To the people who have commented on my stories: First of all, sorry the replies took so long, but I was on vacation and had no acces to my PM's. Yet, I have replied to all of your comments if possible, but it seems like the messages don't reach you all. Will you all take a look and see if my messages got through and reply if they didn't?

Last Night before Christmas In Camp Half Blood

It was once again Christmas in camp Half-blood, a time when it was more peaceful than usual... alright, that's a lie, but Chiron liked to pretend like it was a more peaceful time. In reality, the campers were just as rowdy as they normally were, if not more so because they were allowed more than usual. That was because Chiron let them sit where they wanted to, gave them more free time and also because a weird kind of 'cycle of nature' metafore magic made it so that Dionysus could barely function during the winter (Demeter had the same problem, but she was on Olympus and could just go to sleep).

Usually, Dionysus would not even attend dinner, so it was noticeable that he was now. Chiron raised his eyebrows. 'Usually you can hardly keep your eyes open around this hour.' Dionysus shrugged.

'I feel fine, though.' Chiron sighed deeply.

'Oh, there we go again,' he muttered. He swiftly looked at Piper, Jason and Leo.

Jason immediately realised what was going on. He groaned. 'I guess the... ladies from before the Argo II are back,' he told the others at his table - which was everyone in camp. They had pushed three tables against each other and were sitting at those.

Piper slowly bit of her french frie. 'What?'

'You know what happened while Leo was building the Argo and his anthropomorphic table got missing?' Leo blinked.

'Oh. That,' he and Piper said at once.

'What is it?' Travis said, with a smile that promised nothing good.

Jason sighed. 'Well...'

'While Leo was building the Argo II, Buford dan away. While we tried to get him back, we ran into about seven female bacchantes - you know, the followers of Dionysus.' The god swiftly looked up, but did nothing. Piper went quiet, but talked further when she lost his attention. 'We fought them off, but if he has enough energy this close to Christmas they are probably back. Followers make gods more powerful.'

The entire table stared at her, except for Jason, Leo and Travis. The latter took a bite of Pizza. 'So are we going to get them out of the forest again?' He asked. Piper, Leo and Jason shook their heads violently.

'No. No way. That was a nightmare!' Leo yelled. Chiron coughed from the head table.

'Is everything alright, Leo?' He asked. Leo nodded.

'Yeah, yeah,' he muttered.

'Why don't we just tell Mr. D and have him get them out?' Nyssa asked. Connor rolled his eyes.

'No. Let's just try to get them tonight!'

'That's asking for trouble,' Annabeth mentioned (she was in camp because she felt like it). Connor shrugged.

'I want to know what goes on, though,'

'I think Chiron probably already told Mr. D,' Percy mentioned.

They heard sighing from the head table. Chiron said something to Dionysus, who seemed to be slightly shocked. He got up. 'I heard there are currently...'

'Maenads in the camp. We can take them on,' someone said.

'You can't. Mostly because I cannot let you. I'll get them out of the camp and all of you stay inside to avoid unnecessary...' he paused and looked at Chiron. 'Victims. Now eat your dinner and go to the Big House.'

If you thought that all of the demigods would just follow those orders and stay in the Big House for the night, I believe you need to reread the series from the beginning. At ten P.M., Chiron was asleep (Conner checked). All of the demigods crawled out of their sleeping bags, even the ones who had previously told the others that the idea was stupid and dangerous - because 'I won't let you get hurt' (The others were well aware that they went because they wanted excitement, too).

Twelve demigods crept through the forest at 10.12 P.M. Exactly. 'Good thing you knew how to not get noticed by the harpies, Leo,' Connor mentioned. Leo shrugged.

'It comes in handy,' he answered. Like when you want to just be alone for some time in the middle of the night, he thought. Connor giggled. 'Sure it does.' Annabeth shushed them.

'Guys, we could be attacked by a horde of nymphs that tare our flesh apart. Could you be silent, literally for our lives?' She whispered. Travis opened his mouth to say something, but then they heard a scream. 'You know what Annabeth? You might be right,' Harper, a son of Aphrodite, muttered.

It was quiet for the whole of nine seconds. 'W-what was that sc-scream?' Someone whispered, with a shiver in their voice. Everyone looked at Annabeth, who slowly shook her head. 'No idea, but it sounded like a female scream and we are all still here. Maybe it was a maenad in too high... frenzy?' Or a poor forest nymph who was the victim of said frenzy, she thought. Piper, who was standing in the back, shivered. 'Hnghn. I don't want to think about it. They tore a drakon to pieces with their bare hands last time.'

She really should not have said that. Immediately, Valentina, a daughter of Aphrodite, started shrieking. 'What? No! Why did we get in here!?' She yelled, way to loud. Piper slapped her hand in front of her mouth.

'Shhh! Or they'll tear us to pieces too!' Okay, now she really, really shouldn't have said that. Valentina shrunk against a tree trunk, together with two other younger campers. 'Why'd we get in here? I want to go back!' They howled. Annabeth bit her lip. 'Shut up,' she muttered. 'I'll take you back. Just be quiet.'

'But...but...'

'Hello, I hope you ain't intruders!' They heard behind them

Annabeth froze. 'Too late,' she mouthed. Travis and Connor had a glint in their eyes that did not promise a lot of good. Annabeth turned around. 'Of course we are not intruders!' She beamed. 'We're here to... party along!'

The maenad squealed. 'Great! That way, our lord will notice us for sure!' Annabeth nodded, well aware of that Dionysus had warned them during dinner to not hunt down the maenads. Getting noticed by him while they were doing just that was about the last thing she wanted.

'Great...' she said through clenched teeth. The maenad had started to skip away, while trying to pull Jason and Percy along. Now, she turned her head to Annabeth again. 'You don't sound excited,' she said, in a tone that gave the entire group shivers. Valentina yelped. Annabeth managed to keep her composure. 'Eh... the wine supply was low at home and we have to work all day. We are a bit tuckered out, but that can change, right?' The maenad smiled at her.

'Of course, sweetheart!'

Percy stared at Annabeth. 'How do we get out?' He mouthed.

'No idea,' she mouthed back.

'We need to...' Percy tried to mouth back, but the maenad gave him a kiss right on the lips. Percy staggered back in surprise. 'What...'

'You should not talk to yourself, silly!' The girl giggled. 'You can always talk to me!' She did not notice Annabeth's' expression darkening. Threaten me all you want, but keep your claws away from Percy, she thought. She put her hand on her knife, but Piper stopped her. 'Don't. We can't kill them. Dionysus will be forced to kill us,' she whispered (of she had screamed at the top of her lungs the maenad would not have heard it either, so busy was she with Percy and Jason).

Annabeth stared at her. 'Than what do we...'

'OH HEY! CONNOR, IS THAT A SQUIRREL?! Travis screamed, so loud that everyone in a fifty kilometre range could hear it. Travis nodded enthusiastically. 'SURE IS! LET'S FOLLOW IT!' before anyway could answer, they ran away. The girl slowly turned her head around. this was the part of the horror film where everyone was screaming at the television that they should not have gone into the forest. With no choice left to them and fired on by the way the girl looked, the remaining demigods sprinted after the Stolls, into the dark, cold, snowy forest.

'This is the last thing I wanted to do on the night before Christmas,' Piper mentioned. Leo nodded.

'Strongly agree.'

'Silence!' Annabeth growled. No-one complained. Even the smaller kids had gotten silent, out of fear. Somewhere in the forest, they heard the sound of a horn. 'Guess the Maenads' camp has been alarmed,' Percy remarked. Annabeth shook her head. 'Don't want to think about it.'

It felt like the biggest relief of their lives when they reached the edge of the forest. Some kids started to slow down, but Annabeth sprinted further. 'They'll get here. We have to make it to the Big House.'

'And then? We can't alarm Chiron!' Harper said. Annabeth shrugged.

'We'll have to. He is smart enough to just tell Dionysus that they trespassed into the camp without telling him that we provoked them.'

'We could also go back and make sure they do not get on here,' Travis mentioned. Leo slapped him in the face.

'No.'

They walked back to the Big House, where a light had gone on. When Annabeth stepped inside, with the rest of the crew behind her, he gasped. 'Children! What have you done!?' He said, way louder than usual. Annabeth opened her mouth.

'We...'

'We went into the forest even though Dionysus told us not to and you said we could not go either,' Travis told him. Annabeth shrugged. 'And now the Maenads are on their way,' Connor added. Chiron sighed deeper than he thought was possible. 'Connor, Travis, stable duty for a month. The rest of you will be given two weeks of dish duty, every week another person. Now immediately go to sleep. I'll try to contact Dionysus. And never, ever do this again, you hear me?' He told them. They all nodded. Chiron raised an eyebrow.

'Of course, Chiron,' they chimed in unison. Chiron nodded.

'Goodnight.'

'Goodnight.'

They crawled into their sleeping bags. Piper pulled Valentina, who was still weeping, close to her. 'Shh. It's fine. They'll be gone by tomorrow,' she whispered into her hair. Eventually, Valentina fell asleep. The rest of them was shaking the entire night, while outside they heard the screeching and yelling from what sounded like a whole lot of angry maenads.