AN: Alright everybody there is an important Poll on my profile for this story so please go and vote, the poll will be open for three days.
"horse speech"
Son of the Moon
Chapter 13
-Percy-
"We're going to dominate tomorrow!" Nico cheered as they all took in their chariot that they had been working on for the past two weeks in preparation for the races. They had decided that he would be the main driver with Bianca as the fighter on the back as she was the best archer which would allow them to not need to get close to attack. Nico had turned out to be extremely good with carpentry and metalwork and spent time doing a lot of the physical construction of the chariot as well as summoning up a couple of undead skeleton Horses to pull it as they wouldn't tire out. Clarisse had spent time building different weapons to mount to the chariot and to give to them to use while Amanda helped out Nico.
The chariot itself was a sight to behold. The main body of it was black but there were small star like diamonds dotted throughout its surface and surrounding the decorations. In the middle of the front portion of the Chariot was a silver moon flanked by a caduceus on each side while the sides of the chariot each had a silver boar (AN: hehehe) so that the chariot paid homage to their fathers. The horses were pure white skeletons but had manes of black flames and, according to Nico, were the skeletons of the horses that pulled Achilles' chariot. Along with the decorations and the horses the rim of the chariot was lined with silver spikes and the spoke center had a silver barbed tip as well to shred their opponent's wheels.
"Imagine Annabeth's face when we destroy her chariot in the race tomorrow." Clarisse laughed out, probably remembering earlier in the week when the annoying daughter of Athena had mocked their chariot skills and openly declared how she would win the whole thing.
"Same goes with my brothers Travis and Connor," Amanda added "those two may mean well most of the time but their complete idiots. They think that Percy and Bianca aren't going to shred their chariot just because Percy's a friend of the line. While he isn't going to be overly harsh he's still going to do what it takes to win this thing."
"Let's just get some sleep guys," he said chuckling "we have a big day tomorrow.".
The next morning he and Bianca stood waiting at the track for Nico, Amanda and Clarisse to bring in the chariot while he inspected the completion. The first group he noticed was Charles Beckendorf and a daughter of Hephaestus named Nyssa with their chariot. The first thing about it that he noticed was that instead of horses they were using the remaining Colchis bull to pull it and they had clearly repaired the mechanical menace. The second thing was that the chariot itself was solid celestial bronze and he figured that it likely had more traps than the labyrinth hidden inside it.
The second chariot was pulled by a couple of Clarisse's brothers and was blood red with a pair of black stallions pulling it. The two sons of Ares were loading their chariot up with javelins, spiked balls, caltrops, and a bunch of other nasty toys that would have worried him if he knew that it wouldn't drastically slow the chariot down.
Will Solace and Michaels Yew of the Apollo cabin had a sleek golden chariot that was pulled by two beautiful palominos and their fighter was armed with a bow like Bianca was and, like Bianca, had promised to shoot arrows with rounded heads that would simply knock the other person out or hurt them but wouldn't kill.
The fourth chariot was manned by Amanda's siblings the Stoll brothers, Connor and Travis, and didn't look like anything special. But he knew that looks could be deceiving, while the green chariot may look old and worn down with those two driving who knows what it could do, the box that they brought up with them was worrying as well.
The last chariot that he really took notice of was manned by Annabeth and her brother Malcom. It was a simple gray chariot with an owl on the front with a couple grey horses.
Before he could take stock of the other chariots the others showed up with his own and me smirked at all the shocked glances it got before he climbed in and pulled Bianca up. "Charioteers to your mark!" Tantalus yelled, looking anywhere but at where they were. Shaking his head he urged the skeletal horses onward to the lineup and waited. "Charioteers attend your mark!" Tantalus yelled again before pausing and yelling "Begin!" and the groups thundered off.
Almost immediately there was a loud crack as a small group of unclaimed charioteers had accidentally rammed one of the Hermes teams causing both of their chariots to flip and break apart only to be whisked away by the Harpies to clear the track. Mentally thanking the rearview mirrors that allowed him to see this, he didn't want to know where Amanda had gotten them, he urged the horses onward and waved cheekily at Annabeth as they passed her easily.
Keeping an eye on his mirrors he saw Bianca use her arrows to take out another half dozen of the rear chariots with her arrows, using them to destroy the spokes, until the only teams left were the ones he noticed earlier. Just as he took this in they passed the starting line and began the second and final lap of the race with only the six remaining chariots in the race.
Looking in his mirror he chuckled as he saw the Hermes chariot slam into the Apollo cabin's and the spooked horses in turn took out the Stolls while the Ares and Hephaestus cabins were busy using every weapon and gadget they had to go into a full scale battle.
While all this was happening he saw Annabeth and her brother gaining up on him as, unfortunately, the Athena cabin was intelligent and they had designed an effective chariot. He was halfway through the last lap when Annabeth's cabin gained on them and used a sword to cut through Bianca's bow. "That was a dirty trick!" he shouted angrily at the daughter of Athena, there was an unspoken code amongst demigods and to deliberately destroy another's weapon without due cause was one of the worst offences there was.
"So?" she asked snidely "I'm winning this race Sea Spawn.".
Hearing the hated nickname he got an idea and smirked, if she was going to play dirty then so was he, "Greetings noble Horses," he called out to the horses pulling the Athena chariot "you're riders are cruel people. If you take them away from this track in the opposite direction I shall bring you each a bag of sugar cubes later.".
He saw the horses eyes widen before they screamed "Sugar cubes!" before they made a sharp right turn and went back the direction of the stables with Annabeth cursing the whole way. Shaking his head in exasperation he pulled over the finish line victoriously while the demigods in the stands cheered.
That night at the celebration barbecue things were looking pretty good, he was surrounded by his friends and they had just won a big competition. Apart from the irritating glares from Annabeth the night was perfect. Until he heard a metallic screech and looked up to see a swarm of Stymphalian birds diving down towards the campers. Reacting quickly he used his control over liquids and willed all the drinks from the camper's goblets up into the air before freezing them sending the hundreds of tiny ice javelins up into the air towards the swarm and felled hundreds of them but more just kept on coming.
Remembering the myth of how they were driven off by horrible noise he drew Riptide and slashed at the horde, dissolving bird after bird into dust but for each felled two more took their place. By now the other campers had joined into help him but they were slowed by the fact that it was hard to work and not hit their fellow demigods. Looking to Will Solace he yelled "Will! Sonic arrow into the air now!".
Seeing the look of realization pass across the son of Apollo's face he continued hacking and slashing until he heard the screech of the sonic arrow that Apollo was known to gift to his children that caused the birds to screech and fly up into the air, often crashing into one another and causing mass hysteria, several even began attacking their comrades.
"Ready bows!" he yelled as he deactivated Riptide and summoned his bow followed by the majority of the other demigods who were archers, "Fire!" he yelled and the rain of arrows continued until the swarm was either dead or flying away. Looking around at the panting demigods and realizing that they needed a morale booster he jumped up onto a table and held his bow aloft in the air "Victory for Camp Half-Blood!" he yelled into the night which was met with a cheer by his fellow demigods. "They think without our barrier that we're weak!" he yelled, pacing the length of the table as he spoke to his fellow campers who were hanging on to his every word "They think we're defenseless. But as we've just show, WE ARE NOT!", another cheer met this statement and he allowed it to go on for a moment before gesturing for silence "We have won a great battle today, felled a horde of monsters that has been growing and growing since the time of the coward traitor Hercules," at that name all those assembled spat on the ground in derision of the once 'Hero' "and even then he only killed a few of them. We have felled hundreds IF NOT THOUSANDS OF THESE MENACES! This battle shall be retold to future generations of heroes, the day that our camp was invaded and we stood our ground to fight back against a horde of beasts. Remember this day for it will be yours for all time. Victory!".
"Victory!" the campers yelled back and out of the corner of his eye he saw the brazier that reflected the camp's mood burning high and golden, showing the fighting spirit of the camp had been restored.
"And an impressive victory it was." a voice behind him said and, turning, he saw the Olympian Council assembled before him and the camp.
"To what do we owe your presence Noble Council?" Chiron asked respectfully at the sight of the Pantheon.
"The council has decided to issue out a quest to try and find a way to cure my daughter's tree and repair the barrier." Zeus declared "We came to see who had any ideas and who would be willing to lead the quest.".
Looking at his mother he clearly saw her expression telling him that if he offered to go then she would lock him up in a tent till he was thirty which caused him to shrink in a bit. Seeing his reaction Apollo asked "You know of a cure don't you Percy?", he shot Apollo a pleading look, begging the god of the sun to stop but his uncle kept on talking "I'm guessing it's also dangerous enough that your mom threatened to lock you up till you're an old man in you ever tried to do it.".
With all the eyes on him he knew he'd have to tell the truth so, sighing, he answered "I know the Location of the Golden Fleece.".
A mass outbreak of whispering met his statement as the shocked campers registered that fact, one voice though called out "Where?" and a silence filled the area, broken only by the crackling of the fire.
"The Sea of Monsters," he admitted "on the Island of Polyphemus.".
"I'll summon the Oracle," Apollo said with a wince "see if it can decide who is to lead the quest.".
With a snap of his fingers the Oracle appeared in front of the campers and inspected them all, he mentally smirked at Annabeth's shocked expression when the oracle mummy didn't even stop to inspect her, until finally it stopped before him and opened its mouth and releasing the green fog while chanting:
"You shall the ship of loss manned by warriors of bone,
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,
A septem of heroes to survive the great beast,
Returned as victors, the threat to the Camp is ceased."
After several moment's pause, in which he was sure he saw a few tears escape his mother's eyes, one of the campers called out, "What does it all mean?".
"The first line I believe is in reference to Ares," he explained as all eyes were once again on him "in every war the losers owe a debt to Ares, often in the form of the spirits of some of the soldiers or military equipment. I and my companions are to sail on one of the ships that Ares possesses and the undead are to man it. The second line means that I will find and acquire the fleece. The third line means that seven heroes of camp are needed for this quest. And the last line says that we will return to the camp in victory and end the threat to camp.".
"It's a pretty positive prophecy," Michael Yew said happily "while there is some room for things to go wrong we know that you'll get the fleece and bring it back and it sounds like you and whoever goes with you will return alive.".
He saw his mother visibly relax at those words as the truth of the statement settled in and the fire picked up again. "Rest well Heroes," his grandfather said, smiling down at him proudly "tomorrow the quest departs!".
Cheers once again filled the night as the celebrations were renewed with new life at the fact that the camp finally had something good to celebrate.
AN: The final two companions have not yet been picked for the quest. They are likely to be the two selected from the poll on my profile but they may not be so any suggestions will be gladly received.