THE WILD DOG IS COMING | percy jackson

ONE. Set It Off

Not the shoes, by the way. Cottonmouths. Snakes.

So, she owed a lot to Thalia in her mind. She kept them safe by keeping monsters out and the appreciation that swelled definitely blanketed the loathing she had for the daughter of Zeus. If she were in Thalia's place, she'd appreciate the grateful prayers and daily greeting.

She didn't notice at first when she was talking to Thalia, she never really looked at her tree, just talked to it. She felt weird that morning, nervous and sick to her stomach, and something deep in her mind willed the girl to finally look at Thalia, look at the state of her.

It was horrifying to see, especially for someone like Espion who thought the way she did. Someone had jabbed Thalia with something rather big in size, like she'd been shot with a handgun, and poisoned her. It was very fresh, done sometime in the night or even earlier morning, and it was spreading quick. Gross green sap was dripping from the puncture wound, the bark lost enough color for the daily visitor to recognize, and a few yellowed needles laid at Thalia's trunk.

She had never run so fast, or even hurdle that many picnic tables and people and whatever else got in her way. She was above average in normal terms, much lower than Apollo's cabin on the list, but in the top three of her own cabins easily. Her adrenaline was high, she was terrified, and she didn't like wasting time.

It took Chiron a record time of 17 minutes to calm her down, having to get someone to pour a bucket of ice water on her to shut her up. Temperamental and vigorous, once someone got Espion really talking, it was near impossible to get her to stop. And no one can understand a fourteen-year-old girl talking miles faster than most cars can reach.

After that it only got worse. As Thalia's condition worsened, they began losing their protection, the safety barrier around camp crumbling and practically welcoming Halfblood hungry monsters in. Usually the summer campers got a few days to settle once they got back, resume routine, all that. But now they were showing up with their packed bags and almost immediately thrust into battle when a new monster came running up the hill to test them.

Olympus needed someone to blame, they always did. But not Kronos, never him, or even Luke, the traitor. Even if Espion did not like camp, Luke turning on them could potentially cost her friends their lives and she was not happy about that. She wanted to take the blame, as crazy as it sounded, because she didn't want it to fall to some stupid decision like pulling names from a hat. Her dad would fight tooth and nail for her, no matter what she did, and that gave her some faith if she let it fall on her.

Keyword is some.

Chiron, of course, would not let that happen.

In what world would someone as quiet and unsociable like Espion, who made it her mission to visit and spend at most an hour with Thalia every morning, be the one to poison her? Chiron knew of Espion's troubled personally, he'd been present when Clarisse and Gleeson Hedge plopped the little thing at his hooves covered in a gut-wrenching mixture of blood and dried mud, streaks of untouched skin created by the crying that, according to an annoyed Clarisse, apparently "wouldn't stop". There were very little reasons little girls cried like that.

He knew that to go after Thalia, was almost a personal attack on Espion herself. She would never stoop so low without crying herself to death.

So, he made the brave decision and took the fall. Olympus was not forgiving, much to the camper's dismay, and by the time the summer kids arrived, Chiron was on his way out and Argus was already gone.

It was frightening because it meant Chiron would...

It wasn't good at all. Nothing was good. They were all stressed and on edge and Espion swore some of Sazz's hair was falling out. His nails were chewed down to the skin now due to Chiron's replacement—Tantalus.