Dear Elijah:
How have you been? I'm writing to inform you that –
Nope, Arianna couldn't use that, way too formal.
Hey, sorry I made it look like you lied to the principal –
Ugh, that was somehow worse.
Thanks for indirectly saving my life :)
She ripped the notebook paper in half and threw it in the wastebasket with her last thirty or so failed attempts. Good thing it was her notebook, she would've felt so bad if she'd wasted someone else's paper. How the heck was she supposed to write a stupid letter?
"Hey, don't give up," Billie encouraged. "You'll get it eventually."
It was just them and Thom in the cabin at the moment; Miranda still hadn't come back from her meeting. "Thanks… I didn't think this'd be so hard."
"Letters are always hard," Billie responded. "You have to be like, 'Are these words kinda spelled right? Anything backwards? Is there anything more fun I could be doing right now?'"
"You could water the tree," Thom suggested. "She says she's thirsty. I think the roof needs some new grass –"
"I was making a joke, Thom, not looking for chores."
"I'll do them," Arianna volunteered.
Her half-siblings looked at her like she was crazy. She hadn't quite ruled that out yet, given how her whole week had gone. But she just had no idea what to do with two whole days' worth of downtime. She'd already read the books her dad had sent (her favorites from the Nancy Drew series), there wasn't really anything she needed to repair, and she didn't have to cook anymore, so there went most of her hobbies.
"…you really miss farming, huh," Thom said after a few seconds. "What do you do in the winter?"
"Take care of the animals, school, I bake a lot… sometimes Dad and I go camping…"
"In the winter?" Billie asked. "Why?"
"There's too much work to do when it's nice out, and no one can come milk the cows." Usually her uncle would come do that, or one of her older cousins. They lived pretty close, just over in Foster.
Thom nodded. "That's for sure, and my dad didn't have any animals so there was like, nothing for us after harvest."
"Huh. My dad's a biogeneticist," Billie said. "I guess I'm learning today… wait, where are you from where winter's that bad?"
"Wisconsin."
"Saskatchewan. So, Canada."
"Okay, forget I asked. We barely even got snow some years where I'm from."
"Lucky," Thom muttered.
They probably would've continued the conversation, but Miranda opened the cabin door. "Everyone decent? We have a visitor!"
"Yeah!" Billie called back.
"Who're they here for?" Arianna asked. She wasn't expecting anyone, she was gonna hang out with Skye later, but she was probably still busy.
"You," Miranda replied. "It's Kieran, he's got something he needs to ask you."
Okay, that was fine. She liked Kieran, he seemed relatively sane. As he and Miranda stepped through the doorway, he asked his question and maybe sane was a bit of a stretch.
"Wanna go on a quest?"
Arianna knew a little more about what quests were since she'd watched the orientation video. They usually involved fighting monsters somehow; he had to know people who were better at that than she was, her track record was abysmal. But since he was asking… "Maybe, I guess? What could I do?"
"Well…" He looked really uncomfortable; he'd started playing with one of the curls that was trying to escape from his hat. "Uh… at the meeting… some people kinda tried to say you should lead one, 'cause of all the… stuff." Oh.
"I didn't let them," Miranda reassured her, "and Clarisse backed me up, so we compromised."
"Yeah. I promised I'd ask you so it'd at least be someone you knew – and if you don't wanna go it's okay, I totally understand, I guess Rachel hasn't had any prophecies –"
"I'll go," Arianna interrupted. If she didn't agree… well, Kieran said it'd be fine, but she really doubted everyone else would see it that way. "Who's our third?" Quests were supposed to have three people, she remembered that much.
"Haven't figured that out yet. Got any ideas?"
She looked back at Thom and Billie. Thom was violently shaking his head; Billie just shook hers once. "Um… not really."
"Well, here's as good a place as any to talk about that," Miranda offered. "If you guys are all okay with that."
"Go ahead, I should probably go help with the strawberries anyways. Later!" Thom said as he practically sprinted out of the cabin.
Billie shrugged. "I wasn't doing much anyways; I'll just use my headphones if it bothers me."
"Cool. Here, Kieran, you can use the desk chair," Miranda said. Their cabin had one desk in addition to its six bunks (which apparently weren't even full in the summer), trunks, and giant living tree. As she guided him to the chair in question, she asked, "Anything else you guys need?"
Yes. So many things. Like a psych evaluation. Arianna settled for asking, "What kind of stuff do you bring on a quest?"
"Good question. I'll ask Sherman, he's been on loads of missions from the war. I guess you guys have one of those, now that I think about it, but 'quest' is shorter."
Right, apparently there'd been an actual war for the past few years and it'd just ended in August with that "storm system". "All my stuff fits in a backpack, so I was just gonna bring everything," Kieran commented. So'd hers, now that she thought about it, but it'd be good to know what all else they needed to find.
"Thanks, Miranda," Arianna said.
"Not a problem! I should be back soon, I trust y'all not to try anything."
Uh, what was that supposed to mean? They'd known each other for like, three days! Or maybe that was why she trusted them? It wasn't like they'd even be alone… "W-we w-won't," Kieran stammered.
"Good." Miranda was smirking when she closed the door behind herself.
"Okay, she's gone, now's your chance! I'll turn away," Billie joked. Kieran's expression could best be described as "horrified".
Arianna decided not to tease him – her own face was probably pretty red. "Sure ya don't wanna come with?" she asked.
"I'm good."
"That's what I thought… okay, so let's look at our options. If Skye wasn't hurt I'd say we could ask her… who all do you know at Camp?"
"Pretty much the same people you do. That I really talk to, anyways," he answered.
"Hm… maybe it'd help if we made a list? I've got paper right here," Arianna said, gesturing to the notebook on her bed.
His face lit up. "Hey, yeah! Let's do it!"
"How're we gonna sort this, by cabin? How likely they are to say 'yes'?"
"Uh… I was just gonna start writing names down, but if we do it by cabin we shouldn't miss anyone."
"Exactly." If Arianna didn't have some kind of system it was really hard for her to keep track of things. Like, she kept all her school stuff in a pile by the door, she milked the cows in numerical order… wait, the cabins had numbers too, that'd work.
Kieran went and picked up the notebook and pencil… right, they actually needed those. "We can ignore the first three cabins, Percy's already got something to do… did your whole cabin just reject us?"
"Yup. So now we're on… five? Which one's that?"
"Ares," he supplied. "We both know Diego… anyone else?"
"I talked to Sherman like, once? Does that count?"
Kieran wrote his name down. "Sure, we're writing down literally anyone who hasn't already said no. So no HCs."
"Okay." Like she even knew who all of them were. It didn't take them long to finish the list, apparently they both had really small social circles. Huge compared to the… two people she actually talked to back at school, but still.
They'd only been able to add Austin, Sean, Cecil, Brenna, Aurora, Jared, Jasmine, and they could've written Jess's name down but Kieran was really against that for some reason. So they had nine options, and half of the people they'd listed were because one of them had talked to them a few times. Great. "So how are we supposed to narrow this down?" Kieran asked.
"I dunno, who do you wanna spend time with? Wait, what's our goal?"
"We're gonna see if we can find Apollo while he's driving the sun chariot. He's gotta know what's going on."
Thank goodness it wasn't something more insane like "kill a hydra". Arianna never wanted to see another monster. She knew it was gonna happen eventually, but… the last time sucked, to put it lightly. Maybe it'd go better now that she had a weapon of her own, and more importantly, mobility. "Sounds fun," she said once she realized she was probably taking too long to respond.
"…yeah… I dunno how we're gonna do it when neither of us can legally drive, but I'm sure we'll figure something out." He hadn't quite picked up on her sarcasm.
"Who do we know who can drive?" she asked. Sure, she could drive, but she'd mostly just driven tractors and her dad's old Ford truck with the broken gear shift. And she was well aware that she did not look old enough.
"Um… Brenna has a driver's license… but last night doesn't really make up for the last couple weeks."
Okay, no big deal, public transit existed. She wasn't sure how it worked, but surely someone would know. "Is she the only one?"
"Yeah, I think everyone else is too young… Sherman's in driver's ed. with me, I think? Probably. Oh wait, Diego's eighteen now, he might know how to drive."
"We can ask, I guess."
"Yup. We should probably ask him first anyways, since he actually knows how to fight – no offense."
Why would she be offended? It was true. "None taken. So then, if he says no…"
"Cecil? Y'all get along okay," Kieran suggested.
"Sure. Or Austin?" Arianna wasn't sure he'd want to, but they had so few options…
"Right, he's literally a son of Apollo. And if he says no… I guess Sean. I'd rather not ask him but I know he'd say yes. And we are hanging out tomorrow…"
Had she heard that right? "If he'd say yes, why not ask him?"
"Well… I know we're friends and all, but he's been teasing me a lot lately."
Because he likes you, she thought. That was a thing friends did, or… well, she didn't wanna assume. But if Kieran wasn't okay with that, it made total sense why he wouldn't wanna deal with it for who knew how long. "Makes sense. I guess that takes care of that. When'd ya wanna go ask people?"
"It'd probably be easiest to wait 'til dinner which is… is that clock right?"
"Huh?" They had a clock? "Probably."
"Then we've got half an hour. So I guess I'd better go, then."
"You can stay if you want," she offered. Then she remembered Billie was also in the cabin and maybe she should ask permission from her, too. "…if that's okay with –"
Billie interrupted, "It's your cabin too, y'know. And Miranda's still not back." What… she had headphones on, how'd she hear that?
"Oh. Right. Uh… how's… I was gonna ask how camp life was going for you and then I remembered yesterday, so… how come y'all have a tree?" Kieran asked.
"I dunno, I'm still trying to figure out why we can't see it from outside," Arianna replied.
"That is weird, now that you mention it. But Thom says she's still getting sun," Billie added.
The three of them continued to make small talk until Miranda returned a few minutes before dinner. She had a backpack in one hand and was using the other to adjust her shirt collar. "Here you go! Sherman says you'll wanna bring your pillow too. And clothes and toiletries and stuff – don't worry about paying for anything, you're doing a mission so we didn't have to pay for anything."
"Seriously, thank you guys so much," Arianna said. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Come back," Miranda responded and it could've been a joke if her eyes didn't look so sad. She said it like it was a joke. "So, did you find another person yet?"
"We've… got options," Kieran ventured. "But we should probably head over to dinner for now."
They did; when they got there Kieran split off to join the Poseidon table. Thom beat them all there; he was already sipping something from his goblet. "Got everything worked out?" he asked.
"Mostly," Arianna lied. After that, the conversation shifted to the much safer topic of the next week's schedule that Miranda was working on. She didn't really participate since she wasn't gonna be there, but that was fine; she'd already talked so much and she was still gonna go meet Skye. Before that, though, she and Kieran had some people to question.
It wasn't exactly hard for them to find Diego; what was hard was getting him alone. Arianna didn't really think it was necessary, he was just talking to Brenna and the missions weren't exactly a secret, but Kieran thought they should ask him in private so she just went with it.
…which, in hindsight, turned out to be for the best. "You know what? As long as Brenna's not coming, I'm down," was Diego's response. Arianna almost asked why, since it sure didn't look like they were fighting, but she figured it wasn't her business.
"Pretty sure we only get three people," Kieran pointed out.
"That never stops Percy or Annabeth," Diego countered. "So sure, I'll come with. Since Jess doesn't want me to go with her…"
Yeah, he didn't sound bitter about that at all. "She's got one of these too?" Arianna asked.
"Well, her cabin, but she won whatever competition they had for the right to go and picked Laurel and Holly. And maybe if she'd told me herself I wouldn't care so much, but I found out from Laurel while we were playing volleyball. With Jess."
"Dude, I thought you hated volleyball," Kieran commented. That was his take-away?
"I do. I got caught in the Nike Cabin, long story, and they're up against my cabin in volleyball this week so it was basically practice with them or they'd tell Chiron. I hate kitchen duty way more than I hate volleyball, and they mostly just wanted me to block so it wasn't that bad. But anyways, it wouldn't have been that hard to tell me during that, considering Laurel managed it when we weren't even on the same team."
"That's rough," Arianna replied because she didn't know what else to say.
"And then," he continued, "Jess said she didn't want any distractions, and they really wanted to go, and she was gonna tell me after the match. I guess that's fine, but she was so upset that we never got the same assignments during the war, so I thought…"
He trailed off, and Arianna took the opportunity to change the subject. "Have you been on a quest before?"
"No… well, sort of. It wasn't official and I wasn't at Camp yet, but I helped. Missions, though, my cabin's done a ton of those," Diego answered; he seemed less upset, which was good. "Oh, speaking of, what are we doing?"
Kieran explained, and then commented, "That's maybe something to ask about before you agree, bro."
"Name one person we know who'd do that," Diego challenged. "Oh wait, you probably did, right, Arianna?"
"Nope, I made the same mistake," she admitted.
"…Clarisse, maybe?" Kieran guessed. "Or Chris?"
"Okay, she would, yeah. But if you think Chris would sign up for this, you… were you around before the Battle of the Labyrinth?"
And just like that, Arianna had no idea what they were talking about. War stuff? "Yeah, for like a week, but Chris joined us after I thought?" Kieran replied.
"He was here before I was. He just… took a summer off, and, uh… he was back when you got here, then, he was just… he wasn't feeling well."
Diego was absolutely holding something back, even she could tell that much. "If you say so," Kieran said, not sounding convinced at all. "Off-topic, do you drive?"
"No… the war kind of got in the way of learning. Plus Brenna and Jess both do so I haven't really needed to." Diego paused. "I take that back. Jess drives. Brenna uses vehicles to commit crimes against the gods. Oh, shit… she's still waiting for me, are we good?"
"Yeah, we've still got tomorrow to prep and stuff," Kieran responded. "There's gonna be vans leaving on Monday starting at eight to get everyone to the city. I guess Argus is doing it like a shuttle so there's not as many people in the same place at once."
"Good to know," Arianna commented. That was something else she maybe should've asked about.
They went their separate ways after agreeing to meet at 7 p.m. the next day. There was no way she'd forget that, since it was the only thing she actually had scheduled aside from meals. Weekends sucked.
But they couldn't suck that much, she supposed, if they were the only times her and Skye's free time matched up. They'd planned on meeting by the lake, because there was no way Arianna could possibly mistake it for a different place.
She'd thought she'd be the first one there, but Skye had been faster. "There you are!" she exclaimed as she went for a hug. "How was your first week at Camp?"
"It… could've gone better, but I think I'm making friends? I guess I'm going on a mission or a quest or whatever."
They broke contact; Skye looked worried, and okay, Arianna definitely should've tried harder to figure out what she was agreeing to. She wouldn't make that mistake again. "Already? Oh gods, you've barely had training, how'd that happen?"
"Did you hear about Capture the Flag last night?"
"I've heard rumors. What actually happened?"
Arianna gave her the short version – she'd literally just finished causing a distraction for Miranda and she figured she'd better find a way across too. She did, but then she saw the dragon… "And Kieran saw it too so I knew it had to be real. We told Chiron right away, and people kept asking us stuff about it but we didn't know where it came from, it was just… there!"
"It didn't attack you, did it?"
"No, thank goodness. But it did attack later, when everyone was at the beach, and I don't really know what happened then 'cause me and Kieran were trying to avoid people. And then there's campfire."
"That bad, huh?"
"Oh yeah. We hid in the back, but people still talked… I'm just glad no one saw us. Brenna and Diego came and sat in front of us, you know who they are, right?"
Skye grimaced. "I sure do. I was in a van with Jess for ten hours. Well, I've talked to Brenna before, but after that happened."
"Ah. Wait, it only took ten hours?"
"Trust me, you don't wanna know how fast we were going. But they seem like decent people."
"They are, I think. I dunno, I've only known them a couple days. Anyways, they helped us hide, and Diego actually spoke up when people were saying I made this Mr. D. guy go missing?"
"That's ridiculous!" Skye exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest. "There's no way that's got anything to do with you!"
Arianna wasn't so sure about that anymore; she knew she didn't do anything, but… what if people were right about her being cursed? "Mhm. I woulda said something myself, but I was scared. There were so many people, a lot of 'em sounded like they were mad at me…"
"I get it. I don't usually materialize when there's lots of people around."
Suddenly her habit of disappearing in the hallway made a lot more sense. "I wish I could do that," Arianna said.
"It's not too hard once you get the hang of… oh wait, you're not a nature spirit."
"I'm not."
"That complicates things… oh, right, so: how'd you end up on a quest, and why didn't you ask me?"
Arianna not-so-subtly looked down at the bandages that were poking out from under Skye's skirt. "You're still hurt. And really it was Kieran's call since he's leading it."
"M-hm. Really, it's not so bad, I don't have to walk. I just do the motions out of habit."
Right. "You told me you walk around mortals, and it's still an injury!"
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. So you're going because…?"
"I just wanna prove I didn't do any of that stuff, and maybe people'll stop staring all the time. That'd be nice."
Skye smiled. "I don't think they ever really stop, but it'll be positive attention this time. You guys got this."
"Thanks. So how's your week been?"
"Stressful. Really stressful. Gods, I'm glad you're okay!"
"I'm glad you're okay! I was worried."
"But you were…"
Arianna wasn't sure why being hurt worse meant she couldn't be worried about her friend. The two things weren't mutually exclusive. "Yep."
"I should've known… anyways: quest details."
"Sure." She was grateful for the change of subject. Once she'd finished sharing the information she actually knew, Skye sighed in relief.
"That's not impossible. Have you told your dad yet?"
Oh, shoot – she hadn't. "I'll write tomorrow. I've got a lot to try and explain." Sure, her other letter wasn't going so well, but she knew she'd be able to write to her dad.
"Good idea. Tell him I say 'hi!'"
"I will," Arianna promised. "Oh, hey, I never got to ask – what kind of work do you do? Aside from the protector thing."
"Mostly I help out in the kitchens, you probably noticed they've got these magic plates now? Someone's still gotta make the food."
"Oh wow, that's gotta be hard, there's so much different stuff!"
Skye shook her head. "Not really, we're still doing the same kind of food we did before. There just needs to be something for them to change. You can't make something out of nothing."
"Huh. Anything else?"
"Sometimes I help supervise activities if too many satyrs are busy; you probably won't see me doing that though, I'm usually in the air."
"Cool."
"I guess. Weekends are chill enough that I don't have to do too much usually."
Arianna muttered, "Well, there's one good thing about them…"
"Hi, my name's Arianna Parker and I'm a workaholic," Skye teased.
"Skye!" Arianna protested. Did she have to say it in her voice, too? "I'm not a workaholic. I just don't like being bored!"
"The first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem," Skye said, thankfully in her own voice that time. "Plus there's these things called hobbies…"
Arianna knew she was fighting a losing battle, but she defended herself anyways. "I have hobbies!"
"Housework is not a hobby."
"Okay, but I read," she pointed out.
"I guess that counts. Did anyone show you the library?"
No, but then Brenna had made it pretty clear that she'd never set foot in a place like that unless she had to, so she probably hadn't thought it'd be important. "Lemme guess, it's in the Big House somewhere."
"Yep. That place is aptly named. Usually there's someone there who helps Chiron out with teaching, but for now it's Aspen since her tree's closest. The teachers are really busy right now, there's not usually this many people staying year-round."
"Can we go there?"
"Tomorrow," Skye promised. "I've got some time in the morning. It's just a bit too late right now."
Arianna could see what she meant; the sun was starting to set. "Sounds like a plan."
"All right! Hang out outside, I'll find you."
They continued to talk for a while longer, and it was so nice to be talking to someone she actually knew. Like, well. Arianna did remember that lights out was a thing when she saw other campers start heading inside, so that eventually ended their conversation.
But the next day, Skye proved true to her word; she found Arianna pretty much the second she set foot outside the Demeter cabin. They headed straight for the library, and aside from a young woman with pine needles in her hair at the front desk they were alone.
The room itself wasn't much bigger than a high school classroom, but it was packed with shelves, most of which were full of books. Some of them held scrolls, one was packed with loose pages, and a couple units were empty. "Just don't mess with the scrolls," the woman (who Arianna assumed was Aspen) said as they walked in. "I don't remember which ones are, like, old, and which ones are, like, dangerous." She had more pine needles in her hands; it looked like she was making something.
"We won't," Arianna assured her. Was she making a basket? There were a lot of misshapen needle baskets piled on the front desk. In any case, it didn't seem like she wanted to be bothered.
And then Aspen actually looked up. "Oh. You're not Simon. Are you his sister or something? Like, most of the people who come here are in his cabin. Malcolm, Maria, Annabeth, Lisa, Brittney… Franklin…"
"Aspen, she's from the Demeter cabin," Skye interrupted. "This is Arianna. Arianna, Aspen."
"Ah, hey, Skye. I swear, Cy only gives me her shortest needles… want a basket? For books? There's so many. Please take them."
"…nice to meet you too," Arianna said. She refrained from pointing out that none of the baskets were big enough to hold a book.
"Likewise," Aspen replied, not seeming to realize that her response didn't quite fit. "Hey, is that dragon gone yet? Cy says she's staying close to her tree until it is. I'd probably know if I left this place much but my tree's not by anyone else's, so I'm out of the loop."
"They're working on it," Skye responded. "Though, Cy's tree isn't anywhere near where it was…"
Aspen exclaimed, "But she's a conifer! Anything with that much fire is so dangerous!"
"Right, sorry," Skye apologized.
"Do you need any books?" Aspen asked, completely changing her tone. "There's lots of books. I can't read but I think when I die I'd like to be a book 'cause, like, knowledge lives forever. That or a boat. Boats are cool."
"Uh…" Arianna figured it'd be safer not to respond to the latter part of what she'd said. "Sure? I should probably do some research before tomorrow." And she could look up stuff about her mom, too – she was sure there were myths about Demeter but the only one she knew was the one about Persephone.
"Cool. Fun. There's a basket for returns. Don't worry about putting them back, Simon will do that when he comes in; he doesn't like it when I do it 'cause I guess they all have spots? Where they go? And I can't just put them anywhere there's room?"
There was a basket under that pile of books on the counter? "Thanks, Aspen," Skye said as she led Arianna down the closest aisle. "So we need information on Apollo?"
"Yeah. And Demeter. You don't hafta help if you don't wanna…"
"Someone's gotta make sure you come back out!"
"I'd have to eat eventually," Arianna said. She was glad Skye was staying, though, that gave them more time together. And it'd be a lot faster to look through everything with two people.
As it turned out, Apollo did a lot of stuff. And people. And plants, apparently. But they found out something that'd actually be relevant: where the sun chariot started out. It was the easternmost point in the U. S., which they also looked up. Some place called West Quoddy Head, Maine, which seemed like the wrong name but three maps and a tourism guidebook agreed.
They also learned that there was a dawn chariot that went out before the sun chariot. That'd be something to look for too. As for Demeter, Arianna resolved to never make her mad. She'd done some scary things when she was mad. "I wonder if we should just talk to Eos," Arianna muttered as she brought her stack of books up to the counter.
"Maybe; you'd probably run into her first anyways," Skye replied.
"I guess I'll ask the guys later. Thanks for helping – I'd better go actually write to Dad now."
"Hey, not a problem! I'll check and see if Rhodey needs me to help out today, then, since you'll be busy. In case I don't see you later, or tomorrow, or…" Ever again? "…good luck."
They didn't say anything else with words, but Skye's hug spoke volumes. That could've been the last time they'd hang out together, Arianna realized. Neither of them was really in a hurry to part, but eventually, they did.
The Demeter cabin was empty when Arianna got back, which was great, 'cause she had… forty-five minutes to work with. They'd been in the library for a while – somehow neither of them had noticed that they'd missed lunch. But at least that made sense for Skye, eating was apparently optional for her. Arianna had no such excuse.
She was making solid progress on her letter (two sentences that she liked was progress), when Miranda walked in. "Oh, thank the gods… where have you been?"
"I was doing some research, for the mission," Arianna said slowly, shoving her notebook under her pillow. "Didn't I tell you?"
"No? Did you even eat today? When did you get back?"
Oh. She really had thought she'd mentioned it before lights out… but maybe not. Oops. "Not long, I'm sorry, I thought I said something… am I in trouble?"
"No, no, you're not in trouble," Miranda reassured her, more quietly than she'd been speaking before. "But we were worried when you skipped lunch… can I…?"
"Huh? Oh, sure, go ahead." Miranda sat down next to her on the bed.
"Is something wrong? Is it the quest? I knew we should've explained those better –"
"Everything's fine," Arianna interrupted.
Miranda wasn't convinced. "It's not too late to back out, I doubt anyone would blame you."
"I have to do it, I already said I would!" Arianna protested. "So I gotta. I didn't do any of the stuff that's going on."
"I know you didn't," Miranda consoled her. "You've got nothing to prove."
But she did, she'd heard Drew. "I just wanna figure out what's happening."
"We all do, hun. Hopefully we'll know more soon."
"Yeah…"
"C'mon, let's go get some food. You can't miss two meals."
Ope, it was actually suppertime. Arianna's other half-siblings interrogated her for a bit, but apart from that the meal was uneventful. About halfway through she realized that she, Kieran, and Diego had never actually said where they were gonna meet. She tried to track them down afterwards, but no luck.
Fortunately there was still time, so she hung out near the cabins, figuring that one of them would have to pass through the area at some point. And if they didn't, well, she'd find them eventually.
"What're you up to?"
Arianna turned to see who'd spoken; she didn't have many people's voices down yet. It was Brenna, and… oh, shoot, how much was she supposed to know about the mission or quest or whatever they were calling it? "Just hanging out," was Arianna's reply. "You?"
"Oh, you know, just trying to figure out what I'm gonna do for the next few days since everyone's leaving."
So she did know, then. "Everyone?"
"Well, all my friends, anyways. I love my half-siblings and all, but sometimes it's nice to hang out with people you don't live with, y'know?"
Arianna didn't know, actually, she was totally fine with just seeing her dad for the most part. "But don't you know, like, everyone here?"
"Well, yeah, mostly, but that doesn't mean we're all friends or we all talk. Like, Drew; I've known her for years but we sure aren't friends. And she'll still be here, so that's gonna be fun."
"Oh, boy."
"Yup. So do you guys have anything figured out yet?"
"We're… working on that. We're gonna meet up in a bit. So far we've just got a goal."
Brenna shrugged. "That's all you really need. Well, that and people who won't ditch you when the monsters show up."
"When?"
"Yeah, when; you're gonna be in a group, and you're gonna be with Diego."
"Why's that make a difference?"
"Monsters know whose kid you are, usually. Rory said it was a smell thing."
Arianna assumed she was talking about a teacher, since she hadn't met anyone with that name. "Okay, but why would a monster care about that?"
"Ancient grudges, mostly. Monsters can't take stuff out on the gods, so they go after their kids. The gods can't kill each other… so they go after each other's kids."
"That's horrible!"
"That's life. But also, like, monsters just hate the gods in general, so they're not really picky about which demigods they kill."
"But you just said –"
Brenna cut her off. "I'm getting there. Anyways, we've been over how monsters can smell demigods, but some demigods smell stronger than others. Your mom has like, no enemies, and the ones she does have aren't great fighters, so by yourself you probably won't run into a lot of monsters 'cause they're not really looking for you. Make sense so far?"
"As much as any of this makes sense, yeah."
"Cool. Kieran's dad is a minor god, so he'd normally attract, like, zero monsters, but his dad's also a sea god and so many monsters are looking for Percy all the time. He still doesn't usually see a lot, but there's more than there should be. And then there's my cabin. Our dad killed Argus one time and he's still not over it so he's like, really passive-aggressive with us. Dad's pissed off a lot of people, actually. It comes with the job."
"Okay, I think I see where you're going with this… so, if all this works on grudges, what if a god hates you personally?"
"They get more creative. Like, sure, they might send monsters to find you, but sometimes they just send their sacred animals, or give you a curse, or tell you you'll never have a love life even though you never wanted one in the first place."
…well, then. Arianna was learning a lot. "So how'd you make Aphrodite mad at you?"
"Surprisingly, it's got nothing to do with Drew. I said I didn't think like, relationships were necessary. It went further than that, but that's the short version," Brenna explained. "Unlike me, Diego hasn't managed to piss off any of the gods, but his dad sure has. And like, monsters take killing people from his cabin as a challenge."
"How do you know that?" Arianna asked.
"We met some kynokephaloi. They tried to kill us. It didn't work."
No kidding. Against her better judgment, Arianna prodded further. "When was that?"
"Last January. Ask Diego if you want details, he was conscious. Or Jess; she was conscious longer."
…if that qualifier needed to be used, Arianna probably didn't actually wanna know more. "Got it. Hey, d'ya know what time it is?"
"No, but it's a… oh right, you said you had a meeting. Where at?"
"Dunno, no one said."
Brenna smirked. "Sounds about right. Let's see… how well can you swim?"
Why the heck would that matter? "Not great."
"Okay, so we've got no chance of finding Kieran, then, unless he was with my half-brothers. So was he, Sean?"
What the – how long had he been behind them? "Oh, come on!" Sean pouted.
"I heard our door close and anyone going in would've gone past us."
"I don't believe you. It sounds just like any old door!"
"Exactly. No one else's door squeaks. Gonna answer my question?" Brenna asked.
"I guess… he was with me and Cecil, now he's working Connor's shift at the Camp Store. He wanted me to tell Arianna that their meeting or whatever'll be there."
Okay, that was one problem solved. "Cool, I'll be right… there… which building's the Camp Store?"
"I'll show you," Brenna offered. "I got nothing better to do."
"I'll show her, you can get past the landmines by Cabin Five," Sean corrected. Wait, landmines?
"You should be able to do that too if you've seen literally anyone go in there," Brenna argued.
"If I go there, I'll get stabbed!"
Why the heck did the Ares cabin even need landmines? "Guys, I can just –" Arianna started.
"Don't be so dramatic, just knock on the door!"
"There's still landmines, though. C'mon, Clarisse actually likes you!" Sean whined.
"'Like' is a strong word. She tolerates me 'cause Chris likes me. But I guess I do need to give Diego back something anyways, so I can make them re-bury the mines again. I'm telling them it's your fault, though."
"They really move them any time someone gets through?" Arianna asked. If it was really that easy to get past them, why would they keep bothering with that?
Sean shook his head. "Only if no one wants the person there. And you're evil, Brenna."
"No, you are, you know who's gonna have to deal with those?"
"Yes, and he already doesn't like me so what difference is it gonna make?"
"You'd be surprised… you owe me for this. Later."
And with that she ran off, leaving Arianna alone with Sean. "So," he began, "you're really gonna do this?"
"Why's everyone keep asking me that?" she complained. "But yeah."
"Easy conversation starter? I dunno. I had other options but they were all meaner."
"…thanks?"
"Anytime. Oh, and after your meeting thing, I gotta borrow Kieran. There's something I need to tell him before you guys go."
Oh? Maybe she should've made those assumptions after all. "Sure."
"And like, while you're out there? Don't let him climb anything," he said.
"I don't think that'll be a problem." That was a weird request, but she thought they could handle it.
"Good. We're here, by the way. Have fun!"
He just… left her at the door. Arianna had no clue where she stood with Sean; sometimes, it just felt like he didn't like her. Maybe he was like that with everyone? It'd only been a few days…
When she actually walked into the camp store, she was relieved that it looked somewhat normal. It kinda reminded her of the merchandise shops at the Kohl Center, but everything was orange instead of red. Kieran was behind the counter, and it looked like they were the only two there. "Oh, hey," he greeted. "Sean found you?"
"Yup. Do you usually work here?"
"No, but Connor's giving me two drachma for this when he comes back."
"Cool."
"Eh… it's kinda boring, no one comes in on Sunday nights. I guess we won't get interrupted, though."
That'd be nice; Arianna wanted to get the meeting over with quickly so she could finish all the other stuff she had to do. "Great! Oh, by the way, I did some research on Apollo earlier – the sun chariot starts in some place called West Quoddy Head, Maine, I think."
"Maine?" Kieran repeated. "Oh man, that's pretty far… think they'll have snow up there yet?" He didn't look excited about that possibility.
"Probably? We did back home. But I guess that's the easternmost point in the U.S.; I really hope it's right, I checked a lot of sources."
"It'll be fine, at least we've got a starting point now. Speaking of starting, do you know where Diego is? It's almost seven."
Right as he said that, Diego walked through the door. "Yeah," Arianna answered.
"Awesome, we're all here," Diego said. "What's the plan?" He really expected them to've come up with one of those already?
Kieran summed up the conversation they'd just had. "So we'll have to find a bus that goes that far up," he finished.
"That shouldn't be hard, they've got cities and stuff. And then what, we just walk up to the sun chariot and wait for Apollo?" Diego asked.
It sounded so simple when he put it like that. There had to be a catch. "When are we leaving again?" she wondered.
"Uh… you said oh-eight-hundred hours, right?"
"Yep," Kieran confirmed.
There it was. "We're gonna hafta spend the night somewhere. It won't take that long to make it up," Arianna pointed out.
"Ugh, you're right…" Kieran muttered. "Diego, you've done stuff like this before, where'd y'all sleep?"
"We camped, man. Bring a pillow, it really helps."
"But it's December…"
"That's the best time to camp!" Arianna exclaimed. Maybe she could contribute something after all. "No one else's out and there's no bugs."
Diego nodded. "The 'no bugs' thing is a huge plus, but I'd rather have it be warm out. I guess the cold isn't that bad, though."
"…is it like when they let snow in here in… like, a week from now?" Kieran ventured.
"How much experience do you have with real winters?" Diego asked.
"That's not what a real winter's like?"
"Okay, so you'll have to adjust a bit, shouldn't be too bad. Arianna, have you… wait, dumb question, you actually like this stuff."
She really did. She was even used to using a tent. "Oh yah, I'll be fine. Pack extra stuff, guys, you'll need it. Your clothes will get wet."
"Great," Kieran groaned. "We'd better find him right away, I'm not sure I could take more than one night of that. So are we set, then?"
"You tell us, man, you're in charge," Diego pointed out.
"Right… well, if we don't find him, we can always figure something out later."
"Maybe we could talk to Eos, she drives ahead of him," Arianna suggested.
Diego visibly tensed. "Or we could… not do that… we probably wouldn't even see her if he's not there, right? And she doesn't live on Olympus."
"She still might know what's going on!" she argued.
"That's true," Kieran said.
"Okay, but let's say the sun chariot doesn't come; shouldn't we just go report back?" Diego asked. "That's kind of a big deal."
Kieran shrugged. "We could just do an IM? We're not a hundred percent sure we've got the right place. You don't have to do the talking, man."
"Who will? You?" Kieran stared at Arianna like a deer in the headlights when she asked that.
"Uh… I-I guess? I didn't think… how 'bout we wait and see what happens."
Okay, so their general plan was "wing it". She could work with that; at least they had something to go on. These kinds of things were probably pretty hard to predict anyways.
"Anyone got anything else?" When no one responded, Kieran said, "I guess we're done, then. See y'all tomorrow."
"See ya!" Arianna called as she ran out; she'd just realized she never finished packing. Yeah, most of the work was done for her thanks to Sherman and Miranda, but she still needed to add clothes and stuff. And then there were the letters… no, letter, Elijah's would have to wait until she got back.
If she got back.
Author's Note: And they're off! Anyone else remember that myth where Demeter made a king so hungry he ate himself when he couldn't buy food anymore? Because he cut down some trees? She's got a lot of fun ones. But yeah, since Camp has classes for year-rounders I figured they'd have to have a library *somewhere* (that isn't the Athena Cabin). Not too much else to say about this chapter; as always, feel free to ask any questions you might have.
Currently finishing up a one-shot that takes place during the second half of this chapter; hopefully I'll be able to post it by the end of the week. It definitely isn't required reading at all (if it was I'd just make it a bonus chapter) but I just wanted to write something from Sean's perspective so I did.
For the next chapter... CW: Panic attack (pretty close to the beginning) and past child negligence/poor court decisions (closer to the end)