Chapter Text
Lysander stepped forward, between me and Tantalus, spear still in hand and Helga at his side. "Are you blaming Percy for the Stymphalian birds attacking? They're monsters. They attack. It's what they do."
"No," Tantalus said, trying to look up at Lysander, but dropping his head from the strength of the sun's glare. "He ruined the race by having all the horses trot."
Lysander gave Tantalus such an unimpressed look it was nearly a sneer. "What evidence do you have of that? It's not even against the rules. Nowhere does it say you must go top speed. So what if they did the horse equivalent of speed walking?"
"It's not right," Tantalus insisted. "The boy is a son of the sea god. He could command all the horses to not run. He is a troublemaker!"
"No, he's not," Lysander said. "Percy's a good kid. You have no evidence he can command horses like that, and even if he did, he still didn't break any rules."
"I can't command them," I piped up though that might not be completely accurate since they considered me a lord. "I can only talk to them. I can't keep them from bolting if they're afraid like with the birds."
"Your little chariot race doesn't matter," Helga told Tantalus. "It's more important we get everyone to the infirmary to get checked out. We have to start triage."
"You can't do that," Tantalus said. "I'm activities director."
"We're not campers," Lysander said with a sharp smile. "We've been hired by father, and you're not our boss. You can't tell us what to do."
With that, he turned away from Tantalus in a clear dismissal. He headed towards the stands, "Lee! You good enough to help with triage?"
Helga faced away from Tantalus and towards me. "You should get some water on your shoulder then help out with triage."
"Got it," I said, turning to Annabeth. "You okay?"
"Just some scratches," she said, holding out her arms to show the marks. "I'm good to help, but your shoulder looks pretty bad."
I glanced over to it, and I had blood running all down my arm. I winced. It hurt to cap Riptide. "I'll be right back."
I jogged over to the lake since it was the closest source of water. I stepped into the shallows to scoop up the water and wash off the worst of the blood as it healed.
"What happened?" one of the naiads asked, poking her head up out of the water. "We saw the swans leave."
"Stymphalian birds," I told her. "They're finishing chasing them off."
"Good," she said, looking up at the sky. "You should reward them when they get back."
"Uh, okay."
I could figure out how you reward a pair of swans later. I stepped out of the water, shaking out my fixed arm. I dried off and jogged back to the track's stands. Tyson was standing carefully out of the way.
"You okay?" I asked him.
He clutched his hands to his chest and had tear tracks down his cheeks. "I'm not hurt. It was scary."
"Yeah, I know, just stay right here, okay, Big Guy?" I asked him, not wanting to freak out any more kids.
He nodded. "I can do that."
The rest of the border patrol had showed up, some in armor and others like they'd just rolled out of bed. Someone had brought over ambrosia and nectar and other medical supplies. The patrol along with Lee and Aurora were handing them out and assessing injuries while the other counselors were spread out trying to calm campers down and get them organized. I moved towards the supplies to help out when a hand caught my wrist.
I turned to see Sammy. Her hair was a total mess and she had a few scratches on her face, but otherwise she looked fine. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"It's Will," she said, tugging on my arm, "And Lysander and Lee are busy."
"Is he hurt?" I asked, following her into the stands.
"I don't know," she said, leading me down one of the rows of seats.
Will had tucked himself into a ball between two rows, arms wrapped protectively over his head. I couldn't see any scratches on his arms. Aislinn hovered over him, hair mussed but also looking unhurt.
"Hey, Will, are you okay?" I asked, keeping my voice gentle as I stepped around Sammy to approach him.
Will nodded but he didn't remove his arms.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" I asked, putting one knee down on the seat of the row below since I wasn't sure how easily I'd be able to get back up if I got that far down in such a narrow space.
Will shook his head.
"Okay, that's good," I told him. "You okay to stand up?"
Will nodded, but he didn't move to get up.
I cleared my throat. I glanced over to Lysander and Lee but they were still busy handing out ambrosia and everything else. Aislinn and Sammy looked at me expectantly.
"Okay, what about sitting? You want to sit up on the bench?" I asked Will.
He shook his head.
"You want any water or something to eat?" I asked him.
He shook his head again.
"You want a hug?" I tried.
Will nodded.
"Okay, let's hug, you just gotta get off the floor so I can do that, okay?" I asked, scooching a little closer to him.
He nodded and slowly uncurled from a ball. His face was a mess, tear stained and reddened. He made it gingerly up to the lower row of seats, and Aislinn pressed in a little closer.
"Hold on, hold on," I told him.
My shirt was dry, but half of it covered with partially washed out blood. I used the edge of the clean side to mop up the tears.
"Better?" I asked.
He nodded.
"Okay, bring it in," I told him, wrapping him up in a big hug but being careful not to squeeze.
He buried his face against my shoulder and gripped my shirt even though one side was a little gross and crunchy from the blood. He took a deep breath in and whimpered slightly as he breathed out.
"You're okay, it's okay," I told him. "The birds are all gone. Your big brother Lysander and your dad's swans scared 'em all off. We know what to do to send them packing if they even think about coming back."
Will shook his head against my shoulder. "Those birds. They attacked me and my mom. Before I came here."
"Oh," I said, rubbing his back. "Well, you still know what to do next time. Just make a really big scary noise, okay? You can do that, right?"
"Okay," he said though his voice still wavered.
He pulled back from me, sniffing loudly and running the back of his hand across his nose.
“Better?” I asked him, keeping a hand on his shoulder.
He nodded.
“You want any water?” I asked again.
He nodded.
“I got it,” Sammy said, taking off down the stands.
“Alright, Sammy’s going to get you some water,” I told Will, starting to straighten out his hair. His wasn’t nearly as bad as Aislinn’s or Annabeth’s since he’d been protecting his head.
Aislinn sat down on Will’s other side, combing her own hair back from her face with her fingers. Sammy took the stairs two at a time to get back to us, carrying a water bottle rather than just a cup.
“Here,” she said, holding it out to us.
I passed it along to Will. “You guys okay here? I’ve got to help out with everyone else.”
Will nodded as Aislinn and Sammy both said yes.
“Alright, I’ll be right down there so you know where to get me if you need more help, okay?” I asked, pointing down to the corner of the stands where triage had been set up.
“We got it,” Sammy promised.
Sammy took my spot next to Will after I got up. I headed back down to the stands to triage. I squeezed my way through people to get to Lysander. I tapped on his arm to get his attention.
“Could you grab more ambrosia?” he asked me. “Actually, scratch that, you should help with getting the more seriously injured to the infirmary.”
“I will in a second,” I said. “Did you know Will had been attacked by Stymphalian birds before?”
“No, what, he was?” he asked, looking up from me to search the crowd of kids.
“He’s not hurt, but I got Sammy to give him some water and he, Sammy, and Aislinn are all in the stands together,” I said. “I thought you might want to talk to him or something.”
“Okay, yeah, I will,” he said. “I just can’t do anything right now with all these other kids. Can you—,”
“I’m taking them,” I promised, “Who am I taking?”
“Talk to Lexie,” he said.
“Got it,” I said, going around him to talk to her.
She was busy looking at Holton’s completely sliced up arm when I got to her. I swallowed down my nausea and stepped up to her.
“I got told to take people to the infirmary,” I told her.
“Good,” she said as she handed a square of ambrosia over to Holton. “Take him then come right back.”
“Will do,” I said.
“You’ve got a giant hole in your shirt,” Holton said as I started walking him to the Big House.
“You’ve got a giant hole in your arm,” I pointed out. “You should eat your ambrosia.”
“Oh, right,” he said, slowly eating it as we walked. It seemed to help stop the bleeding.
I took hold of his good arm to keep him moving. “You going to be okay with doing your forge work after all that?”
I hadn’t ever studied human anatomy, but the muscles in your forearm seemed pretty important for working your fingers.
Holton closed and opened his hand on his bad arm. “I think so.”
I guided Hotlon into the Big House and through to the infirmary. The middle of the pack Apollo kids were all there, looking frazzled but not bleeding anywhere.
“Where’s the injury?” Gordie asked.
“His arm,” I answered.
“Alright, just take a seat then,” he said, gesturing to a row of chairs.
I got Holton sitting down then looked around. Both Castor and Pollux were there. Pollux had blood all down the side of his head as he chewed absently on ambrosia. Castor was face down on the bed next to him, shirt off as Adelaide, the now second oldest girl in cabin seven, stitched up a long slice down the length of his back. Esther, the middle girl of cabin seven, and Michael were working together on Rowan with Michael holding her hair out of the way as Esther treated a wound on her head. She was whimpering and crying with Silena holding her hand tightly.
“You good?” I asked Holton.
“Yeah,” he said, carefully laying his arm out on the arm rest.
“Okay, I’m headed out,” I told him then jogged back to the race track.
I ferried a few more people over to the infirmary, most of them with head wounds before the worst seemed to be over. I helped carry everything that had been brought out to the track back to the infirmary. Lexie, Lysander, and Lee took over the infirmary with Michael and Gordie getting a break.
“Go take a shower and get cleaned up,” Lysander told me, no room for argument in his tone. “Then go check on Will in cabin seven and tell him I’ll see him in a little bit.”
“Got it,” I said.
I stopped by cabin three. Tyson was inside, fiddling with metal scraps.
“Is everything better?” he asked.
I shook my head. “They’re still looking people over. I’m going to go take a shower, okay?”
“Okay, I’ll be here,” he said, looking back down at his work.
I grabbed my things and headed to the bathrooms. I set the water as hot as it would go which wasn’t all that hot given that it was a camp. I scrubbed at my shoulder and arm to make sure I really got rid of all of the blood. I zoned out for however long with my face turned up to the water. Then I got out of there to dry off and dress in clean clothes.
I walked straight to cabin seven. Will sat on the couch with his arms crossed and his sisters flanking him. He gave me a look that was probably meant to be a glower but looked more like a pout with all his baby fat.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“We’re just worried about you, Will,” Aislinn said, some of her hair still sticking out at weird angles. “It was scary.”
“I wasn’t scared,” he insisted. “I’m not a baby.”
“Okay, but Lysander is still going to come see you in a bit so don’t go anywhere,” I told him.
Will puffed up all defensive before deflating again. “Fine, whatever.”
“You guys all good here?” I asked.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Sammy said.
“Okay, I’m heading out then,” I said.
I checked by the infirmary, but they didn’t even let me in this time as they finished treating people. I wandered around for a bit then switched to looking for Annabeth. I hadn’t told her about my dream yet, but I had time now. I checked cabin six, but they told me she wasn’t there. She was in the Arts and Crafts Center working on her weaving again, but she was the only one. She’d showered going by her damp hair and changed into clean clothes.
“Hey, are you busy?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “Nah, I’m just…keeping my hands occupied.”
“Okay, well, I had another dream about Grover,” I said then explained the dream to her as she wove.
At the end, she laid down her shuttle and turned towards me. “If he really found it, and we were able to retrieve it…”
“Retrieve what?” I asked. “Grover didn’t say what he’d found.”
“Yes, but we know it has strong nature magic,” she said, her eyes lighting up.
“Okay, so what’s known for strong nature magic?”
“The Golden Fleece,” she said with a smile.
I blinked. “Like as in the fleece from Chrysomallus?”
“I was going to say from Jason and the Argonauts,” she said. “You really thought of the ram before Jason?”
“Yeah, because he’s my half brother, and Jason isn’t,” I answered.
“Oh, right,” she said awkwardly. “Did you check everyone you were related to?”
“Tried to,” I said. “My dad has a lot of kids.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Anyways,” she said, “The fleece is known to revitalize any land where it’s placed so if we placed it here to cure sickness and strengthen nature…”
“It could cure Thalia’s tree,” I said.
“And fix the borders,” she said then frowned. “But Percy, the fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it without any luck.”
“But Grover found it,” I said. “He went looking for Pan, and he found the Fleece instead because they both radiate nature magic. It makes sense. We can rescue him and save the camp at the same time. It’s perfect.”
“A little too perfect, don’t you think? What if it’s a trap?” she asked.
“How would it be a trap?” I asked. “It’s not like we’re going down to the Underworld again. You think the titan lord has been hiding the fleece this whole time while down in Tartarus? Or do you think he put Polyphemus on the island to guard it? Or the fleece is a trick? Either way, we don’t have much choice. We still have to get Grover.”
“I meant with having Luke,” she hesitated over saying his name. “Poison Thalia’s tree. Maybe the titan lord did that just to get us to find the fleece so he could take it.”
“Why would he need the fleece?” I asked. “He doesn’t have a domain over nature. He’s got time as his domain. Besides, isn’t the goal just to get rid of the camp? Or do monsters get stronger from the fleece, too?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “But it’s still a little too perfect.”
“Maybe so, but are you going to come with me?” I asked.
She frowned, avoiding meeting my eyes. “Percy, Grover said Polyphemus is there. We’re going to have to fight him.”
“I can handle him,” I assured her. Polyphemus wasn’t like Tyson. He wasn’t a kid and he had eaten people. I’d have no problem defending Annabeth from him.
“What about the Sea of Monsters?” she asked. “Where Odysseus, Jason, and Aeneas all sailed through?”
“The Mediterranean?” I asked. “I’m the son of the sea god. I think I can handle it.”
“No, not the Mediterranean,” she said, shaking her head. “It used to be there, but like Olympus, it shifted location.”
“Oh, left of Florida,” I said, getting what Grover meant now. “The spot where weird things like ships and planes disappearing happens, the Bermuda Triangle.”
“Exactly, but that’s still a huge area to cover. Searching for one tiny island in monster infested water will be difficult.”
“Yeah, but it’ll be home turf for me,” I said with a shrug. “Maybe the empathy link could also help us at least get to Grover and go from there.”
“Maybe, but we still need to talk to Tantalus to get approval for a quest,” she said with a sigh.
I grimaced. “What if we tell him at the campfire in front of everyone? If the whole camp’s there to hear about it after an attack like this morning, there’s no way he’ll be able to refuse.”
“Maybe,” Annabeth said skeptically. “We can try it.”