The Children of Demeter

Chapter 16: Madeline Vines

Madeline was tired. After showing Scarlett to her cabin and talking for a while about the camp, she said good night to Lizzy, (Elizabeth's nickname that she told Madeline to call her by) and hit the hay. Lance and Francis were already in bed by the time Madeline opened the cabin door around nine. She undressed into her leaf-patterned pajamas and laid down on her bed. She was tired, but she couldn't sleep.

 "Hey," Lance croaked from his bunk, "What's up?"

 "Nothing much. This day was crazy."

 "Yeah." Francis agreed.

 "So, about the training..."

 "We've planned it all out with Cassandra. 6:30 AM sharp we'll start." Francis informed.

 "Too early for me." Lance groaned. Madeline grinned at this comment. She wasn't much of a morning person, but training sounded fun.

 "We have until Wednesday to train you. That's when we'll leave for the quest. Meaning, we'll have to train a ton over the next few days." Francis replied.

 "What weapon would be good?" Madeline asked.

 "Depends. Have you taken a sword fighting class yet?"

 "Yeah, against an Ares kid. That girl was strong."

 "What about Archery?" Lance asked.

 "I'm not too bad. Sabrina taught me."

 "Francis is awesome at Archery. He might've been an Apollo kid if not for our past." Lance commented.

 "And Lance is pretty good with a sword."

 "So it depends. We'll find out tomorrow." Lance commented before yawning.  "Okay, see ya tomorrow."

 "'Night." Madeline replied, laying on the covers and quickly falling asleep. Tomorrow would be a crazy day.

Madeline woke to the sounds of what it seemed to be a small child tap-dancing. She opened one sleepy eye to see Devin tap-dancing on the cabin floor.

 "Devin, what're you—-"

 "RISE AND SHINE! James told me to wake you guys." Lance groaned from his bed and flung a pillow over his head.

 "Five more minutes." He grumbled from under the pillow. Madeline grabbed a pair of jeans and an orange camp Half-blood t-shirt and went over to the dressing-room area of the cabin to change. She brushed her hair and was ready within five minutes. She looked over at the two bunks to see Francis nearly ready and rearranging his glasses and Lance still in bed. Devin climbed up the bed's ladder and started to jump on the bed.

 "C'mon, let's go!" he yelled with every leap.

 "GET OFF!" Lance bellowed, flinging off the pillow and glaring at Devin. But Devin was stubborn as a mule, and did not get off the bed.

 "NO! GET UP!" He shrieked. A vine grew from the bed post and wrapped itself around Devin. A large leaf from the vine grew and tied itself around Devin's mouth. Lance shook his head angrily and finally got up.

 "LANCE!" Francis yelled, running over to the bed, still in pajama pants. Francis snapped his fingers and the vines disappeared. Madeline gapped at the two of them, and was now slightly scared of Lance.

 "Now, let's go." Francis said calmly, glaring at his brother. Lance frowned and got up from the bed.

 "Come on." Devin squeaked to Madeline. Madeline quickly followed him outside, checking her watch. Great, they were ten minutes late. "Cassandra's waiting over there." Devin pointed to the sword-fighting building. Cassandra was standing near the entrance with her hands on her hips.