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chapter fifty-eight ☄︎. *. ⋆
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THE NEXT DAY, Quintus had us suit up in combat armor after dinner, like we were getting ready for capture the flag.
"Right," he said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."
He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost. His friendly (?) giant hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary, bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.
"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"
All of the campers groaned.
Quintus ignored it. "Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course... you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."
The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward. Hey, we'd all slain monsters before. That's what we trained for.
"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."
He produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena Beauregard, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about. The Stoll brothers would be together. No surprise. They did everything together. Annabeth was with Katie Gardner, which I couldn't imagine Annabeth was too overjoyed about. Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher, one of my older brothers—melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat. Quintus kept rattling off the names until he said, "Percy Jackson with Theodosia Scott."
"Nice." Percy grinned at me.
I didn't even look at him as I said "Your armor's crooked." I saw him fix it out of the corner of my eye.
"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."
Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"
"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"
"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"
Tyson and Grover looked at me and Percy pleadingly. I tried to give them an encouraging nod, and gestured that they should move together. Tyson sneezed. Grover started chewing nervously on his wooden club.
