Chapter 5 : My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

3rd Person P.O.V.

"My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting," read Poseidon.

Annabeth and Grover paled at this, knowing what would happen, and didn't know how Poseidon would react. They glanced at each other and Annabeth mouthed should we tell him she's alright? Grover answered back with a nod.

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

"Sounds like Ares driving his motorcycle…" said Hephaestus, and Ares, thinking this was a compliment, buffed his chest out.

At the same time, Artemis said, "Sounds like Apollo driving his chariot when he's hungover."

Apollo huffed at that, while Artemis smirked.

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.

Grover, Artemis and, shockingly, Dionysus huffed at this, while everyone else laughed of chuckled.

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.

This caused everyone to have the same response as Percy's previous thought.

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

Graver'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 you're a stalker?" asked Leo, which caused everyone to chuckle, while Grover frowned.

"No, I'm keeping you alive, but if you want, we don't have to protect you, if you don't want us to." His comment caused everyone to stopped laughing.

"That's what I thought," said Grover, with a smirk.

"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."

"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

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

Grover frowned at this while all the demigods laughed, and Dionysus said, "Oh, he won't like that."

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."

"You just said it didn't matter."

"He got you there goat-boy," said Thalia.

Grover huffed in response.

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

"There are," warned Grover, just in case anyone (the Stolls) thought about calling one of his fellow satyrs a donkey.

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

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

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

"Of course."

"Then why—"

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

"A raving lunatic," joked Rachel.

"No that's Nico," said Thalia, with a smirk.

"Like Father, like Son," said Demeter.

"Hey!" both Nico and Hades yelled, but everyone was too busy laughing, and just ignored them.

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

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

"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?"

"A lot of people Seaweed Brain," muttered Annabeth.

"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."

This caused Poseidon to glare at Hades, who just waved back.

"Grover!"

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

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.

"Ah yes, but making up magic mushrooms, showed absolutely noooo imagination," said Hermes with obvious sarcasm.

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.

"Their close," noted Katie.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Camp Half-Blood, the coolest place in the world," said Chris, which caused all the demigods, except Jason, who said, "I can argue with that," to nod their heads in a agreement, and for Dionysus to shake his had vigorously, showing his hate for the camp he was punished to.

"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."

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

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"Normally that isn't significant, but seeing as who these old ladies were, that is a very good reason," said Piper.

"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."

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

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

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

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

"That is very confusing," said Nico.

"Boys!" my mom said.

Artemis and Thalia nodded their heads in approval with Mrs. Jackson's comment.

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.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.

"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

"Yes, please," said Poseidon.

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

Like everyone else who was on Olympus, bar Zeus, Hades, and Hera.

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

"He is the slowest person in the world," said Athena.

This caused the demigods, who knew Percy, to say, "you have no idea," in unison.

Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

"WHAT!" yelled Poseidon.

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

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

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay..."

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. 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.

Lightning.

"ZEUUSS!" yelled Poseidon, giving Zeus a deadly glare, which Zeus met with his own glare, but was uneasy, for he didn't need a war with the only other God who could possibly take his place as ruler by force.

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 looked down in shame, thinking if only I wouldn't have been knocked out, Mrs. Jackson would have been safe. It is all my fault. No, Percy doesn't blame you, you have to stop thinking like this.

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!

Everyone who knew Percy, knew he wouldn't let anything happen to Grover.

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

Everyone laughed at this, while Grover blushed.

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

Everyone who didn't know what had happened already gasped in realization of the monster, and were shocked that this was the second monster he faced.

I swallowed hard. "Who is—"

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

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

"Oh look, I'm mentioned," said Thalia, trying to lighten the mood. It helped a little bit.

"What?"

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.

"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."

"Mom, you're coming too."

No one knew how Mrs. Jackson was going to make it because she couldn't get into camp. Poseidon was reading with extreme worry written all over his face.

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

Poseidon winced at this, obviously sad that he had to leave her, and she was longing for him to return for so long.

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

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

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, 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 …

Everyone sighed at the fact that Percy was sooo slow, and Annabeth muttered, "Seaweed Brain."

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

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

I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,

The Stolls smiled mischievously at Grover, probably about to spread the nickname throughout camp when they returned.

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

Everyone sighed once again, Thalia, Nico, and Annabeth smiled at the fact that that was what they loved about him, then frowned remembering he wasn't there.

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."

"He is incredibly loyal," Athena said with worry showing on here face, because she believed that she discovered his fatal flaw.

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.

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

"You really should cut the grass more. Dionysus you should make it a punishment, so that these children learn how to behave," said Demeter, while everyone sighed and Hades said, "Oh be quiet woman."

This caused Demeter to glare forcefully at him.

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, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear—

"Ewww!" yelled all the girls, while the guys were looking a little sick themselves.

I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

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.

"That is a weird description, I wonder if the rest of them will be like that?" wondered Thalia.

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.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.

All of the Gods and Goddesses were surprised. However, Athena's mouth was hanging open, and she just stared at Poseidon and said, "But…. How- she.. she's smart, lover- your… HOW?"

Poseidon just chuckled in response.

"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min—"

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

If possible, Athena's jaw fell even lower, and she was too stunned to even speak.

Hera however, said to Poseidon, "you told a mortal about us!"

Poseidon answered saying, "She is clear-sighted, she saw more than most, she knew I was different, and I loved her.

Aphrodite cooed at this.

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

I glanced behind me again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win dows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"He goes by smell Seaweed Brain," muttered Annabeth.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

Grover blushed.

"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."

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. 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.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

Everyone laughed a little at this, but the situation was too tense to do anything more.

Oops.

"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?"

Athena's jaw, once again dropped, and was hanging open.

"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."

"Sally could never be selfish," said Annabeth, while those who had met her nodded in agreement.

"Keeping me near you? But—"

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

He'd smelled us.

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

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

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. 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.

Everyone crinkled their noses at this.

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

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.

Poseidon let out a sigh of relief.

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.

"No, she makes it out right?" yelled / asked Poseidon. None of the demigods gave an answer, but Annabeth's and Grover's faces darkened.

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

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.

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

"No!"

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. 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.

Poseidon was chanting, "no, no, no, no," under his breath.

"Mom!"

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

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.

"NOO!" yelled Poseidon, as silent tears started falling down from his face, and he looked crestfallen.

Annabeth and Grover exchanged glances, and then Annabeth went up to Poseidon, much to the dismay of her mother, and whispered she isn't dead, she's alright, in Poseidon's ear. At hearing this, Poseidon still looked sad, but was no longing crying.

"No!"

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

Everyone who knew Percy knew the Minotaur was going to get it now.

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.

I couldn't allow that.

"Thanks Perce," muttered Grover.

I stripped off my red rain jacket.

All of the demigods who knew Percy sighed, exasperated, and Thalia said, "that was his ingenious plan?"

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

"That is a horrible insult," said Hermes and Apollo, in unison.

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

I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.

"Almost all of his ideas are," said Thalia.

"But they always seem to work out in the end," countered Nico.

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.

But it didn't happen like that.

"Of course it didn't," said Annabeth with a sigh.

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

Time slowed down.

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.

There was a shocked silence.

How did I do that?

"That is the question we all want answered," said Ares.

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.

Thalia noticeably winced, remembering feeling the impact when she was still a tree.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

Everyone wrinkled their noses at this.

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.

"Took him long enough," said Athena

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.

"Sounds like a punishment I should tell Chiron about…" said Rachel while glaring at the Stolls.

"He wouldn't, would he?" asked Travis fearfully.

"I'm sure the Hecate cabin could find a way to put it, or grow it back," answered Rachel.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

Grover looked down shamefully, while Chris patted him on the back.

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.

Everyone who knew Percy, knew the Minotaur was about to be beat.

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

"Not going to happen kid," said Ares with a smirk, thinking how only his kids would be strong enough to do what Percy was attempting to.

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

There was another stunned silence.

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

The monster charged.

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.

"That's a great move for an untrained kid," said Ares in awe.

Jason knew that if this was how good Percy was untrained, then he would have no problem making it in the Roman Camp.

The bull-man roared in agony. 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.

The monster was gone.

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. 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, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.

All of the goddesses were shocked, because he was extremely loyal, and risked his own well-being for his friends.

Artemis couldn't even belief such a man existed, and Athena was almost positive as to what his fatal flaw was.

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.

At this Annabeth blushed a deep red, and all of the demigods looked at her knowingly.

Aphrodite said, "Looks like one of my daughters, I should have fun messing with their love life," which all the Gods and Goddesses rolled their eyes at.

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

All of the demigods raised their eyebrows at Annabeth, silently asking the question he's the one, is he?

Annabeth blushed in response, while the demigods snickered.

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

All of the Olympians looked at Annabeth shocked, while the demigods snickered.

Aphrodite then started squealing, saying, "Poseidon's Son, and your Daughter like each other, Athena!"

"NO SHE DOES NOT! Right Annabeth?" yelled Athena. Poseidon, however, did not say anything, for he would wait until later to judge her. However, if she and Percy dated, as long as his son was happy, he would be okay with it.

Annabeth answered her mother's question by saying, "uh… I.. I-I... we…" While saying this, her cheeks were deep red, and Aphrodite squealed and yelled, "Ha! I KNEW it!"

"We might be dating, but I don't kno-" Annabeth started, but her mother interrupted her yelling, "This WILL NOT HAPPEN, I will NOT ALLOW IT!"

After hearing her mom say this, Annabeth got angry, stood up, and then yelled back at her mother, "NO MOM! Stay OUT of IT! I love him, and he loves me, and we're happy. If you really love me, then he will stay out of my relationship, and let me be happier than I have ever been in my life, or was," Annabeth added in an undertone.

Athena and Annabeth were looking at each other in silence, and Zeus interrupted saying, "I believe it is time for lunch, meet back here after, and we can continue reading."

At this, everyone got up from the Throne Room, Athena shocked, and deep in thought, Aphrodite squealing, and the demigods either talking to Annabeth, about what they were going to do regarding telling them of Percy's disappearance, or were walking to go eat lunch.

Well that's it was this chapter. I hope you guys liked the ending, I didn't exactly know how to right it, so like the rest of the story, I just winged it and just wrote what was on my mind at the time. Do you guys want me to write about what goes on at lunch, and the other breaks, of just skip them? I should be updating soon, for I have really felt like writing a lot, so expect the next updates to happen a little sooner than usual.

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