STRENGTH
━━ act two, chapter two.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
ON SOME MORNINGS, NABI WOULD WAKE UP TO ACHING MUSCLES AND A COUGHING FIT. They were slowly becoming more frequent over the past few months. She might have been overexerting herself during her last few training practices with Clarisse.
"Damn," Connor said, sitting on his bed, as Nabi sat up from her own with a sour look on her face, "you alright?"
"Just peachy..." Nabi grimaced at how painful her chest was as she cleared her throat, then coughing once more into her pyjama sleeve, "Gods— maybe I've got a cold..."
Travis leaned against her bedframe, and shrugged, "A cold doesn't last that long."
"Yeah," Nabi sighed, "might need to relax on the undead stuff... I don't know."
She got up, scuffling her feet against the ground as she shivered — Nabi was always quite a cold person, but especially in the mornings, she'd feel a little chilly, even in the summer. Connor asked, "Are you on border patrol, today?"
"Mhm," Nabi hummed, she opened one of her drawers to get some clothes out for her to wear — the typical camp shirt and some jeans, "I need to be quick, or else Clarisse'll take roll call and I'll be marked late."
Ever since Thalia's tree had been poisoned by... well supposedly, Chiron, the camp borders had grown much weaker than before. The magic wasn't enough to keep all the monsters out; they needed a way to fend the lot of them off.
Every camper knew the story behind the tree: six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, and Luke had came to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters.
When they got cornered on top of the hill, Thalia Grace, a daughter of Zeus who was also with them, had made her last stand to buy her friends enough time so that they could reach safety. As she was dying, her father took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.
Except now, it wasn't.
Anyone at camp could see how badly the tree had been harmed. The tree's condition was getting worse, too. Even from the bottom of the hill, you'd be able to spot the needles of Thalia's tree had turned yellow, as well as the large puncture mark in the centre of it that was the size of a bullet hole, oozing out a weird green sap.
Since someone needed to take action, once Clarisse had gotten back from a week in Arizona, she demanded to set up a border patrol to keep the camp protected. There was a rotation of the groups depending on the days, and of course, Clarisse had made sure Nabi was part of the same group she was in.
She just wished that border patrol wasn't so early in the morning...
When she opened her drawer, Nabi was a little stunned to find a small slip of card, unassuming and with printed words. What it said was so shocking that Nabi almost let it fall from her hands:
Thanatos has had his turn, and I can't afford to be left out! Come and find me at my fountain, my fair grandchild... oh, just the word makes me feel old. How funny! You'll understand how utterly hilarious that was when you meet me, Nabi. I hope you're prepared.
You truly look just like your mother.
Nabi stared at the innocent card, then blinked. "Oh my gods... no freaking way."
【 🦋 】
NABI WOULD'VE BEEN PANICKING EVEN MORE ABOUT THE CRYPTIC MESSAGE LEFT BY HER GRANDMOTHER, if she wasn't a little preoccupied. Border patrol was her current main focus — she was about to be set on fire by... raging, bronze bulls.
They were as bright as the sun, and the size of elephants, attacking the campers at the border with their unhelpful ability to breathe fire; the Colchis bulls. Their eyes were large rubies, glaring menacingly, whilst their horns were made of polished silver.
Nabi, with her sword in hand and a shield in the other, could think of a million other ways to spend her afternoon... this was probably near the bottom.
There were about ten of them on border patrol together, wearing their bronze armour, all scrambling to avoid the bulls' roaring, fiery attacks. Nabi could admit that the group wasn't doing the best. One of her allies was running away in such a panic that he almost splatted onto the ground, whilst another waved his arms in the air as he ran in circles — the horsehair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery mohawk. The grass burned in huge swathes around the tree as the battle raged on.
"Border patrol," Clarisse yelled, rough and commanding in tone as she led the unit of campers, "to me!"
Clarisse's own armor was charred. She was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull's shoulder.
The Hephaestus cabin had attempted to fix her old, electric spear, and they had, except it no longer electrocuted people. Clarisse alternated between using her dad's gift and other weapons, just in case it'd break a second time. Currently, she was using the latter — though, it wasn't much good broken as she fought the flaming monsters.
"Phalanx formation, now!" Clarisse ordered.
Only half of the campers managed to follow her command and get into position. Nabi joined them, lining up with their shoulders touching, and locking their shields to form a barrier. However, the other half were still running around with their helmets on fire. One of the bulls got ready to charge at them, but turned at a sudden voice.
"Hey, over here!"
Nabi turned at the familiar voice, and her brows raised in surprise as... Annabeth appeared. She was back. The daughter of Athena taunted the bulls, "Come at me, bronze freak of nature!"
One of the monsters fell for the bait. It stomped a hoof on the ground, aiming for the Athena girl, when she hurriedly slipped her Yankees cap on and turned invisible. The monster made an aggravated sound, confused.
Nabi took that as an opportunity.
She moved away from the group to drop her shield and wield a shadow, she slashed the monster harshly, then wrapped it around one of the bull's legs and yanked hard. It crashed onto the burnt grass, roaring in anger. In the bull's panic, it scorched fire everywhere — Nabi tightened her shadow's grasp on the monster, raising her other arm to strike it with her Stygian iron weapon, but it breathed a column of white-hot flames, and she had to let go of it to dodge.
It lost focus on Annabeth and Nabi when it heard the other bull's loud cry. Then, it locked its vision, aiming straight for Clarisse. But a loud yell startled both Nabi, and the rest of the warriors, "Behind you, look out!"
It was Percy.
He had also made his way up the hill, but Clarisse had gotten distracted by Percy's sudden voice bellowing out, and the phalanx broke right as the first bull — the one that Annabeth and Nabi had tried to defeat — came charging towards the border patrol group.
The bull moved deadly fast for something so horrifically large. Clarisse went flying backward and landed in a smoldering patch of grass. If it weren't for the helmet on her head, she might've gotten a concussion. The bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms. They dropped their weapons and ran as the second bull closed in on Clarisse for the kill.
"Oh, no you don't..." Nabi muttered.
Nabi summoned a shadow, and prayed to her father for her plan to work. She'd never actually tried it... but she'd been able to transfer objects from one dark hole into another. Nabi ran towards Clarisse, grabbing her by the straps of her armour and letting the darkness consume them — within the blink of an eye, Nabi had teleported them out of the way just as the second bull freight-trained past where the two originally were.
Holy shit, she just travelled... with the shadows?
"What the—" Clarisse blinked, clearly shocked. She stumbled, not used to the feeling. "Since when could you do that?"
"Since..." Nabi gave her a weak, lopsided smile, "right now?"
She didn't realise how much energy it'd cost her, and she promptly collapsed in Clarisse's arms. The Ares girl seemed alarmed, genuinely frightened — more so than how she was when the bull had charged at her. "Nabi? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine... just give me a second to catch my breath," Nabi grunted, steadying her feet, "go kill that other one before it hurts anyone else!"
Clarisse didn't seem to be as dizzy as Nabi. Probably because she wasn't the one who had used her powers. Clarisse nodded, dropping the broken celestial bronze spear in her hands and collecting one from the ground that one of the other campers had dropped in the midst of it all. Nabi watched as she lunged towards the second bull, and slashed the side of it — the bull creaked in anger at the large gash. Clarisse scowled, "I'll destroy you, ugly fucking cow!"
It was bad timing, but Nabi thought it was kind of attractive... wait— hold on... what?
She turned and saw that Percy had came rushing in, swiping the second bull with Riptide — he managed to cut a huge slice on its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.
The fight, which had began on the top of the hill, had managed to continue downwards on the inside slope of it now, the valley of Camp Half-Blood directly below them — the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House — all of it at risk if these bulls got past them.
Annabeth shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted. The first bull ran a wide arc, making its way back toward Percy. As it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and continued charging towards him.
The second bull turned to face Percy also, with fire sputtering from the gash he'd managed to cut. Nabi couldn't really tell if the bulls had proper emotion, but it glared at the Poseidon boy menacingly as it rushed closer.
Nabi would've went to help, but she felt like throwing up. Shadow travelling was much more exhausting than she thought it'd be.
Nabi could see how Percy was losing the fight — he couldn't fight two at once. One of them blew flames at him, and he accidentally tripped over in the midst of it all. Nabi heard his yelp, blinking back the exhaustion as he slashed at the monsters.
But the other bull was charging too fast; it was going to kill him.
"Percy!" Nabi screamed.
Suddenly, Annabeth shouted, "Tyson! Help him!"
Somewhere towards the crest of the hill, somebody wailed, "Can't. Get. Through!"
Nabi's eyed widened when she realised that it was a cyclops — a baby one, by the looks of it. He was two meters tall, broad-shouldered, and had messy brown hair. His large, singular brown eye was proof of what he was.
"What is that thing doing here?" Clarisse yelled, raising her arms up as if to throw her spear — but she realised again that it was broken, and they were too far to attack the cyclops.
"I, Annabeth Chase, give you permission to enter camp!" The Athena girl cried.
Nabi stuttered, "Are you crazy, Annabeth? That's a—"
Thunder shook the hillside. Suddenly Tyson was there, barreling toward all of them, yelling: "Percy needs help!"
Before Nabi could even blink, he dove between Percy and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.
"Tyson!" Percy yelled.
The blast swirled around Tyson like a red tornado. Nabi could only see the black silhouette of his body. When the fire died, Tyson was still standing there, him and his grungy clothes completely unharmed.
The bull seemed surprised itself, because before it could unleash a second blast, Tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face, screaming, "BAD COW!"
His fists made a crater where the bronze bull's snout used to be. Two small columns of flame shot out of its ears as Tyson hit it again, and the bronze crumpled under his hands like aluminum foil.
"Down!" Tyson yelled.
The bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places. It stopped moving.
So had Nabi's vision, feeling less dizzy now.
Annabeth ran to check up on Percy. Nabi did too, and asked them, "Are you guys alright?"
Percy hissed out, "My ankle. I think I sprained it."
Nabi took out a few ambrosia squares from her pocket, handing one to the son of Poseidon for him to take a bite of. She bit into one herself, letting one of the burns on her arm heal whilst the dizziness subsided. Everyone smelled scorched, like they had just been squashed onto a grill as demigod burgers... to be fair, Nabi felt a little bit like it.
"What about the other bull?" Percy asked.
Nabi turned to check. Clarisse had taken her helmet off and was marching towards them. In the background, there was a mutilated bull with the snout half gone and wrecked with multiple gashes.
"You ruin everything!" Clarisse yelled at Percy, "I had it under control!"
Annabeth grumbled, "Good to see you too, Clarisse."
"Argh!" Clarisse screamed, glaring down at Percy as he laid on the ground, "Don't ever, ever try saving me again!"
Nabi stepped forward, trying to calm the Ares girl down. "Hey, it's okay. He helped us, Clarisse. It's fine."
"It's fine?" Clarisse seethed, and when she looked at Nabi, she could see the anger that pooled in her eyes. She could also see the concern in them, too. "Nabi, you almost passed out, you—"
"Clarisse," Annabeth said, and the Ares girl's head snapped towards her, "you've got wounded campers."
Clarisse looked like she wanted to say more, but instead, she scowled. Nabi knew she cared about the soldiers under her command, and so the daughter of Ares trudged off to assess the damage. "I'll be back."
Nabi sighed as Clarisse left, "She's just— Clarisse is just stressed. But I'm glad you guys are back. It's good to see you both."
Percy smiled. "Yeah, thanks. It's good to see you too."
"No," Nabi shook her head, "thank you for helping. Gods, who knows what would've happened if you guys didn't show up?"
"Hello!"
Nabi turned to the... monster? The cyclops smiled, greeting her with an innocent wave of his hand. It was like he didn't even know he wasn't supposed to have entered the camp grounds; like he didn't even know he was a monster. Nabi backed away awkwardly, "Hello... uhm..."
"I am Tyson." The cyclops said, nodding to her.
"...I'm Nabi?" Nabi wasn't quite a fan of cyclopes. The last one she had encountered almost killed her, so she thought it was a fair reason to be scared of the one in front of her.
"Percy," Nabi cleared her throat, "how did, uh, your friendship with cyclopes' become a thing?"
Percy blinked, clueless. "...What?"
"Percy," Annabeth said, "have you ever looked at Tyson closely? I mean... in the face. Ignore the Mist, and really look at him."
It took Percy a moment, until he stammered, "Tyson, you're a..."
"Cyclops." Annabeth offered. She didn't seem very fond of Tyson, with the way she said the word. "Probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easily as the bulls. Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."
"One of the what?"
Annabeth explained everything. She spoke of how a bunch of cyclopes grow up wild on the streets of big cities such as New York, which was how him and Percy must've crossed paths; she spoke of how they were immune to fire due to having to work in Hephaestus' forges, which was why Tyson was unharmed.
Clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can stand, get up.
We all need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."
"Tantalus?" Percy asked.
"The activities director." Clarisse scoffed, impatiently.
Percy's face twisted into a confused expression. "Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security, so he should be here."
"Argus got fired. It's Chiron's last day at camp, today." Clarisse said, bluntly, "You two have been gone too long. Things are changing."
"But Chiron... he's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. He can't just be gone. What happened?" Annabeth asked, surprised.
Clarisse snapped, "That happened."
She pointed to Thalia's tree, poisoned and slowly rotting away. Nabi frowned as she saw the way Annabeth and Percy's faces dropped.
"C'mon," Nabi sighed, "let's go — we need to get to the Big House."
As they all left to head back, Nabi found herself agreeing with Clarisse's words. Things really were changing... and not for the best.
【 🦋 】
AS SOON AS PERCY BROUGHT HIS NEW CYCLOPS FRIEND INTO THE DINING PAVILION, Nabi noticed how people's heads turned and conversations faltered. Clearly, Tyson wasn't very welcomed by the campers.
"Who invited that?"
"So we're just allowing anything into the camp, now?"
"Oh my gods— is that a...?"
The Hermes table wasn't an exception to all the chatter. Connor and Travis were speaking to Nabi, as the first brother mumbled, "There's no way in Hades that they let a monster into the camp..."
"Uh... Annabeth did, actually." Nabi told them. She explained everything that had happened at border patrol, as the Stoll brothers listened.
She didn't... dislike Tyson. Nabi was grateful he was there to defeat one of the bulls, but she was still wary of him. Who knew what he could do? Nabi had seen he was strong enough to beat a good amount of campers up, and now that he was in the camp borders, he had the chance to do so. That, and well...
The memory of her first cyclops encounter wasn't a very fond one, and she frowned as she chewed on her pizza.
After everyone had each burnt their offerings to the gods — they had to feel appreciated, since apparently, it wasn't enough that they were omnipotent and all powerful — Tantalus got one of the satyrs to blow the conch horn to get everyone's attention.
"Yes, well," Tantalus said, once the talking had died down, "another fine meal! Or so I am told."
Okay, Nabi could admit that was a little funny.
As he spoke, he inched his hand toward his refilled dinner plate, as if maybe the food wouldn't notice what he was doing, but it did. It shot away down the table as soon as he got within six inches.
"And here on my first day of authority, my first real day now that Chiron has left," Tantalus continued, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture... er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough to eat."
Dionysus clapped politely, leading to some halfhearted applause from the satyrs. Tantalus gave the campers a crooked smile, and said, "Now, some changes to be made! We are reconstituting the chariot races!"
Murmuring broke out at all the tables, a range of reactions — excitement, fear, disbelief. Everyone was shocked at the news. Nabi felt like it was a bad idea, but the Stoll brothers seemed to think the opposite.
"Seriously?" Travis grinned next to Nabi, which highlighted his elfish features, lively and mischievous.
Connor had the exact same look. "We've got to win it!"
"Now, I know," Tantalus continued, raising his voice to speak over the campers' bursting excitement, "that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."
"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," Someone at the Apollo table called out.
"Yes, yes!" Tantalus said, "But I know that you will quite thoroughly enjoy the revival of this camp tradition! Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"
An explosion of even more excited conversation. No stable cleaning or kitchen duties for a whole month? To the campers, the prize seemed too good to be true.
Then, someone unexpected spoke up from the crowd.
"But, sir!" Clarisse said. She stood up from the Ares table. Some of the campers snickered when they saw the 'YOU MOO, GIRL!' sign on her back. Nabi rolled her eyes when she saw Connor and Travis' shared fist bump — guess she knew who the culprits were. Clarisse asked, "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots—"
"Ah, the hero of the day," Tantalus exclaimed, "Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls!"
Single-handedly? Nabi did not almost throw up and get burned to a crisp just to be undermined like that. She bit her tongue, keeping silent, even though she knew that her and the rest of the campers who'd helped deserved praise too.
Clarisse blinked, then blushed. Despite feeling a little irked by Tantalus, Nabi smiled at how bashful she became. Usually, Clarisse would've taken it in stride, but the praise had came unexpected. "Um... I didn't—"
"And modest, too." Tantalus grinned, and said, "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"
"But the tree—"
"And now," Tantalus said, as several of Clarisse's cabin mates pulled her back into her seat,
"before we proceed to the campfire, one slight housekeeping issue... Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here."
Tantalus waved a hand toward Tyson, pulling a disgusted expression before continuing, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Now, until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes' cabin, possibly?"
Silence at the Hermes table. Travis and Connor developed a sudden interest in the table cloth. Nabi felt kind of bad for him, but she reminded herself that he was a cyclops... and her fear overruled her concern.
Suddenly, everybody gasped.
Tantalus scooted away from Tyson in surprise. Swirling over Tyson was a glowing green trident — the same symbol that had appeared above Percy last year, during a capture the flag game. There was a moment of awed silence.
But now, they followed Tantalus' lead, and Tantalus roared with laughter. "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"
Almost everybody laughed alongside him. But Tyson was too mystified, trying to swat at the symbol that was now fading over his head. IT SEEMED THAT CAMP HALF-BLOOD HAD A NEW CHILD OF POSEIDON.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗔'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦!
જ⁀➴ okok ,, tyson's here and things are gonna start kicking off !! also nabi's first little signs that she's realising her feelings literally whilst they're dying is so funny ... like it's js a small bit but she's like 'omg i'm soo dizzy .. kill that bull clarisse !! oh ... oh wow now i feel lightheaded for a DIFFERENT reason' ugh what a silly billy !! they're all silly tbh 🙈
i lowkey forgot abt the colchis bulls scene until i had to do my refreshing of the book ,, i like sea of monsters but it's probs the one i remember the least abt since i don't reread it much 🤷♀️ tbh i don't have much to say this chapter ( dw guys we'll get to the real quest soon ) but i hope u enjoyed it and liked the small clanabi snippets here and there !! uhm, should we call them clanabi ?? up to u guys 🤗 i can't think of anything else ... alright anyways thanks for reading & hope u enjoy the next one !!