- 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 . . . Being a half-blood only caused trouble. Not many lived long and if ithey did, their life was filled with dangerous adventures and tribulations.
Stella had always been beloved by her fellow campers...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
🏹 | CASTLES CRUMBLING ₊˚ପ⊹ .୧ ‧₊˚⋅🗝️ a c t two━━━━━━❛battle of the labyrinth❜ chapter twelve . . . breaking the rules or whatever
THE NEXT MORNING CONTAINED A FAIR BIT OF excitement at breakfast.
Around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. Even though Estella was exhausted, the sound was to much for her ears to handle. The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in the camp's defences, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Estella led a couple of her siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armor, it got the message and withdrew.
"It's still out there," Estella warned during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It's eyes—"
"You did well, Estella," Chiron patted her 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. "
"Great." Estella muttered. The campers murmured among themselves.
Everyone knew the rumors: 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 attendance was down. There were only about eighty campers. A couple years ago, when Estella had started, 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. "
Everyone raised their glasses and repeated the blessing.
Estella took her plate to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of her food into the flames. She would definitely miss her cornflakes.
Normally, back before she ran away from camp she'd mutter the same prayer over and over. "Father, please claim me and give me a sign of your existence." Or something along those lines. But this time was different.
"Artemis," she said. Then she whispered, "I've learnt over the years that your mostly no good brother won't help me but I hope you could..."
She didn't know if it would work but anything to get some sort of help.
Once everyone was eating, Chiron and Grover came over to visit. Grover was bleary-eyed. His shirt was inside out. He slid his plate onto a table and slumped next to Percy.
