A/N: I'm back~! Thanks for all who favorite/followed this story and those who reviewed, it helped a bunch! My mind was pretty much yelling at me saying 'Chop Chop Ciulla Ciulla' (that my grandmother always says) to hurry up and write this chapter before I was too busy, so I did.

Spencer: So do you still have a crush on that one guy from the books?

Squirpsdolphin/Shelby: …

Spencer: Well?

Squirpsdolphin/Shelby: I don't own anything except for my oc's and a slight change with one of the Percy Jackson characters.

" " Animal talking/thinking

Chapter 3: Bull Fighting and Playing Pinochle

"My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting," Leo read.

"I didn't know your mom could bull-fight Percy." Ares said, curiosity in his tone.

"She can't" Percy snapped at him, as everyone who knew what happens in this chapter (Grover, and I) glares at him.

Poseidon paled, and Annabeth asks Percy a silent question to which he nods at her answering her silent question.

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

"My kind of driving." Ares smirked, thinking of going to hit on Percy's mom.

I glared at his tone and chucked a knife that poofed into existence at his head, missing on purpose.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, 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.

"Percy!" Grover said glaring at Percy.

"Sorry man, I didn't know you were a satyr back then." Percy said.

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.

"PERCY!" Grover growled, looking at Percy like he wanted to gut him.

"Sorry!" Percy gulped as he put up his hands and scooted behind me for protection.

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."

"Stalker." I coughed out, making Apollo, Hermes, and Leo laugh while getting a hit in the back of my head by courtesy of Grover.

"Watching me?"

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

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

"That doesn't matter right now."

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

"I'm a goat!" Grover grunted in annoyance giving Percy a look.

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.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"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!"

"Really?" I said, thinking with a certain look on my face.

"Shelby…" Everybody, except the Gods and the quintet groaned.

"What? I need the training." I said.

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

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

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodd's!"

"You're slow. It took you five years to realize… something. Come on Percy!" I said, rolling to the side dodging an incoming whack to the head from Percy.

Percy turns red in the face in embarrassment as the Gods and the quintet look at him in confusion. While the others silently laugh to themselves knowing what I am talking about.

"I thought I was going crazy, so someone admitting that I wasn't was a relief. And that was completely different!" Percy said, glaring halfheartedly at me.

"What are you talking about?" Apollo asked not getting what I meant.

"You will find out in the last book of this series." I said smirking.

"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."

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"

"He means that you are a demigod." Everyone said.

"I know that, now!" Percy shouted.

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

Poseidon paled, not liking the whole something is chasing after them part and how it is still on their 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 just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood thirstiest minions. And every monster in mythology." I muttered.

Leo snickered as he read the next line.

"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."

"Grover!" Everyone yelled then laughed realizing I said the same thing that Grover said in the book.

I shrugged when everyone laughed, while Poseidon glared at Hades.

"Why am I after my nephew?" Hades asked, shifting in his seat uncomfortably from Poseidon's glare.

"It's in the book." Was my answer to his question.

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

"Yes, drive faster please." Poseidon pleaded.

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.

"I can~!" I chirped, taking pride in my weirdness and my weird dreams I get quite often.

"What are they about?" Hermes curiously asked.

"Well in one of them, I was sitting in a restaurant and an old lady gave me a goat.*" I said, thinking back to the weirdest dream I ever had.

Everyone looked at me strangely then went back to listening to the book.

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.

"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."

"Camp Half-blood!" All the demigods, Rachel, Tyson, Grover and I shouted.

"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."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"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."

"Was it his life cord? Or not?" Hades asked me.

"I don't know and I don't remember. You will have to find out by reading the books." I said shrugging.

"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."

"BRAIN HURTS." I whined, rubbing my temples.

"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.

I furrowed my brows in thought. "Do you think it was one of the kindly ones?" I asked the group.

Poseidon made a small sound in the back of his throat to my answer. Everyone shrugged and Leo went back to reading.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.

"Hurray for not getting answers!" I cheered.

"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

"Please. Please. Please." Poseidon whimpered, echoing her.

I got up from the floor and walked over to him. I patted him on the head. "There there." I said trying to soothe his nerves.

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

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.

"Well no shit Sherlock." I said, rolling my eyes as I walked back to the group on the floor.

"Shelby!" Everyone growled at me.

"I'm sorry." I said, sitting down a couple feet away from everyone so I wouldn't get hit.

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

"WHAT!" Poseidon shouted.

"He's fine. Calm down." I said to the Sea God trying to calm him down.

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

"It sucks." I muttered, knowing how he felt then.

"Wait. You have been crushed, fried, and hosed down before?" Leo asked, as he stopped reading for just a second.

"Yup." I said, frowning not liking how I experienced all three of them.

"HOW!?" Everyone asked.

"You don't want to know…" I said, shaking my head.

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

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay..."

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Lightning.

"What!" Everyone yelled, except for Zeus, Grover, and Percy the last two knowing about it already.

I yawned as Poseidon stood up from his throne and began stomping his way to Zeus.

By now everyone was glaring at Zeus, not liking how he struck the car while Sally, Percy, and Grover where in the car when it hit. Poseidon almost made it to Zeus when I made him disappear and then reappeared back on his throne with a force field around him while he fumed in anger.

That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!

"Thanks Percy." Grover muttered dryly.

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

Everyone laughed.

Grover groaned, putting his head in his hands in embarrassment.

I pat his head as I scooted over to sit next to him and Tyson.

"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. 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.

"Is that…?" Piper, and Frank gulped.

"You will find out." I said, as I stood up, stretching my muscles.

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.

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

"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.

"That's me!" Thaila shouted.

"You were a tree?" Leo, Piper, Jason, Frank, and Hazel said.

"Yup." Thaila said, not saying anything more about the matter.

"How are you not a tree anymore?" They asked, being confused that she isn't a tree anymore.

"It's explained in the next book." I informed them.

"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."

"Mom, you're coming too."

"She can't." Poseidon said sadly.

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.

Everyone laughed. Grover turned bright red and began muttering under his breathe. I was able to catch some of the words he said. They sounded like 'Percy sucks' and 'thanks a lot Percy'.

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 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 …

"YOU FOUGHT THE FREAKIN' MINOTAUR?" Jason exclaimed, suddenly standing up.

Piper, Leo, Frank, Hazel and Rachel gasped in surprise.

Leo didn't even wait for an answer to Jason's question. Instead, he kept reading.

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

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

I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,

Everyone laughed quietly, while Grover blushed.

"I'm only part goat!" He said.

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

"Moooo~!" I mooed like a cow.

"He's not part cow but part bull." They told me.

I just shrugged. "Yea… I don't really care, instead of calling him what he is called I either call him Mr. Cow or bull guy."

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."

Percy winced, going unnoticed to everyone except for me. I plopped myself down by him and Annabeth being finished with my stretching.

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.

"You should cut the grass." I said to Dionysus.

He just ignores me, I glare at him and turned back to the book.

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 have looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary.

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.

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.

"He's real alright." Hades muttered.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.

"She's smart." Athena said praising Sally's intelligence.

"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.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

"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."

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.

"HURRAH! Suck it, Gabe!" I cheered standing up, but getting yanked down by Percy.

Everyone erupted in laughter.

"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?"

"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."

"You weren't selfish." Hera, Athena, Demeter and Artemis said.

"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 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.

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.

"Great… He smells just like a zombie, but without the burning flesh and rotten eggs smell.*" I muttered, gagging a bit.

Nico looked at me and mouthed 'zombie' asking how I know the smell of one. I just smiled grimly and shook my head telling him to drop it and that he doesn't want to know.

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

Poseidon whimpered, as everyone gulped in a huge breathe.

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.

Then everyone let it out in relief.

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. 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 frozen in fear, as the monster charged her.

Percy shut his eyes tightly and clenched his hands into fists. I noticed and began scratching his back to calm him down. Annabeth smiled at the display knowing that I consider him as a friend and even a brother.

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 pummeling 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 into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply…gone.

"NO!" Everyone yelled, even the ones that knew what happened yelled, like Spencer, Percy, Grover, Annabeth and I.

Annabeth and the girls had tears in their eyes, some wondering why we were talking about Sally like we knew her if she is gone and the others that know she is still alive are wrecked with nerves wondering what will happen next.

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

"Here comes ass kicking Percy!" Nico, Leo, Frank, and I said smirking.

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.

"Aww. Bro love." I said, grinning at Percy and Grover.

Percy cracked a smile from having a sad smile when he had to go through listening to his mom disappearing again. Grover gave me a thumbs up for my success.

I stripped off my red rain jacket.

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

"Ahh… insults… I never run out of them. But of course I just say truthfully how I see people which I don't mean for them to be an insult most of the time." I sighed.

"Give me an example." Leo said, ignoring most of the groups hand motions not to ask me.

"Let's see… When I first meet people I give them nicknames based on their looks, if they are my friends, or if I just meet them. For example, a friend of mine from a different world has a head that looks like a pineapple. I call him pineapple head, with a few other of my friends also. I call Nico, Ghost Boy for well multiple reasons. One, he is the Ghost King. Two, Hades son. And three, because I can. That's pretty much all I can think of on top of my head." I said, scratching my head.

"What would you call me?" Leo asked.

"There is a few I would call you. But the main one is Repair Boy." I said shrugging.

"Awesome." Leo cheered.

"What about everyone else?" Jason asked, wanting to know what his nickname would be.

I groaned when everyone nodded vigorously wanting to know also. I muttered under my breathe a few unnecessary words before I answer them.

"The Silent One is Hades. The Messenger is Hermes. The Dove is Aphrodite. Wine Dude is Dionysus. Mr. Sunshine is Apollo. The Wise One is Athena. The Forge is Hephaestus. White-Armed is Hera. Poseidon is Earth-Shaker. Zeus is Cloud Collector. Destroyer of Men is Ares. Artemis is The Huntress. Percy is Aquaman. Thalia is Pinecone. Annabeth is Wise Girl. Jason is Lightning Boy or Sparky. Frank is Fai. Piper is Pipes. Hazel is Haze. Nico is Ghost Boy. Leo is Repair Boy. G-man is Grover. Big Guy is Tyson. Rachel is Dare. Hecate is Catty. Aand Spencer is Spencie. That's it." I said naming off all their nicknames.

A bunch of them sighed at their nicknames, the others nodded approvingly at theirs.

"What do people call you?" Leo asked.

"Shelby, Shelbs, Shelbster, Shelbell, Shelbygirl, Shelbyloowoo, Okami*, Red Demoness Shelby*, Orphan Child, Angel, Dog, and Toto." I said listing off all the nicknames I ever had.

"Orphan Child? But you aren't an orphan though." Athena said.

I rolled my eyes. "My cousin likes to tease me. She used to call me her little Orphan Child, but now she calls me her innocent Angel. The other names like Shelbs, Shelbell, Shelbyloowoo, Shelbygirl, Dog, Toto, and Shelbster are what my family and friends call me in my world. The rest are from the different worlds I go into."

"Why are you called Red Demoness?" Ares asked, grinning at my nickname.

I sighed as I stand up to demonstrate why I am called the Red Demoness Shelby. I closed my eyes and concentrated pulling my energy out making it surround me in a red hue. I also poof out my katanas twirling them around a couple times as I open my eyes.

"This is why I am called the Red Demoness Shelby." I said as I twirled my katanas around.

"Explain more about the red around you." Zeus said, staring intently at the red like cloak around me.

"Its energy inside of you, everyone has it but it is called something different in many worlds. It is called Chakra, Magic, Ambition, Souls, and Ki, which is also called energy. For you guys, it's your abilities." I explained as best as I could.

"Ahh." Everyone said.

I sighed as I released my hold on my energy and made my katanas go back into my bag.

"What does Okami mean?" Leo asked, not getting what it means.

"Wolf in Japanese." Athena, Annabeth and I said at the same time.

"Wolf? Why are you called that?" Artemis asked, her interest peeked.

I was about to answer when I was bulldozed to the ground by a white blur that came out of my bag, which was still by Nico for some reason.

"Gah!" I grunted out as I was knocked to the ground.

I looked to see what bulldozed me to the ground. It turns out to be my Pure White Wolf, named Snowfall but Snow for short.

"Hello Snow. I've missed you too, now please get off me." I groaned, just lying on the ground waiting for Snow to get off of me.

"What have you done this time?!" Snow growled at me.

"I didn't do anything! Hecate woke me up at 4:30 in the morning to read the Percy Jackson books to the Gods, Percy and the rest." I said trying to calm her down not fancying the idea of getting bit from her right now.

"Then why did I sense you energy?" Snow asked, narrowing her ice blue eyes at me.

"Because Zeus and Ares asked me why I am called Red Demoness Shelby and to explain my energy to everyone, so of course I gave them a demonstration." I said.

"Oh… Well that's fine then." Snow said cheerfully, jumping off of me using my chest like a spring board.

I grumbled as I stand up, rubbing my stomach and chest from where she barreled right into me soothing the achiness. I almost burst out in laughter when I saw the Gods and the quintet's facial expressions to how I was talking to Snow. The others were trying to hold in their laughter from the others facial expressions.

"I'm guessing the ones that are letting bugs into their mouths don't know that much about you, do they?" Snow said, sitting by my feet staring at the Gods and the quintet.

"Pretty much." I chirped, grinning at them.

"You can understand her?" Artemis asked, with her surprised widen eyes.

"Before the accident with Fate I have been able to understand animals, speak to them both in animal tongue and human tongue." I said to the Huntress.

"Lady Artemis." Snow said bowing her head towards Artemis showing her respect.

Artemis nodded and gave Leo a sign to continue reading from where he left off.

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

I had an idea.

"Oh, no." Everyone except for the Gods said.

Percy half-heartedly glared at them.

"What's wrong with having a plan?" Athena asked. Everyone looked at Annabeth.

"There is a reason that he's not a son of Athena. His plans never seem to work unless they are completely stupid. You'll see a lot of them throughout the books." She explained.

"Shelby also has stupid ideas that don't work out sometimes. Other times it's just her protective instincts that don't make them work." Hecate said shrugging off the glare I give her.

"Yup." Snow agreed nodding her head.

"You both suck." I said glaring at the two of them.

—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.

"WOOHOO!" I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air.

Snow bite my leg to quiet me down.

"Ow! Why did you bite me?!" I gritted out, as I dumped peroxide on the bite then wrapped it in a bandage.

"I always do. I thought you got used to it by now." Snow said giving me a wolfish grin.

How did I do that?

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

"Not going to happen!" Ares sang, badly.

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

Ares went wide eyed with his mouth hanging open in shock that Percy was able to pull the horn off.

"You were saying." I said smirking at Ares.

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 Dodd's 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 farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.

"Thanks Perce." Grover said smiling.

"No problem G-man." Percy said.

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.

Annabeth blushed bright red as the demigods, Rachel, Tyson, Grover, and I laughed.

Percy whispered something into her ear making Annabeth's blush deepen, and Aphrodite to squeal from the scene. Athena glared at the two of them not liking their closeness.

"Tell them or so help me I will ruin the plots from all the books for all of them." I said, giving Percy and Annabeth a look.

They both sighed. "Fine. We are together making us boyfriend and girlfriend." They said together.

"YES!" Aphrodite squealed loudly, while Athena fumed.

"Lady Athena, I know that you are upset but they have been together since the last book of this series. It doesn't matter to them that you have a rivalry with Poseidon. Please wait until all the books are finished before you tell them how you feel about their relationship." I said, trying to not get on her bad side but also sticking up for Percy and Annabeth.

She nodded and Leo continued to read.

They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

"He's the one huh Annie?" Thalia said teasing Annabeth.

Annabeth glared at her but didn't say anything.

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

"That's the end of the chapter." Leo said as he slammed my book shut.

My eye twitched. 'No Shelby. Do not hurt Leo for slamming my book shut. It didn't hurt the book.'

Snow nudged my leg with her head to get me out of my violent mood. I smiled down at her silently thanking her as I sit down next to Hazel, who so happens to be sitting next to Nico.

"Shelby, what's your wolf's name?" Hazel asked, as Snow came over to lay on my lap.

"Snowfall, but I call her Snow for short." I said, petting Snow's back as she laid on me.

"How old is Snowfall?" Artemis asked, noticing something that seemed off about Snow.

"I've known you for three years, right?" I asked Snow telepathically.

"Yes. I was just a pup when you meet me, so that means I'm almost 3 years old which makes me a young adult, but because of biting you I look like I am still about 12 weeks old making me still a pup." Snow said back through our mind link.

"She's almost 3 years old." I said, scratching my head as I thought about how old she is.

"How is that possible? She clearly looks like she is only twelve weeks old." Artemis said, narrowing her eyes at me.

I sighed. "That's the thing that happens when an animal repeatedly bites me, drawing blood then licking the wound clean. When they end up biting me then licking the blood away, it causes certain changes to happen to them. They well… Someone should try to harm me to see what happens." I said, blowing my bangs out of my face.

"Hades." Zeus said, wanting to see Hades get his butt kicked.

Hades rolled his eyes and with a wave of his hand the ground a couple feet from me becomes pitch black. Skeletons with pointy bone swords rise up from the ground and walk towards me.

Snowfall's ears twitch and bolts up from my lap to stand in front of me, growling at the skeletons as I yawn and wait for everyone's reactions.

Snowfall becomes engulfed in blue flames (kind of like Kirara from Inuyasha) and when it clears she is as big as a full grown brown bear. She grew from 2 ft. to 5 ft. in an instant. She crouches and prepares for the attack (Defensive Threat). Her fur bristles (hackles raise) in order to appear larger and more threatening, at the same time her eyes take on an angry wild expression and her lips curl back to snarling and bearing her fangs (Ambivalence Display).

I hold in my laughter when I see everyone has dropped their mouths in surprise and their eyes widen at the sight of my pure white wolf. I stand up from my spot on the floor and walked to Snow's side, scratching her back then her head to calm her down, silently telling her that I am fine and the skeletons aren't a threat.

Snow grows one last time at the skeletons then proceeds to shrink back down. If wolfs were able to skip that's how she would of walked when she came up to me and rubbed her head against my leg before laying down by Percy and Annabeth.

"The skeletons can go away now." I said, smirking with my arms crossed over my chest as I looked at Hades.

Hades shrugs and gets rid of the skeletons.

"Soo… Who wants to read now?" I asked, tired of all the questions as I sat down by Percy and Annabeth, being mindful of Snow as I sat down in the middle of Annabeth and her.

No one seemed to want to read it so I made the book disappear from Leo's hands and threw it at Jason making him read the book. He gave me a glare but I just shrugged and motioned with my hand to just read it.

"Read the book, Sparky." I said.

Jason rolls his eyes at his nickname and begins reading the chapter.

"I Play Pinochle With a Horse," Jason read.

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.

Everyone laughed.

I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding.

"Ahh popcorn." Spencer sighed, thinking about the buttery goodness.

I rolled my eyes at my brother giving myself a mental face palm wondering why I am related to him.

The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.

"She Liiiiikes you." Spencer said, rolling his tongue.

I slapped his head before anybody could hit him themselves. He glares at me as he rubs his sore head.

When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"

"That's what I want to know." All the Gods said.

I managed to croak, "What?"

She looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"You realize Percy probably didn't know what you were talking about at all right?" Thalia asked, looking at Annabeth,

Annabeth shrugged. "I didn't know him then and I wanted to see if he knew anything at all what was happening."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."

Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.

The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.

A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, and the backs of his hands.

When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries.

There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.

"I hate scorpions." I muttered, glaring at the ground.

On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.

My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.

"Careful," a familiar voice said.

Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.

"Of course I didn't sleep. I was worried about you." Grover said.

"Thanks." Percy said, grinning at him.

Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy.

"Really Percy? …" Grover groaned giving Percy a small glare.

So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...

"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."

Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.

Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.

"The Minotaur," I said.

"Percy… You shouldn't have said that." I groaned.

"I know that now." Percy said.

"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"

"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."

"Yes, yes it is." I said quietly.

Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"

"My mom. Is she really ..."

He looked down.

Everyone looked upset, even the ones that knew what happened to Percy's mom.

I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

"You already have monsters after you, now your mother is gone. You two happy now?" Demeter said sadly towards Percy, but turned and glared at Zeus and Hades.

They stayed quiet and slouched in their thrones as they avoided her glare.

"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."

"Grover! You are not a failure! You are the best. You have a girlfriend that loves you. You found Pan. You became Lord of the Wild. And you became part of the council." I said, glaring down at him as I stood angrily in front of him.

I trembled in anger, as I kept clenching and unclenching my fists to keep my energy that is pulsing through my body at bay. The ground under our feet shakes from the energy that is bleeding out of my body.

I clenched my teeth as I concentrated pulling the energy that leaked out back in and calmed myself down. The ground stops shaking as I let out a sigh. I blew my bangs out of my face and plop myself back down by Percy and Annabeth keeping my gaze on the ground ignoring everyone's gazes.

He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.

"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.

Thunder rolled across the clear sky.

As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, well, that settles it. Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.

But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaur's. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.

"WHY DID YOU TAKE HER!?" Poseidon yelled at Hades.

"I don't know! This hasn't happened yet!" Hades yelled back.

I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?

"Never going to happen!" Everyone shouted.

No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.

Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.

I said, "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."

"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"

"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."

"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.

"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.

I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.

I take out my favorite cookies (Hobbler Flockers- no bake cookies) out of my bag without anyone noticing and began to eat them. I was almost done with the bag I brought with me, when Demeter noticed what I was eating.

"What kind of cookies are those?" Demeter asked, staring down at me.

"WHAT!?" All the demigods, Grover, Rachel, Hermes, Apollo, and Spencer yelled as they turned their attention to me.

I ignored them and answered Demeter instead.

"They are no-bake cookies made with oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa. My family calls them Hobbler Flockers. Here try one." I said as I got up and gave her my last cookie to try.

"Thank you and it was delicious. Do you want to try whole grain cookies?" Demeter asked, smiling at me.

Everyone gagged. I saw Hades shake his head without Demeter noticing.

I shrugged. "How about later."

"YES!" Demeter cheered.

And not just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.

"You truly do love your mother." Hera told Percy, as she pointedly glared at Ares and Hephaestus. Ares just shrugged, but Hephaestus shouted, "You threw me off of Olympus!" Hera didn't answer.

Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.

"Was it good?" Grover asked.

I nodded.

"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.

"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."

His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."

"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's homemade."

He sighed. "And how do you feel?"

"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."

"DO IT." Ares shouted.

"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"

"What do you mean?"

He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.

My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.

As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.

We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing.

The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture "an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena" except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun.

In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.

The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.

He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step-father.

"Damn right." Dionysus said.

"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite."

Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Grover, and Rachel started laughing while Percy pouted. Everyone else that knew Percy just snickered.

"Percy is not known for being polite to anyone. Even the gods." I said, snickering a bit.

"Okay." was all they could say. All the gods looked confused, yet with amused expressions.

"The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron…"

He pointed to the guy whose back was to me.

First, I realized that he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.

"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.

The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.

"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."

He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."

"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

"Shelby, I have a question…" Spencer said, interrupting Jason.

"What?" I asked, looking up to stare at my brother.

"From what I remembered from what I heard you talking to one of your friends after you finished the first series, wasn't Percy the Child of the Prophecy?" Spencer asks confused, not getting the hidden joke there.

"WHAT?!" Everyone except for well everyone who already knows about Percy being the child of the prophecy and knowing what he did to save Olympus (Annabeth, Percy, Thalia, Nico, Tyson, Rachel, Grover, the quintet, and I) yelled.

I slapped my face groaning. "Spencer… Did Hecate tell you not to say anything about the books when she brought you here?"

"I don't remember." Spencer said, giving me an innocent smile.

I looked up at the ceiling and threw both my hands up in a dramatic gesture. "Why universe… Why? ... Why do you hate me?..." I said, groaning as I put my head in my hands.

"PERCY WAS THE CHILD OF THE PROPHECY?!" Zeus and Poseidon shouted down at me.

"Oh for the love of… YES! He was the child of the prophecy!" I started to mutter to myself but ended up yelling at them.

"But… How?" Zeus said after a couple seconds went by.

I grumbled to myself quietly, not letting anyone hear what I said. I sighed and gave Percy a look asking if he wanted me to explain or he should.

Percy sent a look that clearly said 'your brother mentioned it, you tell them.' I rolled my eyes and shook my head sighing.

"Well for one fully explained throughout the books and the prophecy itself is a big clue." I said, crossing my arms over my chest being annoyed at my big mouth brother and all.

"What's the Prophecy sa-"Hermes got cut off by Rachel standing up with glowing green eyes and I as we say the prophecy together.

"A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

And see the world in endless sleep

The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

A single choice shall end his days

Olympus to preserve or raze"

Rachel started to collapse when Thalia and I grab her before she fell. All the Gods and the quintet were quiet thinking about the prophecy trying to decipher the whole thing.

I motioned Jason to continue reading after I slapped Spencer in the head a couple times.

"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.

She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."

She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.

"You bet, I would take you down." Annabeth said.

She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.

"Aha but no. If I said that it would be more in a sarcastic tone, then an enthusiasm one." I said, smirking at Percy as I dodged a smack to my head.

Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."

"Meh… I do too sometimes." I said shrugging while everyone laughed as Percy blushed.

Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."

"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"

Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"That's good advice, but to the wrong person to give it too since he never did learn it." Thalia said sighing.

"Yup." All the demigods, Grover, Rachel, and I said while Percy glared at us.

"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call on a potential camper. I'd hate to think that I've wasted my time.

"House call?"

"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upsate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to…ah, take a leave of absence."

I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.

"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.

"No Percy… He came to eat the food they had there… Yes he came to just to teach you." I said sarcastically.

Percy slaps the back of my head not liking my comment. I rubbed my head and glared at him.

Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first.

We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."

"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"

"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.

"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.

"I'm afraid not," I said.

"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.

"Sir," I repeated. I was liking this camp director less and less.

"Hey!" Dionysus shouted.

"Sorry." Percy apologized to the Wine God.

"Well," he told me, 'it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."

"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.

"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron-why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"

Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."

The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.

Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.

"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'

"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."

"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"

"What?" I asked.

He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.

"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."

"That's why it took me longer to explain everything to you…" Annabeth said, nodding her head when she realized Percy missed seeing the video.

"Did everyone get to see the orientation film, except for me?" Percy asked.

"I didn't see the film." I said, frowning wanting to see the orientation film nut it didn't really matter if I saw it or not.

"Well besides Shelby and Spencer." Percy said.

"Yup." Everyone said.

Percy pouted while everyone laughed. I patted him on the back letting him know I understood how he felt.

"Orientation film?" I asked.

"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."

I stared at the others around the table.

I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.

"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"

"Eh? Oh, all right."

Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.

"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."

"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."

"Yes, yes. I know Shelby. I'm sorry for saying something about your religion. So shh." Percy said, covering my mouth before I could nag him about my religious views.

I pouted and glared at his hand silently wishing for it to erupt into flames that is covering my mouth.

"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"

"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."

"Smaller?"

"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."

"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."

And there it was again-distant thunder on a cloudless day.

"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."

"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."

"Do we look like a myth to you?!" Zeus yelled.

"It doesn't really matter if you look like myths or not. Everyone has their own beliefs whether or not they believe that you are real or not. Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing*." I stated, ignoring the confused looks I got.

"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"

"And that will be the last time you say his name right." I muttered sadly.

- I flinched when he said my real name, which I had never told anybody-"

"Yeah, that gets annoying when monsters and Gods just automatically know my name." Percy muttered. All the demigods and I nodded our heads in agreement.

-"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals-they have absolutely no sense of perspective.

They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."

I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if… he wasn't.

It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.

"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"

I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.

"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.

"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"

My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."

"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."

Poseidon glares at the Wine God. Dionysus slouches in his thrones trying to evade his glare.

We all start snickering to the confusion of all the Gods.

"When does someone not want to incinerate you!?" We all gasped out laughing.

Percy smiles and shakes his head at us as he motioned for Jason to continue reading after he stopped laughing.

Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."

"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.

My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.

"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"

More thunder.

Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.

Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."

"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.

"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."

Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.

"No I don't!" Dionysus shouted.

"Yes you do." All the Gods and I said.

Dionysus grumbled and shot me a glare which I happily stuck my tongue out in response.

"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."

"And I repeat… You're slow…" I said, successfully dodging a smack to my head from Percy.

"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."

I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.

"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."

Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"

"Y-yes, Mr. D."

"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"

Aphrodite glared at him.

"You're a god."

"Yes, child."

"A god. You."

He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.

"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.

"No. No, sir."

The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."

"I won?" Dionysus asked, happy he finally managed to beat Chiron.

"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."

"Nope." I said popping the 'p'.

I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.

"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."

Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."

Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."

He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.

"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.

Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."

"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"

"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."

"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in America?"

"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."

"The what?"

"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."

"And then they died."

"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.

People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either

- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."

It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.

"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"

"You are Perseus Jackson, also known as Kelp Head, Prissy, Seaweed Brain, Water Boy, and Aquaman. You were the Child of the Prophecy, and now one of the Seven." I said, earning my hair messed up by Percy when he rubbed my head with his hand.

Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."

And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur.

And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.

"Pony!" Tyson cried.

Everyone snickered.

I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.

"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."

"That's the end of the chapter." Jason said, as he threw my book back at me.

"Why don't we take a few minute break before we read the next couple chapters." Zeus said.

Everyone cheered, as we all stood up from the ground stretching our sore muscles, that I'm pretty sure must of our butts feel asleep.

Percy whispers something in Annabeth's ear then walks over to me and drags me to a random corner in the throne room.

"Why are we going to a corner?" I asked him, as he drags me.

"We are having another one of our talks." Percy said, to which I groaned.

'Not another one…' I thought groaning, his talks are always about something he is concerned about or he is always voted by everyone else since he is more like a brother figure then everyone else and they know I will sometimes listen to what he says more than anybody else.

We reach a corner no sooner I started complaining and groaning to myself. He stands in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest as he waits till I am done.

"So… What's up with you and Nico?" Percy asks after I stopped complaining.

"Nothing." I said a bit too quickly then I liked.

"Really? Then how come you are avoiding him by not talking to him or sitting by him which you usually do when you are with us?" Percy said, giving me a look silently telling me that he isn't buying it.

'Damn it… He noticed…' I thought looking down avoiding his gaze.

"That's what I would like to know also." Nico said popping out of nowhere scaring the crap out of me making me jump a bit in surprise as he stands by us.

"Well I'll leave you two alone so that you guys can talk." Percy said, walking back to Annabeth ignoring my silent plea to not leave me alone with him.

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked in a different direction than looking at Nico.

"You been avoiding me ever since your brother mentioned the crush you have on me." Nico said, glaring at me.

I flinched, but I didn't bother saying anything to him so I stayed quiet as I kept my gaze on the ground.

"Shelby… The book you read that says I am gay in, is wrong." Nico said sighing.

I whipped my head up to stare at him. My eyes widen in surprise.

"But… wait… what?" I managed to say.

"I did have a crush on… you know who… but I do have a crush on someone else… That someone else is you…" Nico said slowly, as if he was talking to a child.

A/N: Yea... Well that's the end of chapter three... :D Please Review or pm me if you have any more ideas or have questions in general for me!

*The weird dream is actually from my friend… Mine are well… They are really about me going into movies, books, TV shows. They are pretty much my stories I've been writing about.

*When I said 'He smells just like a zombie, but without the burning flesh and rotten eggs smell' if you don't get it read Dreamworld.

*Red Demoness Shelby is from my One Piece story Backlash Wave of a Portal. Okami is both from Backlash Wave of a Portal and from my Digimon story The Crest of Innocence.

*Seeing isn't Believing. Believing is Seeing- a quote from the movie The Santa Claus.