Persephone raised an eyebrow, "Bull... fighting?"

Most the Camp Half-Blood campers froze. They knew which monster Percy had killed before stumbling into camp with an unconscious Grover. How he managed to do it, without a weapon... none of them knew.

"I... probably should have let you keep the pen, Percy." Chiron winced.

Poseidon rose to his feet, growling at Hades, "You sent the Minotaur after my son?!"

"Err... to be fair, it was a pretty good reason?" Percy offered uncertainly, but Amphitrite shook her head, "There will never be a good reason for a god to send monsters after demigods, child."

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield.

"Those sound like terrible conditions to drive in." Jason sighed.

"Well, your sister drove terribly, and she had perfect driving conditions - Ow!" Grover groaned as Thalia threw a cushion at him.

I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

Ares nodded approvingly, "Now that's how you drive."

"No, that's how you crash and need me to fix your War Chariot." Hephaestus grunted.

Apollo added, "And how you end up in my infirmary with me needing to patch you up."

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 pants.

"Shag-carpet pants?! Seriously?!" Grover demanded, as the Stoll brothers started laughing.

"Only you, Percy." Annabeth shook her head.

Aphrodite shook her head, "That would be a terrible fashion statement."

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.

"Well... he's not wrong, I suppose." Dakota took another swig of Kool Aid, trying to lighten the mood, "Goats are barnyard animals."

"True." Malcom nodded.

"Honestly, I'm surprised you knew what lanolin was. Out of all the other words... it just doesn't really fit in." Pollux commented, and Percy snickered, "It sounded pretty catchy. Rolls off the tongue well."

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom… know each other?"

"Perfect conversation starter." Leo laughed grimly.

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."

"So... stalking." Juniper let out a small laugh, and Grover turned red.

"In all fairness, when we sent satyrs to schools to sniff out half-bloods... they are trailing after demigods without the children themselves knowing." Chiron chuckled, "So I would say that "stalking" isn't exactly incorrect."

The demigods all burst out into laughter, and Grover turned an even darker shade of red.

"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."

"Yep." Percy nodded, "Grover's definitely my friend."

"Um…what are you, exactly?"

"That's just rude." Hermes chuckled, but Percy protested, "Well, he had goat legs!"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

"A satyr." Thalia grinned, and Percy groaned, "I know that now, okay?"

Dionysus sighed, "George, why didn't you trample him?"

"He didn't know, sir." Grover bleated.

"Ha." Piper let out a nervous laugh, "At least your protector was Grover, and not Coach Hedge."

Percy winced, "Yeah, I suppose I'm lucky in that regard."

Reyna let out a light chuckled, "Hedge is one violent satyr."

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."

"Well, you did just say it didn't matter." Apollo stated, as he turned to Grover, "Like... half a minute ago."

"You just said it didn't matter."

"Brother, you think like Percy." Artemis smirked, and Apollo mock-glared at her, with the children looking on in amusement.

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"

"Yes, like Hedge." Grover bleated.

"Coach Hedge would trample you while calling you a "cupcake" and beating you up with his baseball bat." Jason grinned, and Leo added, "Nah, he'd also make you do push-ups while trampling over you, and beating you up."

"Next time, I'll get Harry to do that." Dionysus grumbled.

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like… Mr Brunner's myths?"

"We're not myths!" Zeus growled, and Hades rolled his eyes, "The boy clearly didn't know anything. Calm down, you drama queen."

The god of the sky spluttered at being called a "drama queen", while Percy just blinked at Hades in shock, wondering if the god of the dead had really just defended him.

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs Dodds a myth?"

"To mortals... yes." Piper stated, "To us... no. So technically, they are myths. Just not to us."

"So you admit there was a Mrs Dodds!"

"Way to go off topic, Kelp Head." Thalia laughed, and Percy protested, "I seriously thought I was going nuts, okay? I just wanted some confirmation that I don't belong in a mental ward!"

"Either way, with all the crazy stunts you pull, you'd probably belong there." Frank muttered, still hung up about the bet on Gorgon's blood that Percy had made with Phineas, though the bet was more with Gaia than with the formerly-and-now-currently dead son of Poseidon, "You have the more insane ideas out of all the demigods ever to exist."

"Of course."

"Then why—"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious.

"I still don't get how that works." Percy sighed, "How does knowing that you're a demigod attract more monsters?"

Grover scrunched up his face, thinking, "Not too sure, honestly. I think it's the Mist weakening around you, so you can see monsters and stuff, but in turn, monsters can also see you?"

The demigods that knew about Hazel's control over the Mist turned to her, but the younger girl shrugged, "Just because I know how to manipulate the Mist a little doesn't mean that I know how it works. I think Hecate might be able to provide a better explanation."

"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."

"No, I thought I was going crazy. But everyone else was realizing who I was." Percy corrected.

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"

"Idiot." Athena grumbled, but Hephaestus sighed, "Leave him alone, Athena. The kid has no idea what's going on, and no one was giving him any information. I'd like to see you work out something without having any data."

Athena just huffed, and Percy sent a silent thank you towards the God of Forges.

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"That's bad." Poseidon winced, "Very bad. First Theseus, then you! Why does the Minotaur like to target my children!?"

"Err... I think Theseus was the one that sought the Minotaur out?" Annabeth asked, "And then Lord Hades was the one who gave the Minotaur Percy as a target."

Poseidon glared weakly at Hades, and the God of the Dead just sighed. In hindsight, sure, he had lost his Helm of Darkness, but still, that wasn't a good reason to set the Minotaur on a twelve year old demigod.

"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"Prissy," Clarisse gritted her teeth, "Maybe you'd want to run first, and ask questions later?"

"Well, I am asking who's after me? I think that is a valid question, all things considered." Percy replied.

"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."

Hades raised his eyebrow at Grover, and the satyr raised his hands in defense, "I'm sorry, Lord Hades. But to be fair, you have sent a ton of monsters after Thalia in the past. I don't exactly have the best experiences with you."

Zeus glared at his brother, and Hades growled, "You forced me to make an oath, and tried to kill my kids when they couldn't even defend themselves, before the oath was even made! And then you broke the oath yourself, so forgive me for trying back at you when you did something wrong and tried to punish my kids and I for not breaking any laws!"

"Well, good to know that I became the scapegoat for Lord Hades rage." Thalia sighed, and Percy nodded, "Yeah. Thalia didn't do anything wrong. Why was she punished for her dad's mistake?"

Hades grumbled something under his breath, remembering that it was exactly what Zeus had done before Hades had ordered Alecto the bring the kids to the casino. He turned to Thalia, "Although, I do apologize, child. I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Thalia grinned up at Hades, "It's alright. I mean... I'm alive and not a tree now, so I suppose everything worked out in the end."

"Still not sure what's going on about a tree..." Frank muttered, and Hestia sighed, "Can we please stop talking about trying to kill each other's children?"

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

"Yes please. Drive faster." Poseidon grunted. He really wished he could have helped, perhaps by drowning whatever monster was chasing his son, but he had been in the middle of an argument with Zeus about the stupid lightning bolt.

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.

Annabeth raised her eyebrow, "You dreams are plenty weird, Seaweed Brain."

"To be fair, my dreams aren't my imagination." Percy shrugged, "They're things that have already happened, or are currently going on. Totally not my imagination. But my dreams are just the worst."

"Yep. Even by demigod standards." Annabeth nodded.

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.

"Camp Half-Blood!" The Greeks cheered.

"Strawberries are great." Demeter nodded, "They go great with cereal."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"A super safe place! Especially after I became a tree!" Thalia stated proudly.

"Thou shouldn't be so proud about nearly dying." Zoe chided.

"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."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

Thalia sighed, "Well, Aunt Sally knew who Lord Poseidon was. It's probably safer for you to stay in camp year round."

"Even then, Percy never stayed in camp too much." Beckendorf stated.

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

Everyone snickered at that statement, but that did nothing to lower the tension in the room.

"Don't you know? Cutting yarn is very dangerous, especially if it's done by three old ladies." Jason grinned dryly, and Percy sighed in exasperation, "I know that now!"

Leo whistled, "To be fair... when you put it like that, it just sounds ridiculously stupid."

"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."

"Grover!" Thalia groaned, "You're making him panic more! You need to learn more tact too!"

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

"Of course you caught onto that tiny detail." Annabeth patted Percy's shoulder.

"No I didn't. I said 'someone'."

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"... Does anyone even know what that meant?" Connor raised an eyebrow. Half the demigods looked equally confused, but Apollo nodded.

"That makes perfect sense! Grover was trying to cover it up by saying "you" as in a person in general! But Percy could tell that Grover had initially stated "you" as in, Percy himself. But then -"

"Males." Zoe and Artemis shook their heads.

"Boys!" my mom said.

"Thank goodness for Aunt Sally." Thalia groaned, "You guys have a monster on your tail, and you're arguing over "you"s and "someone"s."

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 was that?" I asked.

"Yeah... what was that?" Katie frowned, "I don't think I'd describe that particular monster as "fluttery"."

Grover and Percy looked at each other. Had there been another monster chasing after them? Or was Percy's description just slightly misleading due to the rain?

"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.

"Don't we all know that feeling." Reyna sighed, "It feels terrible."

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.

"You still call her Mrs Dodds." Nico grinned.

Percy rolled his eyes, "Well, that's the name I knew her by!"

"Alecto still hates you." Nico snickered, before he paused, "Though, I'm not sure. She seems fond of you, but she also seems to dislike you equally."

My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.

"I get it now! I was slow!" Percy groaned, before anyone could make anymore comments about him not knowing anything.

Then I thought about Mr Brunner… and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that,

"I don't think I knew that the sword could turn into a pen." Grover admitted, "I just thought it was a regular sword that we kept in the armory or something."

the hair rose on the back of my neck.

"Uh oh." Thalia gulped.

There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

"Zeus!" Poseidon rose to his feet, "You tried to kill my son!?"

"You broke the oath!"

"You broke it twice! With the same woman!"

"Your son is disrespectful towards the gods!"

"That's besides the point! Either way, you broke the oath first!"

The gods just shook their heads at the argument. Zoe just shook her head in exasperation at the arguing gods, and Artemis glared at Will, making the son of Apollo flinch and continue reading.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

Katie grimaced, "Your descriptions... too much, Percy."

I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Your just got fried, and your first comment in "Ow"." Apollo sighed, "Really?"

"Well, what else did you want me to say?" Percy asked, "And it was the car that got fried, not me. Oh, before I forget..."

Percy grinned at Zeus, "Thank you for damaging the car!"

All the demigods started laughing, as Zeus looked confused for a second, before remembering just who owned the car.

"You are welcome." Zeus sighed, not wanting to get into another argument with his brother.

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay…" I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead.

"Well... not being dead is good?" Connor tried to lift everyone's spirits.

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.

Zeus and Poseidon glared at each other.

Lightning.

Poseidon growled. Will paused, unsure of whether to continue reading, but Hestia just nodded at him.

That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

Grover sighed. Percy shook his head, "G-man, you know it wasn't your fault, right? It was Zeus fault for blasting us with lightning."

Zeus turned his attention back to Percy, but Poseidon quickly took the attention off his son by butting in, "He's not wrong. Your lightning bolt did knock the satyr unconscious."

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!

Some of the campers started snickering at Percy's internal monologue.

"Wow, Percy. I feel so loved." Grover grinned, and Percy smiled at his friend.

"None of us want you to die either!" Thalia cheered.

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

The snickering dissolved into fully blown laughter.

"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 toward us on the shoulder of the road.

"Uh oh." Travis gulped, "We know you defeated it, dude, but still!"

The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player.

"That's not good." Leo added, "Definitely not good. It sounds huge!"

"Yeah. The Minotaur towered over even a sixteen year old Percy." Michael admitted.

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.

"Maybe because he had horns?" Athena grumbled sarcastically.

I swallowed hard. "Who is—"

Reyna frowned, "You... didn't have a weapon, right? No knives or anything lying around?"

"Nope. He just stumbled into camp with nothing but Grover." Annabeth stated.

"I'm still mad at you for that!" Poseidon growled at Hades, but the God of the Dead just sighed.

"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.

"Well, crap." Dakota muttered, "Now you're stuck."

"Your luck really is the worst." Piper groaned.

I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"That's definitely an ouchy there." Pollux cringed.

"I've gotten out of worse." Percy tried to reassure his friends, but that just pushed Poseidon closer to having a godly equivalent of a heart attack.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"Oh hey! That's me!" Thalia grinned, as half the Romans looked at her weirdly.

"What?" Calypso frowned.

"What?"

Leo let out a dry laugh, and nudged Calypso, "Oh look, you think like Percy."

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.

"I remember that tree... I think, from the last time I've been there?" Reyna raised an eyebrow, "You were that 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."

"That's a tall order, especially for Percy." Grover muttered, "He won't just leave us behind and run away."

"Mom, you're coming too."

Annabeth sighed, "Yeah. Fatal Flaw."

Triton and Amphitrite glanced at her, confused.

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

Poseidon sighed; he really hoped he could have done something to help his son. Alas, this was six years in the past, and no one could change what had happened.

"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"The brat's loyal, I'd give him that much." Hera grunted, and Poseidon and Percy both glared at her.

"You should know just how loyal he is." Thalia grumbled.

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

"Grover, you should shut up." Chris sighed, and Triton grunted, "Blame Zeus."

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head,

"Why did you think he was actually holding a blanket over his head?" Katie asked, and Percy shrugged, "I dunno. It was raining. Maybe he didn't wanna get wet?"

Triton shook his head; his half-brother clearly wasn't the brains of any of the quests he had to go on.

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…

"Oh my gods! Prissy, that's because they are horns, you complete moron!" Clarisse groaned.

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you.

"Hooray." Thalia cheered sarcastically, "Monsters want kill us. What's new?"

"Nothing." Jason and Percy admitted.

Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"Oh yeah... she's mortal..." Reyna muttered, before she turned to Rachel, "How did you get past, then?"

Rachel shrugged, "I flew."

"You stole my pegasus." Percy huffed, "Blackjack had no idea what to do with you!"

"But…"

"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."

I got mad, then—mad at my mother,

Everyone glanced at Percy questioningly, and Percy pouted, "She wanted me to abandon her!"

"Ah." The demigods nodded understandingly.

at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

"Because it is a bull." Hades added unhelpfully.

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you—"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."

"Fair enough." Triton stated, "You were probably super weak, and didn't have the strength to help the satyr up anyways."

"Hey!" Percy protested, "I take offence to that!"

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.

"Like I said." Triton grinned, and Percy glared at his half-brother.

"Were you calling me fat?" Grover huffed, but Percy just sighed, "I mean... the rain in your fur probably didn't help."

Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

"To be fair... they had to go up a hill." Juniper pointed out.

Demeter shook her head, "Eat some cereal! You need more fibre in your diet!"

"Or they should cut the grass." Persephone offered.

Katie nodded, "Yeah. We should do that."

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,

"What about excepts?" Leo added jokingly, and Annabeth frowned, "But "except" ends with c-e-p-t, not c-e-p."

all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear

Leo and the Stoll brothers choked, trying to stifle their laughter, "Excuse me, what?"

I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—

"Percy, why!" Will groaned, looking up from the book, "I didn't need to know what the stupid Minotaur wears while hunting demigods down!"

which would've looked 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.

"How do you even notice all this stuff? It's raining." Nico asked, "And it was night time!"

Percy just shrugged, "Lightning? Lights stuff up?"

"That, and Percy is super observant for the oddest things. apparently." Apollo snickered.

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.

"You certainly do describe things weirdly." Pipe snickered.

"I bet that Prissy would recognize the monster." Clarisse grinned.

Thalia shook her head, "No bet. Anyone with even a tiny bit of knowledge of Greek myths would know this monster. And Percy took Latin classes from Chiron. Kelp Head's not that stupid!"

"That sounds both offensive and supportive towards me." Percy grumbled.

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.

"Sadly, he's real." Connor sighed.

"Yeah. And I fought him twice!" Percy grumbled.

"Twice?!" Poseidon squeaked, and Amphitrite patted his back gently.

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."

"Smart woman." Athena nodded.

"But he's a Min—"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

"At least she's there. So Prissy won't mess up too badly." Clarisse sighed.

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.

"So why do we need to climb uphill?" Katie asked, "If we're getting chased by monsters, the last thing you'd want us to do is to slow down and get even more tired by climbing a hill?"

"I don't think we could risk uprooting Thalia's tree." Annabeth grimaced at the thought, "And I think the hills deter both monsters and campers alike from reaching camp. At least... before Thalia."

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 fifty feet away.

"Bad eyesight, I got it. My mom explained." Percy interjected before anyone could comment.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

Grover sighed, "I should really shut up."

"Not your fault, G-man. You were super out of it." Percy tried to reassure his friend, but Grover just groaned, "That doesn't make it any better."

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

"Yeah. Cause apparently, we smell like buttery bread." Annabeth muttered. Her heart fell for Bob and Damasen, who she and Percy had left to the mercy of Tartarus.

She hoped they were still okay; they might be able to regenerate, if Tartarus didn't suck them into his armor like he had done to Hyperion and Krios.

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.

"Well, the car was already destroyed by Lord Ju... Lord Zeus." Dakota pointed out, "No biggie."

He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. 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.

Leo whistled, "That must be one heck of an explosion."

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

"Oops." Triton sniggered darkly. Anything that made that garbage can of a human upset just made Triton super happy.

Oops.

Amphitrite patted Triton's arm teasingly, "Look, dear, you sound like Percy."

Percy frowned, "Is that really a bad thing?"

"Given what goes through your head..." Annabeth shook her head with amusement, "Maybe. Or maybe not. But in this scenario, your thoughts are great!"

"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 directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

Amphitrite nodded approvingly; at least Sally had done her research.

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

Dionysus muttered, "That's now they die."

"Be nice." Hera snapped at Dionysus, and Annabeth whispered to Percy, "Hypocrite much?"

"Keeping me near you? But—"

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

He'd smelled us.

"Uh oh." Leo added unhelpfully.

The pine tree was only a few more metres, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

Clarisse was about to make a comment, when Percy rolled his eyes, "I'd like to see you try to drag an unconscious satyr hill through tall grass. Then come talk to me."

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.

"You're so screwed." Leo groaned, and Calypso frowned, "Leo!"

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.

"That's because she is right." Zoe nodded.

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.

"And you knew that... why?" Annabeth asked, but Percy didn't answer. Everyone figured that it probably had something to do with his ex-stepfather, or his schools, and that just made them even more mad.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

"Honestly, I think Percy would be fine. It's raining, and he has really good reflexes, even without training." Beckendorf muttered, "I'm more worried for his mother."

Grover and Annabeth shared a knowing look.

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.

"That's good." Poseidon stated uneasily, "Just keep dodging."

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

Rachel muttered, "I thought stupid monsters didn't target us mortals?"

"Unless a god ordered them to." Thalia muttered darkly.

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.

"Just go!" Poseidon muttered, "Get some help!"

But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

"Stop being so pessimistic, Percy!" Thalia nearly yelled.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"Brave woman, I'd give her that." Ares nodded approvingly.

"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

"Gods..." Michael breathed, his heart racing.

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.

Malcolm shuddered, "So... monsters aren't as dumb as we thought!?"

That chilled everyone to the bone. If monsters kept learning and improving... it would make them harder and harder to kill... until...

They didn't want to think about that.

His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

Some of the demigods turned to Percy, but besides from looking a little upset and downcast, the son of the Sea God didn't seem too upset.

Then again, he knew that his mother had gotten out of this alive, so there was that.

"Mom!"

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

Frank couldn't help but remember the time when they had been in Alaska, and Percy had pretty much collapsed the glacier and had fallen into the sea with an army of ghosts, despite having gotten a prophecy that stated he would drown.

He knew he could die. And yet, he tried to protect them from all the shades.

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.

Nico sighed internally. Watching how his mother died had been hard. But being there, and not being able to do anything... He knew how that felt, even though he knew that Sally wasn't dead yet.

"So... you kidnapped her too!?" Demeter scowled at Hades, and Poseidon groaned, "Brother, I'm not sure if I should be thankful that you didn't kill her, or angry that you targeted them in the first place."

"How about the first option?" Hades stated weakly, not wanting to start an argument with Poseidon.

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear.

"Uh oh! Percy's mad!" Travis yelped, and Connor added, "He's going to kick the Minotaur's butt!"

Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs Dodds grew talons.

"Adrenaline." Annabeth muttered.

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.

"Oh, he's not going to let that happen." Thalia grinned, "Destroy the monster! That's the least it deserves!"

I couldn't allow that.

"Thanks, man." Grover grinned, and Percy smiled back at the satyr weakly, "No problem, G-man."

I stripped off my red rain jacket.

"A red rain jacket when you're facing a bull monster?" Piper raised an eyebrow, "How lucky can you be?"

"Lucky, and unlucky." Percy stated, and everyone nodded despite the statement being a contradiction.

"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"This is why Prissy doesn't make the insults." Clarisse shook her head, as the others snickered at the bad nickname, "They just suck!"

"We really need to teach you how to make better insults." Apollo and Hermes snickered.

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.

I had an idea

"Please be a stupid idea!" Grover bleated.

a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.

"Yes!" The Greek demigods cheered.

"Why do you want him to have a stupid idea?" Aphrodite asked. That just didn't seem logical.

"Percy's a walking contradiction." Annabeth explained, "His stupid ideas work out great, but his smart ones... they always fail, somehow."

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.

"That wouldn't work. The Minotaur had already learnt its lesson." Artemis shook her head, "Sadly. I wish monsters just remained dumb."

But it didn't happen like that.

"Of course not. Or you'd be shish-kebabbed." Leo snickered, but everyone could tell that he was also insanely nervous.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

"Percy..." Poseidon asked weakly, "Titan-power slowed down... or adrenaline-rush slowed down?"

"I don't know." Percy frowned, "I really wasn't paying attention. But I don't think Kronos had that much power then. Adrenaline, I think."

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.

"That's a complex move to pull off." Beckendorf whistled appraisingly, "Especially with no training, and only being twelve."

Everyone turned to look at Percy in surprise, and Percy turned red, trying to shy away from the attention.

How did I do that?

"We'd like to know that too." Jason stated in amazement.

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.

"Ouch." Pollux winced, "That must have hurt."

Thalia grimaced. She wasn't exactly aware of her surroundings while she was a tree, but she was pretty sure she had felt something sharp poking her. Thank goodness it was the tree and not her actual body, though. Being poisoned was bad enough. She didn't need a horn wound in her chest as well.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown.

"Yeah... You don't want to be trampled." Silena shuddered, "That would be terrible."

Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

"Not the worst conditions to fight in, especially since you get a power boost." Connor nodded.

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 the sea spawn figured that out." Athena grumbled.

"Leave him alone." Poseidon growled, "I don't think all your children would know how to fight a Minotaur if no one told them anything, let alone without a weapon!"

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.

"Yeah, don't." Grover groaned, "I'd like you to have your tongue intact."

"Food!" Grover moaned.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. 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.

"Yeah. The Minotaur is dead. Totally dead." Chris grinned, "Monsters are screwed when an angry Percy in involved."

I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.

Ares snorted, "That's not going to work. There's no way you're strong enough to do that, punk."

The older Greek campers shared a glance. They knew that Percy had broken off the Minotaur's horn... and apparently, he had just broken it off?

They had mostly expected the Minotaur to run into a tree, and it had broken off when the Minotaur tried to free itself while it's horn was wedged too tightly in the tree trunk... or something.

It certainly was more plausible than a scrawny, angry twelve year old snapping the horn off.

The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!

Ares just stared at Percy dumbly, having just been broken wrong.

Hephaestus roared in laughter at Ares' face. He was pretty neutral towards Percy, given that the boy had blown up his forges in order to destroy some Telekhines, but anyone that could make Ares give that kind of expression was great in his books.

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass.

"Grass. That's good. It's soft." Calypso whispered.

My head smacked against a rock.

Poseidon winced for his son.

"That's not good." Frank shuddered, "Any brain damage?"

"Nothing lasting." Chiron reassured the students, "The rock wasn't too big, and the grass and rain water soaked up most of the damage."

Jason grinned at Percy, "At least I'm not the only one who had problems with getting hit in the head with bricks and rocks."

Percy snickered in response.

When I sat up, my vision was blurry,

"Ah, yes. That's what happens when you hit your head on a rock." Leo stated in a faux serious tone, "It's called a concussion."

but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

"Well... at least he has a weapon now?" Hazel stated, "Better than nothing."

The monster charged.

"Err... You're in no condition to jump." Chris pointed out, having no other idea of how an untrained Percy and Grover could have gotten out alive.

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

"Go Kelp Head!" Thalia grinned, and Percy grinned, "Wow, Pinecone Face. I didn't know you cared about me that much."

"Not really." The daughter of Zeus retorted, "I just didn't want to get stabbed by the Minotaur for no reason."

"See? Your battle instincts are great." Annabeth smiled.

The bull-man roared in agony.

"You deserve it!" Artemis spat, "For hurting a nice lady!"

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.

"Yeah! Go Percy!" The demigods cheered. Some of the gods looked impressed, given that the Minotaur wasn't the easiest monster to beat, even with adequate training, and they were insanely glad Percy was so ridiculously loyal, and would stop at nothing to protect his friends.

The monster was gone.

"Not too bad, half-brother." Triton looked at Percy appraisingly; defeating a Minotaur was no small feat, even though it was pretty lucky, especially with no clue of the world he had been living in.

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.

"Yeah." Will winced, "Hitting your head on a rock and getting a concussion, and then rolling past the Minotaur would do that to you. You'd be dizzy even without the rolling around."

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,

"I'm so sorry, Percy." Grover groaned, but Percy managed a grin, "Don't worry about it. At least I had something to focus on rather than just moping outside the camp boundaries."

Hestia smiled at Percy, and the son of the Sea God hesitantly returned the smile. He always liked Hestia, as well as his friends... but once they found out what he did in Tartarus...

He really hoped his friends wouldn't hate him.

so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward 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.

Poseidon looked down, upset that he wasn't able to help Sally and his demigod son, and Amphitrite patted his arm comfortingly.

"Good. Loyalty to his mother." Hera shot another look at her sons, but they just rolled their eyes, wondering how much longer it would take for Hera to get the hint that she was nothing like Sally.

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 blond hair curled like a princess's.

Aphrodite squealed, "He thought you looked like a Princess! And he thought you were pretty! How lovely!"

Annabeth turned red, "It might not be me, though."

"Well, I know very well it's you! I'm the Goddess of Love." Aphrodite smiled back at Annabeth, while Percy was also turning a deep shade of scarlet.

They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

Aphrodite shot Annabeth another look, but the daughter of Athena just scowled, "Not like that!"

"Yeah." Chris nodded, "Annabeth was like "He's the one" or "She's the one" to whatever new camper we got."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

Will closed the book, and sighed, "Well... that's a long chapter. I'm parched."

Hestia waved her hand, and a bottle of water appeared next to Will. After thanking the goddess, Will took a huge gulp of water, while Nico took the book from Will, "Well, I suppose I could read, since I don't appear in this book."

"So does that mean I won't have to read?" Percy asked.

"We are reading your thoughts." Annabeth sighed, "That's hard enough on you as it is. But if we get a book that isn't from your point of view, then you can read."

Nico flipped to the appropriate page, and started.