[Percy Jackson's PoV]
My mother suddenly took on a trip after the crazy day I just had. Luckily, the trip was to my favorite place: a cabin by the beach at the edge of Long Island.
We started by casually walking on the beach, feeding the seagulls blue corn chips, while I also ate so of the blue goodies my mom brought from her work. Did I ntion I really love blue food?
As it began to get dark, we started a fire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. My mom shared stories about her younger days.
I then asked her about my father. Although I've heard the story a thousand tis, I still enjoy listening to it again.
Mom finally revealed that he wasn't even there when I was born. I couldn't help but feel a little bit of anger and resentnt hearing that.
"Are you going to send away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"
"I don't know, honey," she said with a heavy tone as she pulled her marshmallow from the fire. "But we'll have to do sothing…"
"Do you even want around?" I instantly regretted asking as her eyes turned watery and she squeezed my hand.
"Of course I do, Percy. More than anything. But I have to do this; it's for your own good."
"Because I'm not normal?" I retorted, a bit more sarcastically than I intended.
"Being normal isn't always a good thing, you know. You just don't realize how important and special you are. I finally thought we were far away enough, that you'd be finally safe."
"Safe? Safe from what?" I asked. mories of what occurred today surfaced in my mind—battling my math teacher, those grannies I saw, which just gave the creeps. I knew I should tell her, but it didn't feel like the right mont.
And that was just today. Every ti sothing strange or weird happened around , we were suddenly forced to move.
My mom then told that my dad wanted to send to so special school.
"Not a school, a sumr camp," she corrected .
What? Why? I had so many questions but looking at her expression, I knew if I asked any more, she would start crying. Which isn't sothing I wanted, so I decided to drop it.
Later that night, I had a strange dream. There were two beautiful animals fighting each other, a white stallion and a golden eagle, on a stormy beach. The ground beneath them let out a chuckle, but it was far from amused; it was angry. As if it had enough of the two animals fighting, the ground split open and from the crevice, a beautiful black owl appeared. As the owl erged, it let out a loud, ear-piercing screech that shook awake.
I couldn't help but hold my ears in pain. There was thunder roaring outside, accompanied by heavy rain, as if the sky was falling on us.
What followed was the sound of heavy banging on the door, which woke my mom up. She hurried to the door, confused, and when she opened it, I was surprised to see Grover, except it wasn't really Grover.
"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking!?"
Mom looked at in horror, not because of Grover, but because of why he'd co. "Percy! What happened in school? Why haven't you told !?"
I stuttered to get my words out as I was still distracted because of Grover. Why, you might ask? BECAUSE THE GROVER I KNOW DOESN'T HAVE GOAT LEGS.
"Percy!" my mom shouted, which caused to explain what happened: how I had to fight my math teacher who turned into this scary bat-woman, and seeing three grannies who were just staring at .
Mom quickly put sothing over her nightgown and grabbed her purse. "Co on, we have to go," she said anxiously.
Grover and I followed her, getting drenched in the rain. Grover wasn't exactly running, more like trotting. It all made sense now about his supposed disability. Well, I don't know if I would count having goat hooves as a disability.
We quickly got into my stepfather's Camaro. It wasn't long before we were on a country road, the wind and rain hitting heavily, with the occasional loud sound of thunder.
I kept looking at Grover. "So, how long have you known my mother?"
"We don't exactly know each other. She just knew I was watching you," he said, shifting nervously in his seat.
"Watching ?"
"Keeping track of you, making sure you're alright. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he hastily added. "I AM your friend."
Even through all this, I still didn't know what he was, so I asked him if he was part donkey, which seed to offend him.
He explained that he was a Satyr, like those beings from Mr. Brunner's story, my horoom teacher. Looking at Grover, I'm now beginning to wonder if Mr. Brunner was also really disabled or if he was just another animal from the waist down.
I began asking him a lot of questions, like about my math teacher and why everyone just acted as if she didn't exist, and many more.
After the sounds of destruction kept getting louder, my mother interrupted those questions. "Percy, we don't have ti. We have to get you to safety quickly."
"Safety? Safety from what? From who?"
"Oh, you know, not much, just the Lord of the Dead with a few of his blood-thirstiest minions!"
"Grover!" Mom yelled out in a warning tone.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Jackson. Can you please drive a little faster?" Grover said, slouching in his seat slightly.
We passed a sign on a white fence that read: Pick Your Own Strawberries!
The sound of trees being tumbled down got eerily closer behind us. I couldn't help but ask where we were going, and she told about the sumr camp she didn't want to send to, the sumr camp my father wanted to go to.
And all this because of so old ladies with yarn, which Grover quickly explained only appear when soone's going to die. That soone was , wasn't it?
We soon got into an argunt about it until Mom interrupted us by shouting, "Boys!" She pulled the steering wheel to a sharp turn, causing to get a good look at the figure she tried to avoid, which I assud was the one chasing us.
Its giant flicking shape in the stormy night was only visible due to the flash of lightning.
"What was that!?" I couldn't help but exclaim.
My mother ignored my question as she focused all her attention on the road, her hands gripping tightly on the steering wheel. "Please, please, please," she muttered, her foot heavily on the gas pedal. "Just another mile."
Before I could open my mouth to ask another question, the car exploded. Glass shards went flying everywhere as I began feeling crushed and weightless all at the sa ti. My limbs moved out of control as we tumbled.
All I felt was pain as my head pressed against the driver's seat. "Ow," I groaned out.
"Percy!" I heard my mother calling out.
"I'm okay!" I responded. I was still feeling disoriented and had a large headache. I was sure I also felt blood. The car hadn't really exploded; we flew into a ditch. Rain was pouring in through the rooftop, which was cracked open like an eggshell.
I turned to look at Grover worriedly. There was blood running down the side of his face, but he was muttering and groaning about food, so I knew he couldn't be that hurt.
"Percy! Get out of the car!" she said, deadly serious. She tried to open her door, but it was stuck in the mud, so I tried mine as well, and it was the sa.
"Climb out from the passenger side! Percy, you see that giant hill in the distance, the tallest one?" she asked hurriedly.
Before I could ask, a flash of lightning illuminated the area bright enough to see which hill she was referring to.
"Just over that is the property line! You will see a big farmhouse. I need you to run towards it and get to safety. The people there will keep you safe!"
"You're coming too, Mom!" I shouted. I wasn't going to leave her behind.
The figure I saw walked towards us in an imposing manner. As he got closer, I began to take a good look at his figure. He was hairy... No, it appeared more like fur covering his arms and face, with two large horns on the side of his head.
"He doesn't want , he wants you!" she shouted. "Besides, I can't cross over the property line. We don't have ti, please, Percy!"
I wasn't just going to abandon her. I climbed over Grover and opened his side of the door into the rain. "Co on, Mom! Help with Grover! Don't even begin to think I'm leaving you behind!" I wasn't giving her a chance to protest.
We quickly got out of the car with a limp Grover over our shoulders. The furry thing that was chasing us was moving deliberately slow, almost like a bull.
We began stumbling over the high, wet grass. I looked back and got a real good look at the monster. It was seven feet tall with strong muscles, like a bodybuilder. The top half belonged to a bull, while the bottom half belonged to a man. A minotaur.
"That's—"
"Pasiphae's son. I wish I knew how badly they wanted to kill you," my mother said.
"But that's a mi—"
"Don't say its na. Nas have power," she quickly advised.
The minotaur was loitering around the cars, slling the air. I asked why he was back there, and Mom inford that it had terrible sight and hearing but a good sense of sll. The rain was masking our scent, but not for long.
My mother then began giving instructions on how to fight it. Her knowledge of it was pretty weird, in my opinion. When I asked her about it, she told she prepared for everything if we were ever attacked.
The minotaur bellowed in rage as it began charging at us. It picked up our scent. We were a few ters away from the hill, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.
As it closed in on us, Mom told us to separate. I didn't want to, but I feared she might have been right; it was the only thing to do.
We went the opposite way. When I turned to take a look, I saw that it was right on my tail, its head lowered, its horn aid right towards .
Although fear grappled my heart, I turned to face it. When it charged closer, I followed my mother's advice and quickly rolled to the side away from its charging montum.
The bull ran past like a speeding train and began to turn, but it wasn't towards ; it was towards my mother, who was setting Grover on the ground.
Just over the hill, I saw the place my mother was talking about. The bull kept an eye on my mother as she began running back down towards the road, trying to distance herself from Grover.
"RUN, PERCY! I can't go any further! Get to safety!"
All I could do was freeze in fear as I watched it charge towards my mother. My mother tried to do what she had instructed, but the bull had learned its lesson. It shot out its hand and began lifting her up by the neck. She struggled and began pumling and kicking the air.
"MOM!" I couldn't help but cry out.
"Go," she choked out before the minotaur squeezed her neck and she began turning into golden dust.
"NOOOO!" My anger took over my fear. I charged with newfound strength towards the minotaur and reached into my pockets.
I pulled out the pen Mr. Brunner had given and uncapped it, revealing a bright gold sword, the sa one I used to take down my supposed math teacher.
The bull angrily bellowed once more and began charging at with its horns aid right towards again.
Ti seed to slow down as it charged towards . As it got closer, I grabbed its horn and used it as a handle to swing around towards its head.
It began shaking around, trying to shake off, not giving a mont to adjust myself. I began hitting it with my sword, but its skin was difficult to get through.
So I quickly made up another plan. I began hitting the horn I was holding on top of. As it began to crack, it threw its head back strongly, causing to lose my grip and fall off, hitting my head hard on the ground.
Groaning, I heard the minotaur charging towards once more. I instinctively rolled out of the way and quickly jumped to my feet.
As it tried to grab , I used its extended arms as a springboard and maneuvered myself to its neck. I locked my legs around its thick neck to secure myself and continued hitting its horn.
As it reached over for my legs, angrily mooing, the cracks on its horn grew large enough for to rip it off.
It had a hand on my legs, but I tightened my grip. It let out a choked bellow as it lifted its head back once more to throw off.
But I just scread angrily for what it did to my mother. "AHHHHHHHHH!" I yelled, channeling all my fury and impaled the horn right through its forehead.
Blood splashed everywhere as it let out a soft and reluctant moo and began turning into golden dust, just like my mother. I ended up falling and hitting my head on the ground once more.
I felt my strength leaving , and as I closed my eyes, the last thing I saw was a boy with red glowing eyes squatting down, looking at .
He let out a whistle as he moved his wet hair from his face. "Talk about sothing else, managing to take down a minotaur without any training."
I didn't have a chance to retort as I lost consciousness…
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