"Oh, don't feel to bad about it, dear. Everyone needs alone time." I whipped my head around to the sound of the voice. I could have sworn I was alone but standing there was a girl. Women. She was older, maybe twenty, with blonde hair and bright, clear, blue eyes. Pretty. Like my mother had been. I felt a pang in my stomach, but that was replaced by suspicion. She wasn't a naiad or a dryad and she was certainly too old to be a camper. I rose to my feet. She laughed a musical laugh and smile brightly. No one smiled that brightly here unless you were from Aphrodite or you were a monster.

"I'm sorry, I must have startled you. That's my fault." I didn't acknowledge the words, I was too busy trying to find out what kind of monster she was, how she got past the magical borders, and most importantly, how I could kill her.

"Camper?" I was able to manage. She shook her head.

"Gods, no! Flattered you think I'm that young though." I smiled a small smile and laughed. It was getting increasingly hard to stay that cold and frigid, monster or not."A guest of Chiron's." She amended and gave me another smile. "I'm here on business from up there," she laughed and pointed at the sky. She looked around, before looking back at me. "And down there." She pointed at the ground. "No matter about me, though. I was just looking around to see if camp's changed any since I was here and came across you. Are you alright?" I managed to nod. The resemblance to my mother was uncanny. All I could do was look her and nod. "I'm sorry, I'll just go, I caught you off guard."

"A little," I managed. The women smiled at me and waved.

"I never got your name." I called after her, collecting myself. She smiled and turned around.

"Patience Celere. What's yours?"

"Hannah."

"I don't get a last name?"

"Hannah Grassi."

"Nice name. I'll see you around, Hannah Grassi." I nodded at her and she walked away, tugging on her sweatshirt. I collapsed against the rock and breathed. A sudden pang of homesickness hit me and I sighed. I missed my mother.

Dinner went quick and pretty soon after that it was Capture the Flag. Usually I was pretty good and my whole cabin was usually pretty desired, as we were all good with Archery. It was when we paired off that I was pretty sure we were going to lose.

"We'll take the front on the defensive if you guys go get the flag?" Michael Yew, our head counselor asked.

"Are you crazy?" Rebecca said and out her hands on her hips. "No way. We'll get toasted out there." I squinted across the woods and closed my eyes for a minute. Michael and Rebecca were still bickering.

"I have an idea," I said softly. They both looked at me. "Half of Apollo can take defensive with Hermes and then the other half of both can go for the flag. We'll get your backs if you can get in and out quickly," Rebecca looked at Michael and shrugged.

"That's okay with me if you're good with it?" She asked. He nodded.

In short, we got our butts kicked. The game was literally over within half an hour. It should have gone longer but Zoey Parks had pretty much dominated our teams when she got through our defenses. She got easy access to the river and sprayed us all, grabbing the flag, and darting out of there. I ended up drenched, cold, and coughing. Walking back to the cabin, I should have went with my brothers and sisters, but walking with Rebecca seemed like the better choice. It was getting dark and we were both cold. The air bit at our wet clothing, causing us both to shiver.

"W-w-w-wow," she coughed. "T-t-tough game." I nodded in agreement. If I let her, Rebecca would talk forever. "Z-z-zoey's really fast. Good with a sword too." I shook my head.

"Zoey's not fast or good with a sword, she's smart." Rebecca shrugged. I gave her a small smile. She grinned back at me. I laughed and slung an arm around her shoulder.

"We're faster and we had more fun than Poseidon, Ares, and Hespestus!" I exclaimed. She nodded vigorously and laughed.

"We so did!" Our banter was cut off by the hushed sound of whispers coming from the woods. I waved a hand at Rebecca. She must have heard as well because we both crouched down quietly, walking towards the woods as slowly as possible trying not to break the sticks.

"Does Otto know we're here?"

"Hades knows, Pat, let it go. We don't have time to worry about idiots."

"Ackley." I peaked my head over the brush slightly to look at the voices. "We're here to deal with idiots." There was a man standing there with the women I'd met earlier. He was large with golden blonde hair, tan skin, and bulging biceps.

"We should tell Chiron about the box." Patience said and crossed her arms, shivering and taking a few steps away from him. The man followed her and wrapped his own around her shoulders and rubbed gently for a minute.

"We talked about this, angel, if we tell we expose and the whole point is that we don't expose anything."

"After all Chiron did for us, though. I think we should hint just a little on why we're here."

"We shouldn't. We should just get the info we came for info on the girl, preoccupy the little brats, and then slip." The frown had left the woman's face.

"Jerk." Patience was facing him now, a slight grin on her face and he was looking down at her, grinning even brighter.

"I remember when we were here." The man said. Patience nodded and sighed. He leaned down to kiss her lips softly, but she pushed away.

"No time for that now. We'll have plenty of time later." He nodded and grinned.

"Oh, absolutely." I looked back at Rebecca, her mouth was dropped open and she looked at me. Silently, we both got up and headed back to the Big House.