Ch 6.
Kiya was tired; and hated that she was awoken by a dream to find an envelope under her pillow. A schedule; archery, pegasi riding, canoeing, sword training, among other activities. She sighed and got up getting dressed in new clothes that were left at the foot of her bed. She headed out of the cabin walking towards the archery pit when she stopped seeing a small girl poking at something in the fire, a small twisted, melted shard of metal. "Hey wha-" The girl looked at her and Kiya was a bit unsettled at first by the kids' fire-red eyes but then after a moment, calm washing over her. "You can sit beside me." The kid said patting the ground beside where she was and Kiya walked forward sitting down beside the girl. "What are you doing?" She asked and the girl frowned. "As much as the fire burns, marks of the past remain." Kiya raised an eyebrow. "What?" she asked confused and the girl sighed sitting back.
"The past is not something to fear, yet something to learn from." The girl said looking at Kiya. "You must learn this, because when the time comes it will decide who you follow." Kiya looked at the fire. "You seem to be able to see the future." She noted and the girl smiled. "I am simply keeper of the hearth, where hope is strongest, as it is the hope to return home that keeps mortals going." Kiya wanted to say more but the girl raised a hand. "You are special, even if you do not know it yet, you have much on your shoulders, and I urge that when things get tough you return to the hearth, where you can rest and take a break." The girl got up and started walking away, Kiya jumped up and turned around but the girl was gone.
She looked around but frowned; she noted that the sun was a few paces from where it was, and wondered how long she had sat with the girl before whatever spell had broken. She headed towards the archery pit again she might as well start on something in the camp before people noticed she never did anything. She headed into the archery pit and grabbed a bow and arrow, just intending to walk around pretending as she didn't much care for archery and the bow felt heavy and awkward when she noticed a teen, he was about her height if not taller, brown curly hair, and a jacket on with some arcanic runes on it, she watched as the boy said something and then the arrow he released turned into three arrows each hitting the target at different points. "Good job Aaron!" A camper said walking over and Aaron turned around handing his bow off to another camper.
Aaron froze when he and Kiya locked eyes, and Kiya could feel something come from Aaron, a spell? A ward? She wasn't sure but she knew something was wrong. Aaron turned and started walking out of the pit and Kiya knew she had to follow. "Hey wait up!" She called setting her bow down and racing after Aaron but just like the girl from the hearth as soon as Kiya thought she caught up they had vanished. She thought for a moment and then remembered something from school. Hecate was the goddess of magicians, and it would give her a chance to thank the Hecate kids for making the potion that saved her from...whatever Ty had fed her a few days ago.
Kiya hated it but she had to ask directions, in her defense the camp was huge, and not at all shaped or laid out like a normal summer camp. Then again what could she expect from a camp that serviced people with immortal parents. She finally found the cabin, stones marked with runes made up pillars and the walls; the doors had innate silver runes on them as well. Kiya was almost afraid to even walk up to the cabin. She felt like knocking on the door would turn her into a hamster or something worse. But she mustered up the courage and stepped towards the door giving it a few hard knocks before she heard movement inside, the person opening the door was none other than the one from the archery pit. "Hey Aaron." She said smiling politely.