{2} 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚 | 𝙻𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝙲𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚗

04.

Ψ 𝐀 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞 Ψ

𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, my gaze met Damien's car that I used last year.

Don't worry, I officially have a drivers license now! The car was parked in front of the house now as I opened the passenger seat and sat inside but before we made our way he began speaking.

"I know you have felt hesitant in coming back, especially after everything that went down last year but I think this is a great opportunity to come back strong and prove Poseidon wrong." He finished with a small sigh at the end feeling unsure of how I would react to his response.

It took me some time to speak but I finally did "it's just hard going back to a stupid camp feeling unwanted among the countless of other poor kids who feel the same way. And having to replay the image of the boy you like tell you to stay when all you wanted was to go."

I fidgeted out as my hand picked at my shirt and Damien rubbed my shoulder and told me "I'm sorry that this happened, but only you and I and somewhat your mom knows what really happened. Percy, Annabeth...if they found out they would think differently of you, they might think you're a traitor too. But you aren't. I know you're not."

He groaned rubbing his face with one hand as he tried to think. My throat was just in a lump as I tried to remain clam, but when I finally did feel a bit better, I looked at Damien and told him.

"Let's go." He seemed surprised that I said those words and that he wasn't gonna force me.

"Oh, come on. I have to think about myself before him. And maybe going back I can figure out where he is." I explained as if it were gonna be easy, but I knew I was in it for the long game.

I was gonna try my best and try to find him. Maybe I'll even recruit my friends to help, Luke was right now what mattered but I also needed to think about myself with that. Damien smiled at me and started up the car and we drove away to camp.

***

As we were making our way he started to tell me, "Camp isn't what it once was...something happened recently. And now it's affecting everything."

Thinking about his words while looking out the window I asked "what could have happened? Besides Luke being on the run of course..."

He let out a hasty sigh as we began approaching camp or at least were coming to but out of nowhere an iron or steel looking bull came dashing in front of us, Damien hit the brakes as we almost went through the window as we were pushed back into our seats seeing these crazy bulls run around the entire hill leading to Camp Half Blood.

That's when I spotted Clarisse, she seemed banged up as she wore her bronze armor proudly wielding her sword attacking the bulls trying to protect the camp.

"What the hell happened!?" I shouted at Damien as he quickly explained "the tree! The tree right here! Thalia's tree something happened to it and now...the barrier around the entire camp is exposed. Monsters sense you guys and camp is basically there playground."

Surprised at this new information I looked back at the field seeing a bunch of other campers along with Clarisse screaming and charging at the bulls or running away after being injured, burnt or on the ground only moving slowly.

Clarisse was up and swinging her sword left and right, holding her shield up proudly as she defended her camp, daughter of Ares for sure. I went into my bag pulling out my sword as Damien grabbed my arm.

"Don't get killed...please?" He begged "if your mom finds out I'm screwed."

I rolled my eyes and got out of the car slamming the door shut as I saw one bull charging straight for a girl who was already on the ground with a nasty 3rd degree burn on her leg. I opened my mouth and grimaced at her wound for a second but if I didn't pay attention she could've been killed.

I ran in front of her as the bull charged right in front of us, I heard her yelp in pain as I held the sword at the bull as it tried digging into me.

The bull was made of hard steel, iron, some sort of metal against my blade.

I groaned feeling the palms of my hands begin to falter with the sword in my grip, but I tried my best to keep it as this bull huffed its hot breath in my face. These weren't normal bulls.

They were Hephaestus special Colchis Bulls.

That little bi-

But before I could think of my next word it suddenly tugged my sword and threw it away from me. I panicked backing away as it huffed and came running at me until I realized that it had rained the night before, the grass was moist, and the water still hadn't dried up yet.

Beside the patches of burnt up grass the bulls obviously had made.

My thoughts came quick as I held out my hand quick and the water droplets from the ground beneath the bull and began covering its surface and the bull freaked out trying to steam it off.

I had just enough time to grab the girl and get her safely behind a tree. I saw the burn piles of grass now ashy black and still slightly lit up in flames.

Clarisse was challenging a bull as it threw her across the field and into a tree. I ran over to her as quickly as I could watching some patrol campers freak out over their headgear catching fire from these bulls.

I reached her and grabbed her arm as she groaned and turned her head seeing me and she widened her eyes.

"You're back." She smiled but groaned holding her stomach.

Pulling her up, she stood on two and looked around as she sighed out "it's been a mess for some time. With the tree dying we've been trying to guard camp. Clearly, it's not great."

We looked around camp once again seeing the campers still trying to fight off the bulls as she handed me a new sword and cleared her throat.

"Welcome back."

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Welcome back indeed and we'll definitely be getting more Hayley & Clarisse content like you all wanted!!!

I'm so excited to continue their story cause it's definitely not going to be over!!

And...damn these bulls.