Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief - Silena Beauregard's POV -

Plan 29 {Chapter 23}

I sat up in my bed and looked up at the clock: 7:45.

    The girls had already started to stir so I woke them up and then yelled to the boys to wake up.

    It was thundering very loudly and the ground outside was drenched with rain. Luke would be mad at me if he heard me but I prayed that Percy would get the bolt to Zeus. I was not ready for a war to break out between the gods and have innocent mortals getting hurt in the crossfire.

    "The border! They're at the border!" someone was screaming. More screams and shouts were heard. Everyone stood up on edge and I ran outside. The other cabin doors were opening and the counsellors were all running out. Nymphs and satyrs were running from the forest to the cabins.

They saw us and yelled, "Monsters!"

"How much?" someone from the Ares Cabin yelled.

"I don't know!! Like 15?! Hellhounds, dracaena, empousai, telkhines!" Juniper, a usually kind and calm nymph, screamed back at us.

"Plan 29!" Malcolm yelled out.

Four people ran out of the Hermes cabin. Five people from the Athena cabin. All of the Ares cabin. Some of the Apollo cabin ran up to the roof of the cabin and some to other high places.

"Silena! Come fight with us!" Luke yelled.

"Me?" I looked at Malcolm for permission.

"If Luke asks for you, go!" Malcolm shouted.

Everyone was talking and running and getting ready at once. All the ones that stayed behind were also getting ready just in case more monsters came.

"I wanna get the telekhine alone!" I overheard Gemma tell Clarisse.

"Nu-uh, you aren't. Go with the Knights and Sharpe!" Clarisse responded.

Already, some of the fighters were on top of the trees and others were hiding behind the trees. Some were just standing guard at where monsters should come out from. I also saw the nymphs run into the Demeter cabin.

I've heard of plan 29, but I don't remember it as well. Some people were picked for plan 29 and I wasn't part of it. Well, now I am. This plan was used since there are hellhounds involved and there were probably monsters riding on the hellhounds. Because of that, there were some fighters in the trees, ready to jump on the monsters. Some were behind the trees and out of sight of the monsters to attempt to stab them on their backs. The ones in the monster's line of sight were so that the monsters were focused on them and not the surprise attackers.

"Luke! Where am I supposed to be?" I asked him. He was looking paler again but I had no idea why.

"Shhh. Come with me and hide," Luke whispered.

He went behind a tree and I followed. We heard the monsters coming fast towards the fighters in front, Malcolm (Athena), Maia (Athena), Mika (Athena), Clarisse (Ares), Alex (Ares), Sherman (Ares), Mark (Ares), and Clay (Hermes). The shadows became visible.

The youngest ones, Gemma, Eugene, Pierre, and Hudson, immediately jumped from the trees onto the hellhounds. They then stabbed or tried to stab the empousai on the hellhounds. The Hermes twins were fast enough to stab and kill them immediately. Hudson heavily injured the empousa and he fought a bit with her, ultimately killing her. The empousa that Gemma wanted to attack expected it and immediately moved out of the way. The two of them fought on top of the hellhound. Despite her age, Gemma was a great fighter and surprisingly good with acrobatics. She kept flipping around to avoid the strike of the empousa and landing perfectly almost every time.

When they jumped, Luke attacked one of the telekhines. Ethan Nakamura, a child of Nemesis, attacked a dracaena. Madeleine, who is a daughter of Athena, and Ellis worked together to defeat a dracaena. Eleanor took on another telekhine.

All of the other fighters that were with me had already joined the fight. I saw another dracaena going toward Eleanor so I jumped out to block it. My ADHD senses kicked into gear and I saw the fight that was happening around me as I fought the dracaena.

Even though we fought, some of the monsters were still able to go straight to the fighters in the front and other monsters went to assist the other ones. The fighters in the front ran towards the monsters. Alex and Clarisse each fought a telekhine alone. Alex clearly had an upper hand with the telekhine. Clarisse and the telekhine she was fighting were both pretty balanced in skill. Luke's fight also seemed to be pretty balanced with the upper hand going back and forth between them. Mark was helping Eleanor to defeat a telekhine.

As the younger fighters were fighting, the Apollo cabins took the chance to join the fight. The archers were shooting down the monsters with amazing accuracy. Clay, Malcolm, and Maia also helped with the close distance fighting.

With the help of the archers, Gemma killed the hellhound after the empousa was killed. As she jumped off the quickly-turning-to-dust hellhound, she landed on top of the telekhine Luke was fighting and stabbed it. Luke nodded at her with a smile and looked around for any monsters that were left. Mika and Sherman worked together to defeat a dracaena. The Apollo Cabin also helped here and there, wherever they could get a shot in that wouldn't risk hurting our campers. I was also surprisingly doing well. Much better than I used to do.

I continued fighting the dracaena. We were fighting too close for the Apollo campers to shoot without the risk of shooting me.

When I finally defeated it, I looked around at all the piles of dust from the dead monsters. Around me, everyone who had joined in the fight was panting. We've never had that many monsters invade camp. It's usually just one or two and that is only if they successfully break the border. The most we've had have only been for capture the flag and they were always spread out. This was a team of monsters, summoned from inside. And by the pale look on his face, I was pretty sure I knew who did it.

    "Is anyone hurt?" Will asked all of us.

    We all looked around at each other.

"No, I don't think so," Eleanor responded.

"Campers, today is the Solstice," Chiron began, appearing from the forest. "We need to be on guard for the entire day. Until the questers return the Bolt, we are likely to not have a moment's peace."

Everyone straightened up. Chiron looked more worried than I've ever seen him. He was looking at all the piles of dust. As campers were beginning to pick up their weapons, I saw Chiron looking intently at all of us. It worried me how he spent way too long looking at Luke. He couldn't suspect Luke, right? I mean, I did, but I know he did. If Chiron finds out who Luke is working for, Kronos won't come. And, if Luke is right, that needs to happen if we want equality among the demigods.

I looked back at Luke. He was standing beside Nakamura, talking to him. He looked back at me and I guesterd to Chiron and he nodded it off and went back to talking to Nakamura. What could be so important that he didn't care that Chiron may be onto him?

Nakamura playfully grabbed the twins and they walked back to their cabins. Luke wasn't with anybody so I took that opportunity to ask him why on earth he had summoned all those monsters.

"Luke-" I began, but he cut me off and motioned to follow him.

"I know what you are going to ask, and I do have good reasons." Luke said once we had put some distance between us and the other campers. "Now that most of the fighters have tired themselves out fighting those monsters, when Sea Guy and Sky Guy declare war, the Crooked One will have an easier opportunity to rise."

I nodded.

Even with the sunlight, Luke was extremely pale. Very different from his usual tan skin.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

Luke looked at me. "Of course I am. Why..?"

I hesitated. "It's just, you've been really pale lately. Like really pale. And tired. You don't seem up to your normal self."

"I guess it's just the preparations for his homecoming. It is slightly exhausting bringing about the rise of a new age."

-------------------------

**author's note**

as u can see, i kinda gave up on the different author's note intro everytime wkwkwkwk.. did u know, our friend, rachel, used to hate luke and now she hates us for making this book because she started to like luke wkkwkwk

- Gem