Okay, some of you actually gave me a really good idea that intrigued me so much I could not pass it up. Thanks for that

Chapter 10

"Are you crazy?" Triton asked when they got back to their cabin. "She's a daughter of Athena!"

"Didn't seem to bother you before," Percy replied, sitting on his bed.

"Letting her show us around camp is different. Now that she knows who our father is, she shouldn't even want to go with us. Our parents hate each other—"

"So by default we should hate each other? Why can't we just get along with her? She obviously wants to go on the quest, and she really will be helpful on it."

Triton looked at him quizzically. "Why are you …? You like her, don't you?" He started to gin mischievously. But there was a strange emotion welling up in him that he had never felt before. But he wasn't going to let him see that. He wasn't even sure what it was

"What? No I don't! Why would you think that?"

"Dude, I've been around long enough to recognize that signs. You like her, which is why you're letting her come with us."

"I don't like her!"

Someone knocked on the door right then, punctuating Percy's statement. Triton was snickering, as well as fighting off the strange emotion at the same time, as he went to answer it. The Stoll brothers stood there, grinning.

"Hey!" Conner said. "We were wondering …"

"If you wanted to buy some candy, only a drachma a piece," Travis finished.

Triton stared at them. "Isn't a drachma a bit too much for a piece of candy?"

"Nope!"

He narrowed his eyes. "I think we're good."

"But these are one of a kind candy! You can't get this kind of candy anywhere else in the camp," Conner said, sounding like a sales person.

"Probably because the camp doesn't sell Hersey's bars. But you can get them anywhere else," Percy said, coming up behind Triton.

Before either of them could say anything, Grover and Annabeth came over. Annabeth was glaring at the Stoll brothers, knowing that they were trying to pull some type of prank.

"What are you two doing?"

"Nothing, Annabeth!" they said, flashing a grin at her before running back to their cabin.

Annabeth sighed. "You two ready? Chiron said that he's got bus tickets for us ready."

"Already?" Percy asked, grabbing his stuff, which consisted of a change of clothes, some money, both mortal and drachmas, and some snacks for the trip. Triton had likewise in his.

"He works pretty fast with this kind of thing." They started to walk toward the big house, but Annabeth paused. "Wait. Do you two have weapons?"

Percy and Triton glanced at each other, then nodded, but didn't specify anything. It seemed to satisfy her enough, though. She at least started walking again.

On the crest of Half-Blood Hill, Chiron was waiting for them in full centaur form. When they got to the top of the hill, Percy saw that a van was waiting for them.

"Are you ready?" Chiron asked. He looked sad, as if he were looking upon dead kids. Despite that, they all nodded. "Argus will take you to the bus station. Be careful."

Annabeth smiled at him, then walked down the hill. The three boys stayed were they were.

"Don't worry, Chiron. We'll be fine," Percy said, trying to cheer up the horse

"You need more training. All the other heroes had more training. But there is nothing I can do now. But please get along with Annabeth. I would rather you didn't kill each other."

Percy and Triton nodded, then, along with Grover, headed down the hill. The satyr was chewing nervously on a tin can.

"Don't worry, guys. I'm sure we'll do fine." But he didn't sound all that confident.

The bus station was filled with people waiting for their bus. The four demigods— or rather two demigods, a satyr and a minor god—, tried to blend in with the crowd. But Grover stated to sniff around like a dog, a nervous expression on his face.

"What's wrong, Grover?" Annabeth asked.

He was shaking. "I think that there is a monster around."

Everyone was looking around, but a monster was not immediately obvious. But that wasn't surprising. Finally, after they almost gave up and just said that the satyr's nose was acting up, Triton cursed under his breath, staring at a large man on the other side of the platform.

"Maybe we should find some other was across the country," he suggested.

"What is it?" Percy asked, knowing that Triton would tell what the monster was. Triton just glanced at him, then looked back at the man, who was also staring back at them.

Just then, their bus decided pulled up and everyone boarded, including the demigods. The man did not, however. They were all extremely nervous, watching all the passengers from the back of the bus.

"If there was a monster back there, we can only hope that we're going fast enough to lose it," Annabeth said, but she didn't sound like she was all that confident in that hope.

As soon as they got out of the city, there was a loud roar from behind them. When they turned around, only Triton was not surprised. A large humanoid creature covered in course fur with curved horns on top of its head. It was covered in armor and was running full speed at them.

"The Minotaur!" Annabeth exclaimed. "We need to get off, now!"

"But how? We can't just jump off a bus going sixty-five down the highway!" Grover said.

Annabeth looked at him. "We stop the bus."

With that, she put on her invisibility hat and disappeared. The guys kept watch on the Minotaur as she did whatever she was doing. It was getting steadily closer.

Suddenly, they were thrown backwards as the tires of the bus skidded against the asphalt. Terrified and surprised screams came from the passengers.

"Come on!"

They were the first ones to recover and ran off the bus. Annabeth appeared next to them once they reached the side of the road.

"We can't let it kill all those people. We have to distract it somehow."

Percy took another look at the monster, then yelled out, "Hey, ugly! Ground beef!"

Annabeth looked at him like he was crazy, Grover started to shake with fear, and Triton just stared at him incredulously.

"Have I taught you nothing? Those were horrible insults!"

The Minotaur didn't seem to agree as it had taken its attention off the bus and was now charging them.

"Scatter!" Annabeth screamed.

As they split up, the bull-man charged right into where they had been standing, crashing into a tree. Annabeth took out a knife while Percy pulled out Riptide, Triton had his sword, which he could shrink down to look like a knife that he could strap to his calf, and Grover had his tin cans for a weapon.

The Minotaur got its horns out of the tree and turned to fight them again. It looked extremely angry; its nostrils flared, it hunched down on all fours, pawing the ground as it got ready to change again.

"Now, what?" Percy asked.

"The best way to kill it would be to get up under its rib cage. Someone has to do that while the rest of us distract it," Annabeth answered.

The bull-man charged again, but only Grover moved out of the way. As he moved to the side to throw tin cans at the monster, the other three pointed their weapons at it and braced themselves.

At the last second, Triton and Annabeth jumped to the side, leaving Percy, who would have said something about being left there if they weren't in a fight, to be the only one in front of the monster. The Minotaur stuck out its arms to grab them.

Triton jumped up, managing to avoid being grabbed, but Annabeth wasn't so lucky. But just as the Minotaur's hand closed around her, Percy's sword rammed into its chest, making golden dust fall around them.

Annabeth stared at him, a slight fear in her eyes, but she wasn't showing it at all. "We have to get away from here."