Chapter 47: The Minotaur
"Percy," "James," our mother said, "we have to . . ." Her voice faltered.
We looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, we saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made our skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands looks like he had horns.
We swallowed hard. "Who is----"
"Percy," "James," our mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."
Our mother threw herself against the driver's-side door.
It was jammed shut on the mud. Percy tried his. Stuck too. We looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.
"Climb out of the passenger's side!" our mother told us.
"Percy and James-----you have to run. Do you both see that big tree?"
"What?"
Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof we saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.
"That's the property line," our mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll both see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."
"Mom, you're coming too."
Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.
"No!" We shouted. You are coming with us. Help us carry Grover."
"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.
The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, we realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-----huge meaty hands----were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head . . . was his head. And the points that looked like horns . . .
"He doesn't want us," our mother told us. "He wants you both. Besides, I can't cross the property line."
"But . . ."
"We don't have time, Percy. James. Go. Please."
We got mad, then----mad at our mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.
We climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."
"I told you both----"
"Mom! We are not leaving you. Help us with Grover."
We didn't wait for her answer. We scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but Percy couldn't have carried him very far if both his mom and older brother hadn't come to his aid.
Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.
Glancing back, we got our first clear look at the monster.
He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine------bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other "ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-----We mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-----which would've have looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.
His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as our arms, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-----enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
We recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.
We blinked the rain out of our eyes. "That's-----"
"Pasiphae's son," our mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill the both of you."
"But he's the Min----"
"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."
The pine tree was still way too far-----a hundred yards uphill at least.
We glanced behind us again.
The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-----or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. We weren't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.
"Food?" Grover moaned.
"Shhh," we told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"
"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."
As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.
Not a scratch, we remembered Gabe saying.
Oops.
Chapter 48: Our Mother Teaches Us Bullfighting.
"Percy." "James." Our mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge.
Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way-----directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you both understand?"
"How do you know all this?"
"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you both near me."
"Keeping us near you? But-----"
Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.
He'd smelled us.
The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.
The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.
Our mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy, James! Separate! Remember what I said."
We didn't want to split up, but we had the feeling she was right-----it was our only chance. We sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me and my younger brother. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.
He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at our chests.
The fear in our stomachs made us want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. We could never outrun this thing. So we held our ground, and at the last moment, we jumped to the side.
The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, but not toward us this time, toward our mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.
We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side we could see a valley, just as our mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.
The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing our mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back towards the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.
"Run, Percy!" "James!" She told us. I can't go any further. Run!"
But we just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told us to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.
James yelled, get your fucking hands off of our mother's neck!. Before Percy knew it the shadows started to come alive----things started to come out of James's shadow. Shinobis, monsters and his own tailed-beasts they all roared before the shadow monarch. He used his godly speed to teleport to where our mother was and ripped her out of the minotaur's grasp before he could crush her into golden dust. His eyes glowed, red, dark green, gray, black as shadows, silver and the color of magic, He glared at him.
He was so scared that he was shaking and shivering. But James had no mercy for him and sicked his shadow army on him, they teared him apart.
Before they finished tearing him apart James used his godly speed to teleport a shadow Shinobi to cover our mom's eyes/ears and James covered his little brother's eyes/ears and then absorbed them back into his shadow and also absorbed some of the minotaur's blood to acquire his perks, skills and abilities.
He then healed the minotaur disabilities and used his special job Shadow Monarch to make the Minotaur into his shadow monster. James succeeded in making the minotaur into a shadow monster, then he absorbed him into his shadow.
The Minotaur dropped some items: his Omega axe and his two super sharp, long and hard horns. He made them into two Greek swords for both him and his little brother it's perfectly balanced, it comes back to the owner immediately, it has all magic elements enchantment on it, it cannot be broken, it will stay as sharp as the day it was made, it's color is a mix of black and white with waves indented on it and it has a enchantment to look like a ring, chain, pen, or a pendent necklace. James changes both of the swords into a pair rings and give one of them to his little brother, he tells Percy to just rub the ring and it will change into a sword, if you want it to change into any of the other forms you just have to say which form you want it to change into. He tells Percy that It can change into a ring, pendent necklace, pen or a chain. He rubs the ring and it turns back into a sword, he says ring form and it turns back into a ring. "Cool" Percy said, you made this, that's awesome. Then James stores a shadow Shinobi into our mom's shadow to protect her.
He teleports our mother out of here and into New York with 700 million dollars in cash to buy a house/apartment and to go to college. Then he teleported back to half-blood hill and pick up both Grover and his little brother Percy from the ground while they were both unconscious, then carried them to the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse.