Backbiter by Annabeth Chase

Chapter Three: Chariot Racing

(The Sea of Monsters pg 67-83)

To say I was angry would have been a massive understatement. I was furious that Luke had poisoned Thalia's tree. I was mad at the gods for allowing it to happen and for deciding to blame Chiron. I was angry with Chiron for packing up and leaving without even putting up a fight. I was indignant that anyone would think to parole Tantalus as Chiron's replacement (when I was little and really mad at my dad for being a jerk, I used to think well at least he isn't Tantalus but apparently no one else saw that as a major reason to not put him in charge of a bunch of children). But mostly I was cursing myself for not having the foresight to stop any of that.

Chiron had told Percy and I to stay at camp and not do anything. He seemed to be a fan of the wait and hope method. That if we just sat around doing nothing everything would magically fix itself. He hadn't said it aloud, but I knew he felt the only thing that could heal Thalia's tree was the Golden Fleece. The problem was that the Fleece had been lost for centuries and no one had any idea where to start looking. I tried to research and find anything that might help us find it, but I was so frustrated and upset that my dyslexia made reading almost impossible.

I tried to focus on the things I could control; keeping the camp safe and building a chariot with Percy while I figured out where to start looking. But every time I saw Thalia's tree I was reminded of everything that had changed over the last few days. Seeing the tree, my anger and frustration at not being able to do anything immediately rushed back to the forefront of my mind. I tried to be mad at Luke, it was his fault, all of it was his fault. But no matter how hard I tried to hate him; it just didn't seem possible.

Worse still was the fact that my dreams of Thalia and Luke fighting continued and even escalated. As soon as I fell asleep each night we were back on the run, just the three of us. We weren't happy to be together anymore, we were running for our lives. We knew monsters were chasing us, but I couldn't see them, I could only feel them closing in. We'd reach the summit of Half-Blood Hill, all three of us together standing at the top looking at the monsters gathered on one side and the demigods gathered on the other.

Luke stopped running and stood still glowering at the opposing armies. Thalia grabbed Luke's hand and tried to pull him along.

"Come on," she said, "we're almost there, we'll be safe. Our parents sent us here to protect us."

Luke scoffed at her pulling his hand free, "Our parents - protect us. What have they ever done for us? Why should we trust them when they abandoned us? They don't care about us?"

Thalia looked at me as I began crying. "You don't know that," she said to Luke, but she was looking at me, trying to reassure me. Thalia glared at Luke before turning to me and grabbing my hand. "Come on Annabeth, we need to go, now!"

"No! We need to fight, we have to fight back against the gods and their chosen heroes. We are nothing more than disposable pawns to them," Luke growled. "We have to show them they can't get away with that."

"This is not the way to do that!" Thalia said as Luke drew his sword.

"There is no other way!" Luke yelled, "we cannot force them to listen. I have spent my entire life trying to force them to pay attention to me, to see me. All I have to show for my efforts is a nasty scar and nothing more."

"You have me," Thalia said. "You have Annabeth and everyone who has ever been your friend. Are you going to betray us just to prove a point?"

"I don't have you!" Luke screamed. The anger and hurt in Luke's voice felt like an ax cleaving me in half as the noise from the storm and the opposing armies quieted to make way for Luke's anguish. "They took you away from me, just as they have taken everything else! The gods take and they take and yet they continue to ask for more. I will tear the gods from their thrones and burn Olympus to the ground. I will force them to listen and steal back everything they took from me."