It's amazing how an eternal girl club can ruin your day. If that makes sense. I was having one of those rare peaceful nights without any demigod dreams messing with my mind when someone sounded the conch horn. Jeez. I went outside and saw Katie Gardner talking to Chiron on Half-blood Hill, their weapons drawn. A girl was with them. She was dressed mostly in black and was panting, like she was being chased by something. A lot of somethings. A big scary group of somethings. A... well you get the idea.

Thalia.

I started running up the hill. Several kids had already gathered around Chiron. I got a closer look at Thalia. She looked even worse close up. There were scratches on her arms, the silver circlet on her head was lopsided and her face was paler than an empusae's. She had notched an arrow on her bow. She was breathless and was trying to formulate a sentence between gasps. I haven't seen her in months since she became one of the Hunters of Artemis.

"Ran... all the way.. gods... Artemis... hind..."

"Take deep breaths," Chiron told her, "And tell us the whole thing."

At this point, Thalia's face was gaining some more color.

"I snuck out and ran all the way from the huntress's campsite a kilometer or so west from here to warn you that they are going to attack!" she said in one breath.

The demigods all started whispering. Someone in the back yelled, "Who?"

"The hunters of Artemis."

Stunned silence filled the hill.

Chiron cleared his throat, "War council meeting. Counselors please meet in the rec room. The rest of you, it's one o'clock in the morning. Back to bed."

There were a few unsettled whispers but they went back to their cabins anyway. Being the only son of Poseidon, I had to go but I've got a feeling Thalia's news was going to end in disaster.

The war council was sleepy. Dionysus was slumped in his chair snoring in his deep purple pajamas. Clarisse was trying to maintain a Ares-like snarl but it looked more like a bull with its face smashed in. Chiron passed out cups of coffee in an attempt to keep the war council looking alive and tough. No progress so far. I was about to pass out myself but Thalia started her story.

"The Hunters are going to strike tomorrow night. They don't want to take on the whole camp but they want just get in and get it quickly before dawn, but my lady has given permission to kill any campers who get in the way. I..."

"Wait, wait. Your posse's gonna attack us? You're the leader of the pack. Why are you telling us this? Spilling secrets? How do we know you aren't lying? This could be a war strategy. Preparing ourselves for battle that's gonna come the least we expect it to," Clarrise growled.

"Clarrise, I've got a feeling she's telling the truth," Annabeth said. "Let her finish. What is 'it', Thalia?"

Clarrise grunted but waved her hand to let Thalia continue.

"It's the Ceryneian Hind. Artemis's sacred animal. It's stolen and she thinks that a hero took it. You know, since the last time, Hercules shot it between its forelegs. She thinks that it's roaming around in the camp's forest. I tried to reason with her but when immortals get angry, it's hard to calm them down."

"Well that's stupid," I blurted out.

Oops. I wished that I could just sew up my big fat mouth.

Thalia's stormy blue eyes glowed with anger.

"I mean where was the last time Artemis knew where the deer was?"

"Hind," Thalia corrected.

"Yeah, that one."

"Hmm... hard to say. I saw it with her yesterday. Why?"

"Where were you camping?"

"Same place we are camping at right now. West of here."

"That means the thief can't be far away," Annabeth said. "If there was a thief. Percy, we aren't even sure how we are going to get ready for the Hunters' attack. Artemis could just wipe us out by turning to her divine form or ask Apollo to help."

The Apollo counselor looked ticked off. Poor guy.

"Not that he would ask his kids to help," Annabeth amended quickly.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Beckendorf asked. No one answered. Dionysus said something about that sounded like 'blinky' and 'have your soul'.

"The only thing we could do is to build a defense just in case. Maybe we could negotiate something with Artemis," Silena yawned.

The war council started talking about building a fort and other war things. Clarrise was finally glad to be in charge of something. My ADHD brain got bored and so I decided to study Chiron's pajamas which had a picture of horseshoes and big writing that said Gallop! It lasted an eternity. My brained tuned in for the last words of the meeting.

"So are we all in agreement that we should delay any quests before negotiating with Artemis and to set up a defense?" some guy said in a monotone voice. It was Lee Fletcher.

Everyone grunted. I'm not really sure if it was actually a snore but Lee took it as a yes.

"Good. Meeting adjourned." Then his head dropped like a ton of bricks onto the table and he also started snoring.