Disclaimer: The world of Percy Jackson, its characters and settings are the copyrighted works of Rick Riordan and his publishing companies and affiliates. No profit was made from the writing of this story nor was any malice intended in any way, shape or form to the author or the actors/actresses who so brilliantly have brought them to life.This author is not responsible for underage readers. Please observe the ratings, warnings, and age of legal consent for your country.
Reaching the car, Mãe fucking stepped on it.
The landscape zoomed past us like we were on steroids. Trees became nothing more than green blurs and I'm pretty sure we're breaking every traffic and speeding law known to mankind. If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were going even faster than the Grey Sisters' cab.
A small, insane part of my brain was weirdly chanting 'Fast and Furious: Electric Boogaloo' which sorta shows exactly what I think under pressure. Another part of my brain was going 'Damn, Mãe can drive, woo-hoo!'
Gods know how I haven't died before the canon era even started.
It took me way too long to notice that we are driving away from the ocean. "Wait! Mãe, what're you doing? We have to go to the sea!"
Grover looked at me like I was insane, "The sea? A monster is after us and you want us to drive this car into the ocean? We have to get you to camp!"
Ugh! "The sea will protect us! Mãe, please, turn around and head to the sea! At least I can defend myself there!" They don't understand, damn it!
"Ophelia, the camp will protect you, you have the best chance there." Mãe sounded very worried.
"Eu sei quem é meu pai! Puta merda, vá para a água para que eu possa matar esse monstro!" I snap. (I know who my dad is! Holy shit, go towards the water so I can kill this monster!)
Mãe whips around to face me despite the car still going fast enough to be in a The Rock movie. "O QUE?!" (WHAT?!)
...I probably shouldn't have just told her that I know the secret she's been trying to hide from me for my entire life like that. Too late now. Heh. Cheers to regretting something immediately!
"Watch out!" Grover warns, and Mãe barely swerves the car in time to avoid a collision with a fallen tree laying across the road. What is with obstacles and dramatic timing?
"Grover, put on your seatbelt." I berated him.
Mãe ramps up the speed to 'I know I can't bend space-time but I'm gonna try anyway.' "Camp is closer than the cabin right now. Ophelia, we are continuing this conversation when we aren't in mortal peril."
I winced; that was her serious voice. I'm so dead.
There were a few tense moments before Grover spoke up, "Percy...you knew the old ladies are the Fates."
That wasn't a question. Fuck. Uh- half-truths! "As much as everyone kept trying to hide it from me, a cyclops in a trenchcoat watching me when I was 8 set off a few alarm bells. They arrested him 'cause they thought he was a paedophile, remember? You both know how much I like to research. The Graeco-Roman Myths were the only one that fit the bill of weird donkey-and-brass-legged women staring at me in the park, and everything after that was applied logic." Yes! Totally nailed it! They call me the Foxy Queen of Lies. Actually no, serpents are cooler and trickier than foxes, call me the 'Serpent Queen of Lies.'
Grover seemed to buy it. "At least we've got that down. So do you know about Camp?"
"Nope. Sounds like a 'safe place' with protections against these monsters. Also, are you a faun?"
"Blaa-ha-ha! I'm a satyr!" Huh, he seemed pretty offended at my inquiry. Grover doesn't like being associated with the Romans: check.
"I was close," I grumbled. "So it's the Grecian gods we're dealing with, cool. What's this about a camp?"
"Ophelia," Mãe said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."
"Safety from what exactly? I get that it's a monster, but who?"
"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still offended at the faun comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and some of his blood-thirstiest monsters."
"Grover!"
"Sorry, Mrs Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"
"Ms Silvia-Jackson, actually," I absent-mindedly correct, flapping my hands in a nervous stim.
I'm now cursing up a storm at myself for skim reading this chapter whenever I read The Lightning Thief. It's not my fault! Even though it totally is, but whatever! I just hate the action and fighting scenes so I read them as quickly as possible. How was I supposed to know the details would turn out to be so important?
Mãe made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses, wooded hills and 'PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES' signs on white picket fences. Oh good, we're getting close.
"Is there only this camp? Are there other safe spaces?"
Grover side-eyed me. "I suppose there are the Hunters of Artemis; they are immortal unless killed in battle, but sworn off from love."
"Iconic," I remarked. "Good for them, but not my cup of tea." I wanted to start a family too much for that. "Might keep it on the table for when I'm a bit older."
Grover stared at me. "You would consider joining the Hunters?" Was that a bit of hurt in his voice?
"Uh, yeah? They sound cool."
His reply got cut off by Mãe pulling the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid, a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.
"We're almost there," Mãe said. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."
Outside the car was nothing but rain, darkness, and that hollow feeling of empty countryside. I bet the tip of Long Island looked way better than what I was feeling, but that's irrelevant right now. Instead, I all but suffocated in worry. I thought about the Fates, the way they said it was up to me to change the future. Can't change the future if I don't reach Camp. Can't change anything if I'm dead, either.
I was snapped out of it by a blinding flash, right before the jaw-rattling boom hit. Our fucking car just exploded. Fuck me!
And also, fuck Zeus with a rusty spork!
-
I remember feeling weightless like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.
I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Fucking ouch."
"Ophelia? Ophelia!"
"I'm okay, Mãe."
The car hadn't really exploded. Instead, we crashed into a ditch after Zeus (also known as That Trigger Happy Bastard) shot a lightning bolt at us. I have no idea why it missed, but I was counting my fucking blessings. The driver's side doors were now wedged in the mud. The roof had been cracked open and now was like a red hot jagged, smoking, piece of broken metal eggshell. Oh yeah, I am so going to flip him the bird the first time I meet him.
"I'm okay too, Mrs Jackson." There was a small trickle of blood coming from a cut on Grover's forehead but he seemed otherwise fine. The seatbelt I had earlier commanded Grover to put the fuck on had seemed to have done the trick of not knocking him out as soon as we crashed. At least one thing is going right for me today.
"Ophelia," Mãe said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.
I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of the minotaur. Fuck, he had caught up to us.
I swallowed hard.
"Ophelia," she said, deathly serious, "Get out of the car."
Mãe threw herself against the driver's side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too.
Looking up desperately at the hole in the roof, I judged whether we could use it as an exit, but the edges were smoking and sizzling. In a split-second decision, I grabbed my backpack and Mãe's purse, lobbed them out the hole, and smashed the car door window.
"Climb out the window!" I yelled at Mãe. Grover quickly - thank the gods - understood and clambered out.
Mãe stumbled as she exited, nearly falling onto me. "Ophelia, you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"
There was another flash of lightning, and I could see the tree she meant: a huge pine tree at the crest of the hill. Thalia.
"That's the property line," Mãe said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."
"Of course," I said, scooping up our bags and shoving both the slow-pokes forward. "Let's go!"
The Minotaur made a grunting, snorting sound. Gross. He was moving more slowly than I had imagined when I had read the books.
"He doesn't want us," Mãe tried to comfort me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line." Not exactly what I'm worried about but A for effort.
"We can deal with that when we get there. I'm not leaving you. Let's get to the border, come on!" I urged them on. For two people wanting me to get to Camp Half-Blood, they weren't moving very fast. We stumbled away and towards the hill.
The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows, or maybe more like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered since we were only about fifty feet away.
"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough." How the hells does she know that?
As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. Raising the car over his head, he threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded. Why don't the laws of physics apply here? It's harder than that for a shitty car to explode!
Good thing I grabbed our bags before we got out. Don't want them as crispy as Gabe's Camaro.
"Ophelia," Mãe began. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way; directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"
"Got it. Just like the bullfighting rings."
The Minotaur bellowed in anger. He'd spotted us.
Fuck this. I grabbed my friend's arm and pushed Mãe forward as I started to sprint away. No fucking way am I letting anyone get killed by the fucking Minotaur. It was almost mindless the way all the water jumped to do my bidding; a miniaturized stream blasted the Minotaur's feet, capitalizing on the rather dangerous nature of sprinting on mud in a storm.
The fucker had his feet ripped from under him. A sound somewhere between snorting and pure anger rippled through the air.
Taste the riptide, motherfucker!
We were reaching the crest of the hill when my foot slipped, making me fall. My control over water fumbled; pressurizing water in a controlled manner was harder than it looked, even with it rejuvenating me. 'Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck!' I inwardly chanted as I stumbled to right myself.
Grover and Mãe began screaming for help. We were finally close enough that any campers nearby might hear us.
Instinct made me turn around as my danger sensors shrieked at me to pay attention. The Minotaur was charging straight at me. He had lowered his head, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. Small victory; he looked more mud than Monster.
"Move!" I shrieked. Shoving Mãe and Grover away from me, I waited, blood pounding through my ears. At the very last possible moment, I jumped to the side.
The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, not toward me this time, but towards Mãe.
"No!" I yelled, but it was too late.
The Minotaur had snatched up my mother and in one quick squeeze, she was gone. Turned to golden dust, scattered to the squalls, gone.
I wailed in grief.
The Monster then turned to me. I grew quiet, eyeing it in contemplation.
It had laid his filthy hands upon my mother. I'm going to kill it, take a horn or two, then collect its fucking head.
The clearing was silent. For a second, the rain paused, just a little.
A moment later I was blinking the irrationality away, calling on what my therapist taught me. I've made it this far, and at the end of the day, Grover cannot know I'm Poseiden's daughter. Yet.
I pulled out Riptide as it charged. Spinning to the side, I did my damn best to fillet its ribs.
I'm the daughter of Poseidon who is currently soaked in rainwater. I was fast, fast enough to try to dodge, but at point-blank range? I hadn't moved fast enough. By the time I came to, it had backhanded me clean across the clearing. The impact made me choke.
I could hear Grover calling my name. For a second, everything dipped sideways into black. 'Oh, a concussion,' my sluggish brain connected.
The Minotaur seemed to have rammed straight into Thalia but was now shaking it off. It turned back to me. I couldn't escape, hells, I was barely standing up.
Riptide sat tightly in my hands anyways.
It charged, and, in a move pulled straight from the books, I knelt and brought Riptide up to slash it from neck to navel.
The Minotaur seemed to scream as it turned into dust. Good.
-
I was barely conscious, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut as soon as it was over. Grover scrambled towards me, shouldering me up and forwards. I could feel nothing and everything. My body felt numb, and yet the pounding pain in my head, my ribs, my legs, told me otherwise. More importantly, my head... Gods, my head!
I saw a blond blob appear. It seemed to be talking to me but I could barely make out what it was saying. "Hey! Okay... focus... me... please... awake!"
Did it... want me to stay awake? No way, buckaroo, I'm tired. I need a nap.
Two more heads appeared; one blonde and one brunette. Wasn't there supposed to be just one blonde? Why are there two Annie-bells or whatever the fuck her name is? Ooh, does she have a twin?
The second blonde said something around the lines of, "The one... has...be."
"Silence...'beth." The brunette sounded like he was murmuring underwater. Was that normal? "Still cons... 'ring 'er..."
Rings? Is someone proposing? Huh, did I died again and reincarnate into the Lord of the Rings? I wouldn't mind being a Hobbit. Honest.
I felt myself being pressed into some warm arms. A sweet voice was speaking to me but I was too out of it. I'm so tired... maybe I can just take a little nap...
I drift off to a distant voice and the sound of storms.
~
The faint sounds of a fight had me up and jolting. Midnight? What was happening at midnight? Why was this happening at midnight?
I ignored the cold sweat sticking to my back. Stupid nightmares.
My hand was around the knife under my pillow before I was even fully upright. Slipping out of bed and grabbing my sword, I made my way to the door. Something was wrong. I locked eyes with Alabaster, who had also sprung awake when I slipped past him. I motioned for him to stay here while I went outside to check it out. Someone needs to be on guard duty, may as well be him.
The sounds of the fight were barely audible over the sounds of the rainstorm surrounding the Camp. Glancing to the side, I could see the lights of the Big House turn on, and the shadowy shape of what was probably Chiron appeared at its doorway.
I sprinted towards him, scanning the area for what was causing the disruption.
There! At the top of Half-Blood Hill, right under Thalia's tree, was a large shape - a monster - yelling its frustrations at two smaller shapes - a demi-god and a satyr? - as they battle.
I spot Annabeth leaving her cabin and run after me from the corner of my eyes. After catching up to Chiron, Annabeth not far behind me, he turns to face us. "Grover and Persephone have arrived. Unfortunately, they're accompanied by Pasiphae's son."
It felt like a bucket of cold water had been dropped on me. Grover. "We have to go help them, come on!" I urged.
"No," Chiron stopped us, "wait."
"Wait?" I snarled. "They're going to get killed! You want to wait until they're just corpses to rescue?" I turned and started to run up the hill after my friend and the new arrival.
"Luke!"
Annabeth hesitated for a moment too long for my liking. This was Grover! For a split-second, she prioritised Chiron's order over saving the life of our friend. She then started following me, albeit at a far more sedate pace. Chiron hollered for a medic before trailing behind, probably not to interfere until the last possible moment. He wasn't even out of his wheelchair!
I was half-way there when it suddenly went silent. Fearing the worst, I put on a last burst of speed. I heard a bellow. A feminine scream followed after. "Percy!" Grover yelled.
The faintest glimmer of monster dust flew through the air.
I got to the top of the hill to see Grover, badly bruised, bleeding sluggishly from a cut on his head, drag a half-conscious demi-god into Camp's protective shield. When he spotted me, his relieved call of "Luke!" had me all but teleporting to his side.
Annabeth crested the hill with a shout of, "Grover, are you okay?" Chiron trotted at her heels. Out of the wheelchair, huh.
I knelt over the prone body of the girl, frantically trying to get her to focus on me and stay awake with her almost definite concussion.
"Chiron! Help her!" I commanded him, but he just stared.
Annabeth examined the girl too. "She's the one, it has to be." Urgh, not this quest thing again. This is not the time, the girl's badly injured!
"Silence, Annabeth," the centaur said. "She's still conscious. Bring her inside," he directed at me.
'I'm trying!' I wanted to shout at his face, but I kept my mouth shut. I picked her up, bridal style, trying not to jostle her to the best of my abilities. I even talked to her in an attempt to keep her awake, but it was futile. The girl's eyes slid shut and stayed that way, nearly making my heart stop for fear that she had just died in my arms. After confirming the way her chest was still rising and falling, I let out a short breath.
"It's okay," I murmured to her. "We're almost there. Hold on."Reaching the car, Mãe fucking stepped on it.
The landscape zoomed past us like we were on steroids. Trees became nothing more than green blurs and I'm pretty sure we're breaking every traffic and speeding law known to mankind. If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were going even faster than the Grey Sisters' cab.
A small, insane part of my brain was weirdly chanting 'Fast and Furious: Electric Boogaloo' which sorta shows exactly what I think under pressure. Another part of my brain was going 'Damn, Mãe can drive, woo-hoo!'
Gods know how I haven't died before the canon era even started.
It took me way too long to notice that we are driving away from the ocean. "Wait! Mãe, what're you doing? We have to go to the sea!"
Grover looked at me like I was insane, "The sea? A monster is after us and you want us to drive this car into the ocean? We have to get you to camp!"
Ugh! "The sea will protect us! Mãe, please, turn around and head to the sea! At least I can defend myself there!" They don't understand, damn it!
"Ophelia, the camp will protect you, you have the best chance there." Mãe sounded very worried.
"Eu sei quem é meu pai! Puta merda, vá para a água para que eu possa matar esse monstro!" I snap. (I know who my dad is! Holy shit, go towards the water so I can kill this monster!)
Mãe whips around to face me despite the car still going fast enough to be in a The Rock movie. "O QUE?!" (WHAT?!)
...I probably shouldn't have just told her that I know the secret she's been trying to hide from me for my entire life like that. Too late now. Heh. Cheers to regretting something immediately!
"Watch out!" Grover warns, and Mãe barely swerves the car in time to avoid a collision with a fallen tree laying across the road. What is with obstacles and dramatic timing?
"Grover, put on your seatbelt." I berated him.
Mãe ramps up the speed to 'I know I can't bend space-time but I'm gonna try anyway.' "Camp is closer than the cabin right now. Ophelia, we are continuing this conversation when we aren't in mortal peril."
I winced; that was her serious voice. I'm so dead.
There were a few tense moments before Grover spoke up, "Percy...you knew the old ladies are the Fates."
That wasn't a question. Fuck. Uh- half-truths! "As much as everyone kept trying to hide it from me, a cyclops in a trenchcoat watching me when I was 8 set off a few alarm bells. They arrested him 'cause they thought he was a paedophile, remember? You both know how much I like to research. The Graeco-Roman Myths were the only one that fit the bill of weird donkey-and-brass-legged women staring at me in the park, and everything after that was applied logic." Yes! Totally nailed it! They call me the Foxy Queen of Lies. Actually no, serpents are cooler and trickier than foxes, call me the 'Serpent Queen of Lies.'
Grover seemed to buy it. "At least we've got that down. So do you know about Camp?"
"Nope. Sounds like a 'safe place' with protections against these monsters. Also, are you a faun?"
"Blaa-ha-ha! I'm a satyr!" Huh, he seemed pretty offended at my inquiry. Grover doesn't like being associated with the Romans: check.
"I was close," I grumbled. "So it's the Grecian gods we're dealing with, cool. What's this about a camp?"
"Ophelia," Mãe said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."
"Safety from what exactly? I get that it's a monster, but who?"
"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still offended at the faun comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and some of his blood-thirstiest monsters."
"Grover!"
"Sorry, Mrs Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"
"Ms Silvia-Jackson, actually," I absent-mindedly correct, flapping my hands in a nervous stim.
I'm now cursing up a storm at myself for skim reading this chapter whenever I read The Lightning Thief. It's not my fault! Even though it totally is, but whatever! I just hate the action and fighting scenes so I read them as quickly as possible. How was I supposed to know the details would turn out to be so important?
Mãe made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses, wooded hills and 'PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES' signs on white picket fences. Oh good, we're getting close.
"Is there only this camp? Are there other safe spaces?"
Grover side-eyed me. "I suppose there are the Hunters of Artemis; they are immortal unless killed in battle, but sworn off from love."
"Iconic," I remarked. "Good for them, but not my cup of tea." I wanted to start a family too much for that. "Might keep it on the table for when I'm a bit older."
Grover stared at me. "You would consider joining the Hunters?" Was that a bit of hurt in his voice?
"Uh, yeah? They sound cool."
His reply got cut off by Mãe pulling the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid, a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.
"We're almost there," Mãe said. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."
Outside the car was nothing but rain, darkness, and that hollow feeling of empty countryside. I bet the tip of Long Island looked way better than what I was feeling, but that's irrelevant right now. Instead, I all but suffocated in worry. I thought about the Fates, the way they said it was up to me to change the future. Can't change the future if I don't reach Camp. Can't change anything if I'm dead, either.
I was snapped out of it by a blinding flash, right before the jaw-rattling boom hit. Our fucking car just exploded. Fuck me!
And also, fuck Zeus with a rusty spork!
-
I remember feeling weightless like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.
I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Fucking ouch."
"Ophelia? Ophelia!"
"I'm okay, Mãe."
The car hadn't really exploded. Instead, we crashed into a ditch after Zeus (also known as That Trigger Happy Bastard) shot a lightning bolt at us. I have no idea why it missed, but I was counting my fucking blessings. The driver's side doors were now wedged in the mud. The roof had been cracked open and now was like a red hot jagged, smoking, piece of broken metal eggshell. Oh yeah, I am so going to flip him the bird the first time I meet him.
"I'm okay too, Mrs Jackson." There was a small trickle of blood coming from a cut on Grover's forehead but he seemed otherwise fine. The seatbelt I had earlier commanded Grover to put the fuck on had seemed to have done the trick of not knocking him out as soon as we crashed. At least one thing is going right for me today.
"Ophelia," Mãe said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.
I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of the minotaur. Fuck, he had caught up to us.
I swallowed hard.
"Ophelia," she said, deathly serious, "Get out of the car."
Mãe threw herself against the driver's side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too.
Looking up desperately at the hole in the roof, I judged whether we could use it as an exit, but the edges were smoking and sizzling. In a split-second decision, I grabbed my backpack and Mãe's purse, lobbed them out the hole, and smashed the car door window.
"Climb out the window!" I yelled at Mãe. Grover quickly - thank the gods - understood and clambered out.
Mãe stumbled as she exited, nearly falling onto me. "Ophelia, you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"
There was another flash of lightning, and I could see the tree she meant: a huge pine tree at the crest of the hill. Thalia.
"That's the property line," Mãe said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."
"Of course," I said, scooping up our bags and shoving both the slow-pokes forward. "Let's go!"
The Minotaur made a grunting, snorting sound. Gross. He was moving more slowly than I had imagined when I had read the books.
"He doesn't want us," Mãe tried to comfort me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line." Not exactly what I'm worried about but A for effort.
"We can deal with that when we get there. I'm not leaving you. Let's get to the border, come on!" I urged them on. For two people wanting me to get to Camp Half-Blood, they weren't moving very fast. We stumbled away and towards the hill.
The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows, or maybe more like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered since we were only about fifty feet away.
"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough." How the hells does she know that?
As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. Raising the car over his head, he threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded. Why don't the laws of physics apply here? It's harder than that for a shitty car to explode!
Good thing I grabbed our bags before we got out. Don't want them as crispy as Gabe's Camaro.
"Ophelia," Mãe began. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way; directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"
"Got it. Just like the bullfighting rings."
The Minotaur bellowed in anger. He'd spotted us.
Fuck this. I grabbed my friend's arm and pushed Mãe forward as I started to sprint away. No fucking way am I letting anyone get killed by the fucking Minotaur. It was almost mindless the way all the water jumped to do my bidding; a miniaturized stream blasted the Minotaur's feet, capitalizing on the rather dangerous nature of sprinting on mud in a storm.
The fucker had his feet ripped from under him. A sound somewhere between snorting and pure anger rippled through the air.
Taste the riptide, motherfucker!
We were reaching the crest of the hill when my foot slipped, making me fall. My control over water fumbled; pressurizing water in a controlled manner was harder than it looked, even with it rejuvenating me. 'Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck!' I inwardly chanted as I stumbled to right myself.
Grover and Mãe began screaming for help. We were finally close enough that any campers nearby might hear us.
Instinct made me turn around as my danger sensors shrieked at me to pay attention. The Minotaur was charging straight at me. He had lowered his head, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. Small victory; he looked more mud than Monster.
"Move!" I shrieked. Shoving Mãe and Grover away from me, I waited, blood pounding through my ears. At the very last possible moment, I jumped to the side.
The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, not toward me this time, but towards Mãe.
"No!" I yelled, but it was too late.
The Minotaur had snatched up my mother and in one quick squeeze, she was gone. Turned to golden dust, scattered to the squalls, gone.
I wailed in grief.
The Monster then turned to me. I grew quiet, eyeing it in contemplation.
It had laid his filthy hands upon my mother. I'm going to kill it, take a horn or two, then collect its fucking head.
The clearing was silent. For a second, the rain paused, just a little.
A moment later I was blinking the irrationality away, calling on what my therapist taught me. I've made it this far, and at the end of the day, Grover cannot know I'm Poseiden's daughter. Yet.
I pulled out Riptide as it charged. Spinning to the side, I did my damn best to fillet its ribs.
I'm the daughter of Poseidon who is currently soaked in rainwater. I was fast, fast enough to try to dodge, but at point-blank range? I hadn't moved fast enough. By the time I came to, it had backhanded me clean across the clearing. The impact made me choke.
I could hear Grover calling my name. For a second, everything dipped sideways into black. 'Oh, a concussion,' my sluggish brain connected.
The Minotaur seemed to have rammed straight into Thalia but was now shaking it off. It turned back to me. I couldn't escape, hells, I was barely standing up.
Riptide sat tightly in my hands anyways.
It charged, and, in a move pulled straight from the books, I knelt and brought Riptide up to slash it from neck to navel.
The Minotaur seemed to scream as it turned into dust. Good.
-
I was barely conscious, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut as soon as it was over. Grover scrambled towards me, shouldering me up and forwards. I could feel nothing and everything. My body felt numb, and yet the pounding pain in my head, my ribs, my legs, told me otherwise. More importantly, my head... Gods, my head!
I saw a blond blob appear. It seemed to be talking to me but I could barely make out what it was saying. "Hey! Okay... focus... me... please... awake!"
Did it... want me to stay awake? No way, buckaroo, I'm tired. I need a nap.
Two more heads appeared; one blonde and one brunette. Wasn't there supposed to be just one blonde? Why are there two Annie-bells or whatever the fuck her name is? Ooh, does she have a twin?
The second blonde said something around the lines of, "The one... has...be."
"Silence...'beth." The brunette sounded like he was murmuring underwater. Was that normal? "Still cons... 'ring 'er..."
Rings? Is someone proposing? Huh, did I died again and reincarnate into the Lord of the Rings? I wouldn't mind being a Hobbit. Honest.
I felt myself being pressed into some warm arms. A sweet voice was speaking to me but I was too out of it. I'm so tired... maybe I can just take a little nap...
I drift off to a distant voice and the sound of storms.
~
The faint sounds of a fight had me up and jolting. Midnight? What was happening at midnight? Why was this happening at midnight?
I ignored the cold sweat sticking to my back. Stupid nightmares.
My hand was around the knife under my pillow before I was even fully upright. Slipping out of bed and grabbing my sword, I made my way to the door. Something was wrong. I locked eyes with Alabaster, who had also sprung awake when I slipped past him. I motioned for him to stay here while I went outside to check it out. Someone needs to be on guard duty, may as well be him.
The sounds of the fight were barely audible over the sounds of the rainstorm surrounding the Camp. Glancing to the side, I could see the lights of the Big House turn on, and the shadowy shape of what was probably Chiron appeared at its doorway.
I sprinted towards him, scanning the area for what was causing the disruption.
There! At the top of Half-Blood Hill, right under Thalia's tree, was a large shape - a monster - yelling its frustrations at two smaller shapes - a demi-god and a satyr? - as they battle.
I spot Annabeth leaving her cabin and run after me from the corner of my eyes. After catching up to Chiron, Annabeth not far behind me, he turns to face us. "Grover and Persephone have arrived. Unfortunately, they're accompanied by Pasiphae's son."
It felt like a bucket of cold water had been dropped on me. Grover. "We have to go help them, come on!" I urged.
"No," Chiron stopped us, "wait."
"Wait?" I snarled. "They're going to get killed! You want to wait until they're just corpses to rescue?" I turned and started to run up the hill after my friend and the new arrival.
"Luke!"
Annabeth hesitated for a moment too long for my liking. This was Grover! For a split-second, she prioritised Chiron's order over saving the life of our friend. She then started following me, albeit at a far more sedate pace. Chiron hollered for a medic before trailing behind, probably not to interfere until the last possible moment. He wasn't even out of his wheelchair!
I was half-way there when it suddenly went silent. Fearing the worst, I put on a last burst of speed. I heard a bellow. A feminine scream followed after. "Percy!" Grover yelled.
The faintest glimmer of monster dust flew through the air.
I got to the top of the hill to see Grover, badly bruised, bleeding sluggishly from a cut on his head, drag a half-conscious demi-god into Camp's protective shield. When he spotted me, his relieved call of "Luke!" had me all but teleporting to his side.
Annabeth crested the hill with a shout of, "Grover, are you okay?" Chiron trotted at her heels. Out of the wheelchair, huh.
I knelt over the prone body of the girl, frantically trying to get her to focus on me and stay awake with her almost definite concussion.
"Chiron! Help her!" I commanded him, but he just stared.
Annabeth examined the girl too. "She's the one, it has to be." Urgh, not this quest thing again. This is not the time, the girl's badly injured!
"Silence, Annabeth," the centaur said. "She's still conscious. Bring her inside," he directed at me.
'I'm trying!' I wanted to shout at his face, but I kept my mouth shut. I picked her up, bridal style, trying not to jostle her to the best of my abilities. I even talked to her in an attempt to keep her awake, but it was futile. The girl's eyes slid shut and stayed that way, nearly making my heart stop for fear that she had just died in my arms. After confirming the way her chest was still rising and falling, I let out a short breath.
"It's okay," I murmured to her. "We're almost there. Hold on."