Through Annabeth's Mind: Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief (Annabeth's POV)

5) Clarisse and I Get A Shower

When we were a few meters away from cabin eleven, I told him, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?"

I couldn't believe he was serious. I rolled my eyes. I thought maybe he was the kid from the prophecy, but I realized that was impossible. Maybe the one I have to go on a quest with.

"And I thought you were the one," I muttered under my breath. "I can't believe I thought you were the one," I said a little louder, getting frustrated.

"What's your problem?" he said angrily. He sighed. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy-"

"Don't talk like that!" I told him. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

If he only knew that I had been training, day and night (literally, sometimes) for five years, to go out there. To not have any more sleepless nights, replaying the night I reached the camp borders, imagining the ways I could have saved Thalia. I was so afraid that I couldn't think straight when the cyclops attacked. I trained and trained to fight every monster, so that next time I'd be prepared. No one else would have to die because of me. I wanted to go back out there. I'd been stuck at camp for five years, and Chiron wouldn't allow any quests after Luke came back from his, barely alive. I had to prove to him that I was ready.

Percy shook his head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories..."

"Yes," I confirmed.

"Then there is only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So..."

I almost forgot that Percy knew so little, like every new camper. At least he knew his myths.

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die," I explained. And, unfortunately, I knew that because I lived it. It wasn't fair, people and demigods died in the hands of monsters, but they couldn't be completely killed, they just came back.

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"They don't have souls, like you and me." I sighed. "You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you are lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."

"You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"

"The Fu- I mean, your maths teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad." I realized I was talking to him as if he were a little kid. Well, this was a lot to take in for the first time.

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep." I smirked.

"You almost called her something. A Fury. They're Hades' tortures, right?" he said before I could stop him.

Names have power. You could summon one of them just by saying their name.

"You shouldn't call them by their name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" he whined, but I knew how he felt.

"Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there." He pointed at Zeus' and Hera's cabin.