Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief - Silena Beauregard's POV -

Another Dream of Danger {Chapter 22}

"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"

Percy paused, "Who said anything about dreams?"

Ares looked agitated, but he tried to cover it with a smirk.

"Let's get back to the problem at hand, kid. You're alive. I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal."

Ares snapped and out of the sand charged a huge boar, not unlike the one whose head hung on the door of cabin seven. It pawed the ground, waiting for his master's command to kill.

Percy stepped back into the water. "Fight me yourself, Ares."

He laughed, but his laughter had a sound in it that wasn't joy. Uneasiness, maybe. "You've only got one talent, kid, running away. You ran from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld. You don't have what it takes."

"Scared?" Percy said dauntingly.

"In your adolescent dreams." But his sunglasses were starting to melt from the heat of his eyes. "No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."

Annabeth yelled, "Percy, run!"

The giant boar charged.

But Percy didn't move. As the boar rushed toward him, he uncapped a pen and sidestepped. A sword appeared in his hands. Percy slashed upward. The boar's severed right tusk fell at his feet - eww - while the disoriented animal charged into the sea.

"Wave!" Percy shouted.

Immediately, a wave surged up from nowhere and engulfed the boar, wrapping around it like a blanket. The beast squealed once in terror. Then it was gone, swallowed by the sea.

    Percy turned back around to Ares. "Are you going to fight me now?" he asked. "Or are you going to hide behind another pet?"

Ares's face was purple with anger. "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into—"

"A cockroach," Percy suggested. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I'm sure. That'd save you from getting your godly hide whipped, wouldn't it?"

Flames danced along the top of Ares's glasses. "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."

"If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt. If I win, the helm and the bolt are

mine and you have to go away."

Ares sneered and swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"

    Percy lifted his sword.

    "That's cool, dead boy," he said. "Classic it is." The baseball bat transformed into a huge, two-handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.

"Percy," Annabeth said. "Don't do this. He's a god."

"He's a coward," Percy told her.

She swallowed. "Wear this, at least. For luck."

    Annabeth took off her necklace with all of her camp beads and a college ring, and tied it around Percy's neck.

    Awww, I thought. Can they be any cuter?

"Reconciliation," she said. "Athena and Poseidon together."

"Thanks." Percy smiled weakly.

"And take this," Grover said. He handed Percy a flattened tin can. "The satyrs stand behind you."