Here's Chapter 3! I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 3

Thomas' ears began to throb painfully from the continuous roaring. If that thing isn't killed soon, I'm gonna go deaf! He jogged, conserving most of his energy for the upcoming battle. The roaring all of a sudden stopped for a moment before it started with renewed fury. It found them. I better hurry. Breaking his well-paced jog, he started to walk slowly toward the sound of roaring. When he saw that he was approaching an open field, he quickly hid behind a tree. With caution, he took a peek.

The Nemean Lion, as Jack had said, made arrows useless. It was basically a fight where Jack, Max, and Lily dodged the monster's attacks. Thomas thought hard trying to think up an idea. My sword won't even make a cut. Every single part of its body can withstand anything. Suddenly, he remembered hearing how Percy had defeated it. I just need to hit the mouth. But first off I have to help them out. But how? He looked at his shield and the glaring sun. Perfect. Positioning his shield to reflect the sunlight, he aimed the beam at the Nemean Lion's eyes.

It did exactly what Thomas wanted. The distraction gave the group time to get some distance from the monster. It also did exactly what Thomas didn't want. After blinking a few times, the lion saw the source of the light. Uh oh. Thomas quickly ran toward Jack, Max, and Lily. He could hear the Nemean Lion right behind him. At the last second, he quickly turned around and put his shield in front of him. The charging animal crashed into Thomas causing him to fly backward landing next to Lily. He groaned in pain. Pain, probably the only friend I have.


Lily knew things were going to be bad when she saw all of the arrows Jack shot shatter at impact with the monster's body. Max had tried to tangle it with the grass and roots but it proved ineffective when the Nemean Lion ripped it apart with its teeth. Now the boy named Thomas was lying on the ground moaning painfully. Lily concentrated on staying alive and by the ways the others acted; they were doing the same thing. She had to use mostly willpower to dodge the relentless attacks. She began to trip but couldn't regain balance. Before she knew it, she was lying on the grass. The Nemean Lion jumped toward her, mouth open and claws outstretched.

Lily threw up her hands waiting for certain death. In contrast, she only heard a 'thump' and a 'thud.' When she opened her eyes, she could only see earth, literally. Standing before her, stood a six foot tall earth wall. The lion had smacked into it and had dropped to the ground. With a roar, it tried to jump at her again. Unknown power seemed to surge through her body as she got ready to defend herself. She lifted her hand and a similar shaped earth one started to form. The Nemean Lion, unable to stop, smashed into it. Lily formed a fist and the earth hand followed. Swiftly, she brought her fist down and the earth one slammed the monster deep into the soil.

Lily fell to her knees exhausted. How'd I do that? Jack was about to ask the same question when the pile of dirt the lion was under, began to rumble. That thing is invincible. She tried to summon another earth fist but nothing happened. Max shouted, "Don't try it! You're not used to it, yet. We have to get to Camp Half Blood! It's the only place safe from monsters." Lily could barely hear the words he spoke. She started to sway before passing out from exhaustion.


Thomas had his mouth wide open the whole time during the battle. How did she do that? He silently vowed to try to never get on her bad side. He shivered at the thought of being the one under the huge fist. I wonder if she can make other shapes out of the earth. Thomas again shivered thinking of her making, well, pretty much anything. He saw her drop to her knees and fall to the ground. He considered retreating back deep into the forest but the mound of dirt that the fist had crumbled into caught his eye. Some grains of it began to fall. What? It can't be alive. Not after-. The mound began to rumble. I stand corrected.

The son of Ares watched in horror as the Nemean Lion emerged like a zombie rising out of a grave. Max quickly tried to pull Lily out of the way while Jack notched his last arrow on his bow pointing straight at the monster. Thomas jumped onto his feet drawing his sword and readjusted his shield on his arms. "Why'd you come back?" Jack asked suspiciously without taking his eyes off the lion. "Didn't you hear my warning?" "I thought that you might have needed some help and by looking at the current situation, you do." "We were fine before you came here!" "Oh yeah, considering the fact that you're on your last arrow." Jack just scowled. "Are you going to help or not?" Thomas grinned. "Sure, all we've got to do is open its mouth and you shoot it." "And how are we going to do that?" Thomas looked at the sky looking for a beam from the sun. There was none. Uh oh, looks like there's gonna have to be a change of plan.

A flashback gave Thomas a brilliant yet stupid idea. He remembered when he was in kindergarten; a girl had brought her cat for show-and-tell. A boy, not one of the brightest in the class, had pulled the cat by its tail. The cat had yowled with its mouth wide open. Of course, the boy ended up in the nurse's room and there's no telling what this thing will do to me if I annoy it. Probably kill me. "Get ready!" Jack looked at him curiously. "For what?" "You'll know it when you see it." The Nemean Lion shook the dust off itself and looked at the nearest target, Thomas. Its eyes were blood red with rage.

Thomas had to bite his tongue to keep himself from screaming and run. The lion bounded toward him. His heart began to speed up as he forced himself to run toward the Nemean Lion. Jack's jaw dropped. "What are you doing?" Thomas didn't reply fearing that if he let up his focus for just a second, he'd end up dead. The distance between him and the monster began to decrease rapidly. Wait for it. Wait for it….. Now! At the last moment, he slid under it. As he went under, he grabbed the lion's tail. His armed felt an enormous pain as he jerked to a stop.

An air-piercing scream sounded across the field but stopped in a second as an arrow pierced its mouth. The Nemean Lion dropped to the ground twitching a bit before exploding into dust. Everyone was silent. Thomas let out a big sigh of relief. That went way better than I expected. Max was the first to break the silence. "We've got to keep on moving. Let's just hope we don't meet any more monsters." Thomas walked to the pile of dust where the Nemean Lion had been killed. Next to it laid a jacket. I know what this is. Percy had one like this. It can protect you from even bullets.

He picked it up and walked toward Jack. "Where'd you get that idea?" "Kindergarten," Thomas replied. Jack looked at him confusingly. "You don't have to know. Anyway, you should have it." Jack stared at the fur jacket for a few seconds with a frown. Surprisingly, he let out a half-grin. "Nah, you keep it." Thomas took a step back shocked. "You killed it so take it." Jack shook his head. "Without your idea, we'd probably be dead. After all, since you're out alone, you'll need some protection."

Thomas wasn't sure what to do or say. "I, um, thanks." This time, Jack let out a full smile but then his expression darkened again. "I'll let this one pass. I'm grateful that you came and helped but the next time you come around, I won't be so nice." Thomas laughed mentally. What'll you do? You don't have any arrows left. Imaginary arrows don't hurt. However, Thomas made a good choice to keep those thoughts to himself. "Okay." "Jack, I think Lily's coming around!" shouted Max.


Lily's eyelids felt like they were concrete but after more than a dozen attempts, she finally managed to open her eyes. The sunlight hurt her eyes as she tried to make out the blurry shapes. She could hear someone calling her name. Lily blinked a few times trying to make out the person leaning over her. It was Max. "Max," she croaked. "You're alive!" Max shouted with relief. "Yeah," she replied slowly. She sat up slowly with Max helping her, winching from the cramps all over her body. A few feet from her she saw Jack chatting with the boy they had met before, which was hard to believe considering what Jack had said to him earlier. She stretched trying to soothe her aching limbs. The boys stopped talking realizing that she was awake and started to walk toward her.

When she saw the boy, Lily rubbed her eyes to see if she was seeing the real thing. She was. Is that a fur coat? Where did he get that? "How are you?" asked Jack. "Fine," Lily replied as she turned her gaze to Thomas. "What are you doing here?" "Uh, well, I just came to help." Jack, seeing Lily's confusion, introduced the boy. "Allow me to introduce, Thomas, and his godly parent is unkno-." "Ares," Thomas interrupted. "Ares, you mean like the war-god?" Lily asked. "Yup." "Wow, it's too bad I don't know who my godly parent is." "Actually," Max intervened, "your mom claimed you." "Really? When and who?" "Well, I saw her claim you while you were taking care of your plants." "Ok, but who is she?" "Guess." Lily thought for a moment. "Demeter?" "Right!" Max said with a laugh.

I'm a daughter of Demeter. That explains what happened with the plants back home and the huge earth-fist I made. Hey, speaking of that. Lily concentrated on the earth beneath her feeling the fertile soil under her. She drew energy from underneath until her body seemed to be brimming with it. Next she tried to imagine a shape. Let's try a box. After solidly placing the shape in her mind, she lifted her hand and let the energy loose. Jack asked, "What are you doing?" Suddenly, the ground rumbled and an enormous earth cube started to rise out of the soil.

"Holy smokes!" shouted Thomas. Lily continued to concentrate. The cube stopped rising and stood on the ground as if it had always been there. I did it. I can't believe it. I did it. She smiled triumphantly beforeshe began to fall down. Max jumped in. "You have got to stop doing that." "What? You too afraid of what I might do if I accidentally crushed you?" Lily, who was almost feeling like she was going to pass out, asked jokingly. "Are you kidding? That thing you just made could have easily crushed all of us!" replied Max. "How did you do that?" Thomas asked in awe. "I just absorb energy from the earth and then imagine what I want to make. But it's exhausting." "Wait, Lily, try doing that but don't try to build anything," Jack said. "Why?" "If you can get energy to build stuff, then you can get energy to make you not feel exhausted." It's worth a shot.

In the same process, she absorbed the energy beneath her but this time not as much as the first time. When she was done, she felt like she was good as new. "I feel great! Wow, as long as I have the ground under my feet, I can have unlimited energy." Everyone considered the fact for a moment. I might never have to sleep again. "Wait, Lily," started Thomas, "what are all these dead grass and plants around us doing here. They weren't here before."

Lily crouched to the ground and examined it. He's right. All the grass and plants around here are all shriveled up. She was further surprised when she tried to dig her hand into the soil. It was so hard that she had to use her shoe to loosen it up. When she managed to get a handful, she was shocked to find it dry and drained of all nutrients. "When you used all of that energy, you absorbed it from the soil and the plants living in it. You better save it for combat and healing," Jack suggested. Lily could only nod feeling terrible for killing all of the plants.

A shadow dashed through the trees. Max grumbled, "Now what? Can't Tarturus give it a break?" Thomas drew his sword and got ready to fight. Jack quickly found the dagger which Lily had dropped, and prepared for battle. Lily moved to a patch of earth that was still fertile and then began to absorb energy waiting for the time to use it. Max held his reed pipes over his mouth ready to blow. The shadow began to increase speed, dashing back and forth. "It's just a hellhound," Jack said letting out a sigh. A scream sounded in the evening sky. "Great, another helpless person!" shouted Thomas in frustration. Lily cleared her throat. "I mean, uh, let's go and see what it was," Thomas quickly corrected.

Well, what'd you think? I'm planning on bringing in a new character but who is it? You'll find out in the next chapter. Please Review!