All right, so some of you noticed and some didn't-I forgot to fill in the blanks with Bellator's name last chapter. (T-T) Epic blonde moment. I actually wrote the last two chapters before I knew what his name was going to be, so i just put blanks and decided to fill it in later, but I totally forgot yesterday. Kind of embarassing.

Okay, dilemma time: I am getting a teensy bit behind on writing-don't worry, nothing major, I'm still going to continue updating daily. But it's partially because I'm impatient to continue with the action (but I still have to include these chapters; they're important to the storyline) and also because I'm running out of in-between ideas-you know, all the stuff that goes between major events. Because I have all the major events planned, and some are even written already...but I need more little stuff to go in between the big stuff. Divergent-R-Us, I'd really appreciate if you told me some of those ideas you had-no matter what they are, I get a lot of little ideas from big ideas people have. So even if they're for major events, I'd like to hear them.

Now, time for: The Other Thing. The other thing I'm having problems with is the fact that I have sometimes found myself switching to that past-tensish thing Rick uses in his books, whereas I usually use present tensish. And I have to go back and edit, especially since I'll sometimes do have the chapter one way and have the chapter the other way. So, if you would tell me which way you would prefer me to do it, tell me, and if you don't care, just be forgiving of any mistakes, please.

I'm not gonna respond to reviews this chapter, since my Author's Note is already a little long, but I will next chapter, I promise.

Chapter LIV

Reyna

Reyna narrows her eyes suspiciously at the two boys, obviously twins. They have (describe them), and judging from their mischevious eyes and identical grins, Reyna would say they're sons of Mercury-Hermes, technically, since they're Greek.

"Who are you?" She asks. They step out of the woods completely and look at her for the first time. The one she heard called Connor looks her up and down with an approving look in his eyes that makes Reyna want to punch him. She's not here for romance.

That thought makes her glance quickly at Nico, still slumped against her shoulder, and then look guiltily away. She returns her attention to the twins.

"Well, actually, we're supposed to ask that first-"

"-but considering the fact that we're pretty sure you're Reyna, what with the fancy-schmancy cloak and all, we'll skip the formalities."

They exchange a brief look. Then the one she's pretty sure is Travis starts talking. "We're Travis-" He points to his chest.

"-and Connor-" the other one continues, tapping himself on the chest.

"Stoll," they finish in unison. "At your service, Your Majesty." They both say, bowing low and sweeping imaginary hats off their heads. When they straighten up, they're both grinning broadly.

"Call me that again and I'll cut out your tongues." Reyna threatens, resting her free hand on the sword belted at her waist.

"Oooh, a tough girl!" Travis says, pretending to be scared.

"What are you, a daughter of Ares-sorry, Mars?" Connor asks.

"No, no, Connor, she's obviously a daughter of Venus." Travis scolds his brother, shaking his head in disappointment. "Can't you tell? I mean, those eyes are a dead givaway."

Connor looks her up and down again. "You're probably right, Travis. It even feels like she's trying to suck out your soul and everything."

Reyna clenches her hand around the hilt of her sword. "Can I please, please kill them?" She asks Nico through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, no. The rest of the camp isn't exactly particularly attached to them, but it probably wouldn't give the best first impression if we killed the head counselors of the Hermes cabin as soon as we got here." Nico replies.

Reyna blows out a frustrated breath and glares at each of the twins in turn. "Are you going to take us to see Chiron, or are you just going to stand there?"

"How do you know about Chiron?" Travis asks suspiciously.

Reyna points at Nico. Travis' confusion immediately subsides, and his cheerful grin pops back into place.

"Sure, we'll take you to Chiron-" He starts.

"-Although Chiron might not be all that happy to see us since we stole half of his CD collection." Connor finishes.

"Whatever, just-" A sudden thought comes to her and she looks around in alarm. "Where's Coach Hedge?"

"Oh, the goat man?" Travis replies. "Yeah, he went down into camp about when we started talking to you."

"What?!" Reyna exclaims, staring down the hill, and even taking a step forward, only to stop when Nico starts to slide off her shoulder. She curses and grips his waist more securely, and then grabs his hand from where it's resting on her opposite shoulder and holds onto it to prevent him from falling again.

"Sorry, Reyna." He mumbles, his eyes half-closed.

"It's not your fault, Nico." She mutters to him, before returning her attention to the Stoll brothers. "What do you mean, he went into the camp? What's he doing?"

Travis shrugs. "He was probably excited to see Mellie."

"Who?" Reyna asks.

"Mellie." Connor repeats for his brother. "You know, his wife."

"His what?!" Reyna says.

"Yeah, she's an aura. They got married in May, right before he left on the Argo. They tried to keep it quiet, didn't want anyone to know, but we found out-" Travis begins to explain.

"-Because we happened to be hiding in the bushes nearby." Connor finishes, flashing Reyna what he obviously thought was an endearing grin. Reyna found it anything but-in fact, it was extremely annoying.

"That would've been nice to know." Reyna mutters irritatedly. "We really need to be going now." She tells the Stoll brothers.

"Yeah, we should be." They say, and then just stand there blankly. Reyna glares at them.

"Well?" She asks impatiently.

"Oh-Oh, you mean now, like now now. That's right, we have to show you the way. Silly us." Connor smacks himself in the forehead with the palm of his hand, but as he turns away, Reyna catches sight of his grin and knows he's just trying to frustrate her even more.

"This is going to be a long night." She says under her breath. Then she looks at Nico, falling asleep on her shoulder, and wonders what to do. There's no way she can carry him down the hill on her own, and no way is she asking the idiot twins-wait.

She twists her head sideways, searching the darkness. All she can see is a white glow out of the corner of her eye. "Bellator?" She asks tentatively.

The muffled sound of hooves on dirt alerts her to his movement, and the next second, her new white pegasus walks around her left side-the side she's supporting Nico with-and stands in front of her, ears pricked forward attentatively. His tail swishes back and forth as he waits for her to continue.

"Do you think you could-" She starts to ask, jerking her head towards Nico, but before she can finish, Bellator has already turned to offer his back, and even kneeled down in a kind of bow to make it easier for her to get Nico on his back.

Reyna sighs in relief and stumbles forward the few steps it takes to reach Bellator's side, pulling Nico along with her.

"Come on, Nico, Bellator's going to let you ride him." Reyna murmurs softly in his ear, gently extricating herself from him and then basically heaving him onto Bellator's back on her own. She tries to be as careful as possible, but it's kind of hard when the person you're trying to lift is half asleep.

"But...pegasi hate me." He mumbles, his eyelids drooping even more.

"Not this one, apparently." Reyna grunts, pushing one last time and finally getting him securely on the pegasus' back. "There." She sighs. "Bellator, please don't let him fall."

The pegasus snorts as if offended, and then slowly rises to a standing position. Nico hardly even moves.

"Thanks, Bellator." Reyna smiles warmly at the pegasus and strokes him lightly on the nose. Then she turns to follow the Stoll brothers, who stopped halfway down the hill and are now watching her.

"Are you coming, or what?" Connor yells back to her, grinning. Reyna rolls her eyes to the heavens and starts muttering reassurances to herself, refusing to look back at the twins.

"It's only for a few more minutes...I can't kill them, that would destroy any hope of peace...I wonder if they would object to them being hung upside down from a tree?" Reyna murmurs under her breath, carefully picking her way down the hill.

Bellator snorts behind her, and she could swear he sounds amused.

After finally managing to reign in her irritation, she takes her first look into Camp Half-Blood, halfway down Half-Blood Hill.

She's looking down into a beautiful, lush, green valley, maybe half the size of Camp Jupiter, but remarkable nonetheless. A two-story white farmhouse with a wrap-around porch appears to be the closest building, but besides that, she can see a cluster of buildings-barracks, maybe?-and then several more scattered around. She also sees a climbing wall with-is that lava?

Her inspection of the valley is interrupted by one of the Stolls-Connor, maybe? He stops on the hill a few yards in front of her, waves at his brother to go on, and then proceeds to wait for her to catch up with him, an enormous grin on his face. When she draws level with him, he starts walking again, matching his pace to hers.

"Hello, sunshine." He greets her cheerily. Reyna looks forward, determinedly refusing to look at him. "Look, sorry about earlier, my brother and I get carried away sometimes."

Please tell me this is not happening. Reyna thinks in disbelief.

"But I'm sure the real reason my brother said you must be a daugher of Aphrodite is because of how beautiful you are." Connor tones down the grin so he's only smiling warmly, with just a hint of mischeviousness.

It is happening. Reyna confirms to herself in a mixture of horror, incredulousnous, and revulsion. She decides to try the method that she always used at Camp Jupiter-just ignoring him-but he's ridiculously persistant.

"Even though you look a little travel-worn-in a good way, though. And maybe a little tired. If you want, though, I can get you a spot to sleep in the Hermes cabin with us. My brother and I, we're the head counselors." He tells her proudly.

Reyna's too appalled by his offer to immediately register his last statement-and when she does, her disbelief only grows. How in Hades did these two idiots become head counselors?

Connor's voice becomes softer, huskier-flirty. "Really, I mean it. You could have a lot of fun with me-I mean us. My brother and I." He grins a little. "And you know, you really are a very pretty girl, Reyna-that's your name, right? I didn't mess it up?"

Reyna continues to try and ignore him, but she can feel her irritation bubbling back up to the surface.

"Hey, listen-since you're probably going to be here for a while, what with the whole 'peace treaty' thing, would you like to go to the fireworks with me? We have them almost once a week, and they're next planned for this Saturday..." His voice trails off hopefully, but Reyna can still see a glint of troublemaker mischeviousness in his eyes.

She stops and finally turns to him. He looks at her hopefully, and she smiles warmly. He smiles back, and now she can see satisfaction in his eyes as well...

I'd bet anything his brother put him up to this as a bet. Reyna thinks, still with a flirtatious smile on her face. The idea just serves to make her irritation flare even more, but she keeps her mask up.

She glances down at the ground and then does a double-take, furrowing her brow and then stooping down as if she'd spotted something on the ground.

"What is it?" Connor asks. "Did you drop somethi-" He's cut off short when Reyna suddenly straightens, quick as a viper, and points the razor sharp point of her knife-the one she'd just retrieved from her boot-under his chin.

"Try to flirt with me again and I swear to all the gods I'll stick this knife in a much more sensitive area than your throat." Reyna snarls at him. "Got it?"

He swallows nervously, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "Got it." He squeaks.

"Good." Reyna replies, her tone clipped, and places the knife back in her boot. When she straightens, Connor is backing warily down the hill back towards his brother Travis, who's watching over his shoulder, obviously suppressing laughter.

Reyna has to suppress a grin of her own at Connor's expression, and she decides to ignore her irritation at Travis' smug smirk and just continues down the hill.

Behind her, she hears a soft whuffing sound, and turns to find Bellator bobbing his head, his gleaming golden eyes filled with mirth. That's when she realizes-he's laughing.

The pegasus' amusement does the opposite of what Travis' did-it makes the grin she'd been holding back spread wide across her face. Still, she smacks him lightly on the nose.

"Shut up, you." She tells him, but the his muffled whuffling only becomes louder.

Reyna turns back to face the camp, shaking her head, with a faint smile on her face. Horse laughter. That's new. She thinks amusedly.

But then her smile fades as she sees something ahead of her-a dark figure waiting for them on the farmhouse porch. She squints to make it out better in the darkness, and what she sees makes her stumble.

From the waist up, he's a man with thinning hair, a scruffy beard, and a wise, lined face. He's wearing an orange T-shirt similar to the one Percy was wearing when he first showed up at Camp Jupiter-and the ones the twins are wearing, she notes. But from the waist down...he has the body of a white horse. His human torso is grafted smoothly to where a horse's neck would connect, had he been a normal horse.

But he's not, obviously-he's a centaur. Which must mean he's Chiron, the one Nico told her about-the one that will help decide the fate of the camps.

Kind of a rough ending, I know-but it was getting too long.

I love you, don't forget to read that author's note at the top, eat all your sprinkles, and love blue food!