I might have changed this one a lot... I wanted something fluffy with a lot of Andony. This is the result. I hope you guys had a lot of fun with this.


"Love is like that; when two want, one won't stop, the other won't quit."

a Brazillian saying

Act VI - Child of Sea and Shore

Tale II - When Two Want


The evening started simply enough. Life at Camp Half-Blood was returning to normal. Satyrs were chasing the dryads. Monsters howled in the woods. The campers were playing pranks on one another and Dionysus was turning anyone who misbehaved into a shrub. Typical summer-camp stuff.

After dinner, all the campers were hanging out at the dining pavilion. They were all excited because that evening capture the flag was going to be totally vicious: Ares cabin was out for blood. On the blue team were Hephaestus's cabin, Apollo, Hermes and Poseidon. The bad news was that for once Athena and Ares, both war cabins, were against them on the red team, along with Aphrodite, Dionysus and Demeter.

While stretching out, Andy heard someone say behind her: "Hey, girlfriend."

That single word took her breath away. They'd started dating a few days ago but, apparently, neither one of them got tired of saying it. Although it made her knees weak, Andy tried to keep her cool. "Boyfriend," she answered formally. "You have no business here with the elite. Your little group of losers are over there."

Anthony stopped by her side, his gray eyes sparkling under his helmet. "Tell you what," he lowered his voice. "We're going to crush you tonight, but if you pick a safe position… like right flank, for instance… I'll make sure you don't get slain with the rest of them."

"Oh, please," she sneered. "I'm playing to win. If I'm not there for the slaughter, it means I'm not doing it right."

He smiled. "Then I'll see you on the battlefield."

"Can't wait," she tried to feign indifference.

Anthony jogged toward his teammates, who all laughed and gave him high fives. He looked so happy, smiling and all, which just made him that much hotter and Andy's heart was-

"Don't even think about it," Beckendorf said approaching. "You can't go easy on him because you're dating. He won't."

Andy blinked. "You read minds now, do you?"

"Anthony's a winner, Andy. He won't start losing now. Unless you help me crush him." Andy couldn't tell if he was serious. Beckendorf was this huge dude with a permanent scowl, muscles like a pro ballplayer, and hands calloused from working in the forges.

Then Silena Beauregard, the head counselor for Aphrodite, passed by. She had long black hair and big blue eyes. When she walked the guys tended to watch. "Good luck, Chuck," she said. Nobody ever called Beckendorf anything but Beckendorf, but Silena had some privileges now that they were together. She flashed him a brilliant smile and went to join Anthony on the red team.

"Uh…" Beckendorf swallowed like he'd forgotten how to breathe.

Andy slapped him across the shoulder. "Don't even think about it," she mocked.


Naturally, Beckendorf and Andy took the most dangerous job. While the Apollo cabin played defense with their bows, the Hermes cabin would charge up the middle of the woods to distract the enemy. Meanwhile, Beckendorf and Andy would scout around the left flank, locate the enemy's flag, knock out the defenders and get the flag back to their side. No biggie.

"Why the left flank?"

"Anthony wanted me to go right, which means he doesn't want us to go left," Andy explained. "Unless he's playing me, which is totally possible. He might've said for me to go right because he knew I'd go left, exactly where he wants me to go to begin with. Which means-"

Beckendorf raised a hand stopping her. "Enough, Andy. You can't let him mess with your head. Let's get ready."

The rest of the Hephaestus campers wished them well, and they sneaked off into the woods. They crossed the creek that served as the boundary between the teams. They heard fighting in the distance, swords clashing against shields. But saw no one.

"No border guards?" Beckendorf whispered. "Weird."

"I'm telling you," Andy muttered. "Maybe he planned all this. You know how he is. We're like sitting ducks."

"Stop. He's making you paranoid."

They moved into enemy territory. Suddenly they were at the edge of a clearing. Andy knew they were in trouble when she saw the mountain of dirt.

"Holy Hephaestus," Beckendorf whispered. "The Ant Hill."

Andy wanted to back up and run. She'd never seen the Ant Hill before, but she'd heard stories from the older campers. The mound rose almost to the treetops - four stores at least. Its sides were riddled with tunnels, and crawling in and out were thousands of Myrmekes. They were the size of German shepherds. Their armored shells glistened blood-red. Their eyes were beady black and their razor-sharp mandibles sliced and snapped.

"Let's get out of here while we…" Fifteen metres away, two ants were struggling to drag a big hunk of metal towards their nest. "That's a-"

"Shhh!" Beckendorf pulled Andy back into the bushes.

"But that's a-"

"Dragon's head," he said in awe. "Yes. I see it."

The head must've been heavy because the ants were struggling, moving it only a few centimeters with every tug.

"If they get it to the hill," Beckendorf said, "the other ants will help them. We've got to stop them."

"What?" Andy asked. "Why?"

"It's a sign from Hephaestus. Come on!" Determined, he sprinted along the edge of the clearing. Andy was about to follow when something sharp and cold pressed against her neck.

"Girlfriend," said Anthony, right next to her. He must've had his magic Yankees cap on because he was totally invisible. Andy tried to move, but he dug his knife under her chin.

Silena appeared out of the woods, her sword drawn. "Nice work, Anthony."

Andy felt an invisible hand in the back pocket of her jeans. "Hey! Watch it. I'll report you for... improper touching or something."

Anthony took off his cap and appeared before her, smiling smugly with Riptide in his hand. "That's not what you said last night when-"

"Shut up!" Andy felt her face burning and glanced awkwardly at Silena who shrugged.

"I won't judge," she said. "I also had a fun night, Andy. No need to be embarrassed."

"Oh, gods. Can you like take me prisoner already? Or kill me? Anything so I don't have to listen to this."

"Alright," Anthony said. "Let's get Beckendorf and-"

"Beckendorf!" Andy exclaimed. She'd forgotten about him, but he was still forging ahead, straight toward the dragon's head. He was already twelve metres away. He hadn't noticed the fact that Andy wasn't behind him. "Come on!"

Andy tried to move but Anthony pulled her back. "Where do you think you're going, prisoner?"

"Look!"

Beckendorf leaped into the open and struck one of the ants. His sword clanged off the thing's carapace. The ant turned, snapping its pincers. Before anyone could react, the ant bit Beckendorf's leg, and he crumpled to the ground. A second ant sprayed goo in his face, and Beckendorf screamed. He dropped his sword and slapped wildly at his eyes. Andy surged forward and again Anthony pulled her back.

"Chuck!" Silena yelled.

"Don't," Anthony hissed. "It's already too late!"

"What are you talking about?" Andy demanded. "We have to-"

Then she noticed more ants swarming towards Beckendorf. They grabbed him by the armor and dragged him towards the hill so fast he was swept into a tunnel and disappeared.

"No!" Silena shoved Anthony. "You let them take Chuck!"

"There's no time to argue," he said. "Come on!" Andy thought he was going to lead a charge to save Beckendorf, but instead Anthony raced to the dragon's head, which the ants had momentarily forgotten. He grabbed it by the wires and started dragging it towards the woods. "Help me," he asked. "Quick, before they get back."

"Oh, my gods!" Silena said. "You're more worried about this hunk of metal than Chuck?"

Anthony spun around and shook her by the shoulders. "Silena! Those are Myrmekes. They're like fire ants, only a hundred times worse. Their bite is poison. They spray acid. They communicate with all the other ants and swarm over anything that threatens them. If we'd rushed in there to help Beckendorf, we would have been dragged inside, too. We're going to need help... a lot of help... to get him back. Now, grab some wires and pull!"

Andy didn't know what Anthony was up to, but she knew him enough to figure he had a good reason for what he was doing. The three of them tugged the metal dragon's head into the woods. Anthony didn't let them stop until they were fifty metres from the clearing. Then they collapsed, sweating and breathing hard.

Silena started to cry. "He's probably dead already."

"No," Anthony said. "They won't kill him right away. We've got about half an hour."

"How do you know that?"

"What doesn't he know?" Andy shrugged.

Silena sobbed. "We have to save him!"

"Silena, we're going to save him, but I need you to get a grip," Anthony said. "There is a way."

"Call the other campers," Andy suggested, "or Chiron. He'll know what to do."

Anthony shook his head. "They're scattered all over the woods. By the time we got everyone back here, it would be too late. Besides, the entire camp wouldn't be strong enough to invade the Ant Hill. The only way is to..." he pointed at the dragon's head.

"You're going to scare the ants with a big metal puppet?"

"It's an automaton," he explained.

That didn't make Andy feel any better. "So what? It's just a head. And it's broken."

"Andy, this isn't just any automaton. It's the bronze dragon. Don't you remember that story I told you?"

Andy stared at him blankly. He liked telling her a lot of stories. Most of them she'd missed because she always ended up distracted by his smile or his eyes or his hair or his hand... and basically all the rest of him.

Silena's eyes, on the other hand, widened. "You mean the old guardian? But that's just a legend!"

"Are you sure you told me about this?"

Anthony took a deep breath. "Andy, in the days before Thalia's tree, back before the camp had magical boundaries to keep out monsters, the counselors tried all sorts of different ways to protect themselves. The most famous was the bronze dragon. The Hephaestus cabin made it with the blessing of their father. Supposedly it was so fierce and powerful that it kept the camp safe for over a decade. And then… about fifteen years ago, it disappeared into the woods."

"And you think this is its head?"

"It has to be! The Myrmekes probably dug it up while they were looking for precious metal. They couldn't move the whole thing, so they chewed off the head. The body can't be far away."

"But they chewed it apart. It's useless."

"Not necessarily." Anthony's eyes narrowed. "We could reassemble it. If we could activate it-"

"It could help us rescue Chuck!" Silena finished.

"Hold up," Andy said. "You want to reassemble a haywire metal dragon?"

Anthony and Silena exchanged a look and then both of them nodded.

"I thought you'd never ask," Andy smiled.


They searched forever although it wasn't hard to follow the ants' trail. They'd dragged the dragon's head through the forest, making a deep rut in the mud. They must've gone five hundred metres when Andy started to worry about time and Anthony said, "Di immortales."

They'd come to the rim of a crater, like something had blasted a house-size hole in the forest floor. The sides were slippery and a large metal mound glinted through the dirt. Wires stuck up from a bronze stump on one end.

"The dragon's neck," Andy said. "You think the ants made this crater?"

Anthony shook his head. "Looks more like a meteor blast…"

"Hephaestus," Silena said. "The god must've unearthed this. Hephaestus wanted us to find the dragon. He wanted Chuck to…" she choked up.

They started working. Getting the dragon's head to the bottom was easy. It tumbled right down the slope and hit the neck with a loud, metallic BONK! Reconnecting it was harder. Anthony fiddled with the wires and cursed in Ancient Greek. "We need Beckendorf. He could do this in seconds."

"Hmmm..." Andy mused. "Is it possible Boyfriend finally found something he can't do?"

Anthony glared at her. "Mechanics aren't easy like I make them seem, Girlfriend."

"If I was going to pick one person in the world to reattach my head, I'd pick you. Just saying."

"Awww…" Silena sniffled and wiped her eyes. "You guys are so cute."

Andy and Anthony exchanged a disgusted look.

"Did she just call us...?"

"We seriously need to stop this," he agreed.

"We aren't cute, sister," Andy told the daughter of Aphrodite. "We're the opposite of that. And we refuse to be defined but such a..."

"Cliche," he finished for her.

"But you even finish each other's sentences," Silena insisted.

Anthony rolled his eyes and said: "Hand me your dagger." He used it as a screwdriver to open a panel in the dragon's neck. Then he started to splice together the celestial bronze wires. It took a long time. Finally he stood up and exhaled. His hands were scraped and muddy. He had a brown streak across his forehead where the dragon had decided to spit grease at him. "It's done, I think…"

"You think?" Silena asked.

"How do you, uh, start it?" Andy asked. "Is there an ignition switch or something?"

Anthony pointed to its ruby eyes. "Those turn clockwise. I'm guessing we rotate them."

"If somebody twisted my eyeballs, I'd wake up," she agreed. "What if it goes crazy on us?"

"Then… we're dead," he answered.

"Another day in paradise," she said. He smiled. Together they turned the ruby eyes of the dragon. Immediately they began to glow. Anthony backed up fast pulling Andy with him.

The dragon's mouth opened, as if it were testing its jaw. The head turned and looked at us. Steam poured from its ears and it tried to rise. When it found it couldn't move, the dragon seemed confused. It cocked its head and regarded the dirt. Finally, it realized it was buried. The neck strained once, twice… and the centre of the crater erupted. The dragon pulled itself awkwardly out of the ground, shaking clumps of mud everywhere.

"It still works," Andy said. "And we're still alive." The ruby eyes zeroed in on her, and it stuck its snout five centimeters from her face.

"Dragon, stop!" Silena yelled. She spoke with such command that the automaton turned its attention to her. Silena swallowed nervously. "We've woken you to defend the camp. You remember? That is your job!"

The dragon tilted its head as if it were thinking.

"Charles Beckendorf, a son of Hephaestus, is in trouble. The Myrmekes have taken him. He needs your help."

At the word Hephaestus the dragon's neck straightened. A shiver rippled through its metal body, and it looked around as if trying to find an enemy.

"We have to show it," Anthony said. "Come on, dragon! This way to the son of Hephaestus! Follow us!"

The three of them climbed out of the pit. They charged through the woods, the bronze dragon right on their tail. When they got to the clearing, the dragon seemed to catch Beckendorf's scent. It barreled ahead of them, crashing through the trees, joints creaking, feet pounding craters into the ground. It charged straight for the Ant Hill.

At first, the Myrmekes didn't know what was happening. The dragon stepped on a few of them, smashing them to bug juice. Then their telepathic network seemed to light up. All the ants in the clearing turned simultaneously and swarmed over the dragon. More ants poured out of the hill. The dragon blew fire and sent a whole column of them into a panicked retreat.

"Inside, now!" Silena commanded. "While they're focused on the dragon!" She led the charge. They ran past the ants, but they ignored them. They plunged into the nearest tunnel and Andy almost gagged from the stench.

The journey inside was a blur of dark tunnels and moldy rooms carpeted with old ant shells and pools of goo. Then they entered a cavern where the remains of old meals were piled as high as sand dunes, and at the base of one of the heaps, struggling to pull himself upright, was Beckendorf.

"Chuck!" Silena ran to him and tried to help him up.

"Thank the gods," he said. "My... my legs are paralyzed!"

"It'll wear off," Anthony said. "But we have to get you out of here." He and Silena hoisted Beckendorf up, and the four of them started back through the tunnels.

Andy could hear distant sounds of battle: metal creaking, fire roaring, hundreds of ants snapping and spitting.

"What's going on out there?" Beckendorf asked. His body tensed. "The dragon! You didn't... reactivate it?"

"Oh yeah," Andy said.

"But you can't just turn on an automaton! You have to calibrate the motor, run a diagnostic… There's no telling what it'll do! We've got to get out there!"

As it turned out, the dragon came to them. The entire hill exploded, showering them in dirt. Suddenly they were staring at open sky. The dragon was right above them, thrashing back and forth, smashing the Ant Hill to bits as it tried to shake off the Myrmekes crawling all over its body.

They dug themselves out of the dirt and stumbled down the side of the hill, dragging Beckendorf with them. The dragon was in trouble. The Myrmekes were biting at the joints of its armor, spitting acid all over it. The dragon stomped and snapped and blew flames, but it couldn't last much longer.

A few of the ants turned towards them. Andy slashed at one and lopped off its head. Anthony stabbed another right between the feelers. As the celestial bronze blade pierced its shell, the whole ant disintegrated.

"I... I think I can walk now," Beckendorf said, and immediately fell on his face when they let go of him.

"Chuck!" Silena helped him up and pulled him along while Andy and Anthony cleared a path through the ants. Somehow they managed to reach the edge of the clearing without getting bitten or splashed. Back in the clearing, the dragon stumbled.

"We can't let it die!" Silena said.

"It's too dangerous," Beckendorf said sadly. "Its wiring-"

"Chuck," Silena pleaded, "it saved your life! Please!"

Beckendorf hesitated. His face was still bright red from the ant spit, and he looked as if he were going to faint any minute, but he struggled to his feet. "Get ready to run," he ordered. He gazed across the clearing and shouted, "DRAGON! Emergency defense, beta-ACTIVATE!"

The dragon turned toward the sound of his voice. It stopped struggling against the ants, and its eyes glowed. The air smelled of ozone, like before a thunderstorm. Arcs of blue electricity shot from the dragon's skin, rippling up and down its body and connecting with the ants. Some of the ants exploded. Others smoked and blackened, their legs twitching. In a few seconds there were no more ants on the dragon. The ones that were still alive were in full retreat, scuttling back towards their ruined hill as fingers of electricity zapped them in the butt to prod them along. The dragon bellowed in triumph. Then it turned its glowing eyes towards them.

"Now," Beckendorf said, "we run."

The dragon pounded after them, spewing fire and zapping lightning bolts over their heads like it was having a great time.

"How do you stop it?" Anthony yelled.

Beckendorf shook his head and gasped for breath. "You shouldn't have turned it on, man! It's unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!"

"Yeah, yeah, but how do you turn it off?" Andy said.

Beckendorf looked around wildly. "There!" Up ahead was an outcrop of rock, almost as tall as the trees. It was shaped like a giant skateboard ramp, slanted on one side, with a sheer drop on the other. "You guys, run around to the base of the cliff. Distract the dragon. Keep it busy!"

"What are you going to do?" Silena demanded.

"You'll see, gorgeous." He winked at her and ducked behind a tree.

Andy turned and yelled at the dragon calling its attention. The dragon spewed black smoke out of its nostrils and thundered toward her. Anthony grabbed her hand and the three of them ran for the back of the cliff. The dragon followed.

"We have to hold it here," he said.

They readied their swords. The dragon reached them and lurched to a stop. They scattered as its first blast of fire turned the ground where they'd been standing into a smoking pit of ashes. Then Beckendorf was above them, at the top of the cliff, ready to jump. Thinking fast, Andy lunged and brought Riptide down on the dragon's foot and sliced off a talon. Its head creaked as it looked down at her. It opened its mouth, baring a hundred razor-sharp teeth.

"Andy!" Anthony warned.

And just before the dragon struck, Beckendorf launched himself off the rocks and landed on the dragon's neck. The dragon reared back and shot flames, trying to shake off Beckendorf, but he held on like a cowboy. Beckendorf ripped open a panel at the base of the dragon's head and yanked a wire. Instantly, the dragon froze. Beckendorf slid down its neck.

"Chuck! You did it!" Silena ran to him and gave him a kiss that made everyone blush.

"What do we do with it?" Andy pointed at the dragon.

Beckendorf wiped his forehead. Silena was still fussing over his cuts and bruises, and Beckendorf looked pretty distracted by the attention. "We... uh... I don't know," he said. "Maybe we can fix it, get it to guard the camp, but that could take months."

"Worth trying," Andy said.

Beckendorf suddenly looked a whole lot better. "Well let's get back, then! I bet capture the flag is over."


On the way back, Beckendorf and Silena walked ahead, holding hands. Watching them together, Andy nudged Anthony and whispered: "Who's cute now?"

"Hmm. Definitely them. It's pathetic, really."

"I know, right? And they think they can mock us."

"We should make a list of cute things to call them," Anthony suggested. "Then we'll see."

"Oh, it's on."

Their eyes met. Andy tried to step closer to him, but just then, three of Anthony's siblings from the Athena cabin burst out of the bushes with their swords drawn. They broke into grins.

"Good job, Tony," one of them said. "Let's get these losers to jail."

Andy stared at him. "The game's not over?"

The Athena camper laughed. "Not yet… but soon. Now that we've captured you, child of sea and shore," he mocked.

"Dude, come on," Beckendorf protested. "We got sidetracked. There was a dragon, and the whole Ant Hill was attacking us."

"Uh-huh," said another Athena guy, clearly unimpressed. "Great job distracting them, Tony. Worked out perfectly. You want us to take them from here?"

Anthony pulled away from Andy, drew his dagger and pointed it at her with a grin. "Nah," he said. "Silena and I can do this. Come on, prisoners. Move it."

Andy stared at her boyfriend, stunned. "You planned this? You planned this whole thing just to keep us out of the game?"

"Seriously, Andy, how could I have planned it? The dragon, the ants... you think I could've figured all that out ahead of time?"

"Uh... Hell yes! And by the way, I remember having warned Beckendorf this would happen!" She turned to him with a look that said didn't I tell you?

Beckendorf shrugged apologetically. Anthony and Silena exchanged a look, both trying not to laugh.

"Oh, you're gonna regret this," Andy pointed menacingly at her boyfriend. "Next time you touch my ass, I'll report yours."

She thought it was a valid threat, but Anthony just smiled and put them in jail.

The End