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FIC: The Final Sacrifice, chpt 1
Title: The Final Sacrifice (Daughter of Wisdom 5)
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Thalia Grace, Charles Beckendorf/Silena Beauregard, Clarisse La Rue, Michael Yew, OCs, multiple others
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Word Count: WIP, estimated 100K+ (33 chapters planned)
Summary: The war on Olympus is heating up, and Annabeth Chase is right in the thick of it. Bad enough that she's gearing up for battle while wrestling with the emotional turmoil over two of her dearest friends that is turning her heart inside out. She doesn't need more mysterious glimpses about the Great Prophecy and how it connects to her own history. But in order to understand what lies in her future, Annabeth has to dig into the past. What she finds will shape her choices … and change the course of the final battle. An alternate PoV retelling of The Last Olympian. Part 5 of the Daughter of Wisdom series.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: I Play Fruit Toss
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Silena Beauregard, Charles Beckendorf
Word Count: 3,180
Chapter Summary: Annabeth runs into some trouble on the doorstep of camp.
Notes: (Yes, I know I've ripped off the beginning shamelessly from SoN. Let's just call it an intentional parallel? *wink*) The leontes are from the spin-off choose-your-own adventure book The Demigods of Olympus.
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I should have outrun the lions two townships ago.
The other monsters had given up once they realised that the giant wolf I was riding cross-country could outstrip them easily. Remy had outrun the dracaenae in Columbus and the cynocephali in Pittsburgh. The giant scorpions hadn't even noticed us speeding through Pennsylvania.
But these lions were persistent. And fast. There were two of them, a matched pair, female and male. They'd appeared just as we crossed the Delaware and chased us all the way across New Jersey. Either they had super stamina or super tracking abilities, because it was impossible to shake them off.
I guess being a demigod, I should be used to monsters that wouldn't quit. No half-blood (half-mortal, half-Greek god) lives to the age of sixteen (which I'd be next month) without running from a monster or ten. I'd dealt with monsters of all speeds and sizes since I was a kid. And ever since the Titan Kronos had taken over my friend Luke's body and established his home base on Mount Tamalpais (long story), San Francisco, where I went to school, had been crawling with monsters.
This spring, it had finally gotten to the stage where my mother, Athena, had personally told me I had to leave and make my way to Camp Half-Blood post-haste, before the situation got 'deadly'. My dad hadn't been too happy about that. He'd wanted to take me with him and my stepfamily to Europe this summer. At spring break, he'd packed up his precious biplanes and shipped them off to Belgium, where he'd secured a grant to stage a historical re-enactment of the Battle of Ypres at its original site.
'We'll make a real holiday of it,' he'd suggested. 'I could even take you to Greece while we're there. See the actual Parthenon.'
Tempting as the offer was, I'd told him I needed to stay. This summer might be the most important one of my life. Luke-Kronos-had promised to attack Camp Half-Blood this summer, once he rebuilt the monster army we'd decimated last year. And although I didn't tell my dad this, I still regarded Camp Half-Blood as a more permanent home than San Francisco. I could never abandon it.
For the past couple of weeks, I'd been travelling east with my friend Thalia and her band of immortal maidens. Thalia leads the Hunters of Artemis, a group of girls who run all over the country hunting monsters and never ageing (again, long story). Once upon a time, I'd considered joining them, but there was one snag to their lifestyle: no boys, ever.
It would have meant saying goodbye permanently to my best friend, Percy Jackson. Sure, he annoyed the Hades out of me half the time, and he could act like a real idiot, but somehow when we were apart, I always got this dull ache in my chest that refused to go away. I couldn't imagine never seeing him again.
So it wasn't that big a wrench to part ways with the Hunters in Indiana. Thalia wouldn't say what they were doing there-'Classified information, sorry!' I guessed it had something to do with the war.
Nevertheless, the Hunters had sent me off with plenty of supplies. Hunter Kowalski, their newest recruit, had made me a new sheath for my dagger. Phoebe, their best healer, had loaded me up on nectar and ambrosia. Their talent scout, Izzy, had loaned me the giant wolf I currently rode. Remy was the size of an SUV and ran twice as fast. But let me tell you, riding a giant wolf is nowhere as exciting or romantic as it sounds. I'd take a horse, or a pegasus, or even better, a Sopwith Camel, any day.
Remy's powerful haunches rose and fell unevenly, so I was constantly tossed about. The beads on my camp necklace bounced with every step-I bet I'd have a bad bruise on my collarbone by the time we arrived. Although he had a thick fur coat, it did little to soften the angular bones that jutted from his shoulder blades, which didn't exactly make a comfortable saddle.
It hadn't been so bad when we started out, loping along at a leisurely pace. But with a pair of snarling monsters on our tail, Remy was now going at top speed. It was all I could do to hang on. My fingers were already blistered from clinging to the coarse hairs of his coat.
The lions were closing in. They'd stayed close through Newark and Secaucus, and although I tried a detour up over the George Washington Bridge and through the confusing alleys of the Bronze, it hadn't succeeded in throwing them off. They reappeared when we hit the farm roads on Long Island, snapping and snarling at Remy's flanks as if they were the ones with canine ancestry.
Remy ploughed determinedly on, but I could tell he was tiring. He'd already carried me for hours. We were almost on the doorstep of Half-Blood Hill, where the magical barriers that protected camp would keep us safe, but it didn't look like we would make it. I needed a new plan.
'We're gonna have to split up,' I told Remy. 'Do you think you can shake them off on your own?'
Remy howled, which I hoped meant, Sure, piece of cake! I uncurled one hand from his coat hairs and dug in my backpack for my Yankees cap. This strategy I often used with Percy-my magic hat turned me invisible, allowing me to sneak up on monsters while he distracted them-though I wasn't sure if executing it with a giant wolf would work quite as well. Still, it was better than being hunted down like antelope on a savannah.
I jammed my cap on my head and eyed a nearby peach tree. It had a thin, low-hanging branch. Behind us, the snarling pants of the lions were getting louder. Any moment, they'd pounce, and invisible or not, if I were still on Remy's back, we'd both be cat chow. But if I timed it right ...
I let go of Remy's coat, relying on my knees to grip his back. The peach tree was just twenty yards away. Fifteen yards ... ten ... five ...
Two feet from the tree, I forced my complaining legs to launch me upwards.
There was a sharp whoosh of feline claws raking the air inches below me. My hands closed around the tree branch. I swung my legs upwards, curling away from the pouncing lioness.
Divested of his load, Remy put on a burst of speed. The lions charged after him. I clung to the branch, breathing hard. Hopefully, I'd bought myself some time before the lions realised Remy and I had separated. Once they did, they'd probably leave him alone and come in search of me. I was maybe five or six miles from the camp borders. All I had to do was-
CRACK.
The thin branch I was clutching snapped. With a yelp, I fell through the air ...
... and landed in an unexpectedly soft but unquestionably smelly pile of manure.
'Di immortales!' The heap of cow dung had materialised out of nowhere. Maybe I should have been grateful that it had broken my fall, but I knew where it had come from: her bovine majesty, Queen Hera and her invisible, heavenly cows. And she most certainly did not intend to be helpful. Ever since I'd rejected her interference in my quest last summer, Hera had sent me little 'gifts' all year. My first day of high school had been a riot when I'd shown up splattered with cow droppings. I'd since gotten better at watching where I stepped, but when you start the year as 'Dung Diva', that rep tends to stick.
Now I was up to my waist in cow dung. My invisibility cap had survived the manure-landing, having flown off my head and landed five feet away, but my backpack was covered in the stuff. I grit my teeth and tried to breath shallowly.
Then I saw the lions.
The good news: Remy must have gotten away. The bad-the lions had circled back incredibly fast.
'Daughter of Athena.' The lioness's grin was predatory. 'I shall enjoy killing you.'
'You-you don't want to eat me,' I said quickly, gesturing to the manure. 'I'm slathered in cow poop. It's probably toxic to lions.'
'Bah,' said the lion, wrinkling his nose. 'She might be right ...'
The lioness cuffed him around the head. 'Don't be an idiot. It's nothing a bit of tabasco sauce won't mask. Tabasco sauce makes everything go down a treat. Besides, we are not just any lions. We are the leontes, the immortal children of Atalanta. Your death will be satisfying enough, half-blood, whether or not we feast on your flesh.'
'Atalanta?' I knew that name. Although men typically had a monopoly on the Greek hero trade, Atalanta was famed for being the one female who had kicked serious male butt. Our activities director, Chiron, even had a signed picture of her on his wall of fame. 'But she was a demigod. If you're her children, shouldn't you be on our side?'
'Pffft,' snarled the female leonte-or should she be a leontess? 'The gods dishonoured our parents. They turned them into lions for some insignificant transgression and parted them for eternity. We will avenge the insult to our parents on their children.'
I remembered that part of the story now. The hero Hippomenes had won a death race version of The Bachelor by tossing three magical apples from Aphrodite onto the race track to slow Atalanta down. They'd gotten married after that, but he had forgotten to make the appropriate sacrifice of thanks to the goddess of love ... who really didn't like being ignored.
'Besides,' the leontess continued, 'the Titans will march on Olympus soon. We will tear down the gods and the demigods who side with them. The world will be ours-a better world, free of the tyranny of the gods.'
Her words sent a chill down my spine, and not just because she was about to kill me. She sounded a lot like Luke: so furious with the gods, especially his father, Hermes, for neglecting him. It was this anger that had led him to seek out Kronos and return the Titan to power.
But I couldn't worry about Luke now. The leontess was advancing slowly, as though considering which part of me to cut up first.
I scanned my surroundings desperately, looking for anything that might help. Only a couple of peaches rolled forlornly on the ground. I'd shaken them out of the tree when I'd fallen.
Peaches.
It was a crazy idea, but I picked up the nearest peach and flung it between the leontes. It hit the male in the nose. He went cross-eyed, batting at his whiskers as if waving off a pesky fly. Even the less distractible female seemed drawn against her will to inspect the deciduous fruit.
Encouraged, I flung the next peach further. Immediately, the leonte dove for it. The leontess's head swivelled around, although she quickly snapped back to me, looking annoyed at her inability to resist the diversion.
My next peach rolled down a grassy slope. The leonte charged after it. I inched towards my invisibility cap. If I could just grab it ...
'Fool!' the leontess roared. 'It is a trick! This is no enchanted apple of Aphrodite. It's not even an apple!' She tore her eyes away from the flying fruit. 'I will tear your head off!'
I abandoned stealth and made a leap for my cap. At the same time, the leontess pounced. I rolled away as she raked the air inches from my face. One razor-sharp claw snagged the leather cord of my camp necklace, scattering its beads across the ground. I bumped up against the trunk of the peach tree.
'No more tricks, daughter of Athena. You are mine!'
I scrambled to my feet, heart hammering like a bass drum. There were no more peaches-if they would even work this time. I drew my dagger, steeling myself for her attack, but I knew I'd never fight her off one on one. Her powerful haunches tightened for another spring ...
Out of nowhere, a golden ball came flying between us. I had just enough time to register that this was a real golden apple before it glowed impossibly bright, like a goddess taking her true form. A hazy figure danced before my eyes-a lanky boy with dark hair, sea-green eyes, and a roguish smile.
'Percy?' My heart leapt at the sight of him.
But the image vanished. The glowing apple exploded in a shower of pink confetti.
'Leave my friend alone!' The voice was much too high-pitched to be Percy, and it came from high above.
'No apples!' wailed the leontess.
'That's right!' Silena Beauregard, head counsellor of the Aprodite cabin, swooped out of the air on a roan pegasus. 'Those are the real apples of Aphrodite.' In her left hand, she tossed another golden apple up and down.
'A daugther of Aphrodite!' The leontess sounded like she didn't know whether to attack or flee.
Silena flung the other apple. This one hit the leontess smack in the face. I had another glimpse of glowing Percy before it turned into a pink confetti bomb. The leontess howled and backed away.
'Annabeth, take cover!' Silena yelled. She urged her pegasus upwards.
Puzzled, I did as she said. For the second time that day, I immersed myself in cow poop-this time putting my head under. Gods of Olympus, I was going to need such a long shower after this. Maybe five.
'Charlie, go!'
Metal joints creaked, followed by a searing blast of heat from beyond my dung walls. I heard the leontess howl. There was a sizzling noise, like sausage frying on a pan.
When the heat faded, I climbed out of the dung heap. Charles Beckendorf, head counsellor for the Hephaestus cabin, was riding atop a glowing bronze bull. His skin gleamed with a shining lather-Medea's SPF 50 sunscreen, no doubt. The bull was one of the fire-breathing automatons that had attacked camp a few years ago. Twenty feet away, a ring of charred grass encircled a pile of lion-shaped ashes.
'There's another leonte,' I said. 'A male. I distracted it with a peach, but-'
'On it.' Beckendorf urged his mechanical bull down the slope. We heard the panicked roar of the leonte as the flaming bull caught up to it.
Silena landed her pegasus a safe distance away from the cow dung. 'Are you okay?'
'Yeah, thanks.' I picked up my invisibility cap and my broken camp necklace. Silena helped me gather up the beads, along with the other two items I kept on the cord: a gold ring and a skeleton key. She looked like she was trying not to gag when she passed me the key, holding it between her fingers, reluctant to touch me.
'Sorry,' she said. 'It's just-'
I sighed. 'I know.' I tried to brush off the cow dung, but it was everywhere: my clothes, my hair ... even my backpack was coated in it. 'How did you find me?'
'We've been running patrols all day,' Silena explained. 'Helping campers get through. We already lost a bunch of satyrs trying to get their campers here. Grover's the only one who managed to make it in.'
'Is he okay?' I wasn't surprised that Grover was the only satyr to successfully shepherd his charge past the monsters. Eight years ago, he'd brought me in-along with Luke and Thalia-and five years after that, he'd found Percy. Last summer, he'd even scared off the entire Titan army when he released the power of the wild god Pan in one fearsome cry.
'He's fine,' Silena said. 'He brought in a new Apollo kid yesterday, but he had to head back out this morning. Said he was late for a protest rally.'
I smiled. That sounded just like Grover. He was nuts about conserving nature and protecting the wild.
'It's not just new campers, though. Even our regulars have been getting attacked. The monsters can't get past our boundaries, but they've worked out that if they attack any half-blood on their way to camp, they can catch us that way. Charlie's been working non-stop trying to build us a good automaton guard. He finally got one of the old bronze bulls working again.'
I raised an eyebrow. 'Charlie?' Nobody ever called Beckendorf by his given name, let alone a nickname.
Silena blushed and busied herself with her sling bag. She produced another apple from it. 'Apple?'
'Er, no thanks.'
'This one's just a normal golden delicious,' she promised. 'I used up both my magic ones.'
'I'll pass.'
She shrugged and took a bite, obviously trying to pretend her cheeks weren't bright pink.
'About those apples,' I said, 'I thought I saw something strange before they exploded.'
'Oh, that. They're enchanted to show you your heart's desire or something like that. It's Aphrodite, after all. Everything's about love with her.' Silena grinned. 'Why? What did you see?'
It was my turn to blush and look away. Fortunately, Remy chose that moment to return. At the sight of him, Silena yelped and forgot about teasing me.
'It's okay! He's friendly.' I reached out to hug Remy, but he took one sniff and reared back, like, pee-YOU, you stink! I sighed. 'Glad you lost the lions, boy. You going back to the Hunters now?'
Remy barked and wagged his tail.
'Okay. Thanks for the ride.'
He consented to a brief pat, then took off towards the west. He loped past Beckendorf, who was returning from torching the leonte. The bronze bull had reached its limit of docility. It bucked wildly under Beckendorf. Silena and I dove out of the way as they charged towards us, Beckendorf struggling to keep it under control. At last, he yanked a chip from the bull's neck. The robot screeched to a stop, tossing Beckendorf into the air ... and into the poop pile.
I winced in sympathy. Medea's sunscreen might be effective protection against Colchis bull fire, but it wouldn't ward off cow poop.
'Charlie!' Silena didn't seem to care about the smell when it was him covered in poop. She ran straight over.
Beckendorf grimaced and let Silena pull him out of the dung heap. 'I'm okay. Damn automatons.' He shook the control chip he'd pulled from the bull's head and slapped it against his thigh. 'I can't seem to get the programming right.'
'You did great!' Silena assured him. 'Didn't he?'
'Er, yeah,' I said. 'Thanks for jumping in.'
Beckendorf grunted and turned to inspect his now-stationary bull. 'We'll have to leave it here for now. I can't re-install the chip until I re-programme it.'
'We can come back for it,' Silena said. 'Come on. You two could definitely use a bath.'
Chapter 2
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Thalia Grace, Charles Beckendorf/Silena Beauregard, Clarisse La Rue, Michael Yew, OCs, multiple others
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Word Count: WIP, estimated 100K+ (33 chapters planned)
Summary: The war on Olympus is heating up, and Annabeth Chase is right in the thick of it. Bad enough that she's gearing up for battle while wrestling with the emotional turmoil over two of her dearest friends that is turning her heart inside out. She doesn't need more mysterious glimpses about the Great Prophecy and how it connects to her own history. But in order to understand what lies in her future, Annabeth has to dig into the past. What she finds will shape her choices … and change the course of the final battle. An alternate PoV retelling of The Last Olympian. Part 5 of the Daughter of Wisdom series.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: I Play Fruit Toss
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Silena Beauregard, Charles Beckendorf
Word Count: 3,180
Chapter Summary: Annabeth runs into some trouble on the doorstep of camp.
Notes: (Yes, I know I've ripped off the beginning shamelessly from SoN. Let's just call it an intentional parallel? *wink*) The leontes are from the spin-off choose-your-own adventure book The Demigods of Olympus.
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I should have outrun the lions two townships ago.
The other monsters had given up once they realised that the giant wolf I was riding cross-country could outstrip them easily. Remy had outrun the dracaenae in Columbus and the cynocephali in Pittsburgh. The giant scorpions hadn't even noticed us speeding through Pennsylvania.
But these lions were persistent. And fast. There were two of them, a matched pair, female and male. They'd appeared just as we crossed the Delaware and chased us all the way across New Jersey. Either they had super stamina or super tracking abilities, because it was impossible to shake them off.
I guess being a demigod, I should be used to monsters that wouldn't quit. No half-blood (half-mortal, half-Greek god) lives to the age of sixteen (which I'd be next month) without running from a monster or ten. I'd dealt with monsters of all speeds and sizes since I was a kid. And ever since the Titan Kronos had taken over my friend Luke's body and established his home base on Mount Tamalpais (long story), San Francisco, where I went to school, had been crawling with monsters.
This spring, it had finally gotten to the stage where my mother, Athena, had personally told me I had to leave and make my way to Camp Half-Blood post-haste, before the situation got 'deadly'. My dad hadn't been too happy about that. He'd wanted to take me with him and my stepfamily to Europe this summer. At spring break, he'd packed up his precious biplanes and shipped them off to Belgium, where he'd secured a grant to stage a historical re-enactment of the Battle of Ypres at its original site.
'We'll make a real holiday of it,' he'd suggested. 'I could even take you to Greece while we're there. See the actual Parthenon.'
Tempting as the offer was, I'd told him I needed to stay. This summer might be the most important one of my life. Luke-Kronos-had promised to attack Camp Half-Blood this summer, once he rebuilt the monster army we'd decimated last year. And although I didn't tell my dad this, I still regarded Camp Half-Blood as a more permanent home than San Francisco. I could never abandon it.
For the past couple of weeks, I'd been travelling east with my friend Thalia and her band of immortal maidens. Thalia leads the Hunters of Artemis, a group of girls who run all over the country hunting monsters and never ageing (again, long story). Once upon a time, I'd considered joining them, but there was one snag to their lifestyle: no boys, ever.
It would have meant saying goodbye permanently to my best friend, Percy Jackson. Sure, he annoyed the Hades out of me half the time, and he could act like a real idiot, but somehow when we were apart, I always got this dull ache in my chest that refused to go away. I couldn't imagine never seeing him again.
So it wasn't that big a wrench to part ways with the Hunters in Indiana. Thalia wouldn't say what they were doing there-'Classified information, sorry!' I guessed it had something to do with the war.
Nevertheless, the Hunters had sent me off with plenty of supplies. Hunter Kowalski, their newest recruit, had made me a new sheath for my dagger. Phoebe, their best healer, had loaded me up on nectar and ambrosia. Their talent scout, Izzy, had loaned me the giant wolf I currently rode. Remy was the size of an SUV and ran twice as fast. But let me tell you, riding a giant wolf is nowhere as exciting or romantic as it sounds. I'd take a horse, or a pegasus, or even better, a Sopwith Camel, any day.
Remy's powerful haunches rose and fell unevenly, so I was constantly tossed about. The beads on my camp necklace bounced with every step-I bet I'd have a bad bruise on my collarbone by the time we arrived. Although he had a thick fur coat, it did little to soften the angular bones that jutted from his shoulder blades, which didn't exactly make a comfortable saddle.
It hadn't been so bad when we started out, loping along at a leisurely pace. But with a pair of snarling monsters on our tail, Remy was now going at top speed. It was all I could do to hang on. My fingers were already blistered from clinging to the coarse hairs of his coat.
The lions were closing in. They'd stayed close through Newark and Secaucus, and although I tried a detour up over the George Washington Bridge and through the confusing alleys of the Bronze, it hadn't succeeded in throwing them off. They reappeared when we hit the farm roads on Long Island, snapping and snarling at Remy's flanks as if they were the ones with canine ancestry.
Remy ploughed determinedly on, but I could tell he was tiring. He'd already carried me for hours. We were almost on the doorstep of Half-Blood Hill, where the magical barriers that protected camp would keep us safe, but it didn't look like we would make it. I needed a new plan.
'We're gonna have to split up,' I told Remy. 'Do you think you can shake them off on your own?'
Remy howled, which I hoped meant, Sure, piece of cake! I uncurled one hand from his coat hairs and dug in my backpack for my Yankees cap. This strategy I often used with Percy-my magic hat turned me invisible, allowing me to sneak up on monsters while he distracted them-though I wasn't sure if executing it with a giant wolf would work quite as well. Still, it was better than being hunted down like antelope on a savannah.
I jammed my cap on my head and eyed a nearby peach tree. It had a thin, low-hanging branch. Behind us, the snarling pants of the lions were getting louder. Any moment, they'd pounce, and invisible or not, if I were still on Remy's back, we'd both be cat chow. But if I timed it right ...
I let go of Remy's coat, relying on my knees to grip his back. The peach tree was just twenty yards away. Fifteen yards ... ten ... five ...
Two feet from the tree, I forced my complaining legs to launch me upwards.
There was a sharp whoosh of feline claws raking the air inches below me. My hands closed around the tree branch. I swung my legs upwards, curling away from the pouncing lioness.
Divested of his load, Remy put on a burst of speed. The lions charged after him. I clung to the branch, breathing hard. Hopefully, I'd bought myself some time before the lions realised Remy and I had separated. Once they did, they'd probably leave him alone and come in search of me. I was maybe five or six miles from the camp borders. All I had to do was-
CRACK.
The thin branch I was clutching snapped. With a yelp, I fell through the air ...
... and landed in an unexpectedly soft but unquestionably smelly pile of manure.
'Di immortales!' The heap of cow dung had materialised out of nowhere. Maybe I should have been grateful that it had broken my fall, but I knew where it had come from: her bovine majesty, Queen Hera and her invisible, heavenly cows. And she most certainly did not intend to be helpful. Ever since I'd rejected her interference in my quest last summer, Hera had sent me little 'gifts' all year. My first day of high school had been a riot when I'd shown up splattered with cow droppings. I'd since gotten better at watching where I stepped, but when you start the year as 'Dung Diva', that rep tends to stick.
Now I was up to my waist in cow dung. My invisibility cap had survived the manure-landing, having flown off my head and landed five feet away, but my backpack was covered in the stuff. I grit my teeth and tried to breath shallowly.
Then I saw the lions.
The good news: Remy must have gotten away. The bad-the lions had circled back incredibly fast.
'Daughter of Athena.' The lioness's grin was predatory. 'I shall enjoy killing you.'
'You-you don't want to eat me,' I said quickly, gesturing to the manure. 'I'm slathered in cow poop. It's probably toxic to lions.'
'Bah,' said the lion, wrinkling his nose. 'She might be right ...'
The lioness cuffed him around the head. 'Don't be an idiot. It's nothing a bit of tabasco sauce won't mask. Tabasco sauce makes everything go down a treat. Besides, we are not just any lions. We are the leontes, the immortal children of Atalanta. Your death will be satisfying enough, half-blood, whether or not we feast on your flesh.'
'Atalanta?' I knew that name. Although men typically had a monopoly on the Greek hero trade, Atalanta was famed for being the one female who had kicked serious male butt. Our activities director, Chiron, even had a signed picture of her on his wall of fame. 'But she was a demigod. If you're her children, shouldn't you be on our side?'
'Pffft,' snarled the female leonte-or should she be a leontess? 'The gods dishonoured our parents. They turned them into lions for some insignificant transgression and parted them for eternity. We will avenge the insult to our parents on their children.'
I remembered that part of the story now. The hero Hippomenes had won a death race version of The Bachelor by tossing three magical apples from Aphrodite onto the race track to slow Atalanta down. They'd gotten married after that, but he had forgotten to make the appropriate sacrifice of thanks to the goddess of love ... who really didn't like being ignored.
'Besides,' the leontess continued, 'the Titans will march on Olympus soon. We will tear down the gods and the demigods who side with them. The world will be ours-a better world, free of the tyranny of the gods.'
Her words sent a chill down my spine, and not just because she was about to kill me. She sounded a lot like Luke: so furious with the gods, especially his father, Hermes, for neglecting him. It was this anger that had led him to seek out Kronos and return the Titan to power.
But I couldn't worry about Luke now. The leontess was advancing slowly, as though considering which part of me to cut up first.
I scanned my surroundings desperately, looking for anything that might help. Only a couple of peaches rolled forlornly on the ground. I'd shaken them out of the tree when I'd fallen.
Peaches.
It was a crazy idea, but I picked up the nearest peach and flung it between the leontes. It hit the male in the nose. He went cross-eyed, batting at his whiskers as if waving off a pesky fly. Even the less distractible female seemed drawn against her will to inspect the deciduous fruit.
Encouraged, I flung the next peach further. Immediately, the leonte dove for it. The leontess's head swivelled around, although she quickly snapped back to me, looking annoyed at her inability to resist the diversion.
My next peach rolled down a grassy slope. The leonte charged after it. I inched towards my invisibility cap. If I could just grab it ...
'Fool!' the leontess roared. 'It is a trick! This is no enchanted apple of Aphrodite. It's not even an apple!' She tore her eyes away from the flying fruit. 'I will tear your head off!'
I abandoned stealth and made a leap for my cap. At the same time, the leontess pounced. I rolled away as she raked the air inches from my face. One razor-sharp claw snagged the leather cord of my camp necklace, scattering its beads across the ground. I bumped up against the trunk of the peach tree.
'No more tricks, daughter of Athena. You are mine!'
I scrambled to my feet, heart hammering like a bass drum. There were no more peaches-if they would even work this time. I drew my dagger, steeling myself for her attack, but I knew I'd never fight her off one on one. Her powerful haunches tightened for another spring ...
Out of nowhere, a golden ball came flying between us. I had just enough time to register that this was a real golden apple before it glowed impossibly bright, like a goddess taking her true form. A hazy figure danced before my eyes-a lanky boy with dark hair, sea-green eyes, and a roguish smile.
'Percy?' My heart leapt at the sight of him.
But the image vanished. The glowing apple exploded in a shower of pink confetti.
'Leave my friend alone!' The voice was much too high-pitched to be Percy, and it came from high above.
'No apples!' wailed the leontess.
'That's right!' Silena Beauregard, head counsellor of the Aprodite cabin, swooped out of the air on a roan pegasus. 'Those are the real apples of Aphrodite.' In her left hand, she tossed another golden apple up and down.
'A daugther of Aphrodite!' The leontess sounded like she didn't know whether to attack or flee.
Silena flung the other apple. This one hit the leontess smack in the face. I had another glimpse of glowing Percy before it turned into a pink confetti bomb. The leontess howled and backed away.
'Annabeth, take cover!' Silena yelled. She urged her pegasus upwards.
Puzzled, I did as she said. For the second time that day, I immersed myself in cow poop-this time putting my head under. Gods of Olympus, I was going to need such a long shower after this. Maybe five.
'Charlie, go!'
Metal joints creaked, followed by a searing blast of heat from beyond my dung walls. I heard the leontess howl. There was a sizzling noise, like sausage frying on a pan.
When the heat faded, I climbed out of the dung heap. Charles Beckendorf, head counsellor for the Hephaestus cabin, was riding atop a glowing bronze bull. His skin gleamed with a shining lather-Medea's SPF 50 sunscreen, no doubt. The bull was one of the fire-breathing automatons that had attacked camp a few years ago. Twenty feet away, a ring of charred grass encircled a pile of lion-shaped ashes.
'There's another leonte,' I said. 'A male. I distracted it with a peach, but-'
'On it.' Beckendorf urged his mechanical bull down the slope. We heard the panicked roar of the leonte as the flaming bull caught up to it.
Silena landed her pegasus a safe distance away from the cow dung. 'Are you okay?'
'Yeah, thanks.' I picked up my invisibility cap and my broken camp necklace. Silena helped me gather up the beads, along with the other two items I kept on the cord: a gold ring and a skeleton key. She looked like she was trying not to gag when she passed me the key, holding it between her fingers, reluctant to touch me.
'Sorry,' she said. 'It's just-'
I sighed. 'I know.' I tried to brush off the cow dung, but it was everywhere: my clothes, my hair ... even my backpack was coated in it. 'How did you find me?'
'We've been running patrols all day,' Silena explained. 'Helping campers get through. We already lost a bunch of satyrs trying to get their campers here. Grover's the only one who managed to make it in.'
'Is he okay?' I wasn't surprised that Grover was the only satyr to successfully shepherd his charge past the monsters. Eight years ago, he'd brought me in-along with Luke and Thalia-and five years after that, he'd found Percy. Last summer, he'd even scared off the entire Titan army when he released the power of the wild god Pan in one fearsome cry.
'He's fine,' Silena said. 'He brought in a new Apollo kid yesterday, but he had to head back out this morning. Said he was late for a protest rally.'
I smiled. That sounded just like Grover. He was nuts about conserving nature and protecting the wild.
'It's not just new campers, though. Even our regulars have been getting attacked. The monsters can't get past our boundaries, but they've worked out that if they attack any half-blood on their way to camp, they can catch us that way. Charlie's been working non-stop trying to build us a good automaton guard. He finally got one of the old bronze bulls working again.'
I raised an eyebrow. 'Charlie?' Nobody ever called Beckendorf by his given name, let alone a nickname.
Silena blushed and busied herself with her sling bag. She produced another apple from it. 'Apple?'
'Er, no thanks.'
'This one's just a normal golden delicious,' she promised. 'I used up both my magic ones.'
'I'll pass.'
She shrugged and took a bite, obviously trying to pretend her cheeks weren't bright pink.
'About those apples,' I said, 'I thought I saw something strange before they exploded.'
'Oh, that. They're enchanted to show you your heart's desire or something like that. It's Aphrodite, after all. Everything's about love with her.' Silena grinned. 'Why? What did you see?'
It was my turn to blush and look away. Fortunately, Remy chose that moment to return. At the sight of him, Silena yelped and forgot about teasing me.
'It's okay! He's friendly.' I reached out to hug Remy, but he took one sniff and reared back, like, pee-YOU, you stink! I sighed. 'Glad you lost the lions, boy. You going back to the Hunters now?'
Remy barked and wagged his tail.
'Okay. Thanks for the ride.'
He consented to a brief pat, then took off towards the west. He loped past Beckendorf, who was returning from torching the leonte. The bronze bull had reached its limit of docility. It bucked wildly under Beckendorf. Silena and I dove out of the way as they charged towards us, Beckendorf struggling to keep it under control. At last, he yanked a chip from the bull's neck. The robot screeched to a stop, tossing Beckendorf into the air ... and into the poop pile.
I winced in sympathy. Medea's sunscreen might be effective protection against Colchis bull fire, but it wouldn't ward off cow poop.
'Charlie!' Silena didn't seem to care about the smell when it was him covered in poop. She ran straight over.
Beckendorf grimaced and let Silena pull him out of the dung heap. 'I'm okay. Damn automatons.' He shook the control chip he'd pulled from the bull's head and slapped it against his thigh. 'I can't seem to get the programming right.'
'You did great!' Silena assured him. 'Didn't he?'
'Er, yeah,' I said. 'Thanks for jumping in.'
Beckendorf grunted and turned to inspect his now-stationary bull. 'We'll have to leave it here for now. I can't re-install the chip until I re-programme it.'
'We can come back for it,' Silena said. 'Come on. You two could definitely use a bath.'
Chapter 2