk. “Why yes, you could say that.” 

“So, everything I’ve seen - that was real?” Rachel interrupted nervously, but also with hope and relief. “Like, the giant dogs, harpies, and those skeletons? I-I’m not just seeing things?”

Percy could relate to the hope. After being gaslit by the whole school with the ‘Mrs. Dodds’ incident, it had been a huge relief to know he wasn’t going crazy. 

Before Mrs. Hebert could reply, the closet door opened once more, this time revealing Alcides. 

The large man didn’t look like he had a rudimentary cage match against a bunch of undead. Percy could see a couple places in his shirt where he’d been stabbed, but there wasn’t any blood, nor did he look like he was in pain. 

The closet, however, was a different story. 

The inside was a complete wreck. Percy didn’t know what was inside it before, but it was all trash now. 

And on each of the walls was one of the skeletons. Metal shelving had been wrapped around each of them several times, leaving them unable to twitch. Each had two long metal poles stabbed through their chest, pinning them against the wall a foot above the floor.

That was all Percy managed to see before Alcides closed the door and completely crushing the handle holy crap!

“We should get the others and move out quickly.” Alcides instructed brusquely. “They might have backup.” 

“Wait, you just took all of them out like it was nothing!” Percy protested. “Did they even hurt you at all?”

Mrs Hebert gave a small laugh, “Oh, I have a feeling Alcides has done this sort of thing before, you shouldn’t worry about him.” She said with a teasing smirk. “Now, I’ll stay behind and deal with what we talked about.” One hand reaching out to tap Rachel’s shoulder. “And to explain some things to this young one.” 

Alcides stared at Mrs Hebert for a few seconds before looking somewhat surprised and.. Approving? 

“Very well. I’ll take care of transportation.” Alcides grunted. 

Percy blinked. “Wait, we have transportation?” 

Since when?!

“I’ll handle it.” 

“Wait, Alcides?” 

They all turned to look at Rachel, who was squinting up at the large man before gasping, eyes going wide. “W-wait, y-y-you, you’re H-h-herc-”

Percy didn’t get to hear who she thought he was, as Alcide’s eyes widened in surprise before giving a smirk, bringing up a finger in a shushing motion with a wink, and Rachel closed her mouth with a snap. 

“It’s dangerous to go out there alone with creatures like that.” Alicides murmured, reaching into his jacket and bringing out a dagger. It was a rough looking thing. Instead of bronze, it looked like it was made out of a very large claw.

He handed it to Rachel, who took the dagger, but looked at it like somebody had given her a diamond or something, she might be close to fainting. 

“Here, let me get that for you.” Mrs. Hebert waved a hand, and suddenly Rachel was holding a pocket knife. Rachel looked between it and her a few times in confusion, and the woman gave Rachel a reassuring smile. “Trust me, it’s less conspicuous.” 

“Safe travels.” Alcides grunted, turning and walking swiftly in the other direction, and Percy had to practically jog to keep up. 

“I have questions.” Percy huffed as they made their way back to the restaurant. 

He and Thalia had talked about it the previous night. The way Alcides had taken care of the Fake Talos, and the birds he had summoned. Something wasn’t right. Not that Alcides meant to hurt them at all… But he was clearly keeping something secret. 

Now, taking on the Dragon Tooth soldiers like he had? And whoever Mrs Hebert had been?

Look, he wanted to trust Alcides. He really did. But the questions were stacking up, and Percy wasn’t sure what to think. 

“I’m sure.” Alcides nodded. “And I will answer all of them soon. But right now, we must move.”

They collected the others from the restaurant and quickly left. Alcides completely ignored the parking lot, walking past it until they were a fair distance from the Dam. 

“Alcides” Zoe said testily, “What are we waiting for?” 

The man grunted and finally stopped. “Here will do.” He murmured. 

“Do for what?” Thalia asked. 

Alcides turned around and started chanting something under his breath. Looking at the others with a frown, Percy was about to take a step towards Alcides and ask again when the ground began to shake, and a loud neigh ripped through the air.

Before the Gods of Greece as most knew them, there were the Machine Gods. Beings from beyond the stars, forged with a purpose. With them, they carried creatures that were forged as they were. 

The White Titan struck, and the Machine Gods fell, transitioning to the Divine Spirits all know them as. 

But while the gods might be different, not all their creations changed as well. 

A huge wind picked up, throwing up a ton of dust. And as the dust settled, Percy saw four horse-like creatures. 

Now, he specified ‘horse-like’, because they weren’t like any horse he’d seen before. 

For one, they were huge. Like, Alcides size. 

They looked like a combination of metal and flesh, gunmetal grey smoothly intersecting with gray flesh. Each step was extremely heavy, leaving an imprint on the ground as a testament to how heavy they were. 

And their eyes? Yeah, completely red. Because of course the spooky horses from hell had red eyes. 

Percy took a step back nervously, and was greatly relieved when everybody else did as well. 

“What are those?” Bianca asked, a hand on one of her knives. 

“The Mares of Diomedes.” Herakles replied, one hand taking the reins. “They’ll take us the rest of the way.” 

“Nay, those are not.” Zoe denied, looking more spooked than he’d ever seen her. “Those are not the Mares of Diomedes. I hast seen them several times - and I have never seen the like of these before.” 

Alcides shrugged. “It is how I know them.” He returned. “Regardless of what they are, does it matter? I promise it is safe, and they shall take us.” 

Well, he kind of had them there. They needed to go the rest of the way somehow, and if Alcides said it was safe… 

Alcides took one horse himself. Percy shared another with Grover, Bianca with Zoe, and Thalia looked very small on the one by herself.

Leaning down, Percy said “Thanks for the lift. We appreciate it.” 

Hey, they might be creepy, but it was always good to be polite, right?

The horse jerked its head back and stared at Percy. In his mind, he heard a reply, but it sounded waaaaay different than any other horse he’d spoken to - like, robotics and static weird. 

“Query? Spawn of [Planetary Environment Modification Plant-Ship]?”

“What?” Percy looked at the horse in bafflement. Planetary Environment what now?” 

“Let’s go.” Alcides called out, and suddenly they were moving, and Percy couldn’t really talk to it any more. 

But what the heck was that about?