"You know, Kyla, it'd probably be a good idea not to make one of the ex-Roman Praetors mad again. I mean, Jason is a son of Zeus so he's pretty powerful. Plus he's pretty popular in both the Greek and Roman Camps. Just saying." Kieran was talking as they walked out of the main ring of cabins but Kyla wasn't listening. She was ease dropping on Leo and Jason as they walked back to the Big House. Their conversation went something like this:

~Leo was talking quickly, obviously trying to be the voice of reason without any knowledge of how to be one. "Seriously, calm down, Jase. She doesn't know anything about you or the whole 'Roman Praetor needs respect' thing. And I think that Greek versus Roman thing is something she has with Frank."

~Jason was cooled down now and pretty amused by Leo's rambling. "Okay, fine. But you're only sticking up for her because you think she's cute. I wonder what-" (At this point Kieran had finished his little rant, noticed how Kyla stopped dead in her tracks, and proceeded to believe that she was in shock.)

~Now Leo was flabbergasted, cutting Jason off and trying to deny what his friend accused him of. "What?! No way!" Jason must have given him some sort of 'look', because he started stumbling over his words, "I mean, she is kinda cute, but, uh, that's not the point! I just don't think it'd be a good idea to, like, go into this, uh, meeting all angry, you know? We, uh, got some news about the prophecy and, umm, please don't mention this to…"

~Then Jason became extremely alert, his voice rising in excitement, "What! Why didn't you tell me sooner? Come on, Piper's in the strawberry fields with Castor. We can get her on the way."

That was the end of their conversation but Kyla stood there for some time, listening to their rapidly fading footfalls in the noise of the relaxing/gossiping campers near the cabins. Then she heard a pair of quiet yet close steps. She whirled around, grabbing a guy's hand just as it was about to land on her shoulder. Instinctively, she twisted the hand; of course it wasn't enough to break the arm, but just enough to make it really uncomfortable.

"Ow, ow, ow! What are you doing!" he complained.

Kyla knew that there was a second person trying to sneak up on her, though once she grabbed his buddy's arm, the second guy immediately jumped to the rescue. "Hey!" he shouted, "it was just a joke! We always scare the newbies. Now let go of my brother's arm before you break it!" As he said this, he reached for Kyla, trying to pry her hand away from his brother. Kyla merely grabbed his wrist, giving him the same treatment.

Both of them were now cringing and yelping like wounded puppies. Around them, people started to take notice of the scene and stopped what they were doing to form a crowd around Kyla and her "assailants". Kieran was laughing so hard, she was sure he'd fall to the ground at any moment. Finally (for the guys anyway), she let go of their arms and stepped back, ready for them to retaliate. All the guys did was cradle their arms and scowl at her, each giving her a look identical to the other. This gave Kyla a good look at them and helped her realize that they were, in fact, identical. Kyla started to feel self-conscious, especially when one of them (the first one) caught her staring. She felt her face flush and immediately dropped her gaze, lowering her head slightly so that her bangs partially covered her face. As she did though, she caught the mischievous look in his eyes and that was all Kyla needed to figure out who his godly parent was. So, before he could call her out, she asked, "You guys are sons of Hermes, right?"

Twin #1 gave her a quizzical look while Twin #2 took his time to stop acting before giving her the same one as his brother. Twin #2 was the first to speak, cautiously answering her question with another one, "How would you know that?"

Kyla just shrugged, never completely meeting their eyes, and answered, "You tried to prank me and you look like twin troublemakers. Since Hermes is the 'Messenger God of Travelers and Thieves', it kind of made sense."

"Well," Twin #1 said, "you sure are observant. I'm Travis and this is my brother, Connor. If you've heard of the Stoll Brothers, well, that'd be us."

"Oh," Kyla was going to leave it at that but then a question popped into her mind and before she knew, she blurted out, "Aren't you a little old for a summer camp?" Both of the Stoll's eyebrows shot up in surprise, which made Kyla blush again and start back tracking, "I mean, well, I don't mean to b-be rude or anything, but, umm-"

Thankfully, Connor interrupted her, "She's kinda cute when she's flustered. Don't you think so, Travis?"

Okay, so maybe it wasn't a good thing he interrupted her because the moment he said that, Kyla felt a weird pressure in her chest. Suddenly a hiccup escaped her and she groaned internally. This had happened the first few times she had hung out with Frank and then again a few summers ago, when Frank had gone away longer than usual (Kyla guessed this was the big adventure he had gone on with the other seven in the meeting). Her father had arranged for an old friend of his to visit and this friend had a son the same age as her. The two had become pretty good friends after Kyla overcame her shyness. The only downfall was that she had gotten the hiccups for the entire time that they visited.

The twins didn't know all of this of course, so Travis simply answered his brother, "Don't ask me. You know I can't answer. Besides she's too young."

"Come on!" Connor coaxed, "It's not like Katie will find out and even if she does, you didn't ask her out or anything considered cheating."

"All right, guys, that's enough. This is her first day and I don't want you scaring her," Kieran suddenly piped up. He moved in front of her a little as well, kind of like an older brother protecting his sister, and turned to Connor, "Don't even think about it, Connor."

The twin in question put up his hands in surrender, his expression clearly mocking Kieran, while Travis decided to answer Kyla's question, "We're part of the camp's new alumni program. Percy got the idea from the Roman's and, ironically, he saved a young girl and her father two years ago who donated a bunch of money to help us set it up. It turns out the girl is a daughter of Athena. Plus our oracle, Rachel, her dad is insanely rich and she convinced him to help fund it as well." A this he pointed towards the strawberry fields.

"What ab-hic-bout the mon-hiccup-sters?" Kyla asked.

This time Kieran answered, "The golden fleece is really powerful so all we had to do was move it from that tree," he pointed towards a large pine, "to that one." Now he was pointing to another large tree closer to the fields, only this one was a willow. "You wouldn't believe how happy Willow, the dryad of that tree, was when Chiron made the announcement. She-"

"Ya," Connor butted in, "she was over the moon while we veterans of the Second Titan War nearly had to gang up on Peleus, the dragon that protects the fleece, and move it back."

Travis ground out, "It should have stayed on Thalia's Pine."

Kieran must have noticed Kyla's confusion and saved her the embarrassment by explaining. "Thalia is a daughter of Zeus, the only one right now other than Jason. Apparently she almost died on that hill helping Annabeth and this other guy, Luke, get to camp. Her Dad turned her into that pine so she could live on. Then during the STW, Kronos made Luke poison the tree. Clarisse ended up bringing the golden fleece back with Percy and Annabeth's help and that, in turn, brought Thalia back from the world of the trees. Now she's the Lieutenant Hunter of Artemis."

For some unknown reason, Kyla felt a shiver run down her spine. She could tell it was a bad feeling connected to this Thalia person but that was it. Before Kyla could try and ask anything else, a shout came from one of the cabins. Looking around, Kyla found that the source was the one decorated with boar heads and weapons.

"Travis Stoll! You and your brother better get your butts in gear," this came from a small brunette dressed in an earth toned, long skirt and camp shirt with flowers in her hair. "Clarisse just checked on the Ares cabin and she noticed-"

"By the Gods, Katie!" Connor yelled as he whirled around, "Did you have to announce it to the world?!"

Travis placed his hand on his brother's bicep, trying to calm his brother down. "Just let it go. We have to get moving," he said. Then the twins turned to Kyla and Kieran, "We'll see you guys around later."

"Yeah," Connor added with a wink, "Why don't you sit with us at dinner?"

Kyla felt the pressure build. Thankfully though, it disappeared as another shout (this one a mix of profanities and the twin's name) made the Stolls turn tail and flee.

Then a very solidly built woman came tearing out the door of the boar cabin (or the Ares cabin). She, Kyla guessed, was Clarisse. 'Definitely not someone I'd like to mess with,' Kyla thought.

After Clarisse went chasing her prey towards the north end of the river, Kieran turned back to Kyla suggesting "Well, how about we continue the tour in the other direction? It's just the mess hall and amphitheater over there so we can skip that whole excitement for now. Save those for tonight."

"Okay," Kyla answered. She started to follow him but was suddenly hit by a wave of noise as everyone decided now was the time to resume their conversations… all at once. She clutched her ears, even though she knew it was a futile attempt to block it out, and asked Kieran, "Please give me something to focus on. It can't be within 20 meters of us and if it has anything to do with archery or the forest it'd be perfect. Please!" Even she could hear the desperation in her own voice over the buzzing from everything else.

Bewildered by her sudden breakdown, Kieran answered hurriedly, "My sister's at the archery range now. It's about 65 yards in the same way we're going. She should be giving our campers a demonstration right now, knowing her."

As he spoke, Kyla sent her focus in the direction he told her. Slowly, the random voices fell into the background like they should. Kyla heard one girl loud and clear though. She was giving tips on breathing while aiming and then, as the girl exhaled, Kyla heard the arrow being released. It flew for a few seconds before making a thwacking sound, which was followed by a few words of admiration from the campers Kieran's sister was teaching.

Returning to her current situation, Kyla righted herself and turned to Kieran, "Could we go over to the range? I won't be having any more breakdowns but I need to ease a little stress before I can fully control the noise…" Trailing off, she realized that Keiran was staring at her with a funny look in his eyes.

"What was that about? One minute you were fine, then you act like your head was about to burst and now you just need to shoot a few arrows? This isn't normal for you, is it?" his voice was a mix of concern and confusion. She didn't know why but it kind of reminded her about Frank's usual reaction during her first few hours of every visit to Vancouver… The city was extremely noisy and it tended to catch her a few times in the beginning. And part of her found it kind cute...

Looking away and shrugging her shoulders, Kyla answered nonchalantly, "I have extremely sensitive hearing. It's usually fine but normally it's just P-papa and I in the middle of the forest. My best friend and our closest neighbors were half an hour away by foot on the coast. The closest town was two hours south of them." She stumbled a little when she thought about her father but quickly locked away those emotions as well as the tears that threatened to overcome her. They could wait until she was alone… she hoped.

Kieran seemed to accept this and started leading the way. As they walked, he pointed out the arena and armory. Kyla could already feel the stress melting away as the sound of the archery became more pronounced and once they actually got to the range, Kyla was able to focus more clearly. Right away, she picked out the girl who had to be Kieran's twin. She was turned away from them but she had the same sandy blonde hair, golden tanned skin and a lean, sinewy body. Plus Kieran walked up behind her, giving a signal to the campers who noticed him, then picked her up and spun her around before placing her on her feet, facing Kyla.

"Idiot! I was just in the middle of- Oh!" even her voice had the same pitch as her brothers (although it was, of course, more feminine) as she teased him. That was cut off though as she noticed the new girl standing in front of her. Giving Kyla a welcoming smile, she said, "Hey! You're up. I guess I should formally introduce myself. I'm Kiara, the girl who's done most of your nursing," then she lowered her voice slightly, "I made sure my brother only handled the medicine. All of the other stuff I took care of."

"Hey now," Kieran put in, "we came here for a bit of archery so is it okay if we join this class?"

Rolling her eyes, Kiara answered, "Why would you even ask? You know the archery range is open to us any time." She turned to Kyla and explained, "We're children of Apollo so we kind of have special privileges when it comes to the archery… Unless the Hunters are here of course. Then we share it more often."

Nodding her head and trying to contain her impatience, Kyla quickly asked, "Does it matter which bow I use?"

"Not at all," Kiara replied, then nodded towards a rack of bows and quivers that were full of arrows, "Just grab one of those."

Kyla rushed over and grabbed one on instinct. Once she found an empty spot, she took her time to set up, her body going through the familiar motions. Kieran set up beside her and proceeded to instruct her on her form but Kyla wasn't listening. Her first few shots were just practice, taking her time aiming and controlling her breathing, but once she got to the fourth shot, she just let go. She shot each arrow in her quiver, one immediately after the other, and each imbedded itself in the target. She started at the bull's-eye and made circles around it from there until the whole center of the target had arrows protruding from it.

Kyla hadn't noticed, but everyone had stopped to watch her. Now she felt her self-consciousness kick in and she let her hair fall into her face, but not before she caught a look that passed between Kieran and Kiara. They seemed to know something and Kyla guessed it had something to do with her godly parent… She just didn't know if it was a good or bad thing.

"Come on, Kyla," Kieran said cheerily, "why don't we finish up the tour?"


A/N ~ Ahhh! I can't believe I left it this long and I'm soooo sorry! PLease don't give up on me because now that schools started I've found that I have more time to write (oddly enough). Before I couldn't find any excuses to go on my laptop but now two of my classes rely on it so as long as I get my work done quickly, I have lots of time to write and update.

I meant to get a lot more action into this chapter but once I got to 2,657 words... well, I figured I should end it there. Hope you liked the Stoll drama ;)

Now please R&R/fav so I know you still want to read this...

Well,

Bye from Ky 3xoxoox