Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
The Ever Twisting Wind: Of Monsters and Titans
Chapter Two: Rat Race
Beta: ShadowofAxios
Annabeth took the news of Thalia's poisoning pretty hard. Andi could understand, she felt the same in a way. Percy was also pretty unhappy over the danger the camp was in now.
Camp was supposed to be a safe haven, but now it was slowly becoming a trap. With the increasing frequency and intensity of the monster attacks, it was only a matter of time before one made it through Camp's borders and then their idyllic sanctuary would become nothing more than a monster's all you can eat demigod buffet. The campers were determined to prevent that, but as they were steadily being worn down by the repeated attacks, there was a growing feeling that they couldn't hold out forever.
And then there was Tyson, Percy's friend from school. Her cousin introduced her to the big guy, but the new boy was very shy and just ducked his head at the sight of her while mumbling out a greeting. Andi did catch him commenting to himself that he thought she was pretty though. Andi was flattered, even if she personally didn't think she was that pretty. Cute? Maybe. Pretty? She didn't think so.
Then Annabeth pointed out that Tyson was a baby cyclops.
Both Andi and Percy were surprised by this. But after hearing about how he saved Percy from a game of deadly dodgeball, the daughter of Zeus couldn't help but see him as a good chap. Monster be damned.
So it was with a broad, genuine smile that she thanked him for saving Percy's life.
Annabeth looked revolted over the notion of a friendly monster, an opinion that seemed to be shared by most of the campers to some degree as well.
But Andi just waved it off, even as her friends tried to tell her otherwise, assuring them that Tyson was okay. She was however saddened to note that this seemed to make them look at her a little more warily than before. The reactions from the other campers were a lot more vocal.
Andi brushed them off, like she had their persistent complaints about her leadership. Annabeth noted this and seemed a little confused and concerned, though that didn't stop her from joining in with the calls for her to reconsider what she thought of Tyson.
As if all this drama wasn't enough for the new arrivals, Clarisse had to drop the biggest bomb on them right there. She told them about Chiron being canned by Zeus. This made Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson, run to the Big House to talk to the trainer.
Geez, she couldn't even wait long enough to give them a chance to get some rest first? Talk about inconsiderate.
Things didn't improve for Percy and Tyson at dinner. During the meal, Mr. D had, as was his habit, started to mess with Percy by commenting about how he was in the papers again for burning down a school gym. Tyson on the other hand was forced by Tantalus to stand by the head table the whole time, even while he took his own sweet time listing the new changes he was introducing as the temporary activities director.
Changes that included:
One, that there would be no more patrols.
This almost caused a riot right there in the dining pavilion as many of the campers began to protest the move. But Tantalus was smart, and announced his next change before things got too ugly.
Two, he was reinstating the chariot races with the reward of no chores for a month for the winner.
This quickly distracted the campers from their anger and quite a few campers were downright eager at the prospect of the race. Andi was one of them.
Not even someone from Apollo Cabin pointing out that the race had been discontinued due to the three deaths and twenty six mutilations it had caused seemed to dampen the campers' enthusiasm.
After hearing that, Andi couldn't blame Chiron for discontinuing the races. He was a worrywart like that. She honestly didn't see the big deal though, as demigods they faced the possibility of injury or death every time they faced a monster. Why should it be any different in their training? At least then they would be taking those risks while having some fun.
Only after having completed all his announcements did Tantalus turn his attention to Tyson. With a rather wicked gleam in his eyes, he started to verbally ponder ideas for a monster hunt, suggesting the possibility of using the young cyclops as the subject of the hunt and the issue of where to house Tyson while the hunt was organised.
Andi was horrified. It was growing increasingly obvious to her that her brother was not a nice person, but to suggest something like this?
She really needed to do that research that Katie suggested.
Thankfully, Tyson was spared from whatever Tantalus had in mind for him when he was claimed.
By Poseidon no less.
Andi thought it was a pretty cool thing for the god to do, but Percy looked anything but happy over the news.
It was the next morning, the weather was nice sans the harsh breeze that whipped about, but Andi paid it no mind.
During the singalong last night, all the campers had secretly plotted on how to continue the patrols behind Tantalus' back. No one bought his nonsense about camp being perfectly safe even with the wards failing, and they were determined to do what needed to be done to continue keeping it safe.
Andi joined in as soon as she found out. She in fact had a patrol later in the afternoon.
But right now, she needed to have a talk with her cousin.
As such she made her way over to Cabin Three.
She rapped her knuckles against the door of the sea themed cabin and waited while teetering on the balls of her feet. A few minutes later, a grumpy looking Percy opened the door. His black hair was messy and wild, and his sea green eyes were narrowed from the glare of the sun hitting his face.
"Hey Andi, what's up?" He said, stifling a yawn with his hand.
"Just checking up on you and Tyson. Yesterday was kinda hectic." She grimaced, folding her arms behind her back.
At this, Percy just grunted, gaining that trademarked broody look of his on his face.
Noticing his change of mood, she couldn't help but ask. "What's eating you?"
She had her suspicions, they were why she'd come to talk to him, but she wasn't going to assume anything.
Percy's face, impossibly, got even broodier, even as he replied. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Andi shot him an unconvinced look and pressed. "Is this about Tyson?"
Percy stiffened slightly.
She thought so.
"Percy, it is, isn't it?" Andi asked encouragingly.
The son of Poseidon just looked away and grunted sullenly in agreement.
"I thought you'd be happy to have a bunkmate. Heck, I'd be thrilled if I got a new brother." Andi freely confessed.
Percy's hand on the doorknob tightened, the son of Poseidon's entire posture growing less friendly as he hissed in reply. "I'm not you, Andi!"
Andi frowned. "I know that! But seriously? You're upset at having a new brother? Really?"
Percy shot her a furious look, and for a moment the daughter of the sky honestly thought he was about to attack her. Fortunately, he seemed to calm himself down with a breath.
"Andi, leave me alone." The son of the sea god shot back as he began to close his door.
"Hey, it's dawn, way too early to get hostile." The child of the sky said as she held her hands up placatingly.
"Where is he anyway?" She asked, looking around him to peer into Cabin Three.
"He went off to Cabin Nine, Beckendorf said he'd look after him." Percy just answered with a grunt, pausing midway while closing his door. Though from how white his knuckles were, he was still pissed like hell.
"That was kind of Beckendorf, nice to know he's making friends." Andi nodded happily.
This was the last straw for Percy it seemed. Spinning around, he glared at his cousin.
"You really don't get it, do you?"
Andi blinked in confusion. "I guess not. So, what am I not getting?"
Percy pushed off the door and got right into Andi's personal space, glaring down at the shorter girl with anger. Andi couldn't help the sweat that broke out on her brow at his sheer intensity. She wasn't scared of him, at least she didn't think so, but she had never seen Percy truly angry before. Not like this. The daughter of Zeus wasn't prepared for it.
"You don't get what it means to have a monster for a sibling, Andi. Do you even fathom how embarrassing it is to be told by my dad, via claiming, that I have as much standing as a monster?"
Andi tried to formulate a reply. But she couldn't, because Percy was right. She couldn't really put herself in his shoes.
"No, you don't." He said with a harsh tone when she couldn't say anything.
Right then and there, Andi wanted to slap Percy across the face.
Instead, she balled her fists, and regarded Percy coolly. "To me, Tyson seems like an okay bloke. I mean, he saved your ungrateful bum twice in one day, didn't he? Maybe you should take a step back, and try to look at him for himself, and not his species."
Percy's eyes went wide as she called him out on his speciesism. His eyes quickly hardened as he rebutted, "Those are completely different things, Andi. And you know it!"
Andi just spun on her heels and walked away in disgust, replying as she did. "Not in my book and it shouldn't be in yours either!"
I'd honestly thought better of him.
After her talk with Percy, Andi was in the mood for a fight. So she went to talk to someone she knew would give her one.
Tantalus.
She'd done quite a bit of research on him at Katie's suggestion.
And after reading about what her brother had done, she was not an amused daughter of Zeus.
So it was time to confront the man and see what he had to say for himself.
And if he was as much of a wanker as the legends say he was then hopefully she could blow him up without Mr. D making a big deal out of it.
She found the spirit lounging on the deck of the Big House reading through some papers while his left hand idly chased around a runaway donut on the table beside his chair.
"Tantalus, I need to talk to you!" Andi belligerently demanded as she walked up and took a seat across from him.
The dead king raised an eyebrow at her behavior but humored her and set aside his papers to give her his full attention. "Of course, sister. I always have time for you. What is it that you want to talk about?"
"Why you ended in the Field of Punishment." Tantalus sighed at this but didn't interrupt as the daughter of Zeus continued. "You said it was for a prank gone wrong. But how, in the name of Olympus, does killing your own son and feeding him to the gods count as a prank!?"
"It was a prank," Tantalus insisted. "One that the gods overreacted to. The details have just been embellished over the centuries."
"How does murdering your son get embellished!?" The living child of Zeus pressed.
Grunting in frustration, Tantalus offered his version of events. "By making what was an ill-conceived attempt at having a new way to offer a sacrifice to the gods out to be a heinous crime."
"You killed your son as a sacrifice!?" Andi exclaimed in shocked disgust.
The activities director shook his head sadly. "Yes. Just like so many of my fellow kings in that age did, I offered my son to the gods as recompense for offending them."
The daughter of Zeus was confused. Why is he making it seem like human sacrifice was common back then.
"What are you talking about?"
"All the other kings in my age did it. A good example is that of your own namesake, the original Andromeda."
Andi paled as she realized that Tantalus was right.
"Her mother offended some nymphs, who ran to Lord Poseidon and he in turn released a Cetus upon that kingdom. So what did they do about it?"
"They went to the oracle." Andi said.
"Big mistake, everyone's big mistake." Tantalus grimaced. "So they did that, and the oracle said to sacrifice their daughter and they would be saved."
"And they were, but not out of sacrifice, but because Perseus came in and kicked butt." Andi retorted.
"Yes, but they still willingly sacrificed their daughter, no?" The damned spirit slyly noted.
Andi couldn't dispute that, so uncertainly - She wasn't sure about anything she'd read about Tantalus anymore - changed tack.
"But what about the cannibalism?"
Tantalus grew angry at this. "Why does everyone accuse me of that? I am not a cannibal!"
"You're not?" Andi asked cautiously.
"NO! All I did was offer my sacrifice directly to the gods. I ate none of it. It would have been improper otherwise."
"But you tried to trick them into eating human flesh, didn't you?"
"Trick them?" Tantalus scoffed. "Hardly. I invited them to a meal at my table with the promise of a new way to offer them a sacrifice as the main course. It was my way for making up for revealing the secrets of nectar and ambrosia to my people. It's not my fault that they didn't appreciate my new method."
"And what would make you think that letting them eat a human was a good thing?" Andi shot back incredulously.
"How is it any different from killing someone and having them feed on the smoke when we burned the body?" Tantalus asked with a shrug. "That was how we used to offer our human sacrifices to the gods, you know. I was just being more direct."
Andi was unconvinced by this argument. "What made you think the gods would want that!? After being eaten by Granddad as babies, why would they support eating people?"
"Why did they condone human sacrifice then? How was I to know that they had an aversion to actually eating people when killing them in their name was totally ok?" Tantalus retorted.
Andi couldn't rebut that and moved on, she was starting to get a headache.
"Ok, let's forget about what happened then." Andi said as she rubbed her fingers against her temples. "Just tell me, would you do something like that now? We don't practice human sacrifice anymore."
"Of course I wouldn't!" Tantalus declared without hesitation and sounding quite genuine.
Satisfied with that, Andi moved to leave, but Tantalus stopped her.
"Before you leave, dear sister, there is something that I would like to remind you." The dead man waited for permission to continue, and at Andi's nod did so. "We mortals are just the playthings of the gods. You can look back in every story and see it. Just look at what Poseidon did to poor Minos' wife. The poor woman suffered terribly and all over a bull and because he was jealous of our Father." Tantalus frowned. "To them, we're like women back in my day, property at best, pets at worst… or was it the other way around."
He quickly became lost in pondering whether it was better for mortals to be the pets or property of the gods.
Nodding to Tantalus that she understood, which the preoccupied man in turn barely acknowledged with his own shallow nod, Andi took her leave.
She was pretty sure Tantalus was trying to redeem himself. He sounded genuine when he said he wouldn't commit a crime like what had gotten him into the Field of Punishment. Though she suspected that was only because he hoped to somehow reduce his punishment.
I've gotta be more wary of him from here on out. Andi promised herself.
But one good thing did come from this conversation, it had reminded her that the legends weren't always correct. That there were plenty of things that they left out.
I've gotta be more careful when I read them from now on. This must be the true history that Hecate talked about.
The demigod was honestly hyped to be learning about it in the future.
It was time for lunch and Andi was taking Hunter along with her for once. Usually the dog had his meals in her cabin, but today she was supposed to be going on a patrol after lunch. As such, it just made sense to take him along.
Seriously, what monster with any sense of self-preservation would want to mess with her lovable hound?
Andi's musings were interrupted when suddenly a loud howl of pain broke out in the center of camp, making all the half-bloods turn to see what had happened.
It was Tantalus, on the ground in pain with Hunter's teeth sunk into his leg, tearing at it viciously.
"Get it off of me!" Tantalus shouted in pain.
All the other campers were either laughing or smiling at the display.
Andi blinked in shock, and quickly turned to her side where her hound had been just a moment earlier.
"Hunter? Hunter!" She ran towards the commotion. "Stop!"
Andi ran up to her dog and pulled him off the man by his collar.
"Hey, hey!" Andi told her loyal dog. "Hunter, you can't just bite him!"
Tantalus looked relieved at hearing that.
"You don't know where that leg's been." She chided Hunter.
Tantalus stood up, "I should have that mutt put down." He hissed angrily.
"Hey, he's not a mutt!" Andi frowned at the camp activities director. Hunter was a pure breed through and through!
He had the papers for it in the cabin.
Tantalus snorted. "Like it matters. Just randomly attacking people like this? That dog is a menace. It needs to be dealt with."
Andi was about to protest but Mr. D suddenly interjected as he strolled by on his own way to the Dining Pavilion.
"I found it funny. Plus, he's a good pooch, far more capable than these little animals." He said, looking at the demigods who were watching the scene unfold.
"Fine." Tantalus conceded. "But he still needs to be punished for this."
Mr. D didn't dispute this and even nodded agreeingly.
"Hm, true. I guess he can get confined to the doghouse. Hmm… Don't we have one in the Big House?"
Tantalus paled to a light blue at that, while Hunter grinned viciously, showing off his sharp white teeth.
"I think we can let it slide this time." The spirit said nervously. "First offense and all that."
Mr. D just shrugged. "If you're sure."
"I am." The activities director said through gritted teeth, before turning to Andi. "So long as the dog is kept on a tighter leash from now onwards."
"I promise that he'll behave from now onwards." Andi assured her brother.
With that, Tantalus nodded and limped off. Mr. D following behind him with a satisfied smile spread across his face.
Andi looked down at Hunter. "You can't just bite people. It's wrong. At least make sure you can't get in trouble before you do it, kay?"
Hunter let out an annoyed whine, but bobbed his head in obedience.
Andi scratched his ear. "Good boy. Now, let's grab lunch and hit that patrol."
Over the course of the next few days, Hunter took to following Andi's orders to the letter. Much to Tantalus' frustration and the campers' amusement.
Hunter was doing everything within his power to annoy the Hades out of Tantalus.
Like one time during dinner, when Tantalus ordered a T-bone steak to simply smell, all he got was the bone. Which was 'mysteriously' covered in dog slobber.
I guess you can say Hunter was trying to give him a bone.
It didn't stop Mr. D from humorously saying he should lick it for scrapes.
Funniest thing was? Tantalus did just that. Or at least tried to. Unfortunately, his punishment apparently didn't let him do that much and the bone quite literally came to life and tumbled away from him.
Andi figured that was just the start of it, as Hunter had a wicked sense of humor. Like that time he peed on the Dursley's couch while they had been gone on a vacation and had as usual abandoned her at Privet Drive to "watch the house".
The golden dog did plenty of little things to annoy the damned spirit throughout the week, but it was the last one that was most memorable.
He grew to the size of an elephant and chased Tantalus during a game of catch gone awry. The Stolls were in on the prank and had coated a tennis ball in some kind of Hermes special glue and beamed the spirit in the head. So, Hunter loving catch, went after it. Terrified out of his wits, Tantalus fled while crying for help, but 'accidentally' ran right into a super sized pile of presents Hunter had left ever so conveniently unburied while doing so.
Ever see a dude stuck in a giant mud pie? Well, everyone at camp did. Many were suggesting making it the bead for the summer.
The daughter of Zeus was as entertained by Hunter's antics as the other campers but she also knew that Tantalus was not going to take things lying down. He was undoubtedly plotting some kind of revenge. That had her more than a little worried to be honest.
And she had every right to be when Tantalus put Hunter under doggy house arrest in Cabin One. He declared that if he stepped a single paw outside to do anything besides answering nature's call, Andi would be punished with a whole slew of chores.
The arse.
Personally, she thought he just couldn't handle being played like a fool by a dog.
It didn't stop her from ordering Hunter to stay in her Cabin though. She'd more than enough experience with extra chores last year and wasn't looking for a repeat.
She didn't like doing it to Hunter, but she really didn't have much of a choice.
Things were starting to become too much for Andi. Between the issues with Tantalus, the constant attacks by the monsters and the poor reaction the campers were having towards her were wearing her down. So a few days after Annabeth had returned to Camp she sought out her friend to talk to her in the hope that the daughter of Athena would offer her some help.
The daughter of Zeus found her friend pretty busy working with her cabin for the upcoming chariot race.
Guided by one of Annabeth's younger siblings that had met her at the door, Andi walked to the back of the shrine to learning that was Cabin Six, and saw what looked like a mini construction site. All they were missing were the forklifts and cranes.
The noise was deafening though so Andi waited for a lull in the construction to call out to her friend. The opportunity presented itself when a band saw - one of the biggest sources of noise - was turned off.
"Hey guys." She greeted cheerfully.
At her greeting, Andi suddenly found herself the focus of a sea of grey eyes. Some suspicious, others annoyed, in fact Annabeth was the only friendly one among the whole grumpy group of Athena's children.
No surprise there. Andi mused as she struggled to maintain a cheery facade instead of frowning angrily in return at their hostility. Cabin Six has been the loudest when it came to complaining about how I've led camp so far.
Not like one of them bothered to step up to try and do better.
"Andi, shouldn't you be working on your chariot?" Annabeth said, a pencil nestled behind her left ear, a black pen behind the right as she held a pair of chariot blueprints in her hands. One looked downright ancient, probably some kind of reference, while the second was on more modern paper and was likely the plan they were following.
"Castor and Pollux are busy." By that Andi meant that they were busy doing their shift at the secret patrols of camp the campers had started behind Tantalus' back. Annabeth would understand though, since all other Camp activities at this time of the day had been cancelled by her brother to allow the Cabins to focus on preparing for the chariot races, the patrols were the only thing that the twins could be busy with.
"And you?" Annabeth asked, waving at her cabin mates to get back to work.
Andi released a breath she didn't know she was holding from all the stern gazes on her. She mustered her best smile for her friend. "We never really got to talk since you came back to camp. I thought we could, you know, catch up?"
Annabeth just raised a blonde brow, readily expressing what she was thinking: Right now?
Andi just nodded.
The daughter of Athena knitted her brow in thought, but nodded nonetheless. She told her brother Malcolm to take charge of the project for the moment, and declared that she was going to take a break and have a nice walk around camp with Andi.
"So, how was Virginia?" Andi asked. It wasn't really what she wanted to talk about, but seeing as Annabeth went back to her dad's place for the school year, the daughter of Zeus felt it was only polite to ask. Besides, she was genuinely curious.
"It's getting better. Still not great, but better. I had a demigod dream about camp being in trouble so I left early, but we agreed to try again next year. Hopefully things will be better then." The blonde said stiffly, clearly uncomfortable about talking about the strained relationship she had with her mortal family. It was therefore no surprise when she quickly changed the subject. "How was Hogwarts?"
She knew Annabeth was really asking about the whole Sirius affair, but that wasn't what she wanted to talk about. So she just gave her a curt reply. "The thing was… dealt with."
Annabeth was having none of it though and was looking at her questioning, so the daughter of Zeus decided to change subjects quick. "How are you feeling, about, you know." Her eyes darted towards Thalia's sickly pine tree.
Annabeth's grey eyes softened, looking at the tree as well. "I just can't believe someone would do that to her tree. It's sickening."
Andi didn't want to mention names, but pretty much everyone knew Luke was somehow involved.
Even she didn't want to think he would do this to a friend, but then again, he had played everyone else for chumps. Why not screw over an old mate in the process?
"So change of subject!" Andi declared in a bid to lift the mood. "I used time-travel. It was lame, totally didn't live up to my expectations as a Whovi-"
"You what!?" An incredulous Annabeth cut into Andi's rambling. "Don't you know whose domain you trespassed into by doing that?"
"Duh. Big bad Granddad's." Andi said dismissively. Well, there went a pleasant change of subjects.
"And you still did it!?"
"Didn't have much of a choice, I was basically forced into it." Andi explained. "Even ended up with a visit from Granddad thanks to it. He wasn't exactly thrilled about it."
Annabeth looked horrified at the revelation. "Did you tell Chiron about this?"
Andi blinked in surprise at this.
"I-I forgot all about it." She admitted, her cheeks pink in embarrassment. "With everything else that was going on, it… slipped my mind."
"Andi!" The daughter of Athena said in a frustrated groan. "Come on, we're going to talk to Mr. D about it right now!"
"If Dad's not even going to consider the possibility of Granddad being back, what makes you think Mr. D's going to listen to us?"
"You have to tell someone about this and since Chiron isn't here, Mr. D is our best bet."
"What about Tantalus?"
Annabeth just shot Andi a disbelieving look.
"What? Chain of command and all that." She muttered.
"He's useless, we need to go straight to a god."
"Hey! He's still my brother." Andi said slightly defensively. Sure she was developing issues with the guy, but he was still a brother that legitimately cared for her - at least he seemed to - so she wasn't gonna take anyone talking bad about him.
Even if they were right.
"Look, Andi-" Annabeth began but was cut off by Andi.
"Let's not fight over this. Let's just go see Mr. D." She grumbled, she still had things she wanted to talk about. "Promise we can talk more afterwards?"
"Yes, Andi." Annabeth said, but it sounded like she was only humoring her as they headed off to the Big House.
Roughly ten minutes later, the girls exited the Big House. Annabeth's face was etched with a look of surprise while Andi's face just screamed 'I Told You So'.
"I can't believe he just, just shut us down like that!" The grey eyed girl exclaimed as her face shifted into one with frustration written all over it.
"Like I said, if Dad's not going to care, why would Mr. D?" Andi asked as they walked off the patio, continuing their stroll.
"He showed up in your mind! If that's not evidence-"
"And he showed up in both mine and Percy's dreams last year, Dad just shrugged it off." Andi reminded her, making the blonde slump her shoulders in defeat.
The two friends walked in silence for a bit after that.
The silence was getting to Andi though as she was desperate to talk about the other stuff that she was having issues with.
"I got visited by Hecate." Andi blurted out, getting Annabeth to cock her head in interest. "She kinda made me her Champion."
Looking utterly surprised, Annabeth replied. "Andi, whoa, that's… that's just wow. What did she want?" She added, suspicion in her eyes.
Of course Annabeth would figure that part out. She was smart like that.
So Andi told her all about Hecate wanting her to be her champ because she was a magical child of Zeus, the free boon (How she had tried to help Thalia with it and how Hecate had refused, even giving a, in her opinion, bullshit reason why she couldn't. Annabeth looked thoughtful at that.), and what she asked for afterwards.
At hearing what Andi had asked for as her boon, Annabeth shot her fellow demigoddess her best Athena glare. Andi wilted under the intense look, it was frankly terrifying and never failed to make her feel really tiny.
"Andi!" She outright shouted, getting some looks from passing campers. Seeing this, the daughter of wisdom lowered her voice, but it still held the ferocity of a scolding. "How could you- Are you really-?! Ugh!" She grabbed Andi's arm, dragging her some distance away from the well worn trail they had been strolling down and into the edge of the nearby woods where they could be alone.
"You do know you doomed them, right?" Annabeth explained simply. Her annoyed, yet pitying look made Andi's heart hammer against her ribcage.
"Your friends, Ron and Hermione? There is almost no chance in Hades that they'll be able to keep something like our entire world a secret forever."
The taller girl shot Andi a disappointed look that made her feel like a failure.
"Even a little slip up and the Styx will gun for them. It may not kill them instantly, heck it may very well target those around them instead. But breaking an Oath on the Styx? It's like cancer, Andi. It could take years to kill them, torturing them the whole time until it's done punishing them."
With each passing second, from each word coming out of Annabeth's lips, Andi felt the guilt and sadness grow within her as she realized what she had done to her friends, the people she considered her family. Even as it grew to almost overwhelm her however she fought to keep her cool. She was not going to break down, that had never helped her in the past and it wouldn't now. As such all she allowed to show of her emotional turmoil was the odd tear and sniffle.
Leave it to Andi, the Lady of Epic Screw Ups to ruin the lives of everyone she cared about.
Still struggling to hold herself together, Andi began to hug herself tightly. Choking on her sadness, the daughter of Zeus managed to say, "Well, let's just hope the worst won't happen, right?"
Andi gave a faux smile, that was as empty as the sky child felt. Her tears began to flow freely now as her facade of strength began to crumble. "I, I just wanted them to understand me better. I swear!" She sobbed, hiccuping now as tears trailed down her cheeks.
Annabeth just peered at her with another pitying look that crushed Andi's waning strength. The blonde wrapped her in a soft hug, one Andi strongly returned as she sobbed into the crook of Annabeth's neck.
Petting her hair, the daughter of Athena said. "You can be so stupid." It wasn't an insult, just her stating a fact.
"I hope everything works out too." Annabeth said a moment later, the skepticism in her voice making it clear how unlikely she thought that hopeful outcome was. Andi just cried harder at that.
After giving her a few minutes to let it all out, Annabeth held Andi at arm's length, looking her over. The other girl's eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks stained with tear tracks, but at least she wasn't leaking snot. Andi had pulled herself back together.
"What's upsetting you, Andi? I don't think this is enough to make you cry. You're stronger than that."
"I," Andi bit her bottom lip as it quivered. "It's just everything that just keeps happening!"
The stress was getting to her. Andi, try as she may, just couldn't take keep it all bottled up anymore.
Which was her standard practice when the Fates dumped a heap of hot shite on her noggin.
But this time… It was just too much. One terrible thing after another kept happening to her in the past few weeks. Learning what she'd done to Ron and Hermione was just the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed her over the edge.
Now that the dam had burst, Andi couldn't stop herself as she began to rant about all her problems as of late. She began with Thalia's poisoning, and how scared it made her feel. Not just because Thalia might die, but also because it reminded her just how dangerous things were for her too. She was a demigod and that was bad enough, but she was a daughter of Zeus to boot and that was an even bigger bullseye painted on her head. Look at Thalia, even as a tree people were still going out of their way to kill her. Annabeth tried to comfort her by explaining to her that the poisoner probably wasn't targeting Thalia because she was a daughter of Zeus, but Andi told her she knew that but that it didn't help with what she felt.
Annabeth looked like she was ready to argue the point further, but Andi wouldn't let her. She was on a roll, gods dammit, and she was not going to stop until she finished getting all her frustrations out in the open. With that in mind, she cut her blonde friend off before she could say a word and told her about the way the campers were treating her after all she'd done in leading them in protecting the camp from monsters. It was thanks to her that no monsters had gotten through so far.
She's been scraping together ideas from the handful of spellbooks that some of Hecate's kids had left behind in Cabin Eleven just to learn new spells that could be of help.
She'd even ended up utterly embarrassing herself by crashing into bales of hay experimenting with one of those spells.
And what did she get in return?
Angry looks and campers unwilling to listen to her.
Andi looked up at her friend, a sense of self-righteous anger surging through her veins. "I mean, I try to be a good leader, but I'm not smart like you, Bethy. I'm not inspirational like FDR. But I led them to victory! That's gotta earn me some respect."
"Andi," Annabeth cut her off sternly, squeezing her shoulders gently. "Stop. First, don't compare yourself to other people. Second, get off your high horse."
"What!?" Andi recoiled in shock, pulling away from Annabeth's hold.
"I'm sorry to say this, but someone has to, so I'm going to. Andi, you're a terrible leader."
"Am not! I've kept camp safe!" The daughter of Zeus retorted heatedly.
"By beating the monsters yourself! Not by leading the other campers into battle." Annabeth retorted sternly. "I've asked around. Every time there's been a fight you're rushed in with barely any concern for the other campers, either in your squad or otherwise."
"We still won, didn't we?"
"That's besides the point!" Annabeth shouted exasperatedly. "You might have won, but you've also sent plenty of them to the infirmary with your recklessness. That's not something a good leader should do!"
The daughter of Zeus just glared at her friend mutinously. A part of her, a small part, knew Annabeth was right, but her pride wasn't going to let her admit it.
"Look, Andi, the campers," Annabeth said with a sigh as she crossed her arms. Her grey eyes fixed on her the shorter girl's defiant blue ones. "They aren't big fans of your gloryhound style of 'leadership'."
The disgusted way Annabeth said the word 'leadership' left little doubt to her opinion on Andi's skill at command.
"You're leaving more people injured than you are keeping safe, Andi. And people don't like to get hurt." She repeated.
Andi still wasn't ready to accept this fact, so she changed the subject slightly. "So what? You want me to change how I lead entirely? How am I supposed to do that? I can't exactly help myself on the battlefield."
"Then maybe you shouldn't lead at all." Annabeth suggested in as kind a tone as Andi had ever heard from her, but which still held that steely edge that told the daughter of the skies that she was deadly serious.
That hit Andi like a bag of wet cement.
Leading was in her blood right? She was a child of Zeus, she was supposed to be good at leading.
At least that's what she had been told, what she had hoped.
Fear crept upon her frail pride and she could only answer with. "I-I'll think on that." She wanted to desperately change topics, because her feelings were raging inside her right now as she desperately tried to figure out how to deal with this new problem.
Annabeth however wasn't done.
"Everyone has different strengths. Focus on that, not the negatives." The daughter of Athena offered. "So you're not a good leader. That just means you need to find something that you are good at."
Andi just turned away, unhappy with and largely unwilling to accept that. It was just such a cliched thing to say in the situation at hand.
Things couldn't be so simple, could it?
Even if part of her, a growing part, realised that Annabeth was right. That didn't really help her though.
"But what am I supposed to be good at?" Andi managed out, confusion filling her head. She pointed to herself. "I mean, if I'm not a leader, what am I?" She asked as she threw her hands in the air out of frustration. "You're like the perfect example of Cabin Six, right? You've got your mum's brains and skill with crafts. Me? I, I gotta be more than my powers, right?"
Andi had no idea who she was.
To the Dursleys, she was a servant girl who free-loaded off them.
To the Wizarding World, she was the Girl-Who-Lived, some fairytale.
To the world of gods, she was the daughter of Zeus.
But who was Andi, to Andi?
As Andi ranted, Annabeth could only frown. "Andi, that's the whole point of growing up, isn't it? Finding out who you really are? Maybe it's time you stopped being a little kid trying to be who other people want you to be and grow up and figure out who you want to be instead."
"But how?" Andi said, feeling ready to pull her hair out.
"I'm sorry, Andi. But there's no ready answer to that." The daugher of wisdom said apologetically. "You'll have to figure that out on your own."
Seeing the confusion on her friend's face, Annabeth continued, "Just know that as your friend, I'll be here supporting you while you figure things out."
Andi moved over to a stump and sat on it, feeling drained. Rubbing her eyes, she asked tiredly. "Anything else?"
"Not that I can think of." Annabeth said after a moment of thought. "You? Anything else you want to talk about, Andi?"
"Nope." Andi replied after a moment.
"Then you okay to head back?" Annabeth asked carefully, obviously worried that Andi was still an emotional mess. Which she was, but she had enough of a handle on it for the moment that it shouldn't be a problem.
She hoped.
"Argh. Now I have to go back to dealing with the annoyed campers." Andi whined as she got up to leave.
"Well, while I might not be able to help you with figuring out who you are, I can help you there. At least a little." Annabeth offered.
Andi turned to Annabeth at that and cocked a brow questioningly.
"You can start to win them over by not being so nice to Tantalus." Annabeth offered. "You know everyone hates him."
"I'm not being nice to him."
Annabeth just raised a skeptical brow.
"Ok, so a little bit. But like I said he's my brother."
The daughter of Zeus sighed at that, "You do know the terrible things he did, right?"
Andi nodded and explained what Tantalus had said about why he had done it, before adding her own opinion on it. "I don't entirely believe him. But what he said makes enough sense that I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt."
"That's why you were all on his side in the beginning?"
"I didn't know then and he was nice to me." Annabeth shot her a sympathetic look at that. The daughter of Athena was one of only a few people who understood just how much Andi wanted to have a family member who treated her well.
The daughter of Zeus brushed her eyes, sweeping away another batch of tears before they had a chance to properly fall. "But why should I be surprised? I mean, why be nice to her unless you need something from dumb ol' Andi."
"Well, at least you've learned your lesson?" Annabeth offered kindly.
The child of Zeus nodded miserably. "Not that it's helped me yet. I've kept away from him after I found out about how much of a creep he is, but no one's letting it go. I mean sure, he's always trying to favor me but I've tried to not let him. Yet everyone is still giving me the cold shoulder."
"The problem with that Andi, is that you're still preening whenever he praises you." Annabeth explained.
Her beaten ego objecting, she muttered. "I think I deserve some of-"
Annabeth cut her off, saying. "That doesn't matter, not to the campers. All they see is you being Tantalus' little pet."
Blanching, Andi said. "That sounds gross."
"It was the best thing I could think of comparing it to." The blonde told her apologetically. "Seriously though, that's one of the things that are holding you back. Cut him off completely, Andi."
She gave a nod, determined to change. "I'll try my best, Bethy."
"I know you will." The child of wisdom gave her a smile.
Andi chewed her bottom lip and gave Annabeth a quick hug. "Thanks for letting me vent. And, all the other stuff too." She let go, taking a few steps back.
Annabeth shrugged and look exasperated. "That's what good friends do for each other."
Andi blinked in confusion at that. Ron and Hermione never really let her vent much, if at all. They usually just rushed her into solving whatever problem caused her the distress in the first place.
This felt way better to be honest.
Still smiling, though a little sadly, which was odd, in Andi's opinion, Annabeth took her leave to go back to helping with her Cabin's chariot.
Andi waved her away enthusiastically before heading back to her own Cabin. Maybe Castor and Pollux were back and they could work on their chariot.
The day of the race was getting close.
During the final days of the week, things had gone all rotten for Andi.
Not only did she have to deal with the stress of building a chariot with Cabin Twelve, she also had to deal with a whole new set of issues created by Tantalus. He had really upped his game when messing with the other campers lately, forcing Andi - who couldn't stand bullying, at all - to step in to stop it each time.
But Tantalus would always respond by just stepping back from his victim and singing condescending praises of her like how fair she was, or how she was so generous, or how wise she was in coming up with a solution that meant he didn't need to "punish" someone. After that, the creep would leave the scene smiling and campers would just give her sour looks.
She'd bet good money that the whole thing was a ploy by the damn spirit to make the campers hate her or something.
Now, if only she knew why he wanted that. Maybe then she could figure out a way to turn the tables on him.
As things stood, all she managed so far was to end up looking like the bad guy. And that was starting to make her wonder why she even bothered to try helping people in the first place.
As if all this wasn't bad enough, the growing distrust the campers had of her was starting to greatly affect Andi's secret patrols. Less and less people wanted to team up with her when her turn came up. Even Katie had been kind of distant and that really hurt Andi.
On more than one occasion, she had no one but Hunter for company. Which caused its own fair share of trouble since she needed to come up with an excuse each time just in case they were caught by Tantalus. She couldn't after all always rely on saying that he really needed to go due to some bad food he ate.
Her dog seemed to be the only one trying to cheer her up these days, once he had even fetched her a rabbit he caught. She thanked him, but waved off the bunny carcass.
Andi could only hope things got better.
On the day before the chariot race, the campers were all rushing to prepare.
Andi was no exception. Behind Cabin One, amidst wood planks, power saws, and celestial bronze hubs, axles, and blades, she and the Dionysus twins were working on finishing their chariot for the race tomorrow.
Andi had no one to team up with for the race, so she had asked her friends from Cabin Twelve if they wanted to work together.
The twins weren't initially going to race, but after some convincing, they agreed.
The bad thing was, none of them were really builders unlike Cabin Nine or Cabin Six.
So they worked with some old schematic that Annabeth offered them and went from there. The twins did most of the heavy lifting while Andi used what magic she knew to help wherever possible.
Not that Hogwarts had a magic shop class so she wasn't really much help sadly.
Personally, Andi thought they were doing pretty good for three kids not used to handling a sandblaster and barely knew their way around a wrench.
Andi looked at the chariot as a whole. It was elevated on two cinder blocks with only one wheel attached at the moment. It was royal purple in color to help represent Dionysus and her Dad, along with a large eagle holding grapes painted on the front.
Or at least that's what it was supposed to look like.
"Does it look like a chicken?" She asked worriedly, for about the fifth time, as she tilted her head to examine her work.
"Does it matter? We need to get the last wheel on." An annoyed Pollux shot back.
"And the axle blades." Castor added.
His brother nodded. "And the axle blades."
Andi had redone the eagle about four times now. Along the way cursing the fact she didn't know any magic that could have helped her. She had managed to change the base color with a flick of her wrist, thanks to the Color Change Charm she'd learned in her First Year at Hogwarts. It had made that part of painting their chariot practically effortless and they managed to try out three different colors before they made their final choices. Unfortunately, without any spells to help, Andi had been forced to hand paint the eagle. Which was a very time consuming affair.
Her obsession with getting the eagle right had combined with their secret patrols and tight schedules to leave the trio behind the other cabins in terms of their work on their respective chariots.
"I just want us to look cool." Andi confessed. She had taken a peek at some of the other chariots, and they were really impressive. She was determined not to lose out to them on that front.
"It doesn't matter, the chi-eagle," Pollux corrected, "looks fine. Come on, we only have a little more daylight."
Andi felt upset at that and was about to retort, but Castor cut her off.
"Andi, forget the bird. Do you want to be able to race or not?" He said, picking up the other wheel and pushing it onto the axle.
"Or course."
"Then we need to finish the chariot. So forget the paint job, and grab a wrench."
For a moment, she wanted to continue to argue but the looks on the twins' faces stopped her. They were very obviously almost at the end of their tolerance with her. Sighing in frustration, she knelt down, snagged a wrench and started to help tighten the bolts they needed to secure the last wheel. As she worked the tool, Andi muttered. "Really wish I knew more magic for carpentry then we wouldn't be so far behind."
"Andi, stop whining." Pollux chided from where he was tightening another bolt on the other side of the wheel.
Again Andi felt the urge to argue but quashed it. The looks on her friends' faces hadn't changed, they were still very clearly not happy with her right now. She knew arguing with them now would just start a fight. That wasn't something they needed the day before the race.
As the minutes ticked the trio moved onto working on the axle blades and as she worked in the tense silence, Andi slowly began to realise just how silly she had been worrying over a damn picture. Especially when Castor and Pollux continued sweating it out assembling the rest of the chariot while she got distracted by the paint. She could really start to see how her behavior bothered people, even her own friends.
Come on, you had that talk with Annabeth. You know people are kinda annoyed with you and for good reason. So you gotta start toning it down if you want to keep the few mates you've got left. And hopefully change the others' opinions of you too.
She winced as the distraction led her to accidentally nicking her finger on the blade she was helping to install. The twins looked at her with concern, but she waved it away. "I'm fine guys." The boys nodded and were about to turn back to their tasks but Andi stopped them by continuing, "And sorry for being kind of a pain."
They just nodded and said nothing of it, choosing to just get back to work.
The morning of the race was hot and humid. Fog lay low on the ground like a morning in London. So much so that if not for the heat, Andi would have thought she was back in the UK.
Millions of birds were roosting in the trees—fat gray-and-white pigeons, except they didn't coo like regular pigeons. They made this annoying metallic screeching sound that hurt Andi's sensitive ears. She hoped it wouldn't affect her in the race too much.
Speaking of the race, its track had been built in a grassy field between the archery range and the woods.
Hephaestus' cabin had used the bronze bulls, which were completely tame since they'd had their heads smashed in, to plow an oval track in a matter of minutes.
They had even built rows of stone steps for the spectators. Cabin Nine never ceased to amaze Andi with just what they could build and how fast they could do it. As the time for the race drew near, the stands began to fill up as Tantalus, the satyrs, a few dryads, and all of the campers who weren't participating took their seats. Mr. D didn't show. He never got up before ten o'clock.
That seemed to bum Castor and Pollux big time, though they seemed to cheer up a little when they spotted a leopard slink its way through the bushes at the edge of the woods watching the track intently all the while.
"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!"
"Oh no, the horror." Andi said mockingly to Castor, who sniggered. They would be manning their team's chariot. Castor as driver and Andi as fighter.
Beckendorf led the Hephaestus team onto the track. They had a wicked ride made of bronze and iron—even the horses, which were magical automatons like the Colchis bulls. The thing probably had all kinds of mechanical traps and more fancy options than the latest sports car.
The Ares chariot was blood-red, and pulled by two grisly skeletal horses. Clarisse climbed aboard with a veritable armory's worth 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. Andi quickly pointed out to Castor that he hadn't said anything about the opposing fighters and they'd better keep away from them just in case.
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 Andi just knew that it was packed to the gills with every kind of dirty trick they could come up with.
Next was the chariot Andi and Cabin twelve had worked together to build. It may not have looked as professional as the others, but it still looked better than Hermes'. It was far lighter than the those of their competitors' too, but there was a reason for that. A little trick that Andi had come up with and the team were hoping would give them the edge they needed to win. It was pulled by a pair of golden brown hippogriffs that Andi named Silver and Quell. They had arrived the day after she had prayed to her dad for something to pull the chariot.
Zeus may be distant most of the time, but he could be pretty thoughtful once in awhile.
Annabeth was in charge of Athena's chariot that was grey with white columns arching all around it and an menacing owl head painted onto the front facing portion of its main body. It was pulled by a pair of brown horses that looked kind of ticked off.
Percy and Tyson were in a blue and white chariot with pictures of waves and a trident stamped on the front. Percy was holding the reins for a pair of blond coated stallions while Tyson was armed with a mean looking ten foot pole.
As the chariots lined up, more shiny-eyed pigeons gathered in the woods. They were screeching so loudly the campers in the stands were starting to take notice, glancing nervously at the trees, which shivered under the weight of the birds.
Andi winced at the noise, drawing a look of concern from Castor but Andi just gave him a thumbs up. She could handle this.
She wasn't the only one who seemed unbothered by the strange birds. Tantalus didn't either, in fact he barely even seemed to notice that they were there. The only sign that he did was that he spoke up to be heard over the racket they were creating.
"Charioteers!" he shouted. "Attend your mark!"
He 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! Andi looked back in time to see the Apollo chariot flip over. The Hermes chariot had rammed into it—probably on purpose. 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.
Man, this is why I fly, at least then you don't have collisions like this. Andi shook her head as Castor kept reining the hippogriffs in. The two majestic creatures wanted to pelt down the track at their top speed, but doing that would be opposite to the plan that Andi and the twins had thought up.
Their strategy was to hold back and let everyone else pick each other off. And then, sweep right in for the win.
Returning her attention to the front, Andi saw that Annabeth was in first place, while Percy was pulling ahead of Clarisse to capture second place. Beckendorf was closing in on them though and shot out three sets of balls and chains once he was on Percy's side.
Thankfully, Tyson saved Percy's butt from wrecking by whacking them away like a pro golfer.
With that distraction out of the way, Poseidon's Cabin started to pull away from both Ares and Hephaestus and closed on Athena. Malcolm, Annabeth's fighter, tried to fend them off with a barrage of javelins but Tyson handily dealt with them.
It seemed like Percy was about to take the lead when all of a sudden Tyson stopped trying to harass their competition and started pointing at the woods feveriously for some reason.
Andi had barely turned to take a look at what had him so agitated when all of a sudden Hurricane Pigeon started to head for the track. The swarm of birds flew in circles like a tornado in a way that struck Andi as odd.
"Andi, up front!" Castor shouted in warning as Clarisse's fighter tossed spiked balls in front of them and Andi gripped the edges of her chariot. "Hold on!" She said and cried out. "Jump!"
At her order, the hippogriffs opened their wings and she controlled the air around their chariot. Combined the two effects were just perfect to allow them to hop over the obstacle with ease, making Andi beam and Castor cheer.
It was her idea since she doubted anyone could really take advantage of such a manoeuvre. She basically made an updraft to lift the hippogriffs, and themselves, into the air for a moment.
As long as they didn't literally fly, they weren't breaking the rules of the race. Andi had checked to make sure of that.
Not that the race was foremost in Andi's mind at the moment. "Castor, the birds!"
Almost as soon as the words left Andi's mouth, the screaming started. Turning towards the sound, the duo watched in shock as the massive flock of pigeons attacked —thousands of them dive-bombing the spectators in the stands, and attacking the other chariots. Beckendorf was mobbed. His fighter tried to bat the birds away but he couldn't see anything. The chariot veered off course and plowed through the strawberry fields, the mechanical horses steaming.
In the Ares chariot, Clarisse barked an order to her fighter, who quickly threw a screen of camouflage netting over their basket. The birds swarmed around it, pecking and clawing at the fighter's hands as he tried to hold up the net, but Clarisse just gritted her teeth and kept driving. Her skeletal horses seemed immune to the distraction. The pigeons pecked uselessly at their empty eye sockets and flew through their rib cages, but the stallions kept right on running.
The spectators weren't so lucky. The birds were slashing at any bit of exposed flesh, driving everyone into a panic. Now that the birds were closer, it was clear they weren't normal pigeons.
Their eyes were beady and evil-looking. Their beaks were made of bronze, and judging from the yelps of the campers, they must've been razor sharp.
Andi figured out what they were in a second.
"Stymphalian birds!" Annabeth yelled out before Andi herself could, even as she pulled her chariot to a stop next to Percy's. The two seemed to be working on a plan.
Good, I'll leave them to it. In the meantime I'll do what I can.
"Castor, those birds will strip everyone to bones if we don't do something." The son of Dionysius paled at that. "I'm gonna help the spectators at the stands. Stay safe."
Her friend nodded but Andi didn't pay him any mind, instead taking to the air, abandoning her chariot and thus forfeiting the race.
Inhaling deeply, Andi released her Canary Cry into a large crowd of the Stymphalian birds, it seemed to make them punch drunk causing them to fly around erratically and crashing into each other and the ground.
"Get 'em!" She heard Castor shout as she fired off another Cry towards a second flock that was tearing the clothes and pulling the hair of a group from Cabin Ten.
The monstrous avians weren't completely stupid however and seeing that her Cry had a limited area of effect, were scattering into smaller groups to limit her ability to hurt then. Thankfully, this served to make them less of a threat as the smaller numbers in their attacking flocks made them easier to fend off.
Come on, they're adapting? Stupid birds. Andi mentally cursed even as she took a deep breathe for another Cry. She was just about to let loose when three of the birds swooped towards her with their talons poised to tear into her. She just fired her building Cry directly at them, disorienting them and leaving them easy pickings for her as she slashed them to ribbons with Skyline.
Clarisse had just pulled across the finish line, completely unopposed, and seemed to notice for the first time how serious the bird problem was.
When she saw Percy and Annabeth driving away, she yelled, "You're running? The fight is here, cowards!" The idiot then drew her sword and charged for the stands.
While this was going on, Tantalus chased breakfast pastries around the stands, every once in awhile yelling, "Everything's under control! Not to worry.'"
Andi's eyes were ping ponging around, trying to find the larger clusters of the monsters. In between breaths, she contemplated helping the downed campers, but heard someone from Cabin Five shout at her. "Cry! I need a Cry here!"
Biting back the urge to help a camper getting his hair ripped out, she nodded grimly as she realised that he was right. She could do the most help with her Cry, not by wasting the precious breath she needed to use that power saving individual campers.
She felt the air coiling around her fingertips, just ready to sweep away the monsters like they were nothing, but the problem was they were everywhere. They were all so mixed up with the campers that if she tried to use her powers, she'd probably hurt most of the campers in the process.
She heard caws behind her and whirled around, wind claws springing from her fingers as she lacerated two more birds and Cry'd again, leaving them at the mercy of campers from Cabin Six to mop up. Unfortunately, this left her open to the veritable swarm of birds that unexpectedly dove at her from all angles. Just before the monsters could descend on her and start clawing away, a well placed cluster of javelins shot up from the ground, nailing a good number of them and scared away the rest.
She looked down stunned at Castor and the other racers picking up missiles from their chariots, helping her out.
Andi felt a smile creeping along her face as she jumped right back into the fray, doing the best she could.
She was just turning back to launch another Cry into the wheeling flocks of monstrous pigeons when Percy and Annabeth burst back onto the scene. Percy was holding a boombox over his head as Dean Martin of all things began to play loudly.
Suddenly the air was filled with violins and a bunch of guys moaning in Italian.
Hearing it, Andi yelped, she moved to cover her sensitive ears as best she could but never got the chance. The moment of distraction as the unexpected and awful music sent ferocious pain ripping through her, broke her concentration and the building sonic energy she'd gathered for her Cry exploded out of her mouth. Completely unprepared, Andi couldn't direct the blast well, barely managing to avoid hitting any campers and failing to use her powers to brace herself. As a result, she was sent tumbling towards the ground.
Thankfully, Quell took to the air and caught her with his talons. For being able to rend the flesh off bone, the hippogriff's terrible claws were surprisingly gentle as they grabbed onto her shoulders.
She was grateful for the save and turned to watch in surprise as the demon pigeons went nuts. They started flying in circles, running into each other like they wanted to brain themselves. Then they abandoned the track altogether and flew skyward in a huge dark wave.
Andi looked down to see Annabeth shouting something and the archers lining up their bows in response.
With clear targets, the archers' arrows took flight. Within minutes, the ground was littered with dead bronze-beaked pigeons, and the survivors were a distant trail of smoke on the horizon.
Quell placed the daughter of Zeus on the ground and she was pleased that the music had stopped.
Seriously, Dean Martin was so in her top five worst musicians now.
The camp was saved, but the wreckage wasn't pretty. Most of the chariots had been completely destroyed. Almost everyone was wounded, bleeding from multiple bird pecks. The kids from Aphrodite's cabin were screaming because their hairdos had been ruined and their clothes pooped on.
"Bravo!" Tantalus said, but he wasn't looking at any of the devastation around him or the campers working hard to make sure the injured were taken care of. "We have our first winner!"
He walked to the finish line and awarded the golden laurels for the race to a stunned-looking Clarisse.
Then he turned and smiled at Percy intently. "And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race."
Of all the dirty, rotten-! The bloody coward! Andi silently fumed, her knuckles turning white as she shook her tiny fists. All he did was chase after snacks when we were fighting for their lives. And now he has the gall to pretend the whole thing didn't happen and just hand out the prize for his stupid race?
Unwilling to watch more of the farce, Andi turned to check out what happened to her chariot and the other racers. When she spotted her mangled chariot, Andi couldn't help but feel sad at the demise of her and Cabin Twelve's hard work. Castor walked towards her, Pollux rushing towards them both -sporting some scratches but was thankfully mostly unharmed- asking if the two racers were okay.
Castor smiled at his twin. "Yeah, I'm good. Andi?"
"I'm fine," She assured her friends even as she continued to look forlornly at the chariot. "Sorry about the chariot guys. We worked so hard, and just… I know it's ironic, but I'm starting to hate birds."
Silver and Quell squawked indignantly.
"Not you guys!" She hastily corrected herself. "Monster birds."
Silver just chirped.
"Oh come on, don't be like that!" Andi pouted.
Hippogriffs, what a prideful bunch.
The twins looked to each other, smiling, and looked back to Andi with a mischievous glint in their eyes.
"Can you stop with the secret conversation, not all of us speak avian." Pollux couldn't help but tease.
"I know, she always does this with Silver and Quell nowadays. I feel left out." Castor played along.
"I think she likes them better than us."
The two hippogriffs cawed in mock triumph.
"Guys!" Andi whined, pouting at all of them now.
That just made the two break into sniggers and the birds chirp merrily.
Still, Andi found herself smiling too now. But that look changed into one of disappointment as she once again looked at the chariot. "I guess we lost huh?"
Castor just nudged her shoulder with his.
"Yep, we did. But that doesn't really matter." He explained and pointed to the other campers, who were helping each other. "You jumping in like that to help people? I'd say that's way better than winning some race."
The child of the sky looked surprised and her eyes glimmered with happiness.
You know, I like this. Andi realized as she smiled at her friends. I like this a lot more than even when everyone was hailing me as a hero after the quest last year. This kinda acknowledgement that I did the right thing helping people, feels great.
I think the second title to this chapter is: Character Development! And boy, did Andi get it!
Yes, Andi, a child of Zeus, is not a good leader. Guys, here's the thing… She's a fourteen year old girl that started to take charge of a group of superhuman child soldiers. Now, when I was fourteen, the only thing I was in charge of was my troops in StarCraft, which I suck at. So, Andi doing this with no training in the art of leadership? Factor in her attention seeking nature? Ha! I laugh at you good sirs and ladies. She's a daughter of Zeus you say? Come on, genes aren't everything. Not everything is passed on. Yeah, no, not happening. #Lamesause, I know. Will this change? Maybe, maybe not. We know, you don't!
Andi got a lot of things off her chest this time. We used Annie like somewhat of a guide/confidant for our little girl. Hey, all of us need a good buddy to confide in. She's trying her best to be blunt and steer Andi to be the hero she knows she can be.
Nameless: So… This chapter like E4E said had a ton of character development for Andi, huh? Andi broke down and finally had someone tell her in her face that she needs to stop trying to be something she's not. And because of that, and other stuff, she's really looking at herself deeply and discovering things that are both good (that she likes to help people) and bad (that she can be an annoying brat). This is only the beginning though, she'll take these lessons to heart and grow because of them. What she'll become though? Well, that's for us to know and you to read and find out.
Hope you like the chariot race. With the hippogriffs and the 'air hop', we felt it fit rather well with all the dangerous toys those kiddies were toting around.
Nameless: I was toying around with making Will be Andi's driver and giving their chariot a solar laser for lulz. But that was too OP so we nixed it.
Ha! Please, solar laser. You hear this guy? If anything, they should have slapped a Bass Cannon on that thing! Dubstep beam FTW. Fanfare!
Nameless: Yeah, we came up with crazy ideas.
So, leave us a review and tell us what you think! No flames now, and peace off!