The Unusual Half-Blood

Chapter 3: Invasion

The next few days passed by without anything significant happening.

Chiron left, as per his exile orders, saying he would return home to meet up with other centaurs while working to find some enchantment or cure for Thalia's tree.

As for Tyson, he was asked to move into Cabin 3. Being the only child of Poseidon, he had the entire place to himself. No one bothered to mess around with him openly, considering he was claimed by one of the big three gods. Still, his presence was not accepted by everyone as they continued to pass comments and mock him behind his back.

The only person who had no problem with him was Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin.

The blacksmith god had always worked with Cyclopes in his forges. So, on my request, Beckendorf took Tyson down to the camp armory to teach him metalworking, which the latter seemed to enjoy.

I also spent whatever free time I got out of my schedule to meet up and talk, observe, and keep him stable. I could tell he enjoyed our conversations, to the point that he genuinely trusted and considered me a close friend.

The rest of the campers were busy with the preparations for the Chariot races- designing, drafting, strategizing, forming alliances, etc. As expected, the announcement gave everyone a much needed breather.

Regardless, Annabeth and I have been meeting regularly in my cabin for the past week, to discuss our possible course of action moving forward.

The protective barrier was going to collapse, sooner or later- there was no stopping that. In this case, we only had 2 options- Either establish another protective measure in its place or somehow cure Thalia's tree.

For the former, we could use something like the bronze dragon which the Hephaestus cabin developed in the past before the tree was established. But given their history with automatons, I doubt most campers would prefer that. Not to mention, it was a suboptimal solution at best- as the dragon cannot guard every corner of the valley.

Even me protecting the camp was not a surefire way because it's not a guarantee that I'll always be here. Moreover, while my influence was keeping the monsters at bay for now, there were still multiple options to invade........

This means our best bet was to cure the tree, which by extension, meant looking for the Golden Fleece.

As for Grover's issue, Annabeth had a few other similar dreams. And while these could just be attributed to demigod foresight, part of me felt that there was more to it, given how detailed and realistic they were.

It's quite possible that Grover tried and succeeded in establishing an 'empathy link' with her, which was a pretty rare and complicated piece of magic- not to mention extremely risky for both parties involved.

He must've tried to do it with me first, but I doubt my physical constitution would allow something like that to work. So, he chose Annabeth instead, as an indirect way to reach me.

Which means his situation is pretty desperate and grim......

***********

Saturday, 10 a.m.

[2 days before the race]