Chapter 9 Just Call Me Frodo Booger
Just Call Me Frodo Booger
“You saw Grant disappear?” Benny repeated.
Zuri shifted uncomfortably. “Well…sort of. I didn’t realize what I saw until tonight, when we were at dinner. I guess it’s more accurate to say I smelled Grant disappear.”
Benny, Harper, and I exchanged confused looks.
“You’re going to have to help us with that,” Harper said, toweling off scolex puke. “Take us back. What do you mean?”
Zuri began tugging off her fireproof gloves, which I took as permission to do the same. “You know how we had to make our offerings to the gods at dinner?” she asked.
Harper frowned. “Yeah?”
“When you put your offering in the flames, what did the smoke smell like?”
“Uh…lavender and s-salt water,” Harper said. His eyes got a little misty, but he didn’t elaborate.
“Leather and picadillo,” Benny said. “Leather, I guess because of the cows around our farm. And picadillo’s a ground beef dish my abuela makes.”
The others looked at me. “Cinnamon and toasted rice.” I gestured to Benny. “The rice, I guess, reminds me of home, too.”
“And the cinnamon?” Zuri prompted.
I hesitated. I’d just assumed the cinnamon was another cooking smell from our kitchen, but Mom didn’t cook with cinnamon very much. So what did I associate cinnamon with?
“Grant!” I said. “It reminds me of Grant!”
Harper wrinkled his nose. “Oh, yeah. He was chewing that cinnamon gum when we got abducted. It always smelled like someone had just sneezed.”
Zuri pointed at Harper. “Right? Well, tonight, when I made my offering, I realized how important scents can be. They remind us of people and things we care about.”
“What did you smell at your offering?” I asked.
Zuri ran her pendant along her chain. “Eucalyptus and hot tires,” she said reluctantly.
“But that’s not important. It just made me remember something that happened in the Wild Zone.
At one point, I got caught in this weird foggy area.
It felt like something was breathing down my neck.
So I crouched down and waited. A dark shape passed maybe thirty feet in front of me, and there was this smell, like sea water and cinnamon. ”
“Grant,” I said, almost breathlessly.
Benny scrunched his forehead. “I get the cinnamon, but sea water? What’s that about?”
Zuri shrugged. “At the time, I thought it was a monster. I’d run into half a dozen by then. But if it was Grant, I’m glad I didn’t shoot him with an arrow.”
My heart did somersaults in my chest. I wanted to ask Zuri what section of the grid this had happened in, but sadly, nobody else used my system. “How long was this before you got out of the Wild Zone?”
Zuri looked pensive. “Not long.”
“And you were the last one out of the woods,” I noted. “Which means if that was Grant you saw, he must’ve gotten away from the thing in the trees. He was still alive and moving toward camp quite some time after I…lost him.”
I meant abandoned him, but I couldn’t make myself say it.
I was hoping the other newbies would support my theory. Whatever had happened to Grant, it wasn’t because I’d left him to face that thing in the trees. Maybe I wasn’t totally a bad person. But I didn’t like their grim expressions.
“We’re assuming a lot based on the smell of cinnamon,” Harper said.
“There’s another possibility.” Benny grimaced, like he didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news. “If it was Grant’s gum you smelled, he might not have been moving under his own power. Something could have been carrying him. Or…”
A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Benny didn’t need to finish his thought. Something could have had Grant for dinner and then gone for a stroll in the woods, belching cinnamon.
“No,” I said. “No, the satyrs didn’t catch Grant’s scent at all. If he’d been…If he wasn’t alive anymore, there’d be something left behind. He’s probably still alive.”
Benny and Zuri looked dubious.
Harper rubbed his chin. “I suppose he could’ve been taken to a lair…. That’s a thing monsters do, right? But without knowing what kind we’re dealing with—”
“Not a problem,” I said. “There’s got to be a camp library or monster database or something. I can do research.”
“Why, though?” Benny asked.
I stared at him with an appalled expression. “Because I want to save Grant! Aren’t you all about looking out for one another?”
“Yes, but…” Benny shook his head. “What I meant is why would monsters that dangerous be allowed inside camp anyway? I thought the whole point of the magical borders was to keep monsters out.”
I chewed my lip as I considered this. I remembered Benny telling me that safe wasn’t the first word he conjured when he thought of Camp Half-Blood, but he was right. This felt different—too dangerous even for demigods in training.
“And,” Benny continued, “why would this thing attack Grant? Why would it carry him off rather than just, you know, eat him? Did Grant have something that it wanted?”
“Huh.” I leaned against the counter, hands shoved in my pockets. My fingertips brushed metal, and I froze.
The ring.
Grant had pulled it from a fissure in the Wild Zone. What if it belonged to the thing that had chased us?
“I hear Grant’s rich,” Harper said. “That’s motive right there.”
Zuri gave him a skeptical look. “For a monster that lives in the woods?”
“Maybe there’s no monster. Maybe the mist was a distraction.” Harper’s eyes widened. “A…a smokescreen! People use them all the time.” Zuri raised an eyebrow at him, and he shrugged. “Dramatic people use them all the time. Whatever.”
“And these people somehow knew Grant was going into the Wild Zone?” Benny asked.
“Hermes is the god of thieves, right?” Harper countered.
“No offense, but the Stoll brothers don’t exactly seem trustworthy.
Maybe they saw this rich kid go into the woods and thought they could shake him down for money.
They drop a smoke bomb, gag him, and carry him back to their hideout to hold him for ransom. ”
Zuri looked Harper over. “You know an alarming amount about how to abduct someone.”
Harper attempted a menacing glare. “I have a very particular set of skills.”
Zuri rolled her eyes. Benny scowled, maybe wondering if the Hermes cabin really could have a secret hideout. I continued to stand there, running my thumb along the ring in my pocket.
Harper nudged me. “Katie, back me up. It’s possible humans could be involved rather than monsters, right?”
I wanted to shrug and say nothing. I supposed Harper’s theory was possible.
But it was also possible that the ring in my pocket was responsible for Grant’s disappearance.
If I told Harper, Benny, and Zuri about it, how could I be sure they wouldn’t turn me in and get me kicked out of camp?
I wasn’t ready to go back home. Not yet.
“Katie?” Harper touched my shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Whatever happened, we’ll figure it out together. We’ve got your back.”
Right then, a switch flipped in my brain.
There was no charmspeak involved—only an earnest look from Harper and the memory of how he’d genuinely seemed to understand my side of things when Grant first went missing.
I didn’t have to trust him or Benny or Zuri completely, but I couldn’t deny they’d been there for me several times now. Having a few allies wouldn’t hurt.
And allies shared crucial intel.
I took a deep breath. “I’m sticking with the theory that a monster took Grant.”
Zuri pumped her fist. “Ha!” Then she lowered her hand. “That was a weird thing to celebrate. Sorry.”
“What makes you so sure?” Benny asked me.
“Because I haven’t told you everything that happened last night.” I reached into my pocket and took out the ring. It glistened in my palm, the sapphires catching the light and showing off their brilliance.
The others gathered around me and gawked as I explained how Grant and I had found it.
“It was just lying in a ditch?” Zuri asked.
“It was actually more like a fissure,” I said. “Like the ground had split open. Grant reached inside and pulled it out.” I glanced at Benny. “When you said you wondered what the monster might have wanted from Grant…maybe this was it.”
He scratched his head. “That takes us back to Zuri’s earlier point. What would a monster want with riches?”
“Maybe it hoards them!” Harper said. “Like a dragon.” He gasped and grabbed my arm. “Like Smaug!”
I wrinkled my forehead. “Who?”
“The dragon from The Lord of the Rings,” Zuri said. She looked at Harper with an approving smile. “You’re a Ringer, huh?”
He blushed. “I mean, I’ve seen the movies a few times…every year since I was six.” He cleared his throat. “Also, Smaug is technically from The Hobbit. Although he does get a brief mention in—”
“Can we please focus?” I said.
“Right. Sorry.” Harper shook his head. “So Smaug could sense magic from this superpowerful ring called the One Ring. Maybe what you’re holding is magic too.”
The rest of us joined Harper’s staring contest with the ring in my palm.
“What happens when you put it on?” Benny whispered reverently.
“I’ve never tried,” I admitted. “I’ve just been carrying it.”
A slow smile spread across Harper’s face. “I’ll bet it turns you invisible like Frodo Baggins. And to save the world, you have to journey to Mordor and drop the ring”—he gasped and pointed at the sink full of lava—“in Mount Doom!”
Zuri and Benny gaped at the sink, entranced by Harper’s story.
Meanwhile, my stomach twisted at almost every word. “I don’t want any of that. I just want to save my…” Friend? Family? Both. “I just want this nightmare to end. So if that’s what it takes…” I tossed the ring toward the sink.
“NO!!!” Zuri, Benny, and Harper all shouted.
Zuri caught the ring right before it reached the sink. Those archer reflexes were pretty impressive.
“Are these lava fumes getting to your brain?” She shoved the ring back into my hand. “You don’t just throw something like this away!”
I pointed at Harper. “But he said!”
Harper held up his hands defensively. “Hey, it was a theory built on hopes and dreams. This ring might do something totally different.”
I held it out to him. “Then here.”
He smiled kindly. “It wasn’t meant for me. Also, if it’s cursed, no thank you.”
“It wasn’t meant for me, either.” I offered it to Zuri.
“Nooo.” She shied away. “I’ve got enough going on.”
When I turned toward Benny, he shook his head. “Grant gave it to you for a reason, Katie.”
I frowned. “Yeah, because I was standing beside him, not because I’m Frodo Booger.”
Harper cleared his throat. “Frodo Baggins. And you should put the ring on. See what happens.”
I marveled at him. “You just said it might be cursed! And now you want to ‘see what happens’? How very Oppenheimer of you. What if I explode?”
“Then it’s a good thing we’re wearing these protective suits,” Zuri said.
I gave her a withering look. “That’s not helping.”
Benny gripped my shoulder. “What if that ring has the power to help you find Grant? Maybe the two of you were led to it because you’re children of Ares.”
“Led to it?” I repeated.
He shrugged. “I mean…we’re living in a world full of gods and prophecies and magic, so maybe.”
I ran my fingers along the edge of the ring again. Magic could be good or bad. It just depended on the user, right? And if this ring was dangerous, it probably would have been locked away somewhere more secure than a fissure in the forest, right?
“Come on, do it. Do it! Do it!” Harper chanted and looked to Zuri and Benny, who joined in. “Do it! Do it!”
“This is literally peer pressure,” I informed them.
“No, it’s peer encouragement to embrace your demigod power and see what happens,” Zuri said while Harper and Benny continued to chant.
“Right. I’m part god.” My breathing came hard and fast as I lifted the ring level with my right index finger. “Okay, Dad, if you ever cared anything about me or Mom, don’t let me die.”
I jammed my eyes shut and turned my head away. Then I slid the ring onto my finger.
Everyone fell silent.
Nothing happened.
I cautiously peeked at my finger. It was still intact, with the ring on it.
Harper, Zuri, and Benny all dropped their shoulders.
“Well, that was a big letdown,” Harper said.
“Right?” I agreed, but secretly I was relieved. “I guess it’s just a pretty ring.”
Zuri crossed her arms. “So that’s not why Grant got abducted.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But the monster took him for a reason. And I’m going back to the Wild Zone to investigate.”
“What?!” Benny lifted both eyebrows. “When?”
“Tomorrow night.” I hoped saying it out loud would give me the courage to go through with it. “During the baton race, it’ll be chaos. Kids running everywhere. Nobody will even notice I’m missing.”
Zuri squinted thoughtfully. “That’s a good point.”
“And you’re doing this by yourself?” Benny shook his head. “Bad idea.”
“You think Clarisse or anyone else from my cabin’s going to help?”
“No,” he said. “But we could.” Benny glanced at Harper and Zuri. “Right?”
I never thought it was possible for a child of Aphrodite to have a bad smile, but at that moment, Harper’s was so forced I couldn’t look directly at it. “Oh. Suuure?”
I threw my hands up. “What happened to ‘We’ve got your back’?”
“We do!” Harper protested. “It’s just…during the race, I’m supposed to run the anchor leg for my cabin.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d seen how fast Harper could run. But if he was running the last portion of the race, he’d be stuck at his position waiting for the baton and couldn’t possibly sneak away. That was a huge bummer.
Benny nudged Zuri, who was staring just past him into space.
She startled and shook her head. “Look, I—I’m sorry, I can’t. I’ve got…other plans.”
Benny furrowed his brow. Before he could say anything else, I held up a hand.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’ll do this alone.”
I marched back to the sink and started sorting the clean silverware into trays.
Behind me, feet shuffled, hazmat suits crinkled, and bits of conversation caught my ear over the sound of clanking cutlery.
“…wants to make things right.”
Clatter.
“…here for a reason, Benny. I can’t get distracted.”
Clatter.
“…they’d kill me if I backed out!”
Finally, a hand touched my arm. I turned to face Benny, Zuri, and Harper standing shoulder to shoulder.
“We’ll give it one more day,” Benny said. “If nobody finds him by tomorrow night, we’ll come up with a plan of our own. We’re with you.”
I glanced at Zuri and Harper to see if they actually agreed with him. Zuri nodded, though she still looked grumpy. Harper smiled—but this time, it was more genuine.
“Tomorrow, then,” I said.
I only half believed it. My record on trusting people to do the right thing wasn’t great. But one way or another, I would go to the Wild Zone tomorrow.
Even if I had to go by myself.