LUNACY; percy jackson

chapter 13

[act one; chapter thirteen     -     food for the worms to eat]

    They were the first to come back from a quest alive since Luke. So, the moment they stepped foot within the Camp boundaries, they were treated as though they were heroes. As if they had accomplished something no one else in the world ever had. According to Camp tradition, they wore laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in their honor, then led a procession down to the bonfire, where they got to burn the burial shrouds their cabins had made for them in their absence. Always a precaution—one that Andromeda had always despised.

    Annabeth's shroud was so beautiful—gray silk with embroidered owls—Percy told her it seemed a shame not to bury her in it, Andromeda agreeing with a snicker as she leant against her best friend's side. She punched them both and told them to shut up.

    Since Percy had no cabin mates, the Ares cabin had volunteered to make his shroud. They'd taken an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with X'ed-out eyes around the border, and the word LOSER painted really big in the middle.

    It was fun to burn.

    Andromeda's was a silver-amethyst color, the embroidery a dark forest green, the symbol of Dionysus simply, yet elegantly, stitched into the middle in the same color of green. Andromeda wished she could keep it for decoration, to hang it somewhere as a reminder of her newest accomplishment. She settled, then, for thanking her brothers and Silena Beauregard from Aphrodite cabin for the beautiful shroud.

    As Apollo's cabin led the sing-along and passed out s'mores, Percy was surrounded by his old Hermes cabin mates, Andromeda and her brothers, Annabeth's friends from Athena, and Grover's satyr buddies, who were admiring the brand-new searcher's license he'd received from the Council of Cloven Elders. The council had called Grover's performance on the quest, "Brave to the point of indigestion. Horns-and-whiskers above anything we have seen in the past."

    The only ones not in the mood were Clarisse and her siblings, whose poisonous looks told Percy they'd never forgive him for disgracing their dad. For fighting him and winning.

    That was okay with him though. He had all of the people who cared about him, who he cared about, around him. That was what mattered. Who mattered.

    Even Dionysus's welcome-home speech wasn't enough to dampen Percy's spirits and Andromeda's sad attempt at hiding her laughter only lifted them while he spoke. "Yes, yes, so the little brat didn't get himself killed and now he'll have an even bigger head. Well, huzzah for that. In other announcements, there will be no canoe races this Saturday..."