CHAPTER 4

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(Ella's POV)

I was feeling mad, sad, upset & various other emotions all at once. I couldn't believe that someone could even do something like that to Thalia's tree...why would they...or who would?

I was walking to the big house in a trance. I couldn't really say much...if someone tried to talk to me I'd burst into tears.

The camp looked normal. But there was an air of danger now. You could tell something was wrong. Instead of playing volleyball in the sandpit, counselors & satyrs were stockpiling weapons in the tool shed.

Dryads armed with bows & arrows talked nervously at the edge of the woods. The forest looked sickly, the grass in the meadow was pale yellow, & the fire marks on Half-Blood Hill stood out like ugly scars.

As we made our way to the Big House, I recognized a lot of kids from last summer. Nobody stopped to talk. Some did double takes when they saw Tyson, but most just walked grimly past & carried on with their duties-running messages, toting swords to sharpen on the grinding wheels. The camp felt like a military school.

None of that mattered to Tyson. He was absolutely fascinated by everything
he saw. “Whasthat!” he gasped.

“The stables for pegasi,” I said. “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 cabin.”

He looked at me in awe. “You...have a cabin?”

“Number one.” I pointed to a high marble building which glinted in the sunlight. I'll admit talking to Tyson made me feel better. (And I was also really glad to see Percy too..)

“You live with friends in the cabin?”

“No. No, just me.” I didn’t feel like explaining. The embarrassing truth: I was the only one who stayed in that cabin because I wasn’t supposed to be alive. The “Big Three” gods-Zeus, Poseidon, & Hades-had made a pact after World War II not to have any more children with mortals.

We're more powerful than regular half- bloods. We were too unpredictable. When we got mad we tended to cause problems...like World War II, for instance. The “Big Three” pact had only been broken thrice-once when Zeus sired my sister Thalia & me & once when Poseidon sired Percy. None of us should’ve been born. Thalia got herself turned into a pine tree when she was twelve. Me & Percy...well, we're doing our best not to follow her example.

When we got to the Big House, we found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favorite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags. I guess I should mention-Chiron is a centaur. From the waist up he looks like a regular middle-aged guy with curly brown hair & a scraggly beard.

From the waist down, he’s a white stallion. He can pass for human by compacting his lower half into a magic wheelchair. But most of the time, if the ceilings are high enough, he prefers hanging out in full centaur form.

As soon as we saw him, Tyson froze. “Pony!” he cried in total rapture.

Chiron turned, looking offended. “I beg your pardon?”

Annie & I ran up & hugged him.

“Chiron, what’s happening? You’re not...leaving?” Her voice was shaky. Chiron was like a second father to us.

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