Hello there, gods, half-bloods and friends, welcome to the next chapter of The God Hunter.
Hope you enjoy and now review time.
Lucius Walker: Your welcome. I believe in ancient Greece ancestral worship was a pretty big deal, so he wouldn't be punished too harshly.
Now story time.
Tyson would be moving into the Poseidon cabin, giggling to himself every fifteen seconds and saying, "Percy is my brother?" like he'd just won the lottery.
While Tyson was in heaven, Percy was not so much. As much as he liked Big T, he couldn't help feeling embarrassed about the comments from the other campers.
"He's not my real brother!" he would protest whenever Tyson wasn't around, "He's more like a half-brother on the monstrous side of the family. Like... a half-brother twice removed, or something."
But nobody bought it.
One particular protest, Percy felt like someone was watching him. When he look up to the trees, sitting with his back against the tree on a particular thick branch, he saw Matt looking down at him.
"Pathetic." Matt said in a low voice.
He wasn't sure if Percy had heard him, before he closed his eyes and about to take a nap. It was one of the perks being the Son of Hera, which made him the sole inhabited of Hera Cabin. So he was automatically the counselor of his cabin, which had the perk of allowing himself to set his own schedule.
Now it was nap time... Or at least it was intended to.
"Cow Eyes!"
He let out a deep sigh before opening his eyes, "What do you want, Storm Cloud?" Matt said as he looked down at Annabeth.
They had been discussing what to do, both of them where worried about camp. But neither could come up with some brilliant plan to save Thalia's tree.
"I want you on my team for the chariot race." Annabeth said.
"I can't hear you." Matt said back.
"What?"
"I said I can't hear you! Wait, hold on." Matt said as he dropped down from the tree.
He spin around, making sure he landed in a crouching position on the ground, feet wide apart and supporting his weight with his left fist on the floor while the other hand is outstretched away, pointed diagonally upwards.
"Nailed it! ...While cool, landing like that is totally impractical. Really hard on the knees." Matt said as he stood up, rubbing his knee, "Anyway, what where you saying?"
"I said that I want you on my team for the chariot race." Annabeth said, looking as if she was about to explain why she would want him.
"Okay, sure." Matt said at once.
"Wait, really?" Annabeth said surprised, "Just like that?... I thought you would have been asked to team up with the other cabins."
"Oh, I have. Five from Hermes, two from Aphrodite, three from Hephaestus, two more from Athena not including you and I even got an invite from Ares cabin." Matt said exasperated as he threw up a hand, "And that was just this morning!... It's great to be popular."
"I'm surprised you didn't accept any of them." Annabeth said.
"Well I wasn't that interested in participating in a chariot race, unless I got to team up with you, Percy or Tyson." Matt said with a shrug, "But Percy is being a negative Nancy because he got a cyclops for a brother and everyone is teasing him about it, so he's off the list."
"Hey, it's not a nice thought having a monster for a brother." Annabeth said, "I had no choice but to give him permission to enter the camp, you where busy with your own bull, it was the only way to save Percy's life. I mean... I didn't expect Poseidon to claim him. Cyclopes are the most deceitful, treacherous..."
"...Okay, that has been bothering me." Matt said, "Why the casual hate against Cyclopes?"
Annabeth's ears turned pink, and Matt felt it in his jelly's that she was hiding something from him.
"Just forget it." she said, "Which shouldn't be difficult. It's pretty empty up there, very easy to lose your thoughts."
"Hey!" Matt said offended.
She right you know, lot of empty space up here.
"Hey!" Matt thought.
The next couple of days, where pretty fun, all things considered.
Silena Beauregard, one of the nicer girls from Aphrodite's cabin, gave Percy his first riding lesson on a pegasus. She explained that there was only one immortal winged horse named Pegasus, who still wandered free somewhere in the skies, but over the eons he'd sired a lot of children, none quite so fast or heroic, but all named after the first and greatest.
The only person at camp who had no problem with Tyson was Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin. The blacksmith god had always worked with Cyclopes in his forges, so Beckendorf took Tyson down to the armory to teach him metalworking. He said he'd have Tyson crafting magic items like a master in no time.
Matt meanwhile worked out in the arena with Apollo's cabin. Swordplay or combat in general was always what he found the most fun. It was only sad for him that the others could barely keep up with him. Apollo kids destroyed, Ares cabin humiliated and even Athena cabin's best sword fighters didn't stand a chance against Matt's raw power.
Later in the day, Matt scaled the climbing wall in full lava-and-earthquake mode using his bracelets.
"Living on the edge. Fighting crime, spinning webs. Swinging from the highest ledge He can leap above our heads." Matt sang in his head, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Matt. Spectacular, Spectacular Spider-Matt."
Are you singing!?
"...No." Matt thought as he landed on the top of the wall.
And in the evenings, Matt joined up with border patrol. Even though Tantalus had insisted they forget trying to protect the camp, some of the campers had quietly kept it up, working out a schedule during free times.
From his favorite spot in the trees, he could see the top of Half-Blood Hill and watched the dryads come and go, singing to the dying pine tree. Satyrs brought their reed pipes and played nature magic songs, and for a while the pine needles seemed to get fuller. The flowers on the hill smelled a little sweeter and the grass looked greener.
But as soon as the music stopped, the sickness crept back into the air. The whole hill seemed to be infected, dying from the poison that had sunk into the tree's roots.
"Luke..." Matt growled, "I'll get you back for this."
You know there might be a way to save the tree.
"Wait, there is?" Matt thought, "Why haven't you mentioned it before."
I didn't wished to give you false hope, I needed to be sure the object still existed. And it does.
The night before the race, Matt and Annabeth finished their chariot. Tyson had been kind enough to make the metal parts in the armory's forges, so all Matt and Annabeth had to do was sand the wood and put the carriage together.
While it was good, great even, it didn't had a few feature's Matt would have wanted, like the capability of firing laser bolts.
"...Wait." Matt said surprised, "Laser is an acronym?"
"Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation." Annabeth said.
"Huh, didn't know that." he admitted as he began to ponder, "Hey, Annabeth. I need to pick your brain about something."
"Oh, this should be good." she said amused.
"What do you know about the Golden Fleece?" Matt said.
"The Golden Fleece?" she said surprised, "Are you serious? You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?"
"The Claymation movie?" Matt said.
"...Why are you the way you are?" Annabeth said with a roll of her eyes.
"Just listen. The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important. The point is, when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom. The Fleece brought prosperity to the land.
Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land where it's placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution..."
"See where I'm going with this?" Matt said, "We could use it to cure Thalia's tree, it would strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood!"
"It would, if not for a tiny problem." Annabeth said, "The Fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck."
The morning of the race was hot and humid. Fog lay low on the ground like sauna steam. Millions of birds were roosting in the trees, fat dusty gray-and-green pigeons, except they didn't coo like regular pigeons. They made this annoying metallic screeching sound.
The racetrack had been built in a grassy field between the archery range and the woods.
Hephaestus's cabin had used the bronze bulls, which were completely tame since they'd had their heads smashed in, to plow an oval track in a matter of minutes. There were rows of stone steps for the spectators. Tantalus, the satyrs, a few dryads, and all of the campers who weren't participating. Mr. D didn't show. He never got up before ten o'clock.
"Right!" Tantalus announced as the teams began to assemble.
A naiad had brought him a big platter of pastries, and as Tantalus spoke, his right hand chased a chocolate éclair across the judge's table.
"You all know the rules. A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!"
Tantalus smiled at them like they were all naughty children.
"Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s'mores at the campfire for a week! Now ready your chariots!"
Beckendorf led the Hephaestus team onto the track. They had a sweet ride made of bronze and iron, even the horses, which were magical automatons like the Colchis bulls.
The Ares chariot was blood red, and pulled by two grisly horse skeletons. Clarisse climbed aboard with a batch of javelins, spiked balls, caltrops, and a bunch of other nasty toys.
Apollo's chariot was trim and graceful and completely gold, pulled by two beautiful palominos. Their fighter was armed with a bow, though he had promised not to shoot regular pointed arrows at the opposing drivers.
Hermes's chariot was green and kind of old-looking, as if it hadn't been out of the garage in years. It didn't look like anything special, but it was manned by the Stoll brothers.
That left two chariots: the one driven by Percy and Tyson, and the other by Team Mattbeth.
Before the race began, Percy approached them and told about his dream.
Annabeth perked up when he mentioned Grover, but when he told her what he'd said, she seemed to get distant again, suspicious.
"You're trying to distract us." she decided.
"I seriously doubt that." Matt said.
"Oh, right! Like Grover would just happen to stumble across the one thing that could save the camp." Annabeth said, "Especially just after you mentioned it."
"What do you mean?" Percy said.
"Grover found the Fleece!?" Matt said with wide eyes.
"The what?"
"We'll talk about it later." Matt said, "After we beat you, of course."
As Matt was walking back to the Mattbeth chariot, he noticed how many more pigeons were in the trees now. Screeching like crazy, making the whole forest rustle. Nobody else seemed to be paying them much attention.
Annabeth took the reins and maneuvered the chariot to the starting line. Matt got his sword, before transforming it into his bracelets.
"Hey, Annabeth." he said, "Ready to win this?"
"You know I am." she said, "Because I hate losing."
"There is a reason we're teaming up." he said with a smile.
As the chariots lined up, more shiny-eyed pigeons gathered in the woods. They were screeching so loudly the campers in the stands were starting to take notice, glancing nervously at the trees, which shivered under the weight of the birds. Tantalus didn't look concerned, but he did have to speak up to be heard over the noise.
"Charioteers!" he shouted, "Attend your mark!"
He waved his hand and the starting signal dropped. The chariots roared to life. Hooves thundered against the dirt. The crowd cheered.
Almost immediately there was a loud nasty crack. The Apollo chariot had flipped over, the Hermes chariot had rammed into it. The riders were thrown free, but their panicked horses dragged the golden chariot diagonally across the track.
The Hermes team, Travis and Connor Stoll, were laughing at their good luck, but not for long. The Apollo horses crashed into theirs, and the Hermes chariot flipped too, leaving a pile of broken wood and four rearing horses in the dust.
"Two less to worry about." Matt said as they where in the lead as they already turned around the first post.
Percy and Tyson were now only ten feet behind them. Matt took aim with his bracelets when he heard the screaming.
The pigeons were swarming, thousands of them dive-bombing the spectators in the stands, attacking the other chariots. Beckendorf was mobbed. His fighter tried to bat the birds away but he couldn't see anything. The chariot veered off course and plowed through the strawberry fields, the mechanical horses steaming.
In the Ares chariot, Clarisse barked an order to her fighter, who quickly threw a screen of camouflage netting over their basket. The birds swarmed around it, pecking and clawing at the fighter's hands as he tried to hold up the net, but Clarisse just gritted her teeth and kept driving. Her skeletal horses seemed immune to the distraction. The pigeons pecked uselessly at their empty eye sockets and flew through their rib cages, but the stallions kept right on running.
The spectators weren't so lucky. The birds were slashing at any bit of exposed flesh, driving everyone into a panic. Now that the birds were closer, it was clear they weren't normal pigeons.
Their eyes were beady and evil-looking. Their beaks were made of bronze, and judging from the yelps of the campers, they must've been razor sharp.
"Oh Hera." Matt said, "They are shiny Skarmory's!"
"Not now Matt!" Annabeth yelled as she slowed down and pulled their chariot alongside Percy's, "They are Stymphalian birds! They'll strip everyone to bones if we don't drive them away!"
Annabeth rode right next to Percy. Matt called his sword as a wave of birds dived at his face, their metal beaks snapping. He slashed them out of the air and they exploded into dust and feathers, but there were still millions of them left.
Percy wasn't having much better luck. The closer we got to the stands, the thicker the cloud of birds became.
Some of the spectators were trying to fight back. The Athena campers were calling for shields. The archers from Apollo's cabin brought out their bows and arrows, ready to slay the menace, but with so many campers mixed in with the birds, it wasn't safe to shoot.
"Too many!" Percy yelled to Matt, "Can't you use some of your fire in a massive attack?"
"Wouldn't matter if I did." Matt said, slicing a pigeon in two with his sword, "Don't think friendly fire is on."
"Hercules used noise! Brass bells! He scared them away with the most horrible sound he could..." Annabeth said as she stabbed at a pigeon with her knife, "Percy! Chiron's collection!"
She handed Matt the reins and leaped from their chariot into Percy's like it was the easiest thing in the world.
"Matt! Do your thing!" she said, "Percy, to the Big House! It's our only chance!"
Matt was leading the defense against the pigeons, as down at the track, the chariots were in flames. Wounded campers ran in every direction, with birds shredding their clothes and pulling out their hair, while Tantalus chased breakfast pastries around the stands, every once in a while yelling, "Everything's under control! Not to worry."
Slicing a pigeon in two and hitting another one with a blast of white flame, as Percy pulled back up, Annabeth got the boom box ready.
Percy pressed PLAY and started up Chiron's favorite, the All-Time Greatest Hits of Dean Martin.
Suddenly the air was filled with violins and a bunch of guys moaning in Italian.
The demon pigeons went nuts. They started flying in circles, running into each other like they wanted to bash their own brains out. Then they abandoned the track altogether and flew skyward in a huge dark wave.
"Archers!" Matt shouted as he cupped his hands, "With me!"
With clear targets, Apollo's archers had flawless aim. Most of them could nock five or six arrows at once. With his hair and eyes glowing up, Matt thrust his arms forward to shoot out a streaming, powerful beam of white fire to consume the pigeons.
Within minutes, the ground was littered with dead bronze-beaked pigeons, and the survivors were a distant trail of smoke on the horizon.
The camp was saved, but the wreckage wasn't pretty. Most of the chariots had been completely destroyed. Almost everyone was wounded, bleeding from multiple bird pecks. The kids from Aphrodite's cabin were screaming because their hairdos had been ruined and their clothes pooped on.
"Bravo!" Tantalus said, but he wasn't looking at the trio, "We have our first winner!"
He walked to the finish line and awarded the golden laurels for the race to a stunned-looking Clarisse.
"I call bullshit!" Matt said, slightly winded.
Then he turned and smiled at the trio. "And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race."
There you go, another chapter, hope you enjoyed. Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite, or follows this story.
Next chapter introduces one of my favorite characters I've written.
Take care of yourself, get some rest, drink plenty of water and I will see you people next time.