Everyone except the ones who knew the story was confused wondering what that title could mean. Ares didn't wait for anyone to ask any questions, just began to read.
(We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.)
"Yes! That's how you drive." Ares hooted interrupting his own reading.
(Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet trousers. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo – lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal. )
"Hey." Grover elbows Percy playfully.
"I was in shock. I can't help how my brain notices things." Percy says smiling sheepishly at Grover.
(All I could think to say was, 'So, you and my mum… know each other?' Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. 'Not exactly,' he said. 'I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you.')
"That sounds really creepy when you say that."Dakota remarked sipping his Kool-aid.
Grover winces, "Yeah, I see that now."
('Watching me?' 'Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend,' he added hastily. 'I am your friend.' 'Um… what are you, exactly?')
"That's a little harsh." Hazel says wincing a little.
"No one was explaining anything" Percy said shrugging.
('That doesn't matter right now.' 'It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey –' Grover let out a sharp, throaty 'Blaa-ha-ha!' I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat. 'Goat!' he cried. 'What?' 'I'm a goat from the waist down.' 'You just said it didn't matter.')
"Oh, my Gods." Annabeth groans, facepalming.
Everyone else starts laughing at their discussion.
('Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!')
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure if you said that to Hedge you would get knocked out." Jason points out.
"Oh yeah, he's brutal." Leo grins. "He's the best not excluding you Grover, of course. "
Grover nods knowing he's right in that regard of how brutal Hedge is. It's why he'd sent him out to get high-priority demigods.
('Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like… Mr Brunner's myths?' 'Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs Dodds a myth?' 'So you admit there was a Mrs Dodds!')
"Are you still on that?" Katie asks.
"I just wanted to make sure I wasn't as crazy as they made me out to be." Percy says reminding them that both Grover and Chiron were messing with him through The Mist.
('Of course.' 'Then why –' 'The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract,' Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. 'We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are.' 'Who I – wait a minute, what do you mean?')
"Please tell me, someone explained everything to you later." Rachel asks begging Percy.
"Not really. I kind of just learned everything on the fly." Percy said.
Rachel stares at him before groaning out, "This is worse than how I met you and how you introduced me to this world."
(The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail. 'Percy,' my mom said, 'there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety.')
"Please hurry. Whatever is after you has to be close behind by now." Poseidon worriedly.
"Oh, it was." Percy and Grover both say.
('Safety from what? Who's after me?' 'Oh, nobody much,' Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. 'Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions.' 'Grover!')
"Grover!" All the Greek demigods shout.
Grover winces again and slips down his seat.
Poseidon looks at Hades and asks "Why are you hunting my son?"
"I don't know. It's the future." Hades says to his brother.
"Whatever is going on has to do with something happing in the last solstice meeting that was mentioned." Athena says thoughtfully.
('Sorry, Mrs Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?' I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.)
"Actually, now I know I can definitely dream up something this weird." Percy says while nodding, "I've had weirder dreams than what's happened right then."
All the demigods nodded as they'd had some weird and messed-up dreams since the end of the war with Kronos. Now they are weirder by adding the Romans into the mix.
The Gods all wondered just how messed up their dreams get if this wouldn't even scare them or freak them out.
(My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences. 'Where are we going?' I asked. 'The summer camp I told you about.' My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. 'The place your father wanted to send you.')
"Camp Half-Blood!" All the Greek demigods plus Jason, Apollo, and Hermes yell out.
('The place you didn't want me to go.' 'Please, dear,' my mother begged. 'This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger.' 'Because some old ladies cut yarn.')
Everyone glances at Percy to make sure he's still there and that the Fates haven't taken him.
('Those weren't old ladies,' Grover said. 'Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means – the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to… when someone's about to die.' 'Whoa. You said "you".' 'No I didn't. I said "someone".' 'You meant "you". As in me.' 'I meant you, like "someone". Not you, you.' 'Boys!' my mom said.)
"Trust Percy and Grover to start a silly argument to lighten up the story." Annabeth says as she shakes her head fondly.
(She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid – a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.)
"What is it?" Frank wonders.
('What was that?' I asked. 'We're almost there,' my mother said, ignoring my question. 'Another mile. Please. Please. Please.' I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.)
All the demigods smile thinking of the first time they came to their home.
(Outside, nothing but rain and darkness – the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.)
"Oh. You're finally getting it, Prissy." Clarisse said unimpressed.
(Then I thought about Mr Brunner… and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.)
"What just happened?!" Gwen asked shocked.
"Was it the monster?" Rachel wondered.
While all who had a semblance of understanding looked towards Zeus, wondering if he did what they thought he did.
(I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, 'Ow.' 'Percy!' my mom shouted. 'I'm okay….' I tried to shake off the daze.)
"Were you three all alright?" Poseidon asked his son and his best friend.
"Yeah, mom and I were fine just a little dizzy." Percy reassures his dad, "Grover though got knocked out."
"Yeah, that wasn't fun. I had a small concussion." Grover said shaking his head.
(I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in. Lightning. That was the only explanation.)
"Really. Both of you are trying to kill my child." Poseidon glares at his brothers, "Whatever is going on had better be good or else." He threatens.
Thalia and the other Greek demigods plus satyr glare at her father. Jason frowns at his father trying to kill Percy.
(We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. 'Grover!' He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die! Then he groaned, 'Food,' and I knew there was hope.)
"Even unconscious you can diffuse the tension." Katie laughs.
Grover smiles sheepishly.
('Percy,' my mother said, 'we have to…' Her voice faltered. I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering towards us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.)
"What is that?" Hazel asks.
"Oh. Please don't be what I think it is." Poseidon mutters to himself.
(I swallowed hard. 'Who is –' 'Percy,' my mother said, deadly serious. 'Get out of the car.' My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.)
"Probably not that way." Leo pipes up.
"No, Duh." Clarisse says rolling her eyes.
('Climb out the passenger's side!' my mother told me. 'Percy – you have to run. Do you see that big tree?' 'What?' Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas-tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.)
"There I am." Thalia grinning.
"What?" asks the Romans minus Jason who had heard the story being told at camp.
The Gods wondered why Thalia was calling herself a pine tree.
('That's the property line,' my mom said. 'Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door.' 'Mom, you're coming, too.')
"Personal Loyalty." Athena states, "That's your fatal flaw."
"Yeah, you told me before in my time." Percy says to her.
(Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. 'No!' I shouted. 'You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover.' 'Food!' Grover moaned, a little louder.)
Everyone snickers at book Grover.
While real Grover blushes.
(The man with the blanket on his head kept coming towards us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands – huge meaty hands – were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head… was his head. And the points that looked like horns…)
"You sent the Minotaur after my son!" Poseidon yells at his brothers, not sure which one sent it.
"It's fine dad." Percy says to his dad, "I mean, it wasn't then but it is now."
('He doesn't want us,' my mother told me. 'He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line.' 'But…' 'We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please.' I got mad, then –)
"Uh-oh, Percy's mad." the Strolls say grinning, "That's a bad thing"
"For our enemies, you mean." Clarisse smirked.
(mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering towards us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull. I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. 'We're going together. Come on, Mom.')
"Personal Loyalty is a dangerous flaw to have." Athena frowns.
"It might be but I've heard stories of Percy overcoming his flaw." Will tells Athena.
('I told you –' 'Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover.' I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid. Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.)
"You better cut that grass when you go back." Demeter tells Dionysus, "Has he cut it in your time now?" she asks the demigods.
"We didn't need to." Katie said to her mother.
"Yeah, it keeps getting burned or trampled." Chris says, "It barely has time to grow back before something else happens."
Demeter frowned at the amount of damage the demigods were talking about.
(Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine – bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear – I mean, bright white Fruit-of-the-Looms, which would've been funny except for the top half of his body. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns – enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener. I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.)
"The Minotaur was the second monster you ever fought?" Piper asked shocked.
(I blinked the rain out of my eyes. 'That's –' 'Pasiphae's son,' my mother said. 'I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you.' 'But a he's a min–' 'Don't say his name,' she warned. 'Names have power.')
"Smart." Athena nods, "You picked a smart woman, Poseidon."
Poseidon smiles even though he's worried for Sally and Percy.
"You've known about names having power since the beginning but you keep saying them out loud?" Annabeth asks Percy disbelieving.
Percy just shrugs, "I'm pretty sure they would have shown up even if I didn't say their names."
(The pine tree was still way too far – a hundred metres uphill at least. I glanced behind me again. The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows – or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifteen metres away. 'Food?' Grover moaned. 'Shhh,' I told him. 'Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?')
"No, he has bad eyesight and bad hearing. He mostly hunts by following his nose." Annabeth lectures.
"Thank you, Dr. Chase, for that lesson." Travis said sarcastically.
('His sight and hearing are terrible,' she said. 'He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough.' As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road.)
"Yes! Take that Smelly Gabe!" Clarisse yelled out, a fist in the air.
The other demigods were all laughing and encouraging the Minotaur to continue destroying the car.
(It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded. Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying. Oops.)
Everyone was laughing at that.
"He deserved it." Hazel said through her laughter.
('Percy,' my mom said. 'When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way – directly sideways. He can't change direction very well once he's charging. Do you understand?' 'How do you know all this?')
"She must have researched everything she could in order to try and keep you safe." Hestia said thoughtfully.
Percy smiled at that.
('I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me.' 'Keeping me near you? But –' Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.)
"Oh no, It's coming after you. You need to get to the camp." Frank says on the edge of his seat.
(He'd smelled us. The pine tree was only a few more metres, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. 'Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said.' I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right – it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.)
Aphrodite, Piper, and Rachel gagged at the description of his smell.
(He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not towards me this time, towards my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.)
"No! What's she doing?!" Will asks.
"She going to distract it." Artemis said impressed with this mortal.
(We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it. The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back towards the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.)
"Oh god." Hazel gasps worried for her friend's mother.
The demigods that knew Sally, were worried but knew she would somehow get out alright.
('Run, Percy!' she told me. 'I can't go any further. Run!' But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummelling the air. 'Mom!' She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: 'Go!')
The Greeks were yelling incoherently. Poseidon was gripping the arms of his throne that if he still had his Godly strength he would have broken them.
(Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply… gone. 'No!')
There was silence in the room before Gwen asked;
"I thought you said she was alive?"
"She is. She wasn't killed." Percy said to reassure the ones who didn't know what had happened.
Athena thought that the gold shimmer could have been a form of transportation but why would they take her is the question.
(Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs – the same rush of energy I'd got when Mrs Dodds grew talons. The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. I couldn't allow that.)
"Woo! Go, Percy!" The Hermes siblings cheered.
"Beat that bull!" Surprisingly Frank yelled out getting really into it.
"Show him he never should have climbed out of wherever he was before." Hazel said narrowing her eyes at the book.
(I stripped off my red rain jacket. 'HEY!' I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. 'Hey, stupid! Ground beef!')
"Really, that's the best you could come up with?" Clarisse says as she raises an eyebrow at him.
"I was twelve and new at this whole thing." Percy says, "I got better."
Poseidon wondered who and how many people Percy has insulted in his life.
('Raaaarrrrr!' The monster turned towards me, shaking his meaty fists. I had an idea)
"Oh, gods no." groaned every demigod whose been a part of his plans or heard of them.
(a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.)
"That's true. A stupid plan is better than none." Hermes points out.
(I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment. But it didn't happen like that. The bull-man charged too fast,)
"You better be glad I didn't feel anything." Thalia said to Percy as she glares at him.
(his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. Time slowed down. My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair and landing on his neck.)
"How in my name did you do that?" Apollo asked Percy stunned.
"I don't know. I think the rain helped." Percy said. The Gods looked at each other and thought it doesn't work like that.
(How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.)
Percy scowled and rubbed his jaw as if he could still feel the impact.
(The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils)
There was gagging from the more sensitive stomachs, noses, and mentality.
(The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.)
"At least, you figured that out. That's step one." Hermes said helpfully.
"Thank you, Hermes." Percy said sarcastically rolling his eyes.
(Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off. 'Food!' Grover moaned. The bull-man wheeled towards him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. )
Everyone except a few gods and Romans were yelling out encouragement.
"There's no way you will be able to kill a Minotaur with no weapon and no training." Ares says as he stopped reading.
All the Greek demigods who knew the story looked at each other smirking.
(I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage-filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then – snap! )
Silence descended upon the room.
"There's no way. No twelve-year-old brat should have been able to break its horn." Ares said flabbergasted.
"You have to be as strong as Hercules to break those things." Zeus said shocked looking at Percy with a paranoid glint in his eye.
"As I said before I think the water helped." Percy shrugged not bothered by Zeus.
(The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.)
"Seriously, his own horn?" Nico asks Percy smiling.
Percy just smiles not answering.
(The monster charged. Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barrelled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage. The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate – not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs Dodds had burst apart. )
The demigods all celebrated Percy's first true combat and monster experience. Poseidon watched with a proud glint in his eyes.
(The monster was gone.)
"No Duh." Clarisse said before Chris smacked her on the arm. She rolled her eyes at him.
(The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, towards the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover – I wasn't going to let him go.)
"Aww, Thanks, man. I wouldn't have let you go either." Grover says smiling at Percy.
"I know."
Percy and Grover fist bump.
(The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blonde hair curled like Cinderella's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, 'He's the one. He must be.' 'Silence, Annabeth,' the man said. 'He's still conscious. Bring him inside.' )
"Really?" Katie asks Annabeth, "So, you knew then he was the one, huh?"
"Not like that." Annabeth says blushing.
Athena narrows her eyes at the boy, wondering what her daughter saw in him.
Hestia looked out the window and saw how dark it had gotten and said, "I think we should call it a night for the demigods. It's late. I suggest we let them sleep and continue in the morning."
"Fine. You all had better be in here to begin reading at 8. Rooms have already been made for you with your parent's symbol on the door. Now go sleep.
The demigods said good night to their parents to go pass out knowing that it was just beginning.