I opened the window and stared blankly at Percy, "What are you doing?" I asked. Percy scratched his head, "I just wanted to thank you. This was the only way to talk to you." He told me. Percy is a bit weird compared to the others, "I can see why you're a child of Ares. You're quite stubborn..." Percy's voice faltered as I glared at him.
"Are you saying I'm just like Clarisse?" I asked.
Percy shook his head, "No. I was just saying, you're like your…" He didn't want to finish, because he didn't need to. "That's all me and my dad have in common. Nothing else." I went back to my bed but left the window open for Percy to come in. It feels weird talking to him like that. I sat down and waited, when he tried crawling in here, he fell when he made it in, "You're goofy…You know that right?" I told him.
Percy shrugged, "I have my moments. But anyway, I came here to ask you something…" He said. I raised my eye brow. "Oh? What would that be?"
Staring at him doesn't bug me…But when I stare at the others, I can only look at them for a little while. But Percy is different, when I look at him, I only see Percy, no blood, no pale skin, nothing. It's just him. "Um…Tonight, I want to get everyone to ask for a quest. There's someone I want to save, but I can't leave unless we get a quest from the Oracle." He told me.
"Are you sure if we ask for one, you'll be one of the three to go on the quest?" I asked him. He hesitated, "I…I have to go on the quest." He insisted, "Then when the time comes, we'll go regardless of what the others will do. I have to save this camp, and if this quest is the answer to it. Then I'll go no matter what." I said to him.
He smiled, "Thanks…"
After that he left I laid down and then a few minutes later I decided to go and watch the stupid race. When I got to the race track everyone was just about to start. On my way here, I noticed something weird about the trees, birds. Thousands of birds, they made this metallic screeching that sounded like an underwater submarine. There was rows of stone steps for the spectators. Tantalus (Who I would very much like to kill and I'm pretty sure I could) was sitting at the top with the satyrs, a few dryads, and all of the campers who weren't participating.
"Right!" Tantalus announced as the teams began to assemble. A naiad had brought him a big platter of pastries, and as Tantalus spoke, his right hand chased a chocolate eclair across the judge's table. "You all know the rules. A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!" Tantalus smiled at them like they were all naughty children. "Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s'mores at the campfire for a week! Now ready your chariots!"
Beckendorf led the Hephaestus team onto the track. They had a sweet ride made of bronze and iron—even the horses, which were magical automatons like the Colchis bulls. I had no doubt that their chariot had all kinds of mechanical traps and more fancy options than a fully loaded Maserati.
The Ares chariot was blood-red, and pulled by two grisly horse skeletons. Clarisse climbed aboard with a batch of javelins, spiked balls, caltrops, and a bunch of other nasty toys.
Apollo's chariot was trim and graceful and completely gold, pulled by two beautiful palominos. Their fighter was armed with a bow, though he had promised not to shoot regular pointed arrows at the opposing drivers. I expected Lee to be in the race, but he wasn't, he was in the stands with the rest of his siblings.
Hermes's chariot was green and kind of old-looking, as if it hadn't been out of the garage in years. It didn't look like anything special, but it was manned by the Stoll brothers, and I shuddered to think what dirty tricks they'd schemed up.
The other two were driven by Annabeth and Percy, they were in separate chariots. Did they have a fight or something? Percy approached Annabeth and they started talking, so I guess they're okay? After a while the conch horn sounded.
"Charioteers!" Tantalus called. "To your mark!"
Percy went back to his chariot on his way he looked up to the trees, I guess noticed the annoying birds that were screeching like crazy. I tried to ignore them, but they're so loud. Tantalus waved his hand and the starting signal dropped. The chariots roared to life. Hooves thundered against the dirt. The crowd cheered.
Almost immediately there was a loud nasty crack. Behind Percy the Apollo chariot flip over. The Hermes chariot had rammed into it—maybe by mistake, maybe not. The riders were thrown free, but their panicked horses dragged the golden chariot diagonally across the track.
The Hermes team, Travis and Connor Stoll, were laughing at their good luck, but not for long. The Apollo horses crashed into theirs, and the Hermes chariot flipped too, leaving a pile of broken wood and four rearing horses in the dust.
Two chariots down in the first twenty feet. I suddenly liked the sport, Annabeth was in the lead while Percy was in second and Clarisse in the third. Beckendorf was gaining on all of them. Percy and Beckendorf were neck and neck which really isn't good for Percy.
A panel slid open on the side of Beckendorf's chariot, he said something to Percy and then three sets of balls and chains shot straight toward Percy's wheels. Tyson had a big pole in his hands, good thing he used it or else they would have been done for. They pulled ahead, now it's between Annabeth, Percy and Clarisse.
I looked around and noticed the birds were circling around us, kind of like they were going to attack us…Oh no…I wasn't the only one who noticed them, Tyson was pointing at them, Percy seen them too, but he decided not to act, he just wanted to win this race. "Tantalus!" I shouted and went to him, he gave me a bored but evil look. "Can't you see we're trying to enjoy a race?"
"Yes, I'm not blind." I said.
He chuckled, "I bed to differ. Without those glasses, you're in fact, blind." I kept my cool, "Sir…We can't let the races go on with these…Birds flying around." I told him.
"They're just birds, they'll go away soon enough. Now get lost." He said. My eyes widened, "Those aren't normal birds-
"I wonder what else I can have you clean." He said in a serious tone. I bit my lip, "Fine…If you want the campers to get hurt, go right ahead!" I yelled and stormed off.
When I was thirty feet or so away from the track, a bird flew down and started to peck at me. "Get off me! Ow!" I screamed. I grabbed my dagger and sliced it in two. When I got a good look at it, I realized I was right, it's no ordinary bird. It was a Stymphalian bird. A metal like bird, or it is metal, bronze metal to be precise. They could rip everyone to pieces, unless we create a horrible sound, like huge brass bells. But with this much birds…I don't think that'll work. I ran back to the track to help.
When I got back, everyone was already being attacked, Tantalus was cowardly covering his head while the Styr's and tree Nymphs, got the birds off him. All the campers were doing their best to defend themselves. I growled and went over to Tantalus, "Go help the others!" I ordered and then I killed all the Stymphalian birds surrounding Tantalus, "Was I right or what?" I said smugly and kept killing the birds.
They started to attack in bigger groups, "Shit…There's just too many, Tantalus! Help me!"
I covered my head with my free hand and used the other to keep slicing at them. Tantalus didn't help me, he just cowered in fear. I looked at the others, there wasn't as much birds on them as much as me. There was like a thousand birds attacking me…I'm exaggerating, but I couldn't tell because there was just too many!
After a while, Annabeth and Percy came out of the big house with Chiron's boom box…That could work. Since Chiron's music is…Horrible. It's true, the music he listen to hurts my ears and I'm not the only one who thinks this. Anyway they stopped at the finish line and put the boom box down and pressed play. Once the music was playing, the birds went nuts, they started flying in circles, running into each other like they wanted to bash their own brains out. Then they abandoned the track altogether and flew skyward in a huge dark wave.
My arms were bleeding, so was my face and my glasses were crooked. I fell to my knees as the archers got ready to shoot the birds out of the sky. "Now!" shouted Annabeth. "Archers!"
I was breathing hard as birds fell from the sky, something was coming back to me. "Retinoblastoma...You have Retinoblastoma, it's a...A rare eye disease." Lee said in this memory. "But the only time someone gets this disease is at the age of five or lower, and...That would mean that your mortal parent had this as well, so you inherited it."
"So getting it once isn't bad? Right? I mean since you know about it you should know of how to get rid of it...Right?" Slowly I started to sound frightened. A boy I recognized was with Lee and I. Michael was his name. "The first time you get it, you have to get it treated right away and regularly. But the second time around...Which I mentioned was impossible to get twice…" He paused, "Since it hasn't happened twice, there is no known cure for it, the best we can do is slow it down."
"Michael..." I said quietly, he gulped, "Yeah?" My breathing increased, "When someone gets this disease and doesn't get it treated what happens?"
After that I was back, looking at my bloody hands and arms. Why did they mostly attack me? I stared at all the birds on the ground, campers were wounded and the chariots were pretty much destroyed. "Bravo!" Tantalus said, the nerve of this guy…Is it really the time to ignore what just happened? "We have our first winner!" He was looking at a stunned Clarisse. He then turned to Percy and Annabeth, he better not be doing what I think he's doing.
"And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race." He said. "Tantalus! We have wounded campers! Who cares if the race was disturbed? I probably would have been dead if they didn't stop the stupid race!" I screamed at Tantalus. Once again all eyes were on me, but not the scared or what the hell are you doing kind. They agreed with me, this new activities director sucks.
After everything was cleaned up (kind of) I was on kitchen patrol—scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies. The harpies washed with lava instead of water, to get that extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of all germs, so I had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons...And one more thing, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, volunteered to help me, even though Tantalus didn't offer it, nor did I. They just did it themselves, and Tantalus thought that was amusing, so he let them help. Oh yeah, Tyson had to go, because he's Percy's brother…Which Percy didn't look happy about.
Lee is being kind of annoying right now, he decided to come down with us…Which I found very weird/annoying. He said he wanted to 'help.' I got really pissed off when he said that…He only said that after Percy offered to help me. I never took him for the jealous type…Annoying.
Anyway he asked why I agreed to let Percy help. "Because it will get done faster, plus you once said I have a disease, right? That's why I'm getting weaker every day?" I murmured, he sighed. "I meant to tell you…I just forgot." He told me. I scoffed, "You're forgetting a lot of stuff lately."
He frowned, "What do you mean by that?" I can't believe he's acting like he doesn't realize what he's doing. "I told you I don't need you to worry about me anymore, but here you are, worrying about me!"
He sighed, "But you're injured! How am I not supposed to worry when you're hurt?"
"It's just a few cuts! It's nothing I can't handle! Now leave me alone!" I screamed. I'll admit…That's the first time I've ever told him that. He looked hurt, "Fine…Have it your way." He said and left, "Good riddance…" I murmured. I looked at Annabeth and Percy across from me, they were staring at me, "What?" I asked. Annabeth looked away, "Nothing." She said but Percy looked worried, "What happened?"
I'm still ticked off at Lee. "Nothing you need to know." I snarled.
He frowned, "Oh…Sorry, I was just…Never mind." He stammered. "Don't do that." I told him. He gave me a confused look, "Don't do what?" Is he kidding? "Don't act all…Sad, you knew I was mad, so it's your own fault I yelled at you." I said. He laughed, "Yeah, I guess you're right, sorry." He apologized once more. "Dude. No more apologizing."
He shrugged, "Sor- Okay." He corrected himself. I smiled, which isn't like me…Ah, who cares…I haven't been myself since I lost my memories. "Sorry about that guys." I said to Tyson, Annabeth, and Percy.
These past few weeks, I noticed I've changed a little. I mean I was really shy, but now I can look at anyone. They don't look dead to me anymore, they just look normal. Annabeth smiled, "It's okay. Everyone has fights once and awhile." She said that while looking at Percy, I held my hands, "Are you two da-
"No!" They exclaimed.
I chuckled, "Okay. I was kidding. Anyway, what's up? Before I went off on Lee I mean." Annabeth looked at Percy and then he nodded, she sighed, "We might have found something that'll save the camp."
My mouth dropped, "Seriously?"
They nodded, but Tyson was happily scrubbing away at dirty dishes. "The Golden Fleece." Percy told me.
I'll have more chapters up today.
Thanks for reading! I hope you all have an awesome day!
Rilurz~
