The other Grace/HoO fanfiction

(25) Back At Camp

When she opened her eyes again they were at the dining pavilion, at camp. They had ended up on top of the Afrodite cabin table, and Piper had landed with one food inside Drew's pizza.

Layla wasn't any luckier. Instead of landing on the table with both feet like the other three demigods, one of her legs landed on the edge of the table while the other one was still on the air.

She didn't have the time to fly and save herself. She immediately lost balance and fell backwards. A little before she touched the ground she grabbed the first thing she found to prevent her from falling, which was the shoulder of a blond son of Afrodite. The boy didn't stop her for falling, but fell to the ground with her instead. Layla was pretty sure that Hera had made her land at the edge of the table on purpose.

The whole camp burst into laughter. Only the son of Afrodite looked about to punch her. She quickly stood up and straightened her clothes. "So, um... we're back. Hello... I guess."

When Chiron stepped forward to Layla's relief the demigods stopped laughing.

"Jason?" The centaur said. He obviously didn't expect them to come back, much less that way. "What are y-? How di-?"

They explained Chiron and the campers what happened during their quest. Or, more likely, they let Piper explain adding a few details from time to time.

Then, they were interviewed by campers who wanted to know more about the quest. So many questions, that answering all of them was even harder that defeating Enceladus. Thankfully, Chiron senced how tired the were and sent them to bed.

Layla would never say that out loud, but she had really missed their cabin. She missed sleeping in a really bed, even if it wasn't that comfortable. Even if it meat having to sleep with a scary sculpture of her father above her head.

Jason passed out almost immidiately but she wanted to go for a walk before sleeping. It had been a week since she last went for one of her midnight walks. She exited the cabin and flew towards the forest.

As usual, she sat at the top of the tallest tree and starred at the ocean. She remembered herself sitting at the same spot just a week earlier. So much had changed during that week. She gone on a quest, found out she was part of a big prophecy. She had even defeated a giant and thousands of monsters. Most importantly, she had found her brother who she thought dead. And good friends, people who cared for her, not because they were afraid of her or her godly parent.

Subconsciously, she took something out of her pocket and started fiddling with it. It was the silver card Ciara the hunter had given her at Pikes Peak. Layla didn't know why, but she had the feeling Ciara was going to play an important part in their quest.

Looking at the card she wondered if it would be a good idea to join the Hunt after all. Not immediately, but after everything with the big quest was over, if they didn't die, of course.

It seemed nice to hunt monsters with her sister and the other girls. Something deep inside her, however, held her back. This time it wasn't just Immortality that made the hunt less appealing to her.

After a while, she decided it was time to head back to the cabin.

When she returned she found Jason was already fast asleep. She closed her eyes and drifted into sleep. For once, dreams didn't haunt her.