ARROWS¹ - PERCY JACKSON

V - WE DOMINATE CAPTURE THE FLAG

I didn't get any sleep that night.

At first, I was lying awake and staring at the ceiling, watching the stick-on stars I had put up there during my last visit. I had almost fallen asleep, when a gasp suddenly woke me up. It was from the bunk beside me, Zoe.

She shot out of her bed, mumbling her ancient curses and stomping her way towards the big house. 

I watched from a window as she yelled at Chiron, about Artemis being in danger and needing the Hunter's help. It was a pretty disturbing thing to witness. 

But one quote stuck out to her- one piece of information kept her up that whole night. 

During her rant, Zoe had said, "How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?"

My mother. Lost?

I laid awake the rest of the night.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

That morning, I had nothing else to do but sit on the front porch of the Big House and ponder. 

I fiddled with my necklace, scanning the scene. Phoebe and Zoe were up against some Apollo kids in basketball, and looked about ready to take out their bows and practice their archery instead. Silena Beauregard, the head counselor of Aphrodite, flew past on a full white pegasus. Kids strolled around, talking to each other and looking like they didn't have a care in the world. I looked the other direction. At the top of Half-Blood Hill, Mr. D and Argus were feeding the baby dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece.

I closed my eyes, gently humming to myself as I sat in the lawn chair, soaking in the sunlight.

And then footsteps came. 

They came pounding up the stairs, frantic and loud. I opened my eyes, seeing a panting boy with messy black hair in front of me. He stopped for a moment, watching me, before running into the Big House. 

If you think I was going to leave that alone, you think wrong. He was, by far, the easiest thing I've ever had to track, his loud breathing and steps being heard from miles away. I ran behind him, too curious for my own good. He led us up stairs I had never seen before, ending up in a dusty, dark, and cluttered attic. There were shields with monster bites out of them, and swords bent in the shapes of daemon heads, and a bunch of taxidermy, like a stuffed harpy and a bright orange python.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, his eyes looking around the room. 

His breathing was still heavy as he answered. "Getting answers."

He seemed to force himself to walk over by the window, which, sitting on a three-legged stool, was the shriveled-up mummy of an old lady in a tie-dyed hippie dress. The Oracle.

"Hi," he said. "Uh, what's up?"

I snorted, and he turned around, glaring at me. "You try talking to a dead Janis Joplin, then."

"I have a question," he said a little louder. "I need to know about Annabeth and Artemis. How can I save them?"

No answer. The sun slanted through the dirty attic window, lighting the dust motes dancing in the air.

He waited longer, expecting an answer.

"All right," he said. "Fine. I'll figure it out myself."

He turned and bumped into a big table full of souvenirs. Heroes stored all kinds of stuff in the attic: quest trophies they no longer wanted to keep in their cabins, or stuff that held painful memories. 

Percy looked like he was trying not to run towards the exit.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

That night after dinner, it was time for some.. friendly capture the flag. It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca, and around the same number of campers.