My first and hopefully last school dance (Hanora pov)
In hindsight I should have known letting Percy out of my sight was the worst possible idea. At this rate between his magnetism for danger and Annabeth’s willingness to jump in after him I was going to have a full head of gray hair before I reached adulthood, assuming I even got to live that long.
Thalia and I were twirling around the dance floor to another terrible slow song I didn’t recognize, where was Imagine Dragons when you needed them? Despite me feeling like a fish out of water in this environment it wasn’t all that bad, though I could have done without being in the middle of a sea of eighth graders.
“Loosen up Nora, you make it seem like you’ve never been in a place like this before.” Thalia mused in my ear as we swayed around the dance floor.
“Sorry, I’m not a very good actress.”
She raised an eyebrow,” Nora, have you never been to a school dance before?”
“I’ve never been to a school before.” That got her attention, her electric blue eyes stared wide at me. I squirmed under her gaze,” Well I was ten when I got to camp and before that I was essentially home schooled by my dad. So…. you know, gods Pikachu stop looking at me like that.”
She shook her head at me, “well maybe you could come to school with me and Annabeth, maybe experience the mortal world for a little bit.”
I hummed noncommittedly and scanned the room again, but then I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder barely biting back a hiss of pain. Thalia gripped my hand and pulled me in by my waist a bit closer to keep me steady.
“Nora, what's wrong?”
I pushed my glasses on top of my head and scanned the room again. I had discovered over the past two years that my glasses made it more difficult to see the colorful threads connected to my friends. For some reason blurring my whole world made the things no one else could see shine clearly in my vision.
A silver glittering bow string had itself loosely coiled around Thalia’s shoulders, every so often it would spark with white electricity down the length of it. But that was Thalia’s thread, so I knew that was not the one I was looking for.
By the refreshments a dark green piece of angel hair pasta wiggled like it was a charmed snake above Grover’s head, so not him. Further into the crowd a stormy gray shoelace bobbed up and down and got faster as if in distress. Which for those of us who were paying attention means that as per usual I needed to go searching for Percy and his annoying blue thread. The bane of my existence really.
“Percy’s in trouble.” I said as I pulled Thalia in the direction of Annabeth’s gray string.
Collecting the other two had been easy, and between Grover and I we picked up on the direction Percy had run off too. Apparently, he had gone after the Di Angelos, who had been snatched by the monstrous Dr. Thorn. Not good. Even worse Percy was sending Grover a sort of distress call through their empathy link.
Last summer, Grover had created an empathy link between them. He'd sent Percy visions in his dreams to let Percy know when he was in trouble. It appeared to still be functional despite Percy having no idea how to use it. Grover had relayed the message which was a little something like ‘Thorn's kidnapping us! He's a poisonous spike-throwing maniac! Help!’ Which explained why my shoulder was killing me, another amazing aspect of my own abilities that I was still struggling to understand. Percy also apparently said something about apples and tin cans which got Grover drooling, so he wasn’t as helpful in figuring out which way we needed to go. Thankfully as soon as we exited the gym, I finally saw the ocean blue thread tied to Percy galloping down a hallway.
“Follow me!” I yelled as I dashed off after it.
“How do you know?!” Thalia yelled back but followed, nonetheless.
“In times of stress I’ve found it's best not to ask questions and just trust Hanora’s sense of direction!” Annabeth said as Grover hummed loudly in agreement.
We ran through the halls following Percy’s thread until we got to a set of doors that led to the outside. Each door had a small window in them, so I popped my glasses back in to place peeked through to see Dr. Thorn with a large tail sticking out from his back. On the other side of him I could just make out the forms of three kids, luckily, they were all still standing. I turned back to the group as they finally caught up to me.
“Alright so two newbies, a monster who is most likely a manticore or something similar and one idiot that seems to have a death wish,” I reported before settling my gaze on Annabeth,” Any ideas?”
A small smile spread across her face, “Athena always has a plan.”
Said plan started out alright, Annabeth threw her Yankees hat on, a gift from her mom, and went invisibly over to Percy and the Di Angelos. While she did that the rest of us tried to mission impossible our way outside without alerting the monster to our presence. The element of surprise was our biggest play, and losing it was not an option. My shoulder still ached and seeing Percy grabbing at his arm confirmed that my powers were really out to get me. He had a stab wound that was probably full of poison, classic Percy behavior at this point. If I had a nickel for every time Percy had been shot full of poison, I’d have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
As we crept out, I could start to catch what they were talking about.
"The General?" Percy asked, In a terrible French accent. "I mean… who's the General?"
Thorn looked toward the horizon. "Ah, here we are. Your transportation."
I turned and saw a light in the distance, a searchlight over the sea. Then I heard the chopping of helicopter blades getting louder and closer. Which as a general rule of thumb in times like this, not good. Not good at all.
"Where are you taking us?" Nico said.
"You should be honored, my boy. You will have the opportunity to join a great army! Just like that silly game you play with cards and dolls."
"They're not dolls! They're figurines! And you can take your great army and—"
"Now, now," Dr. Thorn warned. "You will change your mind about joining us, my boy. And if you do not, well… there are other uses for half-bloods. We have many monstrous mouths to feed. The Great Stirring is underway."
"The Great what?" Percy asked, clearly stalling.
Grover gasped next to me and Thalia collapsed her hand over his mouth. “Can it goat boy, we have to wait for the signal.” She whispered harshly. Grover only gulped in response with his grip on his reed pipes tightening.
"The stirring of monsters." Dr. Thorn smiled evilly. "The worst of them, the most powerful, are now waking. Monsters that have not been seen in thousands of years. They will cause death and destruction the likes of which mortals have never known. And soon we shall have the most important monster of all—the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus!"
Bianca and Percy started whispering back and forth, which by the end Percy seemed to have lost whatever argument they were having. Not that it mattered since an invisible force slammed into all three half-bloods to the ground.
For a split second, Dr. Thorn was taken by surprise, so his first volley of missiles zipped harmlessly over their heads. This gave Thalia, Grover and I a chance to advance from behind—Thalia wielding her magic shield, Aegis. If you've never seen Thalia run into battle, you have never been truly frightened. She uses a huge spear that expands from this collapsible Mace canister she carries in her pocket, but that's not the scary part.
Her shield is modeled after one her dad Zeus uses—also called Aegis—a gift from Athena. The shield has the head of the gorgon Medusa molded into the bronze, and even though it won't turn you to stone, it's so horrible, most people will panic and run at the sight of it.
Even Dr. Thorn winced and growled when he saw it.
Thalia moved in with her spear. "For Zeus!"
Thalia jabbed at his head, but he snarled and swatted the spear aside.
His hand changed into an orange paw, with enormous claws that sparked against Thalia's shield as he slashed. If it hadn't been for Aegis, Thalia would've been sliced to ribbons. As it was, she managed to roll backward and land on her feet.
The helicopter made a slow advance to the edge of the cliff, but I did not have time to think about it.
I twirled my own blade, Aigéan as I charged from my hiding place in the brush. I aimed my attack at his arm to draw him in before making a quick turn to take a swing at his tail. He can’t throw more darts if he has no supply. This would have been really cool if it worked, but the snow was a little to slippery, so I did not get the precision turn I needed. I did slice him, but it was more like and ‘ouch’ instead of a fatal wound. I landed next to Thalia just in time for Dr. Thorn launched another volley of missiles at us, from his leathery, scorpion like tail that bristled with spikes at the tip. The missiles deflected off Aegis, but the force of their impact knocked Thalia down, and because she put herself in between me and the darts I became her cushion to fall on.
Grover sprang forward to cover us. He put his reed pipes to his lips and began to play—a frantic jig that sounded like something pirates would dance to. Grass broke through the snow. Within seconds, rope-thick weeds were wrapping around Dr. Thorn's legs, entangling him.
Dr. Thorn roared and began to change. He grew larger until he was in his true form—his face still human, but his body that of a huge lion. His leathery, spiky tail whipped deadly thorns in all directions.
"A manticore!" Annabeth said, now visible. Her magical New York Yankees cap had come off when she'd plowed into the monster's captives.
"Who are you people?" Bianca di Angelo demanded. "And what is that?"
"A manticore?" Nico gasped. "He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"
It was a real weird way to describe a monster's abilities, but I really didn’t have the time or patience to peace out what in hades he meant. Especially since I had a Thalia sized indent in my stomach and on top of that the manticore clawed Grover's magic weeds to shreds and snarled at the other four half-bloods.
"Get down!" Annabeth pushed the di Angelos flat into the snow. Percy hit his wristwatch, and metal plating spiraled out into a thick bronze shield. Not a moment too soon. The thorns impacted against it with such force they dented the metal. The beautiful shield, a gift From Percy’s brother, was badly damaged. Which was a real shame, but more pressing was the fact that it no longer had any structural integrity left to protect him from another attack.
Thalia helped me up as I heard Grover get flung across the field toward the rest of our little part. “Time to get serious Pikachu,” I muttered, shaking off some snow.
“I’m always serious.” She responded, readying her spear and shield again.
"Yield!" the monster roared.
"Never!" Thalia yelled. She charged the monster with me hot on her trail, I started to move a little wide ready to attack him from two angles. But then there was a thunderous noise and a blaze of light from behind us. The helicopter appeared out of the mist, hovering just beyond the cliffs. It was a sleek black military-style gunship, with attachments on the sides that looked like laser-guided rockets. The helicopter had to be manned by mortals, but what was it doing here? How could mortals be working with a monster? The searchlights blinded Thalia, and the manticore swatted her away with its tail. Her shield flew off into the snow. Her spear flew in the other direction.
With part of my distraction gone I barely dodged a swipe from the monster’s tail and continued my run at him. He shot another volley of missiles; they seemed to fly at me in slow motion. I had no shield and no way to fully get out of the way, just me and my blade. Welp, I had an idea, but it was a long shot. I dug my heels into the snow and turned sideways so only one missile was heading straight for me.
Steady, Hanora. Do not doubt yourself.
Easier said than done, disembodied voice of my very dead father. Oh yeah that was a thing that happened sometimes. You know how in dangerous situations you hear the voices of your dead relatives coaching you through it. Please say yes, otherwise it's just a me thing and well I’m weird enough I don’t need any more weirdness.
I took a deep breath and raised my blade. In one fluid movement Aigéan split the missile like warm melt butter, and the two sides bowed out around me leaving me in the clear. Out of the corner of my eye for a split second I saw several almost translucent threads that almost reminded me of a fishing line, but they were gone as soon as I noticed them.
“Forgotten child,” Dr. Thorn mused,” My ladies have been looking for you.”
That caught me off guard enough for him to swipe at me. I dodged his claws, but I still flew back toward Thalia who was half sitting up in the snow.
"No!" Percy ran over to us. He parried away a spike just before it would've hit Thalia in the chest. He raised his shield over the three of us, but it wouldn't be enough.
Dr. Thorn laughed. "Now do you see how hopeless it is? Yield, little heroes."
We were trapped between a monster and a fully armed helicopter. We had no chance.
Then I heard a clear, piercing sound: the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods.
The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades.
"No," Dr. Thorn said. "It cannot be—"
His sentence was cut short when something shot past me like a streak of moonlight. A glowing silver arrow sprouted from Dr. Thorn's shoulder.
He staggered backward, wailing in agony.
"Curse you!" Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows had intercepted the thorns in midair and sliced them in two, that could only mean one thing. And I wasn’t sure if I was happy, they were here or annoyed that I’d have to deal with this self-righteous group of assholes.
The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. Percy tried to swipe at him with his sword, but he wasn't as injured as he looked. He dodged the attack and slammed his tail into Percy’s shield, knocking him aside. I tried to hoist myself up, but that hit must have knocked the wind out of me with the way it hurt to breath.
Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen, like me. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.
"The Hunters!" Annabeth cried.
Next to me, Thalia muttered, "Oh, wonderful."
“Tell me about it,” I said through gritted teeth.
I could feel Percy’s confused stare burning into the back of my skull. I waved him off, hopefully sending the message ‘later’ to his never-ending stream of questions.
One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with coppery colored skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess. "Permission to kill, my lady?"
I couldn't tell who she was talking to, because she kept her eyes on the manticore.
The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."
"Not so," another girl said. This one was younger than me, maybe twelve or thirteen. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was beautiful in an ethereal way, but her expression was stern and dangerous. I sat back on my hands to take a peek at how injured Percy was, and for once he seemed to be alright except for his shoulder injury. Thalia also looked mostly alright; the others were harder to see from the other side of the field, but they all seemed to still be standing. The girl’s voice cut through my mental checklist, "the hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the older girl with the circlet. "Zoë, permission granted."
The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"
He lunged at Thalia, Percy, and I knowing we were weak and dazed.
"No.'" Annabeth yelled, and she charged at the monster.
"Get back, half-blood!" the girl with the circlet said. "Get out of the line of fire!"
But Annabeth leaped onto the monster's back and drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, turning in circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.
"Fire!" Zoë ordered.
"No!" Percy and I screamed.
But the Hunters let their arrows fly. The first caught the manticore in the neck. Another hit his chest. The manticore staggered backward, wailing, "This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!"
And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth still on his back, leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness. I stared after her wide eyed and mouth hung open like a scream was waiting to cut through my vocal cords. I couldn’t move or even breathe. I barely made out Percy screaming for her or the gunfire from the helicopter. My brain just kept playing ‘She fell, she fell, ShE FeLl, SHE FELL,’ on loop. I knew my glasses were still on, but my vision blurred anyway, Annabeth’s thread swayed over the cliff before falling out of sight.
I guess I actually had moved because I felt myself being pulled back into the snow, and a pair of arms wrapped around my shoulders keeping me in place.
"Mortals," the leader of the hunt announced in a voice that to me sounded like we were under water, "are not allowed to witness my hunt."
She thrust out her hand, and the helicopter exploded into dust—no, not dust. The black metal dissolved into a flock of birds—ravens, which scattered into the night.
“Hanora, I need you to come back.” Thalia whispered harshly into my hair.
I couldn’t answer. I tried blinking my eyes back into focus and was only half successful.
The Hunters advanced on us in the time it took me to come back to reality.
The one called Zoë stopped short when she saw Thalia. "You," she said with distaste.
"Zoë Nightshade." Thalia's voice trembled with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."
Zoë scanned the rest of us. "Five half-bloods and a satyr, my lady."
"Yes," the younger girl said. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see."
"Annabeth!" Percy yelled. "You have to let us save her!"
The auburn-haired girl turned toward me. "I'm sorry, Percy Jackson, but your friend is beyond help."
Percy tried to struggle to his feet, but a couple of the girls held him down.
Rage bubbled in my veins as I pushed Thalia’s arms off of me.
"You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs," the auburn-haired girl said.
"Let me go!" He demanded. "Who do you think you are?"
Zoë stepped forward as if to smack him, but I was faster. I grabbed her wrist and glared down at her.
“Touch him and you’ll regret it,” I hissed.
“Thou defend this boy, why-” She started to reach for something in her pocket and I readied my bracelet to reactivate my blade.
"No," the other girl ordered. "I sense no true disrespect, Zoë. He is simply distraught. And it may be best to not make an enemy of his friends so soon."
Zoë dropped her free hand and yanked her arm away from me, which was fine by me. I inched closer to Percy glaring at the hunters who were trying to hold him down.
The young girl looked at me knowingly, her eyes colder and brighter than the winter moon. "I am Artemis," she said. "Goddess of the Hunt."