Percabeth Betrayed

Chapter 16 - My Face is Sewn on a T-Shirt

Hello again. Ahey here with another update. I tried to post last night, but I fell asleep. Still getting used to the time change that I had on the cruise. So, without further adieu, here's chapter 16.

Percy's POV

I exited the portal with the rest of the warriors at the top of Half-Blood Hill. Thalia's pine tree stood to our right, emitting a powerful barrier like always. The Golden Fleece still hung on its branch in the same place. Curled up below it was Peleus the dragon. He had been sleeping before, but now he lifted his dark purple head to meet the eyes of the 12 new dragons standing proudly in front of him. 

Peleus growled and stood up to meet us. He pulled his head back, ready to blow fire, when Annabeth jumped off of Shula and ran over to Peleus. Peleus cocked his head when he smelled Annabeth, who smiled under her hood and calmed the anxious dragon. Shula shifted and snorted with jealousy. Usually she was the one with all of Annabeth's attention. 

Annabeth laughed and left Peleus to go back to Shula. "Calm down," she told her jealous grey dragon. "It's just Peleus." Shula didn't look convinced. She snorted fire onto Annabeth's cloak. Thankfully, the cloaks were fire proof. 

My wife climbed back onto Shula and looked at me along with the rest of the assassins. Then she gestured toward the camp. "Shall we?" I nodded. It was time to go back to the place that had caused me to leave Earth in the first place.

The 12 of us rode our dragons through the barrier and down onto the other side of Half-Blood Hill. Chaos had made it so the barriers would let our dragons through, even though they were technically a breed of monster. 

As we rode into camp, demigods left and right stopped to stare. I saw one get hit in the face with a volleyball. One nearly fell of the climbing wall. Everyone stopped to stare at the warriors entering the camp. Since we were all wearing hoods and were riding dragons, we probably looked like a threat to the camp.

Suddenly, like an alarm had gone off, all the campers began rushing around, grabbing weapons. I saw Will Solace, son of Apollo, grab a bow. Other campers did the same. Clarisse grabbed a spear. The satyrs readied their reed pipes. The dryads picked up sticks and wielded them like clubs. 

The entire camp had stepped forward to meet us, minus the cabin leaders who were probably still on Olympus watching the gods argue. Everything went silent. The assassins were on their dragons, totally relaxed, while the campers were tense, ready for a fight. 

Then the clip clop of a horse broke the silence. Chiron galloped into view. He saw the entire camp lined up and a hoard of warriors on dragons waiting to meet them. "What in Hades is the meaning of this?!" he yelled.

I cleared my throat. Every head in Camp-Half Blood turned towards me. You could hear a pin drop. Even Chiron didn't say anything. "My name is Epsilon, the son of Chaos." I basically began repeating everything I had told the gods. My gods this was annoying. Do I have to introduce myself to every person I meet?

By the time I finished, not one person had spoken. Not even Clarisse, which was totally surprising. They just gaped at us with their jaws touching the ground. Chiron spoke first. 

"Ah, yes. I heard about this. The gods informed me you were coming." I nodded. At least someone knew what was going on. The campers still looked suspicious, but they backed off since Chiron was respecting us. "I need someone to give them a tour," Chiron continued. The campers all shrunk back. "Will," he decided.

Will stepped forward, shaking slightly. His usually sunny demeanor had turned to a slight fear. "Come on Chiron," he whispered. "Out of all the people, you choose me to help tour the creepy guys in cloaks?"