These beasts could do with a shave.

They were eight feet tall with white hair all over their bodies; their eyes were visible under a layer of white snow and fur; they had clawed feet and hands and the grunts they made were like caveman gone on steroids. They hand fanged teeth and they were looking very pissed. We obviously stood in their territory.

Nico brought out his black Stygian Iron sword and Jason brought out his Imperial Gold sword. Me - I had no idea how I would be able to fight, when my arm was badly broken and that my sword had changed it's appearance. I decided that it was worth the risk and I got into a fighting stance, holding my sword in both hands. The whole blade made a sound like a riled rattlesnake.

The monsters came at us and I dived to one side, as did the others. There were two monsters but they made it up by showing sheer strength and rage because one of them came after me. It brought it's fist down on me but I rolled to one side and slashed upwards with Riptide - it burned a gash across the beast's arm, smoke bellowing from the wound. The monster roared in pain, but the murderous look in it's blood red eyes glared at me and it rampaged after me.

Nico and Jason were struggling with the hairy giant they were fighting for a moment, but they quickly got the advantage of pressing it towards the edge of the mountain slope and rammed it off. It roared and yelled as it fell into the dark clouds below.

I decided that if they could beat their monster, then I should be able to as well. I slashed my sword from left to right. I didn't know how but the fighting style that I was using to fight the fur animal was Kendo - how I knew that, I did not know. But it was definitely Kendo - an old school kind of Japaneese combat that is much faster and...graceful in a way, the same that the Samurai fought back in the day. It was different compared to the training that I was originally taught to use but it helped me way better than usual.

I spun in a circle and bashed Riptide into old Abonamal. The creature sailed through the air for a moment, before plummeting down the slope and vanishing without a trace.

I looked at Riptide in awe - whatever happened had improved it in a way that I couldn't imagine. The blade hummed in my hand...like it was talking to me in a content whisper. I don't know if it was because of my exhaustion or that I was mentally out of my mind, but I swore I heard my father's voice in my head.

Keep going my son, Poseidon spoke. You are so close to your target - don't stop now.

Jason came up to me - his jacket sleeve was badly ripped and his face was shining with sweat. "What the hell were those things?"

"Looked like the Abonamal Snowmen," Nico said, sheathing his sword away. He limped slightly. "We should keep going - I don't want to run into those things again. Jason, how far is the Bolt?"

Jason closed his eyes and (this is gonna sound crazy) pointed his hand upwards, almost as if he were possessed by an unknown force. He turned around a quarter degree and pointed up at the South Summit Peak.

"At the peak," the son of Jupiter said. "Just two feet below it."

"Alright, let's go then!" I said, holding tight to my sword as I climbed upwards

After sheer days of climbing and getting painful injuries in the process, we finally came to our destination - Everest's South Summit, twenty eight thousand and seven hundred feet up into the sky which was turning black. Jason was leading the way, drawn by the immense aura of the bolts power.

Nico was below me, just in case I fell backwards because I was getting tired again. The water Jason had given me was enough to give me an adrenaline rush, but that rush was now gone. My arms ached for relief, especially my left arm in particular. Nico kept on saying, "Come on! We're almost there! Don't give up now!" That drove me on, and somehow I finally got up to an even level ground of snow and I found myself standing up at the near top of the world.

I took in my surroundings - it was literally breath taking to look at the view. The sun was shining down on us and the sky was darkening from a light blue to a pure black almost at the very centre of the sky. The air might have been thin, but there was enough oxygen for me to breathe in deeply through my nose. I knew that we were in the Death Zone, but that view in front of me...was just incredible.

I took out a little disposable camera I brought from California and started taking pictures of my surroundings. The thing about the camera was that it was linked to my computer back home - an idea that sprung from Annabeth (since she's the daughter of Athena and all, blah blah blah), so when I took an image, it automatically goes directly to my iMac. And on the TV - technology today, just amazing.

Nico came up beside me and and placed his hands on his knees, panting and smiling at the same time. "We...made it. Holy Hades...I can't believe we're this high up, man." He leaned backwards and collapsed on his back, where he groaned in relief and exhaustion.

If only Aaron was here...I looked up at the sky, wondering if he was watching me. I knew that was stupid - he would be in the Underworld, since he was a demigod son of one of the gods. But here's the thing - his family were strongly into Christianity, and their beliefs shout out more than Greek of Roman religions. And since Aaron was from that kind of family, he would be in "heaven" (which I'm sorry to say to all you Christians, I don't believe in). I knew that he deserved a place like that.

"Wishing you were here Aaz," I said softly. Nico didn't here me. But he seemed to be thinking the same thing because he gave me a reassuring pat on the back.

"Hey guys!" I heard Jason. I turned around and saw him waving one hand at me and pointing the other one to his right. "I think I might have found something."

"Is it the Bolt?" I called back, hoping he would say yes.

Jason shrugged. "I have no idea, but my senses are drawing to this spot. I might need a hand here."

"On our way," I told him. Nico got to his feet and walked beside me, as we came up to Jason who was already digging at a small pile of snow.

I frowned slightly at the pile wondering what the Hades was in there. I started digging into the snow, but I didn't have to dig too far because when I unearthed what was buried in the snow I recoiled back.

"Freaking hell!" I yelped. "It's a body!"

"Whoa!" Jason exclaimed, as he scooted away from the frostbitten face of a mountaineer.

His face was completely black from frostbite; his beard had icicles on it and the rest of his clothes were covered and full of snow and ice, making him look like a gone off sugar doughnut. Next to him sat a oxygen bottle, but the stuff was iced up so he must've died from a mixture of hypothermia and frostbite. 

Nico went up to the body and crouched next to it. His face was glum. "It's Rob Hall, Adventure Consultants leader. He died here after the storm of '96, being found by the IMAX team only days later." He drifted off slightly. "Sad year that was."

"Nico, you're not helping," I muttered, wanting him to stop about his conversation on dead people. I turned to Jason. "Jason, are you sure this is where your senses told you where the Bolt was?"

"Yeah, right in that exact spot," he complained, confused as to why there was a body instead of a lightning bolt.

Nico placed a hand on Hall's dead frozen body and traced it along, feeling. He froze when his hand went straight to Hall's body. "Wait a moment - Percy come over here. I don't know what's in his pocket, but maybe you should have a look."

Ugh...Why me? I scooted forward and hesitantly put my hand in his pocket. I felt something...cold and smooth in his pocket. My eyes widened as I realised that this thing felt familiar. I clutched my fist around it and brought it out. What I had in my hand made me whoop.

"WHOOOOOOHOOOOOO!" I howled in joy. The thing in my hand was the Master Bolt - the same two foot long cylinder of Celestial Bronze, where lightning flashed inside the hollow metal. The same smell of ozone filled the air around us and the clouds below us flashed with electricity. "We found it! We did it!"

"That's the Bolt?" Jason exclaimed in awe. He took the bolt out of my hand and examined it. "Oh my good gods."

"That's the Bolt for sure," I said in an relieved tone. "Looks exactly the same as the first time."

Nico looked relieved as well. He then started looking around, as if checking that there weren't any monsters in the area. "What do we do now? We got the Bolt...but what do we do now?"

Jason pointed to the sky. "We throw the Bolt into the air. If Zeus is watching us right now - which I'm guessing that he is..." 

He looked at the sky, hopefully. The air boomed and rumbled with approaching thunder. Jason nodded, obviously satisfied.

"...then he'll reclaim his Bolt just by summoning it," Jason finished. "It will go straight back to Olympus and reappear on my dad's throne. Then we go home."

"That's it then?" Nico asked. He shrugged and nodded thoughtfully. "Sound's simpal enough."

"However," Jason grimaced, "I need a safe place in order to throw it into the air. Somewhere where there's nothing in my way of throwing it. And it needs to be higher than where we are."

I started looking around in a circle, as did the others. I was the one who thought of it first, because the only place where it was safe enough to throw the Bolt was...

I looked to my direct right. I pointed at the one place where I wasn't aloud. I should know because it was the mountan's tallest peak.

"How does twenty nine thousand and twenty nine feet sound to you," I said. 

Jason looked where I was looking and stared at the actual Summit of Everest. The peak was literally touching the sky and even though I was more than two hundred feet below it and  eleven metres away, I could see the flags on top of the mountain peak and I the actual point of the planet's highest place.

"Summit it is then," Jason agreed with my idea. "Let's get going."