Demon Pigeons Attack

**Demon Pigeons Attack** is the eighty-fourth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on April 4th, 2019.

## Chapter

**Nobody edit below this box**

**Annabeth's POV**
The next few days were torture, just like Tantalus wanted.
First there was Tyson moving into the Poseidon cabin, giggling to himself every fifteen seconds and saying, “Percy is my brother?” like he’d just won the lottery.
“Aw, Tyson,” Percy would say. “It’s not that simple.”
But there was no explaining it to him. He was in heaven, just like Jasmine was when Johnathan was born. And Percy . . . he seemed embarrassed, not that I blamed him.
His father, the all-powerful Poseidon, had gotten moony-eyed for some nature spirit, and Tyson had been the result. I’d read the myths about Cyclopes, and I knew that they were often Poseidon’s children. But I don’t think Percy really processed that this made them his . . . family until he had Tyson living with him in the next bunk.
And then there were the comments from the other campers. Suddenly, he wasn’t Percy Jackson, the cool guy who’d retrieved Zeus’s lightning bolt last summer. Now he was Percy Jackson, the poor schmuch with the ugly monster for a brother.
“He’s not my *real* brother!” he protested whenever Tyson wasn’t around. “He’s more like a half-brother on the monstrous side of the family. Like . . . a half-brother twice removed, or something.”
Nobody bought it.
I tried to make him feel better. I suggested we team up for the chariot race to take our minds off our problems. Don’t get me wrong—we both hated Tantalus and we were worried sick about the camp—but we didn’t know what to do about it. Until we could come up with some brilliant plan to save Thalia’s tree, we figured we might as well go along with the races. After all, my mom, Athena, had invented the chariot, and Percy’s dad had created horses. Together we would *own* that track.

One morning Percy and I were sitting by the canoe lake sketching chariot designs when some jokers from Aphrodite’s cabin walked by.
“Percy, do you need to borrow some eyeliner for your eye?” one of the girls asked. “Oh sorry, *eyes*.”
They walked away laughing.
“Just ignore them, Percy,” I grumbled. “It isn’t your fault you have a monster for a brother.”
“He’s *not* my brother!” he snapped. “And he’s not a monster, either!”
I raised my eyebrows. “Hey, don’t get mad at me! And technically, he *is* a monster.”
“Well *you* gave him permission to enter the camp.”
“Because it was the only way to save your life! I mean . . . I’m sorry, Percy. I didn’t expect Poseidon to *claim* him. Cyclopes are the most deceitful, treacherous—”
“He is not! What have you got against Cyclopes, anyway?”
I thought back to when I was seven years old, in that lair, Thalia, Luke, and Grover hanging upside down from the ceiling . . .
“Just forget it,” I said. “Now, the axle for this chariot—”
“You’re treating him like he’s this horrible thing,” Percy said. “He saved my life.”
I threw down my pencil and stood. “Then maybe you should design a chariot with *him*.”
“Maybe I should.”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”
I stormed off and left Percy alone at the lake.

**Jasmine’s POV**
I was not happy at all.
First, Poseidon claims Tyson as his son, and everybody laughs about it; second, everybody’s treating Percy like shit because he’s a Cyclops; and third, the worst one of all and the one that was pissing me off the most: Percy was letting it affect him, as if what his “friends” say about his brother matters. There is no way in hell I would let anyone say anything bad about my brother and not kick their ass about it.
Granted, in my case, I wouldn’t be too happy if I found out my dad cheated on my mom and had a son with another woman. But if there was anyone I would not give a piece of my mind to, it would be to my brother, because he would’ve definitely been the only innocent one in that matter.
Will and I were teaming up for the chariot race. I was heading over to his cabin so that we could get started when I noticed Annabeth going toward our cabin, and she looked mad.
“Uh, oh,” I muttered. I ran over to her. “Annabeth! What’s wrong?”
She looked my way when she heard me, but then she just rolled her eyes and entered our cabin.
“Oh, don’t you dare do that to me.”
I ran faster. When I got to the door, I grabbed on to the handle and turned it, keeping Annabeth from closing it to avoid her from talking to me, as if I’m going to let a damn door stop me.
“Annabeth, let go of the fucking door and let me in.”
“No, you let go of it,” she replied.
“So that you can close me out? How stupid do you think I am?”
“I wish you were more stupid than you really are.”
“No you don’t. I would annoy you as much as the actual stupid kids at our school do.”
“You still annoy me in many other ways.”
I pushed harder against the door and managed to get through a little bit, but I wasn’t going to dare put my fingers through so that she could just crush them.
“Dammit,” I cursed. “Toothless! Help me get through here.”
He ran up next to me. *What do you want me to do? Blast it?*
“Not with me in front of it. Just help me push.”
He put his head below me and pushed it against the door. With his strength, we were able to force our way into the cabin, and Annabeth gave up, letting go of the door and it opened wide, slamming against the door jab on the wall.
“Seriously?” I said, catching my breath a little bit. “Why did you do that?”
“Because I don’t want to talk to you,” Annabeth replied.
“You couldn’t have just said that?”
“Has that ever stopped you before?”
“No. But you’re clearly mad about something, and I want to know what. So what happened?”
She sighed. “Percy and I had a fight.”
“About what?”
“What else? Tyson.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course. Why?”
She told me everything.
“I’m going to kill him,” I said after she finished. “And I’m going to kill you too.”
“Why me?” Annabeth asked.
“Because, Annabeth, you are being so unfair to Tyson.”
“*I’m* being unfair? He’s a Cyclops, Jasmine! I can’t believe that you would even consider seeing past that. You were there when they captured Thalia, Luke, and Grover, and almost cooked and ate them! They would’ve done the same to us if we hadn’t stopped them. You of all people should be on my side with this.”
“Well, I’m not. Yes, I remember how terrified we were that night. And may I remind you that there was only *one* Cyclops there, and no more than that. I’m only going to damn that one and not the whole damn species! That’s not fair to Tyson. That would be like . . . I don’t know, one blond person stabbing you and you believing that every single blond person you ever come in contact with will stab you too just because of that one blond. You should know better than that.”
“Cyclopes are known for killing and eating demigods.”
“Not this one. If he was going to do that, he would’ve done it to Percy a long time ago. The only thing I don’t like about him is how childishly annoying he is. God, it drives me insane. But that’s not necessarily his fault either. I’m ashamed of you for this, Annabeth, and I’m about to be just as ashamed in Percy for being like that to his own brother. You both are just like every asshole in this whole camp right now, and you all deserve to die along with Thalia’s tree.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Oh, yes, I do.”
I turned around and walked out of the cabin, slamming the door behind me.

I ran all the way to the amphitheater, Toothless running to catch up behind me, because, during the day, it was the quietest and most private place in camp because nobody hardly ever goes there before the campfire.
I sat down on one of the stone steps, a few rows up from the ground. Toothless sat in front of me and rested his head onto my lap and I rubbed it.
“Toothless, this just keeps getting worse,” I told him.
He nodded his head in agreement and licked my face.
I smiled and laid my head down on his.
“Is it safe to approach?” someone asked.
I lifted my head up and noticed Will standing next to the stone steps.
“It depends on what you say next,” I told him.
“I’m always careful with what I tell you,” he replied, moving up the steps and sitting down next to me.
“Yeah, I suppose you are.” I rested my head on his shoulder.
“What’s wrong this time?”
“Everything.”
“In particular?”
“Yeah. In order: Thalia’s tree, Tantalus, Annabeth, and I’m pretty sure Percy soon.”
“Because of that Cyclops?”
“He has a name, Will.”
“Sorry. Because of Tyson?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I can’t believe that Percy would be this way to his own brother. I can see the guilt on him, but he keeps doing it.”
“Well, Jasmine, even you have to understand how difficult it is for Percy to have a brother who is . . . different from everyone else.”
“But that’s not fair to Tyson. I mean, come on. If anyone could choose how they were born, like if you were born a boy but you wanted to be a girl, like transgenders, would you choose that? Or if you wanted to be born an animal, like a dragon, instead of a human, would you choose that if you could?”
“If I could’ve chosen to be born into a family with both of my parents together and not have to worry about money too much, maybe even have another sibling or two, I think I would’ve chosen that.”
I pursed my lips. I knew that Will’s mom, Naomi, struggled a little bit to get enough money to support herself and Will. And with his father being a god . . . yeah, they didn’t really get much help from him.
I shifted uncomfortably.
“I’m sorry,” Will told me. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s ok,” I assured him. “I’m sure that’s what everyone wants.”
“No, it’s not ok. That’s not fair to you.”
“And it’s even more unfair to you and everyone else here. I have the kind of life that everyone wants, which is probably why everyone hates me, because I have something that *none* of them are ever going to have, unless they get a good stepparent. But it’s still not the same. The only one here who’s come the closet to having what I have is Annabeth.”
“That’s still not a good reason to hate you.”
“And what is?”
He shrugged. “For me, nothing.”
“Well, the one you just listed is an understandable one.”
“But not a right one.”
We sat in silence for a while. I continued to rub Toothless’s head, which he always likes.
“So,” Will said. “Do you want to work on our chariot?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to be a part of this. Everyone here is an asshole, and they can all go kill themselves with this for all I care. If you want to, you can.”
“If you’re not going to, I won’t. I can just have my other siblings take over if they want.”
“That’s fine.” I stood up from my seat. “I need to go have a serious talk with Percy.”

Unlike many times before with other people, I didn’t immediately confront Percy. I wanted to observe his interactions with Tyson before I said anything, so I hung around them for the next couple days.
Silena Beauregard, one of the nicest girls from Aphrodite’s cabin, gave Percy his first riding lesson on a pegasus. She explained that there was only one immortal winged horse name Pegasus, who still wandered free somewhere in the skies, but over the eons he’d sired a lot of children, none quite so fast or heroic, but all named after the first and greatest.
Being the son of Poseidon, Percy never liked going into the air because of his dad’s rivalry with Zeus, so he tried to stay out of his domain as much as possible. But he didn’t seem as nervous riding a winged horse as he was on the airplane we rode from California to New York last summer. That could be because his dad had created horses out of sea foam, so the pegasi were sort of neutral territory. He and I both could understand their thoughts. I wasn’t surprised when his pegasus went galloping over the treetops or chased a flock of seagulls into a cloud.
The problem was that Tyson wanted to ride the “chicken ponies,” too, but the pegasi got skittish whenever he approached. We told them telepathically that Tyson wouldn’t hurt them, but they didn’t seem to believe us. That made Tyson cry, and me angry.
But luckily, I have an amazing dragon who loves me and would do anything for me, even if he really doesn’t want to do it. Toothless, even though reluctantly, offered to give him a ride, and Tyson stopped crying. He was a little heavier than what Toothless was use to, but he’s quite strong, and Tyson enjoyed it.
The only person at camp who had no problem with Tyson was Beckendorf. Hephaestus had always worked with Cyclopes in his forges, so Beckendorf took Tyson down to the armory to teach him metalworking. He said he’d have Tyson crafting magic items like a master in no time.
“Beckendorf,” I called before they left.
He turned toward me.
“Thank you.”
He smiled and held his hand up. “No problem.”
After lunch, Percy and I worked out in the arena with Apollo’s cabin. Swordplay had always been our strength. People said Percy was better at it than any camper in the last hundred years, except maybe Luke (and me, I might add). People always compared him to Luke, which he didn’t seem to like so much now.
He thrashed the Apollo guys easily. Sorry to them, but they’ve always sucked at that. But I’ve been helping Will get better at that ever since we started dating.
Percy should’ve been testing himself equal to his strength, which is one of the reasons why I challenged him. Usually, I went a little easy on him, but to show him how angry I was, I used my dual blades and knocked him on his ass in less than five minutes, hardly ever giving him a chance to swing once at me.
We went to archery class, even though he was terrible at it, and it really wasn’t the same without Chiron teaching. In arts and crafts, Percy started a marble bust of Poseidon, but it started looking like Sylvester Stallone, so he ditched it. I made a little one of Percy and smashed it before the clay could harden, but I don’t think he knew it was him. We scaled the climbing wall in full lava-and-earthquake mode. And in the evenings, we 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 time.
We 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 we sat there, the angrier we got.
We knew Luke had done this.
Percy opened the palm of his hand. The scar Luke had given him last summer was fading, but I could still see it—a white asterisk-sharped wound where Luke’s pit scorpion had stung him.
I thought about what Luke had told him right before he’d tried to kill him: *Good-bye, Percy. There is a new Golden Age coming. You won’t be part of it.*
Well, he won’t be a part of it if he continues to piss me off enough to kill him.
“Percy, can I talk to you about Tyson?” I asked.
“What about?” he asked.
“About you. I don’t like the way you’ve been treating him since Poseidon claimed him.”
“How have I been treating him?”
“Don’t act innocent, Percy. You’ve been treating him like everyone else here.”
“How?”
“How? You refuse to even call him your brother, and you think he’s a monster.”
“Well, he’s not my real brother, and I don’t think he’s a monster. He’s more of a half-brother on the monstrous side of the family.”
I stared at him.
“What?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I really thought you were better than this, but you’re just like everyone else. You are such a hypocrite. You say he’s not a monster, and yet you say he’s more of a half-brother on the *monstrous* side of the family? Percy, my mother has three older half-siblings, but she calls them her brother and sisters. She doesn’t deny that they have a different father, and they are her half-siblings because of that, but they’re still siblings regardless of whether they share both parents. Even Annabeth likes her siblings from both her parents’ side. You think of Tyson the same way everyone else here thinks of him, even though he’s saved your life at least twice now. Tyson *is* your brother, Percy, whether you like it or not. And you better learn how to be good at it, because Beckendorf is beating you so far.”
Percy sighed. “I never had a half-brother before. It’s really different for me.”
“Of course it is. You share one different parent.”
“I’m also mad at Poseidon. I feel like he’s trying to embarrass me, like he’s trying to compare me and Tyson or something, and I don’t understand why.”
“I don’t think your father’s trying to embarrass you. I think maybe he’s trying to test you.”
“Test what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe how much you’ll look out for your family regardless of what they are. And if you ask me, you’re failing that so far.”
He turned away from me. Well, fine. I said what I had to say.
Toothless has been helping with border patrol at night since he can see in the dark really well. I decided that I would head back to my cabin now and get some sleep, so I called him down from the sky and gave him a kiss good night on his head. Then I walked down the hill.
“Jasmine?” Percy called.
I turned back. “Yeah?”
“Do you and Annabeth have some kind of history with Cyclopes?”
I pursed my lips. “We had an encounter with one a long time ago.”
“What happened?”
“I think it would be best if I leave Annabeth to tell you about it when she’s ready.”
“When do you think that’ll be?”
“I don’t know. Whenever she feels ready.”
“Ok.”
“I’ll see you later, Percy.”
“See ya.”
I turned back down the hill and ran to my cabin.

The morning of the race was hot and humid. Fog lay low on the ground like sauna steam. Millions of birds were roosting in the trees—fat gray-and-white pigeons, except they didn’t coo like regular pigeons. They made this annoying metallic sound that reminded me of my family’s Saturday Sub radar.
The racetrack had been built in a grassy field between the archery range and the woods. Hephaestus’s cabin had used the bronze bulls, which were completely tame since they’d had their heads smashed in, to plow an oval track in a matter of minutes.
There were rows of stone steps for the spectators—Tantalus, the satyrs, a few dryads, and all of the campers who weren’t participating. Dionysus didn’t show. He never got up before ten o’clock.
“Right!” Tantalus announced as the teams began to assemble. A naiad brought him a big platter of pastries, and as Tantalus spoke, his right hand chased a chocolate éclair across the judge’s table. “You all know the rules. A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!” Tantalus smiled at us like we were all naughty children. “Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s’mores at the campfire for a week! Now ready your chariots!”
Beckendorf led the Hephaestus team onto the track. They had a sweet ride made of bronze and iron—even the horses, which were magical automatons like the Colchis bulls. I had no doubt that their chariot had all kinds of mechanical traps and more fancy options than a fully loaded Maserati, especially since a Maserati didn’t hold much.
The Ares chariot was bloodred, and pulled by two grisly horse skeletons. Clarisse climbed aboard with a batch of javelins, spiked balls, caltrops, and a bunch of other nasty toys.
Apollo’s chariot was trim and graceful and completely gold, pulled by two beautiful palominos. Their fighter was armed with a bow, though he had promised not to shoot regular pointed arrows at the opposing drivers. How easily he could win if he did.
Hermes’s chariot was green and kind of old-looking, as if it hadn’t been out of the garage in years. It didn’t look like anything special, but it was manned by the Stoll brothers, and I could only imagine what dirty tricks they’d schemed up.
That left two chariots: one driven by Annabeth, and the other by Percy.
Before the race began, I noticed Percy trying to approach Annabeth. I was curious as to why, so I stood up from my seat and flew over to them.
Percy told us about a dream he had last night, and it was about Grover. He was wearing a wedding dress that didn’t fit him very well (I almost didn’t believe him, but he looked serious, and I still chuckled about it). He was standing in a dark cave lit by torches, and he and Percy actually spoke to each other.
Percy explained to us how there was a monstrous voice in the background. Grover had told him that it was Polyphemus the Cyclops, and how he has something that was the reason no satyr had ever returned from their quest, making them think they’ve found Pan, and they get trapped and eaten by him instead. He then told Percy how his bridal dress has kept him alive so far because, since Polyphemus was still half blind from the last time somebody poked it out, he thinks that Grover is a lady Cyclops and he wants to marry him.
The last thing Grover told Percy was that he was in the Sea of Monsters, that he had created an empathy link between them, that their emotions were connected, and if Grover dies, Percy could die too, or live years in a vegetarian state. Then he said that we couldn’t let him die.
I couldn’t help but laugh at half of the things Percy told us. “Later, you need to show me that dream.”
Annabeth had perked up when Percy mentioned Grover, but when he told her what he’d said, she seemed to get distant again, suspicious.
“You’re trying to distract me,” she decided.
“What?” Percy and I both said.
“No I’m not!” Percy said.
“Oh, right! Like Grover would just happen to stumble across the *one* thing that could save the camp.”
“Annabeth, it’s gotta be somewhere. It makes sense that that’s where it’s been all these years.”
“What do you mean?” Percy asked.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Go back to your chariot, Percy.”
“I’m not making this up. He’s in trouble, Annabeth.”
She hesitated. I could tell she was trying to decide whether or not to trust him. Despite their occasional fights, they’d been through a lot together. And I knew she would never want anything bad to happen to Grover anymore than I did.
“Percy, an empathy link is so hard to do. I mean, it’s more likely you were dreaming.”
“The Oracle,” Percy said. “We could consult the Oracle.”
Annabeth frowned.
Last summer, before our quest, he’d visited the strange spirit that lived in the Big House attic and it had given him a prophecy that came true in ways we’d never expected. The experience had freaked him out for months. Annabeth and I both knew he’d never suggest going back there if he wasn’t completely serious.
Before she could answer, the conch horn sounded.
“Charioteers!” Tantalus called. “To your mark!”
“We’ll talk later,” Annabeth told him, “*after* I win.”
I rolled my eyes, then looked at Percy. “Good luck.”
As I was walking back to my seat, I noticed how many more pigeons were in the trees now—screeching like crazy, making the whole forest rustle. Nobody else seemed to be paying them much attention, but they made me nervous. Their beaks glinted strangely. Their eyes seemed shinier than regular birds.
I sat back down in my seat on the end between Will and Toothless.
“What happened?” Will asked me, noticing the mad look on my face.
“The usual crap,” I said. “But Percy had a dream about Grover, and it sounds like Grover found something that could save Thalia’s tree.”
“What?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
As the chariots lined up, more shiny-eyed pigeons gathered in the woods. They were screeching so loudly the campers in the stands were starting to take notice, glancing nervously at the trees, which shivered under the weight of the birds. Tantalus didn’t look concerned, but he did have to speak up to be heard over the noise.
“Charioteers!” he shouted. “Attend your mark!”
He waved his hand and the starting signal dropped. The chariots roared to life. Hooves thundered against the dirt. The crowd cheered.
The Hermes chariot had rammed into Apollo’s chariot, making a loud nasty *crack!* and it flipped over—maybe by mistake, maybe not. The riders were thrown free, but their panicked horses dragged the golden chariot diagonally across the track.
“Ok. Now I’m kind of glad I’m not a part of the race,” Will said.
“I am too,” I agreed. “Otherwise, I would probably be stomping down there right now and kicking their asses.”
Travis and Connor Stoll were laughing at their good luck, but not for long. The Apollo horses crashed into theirs, and the Hermes chariot flipped too, leaving a pile of broken wood and four rearing horses in dust.
“But then if that happened, then nevermind,” I said.
We both laughed. Two chariots down in the first twenty feet. I think I might love this sport.
I turned my attention back to the front. Percy was making good time, pulling ahead of Ares, but Annabeth’s chariot was way ahead of them, no surprise. She was already making her turn around the first post, Malcolm grinning and waving at Percy, shouting, “See ya!”
Man, if Annabeth and I were doing this together, I think we would’ve been twice as far ahead as they were now.
The Hephaestus chariot was starting to gain on Percy, too.
Beckendorf pressed a button, and a panel slid open on the side of his chariot. Oh, I cannot wait to see what Beckendorf has in store in there. I’ve always been interested to see what any child of Hephaestus was building because it always fascinated me.
“Sorry, Percy!” he yelled.
Three sets of balls and chains shot straight toward their wheels. They would’ve wrecked them completely if Tyson hadn’t whacked them aside with a quick swipe of his pole. He gave the Hephaestus chariot a good shove and sent them skittering sideways while they pulled ahead.
“Nice work, Tyson!” Percy yelled.
“Birds!” he cried.
“What?”
I stood up from my seat and looked toward the woods. The pigeons had risen from the trees. They were spiraling like a huge tornado, heading toward the track.
There was no way in hell that those were regular pigeons. I have never in my life seen that many pigeons together without a very good reason for it. Toothless stood up and growled.
The swarm dive-bombed toward us, one with its extremely sharp beak aimed at my face, and then the screaming started.

**Annabeth’s POV**
I was ahead.
We had made our first turn, the wheels creaking under us, the chariot threatening to tip, but we managed to stay level, thanks to me.
I looked back for a moment and noticed that Percy and Tyson were only ten feet behind me. Malcolm pulled a javelin from his collection and took aim at them. He was about to throw when we heard the screaming.
The pigeons were swarming—thousands of them dive-bombing the spectators in the stands, attacking the other chariots. Beckendorf was mobbed. His fighter tried to bat the birds away but he couldn’t see anything. The chariot veered off course and plowed through the strawberry fields, the mechanical horses steaming.
In the Ares chariot, Clarisse barked an order to her fighter, who quickly threw a screen of camouflage netting over their basket. The birds swarmed around it, pecking and clawing at the fighter’s hands as he tried to hold up the net, but Clarisse just gritted her teeth and kept driving. Her skeletal horses seemed immune to the distraction. The pigeons pecked uselessly at their empty sockets and flew through their rib cages, but the stallions kept right on running.
The spectators weren’t so lucky. The birds were slashing at any bit of exposed flesh, driving everyone into a panic. I spotted Jasmine, using her dual blades to fight them away from her and Will. Some of the birds had pecked at her face, leaving the spots bloody. They were even pulling at her hair, which *really* made her mad. If there was any part of Jasmine’s body that she liked, it was her hair. Toothless spread his wings out to protect her, but the pigeons were pecking on him as well.
Now that the birds were closer, it was clear they weren’t normal pigeons. Their eyes were beady and evil-looking. Their beaks were made of bronze, and judging from the yelps of the campers, they must’ve been razor sharp. I knew exactly what they were.
“Stymphalian birds!” I yelled. I slowed down and pulled my chariot alongside Percy’s. “They’ll strip everyone to bones if we don’t drive them away!”
“Tyson,” Percy said, “we’re turning around!”
“Going the wrong way?” he asked.
“Always,” he grumbled, but he steered the chariot toward the stands.
I rode right next to him.
“Heroes, to arms!” I shouted.
But I wasn’t sure anyone could hear me over the screeching of the birds and the general chaos. Jasmine did though, and she stopped swinging her blades for a moment, which the birds took advantage of and pecked at her even more. She went back to swinging.
Percy held his reins in one hand and managed to draw Riptide as a wave of birds dived at his face, their metal beaks snapping. I did the same and drew my knife. We slashed them out of the air and they exploded into dust and feathers, but there were still millions of them left. One nailed Percy in the back and he almost jumped straight out of the chariot.
I wasn’t having much better luck. The closer we got to the stands, the thicker the cloud of birds became.
Some of the spectators were trying to fight back. My siblings were calling for shields. The archers from Apollo’s cabin brought out their bows and arrows, ready to slay the menace, but with so many campers mixed in with the birds, it wasn’t safe to shoot.
“Too many!” Percy yelled to me. “How do you get rid of them?”
I stabbed a pigeon with my knife. “Hercules used noise! Brass bells! He scared them away with the most horrible sound he could—” My eyes got wide. “Percy . . . Chiron’s collection!”
He understood instantly. “You think it’ll work?”
I handed Malcolm the reins and leaped from my chariot into Percy’s like it was the easiest thing in the world. To be honest, it wasn’t as hard as jumping from a tree branch into a train cart. “To the Big house! It’s our only chance!”
Clarisse had just pulled across the finish line, completely unopposed, and seemed to notice for the first time how serious the bird problem was.
When she saw us driving away, she yelled, “You’re *running*? The fight is here, cowards!” She drew her sword and charged for the stands.
Percy urged his horses into a gallop. The chariot rumbled through the strawberry fields, across the volleyball pit, and lurched to a halt in front of the Big House. Percy and I ran inside, tearing down the hallway to Chiron’s apartment.
His boom box was still on his nightstand. So were his favorite CDs. Percy grabbed the most repulsive one he could find, I snatched the boom box, and together we ran back outside.
Down at the track, the chariots were in flames. Wounded campers ran in every direction, with birds shredding their clothes and pulling out their hair, while Tantalus chased breakfast pastries around the stands, every once in a while yelling, “Everything’s under control! Not to worry!”
We pulled up to the finish line. I got the boom box ready and prayed the batteries weren’t dead.
Percy pressed PLAY and started up Chiron’s favorite—the *All-Time Greatest Hits of Dean Martin*. Suddenly the air was filled with violins and a bunch of guys moaning in Italian.
The demon pigeons went nuts. They started flying in circles, running into each other like they wanted to bash their own brains out. Then they abandoned the track altogether and flew skyward in a huge dark wave.
“Now!” I shouted. “Archers!”
With clear targets, Apollo’s archers had flawless aim, as did Toothless with his fire. Most of them could nock five or six arrows at once, including Jasmine. Within minutes, the ground was littered with dead bronze-beaked pigeons, and the survivors were a distant trail of smoke on the horizon.
The camp was saved, but the wreckage wasn’t pretty. Most of the chariots had been completely destroyed. Almost everyone was wounded, bleeding from multiple bird pecks. The kids from Aphrodite’s cabin were screaming because their hairdos had been ruined and their clothes pooped on.
“Bravo!” Tantalus said, but he wasn’t looking at me or Percy. “We have our first winner!” He walked to the finish line and awarded the golden laurels for the race to a stunned-looking Clarisse.
Then he turned and smiled at me and Percy. “And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race.”

**Please review** here**.**
So I was going to post this this morning, but a lot of shit went down last night. My cat passed away and I'm not taking it well. I mean, we knew it was her time, but it was still *really* hard to take it in when it finally happened, and we had to take care of her services. I wrote up and posted a eulogy of her on my profile if any of you are interested in reading it.
This was not the best time to post this chapter, but whatever, I guess. I didn't like The Sea of Monsters so much until the end, and Jasmine's going to express for me why. You will never see her so pissed off like this.

**Nobody edit above this box**
## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Annabeth Chase
* Jasmine Saturday
* Percy Jackson

### Minor Characters

* Tyson
* Will Solace
* Clarisse
* Tantalus
* Charles Beckendorf
* Silena Beauregard
* Travis Stoll
* Connor Stoll
* Malcolm