Rick Riordan Percy Jackson and the Olympians
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25 crafting magic items like a master in no time .
After lunch , I worked out in the arena with Apollo ' s cabin . Swordplay had always been my strength . People said I was better at it than any camper in the last hundred years , except maybe Luke . People always compared me to Luke .
I thrashed the Apollo guys easily . I should ' ve been testing myself against the Ares and Athena cabins , since they had the best sword fighters , but I didn ' t get along with Clarisse and her siblings , and after my argument with Annabeth , I just didn ' t want to see her .
I went to archery class , even though I was terrible at it , and it wasn ' t the same without Chiron teaching . In arts and crafts , I started a marble bust of Poseidon , but it started looking like Sylvester Stallone , so I ditched it . I scaled the climbing wall in full lava-and-earthquake mode . And in the evenings , I did border patrol . Even though Tantalus had insisted we forget trying to protect the camp , some of the campers had quietly kept it up , working out a schedule during our free times .
I sat at the top of Half-Blood Hill and watched the dryads come and go , singing to the dying pine tree . Satyrs brought their reed pipes and played nature magic songs , and for a while the pine needles seemed to get fuller . The flowers on the hill smelled a little sweeter and the grass looked greener . But as soon as the music stopped , the sickness crept back into the air . The whole hill seemed to be infected , dying from the poison that had sunk into the tree ' s roots . The longer I sat there , the angrier I got .
Luke had done this . I remembered his sly smile , the dragon-claw scar across his face . He ' d pretended to be my friend , and the whole time he ' d been Kronos ' s number-one servant .
I opened the palm of my hand . The scar Luke had given me last summer was fading , but I could still see it — a white asterisk-shaped wound where his pit scorpion had stung me .
I thought about what Luke had told me right before he ' d tried to kill me : Good-bye , Percy .
There is a new Golden Age coming . You won ' t be part of it . * * * At night , I had more dreams of Grover . Sometimes , I just heard snatches of his voice . Once ,
I heard him say : It ' s here . Another time : He likes sheep . I thought about telling Annabeth about my dreams , but I would ' ve felt stupid . I mean , He likes sheep ? She would ' ve thought I was crazy .
The night before the race , Tyson and I finished our chariot . It was wicked cool . Tyson had made the metal parts in the armory ' s forges . I ' d sanded the wood and put the carriage together . It was blue and white , with wave designs on the sides and a trident painted on the front . After all that work , it seemed only fair that Tyson would ride shotgun with me , though I knew the horses wouldn ' t like it , and Tyson ' s extra weight would slow us down . As we were turning in for bed , Tyson said , " You are mad ?" I realized I ' d been scowling . " Nah . I ' m not mad ." He lay down in his bunk and was quiet in the dark . His body was way too long for his bed .
When he pulled up the covers , his feet stuck out the bottom . " I am a monster ." " Don ' t say that ." " It is okay . I will be a good monster . Then you will not have to be mad ." I didn ' t know what to say . I stared at the ceiling and felt like I was dying slowly , right along with Thalia ' s tree .
" It ' s just ... I never had a half-brother before ." I tried to keep my voice from cracking . " It ' s really different for me . And I ' m worried about the camp . And another friend of mine , Grover ... he might be in trouble . I keep feeling like I should be doing something to help , but I don ' t know what ." Tyson said nothing . " I ' m sorry ," I told him . " It ' s not your fault . I ' m mad at Poseidon . I feel like he ' s trying to embarrass me , like he ' s trying to compare us or something , and I don ' t understand why ." I heard a deep rumbling sound . Tyson was snoring . I sighed . " Good night , big guy ." And I closed my eyes , too .
In my dream , Grover was wearing a wedding dress . It didn ' t fit him very well . The gown was too long and the hem was caked with dried mud . The neckline kept falling off his shoulders . A tattered veil covered his face .