Thalia's Tree

"Come on!" I yelled to Annabeth, Luke, and Grover. "We're almost there!"

A pack of hellhounds and the three Furies were after us, and we had almost made it to Camp-Half Blood.

Just as we had reached the hill bordering the camp, the hellhounds were on us. I slapped my bracelet and got out my spear. "Go. I will hold them." I said firmly.

"No, Thalia!" Grover said.

"Grover, go! Get Annabeth and Luke to safety and get help! I'll be fine. Go!" I urged. I stabbed upwards as a hellhound sailed over me to get to the three behind me. "GO!" I yelled at Grover. I grabbed him, spun him around and shoved him out of the way as a hellhound came bearing down on me. I lifted my shield, and it slammed into it. I thrust my spear into its side, and it dissolved into yellow powder.

Over to my left, I could see Grover herding Annabeth and Luke to a big house. To my right, the remaining Fury soared in for the kill. I was busy battling one of the smarter hellhounds in front of me. I thrust my spear at the hellhound and I turned to face the Fury.

In that moment, I was attacked from both the front and the back. I fell, dazed, to the ground, and didn't move for a second. When I tried to roll over and grab my spear, which I had dropped, pain exploded in my side. I laid there, sprawled on the ground, vulnerable to any and all monsters, but they had finished me off. I could feel my breath slowing down as my blood seeped into the forest floor.

The change was gradual at first. I thought someone was helping me up, hoisting me up on their shoulders or something, but there wasn't anyone near me. I could somewhat see Chiron, Annabeth, and Luke, looking at me in stunned horror, not even stopping the two hellhounds and Fury that I hadn't killed.

And that's when I realized. I kept going up, like I was in an elevator, taller than any man or monster, except for maybe Typhon. I realized that I couldn't move or turn, and I was swaying gently in the breeze.

I was a pine tree, probably turned by my father, Zeus.

I saw a lot over the next six years. I could see and hear, and if someone touched my trunk, I could feel them, but I couldn't respond, which really sucked. I saw a ceremony that was performed at the base of my tree, and knew that the hill that I stood on was now called Half-Blood Hill, because of me.

The summer after I was turned into a pine tree, it was so dry that some of the cabins and anything that was wood caught on fire. They wrestled with the fire for days: I couldn't really tell. But finally they got it under control. Another summer I saw a centaur that was not Chiron staggering around in a prom dress? Weird.

One summer Luke stopped by my tree and patted it. "I'll be back, Thalia. I promise." A week or so later, he came back, staggering with exhaustion, a horrible red scar on the left side of his face. "I'm back, but not as I hoped to be." he whispered, leaning against my tree.

The next year wasn't really eventful, but the year after that made up for it.

I saw a streak of lighting close by, and then I hear a gigantic BOOOOOM! If I had been in a human body, I would've jumped about ten feet in the air. I watched, helpless, as a woman disappeared in a flash of light, and a boy with black hair waved around his rain jacket and called stupid insults. The Minotaur charged, and the boy did a leap-and-twist thing, getting onto the Minotaur's neck, and then snapped a horn off.

I was duly impressed.

He rolled, and shoved the horn up the monster's ribcage, and it dissolved. The boy almost collapsed, and managed to get to a not-moving lump in the hill I hadn't noticed before. I would've gasped if I could, because it was Grover.

Annabeth still came and talked to me sometimes, even though I couldn't respond, and I doubt she thought I could hear her. She told me that the boy was called Percy Jackson, and that she thought for awhile that he was a son of Zeus, but instead was a son of Poseidon.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

She told me other things too, like how he controlled the plumbing in the girl's bathroom, and how he beat the Ares cabin he got thrown into the creek.

Awhile later, I saw Grover, Percy, and Annabeth on the hill next to me. I would've jumped around with delight for Annabeth because she was going on a quest, but I also remembered what Luke looked like when he came back from his.

Chiron gave Percy a pen, which turned into a sword.

"This sword has a long and tragic history, which we need not to go into." Chiron said. "Its name is Anaklusmos."

"'Riptide.'" Percy said, sounding a little surprised.

They talked for a little longer, and Percy put his hand on my tree. It felt final, that touch, like he'd be signed up for a suicidal quest, and didn't expect to live.

Ten days later (I kept track this time), Annabeth and Grover stumbled up the hill and told Chiron of their quest, to which the amount of danger appalled me. Even we weren't that bad, when the three of us were on the run.

Towards sunset, Percy walked up the hill as well. The three quest members were all dirty and probably smelly and sweaty and overall gross, but they apparently didn't care as they group hugged like there was no tomorrow. Annabeth touched my tree for a moment, and in that touch, I knew she was happy since I had gotten turned into a tree.

The next summer, I felt a prick in my trunk, and pain filled me.

I couldn't really see well now, but I knew Percy was there, and had helped defeat two of Hephaestus' bronze bulls along with a Cyclops, which brought back bad memories.

I saw a buff girl with stringy brown hair leave camp. I knew that Percy, Annabeth, and the Cyclops had disappeared as well, and I also knew that Chiron wasn't there, and some ghost was in his place.

If I had been in a human body, I would've thrown up about a dozen times a day, but I wasn't, and I didn't, and I just felt pain-wracked.

Later, the buff girl laid a gold something-or-other on my lowest branch, and strength filled me. The pain subsided slowly, and I could see and hear better, but something else was happening, also.

It felt like there was a vacuum, and I was being sucked into it. My vision began to dim, until it was black as midnight.

Something tickled my face. Wait a second, face? I couldn't-

I racked my memory. The last six years were there, but fuzzy, like it was a dream.

"Come on! What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House!" someone yelled above me.

I took a shaky breath, and instantly coughed, not used to having lungs again.

I opened my eyes, and the boy that beat the Minotaur was above me. I shivered: I was used to the warmth of my tree. "Who-" I started to ask.

"I'm Percy. You're safe now." he said.

"Strangest dream…" I said, slightly delirious. I was thinking about the past six years, and my dying and being turned into a tree.

"Its ok." he said, I guess trying to stop me from talking, but it wasn't going to go, not for a long shot.

"Dying." I said.

"No." he said, shaking his head slightly. "You're ok. What's your name?"

I looked around. Annabeth, Chiron and Grover were all looking at me in shock. Percy looked like I was confirming his worst fear when I said, "I am Thalia, daughter of Zeus."

I just had this inspiration, so I wrote it. Hope you liked it! Whadja think about it?

Please let me know in a review or PM!