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STRENGTH ✷ act two, chapter two, ━━━━━ flaming freaking bulls are not cool. PUBLISHED. . . February 29th, 2024 EDITED . . . July 24th, 2025 REPUBLISHED . . . July 25th, 2025
𝕺N SOME MORNINGS, NABI WOULD WAKE UP TO ACHING MUSCLES AND A COUGHING FIT. They were slowly becoming more frequent over the past few months. She might have been overexerting herself during her last few training practices with Clarisse.
"Damn," Connor said, sitting on his bed, as Nabi sat up from her own with a sour look on her face, "you alright?"
"Just peachy..." Nabi grimaced at how painful her chest was as she cleared her throat, then coughing once more into her pyjama sleeve, "Gods— maybe I've got a cold..."
Travis leaned against her bedframe, and shrugged, "A cold doesn't last that long."
"Yeah," Nabi sighed, "might need to relax on the undead stuff... I don't know."
She got up, scuffling her feet against the ground as she shivered. Nabi was always quite a cold person, but especially in the mornings, she'd feel a little chilly now, even in the summer. Connor asked, "Are you on border patrol, today?"
"Mhm," Nabi hummed, she opened one of her drawers to get some clothes out for her to wear—the typical camp shirt and some jeans, "I need to be quick, or else Clarisse'll take roll call and I'll be marked late."
Ever since Thalia's tree had been poisoned by... well supposedly, Chiron, the camp borders had grown much weaker than before. The magic wasn't enough to keep all the monsters out; they needed a way to fend the lot of them off.
Every camper knew the story behind the tree: six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, and Luke had came to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters.
When they got cornered on top of the hill, Thalia Grace, a daughter of Zeus who was also with them, had made her last stand to buy her friends enough time so that they could reach safety. As she was dying, her father took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.
Except now, it wasn't.
Anyone at camp could see how badly the tree had been harmed. The tree's condition was getting worse, too. Even from the bottom of the hill, you'd be able to spot the needles of Thalia's tree had turned yellow, as well as the large puncture mark in the centre of it that was the size of a bullet hole, oozing out a weird green sap.
