Mostly Normal: Hearts and Spades

Chapter Fourteen: Zakłady

Damien stood confused as he stared up at the speaker, a voice from down below shouted, "Stop scaring the children please."

The thing with the silky-smooth voice chuckled. "It's kind of hard not to when you're a dead Valkyrie," she said, "but I'll try, Ara."

"Thank you," said the person on the ground, "but I have one more question, Genofafa."

"Yes?" the creature sighed.

"Why the heck are you on the roof of the Nemesis cabin in the first place?"

The Valkyrie looked puzzled for a moment before responding to the question, "An easy miscalculation."

Nero rolled his eyes and then said, "How did you think that we were the Janus cabin? We're literally on the other side of the camp from each other!" Genofafa shrugged and then jumped down the ladder, silvery white wings making a shrill noise as they resisted the wind.

"Did you land where you were supposed to, my dear?" Genofafa asked the younger female.

Ara shook her head and blushed, "I landed in the Apollo cabin. I guess Yggdrasil was mad at me. At least it wasn't Boston or Helheim this time right?"

Nero cocked his head, confused. "What? Who? I have no idea what you guys are talking about."

Ara chuckled. "Valhalla, my dear boy. Norse mythology?"

Nero was still unsure about all this. "I don't even know what a Valkyrie is."

Genofafa giggled. "You're so funny, you Greeks," she said, "go along to sleep now, you'll need your rest."

"Gods of Asgard! We're going to be late, Genofafa," said Ara apologetically, "Sorry guys. Maybe another time?"

Nero gaped for a moment till Genofafa and Ara both vanished to wherever they had been heading to, in the beginning, the white horse seemed to have disappeared though.

There was a shout from the head of the camp, all the campers on the roof whipped around to see who it was.

It was still too dark to see clearly, so the children of Nemesis slid off the roof and came running to the Big House, where the shout had originated.

As they neared the House they saw a group of slightly glowing teenage girls with bows slung over their backs. Two of them were arguing together, one holding a pair of dice: one die was engraved with Greek letters and the other was engraved with letters from the Norse alphabet.

The girl holding the dice was tall and looked about fifteen years old. She looked sort of goth, with spiky black hair, dark makeup, and black clothes. She had a silver bracelet on one wrist.

Nero had never met her, but Victoria grinned. "That's Thalia Grace," she whispered excitedly to her brother, "she's a daughter of Zeus. And Artemis' lieutenant."

"Thalia?" came a male voice from the darkness. A teenage boy came into the faint light and Nero saw that he had blond hair and electric-blue eyes. His mouth twitched in a surprised smile. Thalia broke away from her argument with the other hunter and turned to the boy. "Jason!" she cried, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at Camp Jupiter?"

The boy, Jason, smiled. "I came to visit Piper and Leo," he said with a shrug, "but I didn't know you guys would be here. Something wrong?"

Thalia smirked and shook her head. "Nope," she said, "we were playing games with the Valkyries."

"Norse mythology," Jason said slowly, "right?"

Thalia nodded. "They're fun to play with," said a girl next to her with a shrug, "but they're also terrible cheats."

"Phoebe, can you put those dice away?" Thalia asked the girl, handing the dice to her, "We're going to teach them Pinochle next. Chiron's playing too!"

"It's really early in the morning," Ethan complained, "why are you playing games now?"

The hunter Phoebe threw Ethan an odd look and took the dice from Thalia, disappearing inside the Big House. Nero could have sworn he heard her mutter, "Boys."

Nero rolled his eyes and then started to walk back to his cabin, exhausted from not sleeping all night.

When he finally reached the cabin, he pulled open the door and then groaned. On his bed sat a calico cat, preening herself. Nero placed his head in his hands and then walked into the cabin, leaning on the door to prevent anyone from entering.

The cat purred and hopped off of the bed, turning into a human halfway through. Nero crossed his arms and looked at the young woman standing in front of him. "Hi, Sara." She smiled, displaying a full set of teeth.

"Did you miss me Nero?" she asked coyly.

Nero blinked. "What do you mean?" he stammered.

Sara laughed. "You don't remember?" she said sweetly.

Nero shook his head, unnerved, but then stopped. "Wait," he said, narrowing his eyes, "We were friends, weren't we?"

Sara laughed again and clapped her hands. "Yes, we were!" she cried, "You do remember!"

Nero smiled grudgingly. "I, um, need to get some sleep actually," he said apologetically, "So...could I?"

Sara made a chirping noise from the back of her throat and then turned back into a house cat. Nero smiled and clambered into bed, smiling as the soft girl-cat crawled along with him.

Nero yawned and closed his eyes. He was immediately asleep. In fact, he slept so deeply that he didn't stir when a cry rang out across the camp, but Sara noticed. She sat up, her ears perked and attentive. She mewled, but Nero stayed asleep.