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Percy was exhausted when he arrived at Camp, which didn’t bode well for the coming week.
A damp, winter chill danced along his neck with the next day of wind, and he sighed.
The monsters in the city were getting bolder, and he was pretty sure the only reason he hadn’t been expelled from Goode yet was because of Paul. He’d missed half of last Thursday because a group of laistrygonian giants had decided to take the subway car he was on.
He still wasn’t sure if the white-haired, sweater-knitting grandma on the train car with him that morning had been a mortal or a goddess in disguise. If it was the latter, Percy would be pissed.
That didn’t even touch his most recent trip to the Underworld, courtesy of Queen Persephone. It was a small miracle that he hadn’t lost his memories in the Lethe or died from the Keres’s poison. At least Thalia bought him a burger afterwards.
“Yo, Percy, you look like shit!”
Percy snorted, looking up to find Beckendorf approaching with a grin on his face. Percy met him halfway, and they clasped arms, doing the complicated handshake Silena teased them about.
After patting Beckendorf on the back, Percy stepped back. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but is there another mission?” Usually if Beckendorf sought him out, it was to take out branches of the Titan Army. Otherwise, Percy was usually the one to find him in the forges.
Beckendorf studied his face, his brows dipping into concern for a moment, and then he grinned again. “Nah, you’re here all week. We can blow up a bus later.”
“Wouldn’t be my first time,” Percy muttered, as bitter as the wind.
Beckendorf punched him in the arm, and he must have been holding back because nothing broke. Percy staggered sideways and started laughing as he rubbed his arm. “Ow.”
“That’s the spirit, my young felon! Come, I’ve got something else to show you.”
Beckendorf wrapped a burly arm around Percy’s shoulders and steered him towards the arena.
After shooing away a couple of cranky campers in puffy jackets, Beckendorf put his hand to his mouth and gave a long whistle that would have made any Manhattan cabbie proud.
A thunderous woof from the forest caused a flock of birds to take flight, and Percy grinned, bracing his stance as Mrs. O’Leary came bounding towards them.
When she saw Percy, she gave a delighted, “Woof!” that shook the ground.
Percy held out his arms, and she slid to a stop, lifting him off his feet with her snout as he hugged her.
Her massive tail thumped the arena, stirring up clouds of clay, and Percy smiled, sinking into her drooly embrace. “Hey, girl. Did you miss me?”
He had seen her just before the trip to the Underworld, but he hadn’t really gotten to enjoy her company at the time. Now, he starfished across her snout and breathed in deeply. She smelled like night. Shadows and forests and earth, not unlike Nico.
Finally, she set him down and gave him a long lick that soaked his right side.
“Ugh, gross,” he said, shaking out his drool-covered arm. He flung the liquid off and rubbed under her chin. “You are so lucky you’re cute,” he grumbled fondly.
Beckendorf snickered. “Not the usual adjective for a hellhound, but our girl is special, isn’t she?”
Percy’s grin took on a playful edge. “Our girl? So you finally admit to joint custody!”
Beckendorf scowled while Percy beamed, and then finally he sighed. “Yeah, yeah. She won me over. What can I say? You were right.”
“I don’t blame you. She is the best dog in the whole wide world. Aren’t you, girl?”
“Woof!” Mrs. O’Leary agreed.
Percy climbed onto her back and started rubbing between her ears with both arms, which made her back leg start twitching and kicking the ground in bliss. She let out a pleased huff and laid down as Percy pet her. It was a full-body workout, but one he was happy to do.
When she was boneless on the ground and Percy’s arms started to feel like lead weights, he asked, “So what was it you wanted to show me? Made a new squeaky toy of death?”
“Nah, man. Something better,” Beckendorf promised.
He went over to the bleachers and started dragging a huge, glittering bronze something onto the arena grounds.
“I had to work with Malcolm and Annabeth to get the weave right for flexible, but sturdy celestial bronze like this, but it was totally worth it for our gorgeous girl, isn’t that right, Mrs. O’Leary?”
She gave a soft, pleased, “Woof.”
Percy grinned. “A celestial bronze collar?”
“It has smiley faces on it,” Beckendorf pointed out. “That way our forces know she’s friendly.
“It also has bones on it,” Percy retorted.
“Yeah, well, those are drakon bones.”
“Naturally,” Percy said, laying the sarcasm on thick.
Beckendorf rolled his eyes. “Just help me put it on.”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Percy said with a two-fingered salute.
Beckendorf muttered something about sassy children, but he was smiling as he tossed part of the collar up towards Percy so he could guide it over the hellhound’s massive neck.
Mrs. O’Leary lifted her head to make it easier for Beckendorf to fasten the massive, bronze collar under her chin, and then she gave him a big, wet lick.
“Ugh. I love you, too,” he said, equal parts disgusted and fond as he rubbed her side.
Percy waited a few seconds, watching his friend squirm in hellhound slobber before he whisked off the saliva with a flick of his wrist.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” Percy slid off of Mrs. O’Leary’s neck and looked at the giant, bone-shaped dog tag.
It read: Mrs. O’Leary; Delphi Strawberry Service, 3.141 Farm Road, Long Island, NY and then, smaller, in bronze font, If found, please contact Percy Jackson.
“Excellent work, as always, B,” Percy said, swallowing back a strange surge of emotions in his throat.
Beckendorf patted his back and pulled out a thermos from his scuffed, red toolbox. “C’mon, Perce, I’ve got a free afternoon, and we’ve got a truck-sized dog who loves cuddling. Let’s hear all about your latest misadventures over cocoa.”
Percy gave a wet chuckle as Mrs. O’Leary curled around them on the ground, creating a bubble of warmth in the chilly, winter air.
“Yeah, okay. That sounds good.”
So he settled down with Mrs. O’Leary at his back and Beckendorf at his side as he launched into the story of the Sword of Hades.