Home|| Leo Valdez

7

—Alex's day was spent in a daze, a girl called Nyssa (who was apparently Leo's paternal sibling) showed her around camp. She explained a bit about Greek Mythology and the Big Three, she also spoke about the oath between them for not having any more kids. But the prophecy they feared had already came to pass so Nyssa believed Alex was in the clear.

Alex also realized she knew absolutely nothing about Jason, all the information she thought she knew had disappeared. She didn't even know his last name. 

Nyssa even told Alex about Percy's adventures and Alex felt a bit hurt that he seemed fine without his sister. But then she reminded herself that she had run away, Percy deserved to be happy. 

Then around dinner time Alex and Leo were led by Nyssa to the dining pavillion where Alex was told to sit alone at the Poseidon table and Leo at the Hephaestus table, but they would never leave each other- especially at an unfamiliar place. So they both sat at the Poseidon table, ignoring the looks they were getting, no one said anything so they continued to eat more than they had ever eaten. 

"Nyssa seems nice" Alex said after she drank a bit of water. 

"I just can't believe that my dad's Hephaestus" Leo admitted.

"Is it really that hard to believe when you're fire resistant?" Alex lowered her voice, she remembered the time Leo had set himself on fire (Neither of them knew where the fire came from). 

"According to Nyssa, no other Hephaestus kid is fire proof" Leo whispered back. 

"So you're special"

"Always knew that" Which earned him a playful nudge. "But I think I can do something else too" 

"What?"

"I think I can control fire, look" Leo extended his left hand and hid it from other's view. He concentrated and within a second flames flickered to life, dancing across his palm. "You can't tell anyone, the Hephaestus kids think it's a curse and bad luck"

"Of course I won't tell anyone" Alex promised, then they made their way to the campfire. 

She thought back to her dream the night before about the woman in black robes and glowing eyes, Alex knew she should have been afraid. But she remembered the times she had crossed paths with the same woman before. 

In her dream the woman had studied her like Alex was chewed gum on the bottom of a bus seat, not worth anyone's time. But the woman's words echoed in Alex's mind. 

"You shall play a great roll in the war young one" She had said, "But first you must prove your worth."

Alex had no idea what the woman meant and had completely forgotten about the dream until she entered Camp Half Blood. 

—Alex walked with Leo as they followed Nyssa to the campfire. The amphitheatre steps were carved into the side of a hill, facing a stone-lined fire pit. Fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners. 

Like before, Alex and Leo ignored the stares and sat together under the Hephaestus banner. Standing in front of the fire, half a dozen campers with guitars and strange, old-fashioned harps-lyres?-were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armour, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armour and joking around. It was quite possibly the weirdest thing Alex had ever seen-one of those campfire songs that would've been completely embarrassing in daylight; but in the dark, with everybody participating, it was kind of corny and fun. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turning from red to orange to gold.

Finally the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. A guy on a horse trotted up. At least in the flickering light, Alex thought it was a guy on a horse. Then she realized it was a centaur-his bottom half a white stallion, his top half a middle-aged guy with curly hair and a trimmed beard. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first-"

"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled. Grumbling broke out among some kids in armour, sitting under a red banner with the emblem of a boar's head

"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."

"And kill people!" one of them shouted, Alex and Leo shared horrified looks.

"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?" 

Alex wasn't a bit surprised that there was a dragon, next they'd tell her she was going to die.

Chiron turned to Leo's group. Alex winked at Piper and Leo shot her with a finger gun. Nyssa stood up to answer. "We're working on it."

More grumbling

"How, Nyssa?" an Ares kid demanded.

"Really hard," 

Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones-bang, bang, bang-and the campers fell silent.

"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" someone asked. Alex shifted uncomfortably and Leo squeezed her hand for comfort.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we did find someone else- a daughter of Poseidon."

She motioned for Alex to get up but Alex stayed put, she didn't want everyone's eyes on her. 

So Annabeth continued "But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, Violet, the Hunters of Artemis -everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different- A new quest."