All of you are so mean! None of you told me what you thought of the dream. Oh well, I guess you can listen to me ranting about it later on. For now, just sit back and enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 11

Unknown Location, Somewhere Underground

When Reyna woke up, she was greeted by the sight of the most horrible and foul-smelling creature she had ever seen in her life. It seemed to be asleep next to her and the sight of it immediately made her want to gag but she soon found out that she could not do that because her mouth was taped. Wait, since when did monsters learn to use duct tape?

Reyna decided that she would probably have a lot of time to ponder over that question later and right now, her priority should be figuring out where she was, and getting out of it.

Reyna tried to move but her limbs were tied with ropes. She was not blindfolded but that did not really make much difference as it was almost impossible to see in the darkness anyway. The only reason she had been able to see the creature beside her was because it seemed to be radiating a dim glow, but that was not enough to fully see the place. Reyna figured that she was somewhere underground, but that information was next to useless if it could not help her escape from- from wherever she currently was.

Suddenly, a flame was lit and Reyna could make out her surroundings. Surrounding her were hordes of monsters she had never seen or heard of before. They came in all shapes and sizes, and in great numbers too. They were all equally hideous and Reyna was willing to bet that they all smelled much worse than moldy cheese and dirty socks combined.

A particularly large monster came forward and kicked the monster that was sleeping beside Reyna. The monster immediately jumped from his position and started looking around frantically, as if he was under attack. When he finally oriented himself, he quickly got down to his knees and started praising the large monster before him. In return, the large monster kicked him again, this time in the gut.

"You idiot! You were supposed to be on guard duty! What if the prisoner tried to escape? What would you have done then, huh?"The larger one scolded the smaller monster, kicking him once again.

"I am very ssssorry, Masssster Gyro. It will never happen again! But look, the prisssoner's ssstill asssleep," hissed the smaller monster in a snake-like manner, turning to look at Reyna.

Reyna immediately closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. She did not want to be caught eavesdropping on their conversation because, for some reason, she did not think it would be received very well. After what seemed to be hours but was actually a few moments, the monsters took their eyes off of her. But it was still too soon to be relieved.

From the corner of her eye(which she had opened once again), Reyna saw two monsters enter the place, dragging an unconscious girl with them. With her spiky black hair and the silver circlet on her head, the girl looked extremely familiar to Reyna. It took Reyna a few moments to figure out who it was. It was Jason's sister, Thalia.

"We've got her," said one of the monsters which had just entered the the place,"Artemis's lieutenant."

"Yeah," said another, "Now we will gain the favor of Lords Erebus and Tartarus."

Outwardly, Reyna did not show any emotion but on the inside, she was seething. Not only had they captured her, but they had kidnapped Thalia too. How dare they? Reyna could not understand their motive at all.

Perhaps you have gained their favor, thought Reyna, but you have certainly not gained ours. And when the time comes, we will strike and that will be your downfall.

Reyna glanced at the unconscious form of Thalia. She was battered and bruised and did not seem likely to wake up any time. Reyna heaved a sigh. She just needed to wait until Thalia woke up. And then they would make their move.

Camp Half-Blood

Travis Stoll was currently in a very bad mood. In fact, his mood was so bad that he was sure that if he could sell his bad mood, he could earn a living.

First of all, he and his brother Connor had been caught trying to steal from the Demeter cabin, which had resulted in them being slapped by its Head counselor, Katie Gardner, who also happened to be Travis's long time crush.

Secondly, they had been banned from the other cabins by Chiron so that they could not cause any disturbances, as Chiron so kindly put it. It was absolutely unfair because you certainly did not see the other Hermes campers being banned from other cabins.

And lastly, they had found out that Reyna was missing and Katie was blaming Travis for it as he was supposed to be on patrol at that time. Connor had tried to invite Travis to play some pranks with him but he had refused. Even stealing and playing pranks could not make his mood any better.

Travis sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

Katie. She was the root of all his problems. If she had not been so persistent in believing that Reyna's disappearance had been his fault, then his mood might have been a little better. If it had been anyone else, Travis would have just laughed it off but because it had been Katie who said it, it just hurt so much. He himself really did not get why he liked that girl so much.

Travis jumped off from the tree branch he had been sitting on and dusted his pants. Deciding that being sad and grumpy would not do him any good, Travis stretched his arms and tried to cheer himself up.

"Alright! Travis Stoll is back in his game so you better watch out, people!" He yelled, throwing his arms up in the air.

"Oh? Someone's feeling awfully cheerful it seems," said a voice from his back. Turning around, Travis came face to face with the one person he least wanted to see right now. Three guesses who that was.

Yup. Katie Gardner.

Immediately, Travis's mood worsened again. "What do you want, Katie?"

Katie's confidence seemed to dissipate. She looked rather uncomfortable, as if she would prefer to be anywhere in the world except here. Travis figured she probably would.

"I wanted to talk about...things."

Travis raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What things are we talking about?"

Katie looked like she was very much tempted to punch him but in the end, she just settled for a glare."You know exactly what I am talking about. Look, it- it wasn't right of me to accuse you without any reason. I still think it's your fault though, mind you."

"So you admit that you were wrong? That you should not have accused a poor, innocent guy of something beyond his power?"

"I did not say any thing like that! All I'm trying to say is, I should have found at least some proof first before accusing you. What i want to say is, I- I-" Katie looked like it mortally pained her to be saying this.

"Am sorry?" Travis was smirking now, his bad mood long gone. He was really enjoying himself now.

Katie glared at him once again before taking a deep breath."Yes. that is what I'm trying to say. I am-"

But before Katie could apologize, she was cut off by the sound of the conch horn. Both of them simultaneously turned around and glowered at nothing for some time. They were both extremely annoyed, Travis especially. He had just been about to get an apology from Katie of all people, who hated his guts more than anyone else. It would have been equivalent to going to Elysium.

They started walking towards the dining halls where everyone was assembling. Everyone seemed to be confused as to what was going on. Travis looked around, confused.

"Hey, what's all the fuss about?" He asked a random camper who was passing by him. The camper shrugged, indicating that he did not know either.

Katie also tried asking around but everyone seemed to be just as confused as them.

Finally, when everyone was assembled in the dining area, they got to know why the conch horn had rung. Standing beside Chiron, was an angry and distressed mob of girls, all of them dressed in similar silver hunting outfits with bows and arrows in their hands and hunting knives at their sides. They were, unmistakably, the Hunters of Artemis.

Chiron himself looked rather confused by the arrival of the huntresses. Nonetheless, he announced their arrival,

"Campers, it looks like the Hunters of Artemis have arrived with some important news."

And cut. So, I decided to put a bit of Tratie in here. I'm not really sure whether it's canon or not, but whatever. What did you think of it? By the way, my favorite part of this chapter was the snake talk. What about you? This chapter was mostly an interlude from the actual plot but the last bit is rather important. Next chapter, we will be returning to the quests. I'm out now.

P.S. Don't forget to review!