The Third Camp Trilogy: The Final War?

Chapter twenty three: Carrie

19 days until the war.

Natalie ran in panting and told me that Neptuna had been dragged somewhere. I immediately jumped up and made my way toward the Council building.

"What did they want?" I questioned Neptuna as we walked back toward camp.

"To know if you'd really fought a god." She mumbled, obviously not wanting to look me in the eye.

"Of course they did," I laughed, "They never believe I could fight off a first grader, let alone Zeus."

"You could destroy a first grader..." Neptuna muttered.

"Yes, I could, but I wouldn't."

"Alright then." Neptuna was very quiet, I wondered why.

"Why so quiet?"

"You don't remember me." She whispered.

I was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say.

"You forgot me, after you fought Zeus." She continued, not showing me her face and sounding feeble.

"I know. Liza and Regar are waiting for you in the mountains, I'll take you."

"...Okay..." She sounded... worried.

"I set up a training session for all of you, since there are children of the big three at the other camps." I lead her to the edge of a mountain and started to climb, "They're up here. Give me your hand, I'll pull you up."

Neptuna slowly lifted her head to look at me, her cheeks tinted pink as she reached up, I took her hand and pulled her up. Suddenly she lost her footing and stumbled, right into my arms.

I quickly stepped away, confused why that had felt nice... Almost comfortable.

"They should be right over here." I walked past another hill and saw Liza and Regar already fighting as I tried to forget the feeling.

"There you are." Regar laughed and stopped fighting.

"Yeah, we were getting worried." Liza joked.

"No they weren't..." Neptuna snorted to herself.

"Okay, I'm going to go find the children of Zeus and Jupiter." I nodded.

"Ugh, not Josh!" Liza groaned.

"I don't really like that Cameron guy." Regar frowned.

"Well, we need to train against the shock." I laughed, gave one last glance to Neptuna, and started to jog toward Cameron and Josh's cabin.

"Hey, I need Cameron and Josh." I asked their cabin leader.

"Okay," He glanced over his shoulder and yelled, "Cam! Sparky!"

Cameron poked his head out from his top bunk and frowned at the cabin leader. "What do you want?"

"Carrie wants you." He said. "Sparky, dude! Get over here!"

Cameron looked at me blankly. I gestured for him to get down from his bunk and come with me as Josh jogged over. I lead them back to the mountain area and we climbed up to the meeting spot.

Neptuna was seated next to the small pond, looking very bored as she leaned back on her elbows with her ankles crossed in front of her. Her heels (she had removed her shoes) were submerged in the water. Regar and Liza had resumed their fight, but every few seconds a thin wall of water would shoot up in between them and block all their strikes.

"Are you kidding me?" Cameron hissed in my ear. "You expect me to be near Neptuna without speaking to her?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, but nodded nonetheless. Cameron sighed and walked over to the pond, sitting across from Neptuna. Since she was busy watching Regar and Liza (for some reason I did not like how focused her attention was on Regar), she didn't notice Cameron sit down.

Josh patted my shoulder as he climbed up past me and stood next to the pond, waiting for instruction.

"Alright," I said, loud enough for all of them to hear me. Neptuna looked in my direction, suddenly looking interested and— Was that hope glinting in her blue eyes? "So, as you all know, we are going to war. What you probably don't know it that the other camps have children of all three of the big three—"

"We already know that." Josh interrupted me.

"Since I don't want siblings fighting each other, Cameron will fight Liza, Regar will fight Josh, and Neptuna, you'll work on defences. Go around to each personal battle and make walls to stop them. Try to get water from far away places, that's what you'll have to do during the battle." I nodded to each of them as I said their names and ignored Sparky.

Once my gaze landed on Neptuna, it stayed there for a second too long... Why did I suddenly just want to gaze into her eyes?

They partnered up and I left.

If Fred really would be in the battle I had to train... hard. But I couldn't even hurt him, or Lycaon would hunt me down. So how do you attack someone without hurting them?

"Why so confused little pup?" Someone growled next to me.

"I'm not confused, I'm just... thinking." I spoke under my breath to Lycaon.

"Ah, yes well I felt lonely so I felt you needed a friend."

"You aren't even close to my friend." I laughed, "And if you're seen then you will be killed."

"Who cares?"

"I care."

"I know, though I need a little help with something."

"If you pissed off another god I can't help you."

"Not this time, luckily, this time I have another deal for you."

"Okay, over here." I motioned to my cabin and together we walked.

"So... how do I put this..." Lycaon slowly sharpened his teeth. "I need a favor."

"Like what?" I eyed him and sat in my chair.

"It seems that one of my children were brought to another camp—"

"If this is about Fred—"

"It's not. It's Camp Half Blood, though I would love to see my son wreak havoc by killing both Chiron and Percy and everyone else that stands in his way but—"

"If he is found that he's your son then he'll die." I finished for him, debating wether I should do it or not.

"Yes."

"That doesn't make sense... what's in it for you?"

"One of my children gets the honor of living."

"You don't care about children, you proved that as you slaughtered my campers."

"True, but I care about my children."

"So what's the deal?"

"You somehow get my son back and I get the cave just past the mountains."

"What's so special about that cave?" I eyed him.

"Absolutely nothing, but it's shelter and shelter is good."

"Okay, sure but no promises. You get the cave and I'll try my best with your son."

"Good enough for me." Lycaon shrugged.