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Chapter 3

We Learn about Bullfighting

As soon as the Gray Ladies Cab pulled to an almost complete stop I jump out, and ran up Half-Blood Hill. I could tell that Percy and Tyson were running after me.

At the top of the hill there was two bulls. They weren't ordinary bulls either, they were bronze bulls the size of elephants, maybe even bigger. I thought that was it, but then a bull turned towards me, and blew fire at me. My training kicked in, and I rolled to the side, nearly missing the fire. Then I knew exactly what kind of bull it was, it was a Colchis bull.

Usually no monsters get into camp ( when except that one hydra a few years ago...) because of the camp's magical borders. How did these bulls get into camp? Unless- if the borders weren't working.

Clarisse was in trouble. One of her soldiers ran down the hill to the infirmary with his helmet on fire. The grass was on fire in huge patches. Thalia's pine tree was out of the way of the fire, thank the gods. Clarisse's armor was charred. The only weapon she had was her broken spear shaft, the other end of the spear was in the shoulder of one of the bulls.

Percy uncapped his pen/ sword. He was going into danger again, I thought sighing.

"Tyson stay here. I don't want you taking any more chances." Percy said.

"No!" I argued. "We need him."

"He's mortal. He got lucky at the school, but-"

"Percy, do you know what those are over there? The Colchis bulls, they were made by Hephaestus himself. We can't fight them without Medea's Sunscreen SPF 50,000. Or we will be burned to a crisp."

"Medea's what?"

I dug through my backpack and cursed. Where was it?

"I had a jar of Medusa's Sunscreen tropical coconut scent sitting on my desk back home! Why didn't I bring it?" I said, facepalming.

"Look," Percy said, squatting next to me, putting his hand on my shoulder. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I am not going to let Tyson get fried."

"Percy-"

"Tyson, stay back. I'm going in."

Tyson tried to protest, but Percy was already running and yelling at Clarisse to get the soldiers into phalanx formation (I guess if he knows that, he kind of was paying attention at camp classes). Whatever soldiers that were listening immediately did what he said. They lined up shoulder to shoulder, locking their shields to form a bronze wall, their spears on top. That was only six campers, the rest had gone crazy.

I turned to the crazy campers, and tried to calm them. When I realized it was worthless I ran up to one of the bulls and got it to chase me, then I put on my invisibility cap, confusing it.

The other bull charged at Clarisse's line.

"Hold the line!"

I was just about to return visible when the bull lost interest, and charged at Clarisse's unprotected side.

"Behind you! Look out!" Percy yelled to her. Clarisse turned to Percy trying to hear what he had said, but the bull crashed into her shield, and the line broke. Poor Clarisse went flying backward, and landed in a smoking patch of grass. The bull turned to the now broke up line, and sprayed fire at them, the campers went screaming and running down the hill into camp. Bull number one turned back towards Clarisse and charged. Percy ran to Clarisse to save her, he grabbed the straps of her armor, and moved her back. He swiped again at bull number two as it ran on by.

"Let me go! Percy curse you!" Clarisse yelled.

I yelled at the other campers to form ranks. Percy dropped Clarisse by Thalia's pine tree, and turned towards the bulls. I kept shouting things while I watched Percy, wishing I could help him somehow. He did look pretty cute when he was concentrated though.

Bull number two charged right towards Percy. He waited and rolled right on time, his foot caught on a tree root and it twisted to an odd angle, he had most definitely sprained it. I gasped, and started to dig though my backpack again. I kept thinking, save Percy, save Percy. When I looked up again I saw that somehow he managed to cut off bull number two's snout through causing it go turn around, disoriented. Percy was trying to stand, his left leg buckled underneath him, he yelled.

"Tyson go help him! I, Annabeth Chase, give you permission to enter camp! " I yelled.

Thunder shook the hill. Tyson ran towards Percy to help him while I continued to dig around in my bag. I knew I had nectar somewhere in this backpack. Finally, I found it.

When I turned back to Tyson he had just smushed in the bulls nose.

"Bad cow!" he yelled, I threw my bag by a tree, and started to run towards Percy.

Where Tyson had punched the bull, a small crater on his face appeared. Tyson continued punching the cow until it fell back, defeated.

Now with the one bull gone I took that time to continue running over to Percy. His face was distorted with pain. He had most definitely sprained his ankle. I told him to drink some nectar, and he did happily. He sat up then, feeling better already. Praise the gods that he's okay, I thought.

"The other bull?" he asked.

I took a second to look around. I truthfully had no idea what had happened to the other bull. Then I saw a huge bull running in circles. I pointed it out to Percy. Clarisse had taken out this bull, she had impaled it's back leg with the rest of her spear. Now it's snout was gone, and it had a huge gash in it's side.

Clarisse pulled of her helmet, and marched towards us. A part of her hair was smoking, she didn't seem to notice through.

"You ruin everything! I had it under control!" she yelled at Percy.

"Good to see you too." I muttered.

"Argh! Don't ever try to save me again!"

"Clarisse, you have wounded campers."

That made her wake up.

"I'll be back." she grumbled, walking away.

"You didn't die." Percy said, turning to Tyson who had joined us.

"I am sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you." he muttered.

"My fault, I had no choice. I had to let him cross the line. Otherwise you would have died." I said to Percy.

"You let him cross the cross the line?" Percy asked.

"Percy," I sighed. "Have you ever really looked at Tyson's face? Closely, I mean. Ignore the Mist, and really look."

Percy very slowly looked up, and he realized, finally, that Tyson was a cyclops.

"Tyson... you're a..."

"Cyclops. A baby, by the looks. He's one of the homeless ones."

"One of the what?"

"They're in almost in all the big cities. They're mistakes Percy. Children of spirits and gods... mostly one god through... Now one wants them. We should take him to Chiron." I didn't tell Percy that most cyclops' fathers were Poseidon.

Percy was still in shock sitting on his bottom when Clarisse returned.

"Jackson, if you can stand, get up. We need to carry the wounded to the infirmary, and let Tantalus know what happened." she said.

"Who is Tantalus?" Percy asked.

"The activities director."

"No that's Chiron. Where is Argus? He should be here."

Clarisse sighed. "Argus was fired. You two have been gone too long, things are changing."

"But, Chiron has trained kids for thousands of years. Where is he? What happened?" Percy asked.

"That happened." Clarisse said pointing to the tree.

She had pointed to Thalia's tree.

Everyone knew the story behind the tree. Six years ago, Grover, Thalia, Luke, and I had been going to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters. We had gotten cornered on the hill. Thalia had made her last stand there, so that Luke, Grover, and I could reach safety. I cried so hard when she died. Luke had to carry me into camp, I was such a mess. When she was dying Zeus turned her into a pine tree, her favorite. After she was a tree she shined so brightly. Her spirit formed the magical borders around the camp that kept monsters out of camp.

Looking at it now more closely I realized something was wrong. The pine needles were all yellow, they never turned that color, not even in winter. Large piles of dead pine needles surrounded the entire tree and around it. In the center of the tree it was worse. There was a mark the size of a bullet hole that was oozing green sap.

Percy shivered and I started to cry. I now had an understanding what was happening. All the monsters recently, and why the borders were failing. Thalia's tree was dying, because someone had poisoned it. Thalia was dying.

So sad:( poor Thalia. Cheer up an author and leave a review?