Aaaaaand here's chapter 3! Some more action and revelations! :D Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Mysterious Visitors

Despite the waves lapping against her, she was completely dry. Percy and Annabeth looked more shocked and scared than anyone else and their faces paled. No one spoke and the only noise in the evening was the sound of small waves against the shore.

"Come on you guys. She needs ambrosia and nectar." I told the crowd. I managed to pull her out of the water and propped her up against me. Finally Percy snapped out of his trance and came over and helped.

"Aran, we need to get her to the Big House," Percy said. I checked her carotid artery to make sure she was even alive. She was, thank the gods, but she was breathing really slowly. We both put one of her arms around us and held onto her arm and waist. She was light, so we made good time trekking across the camp.

"Of all the places to show up in camp," I said trying to lighten the mood, "she had to show up on a beach halfway around the world."

Percy didn't say anything, which I thought was really weird. He didn't even smile or realize I had spoken. Annabeth had caught up to us. We kind of left in a hurry so most of the campers were just staring as we walked away. We walked past the marble Greek style buildings: the armory, forge, pavilion, amphitheatre, the rectangle of cabins and, my personal favorite place the arena and chariot track. The buildings had an eerie look to them in the evening sun and cast almost threatening shadows.

Annabeth pulled out in front of us as I readjusted my arms so that I had a better grip on the girl's right side. She had almost an aura of energy radiating from her and her hair smelled like strawberries. Finally, just as I started to tire from holding a limp body, we reached the Big House. It was then I noticed that the clouds that were present just an hour ago were completely gone.

Annabeth ran up the steps and open the door for us. Percy and I had to walk in sideways because the doorframe wasn't big enough to let three people pass through side by side. Percy went in first and Annabeth held the door and I followed him. I heard the door shut behind me and we walked over to the infirmary. There were a couple of empty beds in the unoccupied room, so we chose the closest bed to set her down. All the beds had a window above them that filtered in orange rays and illuminated the room. Finally after lying her down on the bed I told my friends, "I'm gonna go get Chiron. You guys stay her and help her any way you can." Annabeth looked like she was going to argue, probably because she's usually the one calling the shots, but Percy gently put his hand on her shoulder and she nodded. I just caught a glimpse of them pulling up chairs next to each other on one side of the bed and stared at her.

It took me a while to find Chiron. After thousands of years I figured he was probably a master of hide-and-seek. I didn't dare call his name because Mr. D (Dionysus, our camp counselor) would probably turn me into a dolphin or something. I scanned all the rooms on all the floors and even poked my head into the attic. The old body of the oracle used to live up there, but now it was just littered with junk.

I almost gave up hope until I remembered something: pinochle. I smiled at the thought and ran out the back door and found Mr. D, Chiron - wheelchair form - and two satyrs all playing pinochle around a table. As I walked up to Chiron he "won" (I still have no clue how to play it) and turned to face me. "Ah, we have a guest." I looked at him with extreme seriousness and said, "Help."

She finally started to stir after a long five hours. Chiron had told me to watch over her, and I had no clue why though. He said it was because I was the first to act to save her. I didn't think it was a big deal, but apparently if I hadn't acted then she would have died. An hour after Chiron had worked his magic Annabeth and Percy left, leaving me alone with an unconscious brown haired girl. Chiron went to my cabin and brought back my cell phone and an architecture book. I turned on my Blackberry, which all the Athena campers had because it could do a lot more than a normal cell phone, and checked the status of the buildings in Olympus as I was in charge of the progress of the reconstruction.

The marble floors had finally been finished after a long year and the statue of Percy and Annabeth had just started. The statue of the two was kind of a secret gift from the camp. Even the Ares campers thought they deserved it, although they thought Clarisse should get one too for killing the drakon. Eventually I finalized the decision and ordered a statue of Percy and Annabeth, the two most important heroes of the age of the gods.

After checking the status I opened my book and read about the Roman aqueducts. Soon, my eyes started getting heavy and I found myself struggling to stay awake. I thought my unconscious friend would be fine since I just gave her some nectar and went to get a glass of water. I sucked it down in less than a second and refilled my glass to bring it back with me.

I noticed as I was going back that my hand was getting cold. I decided that I'd sit on my hand to warm it up and put the glass in the other hand; but as soon as I swapped hands my left hand, now holding the glass, got cold and my other hand warmed up. I was so focused on this that I hadn't realized I walked back into the infirmary. I just shook my head and set the glass down on the nightstand. Within seconds of my return sleeping beauty woke up very slowly.

She looked really tired. Her eyes were a startling sea green color and it looked like she was having trouble moving. I stood up and walked over to her. "Hey there, are you alright?"

"Unh?" She responded. She blinked a couple of times and focused on me. Finally she asked, "Where am I?" Her throat sounded really dry form the way she said the question.

"Hold on. Let me get you some water," and I picked up the glass of ice from the table. Wait, ice? Yes ice, the glass was freezing and there was ice in it. I looked bewildered. I looked back at her and she was holding out her hand waiting for me to hand her the glass. I was a bit unsure if I should hand her the glass, but I did anyway and I just thought well I'll just get her another if she wants. She looked at it like I handed her a banana, then she drank the water. Wait, water? Yes, the ice had melted as she took the glass from me. She finished the glass and set it down on the table. She said, "What?" and then I realized I was staring at her. I was just so amazed at the fact that the glass went from holding ice to water in a snap. I shook my head and said to her, "Nothing. Can you tell me your name?"

"Ummmmm…"

"What, don't know your own name?"

"I don't know."

She started to sit up but I grabbed her shoulders and said, "No, you're still tired. You need to rest some more. Go on and go back to sleep."

"But you don't know my name and I don't know yours," she said. She was really stubborn, but I was pretty stubborn myself, so I said, "Well it doesn't matter so much that you remember your name as much as you're safe. Aran Aggio, by the way."

I had won and she laid back down. I started to walk out, but then I heard a voice behind me, "Aran?"

I turned and said, "What's up?"

"What was that stuff you gave me?"

"Oh, that's nectar. I don't think you need anymore though. You look pretty much healed so giving you some more would be bad."

She frowned then said, "Oh. Okay."

"Don't worry, I'm sure the next time you wake up you'll be good to go and you can eat something," I reassured her. She smiled a bit then said, "Good," and closed her eyes.

I couldn't wait to get back to my cabin, but something told me to go to the archery range. I thought what the hey, it's a nice night to do some night shooting. Chiron had started a class at night for really good archers to shoot at targets in the night, but they already finished before I came out. I walked over and grabbed a quiver full of glow in the dark arrows and grabbed my bow off the rack. All the campers had their own bows, but my bow, I thought, was the coolest. It was silver and had small twin horns at either end.

I shot a few bulls eyes when I heard footsteps behind me and heaving panting. I turned my head a quarter and looked at the shadow from the corner of my eye. What I saw nearly made me yell in fear: it was the Minotaur.

I turned to face it and said, "How did you get in here Ugly?" It made a noise that sounded like a cross between a moo and a grunt, like a "moh". Then it charged me. Its purple polka dot underwear faintly showed in the moonlight. It was completely silent except for his noises. Fortunately, we have Minotaur fighting classes at camp, so I knew exactly what to do. Unfortunately I acted too slow.

I tried to sidestep but he lashed his hand out and grabbed me around the neck with his meaty hand. His furry top half smelled terrible, like rotting meat. Of course I knew that was just his breath, but it still almost made me pass out from just the smell. Then he stopped running and held me up to the moon. I glared daggers at him, but he just seemed to choke me more. I was trying desperately to remove his hands, but I was too tired.

"Let go of me cupcake!" I knew the art of taunting, and calling a meathead like him a cupcake was a pretty serious insult. I don't think he was really mad at me until I said that. His eyes became tinted red and he moo-roared loudly into my face, causing me to gag at his terrible breath. I tried to think of something to do. Athena always has a plan, Annabeth's voice said in my head. THEN HELP ME! I screamed back to it. The bull man pulled me closer to his face and looked me in the eye. I glared back and spat at him. It bellowed, "GRROOAAH!" Uh oh, now I've done it.

I had done it, and he chucked me halfway across camp. Literally, chucked me halfway across camp. I landed in the rectangle of cabins after glancing off the roof of the Zeus cabin. I heard a bunch of bones crack and pain exploded from everywhere in my body. My head felt like a cyclops was beating it with a hammer as well as the rest of my body. I don't know how I stayed conscious. I obviously cracked my head on something because I vision was blurry and I felt blood trickling down my cheek. I also realized that my bow had snapped in half and one half had embedded itself in the side of my stomach. Blood escaped out of several bad cuts throughout my body.

"Oooooohhhh, that hurt." I managed to say as I smelt him again. I couldn't tell where he was because everything was a blur. I could see him when he got closer, though. I don't know how everyone else was still asleep, especially after I screamed throughout my little fly across camp and crashed into Zeus's cabin.

Oh, sorry about that by the way Zeus. It wasn't really my fault, I thought. Then I thought, Aw crud, this is the part where I get the remaining daylights beaten out of me. And I was right. He picked me up with one hand around my neck. I still managed to glare at him and say, "I've seen Aphrodite campers fight better than you." Now he was blind with rage. He slammed me into the marble side of the fountain that was just put in the camp and threw me into the side of the Athena cabin, cracking the outside as well as every bone in my body.

He held me up to the Athena cabin and proceeded to punch me several times in the stomach and chest. After he finished making me into a pancake he threw me again into another cabin. I landed upside down against the Poseidon cabin wall, even cracking that wall as well. I slid down and held my hands to my face. I pulled them away after a second to see my hands covered in blood and a pool of blood forming around me. Please, any god who's listening. Please help. I couldn't ask for more because Mr. Ugly had stomped on my back. I screamed in pain like a piano had fallen ten stories onto one spot in my back, which is what it felt like. I couldn't see anything anymore but I knew that my eyes were still open. All I saw were black and red spots and could smell his horrid odor.

Finally I thought my life would end after he rammed me against a pillar horns first. I could feel his horns go into my chest. Blood was spurting from everywhere on my body. I couldn't feel anywhere anymore. He pulled his horns out and tossed me aside. I caught one last extremely malfunctioned glance at a black and purple blob before he exploded into a mound of gold dust. I heard someone scream my name, but it was more like I felt all my bones vibrating together. My last thought was, Great, now who's gonna save me when everyone's asleep. I closed my eyes, unable to bear the pain anymore.

Uh oh! What's gonna happen next? Will he live? Find out next time! Don't forget to review!