"You are going to totally love it here Ingrid!" gushed Silena Beauregard, head of the Aphrodite cabin. Ingrid was being introduced to the Aphrodite Cabin. Her messy hair and plain clothes were earning her some strange looks, here. She picked at an old scab until it bled. Silena looked at it queasily. "Hopefully" she said, steering Ingrid's hand away from the scab. , now you've found the place you belong at camp, you'll get those… hunters" she spat out the word like it was poisonous "Out of you system." She smiled and smoothed out Ingrid hair. Ingrid shook her off ran a finger through her hair, messing it up again. Silena sighed and continued "Didn't you know little sister that pulling back a bow string will give your soft little hands calluses? In fact I'm can see some now! Don't worry, I have some hand cream, they'll be gone before you know it!" she beamed.

Ingrid just glared at her and turned away. Yeah right, thought Ingrid does she really think that she can buy her way into my heart with hand cream?

"This is you're bunk" Said Silena, her smile now looked forced. "Why don't you settle down? Lights out in five minutes"

Ingrid raised her eyebrows and looked at the clock. Is she actually making a joke? My old neighbor's two year old went to bed later than this. "It's 8:00." said Ingrid moodily.

Silena laughed, as if Ingrid had said the stupidest thing in the world. "We need our beauty sleep; you wouldn't want circles under those pretty eyes, would you?"

Ingrid rolled her eyes and turned away. Her bunk looked different from the ones in the Hermes cabin, but when she sat on it, it felt basically the same. To bad it was covered in a pale pink quilt with lacey edges. She had decided against bringing her toiletries with her, seeing this is where she had stolen them from anyways. She turned away from the other campers and changed into the sponge bob boxers and white t-shirt that Jinx had lent her to sleep in. One of the other camper's saw her attire and looked like she was about to faint. Silena patted her on the back and whispered in her ear, something that sounded like 'she'll learn'. Then she clapped her hands "Ok everyone, lights out!"

Ingrid sighed and got in her new bed. She lay awake for some time. She was lonely though she was surrounded by 'family'. The thought made her shudder. They would never be her family; family was people who care for you because you're you, not people who share your blood. She listened to the sounds of blankets rustling and people shifting until the only sound was the deep gentle breathing of the Aphrodite campers. They seemed to be breathing in harmony, dreaming in harmony. Silena had been so nice to her, but it had felt so …fake. She didn't belong here; she never would, unless she completely changed herself. She yanked her blanket out of the bed and left the cabin. It trailed along the thin lair of frost out side; she pressed her numb fingers against the cool white wood of the Aphrodite cabin and pulled her self up. Her legs found the holes and ledges by themselves, her hands reached for the edges automatically. Her foot rested on a frosty ledge and she slipped. Her heart fluttered momentarily. She hadn't slipped in years. There was too much going on in her life right now. She kept climbing until she reached the roof. She sighed and looked down. She loved being up high. It made her feel so powerful, because she could see every thing so easily, yet they couldn't she her unless they looked carefully. She wrapped her self up with her blanket and thought about everything that had happened that day. The best way to let go of your problems, she realized is to put them aside and think about someone else's. It wasn't fair that Grover had left Orlando alone. Of course he had to save the world, but amidst all that, his little brother is left behind by the only family he has left. She sighed. She sat up there just thinking. She thought about her life so far, what the future would bring her, she thought about Jinx and her past, she thought about who she was, and what she wanted, and how she would get it.

After an hour, she slid down the side of the cabin and back to her bunk. Before she knew it, she was asleep.

The next morning at breakfast, she noticed Zoe and Bianca weren't at the Artemis table, and Grover and Thalia had gone to. They must have left late last night or early this morning. Ingrid wasn't surprised to find Percy missing as well though she didn't recall him being chosen for the quest. She was met by Jinx, Orlando, and the Stolls shortly after breakfast.

"I'm telling you, its peppermint! If it was spearmint it wouldn't have a stem like that!"

"Jinx, trust me, I can smell it, its spearmint!"

"Orlando, you had allergies this morning, you're nose is blocked, you can't smell anything!"

It had been two days since the quest for Artemis had left camp, Chiron had requested her to go into the forest and get peppermint, because his medicine supplies were running low.

"Ingrid, you taste it!" Orlando demanded. Ingrid sighed and picked one of the leaves. It tasted cool and soothing.

"Sorry Orlando, its peppermint"
"What?" He picked off another leaf and chewed. "Oh… it is."

Jinx smiled and gloated silently, which was annoying enough. They started to gather the peppermint and then walk back towards camp. They were almost there when they heard a conch horn blowing. Orlando checked his watch, it wasn't lunch yet.
"What do you think happened?" asked Jinx

"Maybe Percy showed up dead or something" answered Ingrid

Orlando just shrugged, but Ingrid could tell he was thinking of Grover.
The three exchanged looks and sprinted towards the camp. By the time they got there, there was already a crowd of people around. In the middle of the circle, there was a big girl with dirty blond hair, dragging a boy behind her. The boy was crazy, literally. His hair was messy and matted with dirt, his eyes were wild, and his teeth were bared and foaming. He looked like a rabid dog. His fingers were blistered and bloody, and his nails dug painfully into the girl's hands. "Chiron!" the girl yelled. "Get us inside the big house, now!"

Chiron turned to the campers. "Back to your business campers!" he ordered. Slowly the crowd died away. Orlando approached Chiron, and gave him the peppermint.

"Thank you Orlando" he said distractedly, than brought the girl and boy into the big house. Everyone was talking about it, so for the next half an hour, Ingrid walked around, listening to conversations, asking questions, and pressing her ear against the door, trying to hear what was going on within. She picked up that the girl was Clarisse, head of the Ares cabin, and the boy was Chris Rodriguez, who had left camp to join the Titans last summer. Then Chiron emerged, Clarisse close behind him.

"Campers, gather!"

As if he had just said "Get a million dollars here!" the entire camp ran towards him.

"Most of you know Chris, who stayed at this camp for many years, waiting to be claimed. Most of you remember how he left to join the Titans. He left on his own free will, did he not? But did he stay on his own free will?" Chiron surveyed the campers. "I have detected a poison is his blood, a toxin in his brain. We must find out what this is. If the Titans have found a way to possess people it could be the end of Olympus."

The campers gasped collectively, murmured and whispered words of terror to each other. Dread crept into Ingrid's heart. The end of Olympus… though she knew of the war, it didn't seem possible for something so big, something that had held its place for over 3000 years could just… be over.

"Is the poison what's making him crazy?" Asked one of the campers.

"No child. That is something we won't be discussing today. Now, does anyone accept this Quest? A quest to travel to the Titan's base, to do what ever it takes to find out what this is, and how we can stop it from taking the next step. Raise your voice now if you accept."

Ingrid thought about how the hunters thought she was frail, incompetent. She would prove them wrong. 'But you've only had four days of training; you'll never survive' said that little voice inside her head. But if she thought any longer, someone else would volunteer, and the opportunity would be gone, forever.

She stepped forwards.

"I'll do it!"

one reli reli reli gigantic thank you to storm brain, who is now beta(ing) my story. Disclaimer, I don't own the Percy showed up dead line, storm brain does.