Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson

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We drove up to Half-blood Hill, but something was different about it. I couldn't quite pinpoint what…. Then I noticed Thalia's tree. All the needles were a sickly yellow, if not, turning yellow. A bunch already were lying in a pile around the trunk on the ground. What happened, and would this affect the barrier that protected the camp?

I swallowed hard.

"You all right?" Mrs. Alexander asked. I was driving but she was going to be driving back to New York.

I averted my eyes from the tree and looked at her.

"Uh, yeah. I'm okay." I mumbled stepping out before she could question me. I grabbed my bags from the back and turned around just as my foster mom engulfed me in a hug, I returned it before handing her the keys.

"Well, have fun this summer. Love you, sweetie." she told me.

I plastered a smile on my face.

"Love you, too. Have a safe drive home." I told her my eyes flickering toward Thalia's dying tree before going back to Mrs. Alexander.

"Thank you, darling." she said sliding into the car. I walked around the front, jogged up half of the hill and turned to wave as she drove off. I waited until she was out of sight before I spun back around and jogged up the rest of the hill. I stopped at Thalia's tree momentarily. I walked around it and noticed about three feet from the ground was a hole the size of a bullet that was oozing green sap.

"Someone poisoned it." came a disgusted voice. I jumped and turned to see one of the children from the Ares cabin standing a few feet behind me, also staring at the wound.

I circled back around to stare at the hole. My breath suddenly caught when I realized who, exactly, could have done it.

"Oh, Luke, what have you done?" I muttered under my breath, absentmindedly reaching up feeling the small, silver chain beneath my shirt. I knew exactly what this little necklace was supposed to do, and I know what you're thinking. I'm betraying the camp by doing this; you probably hate me right now. But I have a good explanation for this: I was merely wearing it just to get Luke to believe that I was still supporting him. I wasn't going to wait very long before going to look for him. I honestly didn't think it would obtain much anyway. Only what went on in camp… and if you think about it, it really isn't that bad… right?

I sighed and headed down the hill and toward the Hermes cabin for yet another summer. The camp looked really different, yet similar at the same time. There was the Big House and the cabins, the Long Island Sound, and strawberry fields, the forest and mess hall pavilion. But the difference was it didn't look like summer, where everything had blossomed, it looked like fall, where everything started dying.

That's precisely what it looked like; like the whole camp was dying. The grass was the yellow of Thalia's pine needles. The forest looked dull and lifeless, and the air of camp was dismay and gloom. Campers passed me, but their heads were down and they didn't talk at all. The only thing normal about this summer was that the sun was out and it was warm.

My heart sank. Was I already too late? Had I waited too long?

I dragged my feet into the Hermes cabin. For once things were quiet and less active, but I wasn't happy about it anymore. I wanted the noise, the craziness and unruliness because that meant things were okay—as okay as being a half-blood could get. That meant Luke had never poisoned Thalia's tree. That meant that I still had time to find him and stop him from doing more damage.

"Can you believe this?" Connor asked coming up to me as I unpacked my things. I looked up momentarily at him before going back to my bag.

I shook my head. "No, I can't. This is terrible." I murmured biting my lip and reaching up to make sure I still had the necklace. I was becoming way too paranoid now.

"Did you hear that Chiron and Argus, both, were dismissed?" Connor continued. My mouth fell open and I turned to look at him.

"What? They can't just do that? Can they?" I asked in disbelief.

Connor shrugged like this was old news. He was just updating me because I'd just arrived.

"Someone had to take the blame, right?" he asked. I looked at him. It was so odd to see him so out of character.

"Well… who's the new activities director then?" I asked turning back to my things and slowly unpacking them.

"Tantalus."

I'd heard of him vaguely… I think. But it wasn't like I could remember him at this very moment though.

"Oh, right." I muttered. Connor walked off. I sighed and, yet again, reached up to feel that chain hidden beneath my shirt. Was this really all worth it?

Only a few days passed before the Colchis bulls attacked. They were giant bronze bulls the size of elephants and on top of that they breathed fire. Couldn't have a giant bronze bull that didn't breathe fire, right? There were only two of them, but they could really pack a punch and the fact that when you cut them they simply bled fire and didn't stop attacking you or turn to dust, didn't help any.

Clarisse was the head of today's border patrol. I wasn't in it, and I felt like joining—believe me when I say my ADHD kicked in when I saw the patrol in their Greek armor trying to fend off the bulls—but I'd been practicing with my sword these past few days and my shoulder was still really, really sore. (Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, Tantalus was… scary, to say the least. Scary and annoying.) It was still healing, my muscles still mending, so I didn't think I'd be very much help. I'd probably end up hurting myself more.

I hated being a damsel in distress and possibly jeopardizing the other campers, so I fought the urge to fight, dug my nails into my palms, paced, and watched from the Big House porch. Watching probably wasn't the best idea, but I'd be more nervous than if I wasn't watching. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

I thought it wouldn't be bad, and it wasn't. It was terrible. We were no match for these bulls. More campers were racing up, in battle armor trying to help, while the dry grass on the hill burned, and some ran around, arms waving wildly because their horse-hair plume was on fire.

I started down the steps, thinking I needed to go help them even if I had a bad shoulder. We needed all the help we could get to, somehow, defeat these bulls. I stretched out my arm, ignoring the pain of soreness and scar tissue. (I had been lacking in my daily exercises and stretches that my half-blood friend had taught me over the past five months. I was certainly feeling it too.) I stopped in my tracks and thought about this. I wanted to help. I didn't want to look like a weakling. But… if ten campers couldn't take two of these bulls how was a half-crippled person supposed to help?

I let out a frustrated groan and sulked back up the steps to continue my pacing. I looked back up and realized that two more campers had just arrived, but they weren't wearing battle armor. If I looked real hard, squinted my eyes, and she didn't suddenly shimmer into nothingness, I could distinguish Annabeth's blond hair, and I was assuming the other person was Percy (just because Annabeth seemed to have gotten really attached to Percy since last summer… also because of his black hair).

I watched immersed in what was happening on the hill now. I had even stopped pacing.

At the moment, Annabeth was distracting the bull by grabbing its attention and then turning invisible which thoroughly confused it. But it lost interest very fast and focused its laser-red eyes on Clarisse who was busy with the other bull.

My pounding heart jumped as it ran at Clarisse who had no idea what was coming. I heard—I think it was Percy—yell something but it only made things worse. Clarisse stopped fighting, slightly startled. That gave one of the bulls enough time to ram into Clarisse. She went flying and landed in a smoking heap of grass. That bull stampeded past her, torching the other camper's shields on the way. They melted right off their arms. The other bull then lowered its head and you could just see the steam come from its nose as it blew out, ready to charge and deliver the killing blow.

Thankfully, Percy plunged toward Clarisse, grabbing her armor straps and dragging her inches away from the bull's feet as it charged past.

Clarisse struggled, her arms flailing. I could hear her cries of protest as he continued to drag her toward the pine tree.

Percy turned ready to face the bulls, but they were both coming toward him and I didn't think he could take on two of these bulls at once. He started toward one bull but quickly ducked and rolled out of the way as it blew fire right where Percy had been standing not a second ago. Unfortunately, as I watched Percy roll, it looked like his foot had gotten caught on something because he stopped suddenly and one of his hands automatically went to grab his leg. As the bull came toward him, he managed to raise his sword and sever off some of its snout.

It ran off shaking its head.

I turned my eyes back to Percy. He was trying to stand up, but as soon as he put pressure on his damaged leg he fell back down. I grimaced. I knew what that felt like, only on a different limb.

Now, the other bull was coming straight toward him. It looked hopeless. Vaguely I heard Annabeth scream something but I was too caught up in what was happening with Percy.

There was a yelling in response but I didn't recognize the voice. Annabeth yelled once again and suddenly a big, tall, lumbering… person appeared at the crest of the hill. The bull was nearing Percy now, getting ready to fry him. Just before I thought he was a goner, the big guy jumped in front of him as the bull blew as much fire as a solar flare. I gasped and put my hand up to my mouth in shock.

But I wasn't as shocked when the fire and smoke cleared and this person… er, should I say Cyclops, was unharmed. Not a burn on him. His clothes weren't even burnt. Since when did they pick up a Cyclops?

The bull got ready to blow more fire, but before it could the Cyclops smashed his fist into the bull's snout.

I could hear him cry, "Bad Cow!" from where I was standing, he was so mad.

The snout was totally crushed. The flame he'd been saving shot out his ears. The Cyclops didn't pause, he merely threw another punch. Steam started to propel out in odd places now that its head was totally crushed in. The other bull was nowhere to be seen, so I figured that it had run off or had been tamed on the other side of the hill where I couldn't see.

I felt all the muscles in my body loosen. It was over, for now. Who knew when another monster would realize how unprotected we were and attack.

I took a deep breath and headed slowly down the steps and back to my cabin, Clarisse's screams of anger the only noise I could hear. Then it just stopped.

I went inside and heavily sat down on my sleeping bag. I needed to start up my stretches again. I reached up to rub my right shoulder, and rolled it. This was killing me. How did people recover from injuries like these? Did they ever fully recover?

I closed my eyes for a moment and realized just how tired I was. I slowly lied down and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Only, it felt like five minutes later did the conch horn sound and wake me up. I groaned and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I stood up and realized that everyone was staring at me. The cabin had really filled up since I was last in here.

But I couldn't really understand why they were staring at me…. Oh wait. If Luke left and I was the oldest now, did that mean I was the head counselor of cabin eleven? Tantalus didn't say anything or talk to me about it, but I guess he wasn't as… reliable as Chiron was.

I sighed.

"Uh… eleven, fall in." I muttered walking out so we'd have enough room to line up. It was so weird that I was at the head now. How did I not realize this before? I could've saved myself total embarrassment back there!

We marched up the hill to mess hall.

All the other cabins were already there: Ares, who was led by Clarisse. She had an arm in a sling and a gash on her face, but she didn't seem too disturbed. When she turned and I saw the piece of paper someone had managed to tape on her back I felt bad for her and then tried not to laugh. (It had YOU MOO GIRL! written on it in big letters.) No one was particularly concerned about telling her.

Then there was the Athena cabin, which looked the most alike. All boys and girls had grey eyes and blond hair, like Annabeth, and their mother Athena. The Hephaestus cabin (which only had six kids in it) led by a big, fifteen-year-old African American kid named Charles Beckendorf (who was amazing with forging things). And all the rest: Demeter, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Dionysus.

The naiads, who came from the lake and the dryads who materialized out of their trees and then the satyrs who came from the meadow. I hadn't realized that we were so late. It was probably my fault…. It was just odd. I was so used to Luke being the counselor.

I sat down from scraping some of my food into the brazier, and not a moment later did someone exclaim, "Who invited that?" I turned and looked. Standing in the middle of the pavilion was Percy—who was now glaring over at the Apollo table—and his Cyclops friend.

"Well, well," Mr. D drawled, "if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete."

Percy's hands balled into fists and his jaw started working.

"Percy Jackson… sir." he added the last word as if it was a afterthought.

Mr. D sipped is diet coke totally ignoring the acid in Percy's voice. "Yes. Well, as young people say these days: Whatever." Huh, pretty good impression….

I turned to look at Mr. D and the person sitting next to him, taking the spot where Chiron would usually sit. He was deathly pale, as thin as a stick, and wore an orange jumpsuit with a number that read: 0001. He had dark purple bruises under his yes, disgusting fingernails, and his grey hair looked like it was cut carelessly. His twitchy eyes were trained on Percy.

"This boy, you need to watch. Poseidon's child, you know." Mr. D said pointing and nodding.

Tantalus's eyes lit up as much as they possibly could. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "That one." he smiled coldly, his eyes flashing with an evil-like glare. "I am Tantalus. On special assignment until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble."

"Trouble?" Percy demanded his anger rising.

Tantalus smiled wider and sat back looking very pleased with himself. "Yes, trouble. You caused plenty of it last summer, I understand."

Percy looked beyond words now, he was so livid.

A satyr took this time of silence to hesitantly trot up to the table and set a steaming plate of barbeque down in front of Tantalus. His eyes sparkled with hunger now, as he licked his lips. Then his eyes flickered to his empty goblet. "Root beer." he requested. "Barq's special stock. 1967."

The glass filled up and our new activities director hesitantly reached out, looking afraid.

"Go on, then, old fellow," Mr. D coaxed with an unusual, teasing gleam in his eye. "Perhaps now it will work."

There was a pause before Tantalus tried to snatch the glass. It skittered away before he could wrap his fingers around it. A few drops of soda had spilled when the glass had lurched. Tantalus tried to dab up those few drops but they rolled away like when you tried to put two same side magnets together. He snarled and turned toward the barbeque. He snatched up a fork and tried to stab a piece, but the plate danced down the table and off the end strait into the coals of the brazier.

"Curses!" Tantalus snapped.

"Ah, well," Mr. D said, his tone oozing with false sympathy. "Perhaps a few more days. Believe me, old chap, working at this camp will be torture enough. I'm sure your old curse will fade eventually."

"Eventually," Tantalus scoffed. "Do you have any idea how dry one's throat gets after three thousand years."

"You're the spirit from the Fields of Punishment." Percy said finding his voice again. "The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but you can't eat or drink."

Way to call him out. I wondered who picked him out for us: the gods? Just Dionysus?

"A real scholar, aren't you, boy?" he sneered.

Percy's expression turned slightly impressed. "You must've done something really horrible when you were alive. What was it?"

Tantalus's eyes narrowed, his gaze becoming penetrating. Did Percy always have to cross lines? Was it just part of his personality? Did he even know when he had crossed that line?

"I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson," our activities director warned in deadly serious tone. "I don't want any problems at my camp."

"Your camp has problems already… sir." Again it was like an afterthought. That or it was hard for him to call someone like Tantalus "sir."

Dionysus rolled his eyes and let out a big, long sigh. "Oh, go sit down, Johnson. I believe that table over there is yours—the one where no one else ever wants to sit." Percy's face turned beet red and I felt sorry for the kid.

He started to turn toward his table while muttering, "Come on, Tyson."

Was that the Cyclops's name?

"Oh, no," Tantalus intervened. "The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."

"Him," Percy lashed out. "His name is Tyson." Our activities director raised an eyebrow, keeping his penetrating eyes on Percy. You could tell it was a challenge. "Tyson saved the camp," Percy insisted. "He pounded those bronze bulls. Otherwise they would've burned down this whole place."

Tantalus sat back. "Yes," he exhaled loudly, "and what a pity that would've been." Sarcasm was dripping out of his voice. Dionysus smirked.

"Leave us," Tantalus barked with a wave of his hand, "while we decide this creature's fate."

I turned back to look at Percy and Tyson. Tyson had turned to look over at Percy, whose expression looked absolutely torn.

"I'll be right over here, big guy," he promised guilt already visible in his eyes… well to me anyway. "Don't worry. We'll find you a good place to sleep tonight."

Tyson nodded. "I believe you. You are my friend." The guilt in his eyes intensified. Percy turned and walked over to his empty table, his feet dragging. Then got up again to scrape some of his food into the flames.

"Yes, well," Tantalus sighed when everyone was done eating and all the talking had stopped. "Another fine meal!" he exclaimed, his eyes flickering toward an untouched dinner plate sitting across from him. His hand slowly made its way toward it, but the plate flew away as soon as his hand came about half a foot within reaching distance. "Or so I'm told." he muttered bringing his hand back. "And here on my first day of authority," he continued as if nothing had happened. "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer I hope to torture—er… interact with each and every one of you children." Ugh! I wasn't a child! Jeez. "You all look good enough to eat!"

Dionysus clapped like you did in golf; the satyrs joined unenthusiastically.

Tyson had found a place at the head table next to Tantalus. His facial expression said it all. He wasn't enjoying it one single bit. Sometimes he'd even try to scoot away from the table, but Tantalus would notice (just the like the food did) and pull him back quickly (only, I guess the food did just the opposite).

"And now some changes!" Tantalus announced giving us all a big, crooked grin. "We are reinstituting the chariot races!"

All the campers broke into talk: excitement, disbelief, anxiety. I was shocked. These races were really dangerous and vicious, but that made them fun to watch.

Tantalus continued talking, having to raise his voice as our voices rose. "Now, I know that these races were discontinued some years ago due to… ah…" He tried to think of a word. "Technical problems."

"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations." someone form the Apollo table stated.

Tantalus waved his hand. "Yes, yes. But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition." I don't know if it was just me, but that sure sounded like a threat. "Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses." He paused to let that sink in. "Oh," His voice lit up like he just remembered something, "and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for a month in which they win?"

More excitement then last time broke out amongst everyone. No chores. That was, like, the golden apple. Even I couldn't resist something like that….

"But, sir!" I looked to see who had said this.

Clarisse, daughter of Ares, was objecting to something violent and potentially life-threatening? Hades had officially frozen over.

"What about patrol duty?" she asked not hearing the snickering going on behind her back. "I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots—"

"Ah," Tantalus's eyes lit up. "The hero of the day." he complimented. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls!" Ah, flattery, the second best to bribery.

Clarisse blushed like mad. "Um, I didn't—" she stuttered.

"And modest, too." Tantalus said in admiration. "Not to worry my dear! This is summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"

"But, the tree—" She broke off as some of her siblings pulled her back into her seat and glared at her.

"And now," Tantalus quickly yelled to get everyone's attention once again. "Before we proceed to the campfire and sing-a-long, one slight housekeeping issue." His evil little grin appeared on his grungy face again. "Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." he waved his hand in Tyson's direction.

Murmuring broke out yet again and a lot of people looked over at Percy. I was one of them. He was glowering murderously at Tantalus at the moment.

"Now, of course," he started making it sound like it was obvious to everyone. "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release the beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous." His head turned towards me. I instantly looked down at the table as he said, "Hermes's cabin, possibly?" I didn't say a word.

I would've if we had room, but we didn't even have room for us right now, let alone a six-foot Cyclops.

Tantalus clicked his tongue. My head snapped up to him again. "Come now, the monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?"

People gasped, Tantalus scooted away from Tyson in surprise. I clenched my jaw and looked down again. I would've walked off like I did last time, but this was a little more public. In the woods no one really paid attention to me. If I stood up and stalked off now, especially being the counselor of the Hermes cabin, people would notice and ask questions.

I simply sat there and stared at the table as everyone broke out into laughter, Tantalus taking the lead.

I sat there so seething mad that I couldn't even feel sorry for Percy (not about having a half-brother that was a Cyclops… well maybe a little, but because of the ridicule he was going to endure for the next three months). Poseidon would claim a Cyclops, but Apollo wouldn't claim me? What was that all about? It just made me want to hit something or maim something. I was very, very tempted to just walk off then. I don't think anyone would care—

You know what, I didn't really care anymore. Everyone was too busy laughing at Tyson. I'd just go down to the amphitheater when they were done. I stood up and stalked off back to the Hermes cabin.

Things were finally calming down at camp (I mean monster wise; the laughter and taunting of Percy and Tyson was nonstop, but you know, other that…). Sure it'd only been, like, two days but it was really easy to get back into the routine of camp life. Of course being counselor is definitely different, but my duties weren't very hard compared to other things I'd gone through.

The teams that had signed up were getting ready for the chariot races, planning, and mapping out blueprints to create the best chariots that would, hopefully, win the race. I wasn't too into actually racing, but they were entertaining to watch. So, I stuck to my daily activities. Right now I was practicing my archery. I pulled an arrow out and got ready to release when I heard someone approach.

"Tori," I lowered my bow-and-arrow, and turned around. It was Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Tantalus said he needed to talk to you immediately. He's waiting at the Big House." she informed me.

"Did he say why?" I inquired.

She shook her head. "He just said to come get you."

"Okay… uh, thanks." She nodded and quickly jogged off. Odd, Tantalus didn't even bother to tell me I was counselor, now he needs to urgently talk to me? I put my bow and arrows away before heading over to the Big House.

I just thought it was going to be normal. I mean, as normal as talking to a spirit from the Fields of Punishment can be. Just a normal talk about something from camp: something trivial, or something that had to do with chores, or… you know, camp stuff.

I was not expecting to walk into the Big House to find someone other than Tantalus.

At first, I totally thought it was Luke. I mean, this guy had the same sandy-colored hair, and he looked really close to nineteen (well twenty now), probably eighteen at the most. But when I took another look and realized who it was, well, let's just say I was… shocked.

Yeah… you could say I was shocked.

Apollo was sitting at one of the tables listening to his iPod. He was certainly dressed like an eighteen-year-old boy: t-shirt, jeans… except for the loafers; I didn't see a lot of teenage boys wearing loafers.

He looked up when I walked in.

I was now over the shock, confusion taking its place. I was too stunned to really do the proper thing, which was probably to kneel before him until he told me otherwise, but I was expecting Tantalus, an evil Underworld-dwelling spirit, not Apollo a major god of Olympus. They were complete opposites from each other.

I looked at him, and then the door, and then at him again. Opening my mouth to speak, but no sound coming out. My brain was totally frozen.

I found my voice again and said, "Well… you are clearly not Tantalus." but I was mostly telling myself this. "So, I guess, I will just… be going… now." I sidled toward the door, but when I turned to quickly leave, someone was blocking it. A someone I knew all too well. "Or not." I muttered turning back around and taking a few steps away from him.

Awesome.

Stuck in a room with a father who won't claim me and a brother who could care less about me or my sorry life.

I apologize for the uneventfulness, but this was really just more of a filler chapter. Hope you enjoyed anyway!

.happiness.

~ See you at Camp Half-Blood!