CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
—dumb dragons

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—WHEN Judith imagined harming Percy, it was always because of his stupidity ( that could easily pass as heroics ). Rarely was it ever because he actually did something to upset her intentionally. But currently, she was thinking about how much pain she could inflict on Percy before he decided he didn't like her anymore.

The night before, during a capture the flag game, Hephaestus' cabin pulled off a huge upset, beating the Ares and Athena campers. Judith specifically blamed Percy as he had distracted their defensemen with a wave of water from the creek. Gotta use everything to your advantage!—he had yelled at her with a grin as Beckendorf crossed the border with their red flag.

The war god cabins were out for blood that night for the next game. Clarisse made sure to make that known, trash talking Chris Rodriguez the whole day as Hermes campers were on the blue team. Judith gave Percy the silent treatment which he seemed to hate to no end as it was a stark contrast from her familiar insults.

Even as they were getting geared up in the clearing, Percy was yapping her ear off and she was blatantly ignoring him.

"Judith," he drawled. "Jude ... " She went to strike up a conversation with one of her brothers. "Judy Moody."

Unfortunately, the fact that she was next to Ellis made matters worse as he started cackling at the nickname. "Hey, Judy Moody, I think your puppy needs some loving."

Percy scowled at the 'puppy' comment while Judith shoved her half-brother away. "Get lost." He only clicked his tongue with a smirk and went to bother their bother, Mark.

Percy walked to her side. "I'm not a puppy."

Judith finally looked at him. "You sure?" She swiped her hand through his shaggy hair, before pulling back quickly, the action a little too forward in public for her liking.

"Yes," he grunted, slapping a helmet on his head to hide his now crazy hair. "Now, you ready to get beat again?"

Judith deadpanned. "You've been begging for my attention just to ask me that?" The boy smirked and she rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you what," and she looked around before leaning in close, very close. She saw him swallow thickly and lowered her voice. "We're going to crush you tonight, but if you pick a safe position ... like right flank ... you probably won't get too pulverized." Their noses were almost touching before she pulled back.

Percy went to pull at the collar of his shirt, but his armor got in the way. Curse demigod armor for being so heavy and hot. "I-I appreciate the thought, really. But I'm playing to win."

Judith bit her cheek, shaking her head. "I am so going to kill you." She nudged him in the gut with the butt of one of her dual scimitars ( courtesy of Charles Beckendorf; she even let him name one of them: Soulrender. She named the other one Bloodscythe, thinking it fitting because she had lost her ax to a scythe ). "Don't get in my way."

He was about to say something when Annabeth beckoned the girl to their huddle.

"See you on the battlefield, Barnacle Breath."

As soon as Judith made it to her group, Clarisse bombarded her. "Did he reveal their strategy?"

"No, he didn't," Judith said. Luckily, Percy wasn't that dumb. "But, I have a feeling he'll take a strong group on the left flank."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "How do you figure?"

"Just a hunch." Judith shrugged. A very strong hunch.

  And her hunch was correct. Percy, going directly against what Judith said, was on the left flank with Beckendorf, one of the stronger members of their team. Judith had Silena and Annabeth with her. Clarisse would have joined them, but she suggested she focus more on retrieving the flag than on prisoner, defense duty.

  They were sneaking along beside them. Funnily enough, they were super oblivious to the three girls not too far from them. Idiots.

A large mass of bushes separated them for a short time and by the time they emerged back in sight, Beckendorf was gone and Percy was alone. Judith smirked, taking this chance to run up and point Bloodscythe ( arguably her favorite ) into his back. He froze and spun to face her.

"Fancy seeing you here, Jackson." She raised an eyebrow in a challenge.

Annabeth and Silena walked up then, their own weapons held out. The daughter of Aphrodite looked around. "Where's Charlie?"

"Beckendorf!" Percy suddenly tensed. He mindlessly whacked Judith's scimitar away and looked to a clearing that was ahead of them, one they had never come across before. And within it, was a giant ant hill, created by Myrmekes ( giant ants; think like, German Shepard size-ants ).

"Oh, sh—" Judith had only heard of the giant ant hill before, more just to freak out the younger and new campers.

Beckendorf suddenly leapt into the open from the tree line across the way and struck one of the ants. His sword clanged off the thing's carapace. The ant turned, snapping its pincers. Before Silena even had the chance to scream out for him, the ant bit Beckendorf's leg, and he crumpled to the ground. The second ant sprayed goo in his face, and Beckendorf screamed. He dropped his sword and slapped wildly at his eyes.

Judith surged forward, Silena right on her back, but Percy pulled the daughter of Ares by her belt loop ( the only thing accessible! he argued to himself ), while Annabeth grabbed Silena.

"No," Annabeth said. Judith tried to shove Percy's arm away, but his finger was a little too caught in her pants and he mumbled expletives as he blushed. Finally, he freed it and shook out his hand.

"Charlie!" Silena yelled, finding her voice.

"Don't!" Annabeth hissed. "It's already too late!"

"Too late?!" Judith demanded. "We can take them!" But she hadn't noticed the ten — twenty ants that started to swarm Beckendorf. They grabbed him by the armour and dragged him towards the hill so fast he was swept into a tunnel and disappeared.

"No!" Silena pushed Annabeth. "You let them take Charlie!"

"There's no time to argue," Annabeth said. "Come on!" She saw something on the ground and dashed for it. Judith hated that the girl had gained control of their little group. They should be fighting to get Beckendorf back! As they moved across the clearing, Judith picked up Beckendorf's sword that he had dropped, storing it away in one of her many belt loops.

They came up on a bronze dragon head, no doubt one of the treasures the Myrmekes grabbed. Judith knew of the stories, the old dragon being the guardian of the camp before Thalia came along. Annabeth grabbed it by the wires and started dragging it towards the woods.

"What are you doing?" Percy demanded, starting to believe they were missing their slim window of opportunity to save their friend. "Beckendorf —"

"Help me," Annabeth grunted. Judith rolled her eyes, groaning before helping to lug the head away. "Quick, before they get back."

"Oh, my gods!" Silena said. "You're more worried about this hunk of metal than Charlie?"

Annabeth dropped the head immediately, Judith huffing as it fell to the ground with the weight. Percy went over and picked it up with her. The daughter of Athena rounded on Silena and shook her by the shoulders. "Listen, Silena! Those are Myrmekes. They're like fire ants, only a hundred times worse. Their bite is poison. They spray acid. They communicate with all the other ants and swarm over anything that threatens them. If we'd rushed in there to help Beckendorf, we would have been dragged inside, too. We're going to need help — a lot of help — to get him back. Now, come on."

Judith and Percy tugged the metal dragon's head into the woods as Annabeth led the way. Silena was hesitantly at the back, still not ready to leave Beckendorf helpless. Annabeth didn't stop until they were fifty meters from the clearing. Percy collapsed, sweating and breathing hard and Judith sat next to him, rubbing out her hand as it blistered.

Silena started to cry. "He's probably dead already." Judith couldn't accept that, and she adamantly shook her head, a scowl on her face.

"No," Annabeth said. "They won't kill him right away. We've got about half an hour."

"How do you know that?" Percy asked.

"I've read about the Myrmekes. They paralyse their prey so they can soften them up before —"

"Ugh!" Judith stood to her feet, still tired. "We should have just gone after him immediately! We've wasted time getting this stupid head out here."

Silena sobbed. "We have to save him!"

"Silena," Annabeth said. "We're going to save him, but I need you to get a grip. Judith, we saved this head for a reason. The dragon's body has to be around here."

"We're just going to waste even more time trying to find that!" The Sloane girl threw her hands up in frustration, desperately trying not to lose her head, but it was hard considering Annabeth had her own wacko agenda.

"Call the other campers," Percy suggested, "or Chiron. Chiron will know what to do."

Annabeth shook her head. "They're scattered all over the woods. By the time we got everyone back here, it would be too late. Besides, the entire camp wouldn't be strong enough to invade the Ant Hill." Judith begged to differ. If they could take on Kronos' army for a solid hour, they could deal with this. "The Myrmekes probably dug up the dragon while they were looking for precious metal. They couldn't move the whole thing, so they chewed off the head. The body can't be far away."

"Annabeth," Judith stamped. "It's in pieces!"

"Not all of it necessarily." Annabeth's eyes narrowed, thoughtful. "We could reassemble it. If we could activate it—" Judith knew none of their mechanic skills extended that far.

"It could help us rescue Charlie!" Silena said, catching on.

"Hold up," Percy said, agreeing with Judith ( for once, thank gods ). "That's a lot of ifs. If we find it, if we can reactivate it in time, if it will help us. Didn't this thing disappear fifteen years ago?"

Annabeth nodded. "Some say its motor wore out so it went into the woods to deactivate itself. Or its programming went haywire. No one knows."

"Perfect," Judith mumbled. "A haywire metal dragon."

"We have to try!" Annabeth said. "It's Beckendorf's only hope! Besides, this could be a sign from Hephaestus. The dragon should want to help one of Hephaestus's kids. Beckendorf would want us to try."

The daughter of Ares rolled her eyes, but didn't oppose it anymore. "All right," Percy said with initiative. "Let's go find a headless dragon."

"Yippee," Judith huffed.

They searched forever it felt like. Judith was smacking low hanging tree branches with her dual scimitars and growling when a tree root would trip her. But it wasn't hard to follow the ants' trail. They'd dragged the dragon's head through the forest, making a deep rut in the mud, and they dragged the head right back the way they'd come, this time, all of them taking turns.

They must've gone five hundred meters before Annabeth muttered, "Di immortales."

They were at the rim of a crater — like something had blasted a house-size hole in the forest floor. The sides were slippery and dotted with tree roots. Ant tracks led to the bottom where a large metal mound glinted through the dirt. Wires stuck up from a bronze stump on one end.

"The dragon's neck," Percy gathered. "You think the ants made this crater?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Looks more like a meteor blast..."

"Hephaestus," Judith concluded.

Silena racked with another wave of anxiety. "The god must've unearthed this. Hephaestus wanted us to find the dragon. He wanted Charlie to..." She choked up.

"Come on," Percy said. "Let's reconnect this bad boy."

They got the head into the ditch easy enough, Judith shoved it with her boot just enough to make it go tumbling down. Annabeth shook her head at her actions, but they had to admit it was the easiest way. Connecting the head was harder.

Annabeth was smart with ideas and designs, but not mechanic smart, so they all looked at Judith. "You've spent the most time in the forges watching Beckendorf build!" Annabeth said.

"Doesn't mean I actually retain any of it!" Judith cried, fiddling with wires. It looked like a crazy bomb defusing scene. "Besides, automatons aren't like weapons."

Percy kneeled beside her, not sure if what he said next was something the girl wanted the other two to hear. "You've hot-wired a car before ... " Judith narrowed her eyes at him and he shrugged. "It can't be that different."

Judith wanted to tell him that it totally wasn't the same, but as she looked at the wires, she had to admit that he might be right. And she started to splice together the celestial bronze wires. It took a long time. Too long. And she was starting to get angry with all the zaps her fingers went through.

"Gods damn dragon with a gods damn grease problem," she mumbled, irritated. The dragon dumped black oil all over her pants and hands two times. Finally, she looked at the connected wires and stood up and exhaled. Her hands were scraped and muddy. Her fingernails were wrecked. She had a dark black streak across her forehead where she had wiped her hand. But Percy — well, Percy thought it was weirdly attractive. "That's as good as it's going to get."

"Are you sure?" Silena asked as Annabeth reviewed the work, nodding to herself despite not knowing anything about anything about the inner workings. She told herself she'd go back to her cabin and spend the night with the books.

"There's no time to do more," Percy said. "We're out of time. How do you, uh, start it? Is there an ignition switch or something?"

Annabeth pointed to its ruby eyes. "Those turn clockwise. I'm guessing we rotate them."

"If somebody twisted my eyeballs, I'd wake up," the boy agreed. "What if it goes crazy on us?"

"Then ... we're dead," Annabeth said.

Judith picked up her blades, though absolutely useless against a metal beast of this caliber. "Great," Percy said. "I'm psyched."

Altogether, they turned the ruby eyes of the dragon. Immediately, they began to glow. The dragon's mouth opened, as if it were testing its jaw. The head turned and looked at the demigods. Steam poured from its ears and it tried to rise. When it found it couldn't move, the dragon seemed confused. It cocked its head and regarded the dirt. Finally, it realized it was buried. The neck strained once, twice ... and the center of the crater erupted.

The dragon pulled itself awkwardly out of the ground, shaking clumps of mud from its body, splattering Judith and her friends from head to toe. The girl was so mad over her totally ruined clothes. Its sides were plated with bronze and gold scales, encrusted with gemstones. Its legs were the size of tree trunks and its feet had steel talons. It had no wings — most Greek dragons didn't — but its tail was at least as long as its main body, which was the size of a school bus. The neck creaked and popped as it turned its head to the sky and blew a column of triumphant fire.

"I did that," Judith muttered, pride filling her.

"You did that," Percy echoed, a little louder for her to hear.

Unfortunately, it heard. Those ruby eyes zeroed in on the girl as she was closest, and it stuck its snout five centimetres from her face. Instinctively, Judith's scimitars were at its chin. Percy had stepped forward, Riptide also at its neck.

"Dragon, stop!" Silena yelled. She spoke with such command that the automaton turned its attention to her. Silena swallowed nervously, not used to using her charmspeak. "We've woken you to defend the camp. You remember? That is your job!"

The dragon tilted its head as if it were thinking. Judith hoped to Zeus that automatons were able to be manipulated with Aphrodite's gift. It was a fifty-fifty chance, Judith supposed. Either Hephaestus wanted his creations to be immune to his wife's ways or that he wouldn't have any control over that whatsoever. She spoke again, "Charles Beckendorf, a son of Hephaestus, is in trouble. The Myrmekes have taken him. He needs your help."

At the word Hephaestus, the dragon's neck straightened. A shiver rippled through its metal body, throwing a new shower of mud clods all over them. The dragon looked around as if trying to find an enemy.

"We have to show it," Annabeth said. "Come on, dragon! This way to the son of Hephaestus! Follow us!" Just like that, she drew her sword, and the four of them climbed out of the pit.

Judith had no idea how automatons even functioned. Like, how did they hear things? How did they smell? She just chalked it up to magic. ( She was still surprised she had even been able to get the thing to work again. ) This dragon seemed to be able to sense Beckendorf somehow as it barreled on ahead of the group. It crashed through the trees, joints creaking, feet pounding craters into the ground.

It charged straight for the Ant Hill. At first, the Myrmekes didn't know what was happening. The dragon stepped on a few of them, smashing them to bug juice. Then, all at once, they collectively decided to swarm the dragon. More ants poured out of the hill — hundreds of them. The dragon blew fire and sent a whole column of them into a panicked retreat.

Judith tightened her hold on her scimitars and stepped to join the fight but Annabeth pulled her back. "Inside, now! While they're focused on the dragon!" Judith groaned and the blonde looked at her. "You can fight them on the way out."

That seemed to satisfy the daughter of Ares as they followed a determined Silena into the ant hill. They passed by a few Myrmekes, but they were more interested in the fight outside, just like Judith happened to be.

"Look!" Annabeth eventually said.

They glanced into a side room, and Judith almost lost her grip on her blades, something almost impossible for her. Hanging from the ceiling were huge, gooey sacks — larvae, she had to guess — but that was expected. The floor, however, was heaped with gold coins, gems and other treasures — helmets, swords, musical instruments, jewelry. They glowed the way magic items did.

"That's just one room," Annabeth said. "There are probably hundreds of nurseries down here, decorated with treasure."

Judith was admiring the few glinting weapons within when Silena snapped her out of it. "It's not important," Silena insisted. "We have to find Charlie!"

They forged on. After six more meters, they entered a cavern that absolutely reeked. The remains of old meals were piled as high as sand dunes — bones, chunks of rancid meat, even old camp meals. At the base of one of the heaps, struggling to pull himself upright, was Beckendorf. He was worse for wear.

     "Charlie!" Silena ran to him and tried to help him up. Judith followed closely, her scimitars finding their sheaths as she kneeled down.

"Thank the gods," he said. "My — my legs are paralysed!"

"It'll wear off," Annabeth waved it away. "But we have to get you out of here. Percy, take his other side. Judith and I will lead us out."

Silena and Percy hoisted Beckendorf up, and the five demigods started back through the tunnels, Judith and Annabeth with their weapons back at the ready. There were the distant sounds of battle — metal creaking, fire roaring, hundreds of ants snapping and spitting. Judith was getting antsy.

"What's going on out there?" Beckendorf asked. He tensed up. "The dragon! You didn't — reactivate it?"

"Afraid so," Percy said. "Seemed like the only way."

"But you can't just turn on an automaton! You have to calibrate the motor, run a diagnostic—"

Judith, feeling a funny bone in her, looked back at him. "No, don't even worry, I did all those things." She grinned broadly and Percy stopped in his shuffling in surprise, making Silena stumble slightly. Judith-smiling was still a rare occurrence for him.

Beckendorf was not having any of it. "No, you didn't, Judith. You don't pay attention when I tell you things." Judith shrugged — she did say exactly that. "There's no telling what it'll do! We've got to get out there!"

As it turned out, they didn't need to go anywhere, because the dragon came to them. They were trying to remember which tunnel led to the exit when the entire hill exploded, showering them in dirt. Judith had to fight down the urge to scream over her messed up hair and clothes once more. Suddenly they were staring at open sky. The dragon was right above, thrashing back and forth, smashing the ant hill to bits as it tried to shake off the Myrmekes crawling all over its body.

     "Come on!" Percy yelled. They dug themselves out of the dirt and stumbled down the side of the hill, dragging Beckendorf with them.

The Myrmekes were biting at the joints of the dragon's armour, spitting acid all over it. It stomped and snapped and blew flames, but it couldn't last much longer. Steam was rising from its bronze skin. Judith detached herself from the group to fight an oncoming charge of ants. She slashed at one and lopped off its head. Annabeth stabbed another right between the feelers. As their celestial bronze blades pierced their shells, the ants disintegrated.

     The two girls cleared a path through the ants, decapitating and dismembering the monsters left and right. Somehow they managed to reach the edge of the clearing without getting bitten or splashed. The daughter of Ares checked over the other three demigods, unconsciously taking her time on Percy, only to find one of his shoes smoking from acid. She shook her head with a smirk as he hissed, kicking it off his foot.

    Back in the clearing, the dragon stumbled. A great cloud of acid mist was roiling off its hide.

    "We can't let it die!" Silena said.

    "You got a better idea?" Judith shrugged helplessly. Even though the thought of attacking a dragon was exhilarating, she knew a losing battle when she saw one.

    "It's too dangerous," Beckendorf said sadly. "Its wiring—"

    "Charlie," Silena pleaded, "it saved your life! Please, for me."

Beckendorf hesitated. His face was still bright red from the ant spit, and he looked as if he were going to faint any minute, but he struggled to his feet. "Get ready to run," he told them. Then he gazed across the clearing and shouted, "DRAGON! Emergency defence, beta-ACTIVATE!"

     The dragon turned towards the sound of his voice. It stopped struggling against the ants, and its eyes glowed. The air smelled of ozone, like before a thunderstorm. Arcs of blue electricity shot from the dragon's skin, rippling up and down its body and connecting with the ants. Some of the ants exploded. Others smoked and blackened, their legs twitching. In a few seconds there were no more ants on the dragon. The ones that were still alive were in full retreat, scuttling back towards their ruined hill as fingers of electricity zapped them in the butt to prod them along.

   "Nice trick," Judith commented.

    The dragon bellowed in triumph, then it turned its glowing eyes towards them. "Now," Beckendorf said, "we run." The dragon pounded after them, spewing fire and zapping lightning bolts over their heads.

    "How do you stop it?" Annabeth yelled.

    Beckendorf, whose legs were now working fine ( nothing like being chased by a huge monster to get your body back in order ) shook his head and gasped for breath. "You shouldn't have turned it on! It's unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!"

     "Yeah, yeah, sorry about trying to save your life, now how do we stop it?!" Judith returned.

     Beckendorf looked around wildly. "There!"

     Up ahead was an outcrop of rock, almost as tall as the trees. It was shaped like a giant skateboard ramp, slanted on one side, with a sheer drop on the other.

     "You guys, run around to the base of the cliff," Beckendorf said. "Distract the dragon. Keep it occupied!" Judith took his sword off her belt and handed it to him, though she could tell his plan didn't involve him using it.

     "What are you going to do?" Silena said.

     "You'll see. Go!" No one had to tell Judith twice, she turned and started clanging her scimitars together to make obnoxious noise.

     Beckendorf ducked behind a tree while Percy turned and yelled at the dragon, "Hey, lizard-lips! Your breath smells like gasoline!"

Judith wanted to know where the creative insult came from, but didn't have time as the dragon spewed black smoke out of its nostrils. It thundered towards Percy, shaking the ground. The idiot. Judith latched onto his shirt and pulled him to the back of the cliff. The dragon followed.

     "We have to hold it here," Annabeth said. The four of them readied their weapons.

     The dragon reached them and lurched to a stop. It tilted its head in a weird puppy-dog style. Judith noticed multiple wires protruding from where she'd connected them. She could easily lurch at it and slice them. That probably had a less than pleasant rate of success, but she could do it, if Beckendorf's plan failed.

     They scattered as its first blast of fire attacked their group.

      Judith saw Beckendorf above them — at the top of the cliff — and she understood what he was trying to do. He needed a clear shot, just like she had noticed. They needed to keep it distracted.

     Percy seemed to have the same idea as they charged at the dragon with battle cries. Judith pierced a chink in its armor and it growled. Percy brought Riptide down on the dragon's foot and sliced off a talon. Then it opened its mouth, baring a hundred razor-sharp teeth ... right down at the boy and Judith had another impulse to just leap at the wires to protect him.

    "Percy!" Annabeth warned.

    But he stood his ground. "Just another second..." Judith heard him say.

    "Move, Percy!" Judith shouted, a second before the dragon struck. He rolled out of the way as Beckendorf launched himself off the rocks and landed on the dragon's neck.

     The dragon reared back and shot flames, trying to shake off Beckendorf, but he held on like a cowboy as the monster bucked around. Judith watched as he ripped open a panel at the base of the dragon's head and yanked a wire, ruining all the hard work that had gone into splicing them.

     Instantly, the dragon froze and its eyes went dim. Suddenly it was only the statue of a dragon, baring its teeth at the sky. Beckendorf slid down the dragon's neck. He collapsed at its tail, exhausted and breathing heavily.

     "Charlie!" Silena ran to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "You did it!"

    Judith ignored the sappy reunion and stomped up to Percy, punching his shoulder. "That was ... that was so stupid."

    He yelped and rubbed at the sore spot. "Ow! You know, I could have just been demigod mash in that thing's mouth." He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he was hoping for when saying that ( guilt? Sympathy? Concern? ), but he wasn't expecting another angry glare.

   "Exactly, Percy." She crossed her arms.

   "What do you mean, 'exactly?'" Percy asked.

   "It was just real stupid of you to take that all into your own hands when all of us could have helped. You made yourself a main target and put yourself in stupid danger!"

   "I'm always in danger!" Percy defended, doing his very best not to get riled up for her sake.

   "It's not usually self-inflicted!" Judith threw her arms up. "You were just asking for that thing to blast you to damn pieces!"

Annabeth came up and rested a hand on her shoulder. "He's okay, Judith. The dragon didn't hurt him. And although it was dumb —"

"Hey!"

"It helped save us," she finished. Judith huffed and looked away. Percy fought against his better judgement to console her some more, and chose to face the situation at hand.

    "So ... what do we do with the automaton?" He asked.

Beckendorf wiped his forehead. Silena was still fussing over his cuts and bruises, and he looked pretty distracted by the attention. "We — uh — I don't know," he said. "Maybe we can fix it, get it to guard the camp, but that could take months."

   "Worth trying," Percy said.

"Could be a game changer for the —" Judith didn't need to say it, "you know."

     Beckendorf nodded. "Did you see all the treasure in the Ant Hill?" Beckendorf asked. "The magic weapons? The armour? That stuff could really help us."

"And the bracelets," Silena said. "And the necklaces." Judith rolled her eyes.

"I think that's an adventure for later. It would take an army of demigods even to get close to that treasure," Percy mentioned.

"Maybe," Beckendorf said. "But what a treasure..."

Silena studied the frozen dragon. "Charlie, that was the bravest thing I ever saw — you jumping on that dragon." Ugh, they were so sappy.

"Pretty sure it was the most reckless thing I've ever done," Beckendorf rubbed the back of his neck, guiding Silena back to camp or back to the capture the flag game if it wasn't over.

"Not the most reckless I've seen," Judith whispered harshly, entirely directed at Percy and not about to hide it.

He let Annabeth move on a little ways before slowing Judith down to talk. "Hey, you knew we had to distract the dragon. Why are you worked up over it?"

She hesitated to answer. "Ever since Mount St. Helens," he winced, "it's like, every time you run off into something dangerous — I don't know — it just," She quieted down until he could barely hear her, "it's scary."

Percy was catching onto the pattern of what words were kept hush-hush around Judith. 'Scared' was a new one. "I don't want to scare you."

"Obviously not, Barnacle Breath, but it happens anyway. I can't help it," she hissed. "It comes with being a hero, and it probably won't stop just because it frightens me. You're too stubborn for that."

"I'm stubborn?" Percy asked, hopefully turning the topic somewhere lighter. "Have you met yourself?"

She gave him a dead-pan look.

"Okay, but you have to admit it was kind of brave?"

She squinted in thought. "Hasty."

Percy scoffed. "That's hypocritical and you know it." He pointed at her and she fought back a smirk. She knew her impulsive disposition far surpassed his own.

"Of course it was brave. You're always brave. It just scares me," Judith said quietly.

     Percy was silent for a minute. "I'll keep that in mind," He suddenly hissed and jumped around on his foot. Judith watched him in amusement, knowing the acid must be eating at his skin now through his ruined socks. He peeled off his right sock and Judith inspected his red raw skin.

"Come on." She helped him limp through the woods.

     Nearing the perimeter of the capture the flag game, they were ambushed by three of Annabeth's siblings from the Athena cabin with their swords drawn. When they saw the group, they broke into grins.

     "Annabeth!" one of them said. "Good job! Let's get these two to jail." Judith separated herself from Percy to not affiliate with him. The game was still on. But just in case, she was only a step away to catch him if he tripped.

"Dude, come on," Beckendorf protested. "We got sidetracked. There was a dragon, and the whole Ant Hill was attacking us."

     "Uh-huh," said another Athena guy, clearly unimpressed. "Annabeth, great job distracting them. Worked out perfectly. You want us to take them from here?"

Annabeth drew her dagger and gestured for Judith and Silena to do the same as they pointed at the boys. "Nah," she said. "We can get this. Come on, prisoners. Move it."

    Judith stepped back to Percy, now as a captor. She held his bicep and swiftly pulled Riptide from his pocket. She ignored his sudden blush with a roll of her eyes. "Traitor," he mumbled.

"I told you not to get in my way," she sang.

   "Yeah," he shook his head with a hopeless laugh, "you did."

   Judith was satisfied with their win that night, finding it hard to keep a grin off her face as Percy had to walk out of jail and pass her with a frown. Her mood was so up in the clouds with the game that she looked around to check their surroundings before planting a peck to his cheek.

   Suddenly, Percy wasn't so bummed about losing.

NOTES;
THIS WAS THE LONGEST CHAPTER EVER OMG. I ORIGINALLY HAD IT SPLIT INTO TWO DIFFERENT CHAPTERS BUT I DIDN'T WANT TO SPLIT THEM UP WHEN THEY WERE ABOUT THE SAME THING

IT'S NOT SUPER PERDITH HEAVY OR ANYTHING, BUT IT'S GOT A LITTLE BIT. BUT LIKE, YOU'LL SEE WHY BC NEXT CHAPTER IS OVERFLOWING WITH IT, LIKE MEGA TIME. IT WAS PROBABLY MY FAVORITE TO WRITE FOR THEM SO FAR, I WORKED SO HARD ON IT. I THINK YOU GUYS WILL REALLY LOVE IT

PS SHE'S GOT DUAL SCIMITARS!!!! SOULRENDER AND BLOOSCYTHE, NAMES COME FROM SKYRIM BC THOSE ARE WHAT I USE WHEN PLAYING. THEY ARE SO DEADLY

PPS, IF ANY OF YOU HAVE READ THE DEMIGOD FILES, THE. YOU KNOW THAT THIS IS THE POINT WHERE CHARLES AND SILENA ACTUALLY START DATING, BUT IN MY BOOK I HAD THEM TOGETHER FOR A VERY LONG TIME JUST FYI