[AN: Thank you to the four that favorited, five that followed, and Anonymously96 (again) and Nordia Gral for reviewing.

Yes, the first woman that Percy met in the last chapter was Ananke. She was the one that made strings of fate that the Fates, her daughters, picked, wove, and cut. This string was thought to be made on a spinning wheel, hence the name The Spinner. She changed the most basic properties of Percy's string so the Fates trying to make Percy's fate fit would go from quantum physics level complicated to straight chaos. Chaos or anarchy. (Anarchy from Ananke. Get it?) I was reading back through and thought the last line between them was a bit bland and saw my Batman mug on my desk. I thought back to The Dark Knight and couldn't resist the pun.

"and longer length as books I guess" I'm not sure if this is a statement or question or what. If you are asking about word count it will most likely be a little lower than canon if we are talking about PJO and HoO content only. After all, is said and done it will be longer than canon and a bit more spread out. Chapters wise it will most definitely be longer than canon (I know. I'm slow and I suck. I know okay.).]

Chapter 4: Grover Drags My Sorry A** to Camp

Grover had woken me up to say we were almost there. The sky had gotten darker since I last looked. I wasn't sure if it was the clouds or the time. I thought about that as is it started to rain.

There was a boom and I turned just in time to see a tree catch on fire from the lightning. The lightning seemed to be following us as this happened several more times. Suddenly one of the strikes didn't stop on impact with the ground. There was a blue light then the lightning turned black, red, and yellow. It moved down the road zooming past the car. As the lightning passed the windows shattered and half a second later the car exploded.

I awoke just in time to get a raindrop to the eyeball. I sat up and looked around. What was left of the car was burning on the wrong side of the road. I started to look for Grover, only to find him lying unconscious about eight feet away from me.

Someone must have dragged us away from the wreck. Who? Grover and I were the only ones in 'our' car and there were no other cars.

I jumped out of my thoughts when I heard a mix between a roar and a moo that made Times Square on new years seem silent. I rushed to Grover and tried to shake him awake.

"Grover! Come on man. You need to get up. We need to get to camp."

"Wha-" Another moo/roar. I wasn't sure whether to be happy or scared. It made Grover get up faster but also told me whatever was making the noise was getting a lot closer way faster than I would have liked.

Grover bolted to the road with me right behind him. He turned right and started sprinting down the road. We went like that until I was almost out of breath. Then Grover turned off the road, started up a hill, and yelled back to me, "Come on Percy! We just need to make it past the pine tree." I didn't see how a tree was going to help us, but I wasn't going to stop running.

About halfway up the hill, things went bad. I felt something, suspiciously like a bus, slam into my side. As I flew/spun through the air I saw Grover get punched another quarter of the way up the hill. When I hit the ground, my vision tunneled. I tried to stand immediately but fell back to my knees.

After my vision cleared, I got a closer look at the thing. 'It' was a huge guy with an even bigger head. There were things sticking up from its head like antennae. Horns. It had a snout and face like a bull… The Minotaur. One of, if not the most, famous monsters in history. Wasn't it supposed to be dead? It started to close on what I assumed was Grover. I pulled Riptide out of my pocket and uncapped it. I hesitated for a moment. I was scared. Then the Minotaur raised its hands and formed them into fists to crush Grover.

"HEY! OZONE KILLER! OVER HERE!"

It turned, roar/mooed, and charged. Not one of my best ideas, but I didn't have a choice. As the beast got close my body went on autopilot. I charged forward to meet him in the last few feet, sidestepped his huge fist, ducked under the other, and slashed at his leg as I ran past him towards Grover. As I reached him, I turned to see the Minotaur where I left him still kneeling and bleeding. I bent down and pulled Grover up.

"Come on buddy. We can make it."

Apparently, the Minotaur was a lot faster and quieter than I thought because we suddenly got hit again. The hit seemed softer but larger somehow. The pain made me drop Riptide and let go of Grover. I landed beside the big pine tree. The feeling of something stabbing into my thigh and side exploded into existence. I stood as quickly as I could manage and began my visual search for Riptide. It was in the perfect position of right in between the Minotaur's feet. Well. Guess I'll die.

Suddenly the black, red, and yellow lightning were back. Then as quick as it came it was gone and a black, single edged, straight spine sword was left in its place. What had Mr. Br- Chiron called it in lecture? A kopis? No. That wasn't right is starts with a 'm'. A macarena? No. A makhaira. That's it.

I looked back at the Minotaur as it sniffed the air. It should be able to see me. Why wasn't it coming to kill me? Was it blind? I stood slowly and eased the sword out of the dirt. No change from the big guy. If he couldn't see me, he would have a really hard time tracking me if I went slow enough that the rain drowned out my footsteps and he wasn't having any luck with the booger monster that was his nose. I had barely gotten within striking distance when the Minotaur let loose another roar/moo and swung both hands at me in a large sweeping motion. I rolled under the strike and returned it with a downward chop cutting off one horn. Instantly he put one of his hands up to the stump. It was an opening, but it was on the wrong side. I repeated my previous motion and the second horn fell the same as the first. He had both hands feeling the stumps. That was my opening. I stabbed at his chest but as soon as I broke the skin the sword deflected downward and lodged in his stomach. Maybe I hit a rib? I had to let go of the sword as the Minotaur brought both hands down in a clapping motion, like a toddler trying to smash a mosquito. I rolled between his legs and a few feet further. I started to get up on one knee when I felt something cold under the knee that was still on the ground. The glowing bronze blade of Riptide was there. In one fluid motion, I grabbed the handle, stood up, lunged and then with everything I had left stabbed Riptide into the upper back of the Minotaur. Just like Mrs. Dodds, the Minotaur turned to golden sand and blew away. I fell, front first, to the ground with the two swords, exhausted.

As I turned myself over, to look at the sky, the rain started coming down even harder. It felt good. Cool against my overheated body. I could feel my thigh, side, and aching hands start to numb. I closed my eyes and the pounding in my head turned to a dull thudding.

Maybe this was okay. Maybe I wasn't cut out for this whole demigod thing. I was still haunted by Mrs. Dodds and demigods were supposed to do this kinda thing all the time? Could I do that? No. I was a coward. I nearly just got my best friend killed because I was a coward. I hoped Grover was going to be okay. Yeah, this was okay. Best for everybody I don't get another chance to mess up and get someone killed.

The rain stopped hitting my face. Just my face. I managed to force one eye open. Grover was there staring down at me. I did my best to crack a grin but that just made Grover look more worried.

From there I only remember bits and pieces. At some point, Grover had pulled me up and put one of my arms around his shoulders. He was basically dragging me. From what I remember, I did the best I could, but my legs just refused to work properly. The last thing I remember before blacking out completely was trying to get up the front steps of a really big house.

(AN: Totally wasn't thinking about ending the chapter here at all…)

"Hmm… A son of the sea. Interesting."

I tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. It was dark. Darker than anywhere I had ever been to before. Was I dead?

"Who's there?"

"Eventually? A friend but for now I am no one of importance to your demigod. Fortunately for both of us, you are not dead."

"Are you reading my mind?"

"We are in your mind. Of course, I am reading your mind."

"Oh. Why is it so dark?"

"Well it is not completely your mind part of this is a representation of where I am and part of it is your mind. You are so close to death that your brain doesn't have much more input than your consciousness to give. But enough of that. How are you feeling?"

"Well, you just said I was dying so I don't think I'm doing too well."

"HAHAHA. I said that you were close to death not dying. You are not getting any closer to death. In fact, you are making quite the speedy recovery. I meant how are you doing mentally?"

"Haven't really had time to think about it."

"Mhmm."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You had your last night at Yancy, the entire day of riding in an automobile, and days spent lying in that bed you're in now, but you haven't thought about it?"

I stopped to think about that for a moment and opened my mouth to say something when I felt another presence enter my mind. At first, it seemed like just a presence then everything erupted in pain. There was so much noise, like a hurricane.

"Looks like we're out of time. Get well soon."

I opened my eyes but then immediately closed them again. The light was too much. I sat up and shielded my eyes. After I gave them some time to adjust my eyes started working like normal. I looked around and saw that I had been laying in a bed like the voice said. Looking around some more I saw I was in a small room. One window. One door. Chest of drawers. The light in the middle of the ceiling was off so the only light source was the window. I had to have been here for at least two nights and a day for that storm to have passed through. Or days like the voice had said. I stood. Both my legs and the floorboards groaned.

I could feel my face turning red. I was in only boxers. Examining my body more closely I noticed my hands, thigh, and side were bandaged. Deciding I needed clothes, I walked over to the chest of drawers. On top I found my old pair of Nikes', a pair of socks, a new orange "Camp Half-Blood" t-shirt, a new pair of jeans, and what looked to be a super-sized shoe box. I put on the clothes first and then opened the box. There was two white with black tips horns in it. The Minotaur. I cut his horns off.

I put the lid back on the box. I felt something in the pocket of the jeans. Holding the box in one hand I stuck my hand into my pocket. I pulled out a familiar pen, Riptide, and a pitch-black wallet with a chain that was also black. What? This wasn't mine. My thoughts went back to the black makhaira. I opened the wallet. There was about $200 cash in the big pocket, two cards in the middle small pocket, and a loose note.

"Don't lose the cards. The wallet and chain will always return to you like Riptide. If things are left outside the wallet, they will not be taken with it when it moves back to you. The PIN for both cards it 0818. The black one you use as a credit card. The red one is an ATM card, basically, use this whenever you need more cash. Don't worry it works at every functioning ATM. Remember about the small pouches, drachma on the right, denarii on the left. The cards should have more money than you should ever need unless you try to pay off the national debt or something like that. It probably goes without saying but keep this to yourself except for one person. You will know them when you meet them. -Rube Fi Out

P.S To get the sword put the wallet in your pocket and attach the chain to a belt or belt loop then pull on the chain. If you need it to go back to being a chain drop it and it will go back in a few minutes."

I put everything back in the wallet where it was except the note which I put with the cash. I put the whole wallet in my front left pocket and attached the chain to the belt loop on my hip. Riptide was placed in my front right pocket. I liked that as just a sword more.

I did what I could to mentally prepare myself for what was essentially demigod boot camp. When I opened the door there was a short hall with a few more doors and a set of stairs down. I chose the stairs. Looking around I found what I think was the front door and exited the building. I stepped out on to the porch and recognized those damn steps. I looked right, nothing. I looked left and found Chiron, Grover, and a pudgy guy playing some kind of cards.

"Ah. Percy you're awake. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

[AN: DONE! Chapter 4 is done. More questions because I can.

1. Should I do shorter updates but update more often or keep going like I am and gradually make them longer and longer?

2. Who should Percy be with?

3. Who should Percy take on his quest with him?

4. How long should the quest take approximately?

5. Should Percy have his 'demigod dreams'?

6. Should I keep dropping little hints to my future plans?

7. Should there be any non-canon characters?

8. When should the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians meet?

9. Who liked my nickname for the Minotaur?

10. Am I keeping a good pace for the story?]