Another Love ─── L. Castellan

xxvii. i disagree with earlier thoughts; don't become a matador

"Down!" Tyson yelled.

"What the actual...?" A hand went over my mouth.

"Don't you dare," I shot Luke a glare as the bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.

Annabeth came running over to me and Luke. My ankle felt like it was filled with acid, but she gave me some nectar to drink from her canteen, and I immediately started to feel better. The hair on my arms had been completely singed off, and I was glad my eyebrows hadn't gone with it.

"The other bull?" I asked.

Annabeth pointed down the hill. Clarisse had taken care of Bad Cow Number Two. She'd impaled it through the back leg with a celestial bronze spear. Now, with its snout half gone and a huge gash in its side, it was trying to run in slow motion, going in circles like some kind of merry-go-round animal.

Clarisse pulled off her helmet and marched toward us.

"How...? Why are you here?" Luke pulled me to my feet at Clarisse's question.

"Good question, Clarisse," I replied, shaking my ankle. "My school was blown up this morning and these two decided that it was time I came back. Aren't you glad?"

"No." 

"Fair enough," I replied, before holding out my hand for her to slap. "I see you've been having so much fun without me."

"Don't get me started," She groaned, before someone cried in pain. "I'll be back."

Tyson chose that moment to turn up, and I stared at him. "You didn't die."

Tyson looked down like he was embarrassed. "I am sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you."

"My fault," Annabeth said. "I had no choice. I had to let Tyson cross the boundary line to save you. Otherwise, you would've died."

"Let him cross the boundary line?'" I asked. "But—"

"Andi," Luke said. "have you ever looked at Tyson closely? I mean...in the face. Ignore the Mist, and really look at him."

The Mist makes humans see only what their brains can process and I knew it could fool demigods too, but...

I looked Tyson in the face. It wasn't easy. I'd always had trouble looking directly at him, though I'd never quite understood why. But it was odd, there was nothing strange about Tyson, nothing at all...

He had one eye.

One eye. 

One large, calf-brown eye, right in the middle of his forehead, with thick lashes and big tears trickling down his cheeks on either side.

"Oh..." My eyes widened. "Tyson, you're a..."

"Cyclops," Annabeth offered. "A baby, by the looks of him. Probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easily as the bulls. Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."

"One of the what?"

"They're in almost all the big cities," Annabeth said distastefully. "They're seen as mistakes, Romy. Children of nature spirits and gods, well, one god in particular, usually, and they don't always get treated right. No one wants them. They get tossed aside. They grow up wild on the streets. I don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you. We should take him to Chiron, let him decide what to do."

"Okay, that's about fried my brain. Fire...Why...How?"

"He's a Cyclops." Annabeth paused, as if she were remembering something unpleasant. "They work the forges of the gods. They have to be immune to fire. That's what I was trying to tell you."

I was completely shocked. How had I never realized what Tyson was? But I didn't have much time to think about it just then. The whole side of the hill was burning. Wounded heroes needed attention. And there were still two banged-up bronze bulls to dispose of, which I didn't figure would fit in our normal recycling bins.

Clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can stand, get up. We need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."

"Tantalus?" I asked.

"The activities director," Clarisse said impatiently.

"Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."

Clarisse made a sour face. "Argus got fired. You've been gone too long. Things are changing."

"But Chiron...He's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. He can't just be gone. What happened?"

" That happened," Clarisse snapped, but Luke rested a hand on her shoulder. 

"Get Annabeth and the wounded to camp. I'll wait here with Andi and the cyclops, catch her up," He replied gently, as the two younger girls nodded and took off back towards the camp. "Stop the burning, Andi."

I huffed at being commanded, but agreed. Taking a deep breath, I summoned all of my power, pulling the water from the lake further down the hill, feeling it seep through the soil and up towards the hill. The grass grew damp beneath me as the fires began to sputter out, not being able to burn on the now soggy grass. When I opened my mouth, we were surrounded by steam, and Luke was staring at Thalia's tree once more.

"What haven't you told me?" I joined him, staring at the tree.

Every camper knew the story behind the tree. Six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, Luke, and one other demigods, Thalia, had come to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters. When they got cornered on top of this hill, Thalia had made her last stand here to give her friends time to reach safety. As she was dying, her father, Zeus, took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.

But now, its needles were yellow. A huge pile of dead ones littered the base of the tree. In the centre of the trunk, three feet from the ground, was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole, oozing green sap.

Thalia's tree was dying.

"Gods..." I muttered, staring at it in horror, before twisting to face my boyfriend, who's face was hollow and anguished. "Luke, I-I'm sorry."

Reaching up, I pulled him down into me, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing his forehead.

"You didn't tell me."

"I didn't want to worry you." He sighed. "You were doing so well at school, and it was your final year, and then this happened and I didn't want this to put a dampener on it."

"Shit, Luke, it wouldn't have." I clung onto him a little tighter. "I'm here now."

"It's like watching her die all over again." He pulled away, staring at the tree. "I mean, I know she's dead, but th

"What happened?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Someone poisoned the tree."

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Hiya,

So, have a chapter. Andi and Luke are sweethearts, and she's finally worked out about Tyson. Her and Clarisse are just chaotic.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx