(A/N: Sorry I haven't updated, I was busy and junk. Anyway, enjoy this new chapter that's hopefully not too rushed!)
I stared at the drakon, thinking of how it was such a wonderful coincidence that I ended up here. Just spectacular.
Hey there, ugly, I greeted mentally.
Did I mention I could telepathically talk to monsters? Yeah, they could do my bidding too, turns out. Well, some.
Hm... you smell delicious, it replied to me, grinning? Can drakons even grin?
I summoned my blades, but unfortunately, the exhaustion finally hit me at that moment. I felt off-balanced and light-headed all of a sudden.
"Run!" I heard someone yell, prompting me to do so.
I ran up the hill, hearing the drakon yell things that were rather inappropriate and chasing after me. Once at the top of the hill, passed the barrier, the monster stopped, growling before sinking back to the bottom of the hill.
"Nice to see you again, Arina." At that moment, I saw the whole Apollo cabin armed with bows surrounding the perimeter of the camp.
"Nice to see you too, Michael," I replied before heading down to the Big House.
As I walked towards the building, I heard whispering around me. When I looked, I saw several campers from multiple cabins giving me odd looks, like fear and hatred. Understandable, though, I am a daughter of Hades.
When I arrived at the Big House, I only found Chiron but no Mr. D. I wasn't sure if I should've been relieved, or slightly worried.
"Arina! It's good you're back!" Chiron exclaimed when he saw me.
"Eh," I shrugged while looking around at the camp.
"Most of the campers are heading to breakfast now if you want to join them."
"Percy and Annabeth are here, right?" I confirmed.
"Yes,"
I nodded my head before walking towards the Dining Pavilion.
Chiron galloped up behind me. "You are welcomed to stay in the Hermes cabin if you would like, or the Big House if that suits you-"
"Attendance is down, isn't it?" I speculated as I noticed the drastic decrease in camp activities around me.
When I first came to camp, the place was bustling with half-bloods. Now, it seems and feels like a ghost town, and I know what those feel like.
"Yes, I'm afraid so. We believe some went to join Kronos' army, some might've died, and others, we do not know."
Once in the Dining Pavilion, a hush fell over all of the lines as they saw me. I saw friendly faces, but not enough to make me happy that I'm back.
I noticed a new person at the head table as I slipped into the Hermes' line. He seemed old, and he smelled quite... familiar.
Okay, I admit that sounds weird, like Mr. D getting your name right or Zeus being faithful weird. However, this guy's scent seemed awfully familiar, and I had a feeling it wasn't anything good.
"Nice to have you back," someone slapped me on the back, prompting me to turn.
"Nice to see you too, Travis," I greeted my head counsellor.
"Hey," to my surprise, Eliza was heading with us to the Hermes' table.
"You've been claimed?"
"Nope, Chiron says I'm here under... special circumstances," she answered cryptically.
I nodded my head before grabbing some food and walking over to the brazier for my burnt offering.
"Arina?"
I turned, seeing Percy behind me with a look of shock on his face.
"Hey, Barnacle Boy,"
Not long after breakfast, I was tackled by Annabeth, again, before catching up with her and Percy. Apparently, she's been looking for me everywhere.
"I was in Los Angeles, jeez,"
"You were in LA the whole time? I was in San-"
"I don't know how you couldn't find me, Annie, like, where else would I run away too?" I questioned her as we sat together near the strawberry fields.
Annabeth's eyebrows furrowed as she sat, deep in thought.
"So why did you sit with Percy this morning? Or is there something going on between you two that I don't know about?" I teased my friends, causing them to both turn bright red in embarrassment.
"I was just telling him about," Annabeth glanced around before saying, "the Labyrinth."
"The Labyrinth? The thing the Minotaur lived in?"
"Yeah," they both began explaining what Annabeth told Percy this morning to me.
After their explanation, I felt worried about Grover. He could either give up on his quest, which he obviously shouldn't do, or go into the Labyrinth, which seemed dangerous. How would he even navigate it without Ariadne's string? How would he even get back here? Also, a demigod practically lost his mind while there, what will happen to poor Grover?
"What is he gonna do?" I questioned.
"Honestly, I dunno," Percy stated with the shake of his head.
"Like he wants to find Pan, but going underground? That seems a bit too ballsy for him, no offence," I pointed-out.
"Yeah..."
Not long after that, they went off to do their camp activities as I wandered around, wondering what I should do. Chiron didn't give me a schedule, and honestly, I didn't feel like asking him about it.
I wandered around camp saying hi to a couple of my friends, but mostly just stuck by myself, which wasn't that hard. When basically everyone hates or is scared of your father, you end up alone most of the time.
Is that why most Hades children are loners? I thought to myself before I stumbled across a hellhound in the arena.
Hi! the hellhound greeted me enthusiastically.
This may come as a shock to you, but my first instinct was not to attack the monster. Living in the Underworld gives you vast respect towards hellhounds, especially when your dad owns one that has three heads and it guards the gate of the Underworld.
"Hi there," I patted the monster's head, having to jump to reach its head.
"Huh, most campers are scared of her, well, not Percy, of course."
I turned around, seeing a man that I recognized as the new swordsmen trainer the others told me about. He was walking towards me with a couple of bewildered and possibly frightened campers.
"Hellhounds like me," I elaborated as the monster tried getting my attention again.
"Hm, seems like Mrs. O'Leary does," Quintus agreed with me. "You kids are dismissed, go on to your next activities!"
The kids ran off then, appearing to want to put as much distance they can between themselves and Mrs. O'Leary, or rather me.
"Who are you anyway? I don't think we have any classes,"
"I'm Arina," I introduced as Mrs. O'Leary got bored of me and started chewing on a practice dummy lazily.
Quintus eyebrows raised, "Daughter of Hades?"
"Yeah," I replied before continuing out of the arena while an odd sense of unease grew in my stomach.
Something about him just... seems off.
I proceeded to think about it until late afternoon when I met up with Silena for a quick riding session on some pegasi.
"How are things between you and Beckendorf?" I inquired as I saddled up on a pegasus named Porkpie, who seemed visibly frightened of me.
Gods, now pegasi are scared of me? Don't tell me all the nature spirits are too!
"Well, there's nothing between us at all. My cabin members think I should just use my powers or something to make him like me, but I want it to be genuine." She admitted as we went up.
"Who gave you that crap advice?"
"Hey,"
"Ugh... you know most of your cabinmates are jerks right? Like Drew, for example, she's so abusive towards her power." I complained as we soared over the woods.
"I get that, but they're still my siblings,"
"Half-siblings," I corrected her as we saw lines of demigods file towards the Dining Pavilion,
"C'mon, let's just head back," and with that, we descended back towards the stables.
Once we finished cleaning up, we raced towards the Dining Pavilion, joining our respected lines for dinner.
Turns out, we had a 'special' activity planned for that night that only meant one thing. Fighting, monsters, and competition.
Quintus split us into pairs, and I ended up with someone that wasn't terrified or hated my guts. Eliza, the girl I helped rescued from Westover Hall in the winter.
The game was simple, get a silk package with a laurel inside from the monster. There were six monsters, and each one had a package. However, only one of them had a laurel inside. Point is, get it and not die, y'know, average teenage stuff.
I wasn't an excellent tracker, so I left that to Eliza while I created false trails from our competitors to follow once the games started.
"What kind of monster do you think it is?" I asked her as we passed the creek in the woods.
"Well, there were crates in the arena this morning. Mid-afternoon, they were gone. I bet whatever was inside is out now."
"Really? I thought it was in our dinner?" I gasped sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes before silencing me, looking around carefully before bringing out her broadsword.
There was a rustling in the bushes not too far from where we were followed by yelling and fighting. The voices sounded familiar, so I went to them.
"Arina!"
I arrived by Zeus' Fist and saw three scorpions surrounding it, but no one there. They were all pushing around the cluster of boulders before noticing me.
"What the- oh Styx," Eliza had caught up to me, staring in awe at the scorpions.
"G-guess one of these guys has the laurel, right?" I summoned my blades.
"Unfortunately, yes," and with that, we had to fight three scorpion monsters.
Fortunately for us, we weren't alone for much longer. Not too long after, the Stoll brothers came by looking for the monsters too and ended up helping us take them down.
"No laurels, that's disappointing," I stated with the shake of my head after we examined the silk packages.
"How did you even come across not one, but three monsters?" Travis questioned.
"Dunno,"
"I followed her over here,"
Then, a conch sounded, signalling the end of the game.
We all headed back to the beginning of the woods, seeing Clarisse standing proudly with the laurels with the rest of our competition.
"Okay, that's unfair, we fought three monsters and didn't get a laurel! How did you get one?" Connor quizzed her.
"How did you get three?" Now Quintus was surprised.
"I thought I heard Annabeth and Percy yelling and found three scorpions around Zeus' Fist." I elaborated with a shrug.
"Where are Annabeth and Percy, anyway?"
We looked around and saw the duo nowhere in sight. At first, I wasn't that worried. However, after an hour of searching, I was getting concerned.
"Percy! Annabeth!" Tyson yelled as we checked Zeus' Fist again.
By some miracle, those two crawled out from behind some boulders.
"Where the Hades have you two been?" I exclaimed, running towards them.
"What do you mean?" Percy and Annabeth looked at each other, confused.
"You guys have been missing for over an hour!" Clarisse elaborated as the rest of the search party arrived.
"No way, we've only been gone for like what, two minutes?"
"Where have you been?" I repeated with my arms crossed.
"We fell in a hole," Percy said.
I raised my eyebrows at that, skeptical.
"Seriously! Three scorpions were after us and-"
"So it was you, you guys were here," I stated.
"What do you mean?" he looked confused.
Before I could explain further, Annabeth and Clarisse had a cryptic conversation which led to the rest of us getting sent to bed. However, I did hear one clear thing before leaving.
Whatever those two found, Luke was after. If Luke was after something, it couldn't mean anything good.
"Maybe it was some ancient monster," Travis suggested as we got ready for bed.
After we were all sent to bed, I revealed my discovery to my friends in the Hermes cabin. These kids may be crooks, thieves, and unclaimed half-bloods, but they've grown to be my family. Well, the ones that have been here since I first started three years ago.
"What would Luke want with a monster? And if it was a monster, y'know Percy would be dumb enough to pick a fight with it." I pointed-out to him.
"Ooh, maybe it's the entrance to the Labyrinth!" Eliza suggested from above me.
Due to the rapidly declining number of demigods, I have been given back my old bottom bunk and Eliza is now the top. Do I know what happened to my old top bunker? Nope, I don't remember there being one anyway.
"Yeah, could be, and having it in the heart of the camp would be pretty bad." I agreed with a shrug.
"Pretty bad? It would suck, we only have eighty campers, we'll be swamped!" Connor exclaimed.
Just as we were going to continue speculating, one of the older campers yelled at us to 'shut up and get to sleep' before shutting off the lights.
(Dreams)
I was running down a long, dark corridor, feeling confused and worried. I didn't know where I was going but I had a feeling I would be found soon.
"Hey! Get back here, demigod!"
I turned, seeing a shadowy figure behind me. They advanced towards me, resulting in me bursting into a run.
This creature was far from human judging from the slithering and hissing noises it made the closer it got to me, nearly catching me if it weren't for the walls changing and trapping it behind it.
"You can't run forever!"
My vision then faded and morphed to a camp much different than Camp Half-Blood. Everyone looked serious and ghosts moved in out of shadows easily.
"Honestly, Jason, I don't see why you keep on avoiding her. You like her, and she obviously-"
"No, she doesn't. I'm from the Fifth! She's from the Third, why would she like me?" This reply came from a blond guy with a scar near his bottom lip.
The guy he was talking to had dark brown hair with subtle red highlights in it. He was the same height as the other guy but seemed to have more confidence.
"She'll like you no matter what cohort your in, just ask her and find out."
"But-"
"Dude, you're literally the son of Jupiter, girls would be lining up to just be near you."
Just then, a very familiar-looking girl appeared, laughing with two other girls.
"Really? She said that to her?" a girl with reddish-brown hair exclaimed, looking to be the oldest.
"Damn, you think she's a half-blood?" a girl with a feather in her hair questioned.
"Probably not, if she was, she would've come to camp already." The girl who said this seemed to be the leader of the trio, looking much more mature and serious than the other two.
"Hey, check it out, it's Reyna. How'd I look?" Just as the brown-haired guy said this, the scene shifted again.
I appeared in a place that seemed to be snowing. An Asian teenage boy hugged an older woman, presumably his mother, with tears in his eyes.
"I'll be fine."
"But-"
"It's only going to be ten months, then I'll be back," the lady promised her son.
The boy sighed, "Fine, just be safe."
"I will,"
The scene zoomed in on a figure in the distance with an army-like uniform.
"Hopefully you'll make it through this battle, unlike my brother's prediction."
(Dream ended)
Surprisingly, I was allowed to come to the war council meeting. Typically, only head counsellors were permitted, and any adults/gods interested. However, due to not having a cabin in general, they made an exception for me. As well, Grover was there with his dryad girlfriend, Juniper.
"Luke must have known about the Labyrinth entrance. He knew everything about the camp," Annabeth said with noticeable pride in her voice.
"That's what I was trying to tell you last night!" Juniper went into a short explanation of how she saw Luke using it before.
The others continued talking as an idea formed in my head.
About three years ago, I went missing near Zeus' Fist. I was transported to the Underworld, but when I tried coming back, I went missing for days. What if I got trapped in the Labyrinth for that time? It would make perfect sense.
"Arina?"
"Huh?" I realized I ended up staring at Percy, resulting in both of us blushing.
"Did you want to add anything?" Chiron inquired.
"Um... no, not really," I had honestly no clue what they said.
"Then it's decided."
What was decided?
"Annabeth will lead the quest. It is time for your meeting with the Oracle."
