𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋

𝐋𝐄𝐎 𝐜𝐡𝟑|Big shocker: Camp is in trouble

Disclaimers: These are not my characters or original ideas; they belong to Rick Riordan

Leo

The monster I was hitting on the head with my hammer looked kinda like my teacher from fifth grade. Heh. I tried and failed not to laugh out loud and then hoped I didn't look like a weirdo. I am, but that's not the point.

On a depressing note, the boarders went down about 6 hours ago. Jason and Clarisse had been doing their best to organise everyone. Annoyingly, some people felt uneasy as Jason was a Roman. But Piper encouraged everyone and they trust her, so they listened- I love her charm speak. So, mostly going fine, despite the monsters seemed to be in massive amounts.

I don't know why the boarders are down. I mean, I'm not a tree expert but it didn't look poisoned or damaged or anything. There was about 4 Athena kids sent to investigate. They haven't come back yet.

The monsters seemed to attack in waves, like a videogame. They seemed to attack every half hour or so and then once we'd killed them all, they'd wait another half hour before attacking again. Like machines.

So far, there'd only been about 40 minor injuries, 11 serious injuries, no casualties. Camp now had about 300 kids, thanks to the claiming thing, so there was still a fair amount of people in action. On the other hand, we had about 20 Apollo campers that were in the infirmary, tending to the wounded.

Annabeth's brother had totalled up that around 250 were still fighting fit. Not great odds considering we were dealing with about 400 monsters at a time, but hey, we're Camp Half-Blood! But then there was the looming main problem: the sun had almost set and it was getting dark. How are we supposed to sleep with monster attacks?

_______

After I stabbed the monster in the eye with a screwdriver from my tool belt, it disintegrated into dust. I sneezed. I think I'm allergic to that stuff.

Looking around, there was no monsters left so I went to the infirmary. My excuse was to check that none of my friends were hurt (that's a cover for going to see Calypso).

Calypso. Silky brown hair draped down past her shoulders. An aroma of cinnamon followed her everywhere. I love that girl. I was snapped out of my day dream when she scowled at me. "Leo! I asked you to get some bandages!"
"Oh yeah - right," I replied sheepishly and went over to the cabinet.

I passed her the bandages and pecked her on the cheek. She smiled and gave me a hug. "So, you're not hurt?" she said, "that's a change."

Smiling, I rolled my eyes and sat down, head thudding against the infirmary wall. Rest. It'd been non-stop monster fighting today and I was already sick of it. My cabin and I were supposed to repair the Argo II today, but I guess that's off the table.

I started tinkering with a machine until I suddenly saw a giant hellhound outside (massive- I couldn't even see its head). Panicked, I grabbed the nearest sword and ran outside, charging.

But then I saw who was on top of it. I smiled awkwardly. It was Mrs O'Leary carrying Percy and Annabeth. Hiding the sword behind my back, I waved as they climbed down.

Percy ran up to me, "The boarders? How? Why?" I shrugged. He sheathed riptide when he realised that there was no monsters.

"Hey, man," I said and gave them a hug. I had to drop the sword because I nearly poked Annabeth in the back - not a good idea. To be honest, I'd thought they were both super scary at first. But now we were really close - not as close as I was with Jason and Piper, but still great friends.

But I had heard a rumour that Percy could control liquids, not just water. That was a bit freaky. But rumours are rumours, right?

As we walked to the big house, Annabeth bombarded me with questions about what was going on. This girl wanted statistics. Statistics include Maths. Nuh uh, I'm good at maths - but it's not necessarily my favourite. Or even in my top ten of subjects. And I can barely even remember school subjects, I skipped so many classes.

When we arrived, they'd began a meeting. Piper waved at me frantically at me to sit down next to her, so I did. I took in the faces of the room. Apart from the Hypnos cabin representative (whose head was slumped against his he table like someone had switched off a light in his consciousness), everyone seemed pretty depressed. And mad. That specific anger was rippling off of a particular brunette in ripples.

"This is ridiculous!" Clarisse yelled. "Yeah... How are we supposed to sleep?" the head councillor of the Hypnos cabin asked wearily, head lifting for a second, before slumping back down again. Jason sighed, "Did the Athena team come back yet?"
Silence.

"Grover!" Annabeth shouted happily as a satyr burst through the door. He had curly dark hair that failed to conceal his long, twisty horns. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"We... we went to the tree..." Grover mumbled, "You.. you know the.. the.. the kids that were sent to check the tree? Well... I found the problem with the tree... The fleece. It's gone. The tree is poisoned. Poisoned again and we have nothing to cure it. And the ones who went to check it...."

"They're dead." Grover grabbed a tin can and munched it anxiously.

I felt like I'd been punched in the face. A couple of people started to cry discreetly, leaning onto each other, or staring into space. Annabeth became a very bright shade of red - she looked furious. Percy beckoned his best friend to sit next to him, as he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend.

"Why did they go?" she whispered angrily. "They should've waited - sent a bigger team! There were only - what - five of them, I hear! They weren't stupid! Why did they go!" She sank back further into Percy's arms. The son of Poseidon stared into space. I got the impression she knew them. A few people looked at Jason, who was supposed to be in charge. I suddenly found the table very interesting.

"I'm sorry. We didn't have much time to prepare battle strategies, we panicked. I panicked. That's not right. Annabeth - you take over, you'll have a plan. Let's not let those deaths be in vain," Jason said, looking guilty, yet upset. Annabeth stared at him, as if she was calculating her response with an unreadable expression. She took a deep breath. Leaning forward out of her boyfriend's chest, she gripped the table with white knuckles.

"We need the golden fleece."

The door creaked open. Heads turned. Chiron walked in with a man behind him. Not a man, a God. Apollo.