Okay, I have two things to say. One: I changed my penname to Regardless1604. I'm still HarvestMoonAddict, but I decided a change would be good. So if you see my new name in your favorites list and can't figure out who I am, well, now you know. Two: Updates for this story are going to be really slow until sometime in January. I'm sure you know how busy Christmas time can be. Thanks for understanding, and please enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but this story.

Chapter Two—Friends Part Ways

Two weeks earlier…

"Wait, hold on a second," Levi held his hands up. "What do you mean by 'I'm leaving'? It's because Rosie got claimed, isn't it?" He looked at him suspiciously.

"No, it's not because she got claimed. Just… don't say things like that!" Ethan Nakamura exclaimed, the noonday sun shining off of his black hair. "But I meant exactly what I said: I'm leaving camp."

"B-but why?" I asked. "Why on earth would you want to just leave? This is the only safe place for us!"

"Shiloh, I want to live life. Here… I can't do that. My mother doesn't want to claim me, so why should I stick around?" He shouldered his pack. "There's places I want to see, people I want to meet."

Levi shook his head. "You're never like this—you're not the adventurer type! What's gotten into you? Where's the Ethan we know?"

Ethan laughed, which I had to admit was a strange sight. He wasn't the type to laugh at little things like that, especially when it came out of Levi's mouth. "Maybe change will be good for me."

I looked at him, and definitely saw that there was something else behind his reason for going so abruptly, and I'm pretty sure Levi could sense it too. "Ethan…" I started slowly. "Why are you really leaving?"

His eyes looked like they were seeing something far away, even though he was only looking down into the valley that Camp Half-Blood was hidden away in. We had all lived there for what, two, three years together? I had been there for four years, and Ethan longer. I didn't see why he wanted to leave so suddenly.

After a few moments, Ethan shook his head. "Guys, I wish it wasn't true."

"What?" Levi asked. "That you weren't leaving? Just don't go, then!"

Ethan shook his head, and looked at our friend with his normal seriousness. "Levi, there's a war coming. You may not realize it yet, but a lot of people are going to die."

Levi looked at him with disbelief. "So… you're just bailing on us? You're just trying to save yourself?"

"No!" Ethan exclaimed, then regained his composure. "I-I'm checking something out. It could help camp in the upcoming year."

"Wait," I cut in, "They issued you for scouting? Why you?"

Ethan looked around frantically, even though there was no one on the hill with us. "Hush down! They didn't even ask me if I would help with anything. This is more of a… solo thing for me. I haven't told anybody about it until now."

"Cool," Levi nodded his head. "So, you're going all rogue? Can we come too?"

"No, it's too dangerous," Ethan objected.

"Nothing's 'too dangerous'!" I said with disbelief. "Do you not remember what we did last summer? We were running for our lives!"

He turned to me and shook his head. "No, you don't understand. This is different; I'll probably die."

"Then why are you going?"

"Because I need to do this! Okay?" His eyes were so intense, I didn't say anything else. Levi just looked between us, confused, and Ethan sighed. "I'm sorry, Shiloh, Levi… but I need to get going."

He turned to go, and I clenched my jaw, and Levi mouthed what's happening? to me. This was just so… sudden—neither of us was expecting this.

Before he started walking, Ethan turned his head toward us hesitantly. "…Iris Message me?"

I smiled and took a few steps closer to him. "Of course! And… one last hug, for good luck and all?"

"I don't believe in luck." He said bluntly, but still accepted my hug with a smile. When we separated, he looked at Levi. "You want one too, don't you?"

Levi shook his head no, and looked like he was afraid to talk, like his voice might crack.

Ethan gripped his shoulders, and looked him square in the eye. "You take care of Shiloh and Rosie, I'm not going to be here anymore."

I pretended to be miffed. "Gods, Ethan, you don't think I can take care of myself? Some friend you are."

He smiled. "You two stick together, no matter what happens. We've been through a lot together, but now it's my time to set off on my own. I have my own duties, and you guys have yours."

I swallowed hard. "A-are you sure you have to do this?"

"Yeah, I am." He looked down. His dark eyes were so full of determination, but there was still so much confusion mixed in with them. At the time, I didn't realize that would be the last time I saw both of his eyes still intact. He readjusted his bag, and took one more look at Camp Half-Blood. It seemed like he knew he would never come back, but I didn't want to think that was true.

"Well," he said after the silence. "I'll be seeing you… sometime. Oh, and if Harley ever visits camp for some reason, tell her 'hello' for me, okay?"

We nodded, and hung our heads.

"Come on, don't look so down. We'll meet again, I'm sure of it." He said it with so much sincerity, it was hard not to believe that it was true. And with those last words, Ethan, our longtime friend—hey, three years for a demigod is a long time—trudged down the other side of Half-Blood Hill, and out into the mortal world.

Levi blinked a few times. "What just happened?"

"Honestly, Levi, I'm not really sure."

There was a spot open at the Hermes table that night at dinner. There was a seat unfilled at the campfire that night. There was an empty space on the floor of the cabin we slept in every night. There was a hollow void in our hearts. Ethan's presence at camp had always filled those holes, but now they were just sitting there, yearning for something to fill them.

Honestly, it wasn't much different than when we had gotten back to camp last summer without Harley. But with her case, we actually knew where she was, what she was doing; that she was safe. But with Ethan… It felt different. It was like there was an ominous cloud hanging over us, and we had no idea where he was going or whether he would be safe. It was a little scary.

The rest of the Hermes cabin didn't seem to care, though; I don't think they even realized there was a camper missing. It was only different to Levi, Rosie, and me. No one else was bothered by Ethan's absence.

And so we went to sleep.

Honestly, I wished I had dreams that night, even though dreams for demigods are terrifying, and usually bring bad omens. I wanted to try finding Ethan through my sleep, but I had no such luck. Nothing came to me, not even a normal mortal dream. For the past few months, my dreams had just… stopped. I mean, I was thankful that I stopped having nightmares about the titan lord, but still…

Ever since we came back from our adventure last summer, Kronos hadn't bothered me. Luke didn't come back to camp and kill us, and no monster attacks happened—well, besides any that were out of the ordinary, that is. Life was good.

Well, we all know that when things are going right, it's bound to go downhill real soon. You would think that as demigods, we would expect that, right? Hah, it's not likely. What was about to happen in a matter of days would take the entire camp by surprise.

The next morning after breakfast, on our way to archery with the Apollo campers, Lee Fletcher ran up behind me. "Hey," He looked around. "I didn't see Ethan last night, and he's not here this morning… Did he go somewhere?"

This question took me by faint surprise. Lee and Ethan—well, they were never really friends. Not that they didn't like each other, it was just that they didn't really talk. Ethan's whole "stay away from claimed kids" thing had worn away a little since our run last year, but he was still wary of being close with any campers who knew who their godly parents were. Before I had come to camp, he was friends with Vanessa's full sister Isabella, making her a child of Aphrodite. It wasn't until after she joined the Hunters of Artemis that he started feeling hatred for claimed demigods.

In turn, Lee was never close to Ethan. He tried, but more often than not, Ethan would shut himself away from him. He tried to be at least a little friendly with Lee, for my sake, but it never really worked out. So, I wasn't really expecting that question.

"Yeah, about that…" I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "He, uh… hmm…"

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to." he said softly.

In front of us, Levi was chatting with Rosie, but it was more of a one-sided conversation, with Rosie being mute and all. He stopped talking when he heard Lee's question, and he turned around, looking like he wanted to say something. Nothing came out when he opened his mouth, and he looked down.

"C'mon, Rosie, there's something I need to tell you…" He dragged the girl forward, like he thought it was better if Lee and I talked alone. Well, if you could consider "alone" in the middle of crowd.

We just kept walking in silence, but Lee spoke up again. "He left, didn't he?"

I nodded.

"Shiloh… Ethan was always… troubled. He never seemed to have the answers he was looking for, he was always confused… maybe he's just trying to find himself."

I swiped the hair out of my eyes. "H-he's unclaimed. What do you expect?" My voice trembled, and I tried to steady it. "And… he's not just leaving to 'find himself.' He's… he's checking something out that he thinks will aid us during the war." My voice went down to a hush.

He blinked, then shook his head. "N-no. There's no way…"

"What?"

Lee shook his head even more. "I didn't think other people knew about that… This is bad. If he's trying to find what I think he is… no, this is very, very bad."

"What do you mean? What's bad?" I asked. He looked so frantic, it started to bother me. "What do you know?"

"Dreams, Shiloh—dreams are very important. You find things out with them." He started walking faster. "I-I have to go." Lee walked in the other direction, most likely back to his cabin.

I had no idea why he was so shaken up—and besides, how was I supposed to learn things if dreams weren't haunting me at night? What did he know about Ethan, and why did it sound like my friend was heading towards doom?

A/N: Thanks for reading :)