Carystus

My fingers get dipped in gold mist.

After staring at the dagger for a few precious seconds, I sprang up into the air, bending around a bunch of hydra-weapons that where flying towards me in mid-air. I grasped a branch and swung myself up a bit too hard, smacking my forehead on a branch above me. I blinked the dark spots out of my eyes and looked down at the enchilada-murderer (don't ask) struggling to come up with a way to, A: Get off the branch without dying B: try to defeat the enchilada-murderer, or C: figure out how the Hades I got on the branch, which was about five feet in the air.

I decided to go with B, which somehow involved A as well.

I looked around, searching for something to grab on, and praying to the gods that Mr. enchilada-murderer couldn't see me from where he was standing. I think someone listened because he just started to pace back and forth, back and forth back and- Okay, whatever. You know what I mean.

I looked around, all the while realizing that the branch was creaking under my weight. (That does not, in any way, imply that I am fat.) I saw something shimmer in front of me, and I realized it was string. I decided something really, really, dumb: that I could hold the string and it could hold my weight. (120 pounds) and that I was also tall enough to reach it (5'9") which is pretty tall for a 10000 year old, if i do say so myself.

Turns out I was wrong…

I grasped the string just as the branch got torn off the tree, causing Grover's head to snap my way. I hung there for a few seconds, then, snap, the string split and I was falling down, about to land on Grover- hard.

As soon as my feet hit Grover, golden mist began to spiral out of his mouth, reaching me in seconds. A tendril of the mist wrapped around my neck, and it felt as if a hand was where the mist was, squeezing the life out of me. I remember spotting Grover pass out in a corner. The mist coiled tighter. Growing black spots entered my vision, and my lungs where burning. My hands instinctively shot up to my neck, but I drew away as soon as I touched the mist. It burned like the bloody underworld. I swear to Hades that my fingers just got dipped in golden acid. I trashed around wildly in an effort to loosen its grip, and suddenly, I couldn't move. My legs bent awkwardly and I flew to the ground, hitting it face first, with my mouth open. I felt something cold touch my tongue and prayed to the gods that it was just mud. I tried to look at whatever it was but, well, why don't you guess what happened?

That's right!

My vision blacked out.