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{ 🔮 } · rest of the summer . ݁ ٬٬ ࣪
THERE WERE TOO MANY GOOD-BYES.
That night was the first time Endora actually saw camp burial shrouds used on bodies, and it was not something she wanted to see again. Among the dead, Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin had been downed by a giant's club. The brunette girl cried the whole night, tears wouldn't stop streaming down her cheeks as she watched the flames burn the golden shroud without any decoration.
The son of Dionysus who'd gone down fighting an enemy half-blood was wrapped in a deep purple shroud embroidered with grapevines. His name was Castor. His twin brother, Pollux, and his brother, Fredrick, tried to say a few words, but they choked up and just took the torch. The two brothers lit the funeral pyre in the middle of the amphitheater, and within seconds the row of shrouds was engulfed in fire, sending smoke and sparks up to the stars.
Endora was there for Madeline and Fredrick all throughout the night. After all, her best friends lost their brothers, and Endora knew that pain very well.
They spent the next day treating the wounded, which was almost everybody. The satyrs and dryads worked to repair the damage to the woods.
At noon, the Council of Cloven Elders held an emergency meeting in their sacred grove. The three senior satyrs were there, along with Chiron, who was in wheelchair form. His broken horse leg was still mending, so he would be confined to the chair for a few months, until the leg was strong enough to take his weight. The grove was filled with satyrs and dryads and naiads up from the water ─ hundreds of them, anxious to hear what would happen.
Juniper, Endora, Madeline, Fredrick, Annabeth, and Percy stood by Grover's side, despite Grover telling Madeline and Fredrick to go and rest. The two wouldn't back down, despite their red eyes and heavy headaches. Silenus wanted to exile Grover immediately, but Chiron persuaded him to at least hear evidence first, so three demigods from the quest told everyone what had happened in the crystal cavern, and what Pan had said. Then several eyewitnesses from the battle described the weird sound Grover had made, which drove the Titan's army back underground.
"It was panic," insisted Juniper. "Grover summoned the power of the wild god."
"Panic?" Percy asked.
"Percy," Chiron explained, "during the first war of the gods and the Titans, Lord Pan let forth a horrible cry that scared away the enemy armies. It is ─ it was his greatest power ─ a massive wave of fear that helped the gods win the day. The word panic is named after Pan, you see. And Grover used that power, calling it forth from within himself."
"Preposterous!" Silenus bellowed. "Sacrilege! Perhaps the wild god favored us with a blessing. Or perhaps Grover's music was so awful it scared the enemy away!"
