"Keep climbing,' he told himself.'Cheeseburgers,' his stomach replied.'Shut up,' he thought.'With fries,' his stomach complained."

"Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be..." He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us." Apparently Narcissus wasn't completely stupid."

"Frank couldn't breathe underwater.But where was he?Percy turned in a full circle. Nothing. Then he glanced up. Hovering above him was a giant goldfish. Frank had turned -clothes, backpack, and all- into a koi the size of a teen-aged boy."dude." Percy sent his thoughts through the water, the way he spoke to other sea creatures. "A goldfish?"Frank's voice came back to him: "I freaked. We were talking about goldfish, so it was on my mind. Sue me."

"Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument."

"Percy: "You asked Poseidon for" me? Tyson: "For a friend, young cyclopes grow up alone on the streets, learns to make things out of scraps. Learn to survive." Percy: "But that's so cruel! Tyson: "Makes us appreciate blessings, not be greedy and mean and fat like Polyphemus. But I got scared. Monsters chased me so much, clawed me sometimes--" Percy: "The scars on your back? Tyson: "Sphinx on Seventy-second Street. Big Bully. I prayed to Daddy for help. Soon the people at Meriwether found me. Mey you. Biggest blessing ever. Sorry I said Poseidon was mean. He sent me a brother."

"We're staying together," he promised. "You're not getting away from me. Never again."

"Could an Olympian parent turn against his half-blood child? Would it sometimes be easier just to let them die? If there were ever any half-bloods who needed to worry about that, it was Thalia and me. I wondered if maybe I should've sent Poseidon that seashell pattern tie for Father's Day after all."

"No one should know his entire fate. It's too dangerous and too depressing. Just keep going, do your best, and hope it's good enough. That's all any of us can do."

"Because I'm not normal, I said."You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are."

"You promised you would protect her Nico said. He might as well have stabbed me with a rusty dagger.It would've hurt less than reminding me of my promise."

"She blinked. "Hmm? Oh, don't care. What did Anubis look like to you?""What did... he looked like a guy. So?""A good-looking guy, or a slobbering dog-headed guy?""I guess... Not the dog-headed guy.""I knew it!" Sadie pointed at me as if she'd won an argument."Good-looking. I knew it!"And with a ridiculous grin, she spun around and skipped into the house. My sister, as I may have mentioned, is a little strange."

"We're fine.' A few feet away, Aurum snarled quietly, which meant Nico was lying."

"Is Tyson okay?" I asked.The question seemed to take my dad by surprise. He's fine. Doing much better than I expected. Though "peanut butter" is a strange battle cry."You let him fight?"Stop changing the subject! You realize what you are asking me to do? My palace will be destroyed."And Olympus might be saved."Do you have any idea how long I've worked on remodeling this palace? The game room alone took six hundred years."Dad-"Very well! It shall be as you say. But my son, pray this works."I am praying. I'm talking to you, right?"Oh . . . yes. Good point."

"Exquisitely painful, isn't it? Not being sure who you love and who loves you."

"There was Tyson moving into the Poseidon cabin, giggling to himself every fifteen seconds and saying, "Percy is my brother?" like he'd just won the lottery.Aw, Tyson," I'd say. "It's not that simple."

"The journey is greater than the destination."

"I had a fair idea how it felt to get spanked with a large flat surface, and my rump clenched in sympathy."

"Running with a drowsy child of Hades was more like doing a 3 -legged race with a life size rag doll."

"Leo frowned at the giant's spire. "Can't we blow it up or something?""Without me, you do not have the power," Hera said. "You might as well try to destroy a mountain.""Done that once today," Jason said."

"Two farewell gifts," Sadie muttered, "from two gorgeous guys. I hate my life."

"The truth hit him. Jason wasn't quite Roman anymore. His time at Camp Half-Blood had changed him. Reyna had recognized that. Apparently, so did the undead legionnaires. If Jason no longer gave off the right sort of vibe, or aura of a Roman leader..."

"Poseidon held out his arms and gave me a hug. I realized, a little embarrassed, that I'd never actually hugged my dad before. He was warm-like a regular human-and he smelled of a salty beach and fresh sea air."

"The crew gathered for a hurried meeting on the foredeck " mostly because Percy was keeping an eye on a giant red sea serpent swimming off the port side. 'That thing is really red,' Percy muttered. 'I wonder if it's cherry-flavoured.' 'Why don't you swim over and find out?' Annabeth asked. 'How about no."

"Otis," I said."Shhh," he said. "I'm incognito. Call me...Otis.""I'm not sure that's how incognito works, but okay."Otis, aka Otis climbed into the chair I'd reserved for Sam."

"Hazel squinted. "How far?""Just over the river and through the woods."Percy raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? To Grandmother's house we go?"Frank cleared his throat. "Yeah, anyway."

"Annabeth came up to me. She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder-ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first."

"Holding a grudge is a fatal flaw."

"THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD!!!!"

"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.Er, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"Hades," Kronos growled. "I hope you and the ladies have come to pledge your allegiance." "I'm afraid not." Hades sighed. "My son here convinced me that perhaps I should prioritize my list of enemies." He glanced at me with distaste. "As much as I dislike certainupstart demigods, it would not do for Olympus to fall. I would miss bickering with my siblings. And if there is one thing we agree on-it is that you were a TERRIBLE father."

"I should throw you off this building minus the flying horse and see how heroic you sound on the way down."

"His left eyebrow crept higher and higher as I told him the strange bits like the glowing letters and serpent staff. "Well, Sadie," Inspector Williams said. "You've got quite an imagination." "I'm not lying, Inspector. And I think your eyebrow is trying to escape." He tried to look at his own eyebrows, then scowled."

"Now, he realized, he simply had to take what he wanted. He had to control the winds, not the other way around (p. 434)."

"When Nico had woken up at Barrachina and found the Hunters' note about kidnapping Reyna, he'd torn apart the courtyard in rage. He didn't want the Hunters stealing another important person from him. Fortunately, he'd got Reyna back, but he didn't like how brooding she had become. Every time he tried to ask her about the incident on the Calle San Jose " those ghosts on the balcony, all staring at her, whispering accusations " Reyna shut him down."

"She decided to make his life as terrible, tragic and complicated as possible, so that some day Percy Jackson would have a really hard time writing about it."

"If you look at it from any other side, it looks like a pile of enormous deer droppings, but Chiron wouldn't let us call the place the Poop Pile, especially after it had been named for Zeus, who doesn't have much of a sense of humor."

"Tell me when it's over " Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to us so we couldn't fall but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world. "Everything's fine " I promised. "Are... are we very high " I looked down. Below us a range of snowy mountains zipped by. I stretched out my foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks. "Nah " I said. "Not that high."

"It was best to appreciate what you had and not yearn for more."

"You are amazing," she said. "And you make a very handsome elephant."

"I will see you again,' Hades promised. 'I will prepare a room for you at the palace in case you do not survive. Perhaps your chambers would look good decorated with the skulls of monks.' 'Now I can't tell if you're joking.' Hades's eyes glittered as his form began to fade. 'Then perhaps we are alike in some important ways.' The god vanished."

"Silena appeared out of the woods, her sword drawn. Her Aphrodite armour was pink and red, colour coordinated to match her clothes and makeup. She looked like Guerilla Warfare Barbie."

"You are okay?" he asked. "Not eaten by monsters?""Not even a little bit." I showed him that I still had both arms and both legs, and Tyson clapped happily."Yay!" he said. "Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!"I hoped he didn't mean all at the same time, but I told him absolutely, we'd have a lot of fun this summer."

"That's what being a demigod was all about, not quite belonging in the mortal world or on Mount Olympus but trying to make peace with both sides of their nature."

"Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!"

"Question (from a reader) : Will the Wise Goddess Athena overthrow Zeus and become the ruler of Olympus?Athena's answer : What an interesting idea . . . No, just kidding, Dad. Put away the lightning bolt."

"Paul patted Mrs. O'Leary's snout. The living room shook -BOOM, BOOM, BOOM-which either meant a SWAT team was breaking down the door or Mrs. O'Leary was wagging her tail.I couldn't help but smile."

"Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important.'It was probably important to her."

"I am Persephone" she said, her voice thin and papery. "Welcome, demigods.Nico squashed a pomegranate under his boot. "Welcome? After last time, you've got the nerve to welcome me?"I shifted uneasily, because talking that way to a god can get you blasted into dust bunnies. "Um, Nico-""It's all right," Persephone said coldly. "We had a little family spat.""Family spat?" Nico cried. "You turned me into a dandelion!"

"A half-blood of the eldest dogs..."

"Erre es korakas, Blinky!" Dionysus cursed. "I will have your soul!"