Chapter 13

Recap: People started kneeling, even the Ares cabin was bowing to him. I was about to say something about Poseidon and Percy and why it's such a big deal when another growling noise came.

"There's more!" a girl screamed. Six hounds leapt and growled baring their teeth. I thought they were going to head for Percy like the first one did but instead they all came around me. Annabeth and Chiron backed away quickly as the hounds encircled me. Percy remained in the water where he felt safe

"Lorelei," Chiron said "Lorelei don't move, we'll get you out," the dogs barked at Chiron as I was in the center of whatever was going on. I was confused and scared. Where were the hounds? I couldn't sense them, I fell over, and a loud, constant, high-pitched, tone ringing in my ears had sent a migraine to my temples. The barking kept on as Chiron called for his bow and arrow in Greek again.

"Chiron look!" Annabeth pointed, but not at me at the formation of the dogs circling me. They weren't facing me threatening to tear me apart, they were facing away. Howling at the ones around me. "They… it's like..," Annabeth stopped speaking, as Chiron finished her sentence.

"It's like they're protecting her from us," Chiron ignored this observation as he shot the first hound down. It fell over with a whining yell. The hounds were angered at Chiron as one bound toward him. I heard Chiron rear up, yelling as he knocked him down and the other hounds were going to him "Children to your cabins immediately! Now!" the kids yelled and screamed jostling to their cabins. I was confused, what was going on? why couldn't I sense anything? No vibration reached me. Chiron yelled as he was attacked.

"No! Stop!" I yelled. The hounds backed away from him, though they were still slowly growling. I held my head as the pitch got louder. "Stop! Go away!" the tone got higher piercing my eardrums. I felt the vibration circle outward like a radar signal. I saw five hounds around me barking at Chiron and Annabeth, along with Percy who stood in the water.

"Percy, Annabeth get out of here too!"

"I'm not-," Percy started.

"Now!" Annabeth got Percy out of the water and helped him back to his cabin.

"This pain… I can't… take it for much longer… go away. Please just go," I whispered to myself. I wished the pain out of me, away from me. Two of the hounds on my left let out a cry of agony as they thrashed their heads side to side. They fell over dead. I felt a little better the pain from my head lessoning gradually. I directed my senses to the left and one more collapsed to the earth. Soon the ringing tone was completely gone, as were the rest of the hounds who died due to some type of trauma. My head felt light having all the pain gone suddenly. I gradually ended up on the ground breathing heavily but slowly. My eyes fought to stay open. Chiron rushed to me, picking me up. "Chiron…I'm sorry if I caused any problems or-,"

"Hush child, you're weak." I listened and slowly drifted asleep. That or I passed out.

I awoke to Annabeth next to me looking away. I slowly sat up and asked her what happened.

"You want to know what happened? Six hellhounds came and surrounded you. Yet they attacked Chiron. You told them to stop and they stopped," she turned to me and I could feel her angry and confused gray eyes on me. "Who are you?" the words cut me deeper than the snakes fang that pierced me a couple days earlier. I tried not to sound as angry and hurt as I felt.

"I don't know…,"

"You don't know? Then how can we trust you? Is your name even Lorelei?"

"Yes it is!" I snapped at her. "My mother named me Lorelei," I stood up "And I don't care if you trust me or not. I've made it fine on my own, if you want me to leave then I will," with that, I left the room. Annabeth felt a little bit of regret, but also fury. The children around stopped talking when I walked through. They eyed me, and looked afraid.

"Lorelei, come." it was Mr. D. He said those two words to me, and my whole stomach sank. I slowly marched into a room where Mr. D and Chiron where waiting. Chiron was slightly injured by the hellhound. I felt bad, I felt like I had caused his injury, the panic at the camp, everything.

"I'm sorry Chiron are you hurt badly?"

"Don't you worry about a thing. It's a minor injury we're concerned about you Lorelei," I looked down. "The first hellhound went straight for Percy, and attacked him," he started to say, I forgot about Percy! I remembered feeling his blood on my hands. I remembered how faint his pulse was.

"Is he alright?" I asked quickly.

"It's rude to interrupt," Mr. D said. I wanted to glare at him but I was in no position to be giving looks of disdain. "And yes the kid's alright. Poseidon's kid. Who knew?"

"Anyway," Chiron said cutting off Mr. D who was verbalizing his train of thought. "We're concerned that the hounds… well they-,"

"They didn't go after me," I finished what he was going to say, or what I thought we would've said.

"Didn't I say it was rude to interrupt?" Mr. D said aggravated

"Sorry," I said softly. Chiron looked at Mr. D. Chiron knew I already felt bad he didn't need Mr. D yelling at me. "So…do you want me to leave camp half-blood?"