Hello!

I should consider daily or every other day updates, I am writing so much!

So this one will not be a filler, i have a few ideas *devilish smirk* i have no imagination so a lot will be copy 'n pasted from the book, hope you don't mind, But there will be twists and turns hehe.

P.s it is now the school year and since Moon is a daughter of Hades she ha sto stay year round.

Disclaimer: i don't own PJO *sniffs* HOO *tries to hold in sobs* or TOA *runs away crying*

Moon POV

Ah, death games! They are the best! Running from frisbees with razors! Collecting golden apples! Getting me hand chopped off! Just joking on the last one, but I did get seriously injured.

Let me backup, where was I? Oh yeah Meg got claimed.

So everyone was shocked, Apollo looked like he was gonna faint, I actually thought about running to him, but dispersed the crowd, urging everyone to put away their weapons. Since head counselor Miranda Gardiner was missing, Chiron asked Billie Ng, the only other camper from Demeter, to escort Meg to Cabin Four. The two girls made a quick retreat, Peaches bouncing along excitedly behind them. Meg shot Apollo a worried look, Apollo gave her two thumbs-up. "See you tomorrow!"

She seemed less than encouraged as she disappeared in the darkness. Will Solace tended to Sherman Yang's head injuries. Kayla and Austin stood over Connor, debating the need for a hair graft. I helped where I could and said "yep, that's not gonna be fixed." to see their reactions. They love me.

LIIIIIINEEEEBREEEAK (TIME SKIP: NEXT MORNING.)

I grabbed a tray and lined up, I chose the most sugar coated, chocolate lathered foods I could find, because my mother would not let me have sugar, and sat down close to Meg and Apollo so I could eavesdrop,

"How are you?" Apollo asked.

Meg nibbled on a waffle. "Yeah. Great."

"You are a powerful demigod, daughter of Demeter."

"Mm-hm."

"Your cabin mate, Billie…Is she nice?"

"Sure. All good."

"And Peaches?"

She looked at him sideways. "Disappeared overnight. Guess he only shows up when I'm in danger."

"Well, that's an appropriate time for him to show up."

"Ap-pro-pri-ate." Meg touched a waffle square for each syllable.

"Sherman Yang had to get seven stitches."

He glanced over at Sherman, who sat at a safe distance across the pavilion, glaring daggers at Meg. A nasty red zigzag ran down the side of his face. "I wouldn't worry," Apollo told Meg. "Ares's children like scars. Besides, Sherman wears the Frankenstein look rather well." The corner of her mouth twitched, but her gaze remained far away. "Our cabin has a grass floor—like, green grass. There's a huge oak tree in the middle, holding up the ceiling." "Is that bad?"

"I have allergies."

"Ah…"

I had to hold back my laughter, a child of Demeter with allergies?! Comedy gold.

Then Apollo blanked out, Meg had to call his name like six times! : "Apollo?" he stirred. "What?"

"You blanked out." She scowled. "I said your name six times."

"You did?"

"Yeah. Where did you go?"

"I—I don't know. Something about trees…."

"Trees," Meg said.

"It's probably nothing."

Ugh curse his stupidity! Just tell her! I actually thought about slapping him, but he would probably cry in his present state.

"So yesterday…those swords. And don't do that thing."

Meg's eyebrows furrowed. "What thing?"

"That thing where you shut down and refuse to talk. Your face turns to cement."

She gave him a furious pout. "It does not. I've got swords. I fight with them. So what?"

"So it might have been nice to know that earlier, when we were in combat with plague spirits."

"You said it yourself: those spirits couldn't be killed."

"You're sidestepping."

"The style you fight in, with two curved blades, is the style of a dimachaerus, a gladiator from the late Roman Empire. Even back then, it was rare—possibly the most difficult fighting style to master, and one of the most deadly." Meg shrugged. It was an eloquent shrug, but it did not offer much in the way of explanation. "Your swords are Imperial gold," he said. "That would indicate Roman training, and mark you as a good prospect for Camp Jupiter. Yet your mother is Demeter, the goddess in her Greek form, not Ceres."

"How do you know?"

"Aside from the fact that I was a god? Demeter claimed you here at Camp Half-Blood. That was no accident. Also, her older Greek form is much more powerful. You, Meg, are powerful." first reasonable thing he said.

Her expression turned so guarded I expected Peaches to hurtle from the sky and start pulling out chunks of Apollos hair. "I never met my mom," she said. "I didn't know who she was."

"Then where did you get the swords? Your father?" Meg tore her waffle into tiny pieces. "No….My stepdad raised me. He gave me these rings."

"Your stepfather. Your stepfather gave you rings that turn into Imperial golden swords. What sort of man—"

"A good man," she snapped.

Oof drop it Apollo, you will get your butt kicked.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Mm-hm." Meg tossed a piece of waffle into the air. Out of nowhere, one of the camp's cleaning harpies swooped down like a two-hundred-pound kamikaze chicken, snatched up the food, and flew away. Meg continued as if nothing had happened. "Let's just get through today. We've got the race after lunch."

"Don't worry about the race," he said. "I have a plan for how to win it." She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Or rather, I will have a plan by this afternoon. All I need is a little time—"

Behind us, the conch horn blew. "Morning boot camp!" Sherman Yang bellowed. "Let's go, you special snowflakes! I want you all in tears by lunchtime!"

NOOOOOOOOO WHY SHERMAN!

LIIIIIINEEEEBREEEAAAAAK (TS: 2 HOURS)

I hate Sherman.

He made us do the worst workout ever, and I've been doing this since the school year started! It's annoying.

I was assigned to music lessons in the amphitheater with a satyr named Woodrow. Woodrow seemed nervous to have Apollo join his little class, i grabbed my signature weapon, the guitar.

Using his panpipe, Woodrow reviewed the minor scales. Austin had no problem with these, even though he was challenging himself by playing the violin, which was not his instrument. Valentina Diaz, a daughter of Aphrodite, did her best to throttle a clarinet, producing sounds like a basset hound whimpering in a thunderstorm.

Damien White, son of Nemesis, lived up to his namesake by wreaking vengeance on an acoustic guitar. He played with such force that he broke the D string. "You killed it!" said Chiara Benvenuti. She was the pretty Italian girl —a child of Tyche, goddess of good fortune. "I needed to use that guitar! Moon never shares!"

"I heard that!" I called

"Shut up, Lucky," Damien muttered. "In the real world, accidents happen. Strings snap sometimes."

Chiara unleashed some rapid-fire Italian that I decided not to translate.

"May I?" Apollo reached for the guitar. Damien reluctantly handed it over. Apollo leaned toward the guitar case by Woodrow's feet. The satyr leaped several inches into the air. Austin laughed. "Relax, Woodrow. He's just getting another string."

I was on the floor laughing, oh my gods why was he so scared?! I knew why, but really!

In a matter of seconds, Apollo had replaced the string. He adjusted the pitch, but stopped when he realized Valentina was sobbing. "That was so beautiful!" She wiped a tear from her cheek. "What was that song?"

He blinked. "It's called tuning."

"Yeah, Valentina, control yourself," Damien chided, though his eyes were red. "It wasn't that beautiful."

"No." Chiara sniffled.

"It wasn't."

Only Austin and me (and I?) seemed unaffected. His eyes shone with what looked like pride and I was bored. I prefer rock.

"Now this is a Lydian progression," He said. "It starts on the fourth of the major scale. They say it's called Lydian after the old kingdom of Lydia, but actually, I named it for an old girlfriend of mine, Lydia. She was the fourth woman I dated that year, so…" he looked up mid-arpeggio. Damien and Chiara were weeping in each other's arms, hitting each other weakly and cursing, "I hate you. I hate you."

Valentina lay on the amphitheater bench, silently shaking.

Woodrow was pulling apart his panpipes. "I'm worthless!" he sobbed. "Worthless!"

Even Austin had a tear in his eye. He gave Apollo a thumbs-up.

I just sat there picking the strings of my guitar, an actual one not acoustic. He strummed a chord that was intentionally out of tune. To me it sounded awful, but the campers stirred from their misery. They sat up, wiped their tears, and watched in fascination as he played a simple one-four-five progression.

"Yeah, man." Austin brought his violin to his chin and began to improvise. His resin bow danced across the strings. I picked up my guitar and started to play. He and Apollo and I locked eyes, and for a moment we were more than family. We became part of the music. Woodrow broke the spell.

"That's amazing," the satyr sobbed. "You three should be teaching the class. What was I thinking? Please don't flay me!"

"My dear satyr," Apollo said, "I would never—"

Then his fingers spasmed, he dropped the guitar in surprise. The instrument tumbled down the stone steps of the amphitheater, clanging and sproinging

. Austin lowered his bow. "You okay?"

"I…yes, of course."

Oh he was not okay.

"I'm…tired," I said, dismayed.

"Well, yeah." Valentina nodded. "The way you were playing was unreal!"

"It's okay, Apollo," Austin said. "You'll get stronger. When demigods use their powers, especially at first, they get tired quickly."

"But I'm not…" he couldn't even finish his sentence, poor him, actually no.

Damien White balled his fists. "Don't you worry, Apollo. It's not your fault. I'll make that stupid guitar pay for this!"

"Uh, no." I grabbed Damien before he destroyed it and handed it to Chiara.

"Thank you." she said.

Woodrow winced. "Well, um…
thanks, everyone! Good class!"

Why were all my lessons with Apollo? Next was archery I wasn't that bad in anything, other than the climbing wall, i have fof fear of falling.

Apollo was weeping because he only got one bullseye! Come on! I know i got three but it took forever!

"Apollo," she said, "those shots were fantastic. A little more practice and —"

"I'm the god of archery!" he wailed. "I don't practice!"

Next to me, the daughters of Nike snickered. Holly and Laurel victor, stupid insufferable names, how could anyone have problems knowing their parentage?

"Hey, ex-god," Holly said, nocking an arrow, "practice is the only way to improve." She scored a seven on the red ring, but she did not seem at all discouraged.

"For you, maybe," He said. "You're a mortal!"

Her sister, Laurel, snorted. "So are you now. Suck it up. Winners don't complain." She shot her arrow, which landed next to her sister's but just inside the red ring. "That's why I'm better than Holly. She's always complaining."

"Yeah, right," Holly growled. "The only thing I complain about is how lame you are."

"Oh, yeah?" said Laurel. "Let's go. Right now. Best two out of three shots. The loser scrubs the toilets for a month."

"You're on!" Just like that, they forgot about Apollo.

I walked over to him, "hey Apollo."

"What do you want?" he replied.

"To tell you, don't do anything rash. You'll regret it eventually."

"What?" he asked confused, but I already walked away.

Kayla took him by the arm and led me downrange. "Those two, I swear. We made them Nike co-counselors so they'd compete with each other. If we hadn't, they would've taken over the camp by now and proclaimed a dictatorship." i snorted, it was true! They were so competitive they challenged me to a shadow race! I beat them because they can't shadow travel.

"I can't do this, Kayla," he muttered. "I'm too old to be sixteen again!"

You know, Kayla looked a lot like me, green dyed hair and freckles, nothing else i had darker skin and brown eyes hers were blue.

Kayla took a deep breath, as if preparing for an important shot. "You can do it, Dad. You're already good. Very good. You've just got to adjust your expectations. Be patient; be brave. You'll get better."

"No," he said bitterly. "No, it is too painful. I swe-" i cut him off.

"REMEMBER WHAT I TOLD YOU!" I yelled.

Realization creeped onto his face. "How did you-?"

"I have my ways." I smirked then walked away, mission one complete!

LIIIIIINEEEEEEEBREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAK

Apollo POV.

What just happened?! It's like that girl knew what was going to happen! But that's impossible, the oracle wasn't working! I must ask Nico about this!

Then Kayla said something to shake me out of my stupor, "What is he doing?" I followed her gaze. Sherman Yang was walking slowly, trancelike, into the woods. It would have been foolhardy to run after him, straight into the most dangerous part of camp. So that's exactly what Kayla and I did. We almost didn't make it. As soon as we reached the tree line, the forest darkened. The temperature dropped. The horizon stretched out as if bent through a magnifying glass. A woman whispered in my ear. This time I knew the voice well. It had never stopped haunting me. You did this to me. Come. Chase me again. Fear rolled through my stomach. I imagined the branches turning to arms; the leaves undulated like green hands. Daphne, I thought. Even after so many centuries, the guilt was overwhelming. I could not look at a tree without thinking of her. Forests made me nervous. The life force of each tree seemed to bear down on me with righteous hatred, accusing me of so many crimes….I wanted to fall to my knees. I wanted to beg forgiveness. But this was not the time. I couldn't allow the woods to confuse me again. I would not let anyone else fall into its trap. Kayla didn't seem affected. I grabbed her hand to make sure we stayed together. We only had to go a few steps, but it felt like a boot camp run before we reached Sherman Yang. "Sherman." I grabbed his arm. He tried to shake me off. Fortunately, he was sluggish and dazed, or I would have ended up with scars of my own. Kayla helped me turn him around. His eyes twitched as if he were in some sort of half-conscious REM sleep.

"No. Ellis. Got to find him. Miranda. My girl." I glanced at Kayla for explanation.

"Ellis is from the Ares cabin," she said. "He's one of the missing."

"Yes, but Miranda, his girl?" "Sherman and she started dating about a week ago."

"Ah."

Sherman struggled to free himself. "Find her."

"Miranda is right over here, my friend," I lied. "We'll take you there." He stopped fighting. His eyes rolled until only the whites were visible. "Over…here?"

"Yes."

"Ellis?"

"Yes, it's me," I said. "I'm Ellis."

"I love you, man," Sherman sobbed

What nobody realized was a girl in the woods watching us.

Still, it took all our strength to lead him out of the trees. We led Sherman to the archery range. Between one step and the next, he blinked his eyes and became his normal self. He noticed our hands on his arms and shook us off. "What is this?" he demanded.

"You were walking into the woods," I said.

He gave us his drill sergeant glower. "No, I wasn't."

Kayla reached for him, then obviously thought better about it. Archery would be difficult with broken fingers. "Sherman, you were in some kind of trance. You were muttering about Ellis and Miranda."

Along Sherman's cheek, his zigzag scar darkened to bronze. "I don't remember that." "Although you didn't mention the other missing camper," I added helpfully. "Cecil?"

"Why would I mention Cecil?" Sherman growled. "I can't stand the guy. And why should I believe you?"

"The woods had you," I said. "The trees were pulling you in." Sherman studied the forest, but the trees looked normal again. The lengthening shadows and swaying green hands were gone. "Look," Sherman said, "I have a head injury, thanks to your annoying friend Meg. If I was acting strange, that's why."

Kayla frowned. "But—"

"Enough!" Sherman snapped. "If either of you mention this, I'll make you eat your quivers. I don't need people questioning my self-control. Besides, I've got the race to think about." He brushed past us.

"Sherman," I called. He turned, his fists clenched. "The last thing you remember," I said, "before you found yourself with us…what were you thinking about?" For a microsecond, the dazed look passed across his face again.

"About Miranda and Ellis…like you said. I was thinking…I wanted to know where they were." "You were asking a question, then." A blanket of dread settled over me. "You wanted information."

"I…" At the dining pavilion, the conch horn blew. Sherman's expression hardened. "Doesn't matter. Drop it. We've got lunch now. Then I'm going to destroy you all in the three-legged death race." As threats went, I had heard worse, but Sherman made it sound intimidating enough. He marched off toward the pavilion. Kayla turned to me. "What just happened?"

"I think I understand now," I said. "I know why those campers went missing."

MOON POV

Wow Apollo, you figured it out! I thought as I watched Apollo help Sherman, I would have helped him but it was Apollos thing to find out, if I interfered it would've made the future go topsy-turvy. So I walked to the dining pavilion in time for lunch. Everyone was cleaning weapons and getting armour ready, I just enjoyed my lunch.

A while into lunch, I noticed Apollo having trouble telling people information or something, so I sat next to him and asked a simple question, "what?".

"Well, i'm afraid nobody will listen to me as there is a race after lunch." he sighed

"Dumdum, I am sitting next to you and free, go on."

"You sound like Meg. but if you must know, I have a hunch on what's luring campers into the woods."

"Uh-huh, and you just figured this out?"

"Yes, when Sher- Err.. a camper.. Was almost taken from camp, me and Kayla stopped him but-"

"Kayla and I" I interrupted

"Whatever, I remembered, in olden times there was a grove of talking trees that told prophecies-"

I smirked, "Talking trees?"

"Yes."

"So, what was that oracle called?"

"I—I can't remember." I ground my teeth. "I should know. I should be able to tell you instantly! But the information…It's almost as if it is eluding me on purpose."

"That happens sometimes," I said. "You'll think of it."

"But it never happens to me! Stupid human brain! At any rate, I believe this Grove is somewhere in those woods. I don't know how or why. But the whispering voices…they are from this hidden Oracle. The sacred trees are trying to speak prophecies, reaching out to those with burning questions, luring them in."

"'Kay" I said going back to my food.

"Wait you believe me?!"

"Yes I do. Why shouldn't I?"

"Well most people wouldn't"

"I'm not most people, you should go to Meg I think they're trying to get your tactics over there" I said pointing to Meg and two of the Hermes girls, he went there and i finished my food.

Thank you!

Please review, I appreciate it

Next chapter, the deathrace!

Can't wait to write it

In all demigodishness peace out!