MASTER OF TIME

Installment One: Percy Jackson and the Olympians,
The Lightning Thief

by Tannin & Tele

Disclaimer: All rights belong to J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan, voiding that of original content and characters.

CHAPTER FOUR: ONE HOOF IN FRONT OF THE OTHER

Manhattan, New York

Early Summer, 2006

"If you want to get away without your hanger-on, I suggest running before he gets back from the loo." Harry had informed me as Grover went dashing off to the bathroom, his bladder acting up. Again. I should feel bad for following Harry's advice, but I probably would have ended up ditching Grover with or without Harry's input.

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, even more than usual.

The bus from Yancy had broken down on the highway, and we were forced to evacuate next to a lone fruit stand with three creepy ladies guarding it. The women had stared at me the entire time with wide, pale eyes that seemed to read into my very soul- which, after Mrs. Dodds ordeal, rubbed me the wrong way. Grover was very, very anxious after the encounter, while Harry just watched on bemusedly. None of them had much to say on the subject, other than vague mutterings on Grover's part about: "Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

Grover had pleaded for me to let him walk me home from the bus station, and I couldn't say no to those big, watery doe eyes, could I? But...yeah, I ditched him. Oops.

As for my other friend; well, when I glanced back after boarding the taxi (on it's way to East One-hundred-and-fourth and First), I could see Harry waving goodbye from a wide window, eyes glistening with veiled humor. I lifted a hand to return the sentiment when a car rolled past, and Harry was gone with a blur of black and green.

Montauk, New York

I woke with a start.

Lightning was crashing outside of our cabin, the kind of storm that breaks oak trees into splinters and blows down houses. There were no animals on the beach, just lightning making false daylight and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. With the next thunderclap, my mom awoke with a jolt. She stared at me, breath catching as lightning flashed above us.

"Hurricane," she told me.

I knew that was crazy; Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer, but the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. Then came a much closer noise; a desperate voice. Someone was yelling, pounding frantically on our cabin door. My mother jumped out of bed, nightgown trailing against the floor, and threw open the lock.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. I stared in bewilderment as he struggled to slam the door shut behind him. "Searching all night," he gasped, clutching his side. "What on Gaia's good Earth were you thinking, Percy?!"

My mother looked at me, startled, and began wringing the fabric of her gown. "Percy..." she started warily. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

I couldn't speak for fear of her reaction, although she seemed pretty chill about Grover's sudden appearance in the middle of the night. "O Zeu kai alloi theoi! It's right behind me!" he suddenly shouted as a roar sounded outside, his voice sounding strange. "Why didn't you tell her?"

My mom looked at me darkly, and spoke in a tone she only used on Gabe's ugly friends when they pressed their cigarettes butts into the couch cushions. "Percy!" she demanded. "Tell me now!"

I stammered something unintelligent about the fruit stand, Mrs. Dodds, Harry and his sword; all-the-while trying to down-play the scary parts, but failing miserably. She paled to that of a corpse, and in an instant she had grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the Camaro while I staggered behind, watching his gait. Grover wasn't really...running. It was more of a trot, really. I glanced down at his feet, and felt my face go green. I'd been too shocked to register it before, but where Grover's feet should be were...cloven hoofs. He wasn't human. He was...he was part goat.

Horror registered in my expression. "-what the hell!"

"Percy, now is not the time!" My mother screamed at me.

Wind rattled the Camaro and rain splattered against the wind-sheild as we tore through the night.

I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot plastered to the accelerator. The silence was deafening, and all I could think to say through the pounding of my head was was, "So, do you and my mom... know each other?"

Grover's eyes flitted anxiously to the rearview mirror, although there were no cars behind us. "Not...exactly," he hedged. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

"Watching me?" I asked, feeling a bit affronted. "What does that mean?"

"Keeping tabs on you." Grover clarified. "Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

Hiding my relief, I cleared my throat. "Okay, but... what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now." Grover interjected nervously, forcing his eyes away.

A strangled noise erupted from my throat. "It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"

Grover let out a sharp, throaty bleat. "Baa-ha-ha! Goat!" He cried indignantly. "I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter." I pointed out.

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

"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? Was Harry a myth?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds." I said, crossing my arms. "You told me Harry was just tricking me. You made me think I was crazy."

"...yes."

I paused, unsure if I should be angry or not. "Then why-"

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

"Harry said the exact opposite." I said, irritated. "He said that they'd come anyways, 'regardless of my astonishing ignorance'. But he also called you a 'gormless pillock'," I conceded. "Whatever that means."

"You shouldn't trust him." Grover told me huffily. "He smells weird, and he hurt Mr. Brunner...we think."

"You think he hurt Brunner?" I asked wryly. "And he smells weird? Maybe like a regular, B.O. riddled teenage boy? Quite the assurance you have, there."

Grover glared. "Anyways, we had hoped that you'd think the Kindly One was just a hallucination. We put the Mist over the humans' eyes, but it was no good. You started to realize who you are. Even more, the Mist didn't work on Harry- which just proves he's untrustworthy," he added.

"Who I am?" I asked in bewilderment, ignoring his bellyaching. He'd been complaining about Harry for months now. "Wait a minute, what do you mean?"

A bellow erupted somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing Grover was right on our trail. I began twitching in my seat, hoping that this was all just a bad dream. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," my mom said from the front seat. She never once tore her eyes from the road, not even to brush back the hair in her face. "But there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

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

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said moodily, obviously still flustered. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"Grover!" My mom didn't much appreciate his sarcasm, and made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses, wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" I asked her anxiously, craning my neck to peer through the rain-splattered window.

"The summer camp I told you about." Her voice was tight and strangled. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want me to go." I accused, voice sharp.

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

"I've been in danger for a long while, Mom! Harry had to save me from Mrs. Dodds by killing her, and he told me that those old ladies who cut the yarn-"

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover interrupted. "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."But Harry said-"

"Enough about Harry!" Grover snapped. "You only met him a few months ago and all of a sudden it's 'Harry this' and 'Harry that'. I'm your best friend, Percy! Can't you just trust me for once?"

I scoffed at him, defensive. "Harry's been a hell of a lot more trustworthy in these last months that you have! At least he's telling me what he knows!"

"He shouldn't know anything, Percy, that's the point! And the fact that he does means he's one of them! Or worse!"

"One of what?! For God's sake, Grover, can't you give me a straight answer for once?!"

"If I could, I would-"

"Boys!" my mom interjected as our voices rose. She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid.

"What was that?!" I demanded, in a panic. "That looked like-"

"We're almost there," my mother soothed, 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.

For some reason, I began wishing for Harry's presence. He wasn't a calming person, by any means- but at least he was adept at explaining, and possibly fighting whatever large creature was stalking us. Then I remembered Grover's weariness regarding him.

Could I really trust him? Harry wasn't a trustworthy person by most standards, but in the last few months of school, I began to consider him a close friend- closer than Grover, even. Then again, I thought I could trust Grover, and he turned out to be half fucking goat.

Before I could even consider asking Grover, again, about his furry little problem, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling BOOM, and our car exploded. I remember feeling weightless, and yet constricted by the tight belt across my front. My eyes rolled up momentarily, and I thought I could hear screaming- my screaming. And before I knew it, the darkness had both ascended upon and disappeared all at once, and the ringing in my ears had ended.

I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat, and pressed a hand into my bleeding chin. I seemed to have smacked it on something, although I couldn't for the life of me recall what. "Ow." I said lightly, and startled as my mother called out for me.

I shook off the daze, shakily pressing my hand into her nearby shoulder. "I'm okay." I told her. "Are you?"

The car hadn't really exploded- we'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's side doors were wedged in the mud, and the roof had cracked open, rain pouring in. Lightning; that was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road.

"Yes." My mom said finally, glancing back at us. "Grover?"

Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!" I exclaimed, unbuckling quickly and moving over to cradle his head. 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 and crazy, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!'

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

I glanced up to my mother, seeing fear in her eyes. She struggled to speak, tears tracking silently down her cheeks. "Percy, we have to ..." Her voice faltered, and I followed her gaze. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. It was huge. It was monstrous. It was...a bull?

"Is that-?" I choked.

"Percy," my mother said seriously, quickly unbuckling. "We need to get out. Climb out the passenger's side!" We struggled to crawl across the seats, Grover moaning all the while. "Percy, you have to run," my mom said, pointing. "Do you see that big tree?" There was another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof, I saw the tree she meant: a huge, hulking pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," she informed me. "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," I said, voice pitching as I watched her eyes sadden. "No, no!" I demanded. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

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

I tried to protest, but she reached a hand over to brush back my matted hair. "We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."

I got mad, then; mad at my mother, at Grover, at my absentee father for leaving us, when we could have used a man in charge. But he wasn't here.

I was, though, and I wasn't leaving my own mother- my only family to be demolished by that damned bull-man's massive fists. I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you-"

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

Not waiting for an 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 began stumbling uphill through wet, waist-high grass.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was taller than the tallest basketball player, his arms and legs like tree trunks. He wore no clothes except underwear- and, I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms, which would've been funny in any other circumstance. Any other circumstance.

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, cruel black eyes, and horns. Big, huge-ass horns.

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us.

"And that's-"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother told me, grimacing as we struggled up the slope. "I just wish I'd known how badly they wanted to kill you."

"But he's the Min-"

"Don't say his name," she snapped, eyes flashing. "Names have power."

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 windows...or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned then, voice sounding more animalistic than human. I hushed him absentmindedly.

"Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she told me. "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. Oops.

"Percy, when he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way. Jump directly sideways, he can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?" My mother asked me frantically.

"And how do you know all this?" I asked her, voice raising a pitch. I was not going to fight a fucking bull.

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me." A bellow sounded, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. He'd smelled us, I realized.

Horror grew on my mother's face, identical to mine. 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.

I was certain we were going to die, and my mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover all to herself. "Go, Percy!" She shouted. "Separate! Remember what I said." I didn't want to split up, but I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. We'd reached the crest of the hill, and down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said. The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

His black eyes glowed with hate and he lowered his head, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. He charged at me suddenly, and I held my ground. At the last moment, I dived to the side and the bull-man stormed past like a freight train.

As he skidded to a stop, he roared with frustration. He turned and I tensed for another jump, but instead of barreling towards me, he moved towards my mother and Grover. I screamed out a warning, and at the same time, three things happened.

One; my mother told me to run, and I knew I never could.

Two; the Minotaur charged, long black horns glistening in the moonlight, and I was terrified she'd be impaled.

And three; a loud pop! sounded from nowhere, and a flash of bright red light erupted from thin air, sending the bull backwards ten feet into a tree with a CRASH!
AN: seriously posting is a pain. Im jumping between google docs, Word, and FFnet.