¹ON THIS SPRING DAY. p. jackson

002.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter two

━━━━━ A TELLTALE SIGN for a demigod was a kid with ADHD, and Violet seemed to have a severe case. It was a required daily activity at Camp Half-Blood to have a 'class' about monsters and the best ways to kill them, but she struggled in any kind of class environment. It was like her brain focused on anything but what the teacher ( or in the case of Camp Half-Blood's monster class, the teacher was a centaur thousands of years old ) was saying.

What Violet was saying was because of her inability to pay attention to monster class, she had no idea what kind of monster Dr. Thorn was.

Sometimes it was pretty obvious what kind of monster had reared its ugly head, but in the case of Dr. Thorn, it wasn't. All Violet knew about the monster was that he was super ugly, enjoyed throwing projectile thorns at innocent half-bloods, and that he was a ridiculously fast walker.

Violet tried to think of a plan. They didn't have very good odds, even with only one monster and two demigods that could fight. Percy and Violet also had to keep the di Angelo siblings alive besides just getting themselves out alive, too. And she was pretty sure Dr. Thorn, no matter what kind of monster he was, wasn't a monster she could simply underestimate.

"What are you doing, Jackson?" hissed Dr. Thorn. "Keep moving!"

Violet glanced over her shoulder, seeing Percy standing still with his eyes closed. He was holding onto his shoulder, where the thorn had grazed his skin.

"It's my shoulder," he said, cracking his eyes open and shuffling forward. "It burns."

"Bah! My poison causes pain. It will not kill you. Walk!"

Thorn herded the four outside, and Violet hugged her jacket tighter around her. The di Angelo siblings looked petrified, and Bianca looked back at Violet, and the terror in the older sister's eyes made Violet's heart sink. The daughter of Eros remembered that kind of fear, she remembered when that had once been her—a kid unaware of the divine world that existed, that her parent was one of the gods, and that wherever she went, monsters were sure to follow.

She wanted to promise Bianca that she and Percy would manage to get them out alive and safely to camp, just as things were supposed to happen, but she knew making untrue promises would only make everything worse.

Dr. Thorn marched them into the woods. They took a snowy path dimly lit by old-fashioned lamplights. Violet could've tried her luck and notched an arrow at the back of the monster's head but he surely would hear her and kill her on the spot.

"There is a clearing ahead," Thorn said. "We will summon your ride."

"What ride?" Bianca demanded. "Where are you taking us?"

"Silence, you insufferable girl!"

"Don't talk to my sister that way!" Nico said. His voice quivered, but Violet was impressed that he had the guts to say anything at all.

Dr. Thorn made a growling sound that definitely wasn't human. It made the hairs on Violet's arms stand on end. The siblings looked back at her and the only thing Violet could do was swallow thickly, hoping she didn't look as scared as she truly was.

"Halt," Thorn ordered.

The woods had opened up. They had reached a cliff overlooking the sea, that is the sound of churning waves and the smell of a cold, salty sea was anything to go off of. However, despite Violet thinking there was the sea below them, all she could actually see was mist and darkness.