Merry Christmas! I've actually worked at it so that this chapter comes out at the same time that the clock strikes twelve, signifying Christmas day – in Australia, at least. Love this pressie, please, because, quite unfortunately, I'm not giving you a New Year's one, and next year I won't be able to do this. So it's a one-off thing.

I'll tell you now, do not expect an update from now till January 15th at least. I'm going on a cruise to New Zealand and I get to do this kick-arse awesome tour of the Lord of the Rings sites they used for the movies.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Madi

Who they were, no one, not even the hill guards, knew. All they knew was that something was after them. And no, it wasn't the massive Border Collie that followed on the heels of the young girl.

It was a group of skeletal, mummy-like creatures, all of which wouldn't stop even though the young girl whacked it in the head numerous times with a frying pan.

Hunter Hart and Kain Scott, two of the youngest qualified warriors of Camp Half-Blood, were on watch at the time, and the latter, unable to sit still, had spotted them first when he got up to stretch his legs (he wasn't actually supposed to be sitting in the first place, but none of the campers abided by this rule, since they were only guarding the hill as a precaution). The young boy had given a shout which immediately alerted his friend and from there, everything had just gone downhill. The warning shell at the hill was soon blown and reinforcements made their way to their fellow campers' posts.

"Who are they?" asked Avalon Rendeo, squinting into the distance, an arrow knocked to her undrawn bow at her side. "Are they demigods?"

"I'd assume so," said Hunter, looking slightly nervous, his hand fiddling with his laptop casing even more than usual, "although, I don't recognise them. Perhaps they are merely mortals?"

The group of five warriors shook their heads, none of them wanting to take their eyes off the figures in the distance while Kain bounced up and down excitably and Hunter just fiddled more. Finally, Will Heath said, in that oddly rough voice of his, "They mus' be half-bloods, prob'ly followin' directions of a god or goddess. Thatta boy and a girl outta there, so I'm thinkin' they're bro and sis, ya know?"

Zoey Jones refused the urge to look into Will's compassionate hazel eyes as he said this. She just smiled ruefully as she felt his hand bump hers and could feel rather than see his raised eyebrows.

"Whaddya think, Zo?" he asked.

"Meh," she shrugged. "As long as they don't kill us, I'm cool with 'em."

The muscular boy winked at her.

"Let's keep them from their appointment with Hades, then?" said Jessie Roth.

Three arrows were flying from Ava's bow before Jessie finished the sentence. Zoey was quick to follow Ava's example and knocked four arrows to her bowstring before aiming and firing. They both lowered their bows in unison to see the damage they'd left on the mummies.

As if nothing had happened, the mummies were still stumbling after the duo running for camp. The younger boys gasped in amazement.

"That's impossible," babbled Hunter. "No one should have withstood that volley; no human, no monster, no spirit."

Zoey gnashed her teeth in frustration. "It seems," she hissed, "that you hand soldiers have to go in yourselves."

"Yes!" Will exclaimed excitedly. "Let's go kick monster ass!"

Anya, Will and Jessie grinned at each other.

~C*H*B~

Needless to say, with that many campers attacking the monsters, there wasn't any left by the time Anya's blade fell for the last time. The boy, who she opted to protect, was looking at her in slight awe. It was a bit embarrassing … and, if she was going to admit it, making her feel extremely proud. The proud part she could handle – the embarrassing part was a different story.

Damn her pale skin and it's highly noticeable blush!

"Um, you're bleeding," she said in attempt to create conversation. She wiped the trickle of blood from the boy's forehead. "We, uh, will get you, um, patched up, in a little while."

Damn her inability to create a sentence in the presence of a highly good looking guy.

'Cause, yeah, he was rather, uh, nice in the looks department; he was very definitely gawk worthy, which, coming from Anya, who wasn't much into gawking at cute guys, was saying something. His muscles were … well defined (if not a little scarred), one could say, and that blond hair was practically made for someone to run their fingers through. The blue of his eyes was that piercing colour she'd only ever heard about in stories but had never really witnessed firsthand (she was pretty sure that if anyone else had those eyes, they wouldn't look nearly as good as they did in Mystery Man's face).

All her thoughts were doing were making her blush more!

Well, I suppose I have the right to gawk a little, she reasoned. After all, it's not every day a human Adonis comes to your summer camp.

She barely noticed when Ava, self-elected leader of the group, asked for their names.

"I'm Lief, Lief No-Name, and this is my big bro, Keenan," chirped Mystery Ma– No, Anya; his name is Keenan, not Mystery Man! - Keenan's little sister. "We were told to come here by a girl in town, Jemma or Jessica or something."

"Jenna?" said Anya, now on full alert. When Lief nodded, Anya pressed, "Where was she? Was she with anyone else?"

Keenan nodded. "Two girls, Lily and Aloan, and a boy. He said his name was Zane Troy, I think. They had these … weapons." Zoey and Anya exchanged glances and Ava's hand tensed on her bow. Scrutinising them, it was obvious that Keenan had noticed their distress on the matter. "Do you know these people?"

"Maybe," Ava muttered, thinking quickly. She had never heard of an Aloan, though she had heard of a Lily at camp. But the boy that Keenan mentioned was inexistent in half-blood terms. Perhaps … they were a group of wanderers? That wouldn't make sense: Jenna would've sent them with Keenan and Lief. Her decision was made quickly. "Come with me," she announced, putting a hand on Keenan's shoulder. He jerked it out of her grip and her right eyebrow rose.

"Where are you taking us?" he demanded.

"To Chiron."

~A*C~

"So you see," said Zoey, twirling a lock of hair with her forefinger, "I think you should take a look at the remains on the hill. It's too weird to be a regular monster."

Trent nodded thoughtfully. "Probably isn't a regular monster," he said. He rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly, as if unsure whether to say something or not. Apparently he decided he should, because soon he was saying, "Remember that monster a few months back? You know, the Sphinx thing?" When Zoey nodded, he continued. "Well, I remembered what I was thinking about it the other day. And do you know what I noticed?

"The thing didn't seem to be going for those half-bloods. It was going for the monsters following them. Anyway, me, Shay and Aqua went out afterwards while no one was around and checked it out. I wouldn't usually take Aq, but Nico was away so someone in the cabin had to look after her and I needed Shay's help. Turns out it was good we did, coz she was the one to notice it.

"Zo, the thing wasn't a real monster. We tested and everything, but there was no way in Hades that it was in Tartarus. And … well, it was Egyptian."

Zoey frowned. "You're making no sense. You know that, right?"

"All I'm saying is that I think someone in camp has been summoning Egyptian monsters," he sighed. Her eyes went massive at the thought. "I wouldn't have thought it possible at all, because no one knows Egyptian magic. But … I think its Jenna."

"What?" hissed Zoey, lowering her voice and looking around the empty cabin as if a camper were about to appear out of nowhere. Given the cabin, it was, in all actuality, a possibility. "What do you mean, you think its Jenna?"

"Think about it," he insisted. "She was there the time that Sphinx was there and afterwards she was a thousand times more tired than the rest of us. These kids get chased to camp by skeleton figures and claim afterwards that they met her."

"Well," said Zoey hesitantly, "… your theory does match up. Unless, you know, she has an evil twin sister or something…" There was a tense moment where Trent went rigid. Then Zoey laughed. "Nope, no possibility of that! I'm so funny, aren't I?"

He gave a mechanical laugh.

"Well, you're sure as Hades not a smart one," he muttered. He cleared his throat. "Point is, I believe you. Besides, the energy they had when they came towards the hill was … different, but like that Sphinx's."

"And Jenna? Do you really believe that she did it? It's impossible!"

"Of course I do. After all … she's Jenna."