THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.

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The river gurgled along cheerfully. A snake slid through the water and ducked its head under. Finally the
naiad sighed.
“I’ll tell you a secret, son of the sea god. Scoop up some dirt.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
I crouched down and scooped up a handful of Texas dirt. It was dry and black and spotted with tiny
clumps of white rock…No, something besides rock.
“Those are shells,” the naiad said.“Petrified seashells. Millions of years ago, even before the time of the
gods, when only Gaea andOuranos reigned, this land was under the water. It was part of the sea.”
Suddenly I saw what she meant. There were little pieces of ancient sea urchins in my hand, mollusk
shells. Even the limestone rocks had impressions of seashells embedded in them.
“Okay,” I said. “What good does that do me?”
“You’re not so different from me, demigod. Even when I’m out of the water, the water is within me. It is
my life source.” She stepped back, put her feet in the river, and smiled. “I hope you find a way to rescue
your friends.”
And with that she turned to liquid and melted into the river.
***
The sun was touching the hills when I got back to the stables. Somebody must’ve come by and fed the
horses, because they were tearing into huge animal carcasses. I couldn’t tell what kind of animal, and I
really didn’t want to know. If it was possible for the stables to get more disgusting, fifty horses tearing
into raw meat did it.
Seafood!onethought when he saw me.Come in! We’re still hungry!
What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t use the river. And the fact that this place had been under water
a million years ago didn’t exactly help me now. I looked at the little calcified seashell in my palm, then at
the huge mountain of dung.
Frustrated, I threw the shell into the poop. I was about to turn my back on the horses when I heard a
sound.
PFFFFFFT!Like a balloon with a leak.
I looked down where I had thrown the shell. A tiny spout of water was shooting out of the muck.
“No way,” I muttered.
Hesitantly, I stepped toward the fence. “Get bigger,” I told the waterspout.
SPOOOOOOOSH!