Now Shrrg's gonna hate me for this, no doubt, but it's been a month and a half since I updated and gorrammit all you lot deserve a new chapter! School's almost done and I'm in a mad dash to do several things I should have done when I was supposed to do them, but nevermind that. Updates should now be a little more frequent (or at the very least not take a month), and we're finally moving out of the dull stuff and into the main plot from here.

That is to say, the main plot of Titan's Curse, which I'll be doing almost nothing to save using it as a base to get my feet wet with Shrrg's help. (Once she stops sleeping so much, the lazy cat!)

Also, before I let you all go, I apologize for any of the seemingly random spacing errors that come up. Going from Google Docs to OpenOffice and then finally to plays havoc with the text, and I'll try a little harder to fix it up before posting it. And before I forget, apparently I helped to be the inspiration for another chapter in Shrrgnien's Hunter Drabbles! Go check it out, readers!

Don't mistake me for an advocate of alarm clocks, because I hate waking up with a mechanical banshee screaming in my ear as much as the next guy. However, waking up to 'Banana Phone', 'Peanut Butter Jelly Time' and 'It's A Small World' at the same time wasn't much of an improvement. I groaned and buried my head underneath my pillow, only to be buried by six or seven more thrown by my hysterical cabinmates. That didn't do much more than make me groan again and flail an arm around to stave off the feather-filled attackers, and I briefly considered just rolling over and going back to sleep for another few hours.

In fact, I think the only thing that kept me from open rebellion was a small hand lifting up the corner of my pillow. "Pat, they said they're gonna get cold water from the showers. I think you should get up before they get back," Nico told me gently, pulling the pillow up a little farther to show me a pile of clothes that were surprisingly familiar. I rubbed at my eyes, responding with a grunt that sounded almost coherent. He stuck around to poke at my arm until I grunted a second time and finally sat up, and then reminded me which direction the showers were before going to follow his own schedule for the day.

I was more or less awake by then, so I pulled on my t-shirt and hoodie before exchanging the sweatpants for jeans that looked like mine. They had all my stuff in the pockets, so I wasn't too concerned about who actually owned them. Of course, 'all my stuff' amounted to a driver's license, a cough drop, ten bucks and my almost-dead phone-nobody around here seemed to have one, which meant no chance of finding a charger-so I probably could have gone the day without those, too. The walk from the Hermes cabin to the showers only took a few minutes, so by the time I was able to wonder what I'd run into today I'd already ducked under a nozzle in an attempt to wake myself up.

It really should have bothered me that I could think about it so easily, but remembering Amanda and Sylvus didn't knock me off balance like it had the day before. Don't get me wrong, I wished I could have done more, but... I don't know. Being here, surrounded by mythical creatures and immortal gods, made everything else seem like a story, like it had all been part of some adventure movie or something. Maybe being away from the school and chucked into a new routine was keeping me from shutting down, or maybe I was just some crazy sociopath and didn't realize it yet.

I tossed a wet towel aside and reached for my pants, unsurprised with either possibility at this point. A few minutes later I was re-dressed and walking out the door-only to nearly run into something wrapped in foil and the hand holding it.

"You can eat while we walk," Marcus told me, shoving the foil thing into my hand before I had time to think. "I told you you'd be mine for the day, didn't I? Come on, you've got people to meet and things to do." On the surface, he almost sounded like an agent hurrying a busy actor; but when you were the one Marcus was talking to, it seemed more like a 'don't argue with the drill sergeant' vibe. I played it safe and went along with him. I opened the foil thing, which turned out to be a generously-filled breakfast burrito, and ate it as fast as I could while Marcus led me who knows where, cutting across a snow-covered volleyball court and behind the line of cabins toward what looked like a huge arena a fair ways off. I was half-asleep yet, though the cold air was waking me up pretty quickly, and I still didn't know what the hell was going on, nor did anyone seem inclined to tell me. The burrito was good, though, so I'll give him that.

I finished eating with just enough time to brush the crumbs off of my shirt and shove the foil wrapper into my pocket, and then I was walking into the arena.

The thing was like a miniature Coliseum. The air was warmer in here, but not hot; it felt more like an air-conditioned room, and there was no snow on the ground. Training dummies of all kinds-some wooden with crude targets painted on them, some made of leather with straw poking out pathetically from a million stab wounds, some that looked like they'd be right at home on a Robin Hood set, and some that looked like the fake torsos you sometimes saw at karate dojos-lined the walls, leaving an open space in the middle. In between the dummies were racks of spears, swords, bows and arrows, daggers, tridents-every sort of weapon imaginable, with shields to match. Something whistled through the air.

Thud.

I hadn't expected anyone else to be here, and definitely not the weird blonde girl from last night. She was standing at one end of the arena, smiling happily and weighing a tennis ball in her hand. The wolf she'd had with her before trotted up with an identical ball in his mouth, tail wagging. She scratched him behind the ears before throwing the second ball, which he took off after, claws scrabbling at the packed-dirt floor of the arena.

At first glance, it looked like the opening scene of any 'boy and his dog' movie, except for the fact that this little blonde-haired, blue-eyed slip of a girl was throwing fastballs at an archery target from halfway across the arena and hitting the bullseye every time, all while wearing a quiet little smile like this was the perfect way to spend an easy morning, just her and her wolf training for the MLB.

The wolf picked up the tennis ball and ran it back, accepting another ruffle between the ears. The girl readied her next ball, then paused. "...Marcus?" she called warily, glancing over at us. Her wolf looked over as well, folding his ears back at her tone.

"Morning, Kim. Thanks for coming on such short notice."

Kim relaxed, tossing the tennis ball off to the side and patting the wolf's head reassuringly. "Don't mention it," she said, pulling a silver bow off her shoulder. I hadn't noticed it there before, and I was suddenly nervous about why she was there. If there was one thing I was picking up in this place, it was to never trust the quiet ones. "I can't spend the whole visit hiding in my cabin."

"You could always steal my phone and change my contacts to 'Ha-ha, sucker' like Ari did," I grumbled, shooting a glare up at Marcus when he didn't laugh, but she did smile. I had to stop and take a second look when she did, suddenly realizing how pretty the girl really was. That Aphrodite camper Drew was a dolled-up, snooty cheerleader-type, but Kim was the opposite side of the coin: pleasant, kind, and genuinely beautiful, with a smile that would look at home on a Renaissance statue.

"She gave your phone back," Kim pointed out. "That means she likes you. She told Zoë she even left the ten dollars in your other pocket. Tori says thanks for the cough drop, by the way."

"Doubt Zoë would've cared either way," I muttered. " All she's done is glare at me like I tried to steal her wallet."

Kim looked uncomfortable. Plate and chain shifted beside me as its owner commented, "From what I understand, she has a lot on her mind since yesterday. A new recruit, an old acquaintance and Artemis decided to run off on her own again." There was a certain note of disapproval in his voice during that last part, and I decided to start taking his claims a little more seriously. If talking to Artemis was anything like talking to Dionysus, she wasn't someone you used that tone with-or even about-lightly.

"There were mitigating circumstances!" Kim protested."

I know, I know," the armored man sighed. He shook his head, another short breath escaping before he said, "I just have a bad feeling, is all. If it was dangerous enough for her to leave you behind, I wish she'd have waited for backup. Me or Apollo, or even one of the other gods. I know Ares has been itching for a fight, lately. Hell, if she'd even taken Zoë..."

At this point I'd gotten used to people throwing gods' names around casually, but what caught me was the fact that Marcus was worried about one of the gods who, if I remember correctly, took the least amount of crap from anybody back in the days before anger management classes. "Sounds like I'm not the most interesting thing going on around here," I chimed in.

Marcus only snorted. "Kid, you walked out of the woods and into the middle of a war."

"There's always a war," Kim sighed.

"This one's going to be worse," Marcus promised. "It's been two years and we haven't won yet-I guarantee you we're not going to see the end anytime soon."

"Lady Artemis has a trail," Kim said loyally. "She might be able to stop it before it starts. If anyone can, it's her."

Marcus gave a grunt that landed somewhere between worried and unconvinced, furrowing his brow. After a moment he shook his head, turning to face me again. "One thing at a time. Pat. Gods, Titans and monsters. What do you know about them?"

I blinked, the sudden line of questioning having caught me off guard. "Well... they're Greek," I sputtered. The blonde mountain of a man arched a brow, silently telling me to continue. "Well, there's the twelve Olympians. Zeus is in charge and has a thing for women-" I paused to look up as thunder rumbled faintly, but Marcus rolled his eyes and gestured for me to go on. I decided to move away from the gods, continuing with, "Uh... The Titans came before them, but they got kicked out. The Trojan War happened somewhere in there, and from what I've seen monsters are bad."

"Alright, you've got a good enough idea," Marcus answered, walking toward a rack of longbows, "Or at least no worse than anyone else." I managed to catch the bow he sent arcing toward me, shooting a confused look back in the man's direction. "I want to see where you stand on the practical side of things. Take a few shots at the target and we'll see how you do against Kim."

"... It's all the way over there," I pointed out, gesturing to what I was guessing was something like sixty feet of empty air between me and the archery target before Marcus shoved a quiver of arrows into my hand. I cycled through the various arguments I had at my disposal, ranging from 'I've never shot a bow before' to 'I could still sue you people for kidnapping and child endangerment', but gave up before trying any of them. I'd barely known the guy for a day and I could already tell I wouldn't win an argument with him, so I slung the quiver over my shoulder and grabbed for an arrow.

… an arrow that fell about twenty feet short of the target. I could hear Kim select her arrow and send it away just next to me as I got another shot ready. This time it at least made the full distance, but it turns out I aimed about five feet to the right of the target. There was a short couple of 'ruff's from my left that I would've sworn were Owen laughing if I hadn't managed to narrowly convince myself that wolves couldn't laugh. It was a shade of a hope given the things I'd seen yesterday, but that was at least enough to let me adjust my aim and take one more shot with the bow.

Thunk.

Good news: I hit a target that time. Bad news: it was Kim's. I stared in a combination of surprise that I'd actually hit something and disbelief at the fact that I could suck that badly, but a glimmer drew my eye toward the center of the target. The disbelief intensified a little more when I saw where both of Kim's shots had landed, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the blonde ready another arrow.

Thunk.

Three bullseyes, dead on and no argument. "You've got to be kidding me," I said lamely, tossing the bow back to Marcus. The quiver followed as soon as it came off of my shoulder, along with a couple of silent insults. I mean, come on, the guy expected me to get into a contest with a trained archer and do anything less than look like a five-year-old with a toy bow? Marcus was smirking, which I think was the only reason I decided to break my policy about throwing profane insults at people who weighed about forty pounds more than me.

"Oh, come on. Ari could come up with something better than that," Marcus retorted with a good-natured chuckle. "Besides," he added on a moment later, "She wouldn't get totally beaten out by the blind girl."

Owen definitely snickered that time."Yeah, well-you're blind?"

Kim smiled, albeit sadly, letting one last arrow fly before turning to face me. "I've been blind for fifteen years," she said softly, placing a hand on Owen's head as if to reassure herself that he was still there, and all of a sudden a lot of her downright weird behavior made a lot of sense. The way she hadn't realized I'd moved last night until she paused for a few minutes to listen for me, the odd way she had of not quite making eye contact, how she'd tensed up when we walked in on her alone until Marcus confirmed who he was...

… but not how she'd somehow made four perfect bullseyes in a row from sixty feet back like it was nothing. "Did you learn to shoot like that before or after your eyes crapped out?" I grumbled, maybe just a bit jealous that I could barely keep my head on in all this but somebody who couldn't see was shooting bullseyes. Okay, a lot jealous.

"After," she said calmly, sightless eyes flickering briefly in Marcus' general direction. "That really wasn't fair," she said. "You knewthat would happen, there was no need to humiliate him!""I'm not trying to give him a complex," Marcus reassured her, "I'm just not about to make any assumptions about him. If he's going to be here, we need to know what he can do."I glanced back to Kim's four-bullseye target for a second, still trying to work out how a blind girl could shoot that well. "Apparently not archery, so what else have you got?" I asked as I turned back to my newly acquired trainer.

"Me."

Obeying the law of dramatic entrances, I turned toward the arena's entrance to face the new voice. "Another Hunter, right?" I asked mid-turn, and almost groaned when I saw that I was right. Then I noticed that we were eye-level with each other... and she had shoulders that were almost broader than mine.

The silver-clad bodybuilder gave a cocky smirk before crossing confidently over to us. "Phoebe," she said by way of introduction; then, to Kim, "Here."

Kim blinked, confused, and Phoebe sighed, taking the blind girl's hand and closing it carefully on a paper plate. "Thank you," said Kim, surprised. She cocked her head for a moment and asked, "Bacon and eggs?"

"It's an omelette," Phoebe said gruffly. "The bacon's for the dog."

Kim tried not to smile. "Thank you, Phoebe." She felt carefully around the edges of the plate until she found a plastic fork, then handed a strip of bacon down to Owen. "You didn't have to do that."

"Yeah, well." Phoebe scowled and put her hands in her pockets. "You don't eat enough. No wonder you're crap in a fight."

"What does that make me?" I muttered, reaching up to rub at the bridge of my nose. Awake for an hour and I was already wondering how I'd get through the next one.

"I dunno," she grinned, looking me over. "Wanna find out?"

Marcus gave a laugh that was only marginally evil from somewhere off to the side before tossing me to the wolves with, "I do. Get in there, Patrick. I promise she won't break you."

"Not in too many pieces, anyway," Phoebe assured me, reaching into her pocket.

She pulled out a very shiny, very large, very bronze battleaxe.

I gaped, looking over to Marcus. "You've gotta be shitting me!" I blurted before I could stop myself, looking back to the axe-wielding Girl Scout in total disbelief. How did she even fit that in there?

"Yes, she is," came a particularly pointed intervention from Marcus, who was standing with his arms folded. "Two pieces is too many, Phoebe, you can't cut him in half."

Phoebe actually looked disappointed, but she sighed and... did something to the weapon. I couldn't tell exactly how it worked, but the giant double-bladed battleaxe folded down and disappeared so that she was holding something red and metallic, which she tucked back into her pocket. I started telling myself that there was no possible way anyone could have an axe in their Swiss Army Knife, but gave up about halfway through the thought."Just hand-to-hand, then?" she sighed.

I rolled my shoulders, resigning myself to the fight that I probably wasn't getting out of now that the Hunter was only regular crazy instead of axe-crazy. "Yeah, sorry for wanting to keep my head attached."

Phoebe heaved a heavy sigh. "That's all right, I guess."

I came to what must have only been five or six seconds later, sprawled out on my back. It took a minute to register the abrupt change in scenery, and then my mouth started to hurt. I... didn't even think she had been close enough to throw a punch.

"I didn't even see that," Kim commented from the sidelines, "and it still hurt to watch."

I blinked and shook my head, managing to stand up without any trouble. "Ow," I said thoughtfully-and, admittedly, maybe a little redundantly-before working my jaw and checking for any missing teeth with my tongue. I dropped a hand to my side with a frown, feeling at one of my pockets. "Crap, did I drop my phone?"

Phoebe frowned and leaned to the side to check behind me. "I don't think-"

"Bingo!" I interrupted, throwing a quick punch into the Hunter's gut. The grunt that came from her lips was probably more surprise than pain, but it gave me a second to shove her back, bring my fists up and adjust my feet.

Just in time, too: Phoebe was already coming back for another punch, the grin back on her lips and with a fierce edge. I stepped inside the blow's arc and shoved my arm against hers, preferring to take half a punch to half my arm instead of a whole right hook to my whole jaw. Another grunt escaped her when I sent a knee up into her gut, driving the Hunter back a step that I mirrored in the opposite direction. I snapped a quick kick toward her right side, figuring that she couldn't knock me over if I didn't let her hit back.

The swift realization that this particular Girl Scout didn't need to throw a punch to knock me over came about when she pinned my leg against her side with her arm, and pivoted to send me stumbling and crashing back down onto the ground.

Ow. That was my head. And those things flying around in front of me are the stars I see from hitting my head. Funny how that works, isn't it?

The stars started fading when a pair of hands hauled me up by the shoulders, and the first thing I saw was a snarky grin. "I don't mind you," its owner said, helping me up to my feet. "Even if you do fight worse than Kim."

Kim cleared her throat to get our attention, gesturing roughly toward her quadruple bullseye with a piece of bacon before handing the strip down to Owen indignantly. Well, as indignantly as you can hand a wolf a piece of bacon.

"I'm gonna be dead in three days," I lamented, rubbing at the sore spot on the back of my head.

"Oh, don't think like that," Phoebe said sternly. "It might not take that long!"

"Play nice, ladies," Marcus' voice chuckled from just behind me before I felt a light pat on the shoulder.

I almost considered throwing a punch at him, too, but settled for a flat look before going to lean against a stretch of wall off to the side. How did I manage to choke that crazy bird-woman to death when I could barely keep up with people who were actually mostly normal?

"You're not doing bad for somebody who just stumbled into all this, Patrick," the ancient thirty-year-old told me a little more kindly, reaching over to give my shoulder a squeeze. "Every single one of us was green once upon a time, but most of the kids in this camp have been training like Marines since they were ten."

I let a little sigh out, folding my arms and looking over the arena. A soldier older than the country I live in, a blind girl who can shoot bullseyes, another girl who could probably make professional boxers cry, and then little ol' me. "I don't exactly feel like I was meant to stumble into all this to begin with," I admitted after a minute, "It's cool and all, thinking about fighting monsters and knowing that all the old myths are real-but what the hell am I doing here, you know?"

"Well, there's one thing you've got in common with the others already," Kim said matter-of-factly from the sidelines. She set her breakfast aside to the disappointment of Owen, who'd been sniffing hopefully at another slice of bacon. "None of us felt like we belonged here, at first." She picked up the last slice of bacon and was offering it to Owen when a sudden thought occurred to her. "Well, I mean... some of us ended up not staying anyway," she said, using the bacon to indicate herself. Owen, who'd been about to bite into it, huffed in irritation. "But I'm talking about the others. I spent three years here before joining the Hunt; I saw it often enough." She used her bacon as a pointer, jabbing it at me in a reassuring manner while Owen watched it with a forlorn look in his eyes. "Give it time; by summer, you'll be at home. You may not want to leave, actually."

"Marcus!"

"They keep the fire extinguisher next to the armory, Zoë!" Marcus answered, grinning as he pushed himself away from the wall. "Did you put one into Mr. D's kidney, like you said you would last time?"

"I have arranged a permanent guard for Tori," Zoë said coldly. "Further action on our part should not be necessary at this time. Have you seen Ariana?"

"Have you checked the gift shop?" he asked, waving a hand toward what I assumed was that general direction. A moment later, he thoughtfully added, "And I'd make sure the Aphrodite cabin has a bucket of water out front, just in case."

Zoë did not look amused, which made me just a little bit amused. "Yes, I have," she snapped. "I was searching for my specialized arrows, which have mysteriously gone missing. I was politely informed that the store did not have any, but were they lucky enough to come into possession of some they would be happy to sell them to me at a reasonable price. Now kindly tell me where Ari is, so that I might wring her neck."

I snorted and chimed in, "Careful, she might steal your wallet while you've got her," before I could convince myself to keep quiet. "You know, usually people laugh at jokes," I pointed out when all she did was shoot me an irate glance. Somebody really needed to teach this Girl Scout how to smile.

"People also usually introduce themselves before they start hating each other," Marcus cut in firmly. He gave both Zoë and Ia look of his own, making sure to lock eyes with us for a few moments each. "Pat, this is Zoë Nightshade, Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. Zoë, this is Patrick Alexander, a new arrival who, from what I hear, managed to burn his tongue on some Nectar." Now shake hands and play nice, I imagined him continuing while my tongue throbbed at the mention of that glowing battery acid.

Zoë ignored the unspoken addendum. "If you see Ari," she said, "Kindly ask her if she might have found a set of specialized Olympian arrows lying unattended and decided to take them into protective custody."

"Is that what she's calling it now?" Kim asked. Owen, seeing his chance, lunged forward and snatched his bacon strip from her fingers. "Say, if she's keeping your arrows safe, see if my comb is keeping them company, will you?"

Zoë gave a sigh that almost managed to keep from becoming a chuckle, but didn't quite make it to the end without giving in. "That was... what, the same joke with a few different words?" I asked, shooting the head Girl Scout a glare of my own. Alright, so I suppose I wasbeing petty, but you can't blame me for it. I mean, this girl had gone out of her way to either ignore me or glare at me, and what did I do other than try to say hello?

Zoë, to the shock of no one, ignored me, going on to ask Kim about something that I just didn't quite catch with all the red I was starting to see. "Alright, that's it," I growled, shoving past Marcus. I had every intention of grabbing the Hunter's shoulder and making her listen, going over a nice, mean rant in my head one last time to finalize the oversaturation of swear words-and then a hand yanked on my shoulder and I was facing Marcus faster than Phoebe threw that first punch, earlier.

"Not now," Marcus ordered in a low voice, overpowering any arguments I could make before I even opened my mouth to make them. I followed his glance off to the left and nearly tried to lunge for Zoë when I saw the look she was giving me: like I was a third grader who was fine when he was quiet, but needed to go away whenever he tried to talk. A squeeze on the shoulder brought my eyes back over to Marcus, whose expression was getting a lot less firm and a lot more understanding. "Don't start a fight," he said after a short pause, reaching to his belt and unclipping something, "when you can make a point."

Suddenly, there was an M1911 pistol in my hand, and a mischievous twinkle in its owner's eyes.