I, and by default the dwarfs, turned visible, and they slowly worked their way down to the ground.

They were skittish, but nowhere near as terrified as they had been when I found them.

"Are you friends of Blue Bottom?" the brown one asked.

"Depends," Kat replied, smacking her gum. "Who's that?"

"Oh, he's the one that sent us here! We found his ship and took his belt and shiny ball! But he caught us and took back his stuff. In exchange for not killing us, he made us swear to harass the Romans!" That was the red one.

"We love harassment! So we came, but the creepy guy got someone to catch us," the brown one added.

"They weren't as nice as Blue Bottom. They tied us up in that barn," the brown one continued. "When you came, the creepy guy was rambling on and on about what Gaea was doing for him, what she'd give him for returning us to Tartarus." I knew he was working for Gaea. Too bad I couldn't get this info to Reyna.

I studied the dwarfs a moment. They were still dressed horribly, but they weren't wearing as many "accessories" as they had been. Their guards must have searched them, so they couldn't use something to escape.

"What are your names?" I had read about them in mythology, but no two myths gave them the same name.

"I'm Akron!" the brown one said, "and he's—"

"The handsome one!"

Akron rolled his eyes at his brother. "He's Passalos. We're the Kerkopes, Stealers of Shiny Things!"

"Right," I deadpanned. "Ok, yes, I am friends with Leo, who you call "Blue Bottom."" I had to force the nickname out. "By the way, why do you call him that?"

They told us about stealing Leo's zipper, revealing he wears blue undershorts, and we about rolled in laughter.
"Oh, that's definitely blackmail material," I said when they finished, wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes. "Anyway, yes, we're friends of Leo, and I have a better job for you, in exchange for freeing you. What do you think about harassing at night?" Stealing is wrong, so I wasn't about to tell them to steal. Harassing? That's a different matter. Harassing a certain "creepy guy"? Even better.

"We like day time better!" Akron seemed to speak for both of them. "Then you can see their faces!"

"In daylight you get caught." I pointed out. "And you'll get to see his face."

I outlined a plan for them to harass Octavian, but only at night when he was alone. "Make him think he's going crazy—uh, crazier than usual. I left evidence pointing towards you being dead, and you wouldn't be able to come back that fast, so no one would believe him unless they see you. Mess with him; hide stuff, whatever you want. Just don't be seen, and definitely don't get caught! You won't be rescued again if you get caught. This won't break your deal to Leo, and you're only going to swear to me to do it until either someone else punishes Octavian for his action, or Octavian dies, whichever comes first. Also, you're going to swear to never steal from anyone who was on the same ship as Leo, as well as me and whoever I'm with. Do we have a deal?"

They looked at each other and nodded. "Deal!" they said together. They swore, then ran off after I untied them, probably to hide until dark, and I turned to my companions.

"Well, that was fun." They looked at me, aghast. Maybe they figured "breaking and entering" was only enjoyable to Hermes kids. "How did you get rid of the guards?"

Anthony shrugged. "We each chose one, bumped into them, then started whispering while moving away. Their curiosity got the better of them and they followed us around the side of the barn."

"We kept them occupied until you got inside," Kat continued, "then we quieted, and they eventually gave up trying to find us. We went back to the beach to wait for you, and were about to go back for you because you took so long to show up."

We started a slow jog back to camp.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Octavian was in there, and I couldn't pass up the chance to mess with him." I explained what I had done, both just then and the last time I saw him, and they laughed.

"And now, you just sent them to mess with him again!" Kat was still laughing. "By the time the battle comes, he'll be too jumpy to do anything but look over his shoulder!"

I nodded, chuckling, and we continued the run back to camp.

We got back just before the conch sounded for dinner, giving us enough time to say goodbye and sprint back to our cabins.

I walked in to my cabin to find my siblings wandering around and talking, waiting for dinner. Most didn't notice me come in right away, but Malcolm met me at my bunk.

"Where'd you go?" he asked.

I handed him the note still laying on my bed. "For a walk," I replied in a duh! tone.

He rolled his eyes at me, and I smothered a grin. "I meant where did you walk? I looked all over for you!"

I shrugged. "Went up the beach. Found a cave up there that I hung out in for a while. That's probably why you couldn't find me." Truth, just not truth for today. We did go to the beach, there is a cave on the camp beach, and I do like to hang out there. That's just not where I was this time.

He studied me. "You're lying." And I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Prove it."

He didn't have anything to say to that, and he and I both knew it. He doesn't walk the beach as much as I do, and wouldn't know about my cave even if I told him how far to walk—not that I would. I like my hiding place. The only thing he had to go on was how well he knows me, and just because he was right doesn't mean I'll tell him that.

He gave me the stink eye and went to the door of the cabin to start the line for dinner.

After dinner was free time, which I used to read, then bed. I didn't expect to dream—I usually don't dream much, and if I do, it's really random stuff—but I was pleasantly surprised to dream Akron and Passalos messing with Octavian.

Once Octavian was alone in his tent, they seemed to melt from the shadows. They had either changed or covered their very loud clothes in exchange for darker colors, which helped them hide better. They jumped from the shadows, one to steal a medal from his armor, while the other one took the pin from the back of his toga. The look on his face when his toga gathered around his ankles, leaving him in only teddy bear undershorts, was absolutely hilarious! He sputtered and looked for the rascals, but couldn't find anything amiss, so put some clothes on. One brother then let Octavian spot him, then hid quite well when the flustered creep went looking. They kept messing with him various ways, and by the time my dream faded, Octavian was beyond frustrated. He kept glancing over his shoulder, convinced someone was with him, but he couldn't spot them. Oh, that was a great dream!

Unfortunately, I only got the one glimpse of the brothers, and the next few days were spent training and keeping tabs on where the Romans were.

Thanks to silverwolvesarecool for the review. You should really enjoy this chapter :) I know I did.

Everyone else, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and I want to know what you think!