xii. tyson gets claimed

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THEA HAS ONLY BEEN AT CAMP HALF-BLOOD FOR A YEAR, AND EVEN THEN, SHE ISN'T AGAINST THINGS CHANGING LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IS. She has spent months on the run with everything always changing. For her, Camp Half-Blood is paradise, even if they have to fight off a monster or two every day. No one else seems to think that.

Charlie has spent the entire year aside from breaks there since the year before, and he's very against the change. He hates it, he hates that Chiron is leaving. It's caused quite a few arguments between them and they both know no longer to bring up the topic around each other. Their tempers don't blend well together when they are angry.

But with Annabeth and Percy back earlier than expected, Thea wants to spend time with them. She wouldn't say they were friends—that's ridiculous—but she did email them as often as she could with the camp's computer, and she did call Annabeth sometimes since they both had phones . . . Maybe they are friends, but she won't say that out loud. Grover had teased her relentlessly about it—

Her eyebrows pinch together at the thought of Grover. He's been gone for months. And, realistically, she knows that is supposed to happen. But Grover always lets someone know he's okay and he hasn't. Not in weeks. And, as much as she hates to admit it, Grover definitely is her friend. He's hopelessly nice and doesn't care that Thea is dangerously rough around the edges.

She just wants to know if Grover is okay.

"Whasthat!" Tyson gasps.

"The stables for the pegasi," Percy says. "The winged horses."

"Whasthat!"

"Um . . . those are the toilets."

"Whasthat!"

"The cabins for the campers. If they don't know who your Olympian parent is, they put you in the Hermes cabin—that brown one over there—until you're determined. Then, once they know, they put you in your dad or mom's group."

Tyson looks at him in awe. "You . . . have a cabin?"

Percy points at his cabin. "Number three."

"You live with friends in the cabin?"

"No. No, just me."

Thea stops them as they pass the Hermes cabin. "Can you guys wait a sec? My shirt's . . . kinda scorched."

Percy's cheeks turn pink once he notices she's right. Her shirt is burned open, from the sleeve down to the bottom of her ribcage. "Y-Yeah, we'll wait here."

She hurries inside and digs through her bag until she finds a shirt. No one is inside since the chaos of the bulls, but she isn't sure she would mind even if people were in there. When she's done, she meets them back outside the cabin, sporting a fresh orange tee.

"Hey, have you guys heard from Grover?" Thea asks once they get close to the Big House.

"No. Have you?" Percy looks at her, like he's waiting for her to reveal something. "Did you get a dream, too?"

"Dream? What? No, I just haven't heard from him in almost two months, and he never forgets to call. It's—what dream did you get?"

"I—"

Annabeth os already hurrying toward Chiron's apartment, meaning the conversation is over.

"Pony!" Tyson cries, utterly fascinated.

Chiron's head jerks. "I beg your pardon?"

Annabeth runs up and hugs the centaur. "Chiron, what's happening? You're not . . . leaving?"

The shakiness in Annabeth's voice is scary. Thea doesn't like it when people get upset, it makes her uncomfortable, and if Annabeth starts crying it's going to be worse.

"Hello, child," he greets, his eyes twinkling with something that is unmistakably love. "And Percy, my goodness. You've grown over the year!"

Percy rubs at his wrist. "Thea said you were . . . you were . . ."

"Fired." The love is gone, twinkling with some sort of dark humor instead. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."

"Besides himself, you mean," Percy grumbles.

"But this is crazy!" Annabeth cries. "Chiron, you couldn't have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia's tree!"

Chiron sighs. "Nevertheless, some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances."

"Circumstances?" Percy asks.

Tyson is still staring at him. "Pony?"

Chiron sniffs. "My dear young cyclops! I am a centaur."

"Chiron," Percy says. "What about the tree? What happened?"

"The poison used on Thalia's pine is something from the Underworld, Percy. Some venom even I have never seen. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."

"Then we know who's responsible. Kro—"

"Do not invoke the titan lord's name, Percy. Especially not here, not now."

"But last summer he tried to cause a civil war in Olympus! This has to be his idea. He'd get Luke to do it, that traitor."

Thea had barely known Luke, but in the time she did, she didn't trust him. She recognized him from somewhere, something that made her stomach churn.

"Perhaps," Chiron says. "But I fear I am being held responsible because I did not prevent it and I cannot cure it. The tree has only a few weeks of life left unless . . ."

"Unless what?" Annabeth asks.

"No," Chiron says. "A foolish thought. The whole valley is feeling the shock of the poison. The magical borders are deteriorating. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison, and it was lost centuries ago."

"What is it?" Percy asks. "We'll go find it!"

Chiron rests a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Percy, you must promise me that you will not act rashly. I told your mother I did not want you to come here at all this summer. It's much too dangerous. But now that you are here, stay here. Train hard. Learn to fight. But do not leave."

"Why?" he asks. "I want to do something! I can't just let the borders fail. The whole camp will be—"

"Overrun by monsters," Chiron finishes. "Yes, I fear so. But you must not let yourself be baited into hasty action! This could be a trap of the titan lord. Remember last summer! He almost took your life."

Thea's eyes are beginning to burn. "The camp . . . it's going to be overrun, isn't it? And there's nothing we can do?" She wipes at her eyes furiously. "I knew this was too good to be true."

Chiron's eyes soften as he makes his way over to her. He rests a hand on her shoulder and she leans into it slightly, overwhelmed by the love the man seems to feel for her. "It will be okay, child. You are strong. If it does happen, I know you will survive. You're a Vasquez."

She bites her lip and nods. If she tries to say anything, she fears she will start sobbing. Because it's going to happen again. Just like her home, it's going to be overrun, everyone will die, and she will be on her own—

"Stay with Percy, child," Chiron says, patting Annabeth's shoulder. "Keep him safe. The prophecy—remember it!"

"I--I will."

"Um," Percy says. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about?"

Nobody answers. Thea only knows bits and pieces of it, her mother didn't want to tell her too much out of fear that the prophecy might be about her. Still, it isn't comforting to know it might be about Percy. Prophecies never end well.

"Chiron . . ." Annabeth wipes at her eyes. "You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were needed to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp—"

"Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger," he insists. "Swear upon the River Styx."

"I—I swear it upon the River Styx."

Thunder rumbles outside.

Thea shakes her head. "Yeah, I'm not doing that."

"Very well," Chiron says. "Perhaps my name will be cleared and I shall return. Until then, I go to visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. It's possible they know of some cure for the poisoned tree that I have forgotten. In any event, I will stay in exile until this matter is resolved . . . one way or another."

Annabeth stifles a sob and Chiron pats her shoulder. "There now, child. I must entrust your safety to Mr. D and the new activities director. We must hope . . . well, perhaps they won't destroy the camp quite as quickly as I fear."

"Who is this Tantalus guy, anyway?" Percy demands. "Where does he get off taking your job?"

The conch horn blows for dinner. Thea isn't hungry.

"Go," Chiron says. "You will meet him at the pavilion. I will contact your mother, Percy, and let her know you're safe. No doubt she'll be worried by now. Just remember my warning! You are in grave danger. Do not think for a moment that the titan lord has forgotten you!"

He clops out of the apartment and down the hall and Thea can only blink back the burning in her eyes as Annabeth and Tyson begin to cry. Percy is consoling Tyson, and, dammit, that means she had to console Annabeth, doesn't it?

"It'll—it'll be okay," Thea says, awkwardly patting the girl's back.

"But you don't know that!" she cries.

"Probably not, but you've survived this kinda thing before," she says. "So have I. We'll be fine. You're—you're badass, Annabeth. You went up against Cerebus when even I was terrified. You'll be okay."

The girl sniffles, wiping at her nose. "You've never done this before, have you?"

"Definitely not." She smiles weakly. "Now c'mon, it's dinner time. Malcolm's been missing you, he wouldn't stop asking me where you were."

*    *    *

THEA SITS AT the Hermes' table. For the first few days she was at camp, she sat with Charlie at his table, but after that, she sat with the Hermes cabin. It's always overcrowded, and you always have to shove your way in to get a seat or you'll be on the ground, but it's nice. Something about the rough-and-tough of it is comforting because there's never malice behind it, only lighthearted roughhousing.

Like always, Thea shoves her way in to sit at the table. She gets a seat beside Connor like she almost always manages to do, wedged between him and his half-brother Cecil, a scrawny blond-haired boy with a hooked nose.

"Hey, what's with the . . . it?"

"Hey, don't call them an it," Thea says, but it lacks a punch. "That's Tyson. Percy's friend from school, I think? I don't know, he's one of the homeless from the city. Apparently, Percy didn't know he was a cyclops until we told him."

"Wait, seriously?" Connor nearly chokes on his food as he laughs. "How did he not notice? The guy's, like, six foot. And can bend metal with his bare hands."

"Who knows, it's Percy after all." She glances over where Percy is sitting by himself while Tyson stands by Mr. D and Tantalus. "He's a cyclops but . . . I feel kinda bad for him, y'know?"

Connor actually chokes on his food and someone slaps his back to help him. "S-Seriously, dude? He's a cyclops. They kill us for fun—no, for sport."

"I know, I know, I just . . . he's different. He's—he's nice, as weird as that sounds. I guess I've never met one so young."

"Well, just wait until he gets older. He'll eat you."

"Yeah, probably."

When it's time for offerings, Thea gives part of her pizza to Charlie's father. She doesn't know why she does it anymore, maybe out of spite against her own father who won't claim her, but every time, the smell of the forges is there. It seems like he isn't opposed to her offerings, even if she isn't his own daughter.

Once the rest of the Hermes cabin sits back down, the last to do their offerings, Tantalus gets a satyr to blow a conch horn to announce that it is time for him to speak. Thea would rather skewer herself, she hates the man.

"Yes, well," he says once the talking begins to die down. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." He inches his hand toward a plate of food, but the food slides down the table, avoiding his bony grasp. Thea has to pinch Connor to stop laughing as she holds back her own.

"And here on my first day of authority," he continues, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough."

Tyson tries to scoot away from the man again, but he pulls him back. Thea doesn't like Tyson, but she certainly doesn't like the way that Tantalus is grabbing him.

"And now some changes!" he announces. "We are reinstituting chariot races!"

Thea's eyes widen. When her mother was at camp, they had them, and that was always what Thea looked forward to.

"Now I know that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."

"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations!" Will from Apollo cabin announces.

"Yes, yes!" Tantalus says. "But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days' time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"

No chores? Thea's sold. The Hermes cabin always gets more than everyone else due to their large numbers, but half of the people refuse to help, and it almost always gets pushed onto her and the Stolls.

"But, sir!" Clarisse objects. "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots—"

"Ah, the hero of the day," Tantalus grins. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls."

Seriously? Tyson finished one, and then both Clarisse and Thea.

"Um, I didn't—"

"And modest too." Tantalus grins again, showing off his yellow teeth. "Not to worry, my dear! We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"

"But the tree—"

Several of Clarisse's cabin mates drag her back to her seat, not caring for what she is saying. But Thea does, because she's right. If everyone is distracted, the camp will fall. Why did no one care? Because—because most of them have places to go if they need to, don't they? For them, the camp is nothing more than a second home. They don't need it like Thea does.

"And now, before we proceed to the campfire and the singalong, one light housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." He waves his hand at Tyson, who looks uncomfortable, not fully understanding what the man means.

"Now, of course," he says, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes's cabin, possibly?"

No one answers. Thea doesn't, either. They can't handle a six-three cyclops in the cabin, it's impossible. They can barely handle another camper.

"Come now," Tantalus chides. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?"

Thea is about to look at Charlie, to somehow convince him to take him, since Tyson might like the forges and be useful, and then—

A green trident lights up above Tyson's head, and the poor cyclops doesn't understand as he tries to swat it away.

Tantalus begins to roar with laughter. "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"

Everyone laughs except for Percy, Annabeth, and a few others including Clarisse, Silena, and Charlie. Thea quickly gets the Hermes cabin to stop, grabbing Travis by the collar until his eyes go as wide as tiny planets. Because, dammit, Tyson is a cyclops, but it makes her sick to her stomach to see everyone laugh at him like he isn't there—and worse, for him to not understand they are laughing at him.

Suddenly, even though Tyson will probably grow up to try and kill her, Thea still wants to protect him from everyone's harsh words. He doesn't deserve it.