Percy Jackson belongs to Rick Riordan, not me. I only have the rights to Atlanta Jackson.

Chapter Eight: We Capture a Flag

The next few days, we settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that we were getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.

Each morning Atlanta and I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddess in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't hard for me to read. At least no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much of a headache.
Annabeth admitted that Atlanta picked it up quicker than any new campers, and Atlanta told her she could already read and speak it since she was five.

The rest of the day, we'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something we were good at. Chiron tried to teach us archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good at a bow and arrow. Chiron didn't even complain, when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail. Atlanta-having a new prosthetic arm-was able to shoot arrows, and hit bullseyes each time.

Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left us in the dust. They told us not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away form lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.
Atlanta was able to keep up with them, but was never able to win a race.

And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.

"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.

Atlanta's wrestling time went worse then mine. She was able to pin everyone she faced. But after one rough match with a son of Ares, she accidentally break his arm. After that she stopped wrestling and avoided it all together.

The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from one of the kids who had beaten the Minotaur.

Atlanta was avoiding me, after I had taken my useless out on her. She was able to do all these amazing things, naturally and without effort. I couldn't help but feel jealous and angry. Atlanta and I got into many fights because of this, and we avoided each other contently. Our mom and Chiron gave me a look of disappointment every time we had a fight, knowing fully well it was my fault. And I did felt guilty and I was angry at myself for it.

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching us, trying to decide who mine and Atlanta's dads was, and they weren't having an easy go at it. And not just because they still haven't figured out Atlanta and I weren't technically related. Mom was also not telling anyone who my dad was. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. Atlanta and I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork, or-gods forbid- Dionysus's way of vine plants. Luke told me we might be children of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of us either.

Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven-farther away from Atlanta- scrape my part of my meal into the fire, tying to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just the warm feeling I'd always had, like a memory of his smile. Atlanta and I would spend the night with our mom, with Atlanta ignoring me completely and only speaking to her.

I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe the gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't our parents make a phone appear?

Thursday afternoon, three days after we'd arrive at Camp Half-Blood, we had our first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.

We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good. Atlanta's were even better than mine. I tried to ignore the

The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Atlanta had no trouble with her blade, but I could tell she felt uncomfortable with it.

We moved on to dueling in pairs. Atlanta was paired with a bigger, silent kid, while Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.

"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred year."

"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.

The campers snorted and I saw a worried look on Atlanta's face. She was rightfully angry at me, but it was nice knowing she was still worried about me.

Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!

By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler, and Atlanta handed me a cup of ice water to me, not looking at me at all. I thanked her as I took the cup. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like a such a good idea, so I did the same.

Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."

Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.

The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. Atlanta had a worried look on her face again. Her silent partner was beside her, and I saw how sweaty and out of breath he was. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.

"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.

"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up, I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.

The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?

I tried the disarming maneuver.

My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.

Clang.

Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.

The other campers were silent while Atlanta-ignoring her anger at me-cheered loudly.

I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."

I knew Atlanta would punch me for that, as soon as she wasn't angry at me anymore.

For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.

"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"

I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.

This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.

After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword…"

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms. We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.

"Fine," he said. "Just great."

"So your career's still on track?"

He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"

"Well…no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know…and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgement. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you and Atlanta yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you two got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we all came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"

"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you guys getting a quest…and even if you did, why would you want me along?"

"Of course we'd want you along!"

Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving…Must be nice to have a useful skill."

I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, for her huntresses when they come to camp."

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"

Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "It's an honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."

"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh."

"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."

"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here…." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

"But Zeus and Poseidon-they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus, and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

Thunder boomed.

I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."

Grover nodded.

"And the brothers kept their word-no kids?"

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo-he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia…well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that isn't fair! It wasn't the little girl's fault."

Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where Atlanta and I fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

I stared at the pine in the distance.

The story made me feel hollow and guilty too. A girl mine and Atlanta's age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, our victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if Atlanta wasn't there, would Grover and I even be alive? Would our mother?

"Gover," I said. "have you seen Atlanta around?"

Yeah," he said.

"Is she okay?"

"She's hurt because of you. And she's been skipping activities."

"I'm a jerk," I said. "I need to I needed to apologize to her. But she won't even talk to me right now."

Grover studied me sadly. "I can see if Annabeth will put you two together in Capture the Flag."

"Thanks, that'll be great. So…a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"

"Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tried to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems.

"And you find me. Chiron said you thought Atlanta and I might be something special."

Grover looked as if I'd let him into a trap. "I didn't…Oh listen, don't think like that. If you two were-you know-you'd two would never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably children of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.

"Um, Grover…isn't Nemesis a goddess?"

"Blaa-ha-ha!"

The night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for mine and Grover's plan.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" Atlanta asked.

"Not always," he said. "But often."
"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do-repaint the flag?" I asked.

He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?" Atlanta asked.

He gave Atlanta and I a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena/ Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you two are going to help."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities-in order to win support.

Ares allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature kills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and gossiped. There were only four of Hephaestus's kids, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course left Ares' cabin: a dozen of the biggest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hood on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forests is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bounded or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.
"Whoa," I said.

"We're really supposed to use these?" Atlanta asked.

Luke looked at me ad if I were crazy. "Unless you two want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here-Chiron thought these would fit. You're both on border patrol."

Our shields were the size of an NBA backboards, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about million pounds. Atlanta and I could have snowboarded on them fine, but I hoped nobody expected us to run fast. Mine and Atlanta's helmets, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.

Annabeth yelled. "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

Atlanta and I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping-mostly me-over our equipment. "Hey."

She kept marching.

"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan us?"

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid we'd stolen something.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you two your jobs?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means," Atlanta said.

"Its easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."

She pushed ahead, leaving us in the dust.

"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted us on your team."

It was warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me and Atlanta next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there alone with Atlanta, with our big blue-feathered helmets and our huge shields, I felt like an idiot. The sword, like all swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like bowling ball. Atlanta armed herself with a spear that reached her shoulder.

This was super awkward.

There was no way anybody would attack us, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right? Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past us like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, I thought. This is the perfect time to apologize to Atlanta for being a jerk.

Before I could speak I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growled, somewhere close by.

I raised my shield instinctively; I had something was stalking Atlanta and me.

I guess Atlanta heard it too, because she tensed up, raising her shield, while grabbing her spear in both hands. She looked like a picture of an Amazon from our Mythology textbook.

Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

"Cream the punks!" Clarisse screamed.

Her pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only standard issue bronze swords-not that made me feel any better.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. Atlanta and I could run. Or we could defend ourselves against half the Ares cabin.

I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, Atlanta dogged two of them, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur. They surrounded us, and Clarisse thrusted at Atlanta with her spear. My shield deflected the point before it could hit Atlanta, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.

Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back. Atlanta tried to catch me, but one of them kicked her in the stomach, while another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and we hit the dirt.

They could've kicked us into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

"Give them a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab their hair."

I managed to get to my feet, pulling Atlanta up with me. I used my numb arm to block Clarisse's spear from Atlanta. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.

"Oh wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I wads afraid it didn't come out that way.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about the guys who made our cabin look stupid."

"You do that without our help," Atlanta told them.

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

Two of them came at us. I backed Atlanta and me toward the creek, tried to rise my shield but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy-warm and cold at the same time.

"No maiming," I managed to say.

"Opps," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

He went to push me in the creek, but Atlanta stepped in front of me, hitting him squarely in the face with her shield. When he tumbled back she swung her spear, balancing it on her shoulder and elbow, swiped his legs out from under him. As she pointed her spear at him, two others came at her. She quickly raised her spear, spinning in a circle hitting them, like a little kid would hit a pinata at a birthday party. Clarisse swung at her with her spear and Atlanta countered with hers, but Clarisse's being electric, Atlanta was thrown back in pain. She dropped her spear, clutching onto her chest crying out. She reacts badly to shocks, no matter the size.

One of the guys she knocked down was now standing again. He swung his sword at her and she flinched back. He kicked her down and she landed in the dirt at my feet. She sat up, holding her head. When she pulled her hand back, I saw blood on her hand. I stared at her bloody hand my anger quickly rising. I glared at him and I ignored the pain in my arms. I tackled him, only managing to make him move a few inches. He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of our mom's double-espresso jelly beans.

Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood up to meet them. I knew what to do. I swing the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumbled into the water.

Jerk Number Two and Jerk Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my swords to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Jerk Number four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling between the edge of my shield and my swords, and I snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but Atlanta-who got up while I fought the others and gotten in front of me-smacked her between the eyes with her shield and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.

Then we heard yelling, elated screams and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary like with red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the Creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn. Our mother came up from behind him smiling, then it dropped when she say Atlanta and me.

Atlanta started to fall backwards and I caught her yelling for Chiron. Chiron and our mother rushed over to us and took her to the side, checking over her and taking a hanky from his jacket: placing it on her head. I was about to follow them when Annabeth's voice right next to me in the creek, and said, "Not bad, hero."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" She asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact she'd just been invisible. "You set us up," I said. "You put Atlanta and I here because you knew Clarisse would come after us, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A stupid plan. My sister is BLEEDING because of you!" I pointed towards Atlanta, our mother, and Chiron as he treated her cut. Atlanta was shaking and trying not to cry, biting her lip, while Chiron and our mother were silently comforting her. "I doubt Athena would come up with such a stupid plan for an ally to be harmed when they have little training or a weapon that works for them."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but…" she shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."

The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.

"I-I don't get it," I said.

Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"What-"

"Just do it."

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over but Annabeth steadied me.

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want…I assumed it would be Zeus…"

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

The camper's cheering dies instantly. Chiron guided Atlanta and our mother behind him, shouting something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me.

Nobody moved expect Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her-an enormous shadow with teeth- and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claw ripping through my armor-Atlanta and our mother screamed-, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hound's neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.

Our mother and Atlanta ran over to me, crying. Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortals!" Annabeth said. "That's a hell hound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't…they're not supposed to…"

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside camp."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's and Atlanta's fault! They summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron-"

"Not now Annabeth," Chiron told her. "Come Percy we need to get you and Atlanta to the infirmary."

I took a step toward him, when Annabeth pulled me away pushed me back. I heard Atlanta, our mother, and Chiron yelled at her, as I stumbled into the creek.

Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Come of the campers gasped.

"Look, I-I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry…"

But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.

"Percy," Atlanta said, pointing. "Um…"

By the time I looked up the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, pinning and gleaming. A three-tripped spear: a trident.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it. Our mother and Atlanta were the only ones still standing and Atlanta looked as confused as me.

"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," Chiron said. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hair, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."