Daughter of Neptune, Book one

VI

Neutral pov

Piper spotted Jason in the front by Tori and Annabeth. Leo was nearby, sitting with a bunch of burly-looking camper under a steel gray banner emblazoned with a hammer. Standing in front of the fire, half-dozen campers with guitars and strange, old fashioned harps--lyres?--were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor, something about their grandma got dressed for war. Everyone was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. It was quite possibly the weirdest thing Piper had ever seen--one of those campfire songs that would've been embarrassing in the daylight; but in the dark, with everybody participating, it was kind of corny and fun. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turning from red to orange to gold.

Tori looked over at Leo. He was joking around with his other siblings, the Hephaestus campers, and she smiled. Ever since she looked at him on the school bus, she was falling more and more for him every second. The thing was she had no clue how much she was falling for him. Leo looked at her and locked they eyes. He smirked at her. She rolled her eyes and looked away, blushing a little. But inside, she was smiling.

Finally the song ended with a rowdy applause. Chiron trotted up. "Very nice! A special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first--"

"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled. Grubling broke out among some kids in armor, sitting under a red flag with the emblem of a boar's head.

"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for a regular games."

"And kill people!" another shouted.

"However until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"

He turned to Leo's group. Leo winked at Tori and shot her a finger gun. The girl next to him stood uncomfortably. She wore an army green jacket a lot like Leo's, with her hair covered in a red bandanna. "We're working on it."

More grumbling.

"How, Nyssa?" an Ares kid demanded.

"Really hard," the girl said.

Nyssa sat down and a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones--bang, bang, bang--and the campers fell silent.

"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" someone asked. Tori felt like she had been hit in the head with a brick and lowered her head into her hand rubbed her forehead.

"You okay, Water girl?" Jason asked.

"Absolutly wonderful." She answer sarcastically. "I feel like I'm going to die from the pain in my head."

Jason put her arm around her and pull Tori into his side.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we are not giving up. We've got teams everywhere Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis--everyone's out looking. We will find him. But Chiron is talking about something different. A new quest."