The Winged Warrior

Chapter 7

"Okay." I called. The table fell respectfully silent, apart from Grover, who was snacking on tin cans.

"I called this meeting to discuss the recent attacks, and try to find a link between them. We need to find a pattern so we can predict these attacks before it's too late."

Murmuring. Then, a voice from the end of the table asked, "How do you know there's a link at all?"

It was Thalia, who was obviously visiting the camp with the hunters. I still found it disturbing that she didn't look a day older than sixteen.

"I think we can all agree," I replied, "That two attacks in one day is not normal. Something weird is happening. I... I can feel it."

It was true. It was only now that I realized that a cold chill had been haunting me for weeks. Something big was about to happen, and for a demigod or even a chaos warrior, that's not good.

I was just about to say something else when my head snapped to the side. A derisive snort had just come from the end of the table, and my eyes locked in on Nicolas, who was sitting sideways on his chair with his dirty trainers of the table, eating a powdery something from a bag. I was about to ask him what his problem was when I realized the bag was labeled Monster Donuts'. Oh no.

"Where did you get that!?" I asked in alarm, staring at the bag in Nicolas' hands.

"Where do you think, duh brain? From the shop in the forest." He waved his hand vaguely towards the wood surrounding the cabins that was visible out the large windows of the big house.

I jumped to my feet. So did the other Chaos warriors and unsurprisingly, Annabeth.

The others just looked confused.

We ran out of the big house and into the woods. Once we were in far enough it was easy to find the shop, we just followed our noses and arrived at a huge, pink-and-white building in an area of the forest that no one really went into. I could see a baby telekhine with his nose in a box, and a dracaena at the counter, but apart from them in was deserted.

"How did Nicolas get in?" Annabeth whispered to the air behind us. "Only monsters can get in."

I laughed under my breath. I guess being a son of Kronos made you a monster, in a way. I didn't like thinking like that, but Nicolas had long since proved what side he was on.

"This must be how the hellhounds could get through the barrier!" Annabeth continued. "They were drawing power from a source inside the camp - like a secret entrance for monsters."

Though I didn't like admitting that Annabeth was right, it made sense. She was the daughter of Athena, after all.

If the monsters had a source of power within the camp - a power for monsters only - it would explain not only how they got in, but also why we couldn't sense its aura. Usually something that powerful has a sort of pulsing energy around it. I recalled how I had felt when I was standing near the Athena Parthenos, or even further back, teetering on the edge of the hole to Tartarus in my dreams.

"How do we destroy it?" I asked her.

She thought to herself for a moment, then said, "There should be one monster the shop draws its power from. I'd expect it's inside, but we'd have to break the magical barrier that only lets monster through."

"Easy." I muttered, and waved my hand. A ripple passed through the surrounding area like a heat-haze, and then vanished. "Gone."

"Sooo..." said Luke tentatively, "Go in, find big monster, kill big monster, go out."

"Yup." I replied.

"Oh joy."

We walked right up to the shop, but before we could enter the dracaena spotted us. With a hiss of alarm, the monster reached behind the counter and pressed a small blue button on the edge of the desk.