Chapter 1

I did not enjoy being turned into an owl.

Being turned into a flying animal may have been one of my dreams when I was younger, but this was another thing altogether. I guess that's the point of being disciplined, you aren't supposed to enjoy it. By my understanding, there comes a point in your life when you should get to stand up to your parents. When you can just throw in the towel and finally say no to whatever ridiculous or menial task they ask you to do. But when your parents include the goddess of wisdom herself, it kind of defeats the purpose. Goddesses are used to getting their way, so maybe blowing Athena off wasn't the smartest thing to do. But then again, the immortal beings never really considered how us demigods felt about quests.

I had stayed up late, the light on my desk casting elongated shadows onto the cabin walls. I had just been struck with a sudden inspiration. Since the linking of Camp Jupiter to Camp Half-Blood, the flow of information had been important in strengthening the bonds between the Greeks and Romans. We taught them how to make Greek fire, they taught us how to build ballistae, that sort of thing. However, I was more interested in sharing information about monsters. It was common knowledge that contrary to the ordered and disciplined style of Camp Jupiter, many of the demigods at Camp Half-Blood would face deadly monsters by themselves. If we could...

My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a brilliant flash of white. I shielded my eyes, but it quickly disappeared as soon as it came. I turned to face the source of the light, meeting the gaze of... Mother.

"Why the late night visit Mother?" I asked casually.

"Business," she replied, glancing at the contents of the cabin. Her eyes took in the sleeping forms of my siblings, then over to the half-finished projects that lay strewn across the desks.

I turned back to my papers. If Athena wanted to talk business she would take it up with Annabeth. Athena was silent for a minute, and then cleared her throat. I ignored her at first, thinking she was trying to rouse Annabeth from sleep.

"Ahem," it sounded more deliberate this time, clearly trying to get my attention.

I turned around, not sure what the issue was.

"My business is with you."

"You have my attention," I crossed my arms, leaning back in my chair.

Athena reached into her ivory white chiton, pulling out a scroll. She handed it to me. I unfurled it, scanning the writing quickly.

Greek Mythos, a comprehensive study of the creatures and deities of your world.

This encyclopedia contains all of the relevant information you will ever need, ranging from the most dangerous enemies to your closest allies. Buy now and get 25% off!

There were more details in the scroll, but the opening sentences really caught my attention. Clearly, this was a book deal of some sort, which seemed like something weird to ask for my help.

"What does this have to do with me?"

"I need you to write this for me."

"Well, I'm not interested, find someone else," I tossed the scroll in her general direction before going back to my work. I had barely picked up my pencil before Mom snapped her fingers.

At first, the only noticeable change was that the desk seemed to be getting bigger. The pencil in my hand started growing bigger too.

It's not getting bigger, I'm getting smaller!

I turned back around, realizing that I was having to crane my neck higher and higher to meet the steel grey eyes as Athena towered over me. My arms started to recede and my skin started to become more translucent, revealing large flight feathers. They grew larger until they stretched my skin, breaking through to replace it. The process was itchy, and as I tried to scratch myself, I realized my arms had already formed wings. With no other choice, I lifted my foot, which had turned into sharp as knives talons. I flexed my "toes" experimentally, the talons responded in kind.

"Why don't you take a moment to reconsider my child?" suggested Athena. She said the last two words with a dangerous note in her voice. The chiton wearing goddess had no sympathy on her face.

"Why can't you ever take a jo-" I tried to get out, but my lips dissolved and hardened into an inarticulate beak. I ended the sentence with a pathetic hoot.

"Perhaps you would be more inclined if I made that form permanent and dropped you in the forest..." she mused.

I blanched, which did not translate onto my owl face because I'm pretty sure I never saw an owl do facial expressions. They usually looked like they just did a bunch drugs, or were perpetually surprised with their bugged out eyes. The forest wasn't safe, even for animals. Especially the kind of owl I had turned into. Judging from the long legs and short wings, Mom had turned me into a burrowing owl, more suited for grassland than forest. Compound that with the small detail of monsters being kept in the woods, and I was thoroughly spooked. My body puffed up, making my feathers stick out more than usual which I assumed was the owl equivalent of surprise or I might have been attempting to woo a mate.

No thank you, Mother. Can you remind me what you wanted again? My mind is starting to swim with images of delicious rats... I mean rats.

Lacking a mouth, I tried thinking this line over and over, hoping for some kind of breakthrough. I concentrated on sending the message telepathically to Athena, which was difficult as images of rats swirled on the edges of my mind.

Athena wrinkled her nose, "Why are you sending me pictures of rats?"

"Hoooo~" I responded ruefully. Looking for another way to communicate, I flew silently over to my desk, which probably wouldn't have made a difference because the Athena cabin slept like the dead. I tried picking up a nearby pencil with my beak, no go. It slipped out every time I tried to get a grip. Trying to pick up the pencil with my talons was no good either, my long spindle legs unable to balance correctly while I tried to write something. I definitely flopped over a few times. I threw the mechanical pencil to the ground.

Stupid mechanical pencils and their non-bird-friendly design!

I regarded the rest of my stationary with my sharpened vision. Nothing. My love of Japanese designed mechanical pencils was biting me in the butt as well as my wallet. I resolved to start using good old wood pencils again, just in case this ever happened in the future. One could never be too sure. Scanning the room again, I flew over to Annabeth's desk and stole a piece of charcoal. I used my talons to break off a small piece and jumped on it to break it into a powder. I smeared the powdered substance onto my break and proceeded to write the message on a piece of paper.

As I finished the job, I caught a glimpse of Athena's face from the corner of my eye and could swear that she was smirking, but when I looked up back at her, her stony guise was back in place. She regarded what I had written with some disdain. Not used to writing with a beak, I had messily scrawled out: 'wat u want'.

"Very well, I want you to write this encyclopedia, which shall be the foremost authority about our world," Athena reminded me.

"Hooo" I answered adamantly.

"This is ridiculous" muttered Athena, and snapped her fingers.

I regained my human form instantaneously, which wasn't exactly what I had expected because I was busy writing again with the charcoal. I noticed about halfway through that I was writing with my nose and stopped quickly, standing up. But not remembering that I was still standing on the desk, I knocked my head against the roof. I toppled over, sending the contents of the desk all over the place. Papers and books flew through the air as I hung on the stool on my stomach. I paused for a moment, certain that someone would wake up. But the constant snoring in the cabin didn't even waver.

"Percy already made one didn't he?" I asked with a piece of paper hanging off my head. Athena nodded and sensing a lecture, I began the tedious task of cleaning up Annabeth's desk before she woke up while Mom explained.

"That is true, but I'm talking about something greater, more detailed and more intricate than what he wrote. I want you to write a monster encyclopedia to surpass his. That means you have to learn about things that no one else knows."

"But he got all the important stuff, like how to kill them. I don't think any demigods really need anything else."

"Do you doubt my judgment?"

I gulped. Honestly, having the goddess of wisdom meant that she could pull all these unfair words during an argument.

I'm the goddess of wisdom so I have to be right all the time I thought mockingly.

"I heard that"

"Ok, fine, since you asked so nicely, I guess I could write something." I shrugged, placing the last few books back in their rightful place. Athena clapped once, and a large book appeared in front of me. Emblazoned on the front, in a silver font, Greek Mythos: the Monsterpedia.

"To be fair, I called in some favors, so the book can automatically fill in things as you learn them. There are spaces for notes, pictures, and videos, courtesy of IrisCam."

I flipped through some of the pages, looking at the titles. Centaur, Cyclops, Gorgon, Harpy, Kampe... I paused.

"I'm pretty sure Percy has killed like, all of these already." I realized.

"The weaker they are, the higher the population. I'm sure you can find some of the weaker ones somewhere, they spread like vermin after all. For some of the stronger ones... Well, you remember when the Doors of Death were forced open?"

I nodded, those were darker times. I had been on a recruiting quest and had to fend off the same group of empusae for months before Thanatos was freed.

"Is there any way I can make this smaller? This thing must weigh like 20 pounds!"

"Ask one of the Hephaestus kids, perhaps they may have some ideas," Athena shrugged. I looked at her in disbelief. So Annabeth gets a cool invisibility baseball cap, and I get a freaking big ass book that I have to disguise myself? That's cold. That aside, I decided to pay attention to the textbook worthy tome in front of me. Placing it on the table in front of me, I looked down at the Harpy page. There were sections on diet, social behavior, combat tips, and breeding habits.

I had to do a double take when I got to the last item.

"Wait, I thought all monsters were born from Tartarus, or from Typhon and stuff. Why is there a section on breeding habits?"

"Like I said, comprehensive, and complete. We know a great deal, but not everything."

"Why do you even need to know this?"

"It's knowledge child. You know as well as I do that knowledge is power."

"I hope they don't breed... this is going to be so weird..."

"I guess that they do. I'm sure some of the weaker ones multiply like rats."

Mmmm, rats murmured my subconscious. Shut up I told it. It looked like there were going to be side effects to my brief adventure as an owl.

"Also, aren't harpies good? I'm pretty sure camp has them around."

"I'm almost ashamed that you are my child. Didn't you hear me the first time? I want the encyclopedia to be complete. That includes evil and benign creatures."

"I'm pretty sure you shouldn't insult someone you are asking a favor from," I replied, a little hurt by her comment. Athena rolled her eyes, exasperated.

"Go, Xavier. I shall be waiting for your reports."

I took that as her cue to leave and averted my eyes. Mom went nuclear and poofed out of Cabin 6, leaving me with a headache and a very large book.