Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or Camp Half-Blood or mythology. Rick does. Well, at least the characters and Camp Half-Blood.

Chapter 11

From Delaware Bay, Percy guided the boat to the Delaware River. Like with Chesapeake, as soon as he entered the river, all his energy depleted. It didn't help that he'd had a nightmare.

The worst part of it all: he wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

His mother had said some pretty bad things—things she never would have said. Even then, they were horrible. Percy found it hard to concentrate on directing the boat with the nightmare in mind. Kronos definitely knew how to punish people, and Percy never wanted to experience anything like that ever again. But in all that, he had learned something. There was that brief moment when he used both his fury and a happy moment in his life to defeat Polyphemus. Despite it being a dream, it had felt awesome.

The best Percy could figure, he ran out of gas somewhere off the Delaware-Maryland coast and had been guided by the current into Delaware Bay. There probably shouldn't have been a way to get from Miami to Delaware in a speed boat even with two hundred dollars' worth of gas, but he felt confident into the ocean.

He stopped the boat at a town called Wilmington.

Immediately, he was tracked down by a hellhound and had to make a break for it. He was running by a café and noticed the month on the billboard outside: GUSTAU. August. He cursed. There wasn't much time left for summer camp at Camp Half-Blood. He couldn't believe he'd been gone for that long. Sure, Luke told him he'd been gone for a while, but it was hard to believe that it was already August.

He glanced behind him. The monster was only five blocks away from him. He needed a vehicle, but he couldn't drive a car. A bicycle would require too much leg strength. There was no way he'd be able to outrun the hellhound even on a bike. Then as he turned the corner, he found what he needed.

A man was preparing to put on his helmet and get on his motorcycle. Percy shouted, "Hey! Hey!"

The man turned.

"Which way is it to Philadelphia?" he asked.

The man pointed to the northeast. "That way. Take I-95. Or if you're going to New York, I'd take the Jersey Turnpike before merging onto I-278 across Staten Island." He pointed east. "Easier in my opinion. Why?"

"Thanks!" Percy snatched his helmet right out of his hands.

"Hey, what are you doing?" The man raised his arms, prepared to attack.

"Sorry, I'm in a rush." Percy punched him straight in the face. He quickly searched the man's pockets for the keys and started the motorcycle. He found them and started the bike. He was just in time. The hellhound turned the corner, and Percy twisted the accelerator. He shot off in the opposite direction of the beast as it stopped in confusion.

Percy nearly died on his first turn.

A car swerved around him as he turned the corner. He decided to take the Jersey Turnpike. He hoped it would be less busy than the highway through Philly. The longer he rode on the bike, the more comfortable he got with it. He loved the feeling of the wind in his face; it reminded him of his time on the speed boat, although he'd been travelling faster on the water. Car horns honked at him as he sped through traffic, but he was a boy on a mission. He needed to get to New York before the night settled in. The sun was setting, and he knew he had little time.

Another thing he learned whilst driving the motorcycle was that there was a good reason as to why young kids weren't allowed to drive. Maturity was a big part of handling a vehicle with care. Driving was not only about the safety of one driver but the safety of everyone on the road. Percy probably could have killed more than a dozen people as he drove up to New York. Luckily there was still sunshine out. Thank Apollo for staring at California girls and Florida girls at the same time.

But the closer he got to New York, the weirder things got.

In the middle of the highway near a city called New Brunswick stood a couple of skeleton warriors. They looked really lost, but when he got within twenty yards, they immediately looked up. They were British redcoats, which was the weirdest part of all. They aimed their muskets at him and fired. Both shots missed as he zipped past them. He was glad they weren't Marines with M-16s.

They weren't the only ones. Percy got off the motorbike after he got onto Staten Island—just his luck; it ran out of gas—and saw a whole legion of dismembered Roman skeletons. The closer he got to Brooklyn, the more monsters there were. It looked like a whole trail of them had been led to New York. At the same time, the amount of monsters stretched all the way down New Jersey, and Percy wondered how many monsters there were in the area.

There were skeleton warriors and hellhounds to no extent. They all marched toward Brooklyn. Somehow, they managed to avoid getting run over on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Percy watched as a hellhound got hit by a car and went flying. It slammed into one of the suspension cables and exploded into dust. The same car knocked three skeleton Marines over like bowling pins… except for the fact that they exploded into pieces.

Percy knew it was suicide to run along the bridge, so he quickly made his way underneath and swam across. The hellhounds that had decided to chase him instead quickly decided against following him into the water. Maybe they could smell his demigod scent: sushi. Living sushi is not helpless in the water.

As he climbed up on shore in Brooklyn, he made it to the RYEKR CHEBA RKAP. It took him a minute—literally—but he finally deciphered the sign: Dyker Beach Park. Percy looked up. There weren't as many monsters over here—probably because they were too busy being glitter on cars' windshields—which made him feel better. He didn't feel like being eaten alive.

He did lose one crucial piece of information, though. Without the monsters, he wouldn't be able to find Thalia.

Suddenly, a streak of lightning flashed in the distance to the northeast. Percy counted the seconds: "One… two… three… four… five… six…" He managed to get to about eighteen seconds before the sound of thunder filled his ears.

"Five seconds per mile," he muttered. "Three point something miles. Jeez."

Percy pulled out Riptide and began running. The closer he got to where the lightning struck, the fewer monsters there were. It was only a matter of time before the monsters got close to the lightning. Even at the pace he was moving, he could almost feel the approaching monsters breathing down his neck. Percy hoped Thalia and Annabeth were moving quickly. And he hoped Grover knew where he was going.

It began to rain. But it didn't surprise him. The clouds had moved in fast.

All natural light faded as the sun set below the horizon.

Percy was more of a Manhattan boy than a Brooklyn kid, but he knew he was in a neighbourhood called Flatbush. Why did that matter? Because after all that running he ended up tripping in front of an old house. And when Percy saw what he tripped over, his heart felt heavy in his chest.

He'd known Grover for years and he would recognize the satyr's rasta cap anywhere. The red fabric lay on the ground looking like it had been trampled on. Percy picked it up and shoved it in his pocket. Lightning flashed and struck the brass eagle weather vane on top of the old house. The thunder followed almost immediately. Electricity crackled, and for the first time, Percy got the feeling Zeus was trying to help him.

They're in here, the voice in his head said.

Percy tested his luck. He turned the door handle of the front door slowly. It creaked as he turned it, but he turned it until he couldn't turn the handle anymore. He gently pushed the door in and it opened. He shut the door behind him as he made his way up the stairs. The bronze glow of Riptide helped light the way forward, though it was very dim. There were no lights on.

He took a left before he took a right. He decided to double back, but when he took a left, his next right led him back a different way. As he searched for the stairs, panic began settling in his bones. If there was any sudden movement, he was sure he would get a heart attack and collapse dead. He accidentally took a step forward too loudly, and the wooden floor creaked underneath him. He winced. But then there was the sound of a girl screaming, and he nearly pissed his pants.

Percy could feel his heart rattling in his chest. It pumped so hard, it felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest like a rabbit out of a hole. Instead of trying to find his way out, Percy just tried to navigate around and not walk in a circle. The place couldn't have been that hard to escape.

He continued forward when a low moan echoed from behind him. He whirled around holding his sword out but there was nothing there. He stood still for a couple moments when a random bone fell from the ceiling. He covered his mouth to keep from screaming. He pointed his sword at the ceiling, but there was nothing there.

Maybe his nightmare had been torture, but this house was just horror.

Then he smelled something burning. It came from the same direction the moan came from. Percy guessed that it was also where the scream had come from. He sniffed; it was just burning wood, like someone was making a fire. Percy decided to follow the smell.

Through the maze of corridors, Percy eventually found an opening where a door should have been. He heard delightful humming and the sound of boiling water. He took a peek around the corner.

The main room was a huge room full of dusty bookshelves filled with cobwebs and other creatures of those sorts. Percy wouldn't have been surprised if there were rats crawling around the house. Bones, both old and new, decorated the floor in a sporadic pattern: big bones, small bones, all sorts of bones. There was no meat on any of the bones. They had been licked clean. When he looked up, he saw three people hanging from the ceiling like smoked hams. They were tied up and gagged as a huge man at least eight feet tall took the giant cauldron off the fire.

There was a New York Yankees baseball cap lying on the floor a foot in front of him. It was an odd thing in the room, but then he looked up at the captives. It could have belonged to one of them. There was a bruise on Thalia's forehead, and she looked a little out of it. Annabeth was looking down—up at herself trying to struggle out. And Grover was staring fearfully at the mountain man muttering incoherent words.

Percy crept forward and took the hat. He wasn't sure if it was instinct, but he put the hat on immediately. He didn't feel any different but when he looked down he couldn't see himself. The hat was an invisibility hat. Percy didn't have more time to marvel at it because the man turned halfway—to the point where Percy could see one of his eyes—and sniffed.

"Something smells fishy," the man said.

Percy, still invisible, raised his sword and prepared to strike a blow as thin air. But then the monster turned, and Percy froze. Annabeth looked back down in confusion scanning the area for what the Cyclops was talking about.

Percy couldn't move. He realized he was staring down another Cyclops. He thought about his dream, where he'd killed a Cyclops with anger and happiness, but he felt too scared and stunned to move. The Cyclops' hand moved quickly, and before he knew it, he slammed into the wall and landed in a pile of bones. The Yankees cap flew off his head. Not the most comfortable landing.

The Cyclops spoke, but he didn't speak like his usual self. Percy remembered the voice. He hadn't heard that voice in years. He'd almost forgotten about him, but remembering what he was like and how he acted made him swell with anger.

In Smelly Gabe's voice, he said, "Worthless punk! I'll call the cops on you if you don't leave now!"

Percy stood up and tightened his grip on his sword. He approached the Cyclops slowly, who grinned maniacally and spoke in his mother's voice, "You wouldn't attack your own mother! I have chocolate-chip cookies on the counter. Freshly baked."

Percy paused for a second. He remembered the nightmare, and a single tear fell from his eye.

"Everything is going to be okay."

And Percy unleashed his fury through Riptide. He raised his sword and attacked, forgetting that he was hopelessly outmatched. He jabbed the Cyclops in the belly. When he doubled over, Percy smacked him in the nose with the hilt of his sword. He slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing he knew, the Cyclops was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and he was standing above him, the tip of his sword hovering over his eye.

"Uhhhhhhhh," the Cyclops moaned.

"Percy!" Grover cried with glee. "Oh my gods!"

"You can't impersonate my mother and get away with it," the son of Poseidon growled. "And you won't be eating my friends tonight."

One stab would end it—one quick strike.

Percy looked around at all the bones. Thalia, Annabeth and Grover would have become like that if the Cyclops finished dinner. For the first time, he noticed stringed necklaces decorated around the hollow skulls of the dead bones. Some of the victims used to be campers. Percy turned back to the sobbing monster with a cold look and stabbed it through its eye. There was a bloodcurdling scream from the Cyclops before he dissolved into sand.

Percy stood there for a moment, absorbing the scene in. He realized he was breathing heavily and turned to face the Yankees cap. He grabbed it and looked up at Annabeth. "This yours?"

Annabeth stared at him critically. It was unnerving actually. She finally spoke: "Yeah."

Percy cut the three of them down from the ceiling, and by then, Thalia had regained most of her senses. The way she acted told him she saw the whole Cyclops encounter. She and Annabeth kind of kept their distance, but they were friendly enough to hang around after watching him utterly annihilate a Cyclops, something not many heroes could do.

"Di immortales," Grover exclaimed. "Percy! I can't believe you're here! Everyone thinks you're gone, either missing or dead."

The satyr gave him a goat hug.

Percy laughed. "It's good to see you too, Grover. I see Chiron entrusted you with escorting… uh, you know. Thalia. And her friend too." Percy opened his mouth to say her name, but realized it would have been really weird for her. He didn't want to explain that he'd been dreaming about them. That was a conversation he didn't want to have.

Instead, he gave her the Yankees baseball cap back. She muttered, "Thanks."

"So you know who I am?" Thalia asked challengingly.

"Yeah." Percy spoke in a sarcastic tone. "The legends at camp say that you are the almighty daughter of Zeus and can unleash lightning bolts that can level buildings, destroy cities, and cause the most devastating attack any demigod has ever unleashed: the blackout."

Thalia raised her eyebrows, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Percy grinned. "I'm just kidding. The truth is that Hades' minions are right on your ass and if we don't get moving now we'll all die a horrible painful death down in the Underworld where we'll get our flesh and bones slowly ripped apart over centuries of painful torture."

"Gods, how much time did we lose?" muttered the daughter of Zeus. "Where are the monsters? We left them in Philadelphia, destroyed a legion in Staten Island… killed one just outside of this house."

"They've got to be in Brooklyn by now," Annabeth said.

"Ten to twenty minutes ago they were crossing the Verrazano," Percy said.

Thalia cursed. "Come on. Let's go!"

They dashed out of the house, and Thalia ran for the nearest car. It was pouring heavily now, and Percy could barely see. The monsters were close though. He could almost smell the danger. He turned to Thalia and shouted, "What are you doing?"

"Hotwiring the car!" she yelled back. "We need a way to get to Long Island!"

"You know how to hotwire a car?!"

"Just something I learned. How else do you think we got from Philadelphia to New York and outran the monsters?"

"And you didn't use this method for trying to get to camp easily?" Percy asked incredulously. "Do you know how much easier it would have been if you drove to Long Island a long time ago?"

He could've sworn Thalia was blushing. "It only worked for the first time in Philly," she admitted. "Hotwiring isn't easy. And you're not helping!"

She went back to work.

"Hellhound!" Grover shouted.

Percy wielded Riptide. Annabeth stood next to him with her knife. Fifty yards away stood a lone hellhound, its fiery eyes blazing in the night. Soon, three pairs of red eyes joined him and they began stalking on their prey. Percy stepped forward to help protect Annabeth and Grover, but the daring daughter of Athena stepped forward with him. He locked eyes with her and they seemed to have a mutual understanding: We'll distract them together.

Like lunatics, they charged forward at the hellhounds. Percy dodged one as it nearly bit his arm off. Then he kicked another in its head. Annabeth was swift; clearly she'd trained long with that knife. She slipped between two as they charged at her. With a lucky swipe, she slashed one across its back. It howled in pain and retreated slightly.

Behind them, the car engine roared to life. Grover quickly got in the shotgun seat. Percy turned to Annabeth and said, "I got you. Go!"

She nodded and took off. All four hellhounds focused on him now. He yelled as he charged the weakest hellhound—the one Annabeth had injured. He stabbed it through its neck, and it crumbled into sand. He immediately turned and bolted for the car. It had turned so that it was perpendicular to the road. Annabeth had taken the right side, so Percy slid across the hood of the car and hopped in. Annabeth saved his life when he slid across the hood by throwing her knife at the hellhound that was about to eat him.

"Hit it!" Percy screamed at Thalia.

She hit the accelerator and burst into the night. Percy caught his breath back as Grover began directing Thalia toward camp. The son of Poseidon turned to Annabeth and said, "Nice throw back there. You saved my life."

Annabeth smiled faintly. "You too. By the way, my name is Annabeth."

Percy extended a hand to shake. "Percy, if we're doing formal introductions."

"You know what I wanna know?" Thalia asked from the driver's seat. "I want to know where the Hades you learned to fight like that."

"He's the best sword fighter at camp," Grover boasted. "He vanished from camp over a month ago, and no one knew why. Everyone thinks he's missing or dead. I knew he would come back one day. Chiron told me that he was feeling overburdened or something. But I'm so excited you're back, Perce. Oh, turn right here!"

"Best sword fighter?" Annabeth gave Percy a curious look.

He flushed. "Grover likes to exaggerate. There's a much more handsome son of Hermes who is, in my opinion, better than I am."

Annabeth looked like she was about to say something, but she decided against it and turned away blushing. Percy gave her a confused look but shrugged it off. Her blonde hair looked brown because it was wet, but her princess curls stayed blonde. It was weird. He wasn't sure why he was thinking about that.

"You think we ditched all the monsters?" he asked.

Grover shook his head. "There's going to be some around camp's borders. I can still smell monster all over you, so it's hard to tell. Actually, what is with that? You smell like you spent the last month inside of a giant monster's stomach. It's kind of gross."

Annabeth scooted away from him a little, but she couldn't suppress the smile which gave away that she was just joking. Still, Percy played along and groaned, "Grover, thanks for the intro! Now the two girls think I smell disgusting."

Annabeth gave him a look. "Actually, you do kind of smell. But so do we. I guess it comes with being on the streets for so long. We don't mind. Right, Thals?"

"Are we really talking about this?" Thalia asked. "We're being chased by monsters and we're talking about how we smell."

"Lighten up a bit, Thalia," Percy said soothingly. "You need to relax."

"Don't tell me to relax!" she shouted. "I'm going to get killed if I don't focus."

"Well, Thalia," Annabeth said, "he is right. There's this old quotation by Victor Hugo where he said 'Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.' I mean, if you just—"

"Oh, sure. I can laugh as a hellhound tears my flesh apart. You just… you just don't know what it's been like. We've been chased from Pennsylvania. We need to get to camp. Maybe then but now, let's focus on not having me killed."

Percy pursed his lips angrily. "Oh, trust me, daughter of Zeus. I know exactly what it's like. Don't be so self-absorbed."

"Really? You know what it's like? Congratulations! Then why didn't the monsters kill you."

"Because only the hellhounds went after me. The skeletons were sent for you."

"You show up, kill a Cyclops singlehandedly, and claim that you know what it's like being a child of Zeus. I think you're the arrogant one here."

"I never said I knew what it's like being a child of Zeus specifically. Are you threatened? You sound threatened."

"I'm not threatened," Thalia exclaimed hotly.

"You sure sound like you are."

"Why don't you shut up?"

"You're the one being stubborn and uptight. You're acting like everything is revolving around you being killed. What about Grover? Annabeth? They'll be killed right alongside you. You all would have died if I didn't save you. You can't deny that."

"I never denied that! I know we would have died. I fell into the trap, and you didn't. Just let me focus on driving."

"Now you're ignoring me," Percy pointed out.

Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder. "You're not helping."

"Shut up!" exclaimed Thalia. "You're so annoying!"

"You're the annoying one! We're trying to have fun and you just have to ruin it by saying we're on the brink of death. You think I don't know that? I just killed a Cyclops who imitated my horrible step-father Gabe and my dead mom! You think I feel good?"

"How about the both of you shut up?!" Annabeth suggested with a sharp tone. "You're both stubborn, short-tempered and prideful! Now stop arguing pointlessly. If you want to get to camp quickly, Thalia, step on it. And just let it go, Percy. Neither of you are going to win the argument."

Percy looked down. Thalia kept her eye on the road.

For a while, all was silent in the car. But Percy was getting too fidgety. He looked in the rear-view mirror and said, "Sorry, Thalia. Annabeth is right, though. I guess science is right about one thing. Like charges do argue."

"First off, it's like charges repel," Annabeth corrected. "And secondly, that's not what I meant. You guys can be friends. You just… well, you'll probably tear each other's throats apart before that happens. At least from what I've seen."

"You're right, Annabeth," Thalia admitted. "I guess—I guess I'm sorry too."

"Apology accepted," Percy said. He looked out of the window. "Hey, look! We're getting close."

"What is that?" Thalia asked, her voice suddenly full of fear.

"Turn!" Grover shouted. "Turn!"

Percy shifted to look out of the front windshield, but he didn't see much before the car suddenly flipped over. He remembered feeling like he'd been crushed, but everything else was a daze.

He groaned as he peeled his forehead off the back of the driver's seat. "Ow."

"Is everyone okay?" Thalia's voice came.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Percy groaned back.

He shoved his way out of the car and helped Annabeth out. Thalia was helping Grover. Whatever had flipped them had made them go far. The car looked like it'd been to the impound lot and had been partially impounded. The car was stuck in a ditch, and the passenger-side doors were wedged in the mud.

Annabeth squeezed his arm and said numbly, "Is that what I think it is?"

Percy turned and went wide-eyed. Down the road was a huge creature that looked like he was half-man and half-bull. Judging by the giant horns curling from his head, Percy guessed that the creature that had flipped their car was no ordinary monster. He was the Minotaur.

He was easily seven feet tall, 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 a vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear. Like bright white underwear… Fruit of the Looms maybe? It might've looked funny if the top half of his body didn't look like it could crush Polyphemus. 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 Percy's arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points sharper than any spear point Percy had ever seen in his life.

"It's the Min—"

"Percy!" Grover cried. "Don't say his name. Names have power."

Percy knew all about that. Every time he said Kronos' name out loud, he got a shiver down his spine. It was one of the first lessons campers learned, but Percy never really got the hang of it. He was the only camper to call Mr. D by his actual name to his face.

The Minotaur bellowed and charged toward them.

"Run!" screamed Grover.

They scattered as the bull-man charged right past where they'd just been standing. Percy saw hellhounds bounding down the road toward them. If he wasn't hallucinating, there were giant black butterflies following as well. Next would probably be the skeleton warriors. Hades really wanted Thalia dead.

Percy wasn't going to let that happen. People were counting on her survival. And maybe… just maybe, he'd look good in Zeus' eyes for at least a little while.

"We have to get up the hill!" Grover shouted through the rainstorm.

"I don't have a weapon!" Annabeth screamed back. "Thalia, we have to fall back."

"If we get into camp, we can call for backup!" Grover said. "Guards on duty should be at the Big House when it rains. That's not too far if you run."

Percy and Thalia each found the other's gaze and came to an agreement. Thalia ordered, "Annabeth! Fall back with Grover and protect our flank. When Percy and I are halfway up the hill, run for help. We'll hold at the top of the hill. Make sure to grab a weapon and help out where you can!"

"Got it!"

Thalia turned to Percy. "Are you ready for this?"

"We're probably going to die," he said, "but at least I'll end trying to protect camp."

She snorted. "Instead of what? Destroying it?"

He laughed humourlessly. "You have no idea."

The first pack of hellhounds attacked them. Thalia stepped in front of Percy and tapped her bracelet. Percy watched as it expanded into a shield. He couldn't see what was on the shield, but apparently it was scary. The hellhounds leaped away from the shield, but didn't completely back down. They growled and kept their distance from the daughter of Zeus. But that wouldn't save them.

With an ear-piercing scream, Thalia opened her mace canister and hefted a huge spear. Lightning streaked from the sky, bounced off her spear, and incinerated all of the creatures standing before her.

Thalia turned, and Percy got a good look at her shield. It was silver and bronze, with the monstrous face of Medusa protruding from the center. It looked like a death mask, as if the gorgon's real head had been pressed into the metal. Percy wasn't certain about the myths of the origin of the shield, or if the shield could really petrify him, but he looked away. Just being near it made him cold with fear.

"Awesome, isn't it," Thalia said with a smirk.

"Scary," Percy corrected.

The Minotaur finally reached the car. He was sniffing the car. Percy knew that his sight and hearing were terrible so he had to go by smell. The bull-man bellowed once again and picked up the stolen car. He raised it over his head and threw it at them. They dived to opposite sides as the car smashed into the hill. Percy cursed when he saw that he'd rolled closer to the bull-headed beast.

"Thalia!" he shouted. "Go for the hellhounds. I've got Big Meaty over here."

"Big Meaty?" she said incredulously. "That's the best you can come up with?"

"What would you rather have me call him? Ground beef?"

"Just fight the thing!"

She charged at the hellhounds.

Percy saw the Minotaur's eyes follow the daughter of Zeus. He needed to get the attention of the bull-man. "Hey!" he shouted. It wasn't enough. He couldn't believe he was about to say this but he did it: "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrr!" The monster turned toward him, shaking his meaty fists.

"I can't believe that worked," Percy muttered under his breath.

But he didn't have much time to think about that. The Minotaur charged. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat. He lowered his head, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at Percy's chest.

Trying not to panic, Percy dove to the side at the last moment. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned. They were almost a quarter ways up the hill.

"Thalia, pull back!" he called.

She obliged and retreated from her attack. But the Minotaur wasn't so nice. He charged again, but this time, his hands weren't pumping at his sides. They were poised and ready to snatch him no matter which way he dove. He couldn't go left or right and he most certainly couldn't go backwards. The only way was forward or…

Time slowed down.

Percy's legs tensed. He couldn't jump sideways, so he leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck. It kept charging so Percy had to hold on for dear life. Riptide was activated. He just needed a slightest bit of calm. When the beast stopped to turn, Percy took the chance. He raised Riptide and stabbed the Minotaur right through his beefy head straight into the brain. Percy somersaulted off as the Minotaur dissolved into the wind.

Thalia looked amazed as she watched from down below. She quickly composed herself and ran up the hill. Percy looked at the crest of the hill where Grover was waiting anxiously. Annabeth had gone for help. Percy knew the Big House was quite far down in the valley. He was worried Annabeth wouldn't make it in time.

"There are too many monsters," Thalia said. "We have to fall back."

Percy looked down. The skeletal armies had arrived. Units of archers fired at them as they scrambled up the hill. He had to admit that Thalia was an amazing fighter. With her version of Aegis and her large spear, she was nearly unstoppable. It was her that kept the two alive longer than they should have been. She swatted all the monsters away. Percy couldn't face three hellhounds at the same time. Not when they were all pouncing on him.

When they were three-quarters up the hill, Percy thought they were home free. Thalia had let loose another blast of electricity. He could have helped her up the rest of the way before the monsters could get to them whilst they struggled. But the giant winged butterflies showed up. There were three of them. And Percy learned quickly that they weren't butterflies.

They were much worse.

They all had fiery whips, leather skin, and cruel faces. Not only were they hard to kill, but they did some serious damage.

Percy's skin burned when the whips touched his skin. He got dizzy when they flew circles around him. He was intimidated by their evil laughs and cackles. They were like evil flying grandmothers.

"Get them, Thalia! You're the sky expert!"

"Says the guy who can take down a Cyclops and a Minotaur on his own," she shot back.

Letting lose a blast of electricity, she sent the Furies back. They hissed as they let the skeletal armies approach. It was not looking good. Annabeth and the guards were only halfway there when the hellhounds and skeleton warriors attacked as one. Grover hung back, anxious, playing reed pipes to the tune of Hilary Duff or something.

"We can't hold them much longer," Thalia said after plowing through the first couple dozen. "We'll have to fall back further. Aren't there magical boundaries around the camp that protect it or something? That'd be very helpful."

Percy shook his head. "Not that kind of magical barriers. We have guard duty. They protect the borders."

Thalia cursed. A hellhound attacked her flank. She slammed it away with her shield, but that moment of distraction was enough another hellhound needed to strike. It swiped at her and she fell.

"Thalia!" Percy shouted.

Then the most miraculous thing happened. Grover began playing his reed pipes correctly. As if there was a sudden burst of nature magic, Grover leaped forward into the fray playing music from his reed pipes that made the grass around the monsters grow. Vines slithered their way out of the ground to encase the hellhounds and skeletons. Grover was turning the tide of the battle.

"Grover, what are you doing?" Percy exclaimed in surprise.

"Go!" the satyr shouted. "I'm the protector. Go!"

"Where did you get this confidence?"

"Just go!"

Percy had allowed himself to get distracted long enough for a hellhound to leap at him. It slammed into him sending him tumbling a few feet. The monster ended up on top of him, its paws dangerously gripped at his neck. It raised a paw to strike. Percy heard Grover shout "No!" when he stabbed the rhino-sized monster through its back with Riptide.

Immediately, he sat up and went on all fours to look at Grover. Grover was looking at him with a pained expression. Percy realized that the satyr was dying. There was a large scratch across Grover's body, and he was bleeding profusely. He stared in disbelief as the monsters surrounded his best friend and tore him apart.

"No!" Percy tried running after his friend, but Thalia held him back.

"Stop, Percy," she said. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. He wondered how long Thalia had known Grover for. How would she feel about this? It must have been painful.

There was nothing he could do as he watched the monsters surround the body.

"Grover!" Annabeth scream came from behind them. "No!"

When satyrs died, they were usually reincarnated as plants like flowers or trees. To be reincarnated as a laurel was the highest achievement any satyr could achieve because of its value. Percy wondered if there was any other achievement that was greater than that. Grover deserved whatever that was. As Thalia held him back he watched a miraculous scene.

Slowly, Grover began transforming. At first, he was a small tree of some sort until he grew and grew and kept growing. A distant voice spoke in Percy's mind, "I now pass my spirit to my successor as I fade. For his death came too early for our meeting."

Wisps of white smoke rose from the spot where Grover died and floated over to him, Thalia and Annabeth, who'd just arrived. Small parts of the smoke entered their mouths, but the greater part of it seemed to merge with the tree. The hellhounds even seemed mystified at what was happening.

When the tree grew to its full height, there was a blast of white light before a weird force-field-like energy began passing around the borders of Camp Half-Blood. It was like in a movie or a video game when a massive shield was being put up. But as quickly as it had come, it disappeared. For a second, Percy thought whatever was happening had failed. However, when the hellhounds tried to enter the boundaries, the force field wouldn't let them.

Percy stared in awe. Camp had magical boundaries, and it was thanks to a distant, fading voice and the spirit of a brave young satyr. Percy looked back at the tree and gasped. It was the ash tree he'd dreamed of not long ago. Why an ash tree? What was so special about an ash tree?

"An ash tree," Annabeth marveled. "It can be affiliated with sacrifice."

It stopped raining. At least, on the inside of the camps borders. It looked like it was still raining on the outside. Sure, Dionysus could control weather sometimes, but it could still rain. Now, it was like there was an impenetrable border instead of a half-penetrable border.

But the truth hit him like a bullet train hitting a baby rabbit: Grover, the last of the four of his Siren vision, was dead.

All the good memories he had with the satyr flooded into his head and the anger swelled in his chest. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed Thalia's shield and shouted a battle cry. Through tears of anger, he tore through all the monsters standing outside of camps borders. The smart ones fled. The dumb ones fell by his sword.

By the time he was done, he was bleeding, tired and wanted to curl up in a ball again. He wanted to do that a lot these days.

He collapsed to his knees and let a tear drop. "Not you too, my friend."

Two people knelt on either side of him—Annabeth and Thalia—who both looked mournful. Maybe he'd just met them, but after what happened to Grover, he promised himself that he wouldn't let anyone die because of him ever again. Not after his mom. Not after Rose. Not after Grover.

Percy was surprised when Chiron trotted out next to him. He embraced his mentor as Chiron stared into the distance looking like he'd seen this scene a million times.

"Come, child," he said at last. "We have a lot to do."

Ooooh. Weren't expecting that, were you?

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