Capítulo 124: We enter the camp
{Oakland Hills, 18th of June 2006}
Thalia POV
We'd just emerged from a service tunnel that made the New York subway system look like a five-star hotel. Annabeth, my best friend and walking Wikipedia of Greek mythology, was scanning the area with her steel grey eyes. Percy was dragging his feet along, too tired to do aything else most likely. Grover, was nervously chewing on his shirt. Probably wishing it was an aluminum can.
And me? I was trying not to electrocute everything in sight from sheer nerves.
"Everyone ready?" I whispered, my voice barely audible over the sound of my heart trying to break the land speed record.
They nodded. We'd come too far to chicken out now. Besides, I had a feeling that if we tried to leave, Lailaps (the tank-sized dog) would drag us into camp by our teeth.
We looked at the only thing keeping us from reaching the Roman camp: two boys wearing golden Roman armor, shields in their left hands and spears in their right. They honestly reminded me of the dudes from that "one lies, one tells the truth" riddle. Either way, I'm getting sidetracked. Damn ADHD.
Annabeth put on her signature Yankees cap, turning invisible right before our eyes. We had a plan in mind. Well, Annabeth had one. The rest of us were just along for the ride, as usual.
I didn't know how close she was, but then we heard it.
CLANG!
The teenage guard hit the floor hard, and soon after, the other one fell as well. I winced as the noise echoed through the tunnel.
Appearing out of the blue, Annabeth stood behind them, knife in hand. This had been our plan, hit them in the back of the head with the pommel of Annabeth's knife. I know, I know not exactly Newton level shit but it worked so why make it harder for ourselves.
Lailaps and Swiper began to shrink their massive forms growing as small as a squirrel before jumping into our clothes (well Lailaps jumped into my jacket while Swiper went intlo Grover's shirt) though now that I thought about it do roman demigods even have satyrs.
I looked at Grover his own face more nervous than usual, my gaze look down to his goat legs and hooves.
"Uhmm, hey G-man," I said, trying to sound casual. "Just wondering, but do you know of a way to cover up those legs of yours?"
Annabeth caught on quick, her eyes widening before she slapped her forehead. "How could we not think of that?" she groaned. I swear, sometimes I think Athena blessed her with an extra brain or two.
Grover looked around nervously. "I mena without my, baaah, long pants or the Mist no I can't."
Percy just stood there his sea green eyes, drooping to either side not that I could blame him I was tired too, I couldn't wait to go spend a 24 hour long nap on my bed, bkt right now we needed to solve this problem.
Annabeth snapped her fingers, a mischievous glint in her eye that usually meant either a brilliant plan or imminent disaster. She took the Yankees cap in her hands and placed it on Grover's head.
"Ta-da! Invisible satyr for all your spying and blending needs," she announced with a flourish.
Well, that was a quick solution. Not exactly what I'd call foolproof, but then again, nothing in our lives ever was. Good enough, I guess. Swiper, apparently not a fan of invisible transportation, jumped out from Grover's shirt and into Percy's. Thankfully, we weren't wearing our bright orange "Camp Half-Blood" T-shirts. We had at least thought that through before leaving camp. Small victories, right?
"Ok," I said. "Then in we go, Grover stay close and don't bump into people, keep the cap on at least for now."
The camp was... different to say the least, it was organized way too organized. We first walked through a bridge that went over a river (don't ask me how), we continued to walk over the paved stone paths, seeing small houses, people training, it was jarring to say the least compared to how the greek camp was. Finally we made it to a place surrounded by stone walls, a small sign at the side of it, Welcome to New Rome.
We made our way through the stone filled streets, trying not to gawk like the tourist trap victims we were, there were demigods, tons of them, old and young it looked like they lived here, in Hades I saw a small kid, his hand clutched in his parents' hands, they were a family of demigods. Yet, through it all Lailaps kept nudging me to go on different directions while smuggled in my jacket.
Finally, we reached our destination: the Colosseum. And no, I don't mean the one in Rome. This was Camp Jupiter's very own gladiator arena, because apparently, sword-fighting classes weren't exciting enough without the threat of lions.
We slipped inside, blending in with the crowd. And that's when I saw him.
In the arena below, two figures were locked in combat. One was a girl with long brown hair who fought as good as the best of the Ares kids, but it was her opponent who caught my eye.
Blond hair. Electric blue eyes. A golden sword that seemed to catch the reflection lf everything around it, even without Lailaps nudging I knew who that was.
Jason.
My little brother.
The toddler I remembered was gone, replaced by this teenage gladiator who looked like he'd stepped out of a myth of his own. But underneath it all, I could still see traces of the little boy who used to follow me around, giggling as static electricity made his hair stand on end.
I must have made some sort of sound, because Annabeth squeezed my hand. "That's him, isn't it?" she asked softly.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. We had a mission. I still didn't understand a few lines of the prophecy, but we had found wind.
Watching my little brother fight with all the power of a portable thunderstorm, I thought of all the years I hadn't spent with him, all the time I had missed.
I wanted to rush over to the arena, beat the crap out of the girl he was fighting and then hug Jason with all my strength, but I couldn't do that, we hadn't been recognized thankfully even though I was carrying around my bronze spear no one seemed to mind it as a ton of people carried weapons of their own.
Jason slashed forward as the girl parried his blade with her own, each clash rang out in the arena, I wondered why he wasn't using his lightning.
He kept on the pressure on the girl, who kept on waving her blade, I could see how she was slowing down, sweat trickling down her brow. They kept on clashing, clashing and clashing.
The girl performed a horizontal slash towards Jason's neck, without even looking at the blade, he ducked under it, a few golden hairs cut from the top of his head, he stabbed forward, changed his grip on his blade, and hit her chest wit the pommel of his blade sending her tumbling down.
He dashed towards her, sword at the neck, the Colosseum fell silent, and then we heard it, his voice, powerful, thundering. "Do you yield?"
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