These chapters just take longer and longer to write each time. Blah. But here it is! TA-DA!
P.S. I'm already getting excited for Halloween(:
Disclaimer: I don't own squat :P
Before anybody had time to wonder what was going on, 300 demigods sprung into action. The whole camp was dying for a little commotion, and we all sprinted over to get towards the source of the excitement. Before I had the chance to take two steps, Hailey, along with all the other kids on horseback, galloped past me faster than I would've thought possible.
Campers ran by, weighed down by the armor strapped to their chests and backs. A few waved their shields in the air, like this was just one big game of capture the flag. We had trained for something like this for hours and hours every day, and we were more than ready.
One thing they didn't prepare us for was trying to get to the actual fight while shoving past a mob of slow runners. Because you can't be saving someone's life if you were stuck behind some kid jogging so they didn't get a cramp or something equally as ridiculous.
Pushing past person after person, I struggled to get to the front of the crowd. Even though the first instinct was to run towards the action, I cursed myself for not hopping onto a horse when I had had the chance.
I shoved a son of Aphrodite out of my way, and could finally see what was going on.
"Medusa!" shouted some people. Campers shielded their eyes and held their swords straight out in front of them, in hopes it would protect them from the hideous beast. Other people, either extremely brave or extremely stupid, rushed straight onward to fight the creature.
I decided that I wouldn't really like to be turned to stone, so I looked away before I was nothing more than an astonishingly beautiful statue. Could you imagine how many girls would be disappointed? I just couldn't let that happen.
But how could this possibly be Medusa? Didn't Percy just kill her, like 6 years ago (he often likes to gloat about it)? Could she have reformed that quickly?
Nope. I think not!
After convincing myself over and over that there was a one in a million chance that she was looking right at me, I quickly took a glance to see if it really was her/it.
One look assured me that if it wasn't her, it was something just as terrifying.
Vivid green snakes grew out of her scalp, coiling around each other while hissing at campers. Long bronze talon-like things curled from her fingertips, on her freakishly-long hands. She literally looked like skin and bone, with the exception of the golden wings erupting out of her back.
One ear-shattering screech of hers sent campers flying back in a gust of wind. Once they were thrown back, few actually got up and ran to attack her again.
Suddenly, I noticed Chiron galloping around yelling commands to the campers.
"Fall back!" he shouted. "Don't attack!"
Some campers obeyed him, and ran back to safety. But others, whether they couldn't hear him or they just didn't care, continued running towards the beast. Soon Apollo campers were racing ahead and carrying bodies away from the fight as quickly as possible. Other campers that weren't fighting helped out, too. Some treated the injured with care, while others merely flopped the body over their shoulder and jogged towards the infirmary.
Hailey, who had been attacking the monster with her arrows (along with the rest of her siblings), began to scoop injured campers up onto her horse and carry them away from the battle.
One thing I was confused about was the disappointing lack of statues lying around. I mean, if she was Medusa shouldn't there be a surplus of stone figures decorated around the battle field?
Confused, I let myself walk farther towards the fight while keeping my eyes strictly on the ground. All around me I heard battle cries, either of excitement or terror. There were still a lot of kids running in between the creature and me, so I didn't worry about being viciously attacked anytime soon.
Stupidly, I looked up. But fortunately for me, I was just in time to see the dragon guarding Thalia's tree, Peleus, finally take some action and strike the monster. She went down with a screech, but was silent after that and quickly vanished into a large cloud of dust.
Basically, it was the weirdest fight ever.
Some campers, still pumped on adrenaline from the fight, cheered and did cartwheels – as if they were in some bad movie.
Others walked back to their cabins tiredly, possibly to take advantage of this break and take a nap. After a fight, we never go straight back to our scheduled activities. While Chiron sorts everything out and the Apollo kids begin to heal the injured, we all get a break.
Some campers were unaffected by fights like these. For example, Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner, who had recently become an "item", were using their break as an opportunity to make out under some tree. Others, like a younger daughter of Aphrodite, weren't handling it so well. The little girl had broken out into loud sobs, and was being comforted by her older sister.
I, for one, didn't understand why everyone got so worked up over these things. We're demigods, this stuff happens to some of us (myself included) almost every day. Sure, maybe not extreme as Medusa, but sometimes it's pretty darn close.
Speaking of the evil creature we all know and love, rumors of Medusa were flying around camp quicker than… well, they were spreading pretty quickly. So far, I've heard she claimed "Since Perseus took my head, I'll take his in return!". I've also heard that she came to make an agreement with Dionysus about their children (which is a complete rumor, or at least I hope it is).
I had made my way back to my cabin, but I wasn't in there for long before there was a loud knock on my door.
I made a silent promise that if it was two annoying little kids I would send them off and go back to my business; but when I opened the door, I was looking at someone a wee bit taller than a few seven year olds.
"Nico," greeted Chiron, "glad to see you're unharmed from this battle." I nodded, unsure what to say.
"Why don't you join me outside?" he offered, and I stepped out of my cabin.
(this is where a line would go but my computer's stupid and won't put one in)
"So, what you're telling me is that wasn't Medusa?"
Chiron looked at me, most likely annoyed. He had just spent the past 5 minutes trying to explain it to me, but I couldn't quite grasp the information.
He sighed, "No, Nico. You know the story of how Medusa came to be, am I right?" I nodded, "Well it seems you've forgotten about her two sisters, the Gorgons. And if I'm correct, that is what the creature was: One of the Gorgons."
I was still confused. "But if she was a Gorgon, wouldn't she have turned everybody into stone?" It wasn't just Medusa who could do that; all Gorgons could. "I didn't see any statues lying around."
"Yes," he started, "that's actually exactly why I am in need of your assistance."
I hadn't even noticed we were walking towards the infirmary until we had gotten there. This whole thing was very confusing.
Chiron began to talk quieter and quicker, as if we were in some secret spy movie. "Nico, I understand you have the power to feel if someone's death is near." Goosebumps began to prick up on my arms. People had gotten that seriously hurt? He didn't wait for a sign from me to continue talking, "Something very strange has happened. Many campers made eye contact with the monster, and yet nothing happened to them during battle. But afterwards, they started dropping like flies."
My eyes widened a fraction. "You mean, they're all dead?"
"Not quite," he said. It didn't make me feel any better. "But if we don't do something about it, I believe that's how it will end. That's where you come in, Nico. I need you to see if they are close to death, or merely frozen in this state."
"Frozen in wh-" I began to ask, but was cut off by Chiron.
"Just go see for yourself, child. And don't be scared at their, uh, appearances." He warned. That didn't exactly make me excited to go inside, but I had no choice, and slowly creaked the door of the infirmary open and slipped inside, scared to make too much noise.
In the infirmary, there were rows of hospital beds lining the walls. Upstairs, they had personal rooms for patients that would be spending a long period of time with them.
But in this case, all I had to do was walk inside and I was instantly greeted by kids lying on the thin mattresses.
Almost every bed was occupied with a camper, still dressed in their battle gear. Some looked towards me, while others stared blankly into space.
Damn, I thought. It was much harder to measure someone's life energy if they were fully conscious. I was half-hoping they would all be in some kind of medically-induced coma, to make things easier on my part.
The few staring at me were making me feel awkward.
"Um, hi." I said, and gave a slight wave. There was no response from any of them.
Confused, I walked over to one of them, and knelt down so I was eye-to-eye with them.
"Hello?" I stared for any sort of acknowledgment that I was there, but the camper stayed the same.
"Hellloooo?" I tried again, but the result was the same. He laid there, still as a statue.
Annoyed, I shook his shoulder, hoping he would respond. But when I pushed him he just flopped over. This wouldn't be that strange, without the exception that when I moved him his body stayed in the exact same position, but now he was on his other side.
I stood up abruptly and looked at the other campers. They weren't just still, they were frozen. Not the kind of frozen that turns your toes blue and makes you shiver; the kind of frozen that you can't move. Frozen in place.
I kept repeating what Chiron had said to me, and yet I couldn't help but see the campers as dead bodies; the glassy look in their eyes just adding to the effect. There must've been over a dozen of them, all lying on the same dull white beds with the same boring blue blanket.
Realizing this made my whole perspective change. Instead of being in a room with a bunch of injured campers, I was in a room with a bunch of people stuck in a state of paralyzation.
And only then did I notice what Chiron was talking about; how he warned me about their appearance.
All twelve campers looked like someone had replaced their skin with paper, and decided to stamp big purple circles all over. They looked horrible, and their still bodies reminded me of mannequins.
I scanned my eyes over the campers. One was obviously a daughter of Aphrodite, but she didn't look so pretty with big black bruises decorating her freakishly-pale skin. Her eyes that were a breathtaking blue just a few hours ago were now dull and lifeless. She looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
I could recognize some of the other campers, even in the state they were in. Jack, from the Ares cabin, was in the third bed to the right. Quinn, a daughter of Demeter, was the first bed on the left.
Looking at the rest of the camper's faces, I recognized more and more of them. Kaylee, from Persephone. Aaron, from Hephaestus. Towards the back, there was someone lying on their stomach with their face in their pillow. I flipped them over, to see who it was, and let out an involuntary gasp.
Jill really does know how to surprise me.