It was a sunny afternoon and campers could be seen going about their daily activities in a secluded spot in Long Island, dotted by cabins. Kids ranging from very young to nearing adulthood could be seen doing archery, arts and crafts, sword training and even just resting by a river that ran through the camp. All was well in Camp Half Blood.

I AM SO TIRED! Thought Annabeth as she trudged through a particularly dense patch of bushes. Her, Luke, Thalia and the satyr Grover, who had recently found them, were attempting to walk to Camp Half-Blood after a whole night of running from monsters.

"Can we have a break? Please?" pleaded Annabeth to her older friends who were quickly becoming like family.

"Sorry Annabeth, we should keep moving" Thalia told Annabeth with an apologetic glance in her direction.

"Okay" Annabeth sighed with a pout. After that, they continued walking through the forest in relative silence, broken only when Grover tried to make passing comments. Luke, who had been walking at the back of the group, suddenly stopped.

"Uh, guys? Do you hear that?" Luke asked the group.

They all paused, and tried to listen for whatever Luke could supposedly hear. Then suddenly, Annabeth heard it. It was a low rumble of noises that were coming from god knows what. Grover seemed to freeze.

"Monsters" he whispered sounding terrified. "And a lot of them." Annabeth thought her heart stopped.

"RUN!" Thalia screamed.

"JUST GO STRAIGHT! CAMP SHOULDN'T BE TOO FAR!" Grover yelled as he tried run as fast as he could. Annabeth was stumbling over the undergrowth that was under her feet and going as fast as her short legs would carry her. After what seemed like forever to Annabeth, the group burst out of the forest, and started stumbling toward a steep looking hill. Annabeth started falling behind, while the others continued sprinting toward the hill. She wanted to scream out to them to wait for her, but she didn't have the breath to do it. Resolved to the task that she had, she started scrambling up after the others when the first of the monsters appeared out of the forest. When Annabeth heard the noise that the monsters were making, she turned to look for a brief second. What she saw nearly made her scream in horror. There were so many types of monsters and each in so many numbers. She would have stared at them, transfixed, if she had not tripped over a small weed in her path up the hill. The stumble brought her back to her senses, and she turned back around to concentrate on going up the hill as quickly as she could. She was falling further and further behind from the others and they didn't seem to notice.

"GUYS!" Annabeth called out in desperation as she heard the monsters making their way up the hill now. Grover, who was the closest one to her, turned around and held out his hand. She took it and together they tried to catch up to the others, with Grover slightly dragging Annabeth along. Not to far away now. Just a little bit more until the top, thought Annabeth as she tried her best to keep up with the others, who they had now caught up with. They just reached the top, when the most amazing sight came into view. Twelve cabins that were all differently decorated were arranged like the Greek letter omega. They were surrounded by a sparkling river, a forest and so many other things that Annabeth couldn't take in at that split second. She stood looking at that when she heard a horrendous sound behind her. She turned around and found the monsters nearly within touching point, they had climbed the hill impossibly fast. Annabeth let out a scream that caused her almost family to turn around and frantically try to get to her. Grover reached out to her as the first monster made a grab for her. Grover pulled her back, but the monster instead went for him. Grover muffled a terrified squeak as the monster lifted him and threw him down the hill, towards the cabins.

"GROVER!" Annabeth's terror filled voice screamed.

"ANNABETH! LOOK OUT!" Thalia cried out to her. Annabeth narrowly dodged another monster and started running toward her friends.

"There's too many of them to fight! What do we do Thalia?" Luke asked Thalia with panic edged in his voice. Thalia looked at the vast sea of monsters making their way toward them, then at her two best friends who were looking at her with terror in their eyes. She looked back at the oncoming horde and when she turned again to look at them, Annabeth could see resolve in her eyes.

"Luke, take Annabeth, get Grover and get to that camp thing that he told us about."

"But Thals…"

"I'll be alright," Thalia said answering his unasked question, "go. Now!" She opened her shield, Aegis, and the monsters that were getting too close for comfort recoiled. Luke still looked like he wanted to stay with Thalia, but she gave him a push toward the cabins that seemed to finalize things.

"Bye Annabeth." Thalia told her youngest friend. Then she turned to face the monsters with Aegis in hand. Before she could respond, Luke dragged her off to help a struggling Grover. All Annabeth could hear from what was going on above her, were the grunts and yells of the monsters and Thalia letting out an almighty battle cry. When they arrived at the base of the camp, Annabeth trailing after Luke supporting Grover. Some people, all differently aged, came to meet them, asking if they were ok.

"Go…help…Thalia…" Luke gasped weakly to them, pointing up to where the monsters were slowly closing in around Thalia. She had so far managed to disintegrate quite a number of them but you could see the exhaustion written clearly on her face. Some of the older looking people with swords and shields started to run up to try and help her. The monsters, seeing the help that was coming toward them with very pointy looking swords, decided to attack Thalia at once. Thalia screamed as the monsters came bearing down on her, and before she could do anything else, it was over. As she felt the growing numbness enter her body, she opened her eyes to see the clouds rolling above her, impossibly calm.

There was a blinding flash that seemed to come from Thalia herself that made everyone turn his or her eyes away from the sight. When everybody opened their eyes, they discovered large piles of golden ash surrounding a tall, beautiful pine tree.