The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

three

SCORPIONS

The next morning there was a lot of excitement at breakfast.

Apparently around three in the morning an ethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. Ariana was so exhausted she slept right through the noise.

The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in our defences, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Lee Fletcher from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit.

After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armour, it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there." Lee warned them during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was ten metres long and bright green. Its eyes -"

He shuddered.

"You did well, Lee!" Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye." Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves. Everyone knew the rumours: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp.

Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that their attendance was down.

They only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

'This is a good reason for new war games." Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Yes." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods!"

Campers all around raised their glasses and repeated the blessing, Ariana didn't.

Once everyone was eating, Chiron and Grover went over to visit Percy. Ariana locked eyes with Annabeth, who nodded.

Together they stood up from their tables.

"What's he talking about?" Percy asked Grover.

Grover chewed his eggs. She could tell he was distracted, because he bit off the tines of his fork and chewed those down, too.

"He wants you to convince me." he mumbled.

Then her and Annabeth slid onto the bench besides them.

"I'll tell you what it's about." Ariana said. "The Labyrinth."

Annabeth nodded, earlier the girl had told Ariana everything and so now she was up to speed with everything that was happening at camp.

Everybody in the dining pavilion was stealing glances at them and whispering.

"You're not supposed to be here." Percy said.

Ariana rolled her eyes. "I don't care, they can kill me if they like."

"We need to talk." Annabeth insisted.

"But the rules ..."

She knew as well as Ariana did that campers weren't allowed to switch tables. Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigods

. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. Ariana wasn't even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. It had never happened.

If Mr. D had been here, he probably would've strangled her and Annabeth with magical grapevines or something, but Mr. D wasn't here.