OH, CHÉRIE!¹ percy jackson

003

percy was halfway up the hill – not close enough to help. clarisse hadn't even seen them yet.

the bull moved deadly fast for something so big. its metal hide gleamed in the sun. it had fist-sized rubies for eyes and horns of polished silver. when it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.

"hold the line!" clarisse ordered her warriors.

whatever else you could say about clarisse, she was brave. she was a big girl with cruel eyes like her father's. she looked like she was born to wear greek battle armour, but ivy didn't see how even she could stand against that bull's charge.

unfortunately, ivy lost control of the second bull. it turned, wheeling around behind clarisse on her unprotected side.

"behind you!" percy yelled. "look out!"

he shouldn't have said anything, because all he did was startle her. bull number one crashed into her shield, and the phalanx broke. clarisse went flying backwards and landed in a smouldering patch of grass. the bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. their shields melted right off their arms. they dropped their weapons and ran as bull number two closed in on clarisse for the kill.

percy lunged forward and grabbed clarisse by the straps of her armour. he dragged her out of the way just as bull number two freight-trained past. he gave it a good swipe with riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.

"let me go!" clarisse pummelled his hand. "percy, curse you!"

the son of poseidon dropped her in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. they were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of camp half-blood directly below them – the cabins, the training facilities, the big house – all of it at risk if these bulls got past them.

ivy was starting to panic, she shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.

bull number one ran a wide arc, making its way back towards percy. as it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming. bull number two turned to face me, fire sputtering from the gash in its side. ivy couldn't tell if it felt any pain, but its ruby eyes seemed to glare at the culprit of said wound like he'd just made things personal.

nobody could fight both bulls at the same time. they'd have to take down bull number two first, cut its head off before bull number one got back into range.

percy lunged but bull number two blew flames at him. he rolled aside as the air turned to pure heat. his foot caught on something – a tree root, maybe. still, he managed to slash with his sword and lop off part of the monster's snout. it galloped away, wild and disoriented. but before ivy could find a way to take that to her advantage, she saw percy's leg buckled under him.

bull number one charged straight towards him. there's no way he could crawl out of its path.

ivy shouted, "tyson, help him!"

somewhere near, towards the crest of the hill, tyson wailed, "can't – get – through!"

she was going to regret it, and annabeth was probably going to hate her. but she just couldn't let percy die.

"i, ivy fitzgerald, give you permission to enter camp!"

thunder shook the hillside. suddenly tyson was there, barrelling towards percy, yelling, "percy needs help!"