Tenses

"Of course he is", groaned Helena, causing Harveste to chuckle.

"And that's the end of the fourth chapter," Sally said, smiling warmly to everybody. "Do you guys want a chapter break perhaps?"

There were loud choruses of agreements. Sally nodded, "Well", she smiled in mirth, "you may begin"

The mortals made confused noises, not until plates and kitchen ware bloomed in front of them, the plates were gold and so was the knife, spoon and fork. The mortals gasped in awe and people who were used to this behaviors chuckled at their expressions.

But the mortals were still confused.

"You can just say it", Harveste said out loud and clear, "Say what?", asked Beth that heard him.

"The food", shrugged Harveste, "just say the food with your liking then it'll appear"

"How about drinks?", asked Ron, now he can't miss eating without his Milk tea. He jumped when a goblet appeared right beside his left hand that was laying on the table. Children around him snickered, he scowled at them. "Like you weren't shocked too"

"That's the drink"

"Th-thanks I guess..", Hermione snorted right before straightening herself and closing her eyes, then chanting like a prayer she muttered:

"Bacon and Egg and a cup of rice". With that she slowly opened her eyes.

Like magic, they popped to existence. The cup of rice was perfect and with the mist it was creating, it was still hot. The bacon still looked crispy and juicy while the egg was a perfect sunny side.

Wizards around them did the same and like hers their foods in favor popped.

Hermione grinned and she'll have to ask later about how this works and what else it can do. How about things?, can they appear too? And what magic is this or what type of magic they use? All were complex. And this was her first time seeing wakandan technology and it was amazing, the whole world had called Wakanda 'poor' but there were things within.

Sure she had seen things that people made that were complex but not this complex. Maybe because of the combination of runes and technology, can It be a thing?

She scooped up the food and noticed demigods putting food in a goblet of fire, right at the edge of their table. They were saying things or maybe praying, they were giving up food that's tasty like a offering? Maybe?, there were too much maybe's. 

"Why do they do that?," Hermione pointed at the demigods while nudging Harveste , "I get that they're demigods but they're wasting perfectly good foods, shouldn't you do something about it?" 

Harveste chuckled, and Hermione blushed, snap out of It Hermione!, she chided herself. He's so cute what the heck?

He winked at her, eyes full of mirth, mystery and amusement, "You'll see"

Hermione sighed internally, here we go again, with the 'you'll see' things they've been saying.

"How about you?"

"Hm?," she was about to drink her mocha from her goblet (oH MY GOSH!!, is it gold?) 

"You've noticed they're looking at you, but you're not doing anything," He stated.

Ah. Yes, the looks. The looks she had constantly get used to. As a black girl, she was used to stuff like this, people giving her wary looks like your a terrorist (some people even called police on her for shopping, but excused that she acted suspicious), or even looks of disgust and hatred, either way she didn't mind it, she was used to it. She was used to stuff like this that involved races and constantly get underestimated or questioned as a black girl. 

"Oh. That. I don't mind it. Don't worry."

"Don't worry?," He said, "Don't worry, when you're literally fidgeting since awhile ago"

Oh. Oh. Wait. She was?, since when? Unknowingly she froze and short slow and quiet breathes left her.

Harveste looked at her intensely.

Oh crap. Oh shoot. Soon he might call the cops on her too. Or worse call her something worse. Shoot. Shoot. What to do. Uh.

"Uh. Um. Is there something wrong?," she winced at the high pitch on her voice and stutter on the start. Be composed. Hermione. Okay. But what if he'll— Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Calm down.

"Oh nothing," He shrugged, he shrugged, like he hadn't looked at her like that. He went back on cutting fried mozzarella cubes (why is it blue????)

And talking to Ron about muggle (why are they calling us that???) stuff while he occasionally chip in about his family.

The looks, she thought, they're still looking at me like I'm something disgusting. What's so wrong about being black so much that they look at me us like that?

"So," Roxanne said, "what are we going to do about this stuff?"

"You mean at the fact, people will be reading my mind and tell my story? Or at the fact we're being watched by the gods right now?," grumbled Percy. Penelope gave her a pat of sympathy, "Now, now," she said, "We don't want ol' uncle thunderpants to hear you"

Thunder

Everybody snickered. Thunder 

"Okay everybody," Roxanne rolled her eyes exasperated. "We need to be serious in here," she said. "The future isn't something you read everyday. Like what Percy said, this wasn't the first quest she'll be going.", she paused, frowning, "Come to think of it Percy, what year did you came from?"

"Um, 2013. A year after the forming of Avengers?"

Everybody stared at her. "2013?," one murmured to another, "Aren't we from 2013 too?"

"Wait hold up! I'm from 2011!"

"Me too. . ."

"I'm from 2013 too," Penelope muttered, eyes squinting, she had heard of the forming of Avengers and she didn't like them mostly because of the Chaos they caused.

"2013?", said Roxanne, "You're telling me you're from the future? And I'm telling you I'm from 2011?, am I just the only 2011 in here?"

"Can somebody raise their hand if you're from 2011 or 2012?"

Many raised hands, they looked at Percy, "What happened in the future?"

"Ah." Percy scratched the back of her head, "Well, let's see. Where do I start?, um. Well, since my brother is an agent of S.H.E.I.L.D, he knew the plans for a team of strong people put together. Captain America— the Athena cabin and Ares cabin perked up, so did the children of Kratos—was the first one, but then 'Loki',  local Norse god of mischief, adopted brother of Thor, stole the tesseract. Something the father of Tony Stark, and the nazi Captain America used as an experiment for good and evil. And since Loki stole it, he used it to try to take over the world. But he failed because of 2012 us, with the Avengers. Since then, me and my brother became officially an Avenger, so did some of us.  And then Roxanne became business partner with Tony Stark, then Peter became Spiderman by being bitten by a radioactive spider that caused him to have the strength of a child of Kratos and Ares, that caused him to became an Superhero. Uh. I guess the end?," she said, very uncertain.

"What", they all said, dumbfounded. This was a year after Percy’s quest? The people from the future nodded, things had gone complicated when the Avengers came in.

Naruto clicked their tongue, they didn't like this not one bit.

"Hey!", called out one of the demigods, "How about you guys?"

Sadie, Carter and Naruto looked at each other. "We're from 2016"

The demigod's brows furrowed further. That's one hell of a gap from the future.

"Oh!, right! I remember!", exclaimed Percy, "There was also another quest after that!"

Percy swore their (past demigods) jaws would've dislocated out of the bone it was connected with.

Chapter break passed by after a few hours, many did not know how long have they been here, but people were sure they would be here for days or maybe months.

"Remember everybody!," Percy said, standing in front of everybody, "This'll get bloody as fuck!"

"Sister!," reprimanded Harry from the wizards table, "Language!"

Roxanne snickered, "Ok My lady, Please Start". Sally nodded.

What the fuck is happening?

Are those really 

Hooves?

Steve could only roll his eyes, the Jackson family never ceases to curse sometimes, but Percy—Percy had always been a different case, she could make a sailor blush with how viscous she could curse. And—somehow he knew Harry could be as worse as his sister —or more— when he curses —which only happens when he's really angry, and him getting angry is still rare—. Stark snorted beside him, as if reading his mind and senting a wink his way when he noticed Steve giving him an offended look. Tony only smirked.

We tore through the night in the dark country road. Wind slammed against the camaro. The rain violently slashed against the windshield. I didn't know how my mom had night vision.

Everytime lightning flashed, I looked over my friend Grover and wondered if I was high on horse Crack.

Centaurs would not like hearing that, thought Charlie Weasley, while staying here he had simply enjoyed everything, especially with this demigod that enjoyed learning about dragons. Since awhile ago they had been sharing their knowledge about those intelligent creatures.

His supposed called "legs" were like shaggy carpet trousers, but I recognized this smell it was the smell I remembered from kindergarten

"kindergarten?"

"What do you mean—? Oh, you're a wizard, right, later. I promise I'll explain later"

when I went to the zoo, it smelled like wet wool and barnyard animal.

But right know I'm focused on one thing. 'So you and mum......knew each other?'

Harry watched us and looked at us, as if he's slowly finding out the hardest riddle of all time.

"I thought it was my fault we got in danger because bad guys found out I'm a wizard"

Grover's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror but there were no cars behind us. 'Not exactly'. He said. 'But she knew I was watching over you'.

"Nobody still answered what the fuck is a car," reminded a wizard.

'Watching me?'

'Keeping tabs on you, making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend'. He added hastily.

'So your a goat from the waist down?'

'Satyr'

'Like THE mythology satyr's?'

'Do you still think the old ladies in the stands are a myth?, Percy?, do you really thinks Mrs. Dodds is too?'

I wished it was a myth.

'So Mrs. Dodds did exist!'

'Wait!, what old ladies and Mrs. Dodds?' Harry questioned. Curious as ever.

'I'll tell you later'. I responded, in a firm but gentle tone. I knew he wanted to ask more but he was good at keeping his mouth shut and figure out things in the quietest way possible. Experiment. He'll most likely ask questions such as, 'How do their organs work?'

"What are you a Ravenclaw?," murmured a guy his age in front of him, Helena's eyebrows scrunched together, she was currently talking to Percy about things in Hogwarts, "A what????"

'Of course'

'Then why-'

'The less things you know the less you'll get killed by monsters you'll attract'. It was the truth. That's the scary part of his true words.

People are always afraid and in doubt of something they didn't know or have no control of. But it's better than being ignorant and left in the dust the whole time. So in conclusion right know, either I'm not ready for the truth and confirmation or afraid that I had wrong conclusions. The irony right because I felt like the truth is right in front of me but I didn't or don't want to believe it.

"Felt that"

'We put mists in humans' eyes. We thought it was enough to convince you that the Kindly one you saw would be a hallucination. But it was no good you started to realize who you were except you Harry, you are a different type of mortal, though I can't tell you guy's about it right now'.

'Who's "we!?"' Me and my brother yelled, questioningly. Then I tried to ask again, 'Wait a minute, what do you mean about wh-'.

The weird bellowing noise rose up again, it's close. Whatever was chasing was on our trail, is he the guy from lord of the rings or something?

"Lord of the what?," Ron asked, "Oh nothing," said Harry dismissively, "it's an amazing fiction novel that's written by Mr Tolkien, you should read it sometime it's very interesting'

"Yup!", grinned Hermione, "Do you want to read it?"

It was obvious with Ron's face that he was interested, so was a chubby girl listening in front of them.

"I have the whole series," shrugged Harry, "the oldest one", the statement caused Hermione to gasp, "Let's read it later on"

'Percy, Harry'. My mom started. We both looked at her through the mirror.

'There's not much time but don't worry we'll get you to safety'.

'Safety from what?'. 

My brother then tried to look at the back, even when it's dark. Then muttered a cuss and narrowed his eyes. Well not really a cuss.

'Who's after me?'.

'Oh nobody much. Just the Lord of the dead with his few blood-thirstiest minions'

'Grover!'

'Sorry Mrs. Jackson, could you please drive faster?'

Penelope rolled her turquoise eyes. Demigods could only groan. Percy laughed.

I tried to wrap my brain with what's happening, right know I would be glad if this was just my imagination even though it was weird. And this was probably the weirdest imagination I got, with the exemption with me and my brothers shower thoughts. 

Thor frowned, "Shower thoughts?"

"Later Thor"

Harry had panicked dazed look as if everything right know makes sense. As If he knew

Why I fit into the Greek 'mythology' picture. I felt like I knew it too.

My mom made a hard left. We swerved into a narrower road, racing past dark farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRY! Signs in white fences.

'Where are we going?'

'The summer camp I told you about'

A mortal frowned, "Out of all the safest place you think your child would be, it would be a summer camp?"

Sally blushed, and coughed, "You'll see"

Most of the guards that heard the mortal glared at the mortal.

'Is Sister going away now mom?' Harry asked, worry and sadness in his voice.

I've never seen my brother this down. He wassomehow always tough, but then again he's also a human and he's also just a kid.

'Please Children'. Our mother begged.

'This is hard enough, please understand , I just want you safe Percy but also not involved in this, Harry'.

'What?, because the fates appeared?' Grover nodded.

'The fact that they appeared in front of you-do you know what that means?, it meant you- I mean someone was about to die'

'Whoa, you said "you"'

'No I didn't, I said "someone"'

'No, you meant "you" as in "me"'

'No!, I meant you like someone, not you, you'

Harry rolled his eyes, his brain must be having convulsions listening to us.

'Children!' Mom scolded us.

Tony face palmed but can't help and looked at Harry in worry, why did nearly all demigods have to figure things out the hard way?

Steve held his shoulder from his back in comfort.

She pulled the wheel, hard to the right.

I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost in the storm.

My brother leaned forward at the back to try and recognize it. I pulled him back down.

'What was that?'

'We're almost there' My mother said ignoring my brothers question. 'Another mile, Please,please,please'.

If we got there, what would happen?.

Would my brother be allowed to come with me since he is a different type of 'human' as Grover had said. Would my mom too? Would this end if I got there?

The demigods shook their head, and Percy sighed, oh what a fool she had been.

There was a bright flash and a jaw-rattling boom! Then our car exploded.

There were screams of 'NO!'

Tony held onto Steve's hand, Ron and Hermione looked at Harveste with evident worry. Harveste only shook his head, and muttered to them, "I'm fine now aren't I?"

I remember being weightless, like I was fried, dragged and hosed at the same time. I peeled my forehead at the back of the driver's seat and said 'Ow'

'Percy! Harry!' My mom shouted.

We'd swerved into a ditch. Our drivers side door were wedged into mud and the roof were cracked Like eggshells.

Lightning was the only explanation beside me was two big motionless lumps. Harry woke up from me moving and screaming 'Harry!, Grover!'. While Grover laid there motionless, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. No! Even if you're a half barnyard animal you're still my best friend!

Charlie sniffled at their friendship.

Harry groaned 'We're okay mom....' He looked like he was high on weeds. We tried to shake of our daze before I heard Harry scream. My eyes widened. There was blood on his hand, and it came from his head and his left leg. So that's why. The blood in his head gushed down and covered his right eye. I can see some of his broken bones in his leg, blood gushing out. He had open fracture. He was slowly and surely losing blood.

"No Harry!", muttered Ron angrily, denying his stupid denials of being fine. "You're not fine!"

"Harry!", I yelled and made my way back in, it was hard getting rid of all the small sharp objects, same goes with the stuck car door.

He was slowly closing his eye, and his breath came in shallow and breathy. "Sister. . ." He weakly called.

He must have fainted, too tired and weak to handle the situation right now. 

Gods I told you, you should sleep 8 hrs a day.

"Mom! Harry he-he.....", I yelled, not sure whether she would hear me from the storm.

I was too shocked to speak. And once I got rid of my stupor, I reached out to him and carefully dragged him out of the car. I ripped out some parts of me and Grover's clothes (sorry) and used it as a first aid for Harry. And crouched beside him.

'Harry!' I can feel the distress in my mom's voice. We tied the ripped out clothes, around his injuries, his head and his legs. I can hear his breathing getting steadier though still panting.

Beside me Grover moaned 'food'. And I knew there was hope.

The demigod's wiped their tears of their face, "so beautiful", Carter muttered, "so dramatic"

'Percy, we have to.......' she trailed off.

I looked back in the flashes of the lightning I saw a tall figure lumbering towards us. The sight of it made my skin crawl. He was bulky like a football player and he seemed to have horns.

Satan?

"Satan?"

'Percy' My mother said, deadly serious. 'Carry Grover I'll carry Harry'.

'Percy you to run through to that tree understood?'

'What?'

In another flash of lightning, I saw what tree my mom meant. A huge sturdy tree rested at the crest of the nearest hill.

So that was Thalia, Penelope thought.

'That's the property line, get over the hill and you'll see a farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Call for help. Don't stop till you reach the door, carry your brother, your brother will come with you'.

'Mom no. You're coming with me'

With her face pale and eyes sad she looked over at the ocean.

Others shook their head, while others comforted Percy, Roxanne looked at Sally, she looked pale. Roxanne sighed.

'Please help me carry Grover. You're coming and that's it!'

'Food!' Grover moaned a little louder.

Everybody grumbled about him.

The man kept coming towards us, amd kept making grunting and snorting noises, his head was bigger than some of the heads of aliens that I watched with my brother. He really has horns...... is he hellboy's brother or something?

The mortals face palmed.

'He doesn't wants us Percy'. My mother told me. 'He wants you. Besides I can't cross property line, I'm sure your brother could, because of his patroness'.

'Who now?'

The Sacred twenty-eight frowned, this boy has a patron?

'We don't have time Percy, I'll help you and your brother and have to make sure you'll never set foot out of camp anymore'.

I'm mad, mad at myself for always being a nuisance, annoying and useless, I'm mad at my mom for being persistent on not staying with us, mad at Grover the goat, mad at my brother for getting involved in this.

"Don't get too rushed about this Percy", murmured Stiles in comfort, his pack must have been causing chaos in the grounds after being left alone by Stiles, "It's not your fault, neither all of us are"

'Mom, come on let's go'

'But-'

'Mom! I'm not leaving you and Grover, now please go with me'

I left her no space to talk. And so I scrambled and dragged Grover he was surprisingly light. My mother picked up Harry, bridal style.

Once we started stumbling up the hill. I looked vack at the creature and it was clearer than ever. He looked like the muscle man from magazines, with bulking triceps and biceps. He wore nothing but underwear, which would've been funny if what's happening right now isn't depressing.

'That's Pasiphae's son' I muttered, I didn't mutter his real name. 'Names have power', I think I muttered that out loud, I'm pretty sure mom heard me.

'I wish I had known how much they wanted to kill you' Harry shivered in her arms. Thank the gods he's still alive.

The pine tree was to faraway-about a hundred meter uphill at least.

I glanced back again.

The bull man hunch over our car, looking over at the windows. Or more like Sniffing and shuffling. I didn't know why he felt the need to do that, but we're only fifteen meters away. Is he blind or stupid?

"Both, Percy, Both".

'Food?' Grover moaned.

Everybody nearly rolled their eyes.

'Shh, Mom what's he doing? Can't he see us?'

'His sight and hearing are terrible' My mom said, 'He goes by smell, but he'll soon figure out where we are'.

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe's warning.

Oops.

Many mostly snickered.

'Percy,' my mom said. 'When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way - directly sideways. He can't change direction very well once he's charging. Do you understand?'

I nodded and asked.

'How do you know all this?' Even when telling us stories of the 'Mythical' world, she didn't get to much into specifics.

'I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me.'

'Keeping me near you? But -'

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

He'd smelled us.

The pine tree was only a few more metres, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.

My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Harry , I was exhausted of carrying Grover too. 'Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said.'

I didn't want to split up, I knew she was right - it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat. He almost smell worse than Gabe. 

The while Aphrodite cabin gave a shudder.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not towards me this time, towards my mother, who was setting Harry down in the grass.

We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

I tried to drag Grover but my arms were so sore and tired.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back towards the road, trying to lead the monster away from Harry.

'Run, Percy!' she told me. 'I can't go any further. Run!'

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummelling the air.

'Mom!'

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: 'Go!'

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply... gone.

'No!'

"NO!", some people yelled, preferably mortals, demigods and Argorians could only bow their heads or nod.

Then I heard my brother groan, in pain being left in the ground. The monster must've smelled his blood. I tried to run up to him.

But suddenly a very dark figure-that crawled its way out of the ground like the girl from the ring. Every bone in its dark mist body, twisting and cracking to get out of the hell hole he created. He looked like a shadow, well atleast that's what I think it look like, he was tall and thin, except his whole body was pitch black and the only thing that wasn't black about him was his eyes, it glowed eerily red. He had very long talons. It smiled eerily, his teeth was long like a certain character in the Blue monster escape game. 'Hello Harry', his voice was like how robots speak. Rasp and echoey. How did he know my brother's name? Creepy.

'Harry!' I desperately yelled at him

At this point Harry woke up and scrambled when he saw the shadowy figure and the bull man, that stopped in its track, as if to watch. The shadowy figure gripped his legs 'No!' I screamed and tried to run for him but I can't leave Grover behind, still I dropped him at the side carefully before running to Harry, with all my strength put into my legs. Harry screamed, the leg that must've been gripped was his left leg, the one that's injured. He tried to scramble away from the figure, he kicked his right leg at it, but his foot only passed through.

When I was already close, the shadowy figure dragged Harry with him to his hell hole, laughing with no emotion. 'Help!, please....!' At the last moment, before his whole body was dragged underground, I didn't think the shadowy figure was that strong. Harry was trying to reach out to things he could hold on, even if half of his body was already underground. I dived to the ground to reach out to him. But he was a dead meat, 'No!, Percy run! Go!' That was his last words. Before he was fully dragged at the hell hole and enveloped by the ground.

My body was full of scratches. I looked at the place my brother was dragged in, first my mom, now my brother? No shit.

Natasha pursed her lips, as she rock her heels back and forth.

Anger replaced my fear when I tried to look at the bull man again(whom was confused as to where I was, but was near Grover). Newfound strength burned in my limbs - the same rush of energy I'd got when Mrs Dodds grew talons. I saw the bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I couldn't allow that.

I stripped off my red rain jacket.

'HEY!' I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. 'Hey, stupid! Ground beef!'

'Raaaarrrrr!' The monster turned towards me,

'Yeah! That's right Fucktwart focus on me!' 

I had an idea - a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen like that.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair and landing on his neck.

How did I do that? Ask Google. I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

'Food!' Grover moaned.

The bull-man wheeled towards him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother and how my brother screamed for help. Rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backwards with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then - snap!

Gasps.

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

The monster charged.

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barrelled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate - not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs Dodds had burst apart.The monster was gone.

Serves him right.

Everyone looked at Percy in displayed awe.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother and brother vanish . I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, towards the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother and brother, but I held on to Grover - I wasn't going to let him go.

Charlie got all teary eyed.

The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blonde hair curled like Cinderella's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, 'She's the one. She must be.'

'Silence, Annabeth,' the man said. 'She's still conscious. Bring her inside.'

"Oh my gosh!" Some mortals shrieked, "So that's how you met!