Sry for the long wait, I've been busy. Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter 3: Reyna
Reyna thought about the dream. She had watched herself talking to another blonde girl and a brunette, but it hadn't been from her point of view. She had been watching from the sidelines, unable to say anything. But the self she'd been watching seemed to know who the other two girls were, even though Reyna really had no idea. She thought about the conversation she had had with the other two girls. There had been no names mentioned, as far as she could remember. But who were the "hims'" they had been talking about? Well, Jason was missing, and had been for almost two months. And then there was that strange guy Lupa had let go from camp, not even giving him the test. That had also been about two months ago. Was that who the girl had been talking about? And her dream self had even said, "That is where you are wrong." Was that really who the girl had been talking about? And where was Jason? With them? But who were they? Where are they? The only thing Reyna was sure of was that they existed.
Reyna shook her head an decided to maybe ask some of her friends, and maybe even Lupa about it later.
Reyna glanced at her alarm clock. It read 6:07. Reyna had a gift for waking up early. And then, when she woke up, she could never get back to sleep. She didn't even bother trying. Reyna jumped down from her bunk, careful not to wake any of her siblings. She quickly changed, then walked out of her cabin.
The air was foggy and cold. It was February, after all. It seemed like Jupiter wanted it to rain, but was indecisive about whether he should or not. It didn't really matter, the camp would train, rain or shine.
Reyna walked to the dining pavilion and sat down at her table, looking around. The place was completely empty, except for a few other early risers eating breakfast. Reyna tapped the table. Tap, tap, hand on the table, tap, hand on the table, tap, tap. This was like a security code, ensuring that no one who didn't belong at that table ate there. It was against the rules. When Reyna finished her tapping, a few plates appeared in front of her, pancakes, potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a bowl of cereal and a jug of milk. Reyna chose some scrambled eggs and potatoes, tapping her sequence again (food was valuable and a gift from the gods, wasting it was like pouring oil into the ocean).
Reyna got up and walked to the brazier on the left hand wall. The walls only went about halfway up to the ceiling, the rest of the way was supported by columns, through some of which the smoke of the braziers escaped through. Reyna muttered, "Minerva," scraping some of the eggs off her plate and into the fire. She then sat down and ate.
Reyna finished eating, put her plate in the center of the table, and tapped the sequence. The plate disappeared. Whoever was doing dishes that day (Reyna was pretty sure it was Apollo cabin today) would clean it. Of course, only the campers in the fourth and fifth legions. Everyone else had too much stuff going on.
Reyna then walked to the sword arena, which was just a dirt floor with stone benches circling all the way around. There was no ceiling. As she practiced her sword fighting on the dummies, Reyna thought about the night Jason had gone missing. My boyfriend. My lost boyfriend. Winter break, they had been sitting on the porch of his cabin, talking about the Titan War, where the whole camp had nearly died. "And Krios and Kronos are gone!" Jason had exclaimed, then looked at her. "Because of you."
"It wasn't only me," Reyna replied modestly. "It was everyone, everyone who died, but mostly, it was you, not me. I just helped out."
"You're being modest." Jason said. "That's fine." And then they had kissed, probably for the thousandth time since when they first started dating, sometime in July, before the Titan War, which had been in August. Reyna had been thinking about the prophecy of the demigod child who would turn sixteen to make the decision to "preserve or raze" Olympus. Jason was only fifteen. But then again, they hadn't been at Olympus. It had made her wonder, where was that demigod that the prophecy had talked about?
A little while later, probably around midnight, they both started getting tired, and Reyna went back to her cabin to go to sleep. She woke up in the morning, and was going to meet Jason in the dining pavilion, but he wasn't there. She wasn't worried then. Even when she checked his cabin, she still wasn't worried. He's probably training. I should be too! she scolded herself. And then, when she got to the arena, and he wasn't there, she began to get worried. Reyna had combed the whole camp looking for him, the archery range, the forge, the forests, the Main House, everywhere. He didn't show up anywhere all day. Nobody had seen him.
Two nights later at dinner, Lupa made the official announcement that Jason had gone missing. Reyna had tried everything, Iris messaging, contacting a few half-bloods who weren't in camp right then, and calling him. He had a cell phone, and so did she, but they never used them, because even in the secure borders of camp, you would be sending up a flare to monsters that spelled out. "Eat me!"
The next day, Lupa wasn't at camp, so Reyna guessed that she was at the Wolf House, probably testing out some new demigod. But why hadn't he/she come by here first, if that's what she was doing? Usually the new demigods did.
Reyna hadn't needed to wait long, because Lupa had come back that evening, without anybody else except for a few of her wolves. She told the camp that she sent the new demigod on a journey to find their camp. This was strange. Usually Lupa's tests were something that took place at the Wolf House and the area around it, not sending the demigod off on some journey to get from Sonoma all the way to Oakland.
And now, two months later, as Reyna slashed and hacked at the dummies, she wondered whether that demigod would ever find their camp, or be eaten by monsters. She doubted it. Unless, of course, Lupa had some specific reason for sending him on the long journey to get here.
Reyna stopped. A reason. She needed a reason to find out why the demigod (Lupa told them his name was Percy) hadn't been given a normal test. A test no one had ever been given before, as far as Reyna knew. A reason for why Jason went missing, and who's fault it was.
That's when everything clicked in place. Reyna stood stock still, staring at the dummy she had been about to slice to bits. Jason. Percy. Disappearances. Strange tests. Percy must have something to do with Jason's disappearance! He did, after all, come about four days after Jason went missing. And Lupa must have thought that he was capable of finding the camp on his own, if she sent him on this almost impossible journey. The camp was too well protected.
An alarm sounded through the camp, breaking Reyna from her thoughts. "PRESENCE AT ENTRANCE. NON-MORTAL PRESENCE AT ENTRANCE." The loudspeaker blared out the words three times in a row. Perfect timing. Reyna thought.
Reyna walked out of the arena and looked towards the curve of the bridge rising up just outside the entrance to the camp. Well, it didn't look like a bridge, it looked like the side of a hill, but there was a tunnel in that hill, through which unsuspecting cars drove, not even bothering to look at the woods on one side of the bridge.
Usually, this alarm was nothing. It was probably some monster prowling around on top of the hill, or maybe a demigod. But still, the camp took their protection seriously.
Reyna sighed and raced towards the camp entrance. A few campers were gathered there, weapons out but pointed down, waiting for the beeping alarm to stop. But the alarm didn't stop. It continued blaring like an alarm clock, until it became just a dull thud in the back of Reyna's head.
The demigods there, which included Hazel, Bobby, Sarah, Jack, and Lucy, lifted their weapons, pointed towards the camp entrance. It wasn't long before they heard a strange noise, like something metal scraping down the rocks. They saw nothing, so Reyna presumed that whatever had fallen had fallen on the other side of the tunnel. But they shouldn't have been able to hear it, should they?
The alarm went off. Reyna's headache slowly subsided. For protocol, the six demigods remained at the entrance to the camp for ten minutes, waiting for something or someone to appear. No one did.
"Reyna, you ok?" Hazel asked as she walked by. Hazel's dad was Mercury, and she was one of Reyna's best friends.
Reyna turned to Hazel, the alarm still blaring silently in her head. Gods, that thing was annoying! And it went off maybe twice or three times a week, once if they were lucky. "Yeah, I'm fine." Reyna replied. "Just thinking."
Hazel raised her eyebrows. "What about, exactly?" she inquired, raising her eyebrows mischievously.
"Nothing, it doesn't matter." Reyna replied. "I just want to get a lead on… something."
Hazel nodded, but didn't go into the topic. "See you at dinner?" she asked. Reyna nodded, and Hazel took off towards the arena to train.
Reyna, however, walked to the library, or bibliotheca in Latin. She found the history section and began searching. Lupa had told them that camp was here because it was a safe, protected, place, where there wouldn't be too many curious eyes trying to find them. But Reyna wanted to know how the camp had gotten here. She had been thinking about the Wolf House, which was all the way in Sonoma. Why hadn't camp been built closer to there? Reyna didn't know how, but she knew there was some connection between that Percy guy and Jason, and somehow Percy's coming to the Wolf House.
Reyna looked at the book titles. "The Splitting of Cultures," "Roman Times," "Demigod Wars," "The History of the Camps." Reyna picked the last one off the shelf. Camps? Why camps? As far as she knew, this was the only demigod camp. Reyna went over to a table and opened the book. After a little while scanning the pages, she found something that scared her out of her mind.
I don't like cliffies when im reading someone else's stuff, but I love making them! (random comment) REVIEW! REVIEW! cause only one person has so far!
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