Disclaimer: Don't own anybody, there, happy?

Thank you for all the reviews. It really makes my day, and it motivates me to finish this.

Sorry, I've been busy, but I'm trying to work diligently. You can expect an update in 2-3 weeks. Sorry.

And I'm sorry if I'm not getting everyone a speaking part. I will try to include everyone.

No one's POV

All the demigods and Hearthstone, Blitz, Carter, Zia, and Sadie began talking about the eventful day. But after a while, things began to die down, and everyone went to their appropriate rooms, and Olympus was quiet since that morning.

When Percy woke, it was because Poseidon and Annabeth were staring at him and trying to wake him up.

"It is nearly 9, and everyone else is having breakfast," said Annabeth.

"I was having a good dream for a change," mumbled Percy.

"I wish that I had good dreams for once," said Annabeth wistfully.

"Let me get dressed, and I will be down in a minute."

"Ok", she said, kissing him on the cheek.

Poseidon gave them a stern look and said, "You two behave."

"Yes, Dad."

15 minutes later

"Good morning, everyone," said Percy.

"Hey dude," said Leo high fiving him.

"Are you going to eat?" asked Piper.

"Yep."

"What do you want?" asked Hestia.

"Pancakes and a coke, please, Lady Hestia."

She waved her hand, and blue pancakes and coke appeared.

"Why don't you eat quickly, and then we'll read?" said Athena.

"Ok."

He finished, and they all went to the throne room.

Sadie, Zia, Carter, and the Egyptian gods sat with Percy and his friends.

"I'll read," Carter said.

Chapter 4: My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

"I like this woman," Ares said with a grin. "I like it fast."

Every time there was a flash of lightning,

Everyone glanced at Zeus.

"What?"

"Why are you so mad?" asked Sadie.

"I have a good reason," he said.

"Sure, brother, said Demeter. "Blaming a twelve-year boy for stealing your master bolt when you have no proof is a good reason?"

"Wait, what," said Isis.

I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat, and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag carpet pants.

"Shag carpet pants," snorted Connor.

"We have to tell Grover," said Travis.

"Please don't," begged Percy.

But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool—the smell of a wet barnyard animal.

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?" Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us.

"Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

"Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were ok. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Um ... what are you, exactly?"

"Goat Boy," said Thalia.

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"

"Oh, he won't like that," said Annabeth.

Grover let out a sharp, throaty, "Blaa-ha-ha!" I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Yes, Percy, that's what sound goats make," said Sadie slowly and patiently as if she was talking to a small child.

Everyone laughed except Percy.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"Are you stupid?" asked Clarisse. "He said goat."

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter."

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"I wish Prissy had gotten trampled."

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"Are we myths?" snuffled Apollo.

"No, Apollo, you are not," said Percy.

Artemis walked over to Apollo and felt his forehead. He jerked away and mumbled, "I'm fine." Just then, he sneezed, and Artemis tried again to touch his forehead.

"Apollo," she said. "you're burning up. Go lay down. Frey, do you know what is wrong?"

Frey walked up to Apollo, touched him, and recoiled.

"He has caught a human sickness called pneumonia. It is not a bad case, but he has a fever of 104℉. He needs to lay down and have cool washcloths on his forehead. And somebody needs to check on him every hour."

"Hermes and Ares help me take him to his room," said Artemis. The three of them took Apollo and took him to his room on Mount Olympus. They got him settled and came back. Artemis was glaring at Zeus.

"What?" said Zeus. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Yes," said Artemis. "You turned him mortal and cast him out of Mount Olympus. I'll bet that's where he got his sickness from."

"But…" said Zeus. "He did the wrong thing. He disobeyed me."

"He is your son," cut in Demeter. "Treat him like one."

Carter took that to continue reading.

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"Yeah, Percy, are the three Fates a myth?" asked Thalia innocently.

Nico whacked her and said, "He doesn't know about the Greek and Roman world yet."

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

Everyone groaned.

"Gods, Seaweed Brain, you're slow."

"Of course."

"Then why-"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

"Mist?" asked Samirah.

"Yes," said Annabeth.

"It's sort of like glamour," Blitz said.

"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?" The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"So nobody much," said Frank cheerfully.

"Yep!" said Percy, just as cheerful.

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?" I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird. My mom made a hard left.

We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Yes!" cheered Poseidon. "They are almost there."

"Where are we going?" I asked. "The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Be nice to your mother, boy," said Hera.

"Said boy has a name," growled Thalia glaring at Hera.

"Did I do something wrong girl," said Hera glaring at Thalia.

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"He says it so nonchalantly," said Annabeth.

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to . . . when someone's about to die."

"That is just going to freak him out," said Zia.

"It did," said Percy.

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

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

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Ok," said Magnus. "That's confusing."

"Oh, don't worry, it didn't make any sense to me," said Percy.

"Boys!" my mom said.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Probably a Kindly One," said Calypso.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

"Yes!" cheered Nico. "You're excited to go to Camp Half-Blood."

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island.

I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.

Thalia hit Percy upside the head and said, "of course you meant to kill you. She's evil."

Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me.

"Riptide," said Jack. "Who is a total hottie. Senoir, you never did get Bragi to write an awesome poem about yours truly."

Magnus had been hoping that Jack had forgotten about that; however, he did not.

"I'll ask him," said Magnus resigned.

Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom! And our car exploded.

Poseidon started to laugh along with Hades. Both laughs were manic and evil sounding.

"What?" asked everyone except Percy, who was not looking forward to the end of the chapter.

"'Not a scratch,'" said Hades quoting Gabe.

It took a minute and then Annabeth cried "OH,"

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

"Not a pleasant feeling then," said Reyna.

I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Why do people say that," asked Athena.

"What, 'Ow?'" asked Ares.

"Yes, it doesn't convey anything, It is a universal thing to say when you are injured."

"Who cares, Bird Brain," shouted Ares. Just then, owls swooped into the throne room and started pecking at him.

"OW! Stop! Call them off," he cried.

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm ok... ." I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded.

Poseidon pouted "Aww man," sounding like Swiper the Fox.

We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's side doors were wedged in the mud.

"Yay!"

"You realize that he is going to blame Percy, right?" asked Hermes.

"Oh…"

The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in. Lightning.

Posiedon glared at Zeus.

That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road.

"Gee, wonder who did that," said Demeter.

Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!" He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth.

"EW!" shrieked Aphrodite.

"Aphrodite, dear, there might be a lot of blood in these stories. I'd say to get used to it", said Ares. Then he yelped. Aphrodite had whacked him with her makeup kit.

I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are a half barnyard animal, you're my best friend, and I don't want you to die!

"Probably the first time that you had ever thought that," said Samirah.

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

Everyone laughed.

"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered. I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player.

"Can you imagine if it played as a quarterback or something?" asked Nico.

Everyone stared at him weirdly.

"What?"

He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy.

His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

"Because he does have horns, Seaweed Brain," said Thalia, playfully using his pet name.

I swallowed hard. "Who is-"

"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car." My mother threw herself against the driver's side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

Poseidon whimpered.

"Dad, you realize that this has already happened, and I'm fine," sighed Percy.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy, you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"Yay!" said Thalia. "Enter the awesome tree that is moi."

Percy smiled at her.

Jason was confused, "why were you a tree?" He asked his older sister.

"Long story," she said.

Here Zeus glared at Hades. "Why are you glaring at me?"

"Because you sent monsters after her," said Zeus.

"But…" Hades protested.

You three need to get over the fact that you didn't follow the oath, said Demeter.

"And leave the children out of your quarrel," said Hestia.

"Thank you, Ladies Demeter and Hestia," said Percy, Thalia, Jason, Hazel, and Nico.

"What?" Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"I have a question," said Piper. "If the master bolt is missing, how is there still lightning in this scene?"

"Just because the master bolt is missing doesn't mean that there is no lightning. The master bolt is what all lightning bolts are based on. However, because the master bolt has not been destroyed, then all lightning is just as it always has been." explained Athena.

At the thought of his master bolt being destroyed, Zeus whimpered and started hugging the master bolt.

Everyone started to laugh at him, Poseidon and Hades the loudest.

"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill, and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"How does she know that?" asked Chris.

"She's a clear-sighted mortal," said Annabeth.

"Mom, you're coming too." Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. "No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because of his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head.

And the points that looked like horns ... "He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

"Percy is so stubborn," said Frank. "Wanting to save everyone."

"Yeah, that is my fatal flaw," said Percy.

"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."

I got mad, then mad at my mother,

at Grover the goat,

Everyone snorted at that.

at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

"Are you stupid?" asked Clarisse. "It is a bull, basically."

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you-"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover." I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid. Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass. Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin.

He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny,

Everyone burst out laughing despite how serious the situation was.

Except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

"Can you be serious for one thing?" asked Alex, amazed.

"Nope, it's a talent," said Percy.

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real. I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.

"Gosh," said Athena. "She's smart. She's my kind of mortal."

"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min-"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power." The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least. I glanced behind me again. The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"He can't see or hear very well, Seaweed Brain."

"Food?" Grover moaned.

Everyone laughed again. Trust Percy to make a deadly situation funny.

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"'

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

"Like I said"

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 saying.

Oops.

Everyone was too tense to make a comment.

"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 directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"Good gods, how did you date such a smart woman, Uncle P.?" asked Hephaestus

"Luck."

"How do you know all this?"

"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.

"Uh, oh!" said Jack.

The pine tree was only a few more yards, 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.

Here, Annabeth was clutching her boyfriend's arm. As if she was making sure he was alive and well.

My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling 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 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.

"You actually listened to your mother," said Hera surprised.

"Yes, I did. I didn't want to die."

"Hmm." Her view of this demigod was changing after hearing that.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover 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.

"The Big House!" said Connor mostly to relieve the tension in the room.

It didn't work.

But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it. The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover. "Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!" But I just stood there,

"Idiot boy!" shouted Ares. "Don't just stand there. Do something!"

"What would you have done in that situation?" said Sam glaring at Ares. "He has no training, and you say he should attack. If he followed your advice then he'd be dead"

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.

"No!" shouted Poseidon.

He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air. "Mom!" She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

By this time, Percy was in tears. Annabeth comforted him, and so did the rest of the crew of the Argo II.

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.

There was a moment of silence. But then Percy pulled himself together and reminded himself that this was in the past, and his mother was fine.

Carter continued reading.

"No!" Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

"Oh, this will be good," said Clarisse. "We get to see how Prissy defeated bull-man."

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!"

Everyone groaned.

"You need better insults," said Reyna.

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists. 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.

Everyone glanced at Percy in amazement.

How did I do that?

"How did you do that?" asked Blitzen.

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.

Travis grimaced. "Ouch," he said.

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 toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge.

"No!" cried Alex. "Leave Grover alone!"

I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn, and I pulled backward with all my might.

The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then snap!

The gods and demigods looked impressed. Even Ares was impressed against his will.

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 barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

Athena looked at Percy with newfound respect.

"Wow, Son of Poseidon, you did that with no training. I'm impressed."

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. 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 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, toward the lights of the farmhouse.

I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover. I wasn't going to let him go. 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 blond hair curled like a princess's.

They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be." "Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

Done! Hope you liked it.

-Sveta