Alone

Chapter 4

"What kind of guy wears only undies? I mean, I know it's hot out, but seriously!" I shouted, turning my back to the unbearable sight. "Travis, kick it up to high-speed! I never want to see him ever again!" He grinned and slammed his foot against the gas petal while flipping a bunch of switches. We hurtled away, leaving flames on our tracks behind us. Derek, Travis, and I all thought that it was all over, we would reach Camp Half-Blood safely with no monster threatening to kill us. But with our luck that didn't happen.

"H-hey guys, what's that?" Derek pointed at the window behind us.

"Please don't show us Undie Man again, because I had enough ugly for a day," I said as I turned around to see what all the hoopla was about.  "Holey mackerel! Travis,check this out!"

Travis glanced at the window and squealed like a little girl. "Why is he riding an ice cream truck?" The Undie Man was hitch-hiking on a ice cream truck, gaining on us every second. He used his massive weight to ram the truck against our cab. Travis swerved the steering wheel to the right, causing us to almost run into a tree. He jumped out of the abandoned taxi and yelled, "Everybody out! Camp is only about two miles away. If we run through the short cut in the woods, the Minotaur won't be able to get us!" I was about to ask who was the Minotaur when Derek grabbed my arm and dragged me into the deep, dark forest.

"Come on Julie! We gotta run or will all be turned into that thing's next lunch!" I nodded and we both started sprinting after Travis, who was already halfway to camp. Guess who jumps in front of him? The stupid Minotaur. Yay....I hate him already.

Travis took out his sword and cried, "You two, run to camp! I got this!" Derek and I started running, but mine turned into a slow jog as I watched the Minotaur lunge at him. He sidestepped out of the way and sliced his stomach. The idiotic beast hurled himself at Travis again, but he jumped away at the last second. Travis tried to stab the monster's heart (if he had one), but he missed and only created a gash in the beast's chest. The Minotaur charged at him and though he sidestepped again, the beast grabbed hold of him. He was about to squeeze him to death like a lemon, when meat-for-brains-me stepped in. A surge of energy exploded inside of me when I saw Travis getting pummeled.

I twirled the ribbon a bit, and it changed to Σκιά θηρίο. "Hey, Ugly! Yeah, I'm talking to you, Big Foot! Let go of my friend, or else I'll have to kill you." I gripped on to my sword, my knuckles whitening. Lucky for me, the Minotaur dropped him. Unlucky for me, he hit his head on a rock, knocking him unconscious. "Good job, Undies! At least you can do one thing right! Now fight me, Diaper-Man! Don't get your panties in a twist!" I snickered. At first, he was all confused, but after a while he got really angry. Really angry. He catapulted toward me, but following Travis's example I jumped out of the way, his hands only scratching my skin. I leaped onto his back and started pulling on his horns, playing cowboy. "Yee-haw! Yippee Ki-ya!" I laughed as he tried to buck me off. After five minutes of playing cowboy and getting slammed into trees, I stabbed his head. In some sick way, this was kind of fun! I know, I am such a weirdo.

I walked back to Derek, to see him feeding Travis some nectar and...brownies?! "Well he be okay?" I asked, bending down to help bandage his forehead.

"Yeah, he got a bloody cut on his head, but it takes more than that to take down a Stoll," He grinned and turned to me. "Nice job taking down that Minotaur, I never thought you would disobey orders. Doesn't seem like you."

"Hey," I shrugged. "I couldn't just sit and watch a comrade fight that beast all alone. And he was lucky that I was there to finish the job or he would have died!" I poured some nectar on his wounds like how Derek had instructed me earlier. Some of them healed after a while, but Travis still wasn't waking up.

He sighed. "Well, I guess we have to carry him to camp. You take the right arm, I'll take the left." I nodded and flopped Travis's arm over my shoulder. "Gently! We can't risk him getting more hurt!" I rolled my eyes and started to walk toward camp in time with Derek. Slowly, we got there. My strength I felt early was totally drained. Derek wasn't any better, he seemed like he was about to collapse any minute.

"Hey! Anyone out there?!" I screamed, hobbling toward the camp borders. Two people stepped out from the shadows, a boy with brown hair and sea green eyes and a boy with black hair and brownish-black eyes. "Please help us, our friend is hurt. Is this Camp Half-Blood?" I could barely whisper. Derek started to shake a bit, using all of his willpower not to faint.

"Oh gods, Travis!" The brown-haired boy whispered, wincing. He threw Derek over his shoulder where he blacked out and replaced Derek on the left side. He yelled at black-haired boy, "Go and get Chiron, and hurry!" He immediately nodded his head and ran to a farmhouse across the valley. The boy helping me with Travis looked at me and asked, "Do you need me to carry him, I can do it by myself!"

I shook my head and replied, "No, I'm good. Can you just tell me your name?"

He grinned. "Sure, I'm Percy Jackson."

"The son of Poseidon. I'm Julie-" I managed to say before I fell to my knees and collapsed. The last thing I remember was hearing Percy yell my name and Mr.Brunner/Chiron troting towards us.