AN: Sorry for the uber-long delay. That's all I have to say. Slight pun intended.

"I don't want to talk about this, all right?" he said as he stormed off, not bothering to restart time. Once he was out of sight, I found that I could move again. Willow sighed from beside me.

"Does this happen a lot?" I asked, stretching.

"Nah. Only when he gets really mad. We need to catch up with him."

"Why? If he's going to be a big baby, I don't know if I want to travel with him at all." I grumbled, looking at the pine trees surrounding us.

"Well, I don't know the way. And be patient with him. He's been through a lot." Willow said reasonably.

"Fine."

We had been walking for several minutes before Ward finally came into view. He was leaning against a tree, waiting for us. Without a word, he turned and led the way once again.

"Sorry," I heard him mutter after a couple minutes. Still angry, I didn't respond. I saw Willow frown out of the corner of my eyes.

After about half an hour of walking, Willow began to hum. At first I didn't recognize the melody, but then I remembered. It was our school's fight song. Smiling, I joined in, singing,

"Hit them hard and see how they fall.

Never let that team get the ball.

Hail, hail, the gang's all here,

and we're in for a fun time now!"

Ward tried to jump in and I immediately fell silent. Let's see how he likes the silent treatment, I thought.

Finally, after what seemed like weeks of walking, we reached a valley. I hadn't noticed it before but we had slowly entered a mountain range. Looking down, I saw that there was a camp snuggly nestled between the two mountains. I could only see a little bit from this height, but I could see patches of strawberries, bright specks of red against the green grass.

As the land sloped downward, I could see more and more of the camp. I saw a bunch of cabins and campers, courts and canoes, swords and satyrs (for full explanation, see Lightning Thief). I couldn't believe how big the camp was. The most I had imagined was a cabin or two and a mess hall. Instead, the camp must be at least 10 acres, maybe even more. There were at least 15 cabins, each one unique. I noticed that we were heading toward a large mansion, the only building that wasn't a cabin. It was cherry red with a black roof. The large porch was painted white, giving it a foreboding look.

We were attracting a lot of attention, and not all of it was friendly. Ward especially was attracting a lot of glares from the campers. As we reached the porch, Ward turned to look at me nervously.

"Uh, mind your manners around Mr. D. He is definitely not someone you want as an enemy." He looked so serious that I forgot to be grouchy. Who was this Mr. D, and why was Ward so scared of him.

Not wanting to make him more jittery, I agreed to be careful.

We reached the door and Ward, taking a deep breath, opened it and took a step inside. Willow and I looked at each other and followed him.


The three of us walked into a dingy room with a shabby card table set up. A pudgy old guy with a leopard shirt was playing with a…. no, it couldn't be. I rubbed my eyes and counted to three. Yep. I'm definitely going crazy. How else could you explain the at-least-six-feet-tall monster drinking a coke?

The geezer looked at his cards, sighed, and laid down his cards face-down.

"You're folding? Again? Isn't this the 130th time in a row you've lost?" the creature that looked like a horse from the waist down. Minotaur, no. Harpy, no. What was it called?

"Quiet, centaur. Don't make me turn you into a tree." Ah. Centaur. That's right.

"We have guests." my hallucination said quietly.

The old guy looked around and his eyes zeroed in on Ward. A look of pure hatred distorted his features.

"You," he snarled. "You have the nerve to come in here after all the warnings we gave you?" He rose to his feet and Ward flinched.

"Sir, I-" Ward's explanation was cut off. Mr. D snapped his fingers and thick vines erupted out of nowhere and bound Ward from the waist down.

"I-" Ward tried to talk but Mr. D snapped his fingers and the makeshift rope tightened around his throat.

"What are you doing? He didn't do anything!" Just because I was mad at Ward didn't mean that I was going to let this random guy choke him to death.

I charged toward Mr. D, trying in some way to help Ward. Mr. D turned to look at me and I froze. Instead of eyes, purple and red flames filled his eye sockets. He opened his mouth and I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for him to blast me into smithereens.

AN2: Aside from the cheesy opening, I hope you guys enjoy this next installment. Merry Christmas! Sorry for the short chapter.