Just so you all know, I did NOT get the idea for this story from Kimby Rulez stories. After hearing that I had a very similar plot to theirs, I went on their profile and found I did indeed have the same idea, and I'm putting this on the record that I didn't take the idea from their story. It just came to me one day, and I thought of making it a story. This is just a fair warning to anyone who might send me flames for this. Thank you CrazierThanYourMind for the warning. I'm very grateful.

MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING

I may have been in hysterics, but I could tell my mom was driving like the devil himself was on our heels. There was an angry bellow behind us, and it drove her faster. That dream had been so real. It was as though it was really happening. It struck unknown fear into my heart. I don't know how I knew, but the horse was my father. No doubt about it. I suddenly didn't believe he was lost at sea.

Lightning pulsed like a rapidly beating heart, illuminating the car, and I looked to Grover every time it did. I've gone insane, I decided. That or he was wearing a pair of shag-carpet pants. But the smell in the car was of barnyard animals from the petting zoos mom used to take us too. Wet barnyard animals.

"So… you know our mom?" Percy asked.

Grover looked at us in the rearview mirror. He then looked farther out as though he was watching for something to follow us. "No. Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you guys."

"Why?" I asked, suddenly able to breathe properly. "Why watch us. Aren't we well enough watched at a delinquent center not to need a full time babysitter?"

"Not a babysitter," mom said, biting her lip. "Just to keep tabs on you."

"Why? Why would our best friend—a guy who is half donkey from the waist down—"

He let out a sharp-throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down! not a donkey!"

"But—" Percy started.

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"NO!" I groaned loud. "Don't say that! I don't want to hear anything about Greek mythology, or whatever! That's all myth and this is reality!"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth? How about Mrs. Dodds, huh?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" Percy glared.

"Of course."

"Oh, now he's honest," I grumble, keeping my eyes shut tight.

"Then why—" Percy started.

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You two started to realize who you are."

"Ice cream, lollypops, and blue cookies," I repeated under my breath like a mantra, trying to block him out of my mind.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked me.

"I have a theory about all of this," I said. "It's a dream. A really bad dream. And to prove it, I'm going to summon some of my favorite things."

"Look," Grover said. "This isn't a dream Cammie. It is real."

"No," I pointed at him. "It's not. And as soon as I have my ice cream, I'll show you."

I jumped as the bellowing rose up again from behind us. Whatever the thing was, it was still on our tail. And it was close.

"I'm sorry, kids," mom said. "There's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to make sure you guys get to safety."

"Who's after us mom?" Percy asked. "Who's after us, and what do they want?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"Grover!" mom snapped.

"What did he just say!?" I yelped.

"There's no time."

"We're in a car, on our way to who knows where, wasting time yelling profanities at each other. We have quite enough time, I believe," I said. "Please, mom."

"We're almost there, Sweetie. I'm sorry."

I closed my eyes. I could never dream up something this weird.

Mom made a hard left, throwing me into the window, and Percy on to me. The road became narrower, and narrower by the second. We passed by darkened farmhouses, and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going!" me and Percy yelled together.

"The summer camp I told you about." Mom's voice was tight. Her hands shook on the stirring wheel. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"But you just said last night you didn't want to take us there," Percy said.

"You're in danger, Percy! Both of you are!" Mom took a deep breath. "Please believe me, I don't want you two to go anywhere, but I can't let anything happen to you."

"Because old ladies cut yarn? Lots of people do. I hear it's a common practice among grandmothers," I said.

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the fates."

"The Fates?" Percy asked.

"You know, the three old ladies in Hercules that snipped the yarn," I reminded him. "Killed Meg, and then Hercules had to go into the underworld and get her soul back."

"Oh yeah," he smiled. "I like that movie."

"First off, that's just a movie," Grover scoffed. "There's no real facts in it. Look, the Fates popped up in front of you. Do you know what that means?"

"That they knit big socks, and sell yummy looking fruit?" I guessed.

"NO! They only show up when you're… someone's about to die."

"Wait, you just said 'you'!" Percy panicked.

"No I didn't. I said 'someone'."

"You meant 'you'. As in one of us."

"I meant you, like someone. No you, you."

"Boys!" mom yelled.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of what we swerved to avoid. It was a tall, and dark figure, now behind us.

"What was that?!"

"We're almost there. Just another mile," mom said, ignoring me, determination written on her face. "Get ready to get out and run."

I didn't know why this summer camp was so important, and I didn't know how it'd keep me safe from who knows what. But mom knew what she was doing. I could tell that much from the way her eyes stayed steadily forward, and she held the wheel like it might run away at any second. It was much like the look Percy would get when he was studying really hard. This was serious chizz, and there was no time for delay.

Outside it was raining, and dark. I leaned forward, Percy right behind me. It felt like I had jumped right into a James Bond movie, into a stormy night about to learn of my newest mission to some exotic land in some other country, far from my own. It'd be exiting—dangerous for sure. I'd have another identity, go to fancy parties and wear gowns that appeared out of nowhere and into my suitcases as if by magic. I'd make enemies, possibly fall in love, and jump off a train. At least once. Possibly twice. It wasn't any James Bond movie, but it calmed me down.

I didn't want think about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she changed into some big hideous monster, or when Mr. Brunner threw me and Percy those pens. But of course I did. Mrs. Dodds really wasn't human, was she? Percy really did destroy her with his magical pen, and those old ladies really were knitting socks of death.

We were supposed to be dead. Long gone. On our way up to Heaven (the underworld actually, if this really wasn't a dream).

So I guess I wasn't too surprised by the blinding flash, and jaw-rattling boom!, as our car exploded.

I was weightless. I remember that. Mom screamed. Percy grabbed for my hand, pulling me close.

I peeled my forehead away from the back of the seat, groaning. "Ow," I hissed. "What happened?"

"Are you guys okay?!" mom asked.

"We're fine. Grover?"

We weren't dead, so that was a plus. The car didn't actually explode. We'd swerved into a ditch. Rain poured in through the roof, that had cracked like an eggshell.

Lighting. Nice. We'd been hit by lightning. Thank you mother nature, and your little gifts!

"Grover," I asked again. "Grover you okay?"

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. It looked like he was dying. No! even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend! You're the only real friend next to Percy that I ever had! You can't die!

Then he groaned. "Food," and I knew there was hope.

"Kids," mom said. "We have to…" her voice faltered.

I looked back.

"What the bleeper is that," I muttered.

Now this next part might be a tad bit… confusing. I'm telling you, I didn't make this up. I don't have that much imagination to think up something like this.

As lightning lit the area, what I could see through the mud-spattered rear windshield, was a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl, and mind freeze. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

Swallowing hard, I asked, "What is—"

"Percy, get your sister out of the car," mom said, dead serious. "Get out, now."

Finally, we seemed to understand this was no game, no trick, and I quickly unbuckled myself as Percy and mom threw their weight onto the car doors. They were stuck, jammed by the mud. I looked up at the hole in the roof, and any thoughts of that being an escape route was cut short as the edges sizzled and smoked.

"The passenger door! Go out the passenger's side!" mom told us. "Get out and run. Do you see that big tree?"

"What?"

Another flash of lightning, and though the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," mom 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."

"You're coming too," I said sternly.

"Cammie…" Her eyes were filled with sorrow, as though she thought she wasn't going to ever see us again.

"NO!" I shouted. "You're coming too! You're going to help us get Grover out, and you're coming with us!"

She knew there was no way I was leaving without her. If she wanted me to get to safety, she'd be coming too.

Grover moaned. "Food."

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—where swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head… was his head. And the points that looked like horns…

"He doesn't want us," mom said. "He wants you two. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But…"

I got mad. At mom, at Grover, at the big meaty fuzz-ball with horns that was limbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

I pulled my seatbelt across my lap, crossing my arms over my chest like a child.

"Cammie, what are you doing?" Percy asked me.

"I'm staying with mom," I replied.

"Stop, Cammie," mom said. "You have to get out. I'll be fine. Now get out."

"You first."

She threw her hands up in the air, like I was being ridiculous. Maybe I was, but so was she.

"She's right mom," Percy said. "We go together or not at all."

She looked at us, and for a moment I think I saw pride in her eyes. Pride and love.

"Get Grover," she said, unbuckling.

I quickly scrambled out after Percy, and he helped me stand up. We pulled Grover out, and draped his arms across our shoulders.

I got my first clear look of the guy then. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes expect underwear—bright, white fruit of the Looms tighty-whiteys to be exact—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about the belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

"No. way." I muttered. "This just isn't happening."

I don't know when he was scarier. When I didn't know what he was, or when I did. Suddenly I was back in Mr. Brunner's class, watching as he wrote up on the board, talking about this terrible monster he seemed afraid to say the name of, even though he wasn't real. Or I didn't think he was real.

"That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," mom said. "I wish I'd known how badly they wanted you guys dead."

Percy said, "But mom, that's the Min—"

"Don't say his name," she warned, as though scolding a child who said a bad word. "Names have power."

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.

I looked behind me.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—not really looking actually, more like sniffing. Why, I didn't know, seeing how we were fifty feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

"Quiet," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

I swallowed hard, hoping that soon wasn't too soon.

"Percy, I want you to promise me something," mom said. "You take care of you sister, you understand. Whatever happens, no matter what, you watch out for her, take care of her."

"I will mom," he nodded. "I promise."

"You'll be fine, mom," I said.

She smiled at me, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

The bull bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and 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.

"Hey, Cam,' Percy said. "Didn't Gabe say, 'not a scratch'?"

Although we were in a life or death situation, I found that funny. "Well, there's really no scratches left to be seen."

"Now listen to me, guys," mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait till the last possible moment, then jump sideways, out of the way. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"Cristal clear mom. Just one question. How do you know all this stuff. We didn't even learn it in Latin class."

"I've been worried about an attack for a while now. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

"Keeping me near you? But—"

The ground vibrated, and the bull-man started up the hill.

He had smelt us.

The tree was only a few yard away, but the hill got slicker, and Grover seemed to be getting heavier.

Mom must have been exhausted, but took Grover from us anyway. "He won't come for us. I'll get Grover across the line, but you guys need to stay away from him. Remember what I said! Separate!"

Splitting us seemed bad at first glance. When people split up in horror movies, they ended up dead, but this wasn't a movie, and I wasn't like those dumb dizzy blonds in those movies. Right now, splitting up was our only option.

Me and Percy stopped, waiting for the beast to get closer. Soon he was barreling down on us. His eyes glowed with hate, and I could smell him from where I stood. He had a rank smell of rotting meat.

"You go left, I go right?" I suggested.

Percy nodded. "Sounds like a plan, Sis."

"Then we run for the property line?"

"Good idea."

As he got closer, bolting sounded like a great idea. But I'd never make it over the property line in time, and I couldn't leave Percy. I grabbed for Percy's hand, giving it a tight squeeze before letting it go. "Here goes nothing."

Holding my ground, I waited for the last moment, and jumped to the side.

It felt like a freight train had just passed me by. I looked to Percy. He was fine. The bull-man bellowed in frustration, then turned. But not toward me. Not toward Percy ether. But toward mom, who was setting Grover down on the grass by the property line.

We ran to the crest of the hill. Down there other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain a half a mile away. We'd never make it.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing mom, who slowly backed away from Grover, and to the road, leading the monster away from us.

"Run!" she yelled. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

But I just stood there, frozen with fear and the overall fear of disaster, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd taught us, but the bull had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"MOM!"

She caught my eyes, managing to choke out words that would stay with me forever: "Go! Don't make all my effort to protect you worth nothing!"

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fist around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden from as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and was was gone. Simply… gone.

"No," I hissed.

Percy roared with anger. The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

He had taken my mother away, and now he thought he was going to get away with my best friend too?

I think not.

I took off my red rain jacket.

"Hey!" I screamed at him, waving my jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey you big sack of ground beef! Look over here!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" the monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.

Percy stripped off his jacket too, making an even bigger mass of red fabric. "Come on you big lump of stink! Come and get us!"
I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better then no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved the rain soaked jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment. One look to Percy had told me he had the same idea.

But it didn't quite work out like that.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab us whichever way we decided to dodge. Even if we split up again, one of us was going to get caught.

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways. So I did the next most craziest thing ever. Percy dropped his jacket, and cupped his hands together, making a step latter, which I used as leverage to jump into the air. I flipped once, landing a kick right on top of the monster's head, and flipped again, landing on his back.

How did I do that?

I didn't have time to figure out how, because one millisecond later, we collided with the tree. The impact nearly sent me flying off him, but I held on strong.

He staggered around, trying to throw me off. I locked my arms around his horns, shoving my face into his furry neck, suddenly not so brave. Thunder and lightning was still going strong. My nostrils filled with the smell of rotten meat.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing only have one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, If I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got read to charge. I held on tighter, not knowing what to do.

Percy threw himself at the bull-man's feet, wrapping his arms around his legs, tripping the monster. He was a lot braver then I was, that's for sure. We hit the ground with a thud, and I bounced back up, still holding his horns. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap.

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. Screaming, I landed flack on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had one of his horns in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife. Percy was quickly by my side, surveying the new object.

The monster charged.

Percy took the weapon from my hands, and as the monster barreled past, drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like mom had, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.

He was gone. The rain had stopped, though the storm remained, only far away. I could smell the stench of livestock on myself, and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish, and my friend almost become a monster's midnight snack. I wanted to lie down and cry. But Percy shook my shoulder, saying, "Come on, Cammie. We need to get Grover some help." I nodded, taking an arm, and staggering down the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for mom, but held on tight to my friend. I couldn't lose him too.

The last thing I remember was collapsing on the wooden porch, Percy's worried call, and a spinning ceiling fan circling above. I could see the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty blond girl, with curly princess hair. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "They're the ones. They must be."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "They're still conscious. Help me bring them inside."