A/N HI! Wow, I can't believe we're almost on double-digit chapters! Next chapter, we're gonna have a party. I remember MY tenth birthday… OH WAIT I don't, never mind. Almost five years (technically four years 11 months) is a long time for a girlie like me to remember! Okay maybe I should continue the story now.

DISCLAIMER: BLAH BLAH BLAH! It all belongs to Rick Riordan, the ancient Greeks, Wikipedia, and a little bit from me.

P.S. I decided to stop giving the chapters names because I can't think of any… numbers from now on!

Chapter 9

~Leo~

I think it's really funny that I got to sit on the sidelines of the training arena eating frozen yogurt while the three half-and-halves, Carter, and Sadie trained vigorously and became very sweaty. (You may notice that I refrained to mention the fact that I was only sitting out because I had been taken down by my own hammer the day before. And I was only eating frozen yogurt because everyone at this blasted camp is calorie paranoid.)

Chiron had been teaching them archery, and they were now practicing. Simone was doing fantastic. So were Quincy and Carter. However, Sadie barely missed impaling me about 6 times (I don't see how that is supposed to work, seeing as I was sitting BEHIND her) and Abigail had managed to break her bow in the first thirty seconds (I think it was just because she didn't want to be bad at anything).

I continued watching them. Simone had graduated to trick shots, and several surprised squirrels could vouch for the accuracy of her aim. I was contemplating this when one of Sadie's arrows shot the frozen yogurt out of my hand. The arrow came from the SIDE, somehow. I jumped out of my seat, but this was a mistake because the frozen yogurt made the extremely rude decision to spill all over my orange T-shirt. I glared at Sadie, but she didn't notice because she had somehow gotten her bow stuck in her hair. Carter and Quincy were laughing hysterically (so rude!), and even quiet Simone had cracked a smile.

"THAT WAS MY FROZEN YOGURT!" I yelled at Sadie. She just scowled at me.

"BLAME THE BOW!" she yelled back. Nico chose that exact moment to walk into the arena. Sadie started blushing furiously. HAHA revenge is sweet! Not as sweet as my frozen yogurt WAS (rest in peace, my dear FroYo), but it was pretty close.

Nico looked from me (covered in frozen yogurt with a bandage around my head) to Sadie (bow still tangled in her hair, even worse than before) to Abigail (glaring at her broken bow like it just killed her pet kitty) to Carter and Quincy (still laughing hysterically – it must be a British thing, even though Carter's only half British. Or maybe it's a black thing [pretend I didn't say that, kay?] OH WAIT Carter's only half black!)

"Umm… should I come back later?" Nico said awkwardly. Sadie glared at me.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" I yelled intelligently at her.

"Um, what's not your fault?" said Nico.

"NOTHING!" screeched Sadie. Nico stepped back a little, shocked.

"Maybe I'll just go," he said. Then he left. Sadie looked like she was about to cry. The thought of someone crying because NICO left was too much for me – I started to laugh. Sadie's expression just made me laugh even more. After seeing her face, Quincy joined in. Carter had to stuff his fist into his mouth, but it didn't work, which made us laugh even MORE. Sadie huffed, flung her hair over her shoulder, and walked out. Quincy imitated her. This was too much for me. I fell over from laughing so hard. And it went on and on from there. It's a slippery slope, humor.

"STOP!" yelled Abigail. We looked at her with shock. Was she defending Sadie? But then we saw the fear on her face.

"What's the matter, Abigail?" asked Quincy.

"Can't you feel it?" I looked up. It was Simone. "There's something here that shouldn't be. Something dangerous."

At that moment, we heard a scream.
It was Sadie.

Carter was the first to reach the door, with the rest of us close behind. He pulled it open and we all nearly fainted when we saw what was out there. I nearly fell over when I saw it. It was a giant crab.

"Karkinos," whispered Abigail. "Sometimes known as Cancer, like the constellation. Hercules beat it by stepping on it with his foot, or in some legends kicking it so hard that it flew into the sky, which we can't do. Percy Jackson beat it by stabbing it with his celestial bronze sword, but we don't have one. In Egyptian mythology, it was associated with the god Anubis and the constellation Sirius. And it has Sadie."

I gulped. Practically no weapons against a monster that only two people have beaten? And those two people happened to be the most powerful people of their times? Bye-bye, life. I'll miss you.

I think we took the crab by surprise, because it was just standing there, clicking its pincers at us. Sadie was lying on the ground beneath it, unconscious. We stood there for a second, looking at it. Then Simone raised her bow and shot it in the eye and we were all shocked into action. Carter pulled a big curved sword out of nowhere and started deflecting the pincers. Quincy pulled what looked a little like a steak knife out of his pocket and started trying to get close enough to stab it. Abigail ran around the back of Mr. Evil Crab and jumped on its back. I figured she was going to pull a Harry Potter and stick something up its nose, but instead she grabbed a biggish rock from the ground and smashed it into Mr. Evil Crab's head. Simone darted forward, grabbed Sadie, and pulled her back. And I stood there frozen, like an idiot.

I hate crabs. I always have. I didn't go to the beach at all when I was growing up, so when I met my first one at the tender age of six, it traumatized me for life.

"Do something, Leo!" yelled someone. My mind was so clouded by fear that I couldn't even register who. The Karkinos threw Abigail off. She hit a tree and slid to the ground. Simone tried to run over to her, but with one big swoosh of its right claw it took out both her and Carter. My friends are dropping like flies, I thought, still too paralyzed with fear to move.

"LEO!" yelled Quincy desperately. "DO SOMETHING!"

"Oh," I muttered, feeling woozy. "Right. I would get out of the way if I were you!" Quincy took my advice and dashed in the opposite direction. Summoning all my strength, I raised my hands and shot a huge fireball at Mr. Evil Crab. He disintegrated into fine white sand.

"Why didn't you do that before?" yelled Quincy.

"Pwned him," I murmured. "Pwned…"

Then, for the millionth time this week, I collapsed.

A/N -END CHAPPIE 9!-

Well, that was fun! You have NO idea how hard it is to come up with a Greek monster that Percy Freakin' Jackson DIDN'T fight. So I had to settle with one he fought for about 10 seconds in book 5.

Oh, and much thanks to my readers in cool places like the Philippines and Venezuela and Australia. You are cool!

Love,

Tape Monkey