Younger kids with an older self. kids with no younger self. The Seven.
Normal talking, telepathy
Sadly, I do not and probably never will own Percy Jackson and associates. I really, really wish I did, though.
"You've been quiet." Piper looked at Chris curiously. He'd had things to say during Percy's time at camp in the first book. He hadn't said a word, though, about this summer so far.
"Oh... I wasn't at camp this summer." Chris confessed slowly, biting his lip. "It will probably be explained." He certainly wasn't going to get into it right now. Hermes and the older Greeks were the only ones not surprised by this. Sally just looked sad, remembering what Percy had told her about him.
"Alright, lunch." Hestia announced after a few minutes. The demigods raced out of the room, hungry, while the adults followed more sedately. After a quick (and surprisingly uneventful) lunch, Paul claimed the book, and settled in to read.
He raised an eyebrow at Percy at the chapter title, but read it out, anyway.
Chapter six: Demon Pigeons Attack
"Is it really going to go over the first chariot race?" Clarisse deadpanned. She'd been hoping to skip this and go straight to the quest being assigned.
None of the future Greeks who were there that day needed to be told what this chapter was about.
"Apparently." Percy shrugged.
"Demon pigeons... I'm not aware of there being any such thing." Chiron muttered, frowning as he ran through every breed of bird he knew that could be considered 'monstrous'. "Unless..." He said thoughtfully. Stymphalian birds, perhaps?
(The next few... Tantalus wanted.)
"Of course he doesn't want anybody to enjoy themselves." Chiron muttered. For as much as Tantalus had said in his little speech about being at a summer camp to have fun, he wasn't the type to actually let them enjoy themselves.
(First there was... won the lottery.)
"With how attached he'd become to you, I'm not surprised." Poseidon smiled fondly.
Percy smiled fondly, too, but nobody could quite tell what the look on his face was beyond that.
Everybody else thought it was cute. They were also sad, though, because book-Percy made a very good observation at the end of the last chapter. The campers were not going to be pleasant to him over this.
("Aw, Tyson," I'd... that simple.")
"Yes, it is. It was everybody else that was making things difficult." Annabeth sighed while the people in question looked guilty.
"I didn't react well to it." Percy reiterated. "No, the other comments and reactions did not help, but I didn't react well. I said and thought a lot of things that summer. I'm not proud of any of it." After a moment's hesitation, he moved over to where Tyson was sitting, intent on being there for his brother in case he didn't take what he said well.
He knew Tyson hadn't understood then, and probably still didn't really understand.
(But there was... was in heaven.)
"He's too young to understand." Poseidon informed the room with a grimace, although it was said fondly.
"Even if he wasn't, I don't think he would care. He likes Percy too much." Amphitrite murmured.
Tyson ignored everything, too busy tinkering with the parts in his hand.
(And me... as much... There, I said it.)
The futures looked at each other, concerned. They'd known or at least guessed that Percy was embarrassed to some degree, mostly because of the things he'd said at the time, but ashamed?
"How much of that was because of how we acted?" Connor asked quietly.
Percy was silent for a few minutes. "Most of it, I think." He finally said, laying a hand on Tyson's arm when the Cyclops looked at him in concern. He'd already been a little embarrassed and ashamed because Tyson was a Cyclops, but when everybody else started making fun of it for him... That didn't help.
(My father, the... nature spirit,)
"Again." Amphitrite deadpanned, glaring at her husband.
He winced, but wouldn't look at her.
(and Tyson had... the next bunk.)
"There are a lot of others that I never really considered to be my siblings, even though I'd known we shared a father." Percy said dryly. Procrustes and Polyphemus came to mind.
Poseidon cleared his throat and shifted, uncomfortable at the looks he was getting from both Amphitrite and Hera.
"We all have half-siblings like that." Thalia said, commiserating.
(And then there... other campers.)
"Sorry, Percy." Most of them that were there apologized at once, realizing that their comments were way out of line.
Percy bit his lip but sighed. "It's fine. It's over with, we're all cool." The campers loved Tyson now.
(Suddenly, I wasn't... for a brother.)
"Yeah, I heard that stuff, too." Percy commented at their guilty looks, a hand on Tyson's arm reassuringly, he'd heard the hitch to Tyson's breathing earlier, no matter how much the big guy was apparently trying to ignore what was being said.
"Sorry, Percy." They said again. He waved them off again.
Chiron sighed and shook his head, thinking that Tantalus had not helped this situation at all, especially with his reaction at Tyson's Claiming.
("He's not my real brother!")
"Yes he is." Percy immediately said, looking at Tyson reassuringly. "He is my brother."
Poseidon and Sally smiled at him, proud.
(I protested whenever... or something.")
"That's not true. You are my brother." Percy immediately said when he noticed the hurt and upset look on Tyson's face. He shot a desperate look at Annabeth when he didn't look reassured or any better about it.
"Tyson, he was still getting used to it." Annabeth assured the Cyclops, moving beside him and laying a hand on his other arm. "It had nothing to do with you, it was everybody else and his own stupidity."
Percy made a face but didn't correct her, especially when Tyson smiled slightly.
(Nobody bought it... was now a joke.)
"Far from it." Poseidon tried to assure his sons. He was pretty sure that when he Claimed Tyson, he was trying to be helpful to his other son, in sending him somebody to keep him company, and he knew that Percy would be able to keep an eye on Tyson, so he sent Tyson to meet Percy. He didn't do it to make either of them miserable.
(Annabeth tried to... do about it.)
"That, and he made it pretty clear that he expected every cabin to participate unless they had a good reason not to." Well... the Aphrodite and Demeter cabin's didn't, but they didn't even have a chariot left over from before the races were cancelled. They also weren't the strongest fighters.
"I think he was pretty clear with you, but he didn't say anything like that to the rest of us." Clarisse frowned.
"Oh. Really?" Percy asked. The others shrugged, not sure what to make of it, either.
(Until we could... with the races.)
"And kick some serious butt in the meantime!" Percy exclaimed with a smirk at Clarisse.
"I remember the first race-" She started with a frown.
"Didn't count. That race was interrupted." Annabeth deadpanned without looking at her. Now Chiron was curious.
(After all, Annabeth's... own that track.)
"Oh, yeah!" Percy and Annabeth grinned at each other and fist-bumped.
Clarisse scowled at the duo, remembering the race they'd actually run together, and reluctantly admitting that the first race probably shouldn't actually count.
(One morning Annabeth... "Oh sorry, eyes.")
"That's not funny." Piper deadpanned, annoyed with her siblings.
"Why would he even want to borrow eyeliner?"
"Who knows with Aphrodite kids." Clarisse mumbled, frowning. She did not like what that cabin became under Drew, and was glad Piper was turning it around again, back to the way it was meant to be. Silena would be proud of her little sister.
(As they walked... for a brother.")
"No, it's his." Amphitrite deadpanned, pointing at Poseidon with a wry look on her face.
He shifted uncomfortably.
"Not a monster." Percy whispered to Tyson, who was still upset looking.
"Annabeth, you know you just poured fuel on an already volatile flame?" Thalia asked pointedly. Percy was already annoyed enough by all the comments, Annabeth's comment right there would not have helped matters.
("He's not my brother!" I snapped.)
"Yes, he is." Percy corrected himself, staring at Tyson and trying to be reassuring.
"Percy is my brother, too." Tyson said quietly, still not completely sure about what was being read in these books right now. Percy was saying things in the book, but he knew that they were closer.
("And he's not a monster, either!")
"Technically, he is." Poseidon shrugged. "That doesn't mean he has to act like it, though." He smiled at his sons, proud of both of them.
(Annabeth raised her... is a monster.")
"Technicalities are wonderful things, aren't they?" Thalia asked. "He's only considered a monster because he's not human or a spirit of some kind. That doesn't make him a monster, though." She grinned at the Cyclops in question, grinning wider when he beamed at her.
Like he'd told Percy though, years ago. He knew he was a monster, but he was going to be a good monster. The best monster!
Annabeth winced. "I didn't mean that in a good way, though." She sighed, and patted Tyson on the arm again.
("Well you gave him... to claim him.)
"Why wouldn't I claim one of my sons?" Poseidon asked indignantly.
"Polyphemus. Procrustes. Antaeus" Annabeth named off the ones who had tried to kill them over the years.
"Are still my sons no matter how much I might disapprove of their actions." He said.
"Dad. The only half-siblings I've met that didn't try to kill me, were Triton and Tyson." Percy sighed, reminding his father about that. Poseidon was visibly troubled by that, but that didn't retract the matter that they were still his sons.
(Cyclopes are the... Cyclopes, anyway?")
"That's a good question." Jason said, he'd never seen or heard Annabeth like this.
"It's a personal issue. It'll come up later, let's not go over it twice." Percy reiterated, glancing at Annabeth in concern.
"You know, Perce, you keep going back and forth between defending Tyson, and denying anything to do with him." Thalia commented, eyeing Percy in concern.
Percy sighed, and was silent for a few moments while he tried to collect his thoughts. "I was still struggling to wrap my head around the fact that he was my brother, but at the same time, I knew him. He was still the same Tyson who I defended all year from bullies at school. The only difference was now I knew he was a Cyclops." He shrugged.
(Annabeth's ears turned... something bad.)
"If it's what I'm thinking of..." Thalia said slowly, because she didn't think Annabeth would have had any other encounters with Cyclops since that one in Brooklyn. At least, not while she was stuck at camp for all those years.
"Then it's bad, alright." Luke muttered. That had been a bad experience for all of them. But it had been so much worse for Annabeth. She hadn't been on the streets for as long as them, hadn't been fighting monsters for as long, and she'd only been seven.
"It sounds like it was bad all around." Percy commented, eyeing the two older members of that little trio. The two exchanged looks while Athena glanced at her daughters in concern.
"Ok, now I'm really curious." Leo said.
"It'll come up in the book. We're not getting into it twice." Percy repeated firmly.
("Just forget it." She said.)
"You know he's not going to forget it, right?" Luke asked, amused.
Annabeth scowled, but didn't say anything while Percy turned red and everybody else snickered.
("Now, the axle... chariot with him.")
"It was awesome!" Percy cheered, grinning at Tyson who relaxed slightly and grinned back.
"It was a good chariot." Tyson agreed. Mentally, though, he was already making improvements to the design.
"You do know that there should be a chariot for our cabin in storage somewhere?" Poseidon asked, amused.
"Yeah, I found it." Percy shrugged. "I think something got into the shed it's in, though, either that or it was never repaired after the last race it was used in, because the wheels were all smashed up and the side panels were wrecked." Poseidon frowned.
"The last child of Poseidon at Camp Half-Blood before Percy was during WWII. Only one survived the war, and he left camp shortly after. I don't know what became of him." Chiron said. They'd been a little busy with the war to bother repairing the chariot.
"He built a home on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. He's still there, I'll introduce you to him sometime. Although he's become a bit of a hermit." Poseidon informed the group, looking at Percy.
"That's an understatement." Triton muttered. Not that he really blamed his half-brother for that, he'd watched all his siblings die in that war, and then afterwards Zeus forced his brothers into that oath and tried to kill Hades' children while demanding the head of any of Poseidon's remaining children. When he went to live off the coast of Australia, Poseidon told Zeus that all his children died. Since he was living in the ocean, there was no way of Zeus learning otherwise. Funny enough, Zeus didn't try to kill his remaining children from that time, just his brother's.
("Maybe I should."
"Fine!"
"Fine!")
"And so it begins!" Katie groaned while the rest of the futures winced.
"What begins?" Reyna asked, curious.
"They'll get into these fights, nobody ever knows what's going on, but there will be periods where they won't talk to each other for several days, even weeks." Will started to explain while Percy and Annabeth turned red. "They're always so moody during those times, too. But they're also stubborn, so nothing any of us say will get them talking to each other. But then, they'll just start talking again. As if they never argued in the first place."
"It's so annoying!" The Stolls' complained.
(She stormed off... Aphrodite's cabin,)
"Just about the only nice girl from that cabin." Percy muttered. Most of the Aphrodite kids were too much like the typical high school popular kid, the one that everybody liked despite their horrible attitude towards those they didn't like.
"I'm working on that." Piper sighed.
"And it's already so much better then it was under Drew." Clarisse declared. Silena would be proud.
(gave me my... on a pegasus.)
"You didn't start this the summer before?"
"Nah... I was busy with the quest, and then starting my lessons and practice..." He shrugged. "It didn't even occur to me to learn how to ride, not even after finding out I could talk to them. That, and I didn't really think I could. You know, flying and all that." He loved flying now, though.
(She explained that... named Pegasus,)
"Yet another son of Poseidon." Percy deadpanned. Which meant Blackjack was technically his nephew. Which was an odd thought.
"That one wasn't my choice." Poseidon muttered, uncomfortably. Pegasus was his son with Medusa, the woman he'd wanted nothing to do with. He'd been quite shocked when Perseus killed her and the Twins came out, if you could call them twins, anyway. He didn't remember doing anything with her to conceive them, either. Theseus and Triton both looked at their father, worried.
"I know, dad." Percy said quietly. Well, he knew that now.
"He is magnificent, though." Amphitrite said, glancing at her husband.
(who still wandered... going into the air.)
"Understatement." Annabeth deadpanned, remembering what he looked like the one and only time Percy flew in a plane.
"I thought the plane was going to get knocked out of the sky any moment!" Percy defended himself.
"Oh, you weren't the only nervous one. But we still had a better time of it." Annabeth shrugged. It honestly made her a little nervous about putting Percy in the flying ship, but Chiron was of the opinion that this quest was serious enough that Zeus would allow it. Well, that and Zeus was having a hard time concentrating on anything because of the headache caused by the current Roman/Greek split.
(My dad had this rivalry with Zeus,)
"Try the other way around." Perseus sighed. Uncle Poseidon was pretty cool, but he never got to see much of him (even less then usual for a demigod), because Zeus flew into a fit everytime they got together. As far as he could tell, the rivalry was all on his father's side of things, and most likely born out of paranoia, which seemed to be worse since the last time he saw his father.
"I don't have a rivalry. I have issues when he does something stupid, but I don't have a rivalry." Poseidon agreed. That was all on Zeus. He didn't think Perseus would have noticed, though, he'd been busy with quests and running his city after all.
(so I tried to... much as possible.)
"Understandable." Thalia said. She was in complete agreement with keeping her feet on the ground, preferably at a low altitude.
"Still going strong?" Percy asked, referring to her fear of heights. Last he'd heard, Artemis was working with her on that, though. It would be difficult for Thalia to use Artemis' chariot on occasion when it was needed if she was too terrified, after all. Especially after the New England Melt incident.
"It's getting better, but. Yeah."
(But riding a... neutral territory.)
Zeus scowled, but didn't say anything while the rest of the council snickered or tried to hide their smiles. The only one who didn't was Athena.
"Actually..." Poseidon said. "That would be because not even Zeus is stupid enough to touch the Pegasi. Not after what Pegasus did to him the one and only time he knocked one out of the sky in a fit of temper." He smirked.
"Oh?" Percy asked, curious. This sounded like something he wanted to hear.
"Keep reading!" Zeus barked out, not wanting anybody else to hear that story. It was bad enough that his siblings and children knew about it. Poseidon chuckled and silently promised to himself that he would share the story with Percy later on.
(I could understand... into a cloud.)
"Is that what happens?" Clarisse asked.
"That is so annoying!" Chris grumbled. He'd almost fallen off the first few times the pegasus he was riding did that.
(The problem... 'chicken ponies,' too,)
"Oh, no." Poseidon sighed. Animals and Cyclops didn't really get along, which mostly came from the fact that in animal terms, the Cyclops was the ultimate predator and the animal was the prey. Instincts would kick in.
"Porkpie is the only one that will let him near." Percy confirmed. And Rainbow when he was in the water.
"Porkpie is also the only one big enough." Nico muttered with a snort. The Pegasi weren't exactly fond of him, either, though.
(but the pegasi... made Tyson cry.)
"Is that why all the apples disappeared from the stables." Clarisse realized. "Silena told me about that."
"You took away their apples because they wouldn't let Tyson ride them?" Annabeth asked, amused. And yet, the entire time this was happening, he would deny Tyson as his sibling.
"They made him cry!" Percy defended himself. "You don't make somebody I care about cry." He said seriously. Tyson blushed, but smiled happily.
(The only people... Hephaestus cabin.)
"Of course not." Beckendorf shrugged and went back to his project, eyeing Tyson's in approval.
He should not be making that look so easy, not with how tiny the parts were and how huge his hands were.
Hephaestus nodded, proud, that his son would take the young Cyclops under his wing.
(The blacksmith god... him metalworking.)
"I was told he was a very quick learner." Percy said proudly.
"I'm sure I enjoyed teaching him." Beckendorf said with a small smile before he went back to his project.
(He said he'd have... Apollo's cabin.)
"Wouldn't a different group have been better to work out with? My children's strengths aren't with the sword..." Apollo said, frowning.
"Yeah... probably. I wasn't in the mood to deal with any of the other cabins, though." Percy sighed. "Sorry Will." He added.
"You didn't cause any injuries that couldn't be fixed easily or overnight." Will waved off. And it gave him and his siblings some much needed practice with a sword, so it was all good.
(Swordplay had... except maybe Luke.)
"You are far better than I could ever be." Luke shook his head. "I had a much harder time beating you then I let on, the last few times we fought." He admitted. From what he could see, Percy had only gotten better since then.
"Really?" Percy asked. From his point of view, Luke was just toying with him every time they fought.
"Oh yeah." Luke nodded.
(People always compared me to Luke.)
"Which is very annoying, by the way." Percy informed the others pleasantly. Especially when it kept happening after Luke turned traitor.
"Sorry Percy." Was echoed by sullen demigods.
(I thrashed the Apollo guys easily.)
"Of course." Will grumbled.
Apollo sighed. "My kids are not swordsmen. They are archers, healers, and artists."
"And there is nothing wrong with that." Hermes shrugged. His kids weren't really swordsmen, either. Luke was the exception to the rule.
(I should've been... to see her.)
"Which is a petty reason to be taking it out on us!" Will whined slightly.
Chiron chuckled while Percy shrugged. "I'm sure the practice was good for you." Chiron had no sympathy for the son of Apollo. Just because they weren't natural swordsmen like the Ares or Athena campers generally were, didn't mean they shouldn't know how to wield one. Even the Aphrodite campers knew how to wield a sword, even if they could stand to put more effort into their training.
Will grumbled some more, but didn't bother to argue.
(I went to archery class,)
"I thought you were banned from the archery fields." Thalia deadpanned.
"This was before the ban." Percy said casually, trying to ignore the snickers and incredulous looks.
(even though I was terrible at it,)
"Understatement." Will muttered under his breath. Even he, who wasn't that great an archer by Apollo standards, was still miles better then Percy was.
(and it wasn't... and-earthquake mode.)
"At least you were keeping busy instead of just worrying." Chiron sighed.
"Oh, believe me, I was still plenty worried." Percy corrected.
"Lava and earthquake?" Sally asked herself quietly, still not sure about that wall and how safe it was for her son.
(And in the evenings... our free times.)
"Which was difficult to the extreme." Clarisse grumbled. She'd had to coordinate between eight different cabins who all had different training schedules and other duties in the camp, like the Demeter and Apollo cabins.
The kids in Demeter were working double time to grow the strawberries, especially with the valley poisoned, while the Apollo kids were busy in the infirmary tent dealing with training accidents or injuries from the patrol units. Which, of course, meant that the Apollo campers couldn't be relied on to actually make their scheduled patrol, because a medical emergency might come up and then she would have to find somebody else at the last minute.
Thankfully, since it was all volunteering during their free time hours, there was nothing Tantalus could do about it.
"Good work." Chiron said, proud of his students for doing what they had to in order to protect their home. "Well done, all of you." He praised the futures, who all smiled at the praise.
(I sat at the... to get fuller.)
"Wishful thinking, probably." Percy sighed.
"Or maybe not." Chiron shrugged. "Satyrs and dryads have some of the strongest nature magic out there. If anything can hope to combat this poison, even if for a few moments, it's them. Their efforts would have bought time."
"Otherwise the tree, and the rest of the valley might have succumbed quicker." Annabeth realized. Chiron nodded solemnly.
(the flowers on... the angrier I got.)
"Uh-oh." Nearly everybody who'd witnessed Percy's temper said at once. By this point, that was, of course, everybody.
"That's not good."
"This explains so much."
Percy rolled his eyes at the commentary while Paul smiled at him over the book before he kept reading.
(Luke had done this.)
At this, Luke's eyes widened and he gulped before hunching down and trying to stay out of Zeus's line of sight. Luke turned green at the reminder that he poisoned Thalia's tree.
Percy and Jason glanced at each other, annoyed, before Jason got between Zeus and Luke, just in case, and Percy edged closer to where Luke was sitting in the middle of all the other demigods. Percy and Annabeth moving to sit near Tyson had actually opened a hole in that circle, a hole that granted Zeus perfect access to attacking through.
(I remembered his... to be my friend,)
"I wasn't pretending." Luke muttered. "You were a good kid. Still are." He shrugged.
"Yeah, well... tell that to thirteen year old me." Percy sighed.
(and the whole... had stung me.)
"It stopped fading." Percy said with a frown, opening his hand and looking at the scar in question. It was much more faded then it had been even then, but it was still visible.
"Wounds such as that leave a mark, no matter how well it is healed." Chiron sighed.
"Or how many swims you take." Percy muttered. He'd tried soaking his hand in the ocean, the scar was still there.
(I thought about... be part of it.
Privately, Luke thought about how wrong he was about that and everything he'd learned from the Fates before being brought here.
There was a new age coming, and they planned for Percy to be at the forefront of it, one way or the other. They hadn't told him much more then that, though.
Right now, though, he had more pressing matters, like keeping his head down and not drawing Zeus's attention.
(At night, I had... He likes sheep.)
"Were those actual dreams, or were you trying to establish the connection?" Hermes asked. All of them could sense the Empathy link between the two, after all.
"That was me. I didn't realize my first link had worked, so I kept trying... maybe it was the distance and where I was at the time..." Grover wondered out loud. "That might have caused some interference."
"Some of it could also have been part of his nature as a child of the sea. You've said that you have a hard time getting a read on his emotions even when right next to each other." Poseidon proposed. "It took a while for the connection to truly take hold. It seems to be strong, though."
"It is. It was blocked for a while, though. The Fates must have unblocked it when they gave me my memories back." Percy agreed with his father. He and Grover had spent hours during the break just speaking to each other through the link, opening it up so they could feel each other again, and relishing in it.
Grover now knew how Percy had felt during those months he was taking a nap in Central Park.
(I thought about... thought I was crazy.)
"Maybe, maybe not. I guess we'll never know now." Annabeth sighed. "Besides, with demigod dreams, anything is possible. You could have had better timing about telling me, though."
"Yeah... right then probably wasn't the best time to tell you about it." Percy grimaced.
(The night before... painted on the front.)
"Hmm." Poseidon nodded in approval. "I already like that design."
"It's a sweet design." Percy agreed.
(After all that... slow us down.)
"I made it so it wouldn't." Tyson said proudly.
"You did?" Percy asked, surprised. Which wasn't surprising, because when Tyson tried to tell him how he'd built the chariot, it had been full of technical words about how he'd put the materials together that he hadn't understood a word of.
Tyson nodded. He'd wanted to win, too, so he'd made it so any extra weight wouldn't slow them down.
"Sweet."
(As we were... "You are mad?")
"Mad? No. Confused and maybe a little disappointed." Percy revealed to the room. And he honestly hadn't been mad, not at Tyson, anyway.
"Maybe not at Tyson, but perhaps at me?" Poseidon asked his son knowingly. Percy sighed uncomfortably and looked away.
(I realized I'd... long for his bed.)
"Which we fixed. Eventually." Percy snorted. Especially after it became clear that Tyson was going to be visiting for a while.
"I imagine that was one of the first things I saw to upon my return." Chiron shook his head. It was clear that Tantalus wasn't going to do anything about it, and Mr. D would never even think about it.
"Yup." Percy confirmed.
(When he pulled... am a monster.")
"I am a good one." Tyson said immediately.
"Yes you are." Percy smiled back at him.
("Don't say that."... to be mad.")
"I wasn't mad at you." Percy said again.
"It is ok." Tyson said, not letting everything that was said earlier bother him anymore.
(I didn't know... with Thalia's tree.)
"What...?" Sally asked, concerned.
Percy sighed. "Not literally, ok? Just... I don't even know." He shook his head. He honestly didn't even remember why he'd been feeling that way at the time, other then the obvious that everything was so messed up and he'd been feeling so helpless...
("It's just... I never... don't know what.")
Everybody was silent as Percy poured out his problems to Tyson. "I don't handle 'helpless' well." Percy said after a moment.
"All we can do is do our best." Chiron said wisely.
"Yeah, well. Do our best at what? How are we supposed to do our best when we don't even know what we're supposed to be doing?" Annabeth asked. She'd felt helpless, too. They all had. Percy just had more information and more to worry about considering his dreams about Grover.
"That is the question, isn't it?" Chiron sighed. None of his students had ever done well with not knowing what to do to fix a problem. They weren't trained that way.
(Tyson said nothing.)
"He's asleep, isn't he?" Clarisse asked, amused. The same thing had happened with Grover in the first book, after all.
Percy sighed. "Yup." He shook his head. Both Grover and Tyson, it really amazed him how they could both fall asleep like that at the drop of the hat.
("I'm sorry," I... understand why.")
"I would never try to compare you. You are all my sons." Poseidon said immediately.
"I know. I was... I think I was just angry and stressed out." Percy assured his father. He'd had a few conversations on this topic with his father in the past.
(I heard a deep... Tyson was snoring.)
There was laughter while Percy sighed again. He could never have a heart-to-heart with Grover or Tyson, they kept falling asleep on him!
"I wish I could do that." A few demigods commented.
(I sighed. "Good... wearing a wedding dress.)
Paul paused, confused.
"Oh, this is already interesting."
"I don't remember being told this part." Katie said, amused.
Grover turned bright red. "And if I had my way, you never would have." He assured them all while Grover turned an even brighter red then he was, eyes wide.
"Don't you just love these books?" Percy asked Grover. Grover nodded solemnly and Percy decided not to tease him about looking good in it.
Yet.
(It didn't fit him very well.)
Grover turned an even deeper shade of red. "I didn't exactly have a lot of time to choose one!" He grumbled. He'd literally grabbed the closest one that looked like it might fit, and threw it on. He didn't even remember if he had a plan for it or if he'd just hoped it would hide his figure. Whatever it was, the whole 'lady cyclops' thing was not his idea.
The girls snickered or giggled, depending on how much they would kill you for claiming they giggled.
(The gown was... covered his face.)
There were some grimaces. "That dress has seen better days."
"So had I." Grover grumbled. Forget about the dress, he'd had his share of bruises under that dress.
(He was standing... on the frame.)
"Wait a minute..." Hera mumbled suspiciously. The wedding dress, loom with white cloth? Oh no...
Everybody else dismissed those details as unimportant, but she was the goddess of marriage, she recognized those symbols for what they were, and what they meant.
Everybody else was more appalled by the living conditions he was in. There wasn't even mention of a toilet anywhere!
(And he was... been waiting for.)
"The empathy link has been completed." Hermes said, looking at Grover proudly. Empathy links were difficult and draining to do, especially at greater distances. The fact that Grover was able to make one at all was a testament to how powerful he really was. The fact he was able to form one with a son of Poseidon was even more impressive, and it spoke a lot for how close the two were.
"I thought I was never going to get it, I had to keep trying, though." Grover admitted. When it wouldn't take, he'd thought he was doing it wrong, he'd never been so relieved to see Percy in his life.
("Thank the gods!"... project any better.)
"Sounds like you're projecting just fine to me. The fact that he's able to take in so many details is truly amazing." Hermes praised. He'd heard of people with an Empathy link that could barely even hear the Satyr they were linked to, let alone see, hear, and smell the environment around that Satyr.
"I thought that was normal for Empathy links." Percy shrugged, frowning.
"No. The Empathy link is a very difficult piece of Satyr magic. Considering his circumstances, the distance, your nature, and probably a host of other details, it's impressive that he managed it at all. And for the link to have such clarity..." Dionysus explained, startling everybody. He was looking at Grover in consideration. Perhaps the high expectations actually stunted his growth as he tried to meet him and failed. It gave him a mental block of sorts...
"Really?" Percy asked, surprised.
"I'm pretty sure I told you all this." Annabeth said, confused while she tried to remember. Unfortunately, there had been a monster attack almost right after that conversation took place, so...
"You mentioned that it was hard, I think. You didn't really go into much detail." Percy shrugged.
(You have to hear... Are you done yet?")
"Oh. Oh no. Don't tell me!" Poseidon groaned, knowing Polyphemus. The dress, the weave on the loom, the way Polyphemus was addressing the poor Satyr... Hera nodded knowingly while everyone else looked confused.
"Sorry, dad." Percy said uncomfortably.
"Well, he was never the smartest of the bunch." Triton cleared his throat, trying not to look at the Satyr. If he did, he feared he would start laughing and wouldn't be able to stop.
"Why do I get a bad feeling about this?" Will asked nobody in particular.
"You weren't the only one." Grover grumbled. Those had been some of the worst weeks of his life.
(Grover flinched... A few more days!")
"Dearest?" Most of the demigods demanded incredulously.
"I did what I had to to survive, ok?" Grover defended himself. Thankfully Polyphemus had proven himself to be quite stupid.
("Bah! Hasn't it... twelve more to go.")
"Either your math is off, or mine is." Paul deadpanned.
"I thought two weeks was fourteen days. Five and twelve is... seventeen." Tyson said slowly, doing the math on his fingers slowly.
"It is, big guy." Percy assured him, trying not to laugh while also smiling proudly. He'd worked hard to help Tyson understand basic math.
"Ah, no. I was just throwing out numbers while trying to keep it believable so he didn't catch on." Grover said. "Luckily he doesn't know any math."
"Yes, Tyson is the exception. He actually went to school." Poseidon sighed. At least the Cyclops working in the forges could calculate such simple numbers and knew how many days were in two weeks. They had to be able to count to know how many swords they still had to make that day, after all.
(The monster was... heh-heh-heh.")
The demigods with more active imaginations then usual gagged or grimaced in disgust.
"I'm going to have nightmares for weeks now."
"Somebody bleach my brain?"
Grover glared. "How do you think I felt?" He snapped. He'd had trouble sleeping for weeks after being rescued from this place.
(Grover turned back... and turned left.")
"Well that's helpful." Travis deadpanned, rolling his eyes.
Grover sighed. "Sorry. But that's what I did." He shrugged. He'd had to enter the Sea of Monsters, after all. There was nothing helpful about figuring out how to get into places like that.
("What? How did... from this quest.)
Hermes and Dionysus sat up like they'd been shocked. "What?"
"You found out why no Satyr returns?" Hermes asked, eager to see for himself. He'd had a few ideas over the years, but he'd never been allowed to search out the cause for himself. There was a lot he wasn't allowed to do when it came to the Satyr's or Pan.
(He's a shepherd... great god Pan!)
"The only thing that could be is..." Hermes said slowly.
"The Fleece." Poseidon finished. He'd suspected that Polyphemus had it, but he'd never confirmed it.
"He uses the Fleece to lure Satyr's in before killing them." Dionysus said grimly.
(The satyrs come... by Polyphemus!"
"Poly-who?")
"Did you just... How do you not know who Polyphemus is?" Poseidon asked his son dryly.
Percy shifted uncomfortably while everyone else snickered. "I know who he is now!"
"Forget that, he eats them?" Jason asked, looking a little green.
"Most Cyclops will eat people or Satyrs. None of those that work in the forges for us, of course, but..." Poseidon shrugged.
"Don't you remember Detroit?" Leo asked Jason, a strange look on his face.
"I was knocked out for most of that, remember?" Jason asked dryly. He'd received far too many knocks to the head over the years.
("The Cyclops!" Grover... keeping me alive.)
"Ouch." Somebody muttered.
"You better hope you don't lose that dress, then." Thalia commented, concerned for her friend.
(He thinks I smell... he's getting impatient!")
"Bridal train?" Jason asked slowly as everybody else started to catch on to what Poseidon and Hera had already realized.
"Like I said, Polyphemus was never the smartest of the bunch." Triton sighed. "Even for a Cyclops, he's rather stupid." Cyclops weren't book smart, but they were generally pretty street smart and were quick thinkers. The fact that, even half blind, Polyphemus hadn't realized that Grover wasn't a girl or another Cyclops, was rather impressive even for him.
"The fact that you would make for a rather short Cyclops never once crossed his mind, did it?" Percy asked, trying not to laugh, which was what happened every time he was reminded of this particular bit of information.
"Nope." Grover shifted. "But it kept me alive, so..." He shrugged.
("Wait a minute... to marry me!")
The demigods just couldn't hold it in anymore.
Grover scowled while his younger self bleated in terror at the thought. "Oh, sure. It's funny now, try being the one in this mess!" He snapped at the howling demigods.
"Sorry man, it's just... looking back, it is hilarious." Percy admitted with a giant grin on his face.
Grover sighed. "Yeah, alright. I guess it kind of is." He shook his head. "Hindsight, right?" Although at the time it was absolutely terrifying.
Percy nodded, still laughing.
(Under different... shaking with fear.)
"It was terrifying! If I lost that veil, he'd eat me! If I kept it on, he was going to marry me, take off the veil, figure it out, and eat me anyway!" Grover bleated. Either way, he was looking at getting eaten.
"That is a good point." Travis said, staring at Grover.
"Suddenly it doesn't seem as funny." Connor agreed.
"It still kind of is, but not as much as it was." Nico nodded.
"Thank you." Grover said, throwing up a hand and giving Percy a pointed look.
("I'll come rescue...
"The sea of what?")
"You really need to brush up on your mythology." Annabeth deadpanned.
"I know what these places are now!" Percy protested.
"Yeah, only because we've been there and seen it first hand." Grover rolled his eyes.
("I told you!... exactly where!)
"I wasn't exactly following a map, I was more following my nose." Grover defended himself. Sort of... in a manner of speaking.
(And look, Percy... I'll die too.")
"Maybe, maybe not." Hermes shrugged, honestly not knowing. "It depends on how strong the bond is, and how strong you are mentally." He explained. He thought it more likely that Percy would slip into a comatose state, but he would eventually wake up again.
"I don't think that's a chance anybody wants to take." Clarisse deadpanned.
"It's not on my list of priorities." Percy agreed.
("Oh, well, perhaps... vegetative state.)
"That's not much different then being dead." The only real difference was that you may or may not wake up at some point, and that your body was still working even if your mind wasn't.
"You still have the link, don't you?" Thalia asked, curious. Percy and Grover nodded. "And it goes both ways, if something happens to one of you, the other will..." They nodded again. "We'll just have to make sure neither of you die, then." She declared.
Percy hadn't shown any adverse effects when Grover was taking his forced nap in Central Park, and Grover hadn't shown any when Percy was taken and had his memory wiped (which they'd only known about after a few weeks), so it must only happen if the other died.
"Not dying would be good." Grover commented seriously. Percy agreed with that.
Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. Now that they thought about it, they'd never asked if the link had caused Grover any problems while they were down there.
(But, uh, it would... yummy sheep meat!")
"No! Not yummy." Grover shuddered.
"Hey, yeah. Did you eat anything while you were there?" Percy asked, concerned.
Grover scoffed. "Of course not! All he had to eat was sheep! Why do you think I ate so much when we got back to camp?" He rolled his eyes. Polyphemus hadn't even had any metal or anything around that Grover could eat, especially not if he wanted to keep the giant Cyclops in the dark about what he was. But most of what Polyphemus used, right down to the knife and fork he gave Grover to use, were made of sheep bone.
(Grover whimpered... let me die!")
"Like I would ever allow that. You are living to be the oldest goat in the world if I can help it." Percy declared.
"Wait... would one of them still die if the other died of natural causes or old age?" Annabeth asked.
"If they keep the link, and live that long, then chances are the other will be fine. The link will have settled, and I can teach them techniques to suppress the link so that they can survive the death of the other." Hermes assured her.
(The dream faded... in my dream.)
"That should have clued you in that it was a Cyclops, at least." Grover spoke up for the first time in a long time.
"And not one of the good ones." Percy said with a quick smile at Tyson.
(The morning of the... in the trees-)
"They were already there?" Clarisse asked, surprised.
"You didn't see them?" Percy asked, blinking. He'd wondered why nobody seemed to react to them.
"Why would... monsters." Chiron cut himself off from asking why the Mist would be covering up a bunch of birds. Could it be...?
(fat gray-and-white... of submarine radar.)
"Stymphalian birds." Chiron said grimly, confirming his suspicions from the chapter title. He recognized that description anywhere, especially of the racket they made when gathered like this.
"That's not good."
"Those things will rip those kids apart." Apollo frowned. One look at the grimace on his older son's face confirmed his thoughts on how bad this was going to be.
(The racetrack had... matter of minutes.)
"Oh, I'm sure there was more to it then that." Beckendorf snorted. They would have taken a reprogramming at the very least.
"The knocks to the head would have helped, though."
(There were two... before ten o'clock.)
"I wouldn't have gone anyway." Dionysus drawled. Not unless his sons were competing, which they probably weren't. His boys weren't the most athletic, after all.
"You should be more responsible!" Demeter chastised. "Never getting up before ten, honestly!" She scowled.
"Be my guest to take my place." He drawled, glaring at her. He was plenty responsible, the camp was still standing, wasn't it? Not all of that was due to Chiron's efforts.
"Enough, Demeter!" Hestia snapped when her sister went to say something else. She was tired of the arguments about how he ran the camp.
("Right!" Tantalus announced... the judge's table.)
"Well, he's tenacious. Got to give him that." Apollo muttered with a sneer for him. That was all he was giving the guy, though.
("You all know... for a week!)
"Ok... I understand not wanting to give up something like s'mores, but how is that a punishment?" Reyna demanded in disbelief.
"It's not." Chiron scowled. He would have had them on KP duty for weeks, at the very least. If it was found to be malicious instead of accidental, they would be brought before the Olympic Council for judgement.
It would also be a question of if the killed demigods' parent would do something to the offender in their grief, if they would even make it to council.
"We only have s'mores once a week, anyway." Percy sighed. "So as a punishment, that's actually even lighter then it sounds."
Annabeth snorted. "That would be his punishment for his favorites. Those he didn't like, well..." She laughed bitterly, thinking of her and Percy's punishment for driving off the birds and saving the campers.
(Now ready your... the Colchis bulls.)
"Only these ones are less likely to go crazy and start killing us all." Percy suggested, not glancing at Hephaestus.
"Most automatons we've encountered have done that." Annabeth agreed.
"You weren't even there for the worst of it." Thalia muttered.
(I had no doubt... loaded Maserati.)
Leo and Beckendorf snorted. "Is there really any doubt?" Leo asked, a wicked glint in his eye.
"Do you have any idea how many generations of children of Hephaestus have added to that?" Beckendorf asked, the same glint in his own eye, which honestly scared everybody more then the one in Leo's.
"Working on that thing is something of a hobby for us." Leo smirked. Of course, most of those alterations were illegal in an actual race, but they didn't need to tell anybody else that.
"Ok, now I'm really glad they weren't able to try much." Percy mumbled. Hephaestus just smirked and went back to the parts in his hand.
(The Ares chariot... other nasty toys.)
"Thankfully she didn't get a chance to use much of it." Will quickly assured everybody else.
"Unfortunately." Clarisse muttered. Ares beamed with pride.
(Apollo's chariot was... the opposing drivers.)
"Thanks for that, by the way." Most of the Greeks said at once.
Will shrugged. "Sure. Besides, why would we want to cause damage that we're going to be the ones fixing later?" He got a few strange looks for that, but it was the truth.
Why should they make more work for themselves when the rest of the camp did a good enough job of that just by walking around sometimes? The Infirmary tent was full enough from demigods injured from patrol duty, anyway.
"That's my boys." Apollo said softly, proudly.
(Hermes's chariot... kind of old-looking,)
"Like everything else to do with our cabin." Luke mumbled so quietly that those closest could barely make out what he said, let alone that he'd said anything at all.
"Of course it did, when would we have had time to fix it up?" Connor asked in disgust. There were so many campers to look after, they didn't have time to keep their cabin maintained, let alone a chariot that hadn't seen daylight in years. Just like the old Poseidon chariot, theirs had clearly not been stored very well or fixed up after it's last race. Unlike Percy, they didn't have the free-time on their hands to build a new one.
"That doesn't mean there aren't a few tricks up it's wheels, though." Travis added, eyeing everybody else. As though they would have needed reminding.
Hermes smiled at his sons proudly, but couldn't keep from grumbling about gods who couldn't claim their kids.
(as if it hadn't been... the other by me.)
"Ares, Athena, Poseidon, Apollo, Hermes, and Hephaestus. Not a bad field." Chiron wasn't at all surprised that the Demeter, Aphrodite, and Dionysus cabins were staying out of it. Demeter cabin had fielded the occasional team in the past, but they weren't ones for the violence of the sport.
(Before the race... about my dream.)
"Bad timing."
"Surely she would believe him, though? It's about Grover!" Annabeth turned red when she overheard that.
"Still bad timing." Percy scowled when that was repeated.
(She perked up... again, suspicious.)
"Oh, come on! Seriously!"
"It's about Grover, why would he lie about that?"
"It's just a dumb race."
Annabeth sighed. "I know. It was stupid of me." She groaned. She shouldn't have thought so badly about Percy for one thing, she'd known how worried he was about Grover ever since that first dream that he'd told her about, she also knew that it wasn't in him to lie about something like that just for a race, no matter how competitive he could get.
("You're trying to... save the camp.")
"If only you could smell just how much nature magic that thing gives off..." Grover shook his head. Maybe she wouldn't be so disbelieving that he'd just found it then. They should have sent Satyrs to find it years ago. He didn't take offense to her disbelief, the Fleece had been lost for centuries, after all, despite quests and random searches for it.
"From what I remember, that thing did feel and smell a lot like Pan." Hermes admitted, which made sense why the Satyr's would mistake it for his son.
("What do you... in trouble, Annabeth.")
"Please believe him!" Grover almost pleaded. While he could keep from being offended with her disbelief, he still wanted her to be as worried as Percy was, because that meant she would help Percy find and rescue him.
"I did... eventually." Annabeth said, sounding guilty.
(She hesitated... happen to Grover.)
"Of course not! He's my friend, too! He was my protector longer then he was yours." Annabeth agreed.
"You were just letting your competitive edge get the better of you." Luke pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "I warned you about that." He reminded her. She sighed and nodded. He had, many times.
("Percy, an empathy... were dreaming.")
"Not that I don't believe you strong enough for one. But, from everything I'd heard, they were incredibly difficult to do under the best circumstances." Annabeth hurried to reassure Grover that it wasn't that she doubted him, per se, just...
Grover shrugged, not too worried about it. It had been a long-shot that he could do it, he'd honestly been shocked that it had worked.
"More to the point, Percy told you about how many of his dreams the year before? You've been a demigod and dealt with our crazy dreams for how long?" Thalia deadpanned, unable to believe how Annabeth just dismissed a dream from another demigod, and one as powerful as Percy, at that. She knew full well that children of the Big Three had worse dreams then most.
"I know..." Annabeth groaned. "I messed up."
("The Oracle,"... the Oracle.")
"If that doesn't get her attention..." Clarisse said, shaking her head. Even she'd known that Percy would rather avoid the Oracle back then.
"Did any of us want to consult the Oracle?"
"Nope."
"Never."
"Too creepy."
Apollo couldn't even bring himself to be offended. He comforted himself with the knowledge that Rachel was the new Oracle, that whatever was wrong with his Oracle sorted itself out.
(Annabeth frowned... me, "after I win.")
"Excuse me?" Clarisse asked, her own competitive side flaring up.
"Oh, please. You know full well I would have won." Annabeth rolled her eyes. She'd been in the lead, after all, and Percy was the only one close to catching up.
"We still had an entire lap to go, anything could have happened." Percy shot back.
Chiron cleared his throat pointedly before it could devolve. The parents weren't sure what to make of that conversation.
(As I was walking... in the trees now-)
"More of them have arrived?" Chiron asked, concerned. Stymphalian birds in any amount were cause for concern. The swarm Percy had already described was worrying, but they were still coming?
"How did we not notice that?" Connor asked in shock, shaking his head.
"Why would the Mist have been covering them up from us? We aren't usually affected by the Mist unless it's on purpose." Katie said slowly.
All the demigods froze and slowly turned to Luke, some of them already glaring.
"I didn't do it. This was not me." He said quickly, raising his hands in surrender.
"Who else? As far as I know, you're the only enemy we had at that time. Well, one that was already making a move, anyway." Percy interjected.
"I don't know. But it wasn't me, and it wasn't on my orders. He didn't tell me everything he was doing, remember." Luke reminded them. Kronos could very well have sent those birds and manipulated the Mist around the entire camp without telling him. It would have increased the urgency levels in the camp, pushing for the quest to find the Fleece.
(screeching like crazy... made me nervous.)
"Good."
(Their beaks glinted... horses under control.)
"Ah. Because he's a Cyclops. Their prey instincts would have kicked in." Poseidon realized.
"Makes more sense then a son of Poseidon not being able to control a couple of horses." Clarisse muttered. "I'd wondered what was taking so long. They were the last team to the line."
(I had to talk to... complained to me.)
"They've gotten used to him. They're still skittish around other monsters, though." Percy shrugged. "They also complain a lot."
(He's a son of... of the race, I said.)
"You know those aren't good for them." Chiron warned, sighing in exasperation. They were going to be on sugar highs now, weren't they?"
"Maybe, but they make great tools for bribery." Percy shrugged, not at all repentant. It wasn't any worse then Blackjack's donut addiction. He wondered what Chiron would have to say when they got that far, he didn't think he'd ever mentioned it to the old mentor...
"Did you ever get them their sugar cubes?" Annabeth asked.
"No, I never had a chance. I talked to Silena, though. She said she would handle it."
(Sugar cubes?... mention the apples?)
"Well, at least those are healthy." Chiron grumbled. It was a wonder their horses weren't fat considering the number of times he'd seen campers sneaking them sugar cubes or other things they shouldn't be eating.
"Nice bribery." Hermes smirked, proud of Percy for it.
(Finally they agreed... bump in the road.)
"Many, many complaints of sore muscles and bruises afterward." Will deadpanned. The twelve racers had gone through almost the entire stock of muscle relaxant cream and icy-hot stuff the next day. And that was after being healed for the injuries sustained either during the crash at the starting line, or the bird attack.
"It is the most uncomfortable way to travel, ever." Nearly every demigod was in agreement with that statement. The gods really had no room to talk since their chariots were magical and they rarely had them grounded if they ever had to use it to go somewhere. They mostly flew. If they did travel by ground, they could transform it into something else, like Ares' bike or Apollo with his Maserati.
(The carriage is... chariot and yourself.)
"Oh, dear." Sally murmured, suddenly very glad that Chiron had cancelled these races. "And Tantalus wanted these races reinstated?" She asked weakly. Percy hadn't even gotten into the danger the other drivers posed, and he'd already done a pretty good job of saying why this was such a dangerous sport.
"Yup."
"We were taking precautions." Clarisse assured Sally. "We couldn't exactly have border patrol units if everybody was in the Infirmary tent because of a race!" She defended herself when she caught the look on Ares' face.
He paused, but nodded his approval. The defense of their borders was far more important then a race, so why risk everybody getting injured here?
(It's an even... to throw at us.)
"That's it?" Ares demanded, disappointed.
Percy was quiet for a few moments while he tried to decide how to say this. "Tyson hadn't been in the sparring ring yet. I had no idea if he could fight, and I knew he had trouble judging his own strength. The last thing I wanted was him accidentally killing somebody by hitting them over the head too hard, or knocking them out of their chariot and getting run over." He explained. So... it was better that Tyson not hit the other campers, and just knock away their chariots, instead.
"Thanks for that." Will said after a moment's thought. He shuddered just thinking of the kind of damage Tyson might have done by accident.
("No hitting ponies... he insisted.)
"No, no hitting ponies." Percy assured Tyson again, who had turned a worried brown eye on him.
"Certainly not." Poseidon agreed. He liked horses, he didn't want to see them hurt. And he didn't think the camp horses would have ever gone near Tyson again if he'd hit them, even by accident.
("No," I agreed... a clean race.)
"HA!"
"Good luck with that."
"A clean race? With us around? Please."
Percy rolled his eyes when he overheard these comments, but didn't say anything back. He thought he and Annabeth had a good job of that in the race after they returned.
(Just keep the...going to lose,)
"Way to be optimistic." Annabeth snorted.
Percy shrugged. "We had too much weight to not be slowed down, and I figured the Ares team would be gunning for me, and my argument with you..." He hadn't been too optimistic of their chances at all.
(I thought to... a bad guy?)
"Even though you're denying him in public and all that right now, you're still watching out for him." Annabeth said fondly.
"What else was I going to do?" Percy asked. "He's one of my best friends, the only one who I can say is actually my brother. Grover is my brother, too, but..." He shrugged.
"Thank you Percy." Tyson said, smiling.
(That I wasn't... to take notice,)
"Finally!" Chiron actually threw up his hands. "Even the Mist has it's limits, especially when it's clouding a clear-sighted person's senses." It took long enough for the Mist to start wearing down around those birds and their racket.
"Please tell me Tantalus did the sensible thing and postponed!" Sally pleaded.
"Tantalus? Sensible?" Percy scoffed. "Sorry, mom." She slumped.
(glancing nervously... "Attend your mark!")
The gods leaned forward, eager to hear who won. They pushed the problem of the birds to the back of their minds for the time being, hoping they didn't interrupt the race, and knowing that there wasn't much that could be done about them right now, especially if Tantalus was insistent on ignoring them.
The goddesses rolled their eyes. Men.
(He waved his hand... loud nasty crack!)
Will grimaced, remembering what that was, while everyone else groaned.
"Already? That was fast." Hermes commented.
"Which poor team was that?" Apollo snickered, missing Will's reaction.
(I looked back... chariot flip over.)
Apollo's jaw dropped. "WHAT?" He burst out, standing up and looking at Will, who grimaced again and nodded. "Come on!" He groaned, collapsing back into his seat.
"Were they alright?" Sally asked, concerned. Apollo perked up, looking at Will for the answer.
"Yeah. Just some bruises and a sprained wrist." Will assured the woman most Greek demigods affectionately called 'aunt'.
(The Hermes chariot had rammed into it-)
"Hermes!" Apollo growled, not at all happy that it was his children responsible.
"What?" Hermes defended himself, proud of his sons. "If you didn't expect something like that from my boys, then you clearly don't know me." He pointed out. Apollo still glowered, even though he knew Hermes had a point.
(maybe by mistake, maybe not.)
"It wasn't." Travis confirmed, high-fiving his brother. Of course, what happened afterward wasn't that great, but...
(The riders were... across the track.)
"Were the horses alright?" Poseidon asked, concerned.
"Yeah. They were just spooked. It took a while, but we settled them." Percy assured his father.
(The Hermes team... crashed into theirs,)
"Karma. It comes back." Will deadpanned while a few others laughed and Apollo cheered, giving Travis and Connor a stink-eye. Hermes groaned and grumbled at his sons bad fortune.
"I thought our karma was the rough treatment afterward." Connor grumbled.
"Oh, dear." Sally murmured, concerned.
(and the Hermes chariot flipped too,)
"Ha!" Apollo burst out, smirking at Hermes, who groaned again.
"Were you two alright?" Hermes asked his sons.
"Yeah. Fine. We were probably in the safest spot on the entire track, actually." Travis sighed. With the chariot flipped the way it was, and them trapped beneath, the birds could get at them. They wouldn't have even known something was wrong if it weren't for the racket the birds made and the screaming or calls to arms.
Somehow, none of the adults were reassured by his last comment.
(leaving a pile of... loved this sport.)
"Oh, the sarcasm."
"Please tell me you're joking." Sally muttered. She heard the sarcasm, but her motherly instinct made this question a necessary one.
(I turned my attention... the first post,)
"Whoa, what did your horses eat that morning?" A few people were shocked at how fast they moved.
"That was fast."
"Did you get a rolling start or something? The rest of them are barely off the mark!" Hermes protested.
"No. I didn't get a rolling start, or give the horses anything." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "The chariot was... specially designed." She admitted.
(her javelin man... shouting: "See ya!")
"Don't get cocky." Clarisse said, narrowing her eyes.
"That was Marcus, not me." Annabeth defended herself.
(The Hephaestus... of his chariot.)
Hephaestus looked up, curious. His sons were equally curious, they both knew what was on that chariot, they just didn't know what button Beckendorf would have pressed.
("Sorry, Percy!" he yelled.)
"At least he was polite about it." Percy snorted. The others had just attacked.
"I prefer to stay on the good side of the one in charge of sword-training." Beckendorf shrugged. He didn't know when Percy had been put in charge of the arena and training, and he doubted that it had even been this year, but the point was valid.
(Three sets of balls... swipe of his pole.)
"Go Tyson!" Most of the crowd cheered while Beckendorf scowled.
Tyson grinned crookedly.
(He gave the...
"Birds!" he cried.)
"Uh-oh."
"That's not good!"
"You better take cover!"
"Where?" Most of the demigods grumbled when they overheard that last statement. Sure, they could have made a run for it, but that would have been a distance. Besides, their first instinct when faced with a threat to their camp, especially with the borders compromised, was to fight it off.
("What?"
We were... from the trees.)
"They're going on the attack." Chiron said grimly.
"Not good. Not good at all." Apollo said, worried. He was acquainted with the kind of injury they could cause. They could strip flesh off bone with one peck.
(They were spiraling... They're just pigeons)
"There is never just anything when it comes to monsters." Percy said dryly, shaking his head at his own naivety.
"How on earth did I miss them?" Annabeth asked again.
"The Mist is a strange thing." Chiron sighed again, worried for his students. The others were on the edge of their seats as well, concerned for their children.
(I tried to concentrate... heard the screaming.)
"Oh no."
"The birds."
"You better drive them off, quick, before they tear everybody apart." Hades warned.
Percy winced. "Yeah. So I was told." He grimaced. Those who had been there that day winced and rubbed at places where they'd been pecked or clawed.
"If there weren't so many of them, we could have handled it just fine." Clarisse grumbled. She may have noticed the problem late, but she'd still tried to fight them off, and failed spectacularly. There were just too many of them.
(The pigeons were... Beckendorf was mobbed.)
"Was he alright?" Sally asked, worried after everything she'd read about these birds and all the other injuries already accumulated in this race before the birds ever got involved. Beckendorf looked at the futures, wanting an answer to that question himself.
"Yeah, he was alright. His horses malfunctioning or whatever saved him and Allen from most of the damage." Percy said. It had gotten them away from the main swarm, where it was easier to deal with the lesser numbers, and he could activate some of the other surprises on their chariot without having to worry about hitting somebody else. During the race was one thing, everybody was more or less in two places. During an attack when everybody was running around in a panic?
(His fighter tried... horses steaming.)
"I think a bird bit through a critical wire that was sticking out." Annabeth supplied what she remembered. "Otherwise those horses weren't bothered." She shrugged.
Beckendorf grimaced, but didn't say anything. He could imagine how he would have dealt with the problem after they got away from the rest of the campers.
(In the Ares chariot... over their basket.)
"What?" Reyna burst out. "Did you not see what was happening?" She demanded. She respected the other girl for her fighting and leading capabilities, but now she went and did this?
"Not really. I was so focused on the race... I didn't really take notice of what those birds were. I didn't even hear the screaming." She admitted. She'd even tuned out Aaron's protests and attempts to tell her.
"We've spoken about that." Chiron reminded the girl, who sighed and nodded. A few of the demigods had a serious problem with tunnel vision at times, they would get so focused on something that they completely missed other events that were far more important or serious. Or they would be so focused on one opponent that they completely missed the fact that they were surrounded.
(The birds swarmed... and kept driving.)
"Do you have any idea how severe his injuries were?" Will demanded through his own gritted teeth. "His fingers were nothing but bone!" Those birds had zeroed in on Aaron's exposed hands and had a feast on them. Even the bone was chipped and cracked.
"Oh, dear." Apollo said, frowning in concern.
Clarisse grimaced. "I know, I know. It was stupid of me, especially since the camp was under attack at that moment." She sighed. She'd felt horrible when the attack was over and she'd seen the state of Aaron's hands, especially when Lee told her that they would try to regrow the skin, tissue, and nerves, but he might never have full mobility again. Thankfully Aaron had recovered enough that he could wield a sword for short periods, especially since Beckendorf made him one with a special grip.
Ares was concerned. He knew that there were some injuries that you simply couldn't return to the battlefield from. "How was his recovery?"
"Long and slow." Will supplied with a grimace. "It's difficult for him to hold a sword for longer then twenty or so minutes at a time, and that's with the special grip Beckendorf made him so he didn't just drop it." When they got to that point, they'd been more worried about his mental state. A son of Ares who couldn't properly fight? Luckily Aaron was a tactical genius on par with the best Athena cabin had to offer.
Unfortunately, as good as they were, only Apollo himself could have completely healed that kind of damage.
Ares sucked in a breath. "Who was your fighter?" He demanded of his daughter. He noted with approval that her younger self looked just as concerned for her sibling.
"Aaron." She informed her father, who scowled and said nothing else. She couldn't help but flinch at that response.
(Her skeletal horses... their rib cages,)
"Well, that's something." Poseidon grumbled. "What about the rest of the horses on the track, the Apollo and Hermes team?"
"The ruckus they were still kicking up over crashing was enough to keep the birds away from them." Connor assured the Father of all Horses. Which was another reason they'd been in the safest spot on the entire track.
(but the stallions... of exposed flesh,)
Again, futures started rubbing at places on their bodies where they'd been pecked or clawed and grumbled. Will himself was rubbing his forehead, where a scar was still visible.
"Oh, dear." Apollo murmured again, thinking about how busy his children were going to be after this.
(driving everyone... been razor sharp.)
"They are." Everyone who'd actually been pecked said at once. Percy and Annabeth were actually the only ones that got away without any injuries, and that was only because they'd raced to get Chiron's music collection instead of sticking around.
"And those things are fast."
"And determined."
("Stymphalian birds!"... drive them away!")
"How are you going to do that? There are so many of them." Gwen asked.
"There's always a way." Annabeth said with a small smirk towards Chiron.
("Tyson," I said... way?" he asked.)
"Isn't that how it always works?" Nico asked, amused.
"Always."
("Always," I grumbled... "Heroes, to arms!")
"I didn't hear that." Somebody confessed.
"Not surprising, considering how loud those things were." Will muttered.
(But I wasn't sure... the general chaos.)
"We couldn't."
(I held my reins... of the chariot.)
That got a few chuckles.
"You said you weren't hurt." Will accused.
"I wasn't." Percy said. "It didn't peck or slash. Believe me, if it had gotten me, you would have known about it." He assured. It would have been a little difficult to sit down at dinner, after all.
(Annabeth wasn't... calling for shields.)
"You could hear that?" Will asked, surprised.
"Well, no. But I could read their lips well enough." Percy shrugged.
"How could you do that in all that chaos?" Paul asked, amazed.
"Oh, the joys of ADHD in battle." Annabeth said dryly. It was truly amazing what they noticed in moments like this.
(The archers from... safe to shoot.)
"That's a catastrophe waiting to happen." Reyna breathed at the thought.
"Which is why none of them fired." Will said with a shrug.
("Too many!" I... "Hercules used noise!)
"Ok, is there anything that guy didn't fight?" Clarisse deadpanned. Most of the camp knew better then show appreciation or awe for him around Percy and Thalia by now.
"Nope. I think he fought just about everything." Percy scowled.
"Not everything..." Perseus said with a shrug. "He never faced the Minotaur or Medusa. Technically he never even faced Ladon." He was one of the few aware of the true story there, and he was not impressed with his half-brother. Zoe scowled at him.
(Brass bells! He... Chiron's collection!" )
"Hey!" Chiron immediately protested, honestly offended, although there was an amused twinkle in his eye. He was well aware of his students' opinion on his taste in music, after all.
"Admit it, Chiron. Your taste in music is outdated at best." Dionysus sighed, rolling his eyes behind his latest magazine.
Chiron glared, but didn't say anything further, while everybody else snickered or full-on laughed. "Is that what that was?" Clarisse snickered.
(I understood instantly... in the world.)
"It was harder then it looked." She said modestly. It was still easy to do. Especially with her training.
"How did all three of you fit?" Rachel wondered.
"Huh?"
"Tyson was in the chariot, too, wasn't he? It was probably a tight enough fit with just the two of you." She explained.
"Oh. He hopped out when we got closer to the stands." Percy shrugged. He'd lost sight of him, but he heard later that Tyson had saved a few campers who were getting overwhelmed by birds, and were about to be pecked to death.
("To the Big House... bird problem was.)
"That is some tunnel vision."
Clarisse turned bright red. "I said I was sorry." She mumbled.
(When she saw... for the stands.)
"We were searching for another solution." Percy declared, not looking at her.
"I know that. Now. Then, all I saw was you two running away from the fight." She said sheepishly after a nudge from Chris.
(I urged our horses... Chiron's apartment.)
"You did leave your music collection behind, right?" Sally asked, suddenly having the horrible thought that the CDs might not be there.
"I imagine so. Especially if I was sure that the mess would be cleared up soon enough and I would be requested back home. Especially with Tantalus being left in charge in my place." Chiron reasoned. "No need to haul all my things back and forth."
"I think you only took a few things for the trip and a few shirts." Percy supplied. He'd left most of his things behind. Thankfully Tantalus hadn't been able to use Chiron's rooms, because they were designed with a Centaur in mind, and Tantalus was, unfortunately, human at some point.
(His boom box was... were in flames.)
"Flames? When did they catch fire? And how?"
"I think it was somebodies attempt to drive away the birds." Connor said slowly, looking around at the others, who were just as clueless.
"Either that or it was an exploding arrow from one of the Apollo kids that went awry because they couldn't really see what they were shooting at." Travis added.
(Wounded campers ran... Not to worry!")
"Oh, yeah, it's really under control."
"Was this guy really a king at one point?"
"If so, he ran the poorest kingdom ever, with a weak military." The adults listened, amused.
"Actually, his kingdom was rather wealthy, and his army was one of the strongest of the time." Ares supplied.
"With his attitude? His advisers must have been amazing." Percy said after a moment, making a few of the gods start laughing.
(We pulled up to... batteries weren't dead.)
"What a lovely time to be thinking of that." Clarisse said sarcastically.
"Yeah... I was kind of in a hurry." Percy said back, just as sarcastic.
"Guys. It worked out. The batteries weren't dead." Annabeth rolled her eyes.
(I pressed PLAY... Hits of Dean Martin.)
"What's wrong with Dean Martin?" Chiron demanded.
"Uh... everything, really." Percy said, not at all afraid of telling the old centaur what he thought about it.
"The bird's reaction kind of proved it. Sorry, Chiron." Annabeth grimaced.
Chiron sighed. "Nobody understands good music, anymore." He grumbled.
"Hey!"
"You don't count." He shot at Apollo, rolling his eyes.
(Suddenly the air... pigeons went nuts.)
Chiron sighed and muttered about pigeons with no taste for music.
Privately, the demigods were saying the same thing about old horses with no taste in music.
(They started flying... Annabeth. "Archers!")
"Yes!" Apollo cheered, knowing that his children would settle this.
"It's over now." Hermes slumped back in his chair, relieved.
"What? But the birds are still there."
"Apollo's children have a clear line of sight, and the chance of friendly fire has greatly diminished. With the birds largely in the air, the campers are no longer overwhelmed by sheer numbers. It is over." Athena analyzed, speaking up for the first time in a long time.
(With clear targets... six arrows at once.)
"Yeah!" Apollo cheered for his children while the Romans blinked in shock. Not even their archers could do that, and they were all children or Legacies of Apollo.
Will sighed. "I can only do two." He muttered sourly. Compared to a regular demigod, he was an amazing archer. By Apollo cabin standards... he was alright. It certainly wasn't his strength, though.
Apollo smiled encouragingly. "But you are an amazing healer." He assured his son. "Not all my children are good with a bow and arrow. Believe me, not all my children are cut out to be medics. You all have different areas." He shrugged.
(Within minutes... beaked pigeons,)
"They didn't turn to dust?" Jason asked, confused. "But the ones Percy killed earlier did."
"... That's a good point." Annabeth said, having not even thought about that herself. They were monsters, they should have all turned to dust, not just the few Percy had gotten with Riptide.
"Sometimes it depends on how they were killed." Artemis explained. "Monsters are... odd like that." Most of them probably did turn to dust, the ones that didn't could be considered spoils-of-war.
(and the survivors... on the horizon.)
The campers cheered their victory while parents slumped in relief that it really was over.
(The camp was... clothes pooped on.)
"Oh, boo-hoo." Piper said scathingly. "I think there are other things to worry about then your hair and clothes." She couldn't believe that they were more worried about that then they were all the wounded, even wounds that they themselves probably had.
Even Aphrodite had an odd look on her face. "While looking good is important, I agree with Piper. Sometimes there are more important things to focus on. Especially in the aftermath of an attack such as that one." So far her children were not making a very good showing of themselves in these books.
"Absolutely amazing, is what that is." Clarisse muttered in disgust, thankfully Silena was nothing like that. She'd whipped them into shape.
("Bravo!" Tantalus said... our first winner!")
"You've got to be joking." Sally said quietly, dangerously.
"Nope."
"We wish."
"Dionysus..." Poseidon growled, while all the other parents in the room glared.
"Don't look at me. We don't even know for sure who sent him." Dionysus defended himself. "Besides, my sons were part of that attack, too!" He reminded them, again, that he had children there too. He didn't want Tantalus near his sons any more then they wanted Tantalus near their children.
(He walked to... looking Clarisse.)
"I couldn't believe he was ignoring what just happened." Clarisse admitted.
"I can." Nearly every single other demigod at that race said at once.
(Then he turned... disrupted this race.")
"He's not seriously blaming you for the birds attacking!" Sally burst out, not at all happy.
"Unfortunately." Percy grumbled.
"I think he would have punished you for breathing if he could get away with it." Clarisse shuddered. For some reason Tantalus had it out for Percy.
"That was the chapter." Paul announced, frowning at the book in his hands. The more he learned about his step-sons' world, the more he wanted to wrap them all up in cotton-wool and lock them away somewhere safe. They weren't even safe in their own camp anymore, the one place they were supposed to be safe.
"I will read next!" Hermes announced suddenly. He got a few raised eyebrows, but nobody protested, which he took to be consent.
Chapter seven: I Accept Gifts from a Stranger