Merry Christmas everybody! I'm writing this (well, this author note) around twelve midnight on Christmas, and I want to take this time to say that I hope you all have an awesome Christmas and an epic New Years! I wanna say thanks to all of you for your support! It's been a lot of fun writing this fic, and even though I know it's not too popular compared to some getting hundreds of reviews, I'm grateful for all the support that I've gotten for this one! I also wanna thank OmniX7 for following this! Just knowing you enjoyed it enough to try follow it is awesome! Also WiseGirlGeek for favouriting this, especially since I like her stories quite a bit! A lot of them are short stories and drabbles like evil? Well, it doesn't die for a start, but if you're worried about this fandom and how active it is, or even if you aren't, then I recommend you go check out Dark Times Must End! Anyway, let the story begin!

CHAPTER 12: NO CAMPERS ALLOWED (Riley's thoughts)

I didn't realise that waiting could be so frustrating. After making an epic speech about taking down the enemies of the gods themselves, after going on about training until our bodies broke and our bones shattered, I was freaking bored of waiting. I thought that after what we'd gone through, that we'd be able to return to camp like heroes, tell of our stories with the light of the bonfires to our backs as we re-enacted all of our greatest scenes. I thought everybody would be inspired by our heroism, and that Chiron or Rachel would give us the next step to our epic quest, and we would train our mind and bodies until we could move mountains. Then we would take the fight to the enemy and save the day. I got the first part right at least.

For a day or two, there were cheers all around, and we got to burn our own funeral shrouds that they made for us (you know, just in case we came back in body bags). But after that, camp continued as usual. No new information or quests came in for us. Camp went back to normal, and we got on with our usual, everyday tasks and chores. We organised events and capture the flags. We ate smores and told ghost stories. It was just… ordinary. Even when I started to pester Chiron about our next quest, he told me that it wasn't all about going on missions. That I should get settled again, and try to enjoy the peace while it lasted. That was probably low key for 'sorry, you're not going on the next quest. Deal with it. Want a marshmallow?'

Honestly, I was getting tired of sitting around waiting for something that would never happen. And that's why I was so pumped up once capture the flag started up.

The teams were simple: the Ares cabin on one side versus the Athena on the other. On our side were the Hephaestus, Demeter, and Apollo cabins, whilst the other side had the Hermes, Hypnos, Dionysus and Aphrodite cabins. The mismatch looked like a bad joke. We had all the strongest cabins, the best fighters, the greatest archers. Their army sounded more like they were ready for a slumber party. I shrugged my shoulders and just accepted it as our flag bearers brought in our expertly painted flag: blood red with a spear and boar's head. Now the only question was what to do with Zach.

Nobody wanted to pick Zach. He worked fine in teams, but he was easily the worst fighter in the entire camp. He wasn't fast either, so that made him a bad scout. Sure, he could summon monsters and demons, but he could only use two at a time, and Camp Half – Blood was full of kids who had trained their entire lives just to kill monsters. Unless he commanded them to rip out our throats, they weren't really that effective. Obviously, nobody wanted the dead weight. Sure, he was part of the Hermes cabin, but he wasn't even a demigod. Nobody knew which side he was meant to be.

"You guys can take him," Adam said, speaking for the Aphrodite kids. "You guys are stronger, he'll be safer on that side."

"Nah, he can get wrecked on your side," Wyatt, an Ares kid, replied. "I wanna win. That's not happening with this kid, unless we use him as bait." Zach tried not to let it show, but he clearly looked miserable. I couldn't blame him really. After going his whole life thinking that as a hunter, he was somebody special, that he could handle anything, here he was in the middle of a camp where everybody looked down at him just because he was mortal. Still, I didn't feel bad enough to volunteer for him to join. Instead, Reika stepped forward, patting him firmly on the back.

"Welcome to the club, Zach!" she yelled. "You're on our side!" There were a few cries of protest from the rest of her team, but that didn't stop her from pulling him to the Athena table with the rest of the team. Zach also looked surprised, and became particularly worried once he spotted the rest of the Ares cabin.

"Reika, I'll get torn to pieces!"

"Don't worry, you've been working on something, right?"

"Yeah, but I haven't tested it out yet…."

"Well, now's your chance to test it! You got this!" Zach didn't seem quite as sure, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice. With teams decided and the flags ready, Chiron banged his hoof on the pavilion floor.

"Heroes!" he cried out. "You know the rules, your boundary is the creek, with the whole forest as your battlefield. Magic and magic items are allowed, but you may not kill or cause grievous injury! The goal is to steal the other team's flag and bring it to your own flag. You may not hide your flag, it must be in clear sight! I shall serve as your referee and battlefield medic. Now, prepare for battle!" He spread out his hands and all the tables were covered in weapons, armour, and miscellaneous bits and bobs. I didn't need anything more than my gauntlets, but I took the Scythian shield I stole from my last battle, and a double bladed axe.

"Red team, forward!" Wyatt yelled. We all erupted into roars as we headed towards battle. My blood coursed with excitement, and I couldn't stand still for more than a second. Just before I could disappear into the forest, I took a look back at the dining pavilion. Ash was still seated at the table, examining a dagger that was left behind. She never really liked fighting. Actually, I'd never seen Ash fight even once. So she always sat out capture the flag.

I ignored it as we continued our march through the forest, all of us getting into position. I was gonna be with the vanguard, clearing a path straight for the flag. Wyatt rested a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"Riley, calm down," he said.

"You are telling me to calm down?" I said incredulously. Ares kids aren't known for being the rational type.

"That's a sign that you need to chill. You've been on edge lately. If you slip up because you can't think clearly, and cost us the victory…." I pushed his hand off of me.

"Yeah, I've got this. No worries." In the distance, I heard the conch blow, signalling the start of the game. I shot off towards the enemy flag, leaving Wyatt and the others behind me. I could already smell blood waiting to be spilled. The fighting started instantly.

I heard an arrow whistling through the air, and just barely managed to put my shield up in time to stop it. These were dummy arrows, with blunt heads, but they still hurt enough that you didn't want to get hit. I blocked two more, following the source of the arrows to an Aphrodite kid, a helmet with a blue plume planted on her head.

I slammed my shield into her face, sending her to the ground like a rock. Two more kids appeared from the bushes around her, thrusting and stabbing at me. I parried all their blows with ease, then swung my axe at them. Their armour saved them from the brunt of the attack, but they still went careening through the air, falling in a heap on the ground. I swung again, but this time the third kid rolled out of the way. Instead, my axe landed with a thunk in the trunk of a tree, and went out the other side, felling it in one swoop.

"Whoa! Calm down!" the kid said. "You could have killed me!"

"Shut up!" I roared back, spinning to deliver a roundhouse kick to his head. I knocked his helmet right off his head, and he crumpled to the ground, his eyes rolled to the back of his head. I ignored their limp bodies, and carried on towards the flag.

By this time, Wyatt had caught up to me. He seemed to have lost his spear, but there was a wild light in his eyes, as if he didn't care. We were joined by two Hephaestus kids on our left, and a Demeter kid. Entire squadrons stepped up to stop us, but we bulldozed through them like they were bowling pins. It didn't take long before we could see the enemy flag up ahead.

"There it is!" Wyatt roared, even as he punched a poor kid into the creek. "Let's go!" Apart from that one kid who was now splashing his way to the shore, it was way too peaceful, but I couldn't think about that. The goal was right in front of us. And that's when it started. A sound like a giant spit ball slamming into somebody. And like that, a Hephaestus kid was down, a large red patch on his breastplate. The Demeter kid cried out in alarm before she got hit in the head, going down like a rock. Whatever it was, it was small and fast, like a bullet….

"What's happening?" I roared. The Hephaestus kid tried to get up, but this time received a bullet right between the eyes. I held up my shield and shuffled towards him. The first shot left a red splotch, but this one was bright yellow. "I don't believe it… paintballs?" Something the size of a grape with the force of a cannon hit me in the shoulder. I cried out in pain as I hit the ground, making myself as low as possible. Wyatt was too slow though, as he got a paintball in the head that sent him tumbling into the creek. He landed with a splash, the still wet pink paint spreading around the water as he was carried downstream. In mere seconds, our squad was nearly decimated.

"Sniper!" I screamed. "Keep your shields up!" Most of my squad was knocked out and didn't hear me, but the two people who could still stand were scrambling for cover.

"Riley!" Wyatt choked as he clawed his way out of the creak. "Get behind cover and wait for backup!" I didn't hear him. I was too busy looking for the sharpshooter. That's when I spotted the lens flare, the glint hidden beneath the trees that gave away a scope. The scope of a sniper rifle. Out of the hundred plus kids in Camp Half – Blood, I only knew one person who would use a gun at a capture the flag match.

"Are you too much of a coward to face me?!" I roared, a red haze covering my vision. I could feel the bronze gauntlets on my hands. I was going to destroy him.

"Riley, wait!" Wyatt yelled, but I was already setting off at a sprint, his voice a murmur in the distance. I tried to ignore the paintball shells slamming into me, my limbs becoming coated in all the colours of the rainbow. I hurled my shield like a discus at the glint. The disc shredded through three trees, but the glint disappeared, its user probably leaping out of the way of the projectile. My shield embedded itself in a thick oak tree. That was okay. I didn't need a shield.

I saw a small sapling to my side and grabbed that instead, ripping it out of the ground. I couldn't see him clearly, but I knew where the sniper was going. I could hear him rustling through the grass.

"I see you!" I roared, chucking the sapling in an arc towards a small bush. It landed, roots first, into the ground, as if it had never moved in the first place, and I heard a guttural sound. I'd hit my target. That had to be Zach, only he would have failed to dodge such an obvious attack. My vision was blurry, but I could see my target clearly as I approached him. It was definitely Zach, trying to extract himself from the branches and roots, his giant paintball sniper rifle covered in grime. Leaves and twigs were attached to his body as camouflaged and he was wearing a leaf green beanie. He looked up to see me approaching and yelped in shock. He pulled himself up and rolled out of the way just as I swung my axe at his head.

"Riley! Calm down!" he said. "You're going to kill me!"

"That's the point!" I swung my axe again, ripping it through his armour, but it went straight through his flesh like he was a ghost. Luckily, he also forgot that mortals don't get hurt by celestial bronze, because his shock gave me just enough time to kick his legs out from beneath him. I didn't even give him a chance to move, kicking and stomping on him, stepping all the harder every time he tried to defend himself. I didn't even notice that my aura was starting to disappear.

Before I knew it, a stocky fat camper had tackled me to the ground. I kicked him off with ease, but not before he had cut a gash in my arm with a knife. For one confused second, I laid still, confused that I could bleed. Zach was getting back to his feet, though with a slight limp now, wiping the blood off of his split lip.

"I can't believe that worked," he muttered. "Feel any different, Riley? Perhaps a little sleepy?" I felt fine, but my aura was gone. I stood up and turned to him in rage, swinging a fist at him. He ducked beneath it and grabbed my wrist and elbow. In the next instant, I was on my back, looking up at the sky. He pinned me down, the stocky kid running over to help as I kicked and thrashed, screaming abuse at him the whole time.

"She's too strong!" the camper cried.

"Keep her still, Clovis," Zach said. "Just long enough for…." A conch blew, and everybody from the blue side erupted into cheers. Zach reluctantly let go of me. I sprang to my feet and looked around. Standing next to the blue flag was Reika, holding up our flag in triumph, the art on it changing to a Caduceus, the symbol of the Hermes cabin. Zach let out a sigh of relief.

"What? What happened?" I asked in shock. "You guys… won?!" Zach turned to me, his smile slightly twisted over his swollen face. He was holding a green paintball pellet between his fingers.

"An interesting concoction made by the alchemists of Hermes and Hypnos. Each shot is a potent tranquiliser. If I can't hurt you, then I just have to rely on less conventional methods. I'm surprised you're still standing." I clenched my fists in rage. I was beaten? By Zach?

People were starting to gather now, cheering in triumph or congratulating each other, or just sulking bitterly as they threw their weapons to the ground. I still couldn't believe that we were beaten by a bunch of second rate demigods. Even though my aura had cleared, I still felt like something needed to be broken, and the nearest target was….

Before I realised it, I felt my knuckles connect with flesh and bone. In that one split second, I could see Zach's face contort in horror before my fist rubbed it out, and then he was sailing through the air, slamming into a tree with the crunch of bone against bark.

"Riley!" Reika screamed, running towards Zach to check on him. The noise from the other campers started to die down as they realised that something was wrong. I could hear the other Ares campers cheering and howling like idiots when they saw Zach's limp body against a tree, with me standing opposite him, my fist still extended. Reika dashed towards me instead, clearly enraged. "What was that for?!" she asked.

"He had it coming," I growled, although I was starting to calm down now.

"He's mortal, Riley! We can't just give him ambrosia and expect him to be fine! What if your gauntlets were still on? He would be dead!"

"But he's not, so it's fine…." Now that my vision wasn't clouded by blood and thunder, what I had just done was starting to catch up to me. The front of Zach's new Camp Half – Blood shirt was covered in blood, and he was unmoving.

Zodiac teleported to his side and tried to shake him out of his stupor. He blinked a few times, blood gushing from his nose. Zodiac held up a few fingers and Zach answered correctly.

"That, was actually kinda hot," he whispered, a little too loudly, while looking at me. Zach nodded his head before his chin slumped against his chest. I didn't even have time to be mad at either of them because Wyatt had caught up to me by now.

"I told you to wait," he said. "They were coming with our flag. I wanted you to help intercept them until we could get backup to get their flag. We could have stopped them!"

"We would have been sniped anyway," I said, defending myself, but I knew he was right. I let my temper get ahead of me again, and this time, my strength wasn't enough to get me through it. Chiron appeared from the forest, a bow slung over his back and a black and white referee shirt. In less than a second, it looked like he had analysed the whole situation when he turned to look at me. I was sure he was gonna say something when a crash sounded in the direction of the entrance to Camp Half – Blood. Chiron gave me a look that said we will talk about this later, and then turned to all the others.

"Get Zach immediate medical attention. The rest of you, stay on guard! It's time to check on the disturbance…."

Honestly, I was pretty excited. I was expecting to see an alien invasion or that we were being bombarded by meteor hurling giants. All I saw was Argus in a black van with two passengers. Except the van was on its side, and the two passengers were a satyr in a trucker cap, and a very scared looking little girl. Placed just behind the van was a large crater with a pile of ash in the middle. Argus was in the process of climbing out of the van, more or less unscratched, but the other two were stood at the lip of the crater, looking in.

"Verde, you've returned," Chiron said. The satyr turned towards Chiron with a smile. He was dressed in stupidly baggy jeans and a tank top (as if he had muscles to show).

"Yo, Chiron," he said. "I found a wild demigod." The girl turned away from the crater. Her brown eyes looked terrified, and her chocolate coloured hair was littered with split ends. The giant sunhat she was wearing didn't do a good job of hiding that. She was dressed in a camp shirt that was two sizes too big, and a pink pair of pear patterned shorts. "This, is Ludmila. And that," he gestured at the crater, "was an ogre with a Greek fire backpack. They aren't with us anymore."

"Excellent work, Verde," Chiron said, before turning his attention to the girl. "And you, my child… the past few days must have been overwhelming for you."

"Yeah, overwhelming. That's one way of putting it," she replied. Her brave face wasn't fooling anybody. She sounded like she was about to burst into tears at any moment. "Can I get something to drink? Something cold preferably." Chiron nodded his head, and gestured to a few of the Apollo campers.

"Jenny, Will, check on Argus, Verde, and our newest guest. Prepare some ambrosia too. They might seem fine, but it's always good to be cautious." They began to escort them into camp. She looked completely awestruck, staring at the giant dragon resting by Thalia's tree at Half – Blood Hill, and then the giant statue of Athena that had been placed next to it. If she was surprised now, I'd love to see her face when she saw the rest of camp. Now the excitement was starting to die down, people were naturally drifting back towards their cabins. Rumours of Zach's near – death experience and the new camper's possible lineage spreading like wildfire. I was just about ready to head back to the Ares cabin myself when I spotted Ash heading towards me.

Her lips were pursed in a narrow line of disapproval.

"Hey, Ash," I said. "You heard about CTF yet?"

"You know that what you did was wrong, right?" Ash said. It was more of a statement than a question. I wanted to tell her to shut up. That it was satisfying to let out some steam. But I couldn't. I couldn't even look her in the eyes (err, eyelids). She was right. It was uncalled for. Bad enough I tore him to pieces, I didn't have to hit him again after the match was over. "Riley, what's wrong? You haven't been yourself ever since you came back from that quest."

"I'm fine. I'm just stressed out, that's all."

"Really? Because if that's all, I can still help. I'm your friend, Riley, it's what I do. You can tell me anything." I hesitated for a moment. Here I was, acting like the biggest jerk ever, pummelling my friends and terrorising children, and Ash wasn't mad at me. Instead, she was concerned. Even after watching me gang up on one of the first timers with my siblings, putting them through the 'initiation', even after I broke half of the Apollo cabin's bows out of spite, she was still trying to help me out. She was trying to listen to me, find out what was wrong. Not run away or call me a bully.

I'm not sure what I would have said before Chiron trotted towards me.

"Riley. We need to talk." His face had no joy or mirth in it. I gulped nervously, and followed him towards the Big House. I looked back one more time over my shoulder. Ash looked worried, but she nodded her head. I held back my nerves and went after Chiron.

I sat with my hands on my knees, my whole body shrinking within itself. I'd only ever been inside the Big House three times, and never for anything good. The first was for setting fire to the lava climbing wall, rocky bits included, until the fire spread and nearly burned down half the camp (I thought it would make it more challenging). The second was for bullying Ash from before we were friends, even at camp where she was supposed to be safe. This was the third time, and I was afraid it would be my last.

Chiron had settled into his wheelchair to make it easier for him to move around, and his brow was furrowed in deep thought, his chin in his right hand. It looked like he was trying to mimic The Thinker.

"A sprained ankle," he said. I was so busy now trying to compare him to Abraham Lincoln that I was genuinely startled when he started speaking. "Multiple bruises along his lower arms, numerous lacerations across his torso, back and front, a broken nose, and a concussion. I'm actually surprised he came out in such good condition." I lowered my head. I didn't want to look in his eyes, but I could just tell that he was disappointed in me. I'd broken camp rules, and someone got hurt because of it.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, not feeling too brave anymore. "Is Zach gonna be okay?" I wanted to go check on him, make sure he was alright, but he probably didn't want to see me.

"The biggest blow dealt was to his pride," Chiron said. "But we're not talking about him right now. This is about you."

Great. Here it comes…. Chiron looked over his shoulder at the door behind him.

"Clarisse, come in here for a moment."

"C-Clarisse?" I stuttered. Clarisse entered the room, looking like she was prepped for a war. She was wearing khaki green trousers, the legs tucked into big brown combat boots. She wore a really heavy looking combat jacket with an Ares cabin emblem on the breast pocket. She looked like she could bench press tanks. Normally, Clarisse didn't like to get involved in anything. Ever since the rest of the campers from her time left, she was only the Ares cabin counsellor during the summer. After that, she would disappear for the rest of the year and leave it to Sherman Yang, the 'official' Camp Counsellor for the Ares cabin.

"Looks like you've got a little bit of a problem," she said, "and I've been enlisted to fix it." I stared at her for a few seconds, a little confused as to what was going on.

"Riley, I understand that you've been feeling agitated," Chiron said. "Ever since you came back, you've been upset about what happened in the Nevada desert."

"I'm not upset!" I roared.

"Whatever you say, kid," Clarisse replied. "But I've been on a few quests myself. I know the feelings. Running off on an awesome quest, trying to win back glory, be the hero for once, and you find you're not able to do a thing. Beaten down by that one monster or thing that got the better of you. Having to be saved by somebody else. The battlefield is no place for a loser, kid. If you're an Ares kid, you either win, or you die trying. Something like that, right?"

I clenched my teeth until my jaw felt stiff. I had all the respect in the world for Clarisse, but here she was, telling me straight to my face that I was a loser. That I was meant to die on that battlefield. That if I couldn't handle myself, there was no point to even being there. What hurt the most was that she was right.

"I'm not just some 'kid', Clarisse," I snarled. "And I didn't lose." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. You ran away. Cowards live longer after all."

"I am not a coward!"

"So you go around beating the crap out of your friends instead? Mortal friends? You've just been lashing out at the people around you, and while it's fun to see the chaos you'll cause, it's still my problem at the end of the day. And if something becomes my problem, it's automatically your problem too." I stayed silent, mainly because I didn't trust my tongue to say anything that wouldn't get me in even more trouble.

"I'm going to assign Clarisse as your mentor," Chiron said. "I understand that being a demigod can be hard at times, and it's hard to get other people to understand what you're going through. If you bottle up your problems and resentment, then more incidents like today will occur, and with them will come consequences. That's why I want Clarisse to monitor you. As much as I would love it if you could come tell me when something is bothering you, it might help if you have somebody who's closer in age to you, perhaps one of your siblings. And so, here is Clarisse."

I looked at Clarisse, who was grinning evilly, as if thinking of all the chores she could get me to do for her. For some reason, it irritated me that Chiron wanted somebody to 'watch' me, like I was some kind of troubled kid. But at the same time, I understood why. Truthfully, I really was on edge lately, and Clarisse was cool enough that she probably wouldn't put up on one of those fake smiles my school councillors always wore. And she probably couldn't be too hard on her own siblings.

"Alright, fine," I agreed. "So I just have to let Clarisse follow me around, right?"

"Think again, pipsqueak," she said, ruffling my hair. "You don't let me do anything. You don't have a choice! Plus, you still broke the rules. No maiming during CTF."

"You tried to stab Percy Jackson with your electric spear," I pointed out. "You even tried drowning him before you knew he was the son of Poseidon."

"Please, we were young and stupid," she said, dismissing it like it was nothing. "And besides, he came out fine. The mortal didn't. So if I were you, I would get out a mop and bucket."

"A mop? What're you talking about-"

"You're stuck on stable cleaning duty for the next two weeks," Chiron said. "The younger cleaning harpies still aren't used to their jobs, and can't tell the difference between food, and pegasi. So instead, you'll be taking care of that until they can be trained. Be careful not to take too long. The harpies might decide to snack on you instead."

"What?! But Chiron…."

"Rules are still rules, Riley. And there are consequences for breaking them." Even now, I could already smell the stables. I was not going to have a pleasant two weeks…. "You can go now. You should probably get yourself freshened up after the day you've had. Oh, and when Zach comes to, you should probably go and check on him. After all, it is your fault that he's in recovery mode."

As soon as I left the Big House, I felt my limbs slowly turning to jelly. I felt like he had let me off a lot easier than he should have. I wasn't really sure why, but I wasn't going to go back and ask him to change his mind. I headed for the Ares cabin, and after a really long shower, collapsed on my bed, and fell asleep. That was probably not my best decision.

I was standing in the middle of a park. Except that nothing was moving. The birds had frozen in the air, like they were trapped in glass. People were frozen in mid – step, as if caught in a freeze frame. A man in a tracksuit was stumbling over backwards, about to fall into a pond (how he got there, I don't know), with a girl in the middle of a dive to catch him, and probably fall in with him. There was no movement, and no sound, except for the repetitive tap of shoes on cobblestone behind me.

"Looks like I'm getting better," a voice said, from the same direction as the footprints. "At this rate, not even the gods will be able to stop me…." I turned around to face it, but as I turned, the whole world began to fall away around me, collapsing outwards like it was just a backdrop, a giant cardboard box. As it fell away, I was now standing in a very different scene.

Instead, I was standing in the middle of what must have once been a city street, flames bursting from the ground all around me, cars abandoned in the middle of the street, some torn into so many pieces that they weren't even recognisable. The rubble of a line of stores was on my right, while on my left was nothing but a crater, bits of highway and steel bars jutting out from within it like a giant twisted ribcage. The sky looked like somebody had spilled a giant palette across it with every shade of blue imaginable, splashing great streaks of aquamarine right next to midnight indigoes.

Opposite the great chasms of fire, across a fissure that had dug itself into the ground, was a light unlike any other, every colour imaginable shining from within, and more that were not. I could just barely make out the vague outline of a human inside it, and the outline of a great pair of wings coming from its back, still curled as if unused to their own freedom. They unfurled with the sound of realities ripping, space itself warping around them. Doors broke and mirrors shattered, tires burst and cracks spread across the ground. I held up my hands to save myself, but I was tossed like a ragdoll, flung across the street as easily as a kite through the air.

I landed with a sickening crunch against a totalled SUV, the car door twisting in a Riley shaped dent. All the wind in my lungs left me at once. My back felt like it had been snapped in two, my lungs like they had been pulled inside out. I tried to get up, but my limbs refused to listen. My vision was going dark, but the light seemed just as bright as ever.

"Welcome to the beginning of the end!" it yelled, but I couldn't tell whether it was coming from within my head, or the light itself. "It has been so long! How many millennia has it been?" I opened my mouth to speak, but it sounded like the wind was snatching the words out of my mouth. Whatever I said, he seemed to have heard it. "Well, aren't we confident? Then I suppose you're willing to go for another round?" I wasn't even willing to stand up, but the light moved towards me anyway, its wings setting fire to everything that came near them. My eyes widened in horror as it held up the semblance of a hand towards my face. I heard another voice in the distance, quiet at first, then sharp and urgent, cutting through my head like a knife.

I awoke with a start as Clarisse kicked me out of my bed.

"Wake up!" My eyes fluttered open, startled out of the nightmare. I was in a cold sweat, and my dream was still burned into my eyelids. I was also now in a pile of sheets on the floor. "It's dinner. Try not to miss meals." I blinked the sleep out of my eyes.

"Did you have to kick me out of bed?" I grumbled, though I was just grateful that I wasn't stuck in that nightmare.

"Well I didn't want to touch you. You drool in your sleep." I extricated myself from the blankets and headed after her. I was done with strange events and excitement for one day. I just wanted to eat, and then figure out what to do for the rest of the night (since sleeping wasn't an option if it meant another nightmare like that).

But when we approached the dining pavilion and were greeted with a hushed silence, whispers and muted gasps replacing cheers and gossip, I knew that my wish wouldn't be granted.

When we got closer, we both stopped in our tracks, now spotting what had caused the disruption. Floating above the new girl's head was a symbol of power, a mark to show that she had been claimed by a god or goddess. The problem was which symbol of power.

It was bright orange and rotating slowly, a bright flame burning with logs placed within it and a big arch over the top of it. It looked a little bit like a fireplace. The symbol was hovering over the new girl, Ludmila, and she was luminescent, as if her skin had been turned to celestial bronze. She looked terrified, looking around and trying to figure out why everybody was staring at her.

"This can't be good," I said. "Clarisse, that symbol…."

"That's right, kid," she said, a grim expression on her face. "That symbol of power belongs to Hestia, the maiden goddess of the hearth."

Okay, still going through follow shoutouts. PercyJacksonGreekFreak, thanks for all the love! Jay Hayden, hope you're enjoying this! And remind me to get back to my Digimon fic some time! And Pocketleaf too! (I don't know why but I keep thinking that username sounds like some kind of grass type pokemoon!) Anyway, I'm out until next week Saturday! (Or as in this case, Sunday)