7: Chiron Drops his S'more

Romano

I think everyone, at least once in their life, deserves to win the Camp Half-Blood war games. At least once.
Okay, maybe that's not exactly available to everyone– but the pure feeling of elation that sat in the pit of my stomach when I stood next to Cecily, when she raised the glinmmering laurels in a triumphant fist, the raucous cheering and endless grins and pattign on the shoulder– gods, Chiron calls us all heroes, but I'd never exactly felt like one until then.

The Stoll brothers grinned at Jon and I as the boat rumbled up onto the sand. 'Nice one. We were just about to sink it, blow a hole in the side or something. But you handled it.' Connor smirked. I couldn't tell if he was kidding, but there were a few crates at the back of the boat that clinked like they had bottles of greek Fire stored, so I decided not to question him.

Jon looked ecstatic, his face plastered with a glowing grin. His face practically glowed, and he barely looked like he was in pain from all the cuts on his arms. Cecily was trying not to smile, but couldn't help it.
Overall, a huge success story. But most demigod's stories don't end with eeryone all alive and happy. So naturally everyhting had to go wrong.

Dinner was, naturally a blur of cheering and jeering. The other team came in just as I was shovelling my third brisket down my throat. One drawback of being able to teleport in the blink of an eye is that I badically almost die if I do it in bulk.
The troupe of- for lack of a better word - losers came in, all slouched and scowling, most of them halfway through taking off their armour and flinging it to the side.

Travis and Connor stood up in welcome, and tried to hide their wry grins with soppy-looking innocent smiles.
'Oh, hey Malcolm. How's it going? I hope you guys aren't too tired… honestly, my arms are a little sore from holding up those heavy laurels…' Travis trailed off rocking on his heels and snickering.

Malcolm, the Athena counsellor, looked pissed for aminute, before a slightly straine dsmile broke through.
'Nice, Stoll. Too bad you had to get a bunch of twelve-year-olds to lead the charge.' He replied, setting his helmet down on his seat at the Athena table.

Travis flushed, but smirked good-naturedly. 'Yeah, well maybe if you guys hadn't fought like headless chickens–'
Malcolm held up a hand, and interjected. '–Okay, maybe we can conrinue this conversation in a week after we beat your team in Capture the flag and...'

This was classic post-game banter. I let it fade into the background, instead focusing on my plate. I speared another slice of brisket.
I felt the becnh creak as someone sat down behind me. I turned cautiously, and was greeted by a pair of gold-hazel eyes and a tangle of light brown hair. Jon Griffin.
The initial shock of how unorthodox this was was momentarily blanketed by a rich tranquillity. It was like Jon was sending off waves of mellowness.

I snapped out of it as people started to point. 'Uh, Jon?' I said, a little hushed. 'You're supposed to be sitting… at your table, with…' I trailed off, pointing lazily towards the Apollo kids, who were pointing and murmuring under their breath.

Jon shrugged, and smiled weakly. He looked exhausted, but considerably less nervy and considerably more comfortable. It suited him well– he had taken on… a somewhat brighter quality. It was like he was giving off an aura of happiness and nonchalance. 'Who cares?' He said happily. Probably everyone, I thought to myself, but bit my tongue. 'How's your knee?' He asked.

I frowned. 'Oh, right. my knee. Right.' I felt a little flushed. Not exactly annoyed, not at Jon, but– everyone had seen us by then. There were muted snickers and whispers layered under the general clinking of cutlery on plates. All the attention drove me crazy. I wanted to get up and walk, just wander around, anywhere–

Jon interrupted my musings. 'Yeah? It lookedlike you got hit pretty bad. I'm totally dead– Is it like this everyday?' He pushed his hair back, tangling it either more. It stuck out in wavy angles and knots.
I was about to answer, suddenly aware I was staring, but Chiron called out.
'Campers make your way to the Amphitheatre for the Campfire! S'mores are complimentary!'

I stood up. 'C'mon, Soldier Boy. It's time for terrible songs and burned marshmallows.' He followed me out of the Mess Hall happily. I was happy– not just because of winning, and all that, but… I was proud, a little. Of what I had helped Jon do. Of all the doors I had opened for him. I had almost forgotten about all the ones that were still locked for me.

The flames were cracking like a chrous of whips as they swooped upward into the night sky, a merry shade of bronze. Tne crackling and spitting of logs was all but drowned out by a third round of mythology-appropriate carolling, led as always by the Apollo cabin.
I was sitting at the right end of the amphitheater, half-humming the tune of "This Land is Midas' Land".
To be honest, campfire time was never my thing. Having to sit down for an hour and sing goofy songs, while suitably insane for my tastes, was undoubtedly boring to me. I wanted to be doing something kinetic– that's why camp usually suited me so well. We were constantly active, doing at least something. The campfire was jolly, sure, and I could appreciate the sentiment of wanting to scream about your grandmother's battle armour around a roaring flame, but I'd frankly rather have been walking through the monster-infested woods at midnight. Seriously.

'This kind of blows, right?'
I turned around with a raised brow, a little irked that someone had snuck up on me for a second time. I was greeted by the not-quite-smiling face of Leah Grady. I resiste dthe urge to look past her, scarcely believing she had spoken. But her dark eyes were focused fiercely on me.

'Uhm.' I said, subconsciously charmingly, as always. She rolled her eyes, and I went on. 'Yeah, it's pretty boring. Fun in a cheesy kind of way though, right?'

She rolled her tongue, and shrugged. 'Yeah. I guess.'

'Why are you talking to me? Is it because we beat you?' I blurted.

Leah looked at me, her brow heavy with contempt. 'No, you idiot. Well, kind of. Not really.' She sighed and rolled her eyes. 'I've seen you talking to Jon.'
I nodded, still mystified.
'What's he… as in, like…'

It struck me she was asking what I thought of him. It was such a spontaneous, out-of-character flash of insecurity from the usually stoic and impenetrable Leah that I was speechless for a drawn-out moment. My brow furrowed, and I took another second to form my words.

'He's… kind of… I don't know. He doesn't talk so much, but I've got a feeling he's just… getting used to the whole demigod lifestyle. He's…' I trailed off, my eyes suddenly caught by something outside the circle of pulsing orange light across the amphitheater floor– an imposing shape that was a deeper black than the backdrop of shadowy woods behind it. I stood up tentatively, and Leah's brow creased. 'Romano? What the Hades are you doing?'
I ignored her and narrowed my eyes, and the shape came into further focus. Suddenly, a log tumbled and the fire spat a heavy shower of sparks outward, towards the woods where the shadows were densest, illuminating the trees, and finally casting dim light upon the figure.
It was a person. It was barely a second before the embersfell to the ground, but one glimpse was enough– a guy, tall and skeletally–thin, clad in tattered black clothes. He stood stooped like an old man, and his eyes were hidden in a curtain of lank jet-black hair. The bottom of his face, however, was left open to the sparked light. A sharp, near-fleshless jawline with a sickening toothy grin spread across his face. The scariest part was, I got that shiver down my spine, like cold sweat. Like someone was staring right at me.

Then, the tiny pinpricks of flame drowned in the darkness and the man was flooded by black shadows again. I raised my foot to take a step forward, but umped when Leah suddenly grabbed my arm. 'Romano!' She snapped her fingers, a little unnecessarily, to get my attention. 'Not funny. What are you staring at?'
I pointed, my hand shaking inexplicably. 'There.' I breathed, then cleared my throat, and spoke again, louder. 'Over there, in the trees. Didn't you…' I trailed off, the bewildered look on her face answering my question.
I sighed and sat back down dramatically. 'Oh, fuck this, man. This is just classic horror movie trope number one, right?' I was playing it off as a big joke, but I shuddered. There was still that icy feeling of eyes on me, boring into the back of my head. Instinctively, I turned and saw nothing but the slope of benches up to the top of the theater.
Leah spoke again, impatience leaking from her voice. 'What are you staring at?'
I turned around, and was about to make an excuse, but the half-hearted sing-along atmosphere of the campfire was suddenly pierced and shattered as someone ran through the arched doorway of the amphitheater. The camper was fully clad in armor panting heavily as they sprinted across the paved stones, coming to a stop in front of Chiron. The centuar, aware of the panicked demeanour of the camper, dropped his s'more and looke down at the campe ras they panted heavily and dropped to one knee, half out of respect and ritual and half out what looked like tiredness.
'Speak, child.' Chiron said, his distressed frown making him look more than his ripe age of three millennia. No one spoke, and the silence following his words was broken only by the quiet crackle of the flames, which had diminished to a sickly green colour.
The kid at his feet took a long second to stand, and another to remove their helmet, revealing a fair and slightly sweat-sheened face, with strands of dark hair plastered to skin and sticking at odd angles. The camper was visibly shaking as they turned to face the crowd.

Cecily Pan spoke breathlessly, but her words rang out around the crowd like she had screamed it. 'It's Adrienne. The Oracle. She's…' Pause for dramatic effect, I thought innaporopriately as she took a breath, her eyes darting around. 'She's gone. The Oracle's been taken.'

Hey guys! Sorry about this chapter taking so long, and I'm even more sorry it's shorter than the others, but I've had a lot on my plate lately (plus I love cliffhangers). However, I do have an important announcement regarding the future of this story and updates and whatnot.
Firstly, I've noticed a lot of people on this site also have Tumblr. So I went ahead and made a blog for this story, where I'll try to keep you guys updated on the progress of new chapters, I could post little drabbles or something, and maybe people could ask me questions about what's going on. Please join the blog if you have Tumblr, and even if you don't it only takes about five minutes to sign up. No hassle tho, I just thought since the story has been getting decent views lately I could try something different. Let me know what you think in the reviews!
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