Lunch is pizza with french fries to celebrate summer. Tonight, fireworks will light up the sky, and the whole camp will go swimming in the lake and have an epic chicken-fight in the water. As I scrape a portion of my french fries into the fire pit for my mom Demeter, I see a small head of tied up green hair and smile. I'm glad the girl is alive and well. I mentally pat myself on the back, as it was my very first rescue mission.
The girl obviously does not know where to sit, so, to avoid making things awkward, I am about to invite her over to the Demeter table, but before I do, Brian is suddenly at my side, waving her over. She sees him and walks in our direction and sits with us. I see a portion of her slice is gone; she must have picked things up pretty quick here. Brian and her converse while eating their pizzas, but it's mostly Brian talking, and I'm sitting there awkwardly waiting for him to introduce us, as he obviously knows her. Finally, he notices my discomfort and presents her to me.
"Seb, this is Emily. Emily, Sebastian. She's from Ottawa too, you know," he says with a mouth full of pizza. Emily nods and stares at her feet while chewing on french fries.
"Well, nice to meet you, Emily. Any idea who your godly parent is yet?" I ask her out of curiosity. She just shrugs and says, "Nope. Your mother is Demeter?" and I nod while taking a bite. I mentally ask for a milkshake to my cup and it fills up automatically. I take a sip; it reminds me of home for some reason, when my dad used to make me and my baby brother some when summers got hot and our air vents went down. I miss them already; I'll only be seeing them in three months.
"So, how old are you?" I ask to make conversation. "I'm thirteen. You all?" She asks back. "Sixteen," Brian says proudly, even though I can see he is put down by how young she is. I on't know how he didn't realize she wasn't that old due to her size, but at least now he won't try and flirt with her. I smirk at him and say, "I'm fourteen. Are you gonna eat that?" I ask when she stops taking her french fries off the plate. She shakes her head and pushes it over to me. I gladly dip her fries in ketchup and eat them all.
"Well, we should probably get going. I've got archery, and I assume you guys do too," I say as I get up. I wave at the other Demeter people, who have gotten to complimenting Emily's hair, and go to the archery field to get some extra practice. I sort of suck at archery, but it makes me feel so relaxed I do as much of it as I can. Sometimes I'm forced to run from angry dryads who've gotten their trees shot at by suction arrows by accident, and during those times I'm glad they're suction-tipped, because if they were normal arrows, man. I would have been chased by an army of angry green people.
I stop mid-stride when I hear a growl from the forest in front of me. Frozen, I try to get a better look at where the sound came from, and silently grow sticky vines in a circle around me using my abilities out of instinct. I crane my neck to spot whatever it was, when glowing red eyes appear in the shadows of a bush. Then, a second pair of eyes, same level as the other one, appear as well, hence double the growling.
Then, the creature lunges. I get a split-second look at it and see two heads, possibly dog heads, connected at the spine to one big dog body. Their fangs are white as quartz, and look very, very sharp. My defenses kick in, and I scream and dive to the side. I only realize what a stupid idea that was when I fall in my own sticky vines. It takes me a split second to have them withdraw, and that's enough time for the monster to turn around and face me. Desperate, I break out into a sprint.
I have no weapons, as monsters are not capable of going into camp without being summoned, therefore weeping are not necessary to carry around. I left my dagger at the cabin, and I'm slow, as I just ate. The double-headed dog, which I now recognize as Orthrus from lessons at camp, pounces and lands on my back, sending me sprawling forwards. My hands hit the rocky ground in front of me and the skin tears at the palms; I yelp out in pain. Orthrus tries to bite my head, but both his heads are not synchronized so they end up going on either side of me, giving me a moment to escape. I quickly roll over and get up, as I spot a particularly jagged rock on the ground. I grab it desperately and swing it at him as he is coming coming close. The rock connects to his right jaw, and he growls and looks at me murderously. I throw the rock at his foot, disorienting him for a second, long enough for me to run to the archery field.
When I arrive, Orthrus is right at my feet, his dark red fur flapping in the wind and his jaws open with his teeth showing. Thankfully, Chiron is already there in horse form, a bow drawn tight, aiming towards one of the targets. I scream his name just as the arrow flies and hits dead centre. He turns over, spots the huge dog behind me and grabs an arrow. He places it quickly on his bow and aims, but I am in the way. With a nimble move I learned in sword fighting class, I dive quickly to the side and he lets the arrow fly. I hear the sound of sand falling to the ground, and I know that I am safe. That feeling is quickly gone, however, when pain flares up my calf. I moan and look at my leg, and see it's soaked with blood. All the adrenaline gone from my body, the pain is quite bad. How did I not notice the rip before?
My jean leg was soaked in crimson blood, and Chiron noticed. He quickly says, "Get on my back, we're going to the infirmary," and I push myself up, dangling my leg over the side to avoid getting any blood on him.
"Why the heck was that thing there?" I ask loudly enough for him to hear through his galloping.
"I do not know. Orthrus was slain by Hercules millenniums ago, though he most likely re-formed recently. I have no idea who would have summoned him," he says with worry. When we reach the sick room, he drops me off and I hop inside, where I am greeted with an Apollo kid who quickly sits me down and pulls my jean leg up. He gasps and exclaims, "Wow, that's going to need stitches. Stay still," he hands me some ambrosia and I take a big bite.
The next few minutes are very painful, but when the son of Apollo is done, I feel nothing. I look at my leg and barely see the stitches. "Thank you," I say as I get up.
"Don't run until tomorrow, when I take them off, 'kay?" he says while already going to work on another patient. I nod and walk fast outside. I need to go see Chiron. He might know what's going on. My priorities quickly change after I hear a collectible gasp from the dining hall. I change directions and walk towards the while marble hall quickly, and all I see is a small crowd of the campers who have not finished eating yet, and they seem to surround someone. I step on my tippy toes to get a better look at what's going on, and my heart skips a beat.
Emily is the one in the center. And around her, the ground is falling apart.